An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?

Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

“But I just like to get out and run” you say. Great! You should definitely read this book. It will help you enjoy running more. “But I don’t like running, I’m just doing it because I know I need to lose weight.” you say. Great! This book will help you not only prevent running injuries and keep you out there, but may change your entire perspective on running and turn you into a running-lover. “But I don’t run, and I hate the idea of running.” Even if you don’t want to have anything to do with running, this is still a fascinating book.

For me, the book has not only given me ideas about how to modify the shoes I wear, the diet I’m taking in, and the form with which I run, but it’s changing the way I look at running itself, as not just a means to an end, but an end in and of itself.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is one of the more entertaining books I’ve read on health. The author explores where our food comes from (answer: corn) and how to eat better (answer: grown your own food or buy your food from people you know). His journey takes him, and us, through the vast workings of the industrial food system, teaches us the history of so-called “organic” food, and shows us why we should never eat at McDonalds ever again, although of course we will. The book is not just the musings of the author, however, it is fraught with lessons about the science and history of food and nutrition, and Pollan, being an investigative journalist, is an excellent writer and storyteller, making the journey quite interesting and fun.

It has now become one of my favorite books, and a life-changing one. My wife and I are already exploring how we can plant our own garden and start raising chickens in our backyard. We’ve started buying produce from a local farmer. In other words yes, this book may mess up your life.

This time, I opted to try out some over-the-ear, wraparound headphones. That is, the earbud has a long plastic piece that hooks around the top of your ear and gives them extra support to keep them falling out. I chose the JVC brand merely because someone recommended them, and they’re cheap. In fact, they cut the price by 50% so now you can get them for $5, which is hard to beat.

The results? Heavenly. For the first time in four years I have absolutely no problems with my earbuds coming out while I’m running. No hint of them coming out. If I had known how nice this would be, I would have made the switch a long, long time ago. There is simply no comparison.

I don’t think the fact that they’re JVC has anything to do with it. They’re $5 headphones, after all. I’m sure any over the ear headphones would do just as well. But I certainly do like the ones I got.

One added benefit, I’ve been wearing them biking and whereas with my iPod and Skullcandy earbuds I had a lot of wind interference, to the point where if I was in a good headwind or going downhill I couldn’t hear a thing from my headphones, now the noise of rushing air is completely gone. Since I listen to audiobooks while riding, this is nice since I frequently was missing 1-2 minute snippets of audio here and there.

The basic premise is that running 5-6 days per week doesn’t give your body time to recover and rebuild, and that if you restrict your running to three days each week and cross-train the other days, you’ll actually end up running faster, while running less. My former triathlon coach had already convinced me of the wisdom of adequate recovery time, so I never ran more than three days per week anyway. Could this book still help me, or was it just reinforcing what I already practiced? Why, yes. The other part is that your workouts should be broken into three different types; 1) speed, 2) race simulation, 3) endurance/distance. I may not be using the terminology the authors do, and in fact I may be getting this part wrong, but that’s what I’ve gotten out of it. Luckily, you don’t really have to understand everything because they give you detailed training plans. You just do what they say, and it works.

And that’s the best part–this isn’t just conjecture. The authors were quite scientific about figuring out what you should be doing during those three days of running each week. They used live subjects over and over, refining their model, and they got something that has been more or less proven to work.

As for me, the real test was trying it out, which I did this year. Last Saturday I participated in my first triathlon using the book, and I averaged 7:50 per mile, which is amazing for me. Granted, this was a sprint-distance triathlon and therefore a 5K distance, but I’ve never run a 5K distance anywhere close to that fast, nor have I felt as good afterward. Normal for me would have been something closer to an 8:30 mile, perhaps even closer to 9:00.

I’ll be doing two more sprint distance triathlons this year, and perhaps the Las Vegas marathon in December if it works with scheduling, and I’ll be quite interested to see if the results continue to show improvement. Based on how this first event went, I’m pretty sure they will and I highly recommend the book to anyone who is used to running 10 minute miles and doesn’t think they’ll ever be able to improve.

