Gear Review: Sunshine Friends Shoehorn

Runners can accumulate a lot of gear and a lot of shoes, but one very useful tool is often overlooked:
The simple shoehorn.

It can really be a time saver. Instead of spending several minutes loosening up the laces, putting your foot in, then re-tightening and tying, you can just slip your foot right in!

And if you own a pair of those very snug minimalist shoes like Vibrams then a shoehorn is an absolute must.

I own a pair of Merrell Trail Gloves that are very tight. They fit like a... like a tight mitten. I bought them last year and it's always a struggle to get them on. It never occurred to me that it could be so much easier.

But then a few months ago I was in an Asian grocery store buying a 2 pound whole dried squid, when the "Sunshine Friends Shoehorn" really caught my eye. Heck, it practically thrust itself right in my face.

I don't think I have seen one before, but it looked oddly familiar. It reminded me of something... but I couldn't quite place it. What really sold me was the tagline:

"Joyful Sunshine Friends be a Friend With Anybody in The World"

With this, I can have friends all over the world, AND slip my shoes on!  All this for the bargain price of $1.99. I had to snatch it up.

Comes with a double balled base holder,
so it is always standing at erect attention,
happily waiting to service you!

This is really a quality piece of equipment. Crafted in Korea of the finest pink plastic, the Sunshine Friends Shoehorn is confidently stiff while remaining supple and responsive.

It smoothly penetrates the tight slot between
 your heel and the back of the shoe

As far as shoehorns go, I have to give this a solid 8 out of 10.
While it is perfectly functional, there is still something a little weird about it, that can't quite put my finger on...

Available at your local running shop
or Korean grocery store

Merrell Trail Glove Review

Pictured above is the Merrell Barefoot Tra...
Dammit Dudley, get out of the way!

I am a sucker for any new fad that comes along, especially when it promises to make me run faster and injury free.

So I jumped on the Barefoot Bandwagon last year and put about 100 miles in. Unfortunately, barefooting takes a lot of patience and discipline, which I have none of.

So I was estatic when I heard about the Merrell Barefoot Trail Glove. Finally! Now I can simply purchase all the benefits of barefooting in an attractive package. Instant gratification!
And the $110 price tag reassures me that they must really work. So I  ordered a pair for myself, and also ordered Shannon a pair of the Pace Glove.

Initial Observations

1. They are very thin, light, and flexible. Basically like a slipper. 
2. The best thing about them is the very roomy toe-box. These are the first shoes I have ever tried on that actually fit my feet. I usually have to wear a size 12 to fit my wide feet, but with these I wear a 11.5
3. These are "zero drop" shoes with no heel lift. By comparison my current Brooks Launch feel like giant cushy wedges. 

Test Drive
I've heard all the warnings about transitioning slowly to minimal shoes, so for my first run I decided to do only 7 miles instead of my usual 8.
I headed out the door, and hit the trails. Man, these shoes felt great!
I was zipping around switch-backs, floating up the hills, and nimbly tip-toeing through roots and rocks. They felt so good, I finished with an all out sprint!

Results
The next day I could not walk.
It felt like someone had taken a meat cleaver to my calves and soleus.
So I guess I need to take this transition much more slowly. I will have to delay my review for a few months until I can actually run in them.

Expert Barefooter Reviews

In the meantime, I decided to ask three lifetime barefoot runners what they thought of the new Merrell Barefoot Trail Glove:

Dudley tests the fit

Dudley Dooright
Dudley found the wide toe box of the Trail Gloves to be a perfect fit for a tennis ball.
This is good for his favorite game of "Seek and Destroy", where he hides a ball in something, like a shoe, and then proceeds to destroy it trying to get the ball out.
Grade: A

Rotten The Cat

Rotten likes the laces

Rotton was overjoyed with the Trail Glove lacing system with the adjustable eyelets. It provided her with hours of entertainment.

She was also impressed with the breathable mesh upper, which was quite comfortable for her to sink her claws into.
Grade: A

Jorge Francisco

Jorge disapproves

Jorge can be a harsh critic, and this time was no exception.

He found that there was not enough cushioning and protection for his delicate paws, particularly over rough surfaces like coarse gravel.

Jorge regarded the construction materials to be of substandard quality and emanating an offensive odor.

Furthermore, he described the available color schemes as "repellent" and "nauseating", causing him to have to eat some grass and then vomit it back up on the Trail Gloves.
Grade: F

Gear review: Tigram Trail Treadmill

Blogging Marathon: Day 26
 
Do you love running on trails, but hate being outside?
Well Tigram has the answer!

Introducing the new Tigram Trail Treadmill®
It's like a having a state park in your own home!
Just put on your trail shoes (or not!), dial in your the type of trail you want and lose yourself in mother nature.