But better late than never, ActiveWrap just sent me one of their foot and ankle ice wraps to try out. And I think I can sell you on buying one with one question–have you ever sat, icing your ankle or foot, with a ziploc bag full of ice cubes? You have? Ok, then I don’t even need to tell you why you want one of these wraps.

For those of you who haven’t experienced the joy of sandwich bags full of ice or bags of frozen vegetables, the issues are that:

1) You have to figure out a way to hold the bag there. Yes, duct tape works, but then you have to take the duct tape off. Ropes also work, if you’re a good Boy Scout. I have used bags of frozen corn, stuffed into the legs of my jeans, but then you have to hold still once you get the bag wedged in there just right.

2) You have to cover the bag with something to prevent getting an ice burn, and either the towel is too thin or too thick.

3) What if you just ran out of ice?

4) Your spouse doesn’t like the idea of you thawing out frozen vegetables with your sweaty foot.

Trust me, it’s just a pain to use a bag of ice or frozen whatevers. The ActiveWrap ankle wrap solves all those problems, and has some distinct advantages:

1) You can walk around without worrying about it falling out of place.

2) You don’t have to hold it in place.

3) The material is just right to let the right amount of cold come through.

4) It comes with cold packs, so you don’t have to worry about having ice on hand.

5) You can move the packs around within the wrap to get the cold in just the right spot.

6) You can heat the packs up in the microwave for heat treatment! Try that with a bag of ice.

ActiveWrap also makes knee wraps, and wraps for wrists, your back, shoulder, and elbow. Now that I think of it, I should have asked them for one of each…

Now, the way I use a compression sock may not be the way you use them. I know of people who only wear a compression sock immediately after running, perhaps for an hour or two. Other people use them while running and after. I tend to use them quite a bit more than that, in that they’re the socks I wear all the time…at least when I’m wearing socks, which is all day some days, and not at all other days. But on the days I wear them, I’ll wear them for a good 10-12 hours or more. I also wear compression socks when I’m biking or running in colder weather, although generally not when it’s warmer.

The way I rate a compression sock is primarily on three factors, since I don’t have any truly scientific way of doing it:

1. Are they really, really hard to get on? If so, that means they’re really tight, and I figure with a compression sock tighter is better, right? I mean, within reason. You wouldn’t want your leg to turn purple or anything, but if a compression sock isn’t tight at all, what good can it be doing? This is one of the downsides of the 2XU socks–they just aren’t tight. It could be that I got a size that is too large, since they also go too far up my calf, but I don’t think they’d be much tighter even if I got a smaller size given the expansionary nature of the material. By contrast, the CEP socks are quite nice and tight.

2. Are they comfortable? This is more than just a preference. An uncomfortable sock, used during exercise, can cause you to modify the motion of your leg and perhaps lead to injury. At worst, you certainly don’t want them causing discomfort that leads to blisters. The CEP socks felt great to me on my first run. They didn’t cause my feet to sweat, didn’t lump up anywhere, and in fact, I forgot I was wearing them, which is as it should be.

3. Do they wear well? Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell with a new sock what shape they’ll be in six months from now, so I’ll have to comment on that next year.

In summary, I’d rate the CEP compression socks on the same level as Zoot compression socks, that is, if you like Zoot socks, but you see some CEP socks on sale for less than Zoot socks, then don’t have any fear buying them. I rate both CEP and Zoot socks as being quite a bit better than the 2XU compression socks I’ve been using.

Like a paper clip, there isn’t much to this product, and you’re just happy when it lives up to its claim, which is to hold your bike steady without doing any damage to it. The bike stand does the job of holding your bike steady because it’s a bit weighty. Weightier than it looks, in fact. I actually dropped it while I was taking it out of the box it was shipped in because I didn’t grip it firmly enough and in trying to catch it ended up skinning one of my fingers, which means I’m probably one of the first people in the world to get injured handling one of these.