The Tigram Trail Treadmill® has a number of adjustments to customize your trail running experience:

• Speed: 0 to12 mph
• Incline: 0% to 15% grade
• Rocks: "Pebbles" to "Shin basher"
• Roots: "None" to "Ankle twister"
• Mud: "Dry" to "Shoe sucker"

Gentle trail setting. For beginners or maybe a speed workout

Dial up the roots and rocks for real challenge!

Gear review: Tigram Fuel Belt

Blogging Marathon: Day 24


Fresh out of the Tigram engineering labs, the latest in high-tech running gear:
Introducing the Tigram Fuel Belt

The Tigram Fuel Belt just reeks of quality construction

Comes with a mismatched set of bottles to store a variety of fluids

Innovative camera sleeve is guaranteed to hold your camera secure up to 80% of the time.

Look at that computer guided laser precision stitching!

Custom sized. Reinforced with industrial grade cool mint dental floss 

For a snug fit, comes with Bonus Velcro extension. Fastened with nearly rust free bobby pins.

When you land face first on the trail, your bottles will be secure, locked down with genuine hair bands

Warnings:

• Tigram does not imply any waranty or guarantee the Fuel Belt will actually hold bottles
• Keep out of reach of children
• When using camera sleeve, check every 2-3 minutes to make sure camera is still there and hasn't fallen out
• Do not machine wash Tigram Fuel Belt
• In fact, don't even hand wash it. It will probably fall apart
• Tigram is not responsible for any damage to reputation or self image incurred from wearing fuel belt

Power Cranks part 1 - "You're Nuts"

Blogging Marathon: Day 19

Notice both pedals hanging down

September, 2008. I got this phone call:
"Hey Anthony, this is Jason from the bike shop. I'm done installing your PowerCranks on your bike. I took it for a spin around the block, and everything seems to work OK. But let me say this: you're nuts."

He was referring to the fact that I had just paid $200 to make my bike harder to ride. But that was the least of my nuttiness.

This long and tedious story is a note to myself, for a future time when I wonder where all my time and money went to...

Began with a Nail
It all started 3 weeks before.
I was on may way home from work when I heard the familiar "Click!Click!Ptffffffffffffff" sound coming from the front tire of my mountain bike. It was yet another nail. The side of NC54 in Raleigh is like a hardware store dumped on the ground.

Of course, I didn't have a spare tube, so I pushed my bike home 5 miles in my cleated bike shoes.

The Internet is full of Bad Ideas
Determined to never have another flat tire again, I searched the internet for a solution. Conventional wisdom was to accept flats were inevitable, carry a spare tube, and get good at changing them.
This is 2008! Inflatable bike tires have been around for 120 years, where are the flat proof tires?
Finally I found and ordered a set of solid rubber tires. They got horrible reviews, but how bad could they be?

Also, during my Google searches of bicycle parts, I stumbled across something called "PowerCranks"...

I am a sucker
The PowerCranks website makes all kinds of claims:

• improves running form!
• improves running efficiency!
• trains muscle weaknesses and ensures balance!
• helps avoid injury!
• average runner can improve his/her marathon pace 30-60 seconds per mile in 3-4 month!

I thought, "Wow, I have to get some PowerCranks! I have no idea what every the are, but I must have them."
But my jaw dropped when I saw the price. $899. That was ridiculous.
For those bicycle illiterate people like me, a "crank" is just the little metal rod that connects your pedal to your bike.

My entire bike only cost $700. And they want $899 for a couple hunks of metal?
Well, the target market for PowerCranks is professional cyclists and triathletes. Not aging, middle of the pack runners like me. Still, I was fascinated by the claims. At the time, I still suffered horribly from "runner's knee". Maybe this would be the cure!

Concept
Normally on a bike when you push down on one pedal, it pushes the other one up. Most people pedal their bike by alternately pushing down, left, right, left.
What PowerCranks do is make your pedals independent of each other. So if you push one down, the other just hangs there limply.

So now you are forced to lift each leg up as part of the pedal stroke. The idea is that by pushing and pulling, you are doubling the amount of muscles you use.

There are many claimed benefits to runners, but the main one being increased turnover for a shorter, faster stride. I was sold on the concept, but the price for a new set was crazy.

Ebay
So I searched for used set and found several pair on Ebay, and placed many bids.
It took a while, but finally I had one of the magic crank sets in my hands for the bargain price of $450.
When I took them out of the box, however, one of the "dust caps" fell off. It was a little loose.
"Oh well", I thought "It's just a dust cap. not that important" (foreshadowing)

Tools
Excited to try my miracle running cure-all, I went to install the PowerCranks on my mountain bike.
First, of course I had to run to the bike shop and buy the correct metric size allen wrench. Still, even though I removed the bolt, I couldn't seem to get the old cranks out.
I learned then that with bicycles, there is a special tool for everything. To remove cranks, you needed, of course, a "crank puller". So I went back to the bike shop to buy one of those, and got the cranks out.

But I was dejected to find my new cranks would not fit. After more research, I discovered that the PowerCranks I had bought were for a road bike, not a mountain bike. I might as well been trying to install an airplane engine in a Dodge Dart.

Professionals
So I went back to the bike shop again with the bike and the cranks.
"Can you install these on this?", I asked.
Jason, the bike mechanic, just laughed.
"Even if we could find an ISIS bottom bracket wide enough, the chain rings will probably still hit the frame, and this bolt pattern...", he went on for about 20 minutes explaining how difficult it would be and why it wouldn't work.
But at the end he said, "But I'd love to try it!". He seemed to be intrigued by the challenge of creating this Frankenstein bicycle.
"Maybe it would be easier for me just to buy another bike that would fit the cranks", I said.
"No! No!", he insisted with a gleam in his eye, "Let me try this."

For two weeks Jason ordered parts and tinkered with it. I called every few days, anxious to reap the benefits of my new expensive training machine.   "Well, I ran into another problem and need to order another part...", he would say.

Nuts
Finally he called to say the bike was ready, and that I was, in fact, nuts.
"First of all, I had to go home and get my cleated shoes, because you can no longer ride the bike without cleats", he said, "I ride a lot. But I could barely make it around the block on that thing. Good luck with it."

Finally I had my bike!

Oh, and those solid rubber tires? They came, and they were as bad as everyone had said. In fact, I couldn't even get them on my rims. But I didn't care, I had forgotten my obsession with flat tires. Now I had a new one...

... continued here ...

Gear Review - Tigram TenToes®

Blogging Marathon: Day 10

The popular Vibram FiveFingers KSO, $85

Like a lot of people who are trying barefoot running, I have become very unhappy with my big clunky running shoes. I really want a nice low profile shoe, like a racing flat.

Unfortunately none of the racing flats fit my extra wide feet.

I have heard a lot of good things about the Vibram Five Fingers. So I thought I would give those a try.

However when I got to the store, I saw they were $85!  This seemed pricey, and I sat in the store a while and debated getting a pair.

But then I saw on the next shelf was a similar pair of minimalist shoes. They looked just as good, but were only $19.95! I got those instead, and here is a review.

Review of the new Tigram TenToes®

Tigram TenToes®  $19.95

I've never heard of Tigram, but the salesman said they make top quality products, just as good as Vibrams. 
When I tried them on in the store, they felt awesome. They fit like a glove!

• The are made of durable leather
• Water resistant
• Have a patented "stay-on-strap®" that wraps around the heel for a snug fit. 
• The seemed a little short, and didn't have the coverage of bottom of the heel that I would expect. But the salesman said that provides a more "natural barefoot feel"

I went for a short run in them, and it was a little odd at first. The toes seem to flop around a lot. But the sales guy said it takes a while to transition to minimalist footwear.

I highly recommend these! I feel bad for all you suckers who shelled out $85 for the VFFs. These are much better. I'm so excited, I'm heading out the door for my 20 miler!


UPDATE!!

You might not want to go 20 miles on your first time out.
These might take some getting used to. Ow.

Review: Green Silence

This blog is outrageously popular, and attracts literary tens of visitors every week.
So I think it is time for me to leverage my vast readership into some lucrative corporate sponsorships.
That's right, it is time for running product reviews.

First up:

Brooks Green Silence
I am still doing most of my running in The Red Shoes, but I am looking for something with less cushioning, something lower to the ground. I want a pair that are thin, light and flexible, so I went shopping for racing flats. I came home with these.

Form: C

For "CRAP". Yes, they have a wacky asymmetrical yellow and red color scheme, I give them points for trying.
But they do not invoke a flashy "Wow, that guy must be fast!" image.
It's more of a "Wow, that guy looks like Ronald McDonald the Creepy Clown" image.

Function: F
For "FLAT, NOT". These are sold as "racing flats". Shouldn't racing flats be flat? What's with the inch of spongy foam under the heal? Yes, they are flexible. But so are loofah sponges, and I could strap those to my feet instead and not spend $100.

Fit: D
For "DON'T FIT". These are very narrow and long. It was like I was about to go water skiing. I am told all "racing flats" are designed to be very narrow to squeeze all the blood out of your feet. Or something like that.

Overall:B

For "took them BACK". Thankfully, the shoe store took them back, informing me that Brooks is quite good at accepting returns.
I was about to go off on a rant about how I can't find a simple, flat shoe that will fit my foot. But this guy already did it for me.

Attention Brooks:
OK. I did my part by giving you free advertising. I anticipate crates of free stuff to start arriving at my doorstep. I'll take some shorts, and maybe a hat. But keep the shoes. They suck.