Set up was a breeze. There are two large plastic parts that slide together, you hit them with a hammer to get them to stay together (Note: You’ll need to do this on a hard surface that won’t be damaged, such as concrete. I wouldn’t do this on a wood floor, and it didn’t work for me on the carpet in my office), and then you can adjust the tightness by sliding them and tightening the clamp.

It took me a little adjusting to get the tightness just right for my bike, but once I did that was it. The wheel slides in with a satisfying “thwuump” and the bike holds steady. The bike stand does not touch the spokes, as promised, only the tire and rim where it doesn’t do any damage.

I didn’t test this out in any high winds or anything, so I’m not sure what it would take to blow the bike over, but I suspect due to the weight and width of the base that it would take quite a bit.

In checking out EZ Bike Products’ Facebook page, I noticed there are some other uses for the bike stand that I hadn’t thought of, and apparently the manufacturer hadn’t thought of either. How many times have you taken the front wheel off your bike, and you’re holding the front of your bike off the ground with your left hand, your wheel in your right hand, and you’re thinking “Ok, I need to set this bike down but I don’t want to scrape my fork on the ground…” Well, you can put those forks on the stand as shown below. It’s not terribly stable that way, and the stand isn’t meant for this kind of use, but it’s no more unstable than the bare ground and won’t scratch anything up.

Bottom line–it does what it says, and a bit more, and I have no complaints and am happy to be at an end of my “just lean that against anything” days.

Room for Improvement

I do think there are two improvements that could be made to the EZ bike stand:

1. Portability – The bike stand doesn’t fold or anything, so while it’s no great challenge to pack, it could be easier. Maybe if the upper parts somehow disconnected from the base…well, I’m not sure of the exact engineering that would make it happen, all I know is that it would be nice if it could all be made flat somehow without compromising the other useful aspects of the product.

2. Tension adjustment – In order to adjust how tight the bike stand is, you have to unscrew the clamp, adjust the base by sliding the two pieces, and then rescrew the clamp. It would be nice if the clamp itself tightened and untightened things by itself. Again, I don’t have detailed suggestions, and maybe the manufacturer has already thought through this and he would have to compromise in other areas to make this work, but it would be nice.

Starting with the Boise 70.3 I tried out EFS energy drink (yes, I do mean the first time I used it was on a race day–I know, I know, bad idea). I had some gastrointestinal issues that day, but nothing too big. Just some knots in my stomach, and I felt like if I drank any more I would puke. But I didn’t puke, and I thought the reason I couldn’t drink any more was because I didn’t need any more. In retrospect, I’m wondering if I should have been drinking more, but couldn’t because the EFS was harsh on my tummy. But I only came to this thought because as I’ve been drinking it more and more, I seem to be noticing a correlation between a tight stomach and EFS. Again, it’s not that bad, and I’ve never had that “I’m going to throw up if I drink anymore” feeling (I’ve also never made it as goopy as I did for Boise), but the more I drink it, the more tight the correlation seems to be such that I’m thinking there is a cause and effect situation going on.

Other than that, it tastes fine (very subtle, mild flavors), and seems to work fine as an energy source. But if I continue to have the knotted up stomach, I’m going to have to switch back to Heed or something new.

It’s nothing more than a lightweight nylon box, with a net on the top that is sewn on one side and velcro on the other so you can open and close it easily. The Bento Box has four velcro straps, two of which go around the stem of your bike, and two of which go around the top tube. Then you put your Gu, Clif bars, Chomps, or whatever you want in there.

I just used it for the first time at the Boise 70.3 (yeah, I know–don’t use new things on race day) and I loved it. I got the small Bento Box and was able to cram three Gus and two packages worth of Gu Chomps in there. I took the Chomps out of the packages and just squeezed them in–I didn’t want to have to deal with opening the packaging during the race. I left the Gu in the packaging for obvious reasons.

My only regret is that I got the small Bento Box. Personally I think it’s a little on the small side, and I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t want to err on the side of having a Bento Box that is too larger vs. too small, unless the larger one runs into your legs or something. But I don’t think it will.

One concern I had is that the Bento Box definitely affects how freely you can turn your front wheel. I noticed this after I put it on my bike, but while I was riding I didn’t notice anything at all, probably because you have to turn your wheel quite a bit to really feel the resistance, and on a tri-bike if you turn your wheel that far it probably means you’ll soon be flying over the cockpit and have other things to worry about. In that sense maybe the Bento Box is also a safety feature…

Anyway, this is one of those products I would say you’ve got to have if you do longer bike rides. Now that I have it I can’t imagine biking without it.

Note: See updates at bottom of post.

I could just post a link to the review for the Profile Design Aerodrink that’s up at BeginnerTriathlete.com, but I actually have something to add to the hell Dominic went through. My only consolation is that my hell wasn’t as bad as his, because I gave up after 20 minutes of hell, decided to look online to see if anyone else had a similar experience, and upon reading about Dominic’s hell I realized I was better off returning the product.

There is only one scenario under which I can recommend trying product–you have a friend who uses it, loves it, and is willing to install it for you…actually no, just don’t use this product. I’m sorry, but it stinks, and that’s the review I’m giving the product before I even had a chance to use it. Here’s why…

I got the Aerodrink bottle several weeks ago, but PowerTri didn’t have the bracket in stock and the rubber bands didn’t seem to work, so I hung out waiting for the Aerodrink bracket to come in. I picked it up today, and then spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how the bracket worked. Yes, you would think this would be relatively simple, and yes, I even looked at the instructions, but I’m still stumped.

The first problem is that the photos in the instructions are unrecognizable as anything but some long-lost form of dot-art. Perhaps if I were to back away to a distance of 10 feet the photos might become clear, but since they’re only an inch square, I still wouldn’t be able to see what I’m looking at. The written instructions were not clear to me–perhaps because of what I’ll describe next.

The bracket “fits” around the bottle on three sides, and then has a velcro strap on the fourth side which you tighten to hold the bottle in place. Simple enough, right? Bwahahaha, not a chance! You see, as near as I can tell, the velcro strap they include was sewn together backwards. That is, no matter how I put the velcro through the designated slots in the bracket, I can’t do it in a way such that the velcro can stick to itself, because the metal hook side ends up matching up with the back of the fuzzy side, rather than the fuzzy side itself. Trust me, I spent 15 minutes on that part alone, and unless I’m a complete idiot there’s no way to make it happen. But let’s accept the possibility that I may indeed be a complete idiot and move on.

The Aerodrink bracket doesn’t fit the Aerodrink bottle. You heard me right–it doesn’t fit. What does fit in the bracket? I’m not sure, but it sure ain’t the Aerodrink bottle. Oh, I can fit the bracket around the bottle fine enough, but this causes the two sides of the bracket to bend at strange angles. You could make the case that my German heritage makes me a stickler for precision engineering, but anyone who knows me can attest to the contrary. All I care is that it works, and the Aerodrink bottle and the Aerodrink bracket are not made to go together. We’re not talking about things being just a little bit off, we’re talking about things being way off. Imagine that you went to buy a car, and when you closed the door there was a one-inch gap between the car and the door that you could see through. Even though you’re not an engineer who designs cars, you’d know something wasn’t right.

So…I don’t have time to return this stuff tomorrow, but rest assured, the Aerodrink and its poorly designed bracket are being returned first thing after I get back from my race this weekend, and no, they will not be used in the race. Thank goodness for the other review that saved me from trying to rig this up to work somehow. I’m sure I would have ended up chucking the whole contraption in the trash during the middle of the race had I persevered.

Update 16 June, 2010: Since posting this, I raced in the Boise 70.3 and saw many people using the AeroDrink, and I’ve talked to a few people who currently use it. They have convinced me to give it a real try (which I admit I haven’t, since I never got the thing on my bike). In the spirit of doing a thorough gear review, I have decided that one way or another, I’m going to get this thing on my bike and try it out. Perhaps once I really use it I’ll end up loving it, like apparently everyone else does I know who has one.