Alameda Runners – Get After It!

I don’t usually stay in ski hotels, but you can’t beat the location.  The Park Tahoe Inn is directly across the street from the Heavenly Gondola and the Heavenly Resort.  The resort is a really nice area but you can’t get a room there unless you rent a time-share for a week.

Snow plow

It is really cool when you pull into parking lot and see an old four-wheel drive truck parked in the corner with snow plow and tire chains.

The staff was really nice when I checked in.  A suite at a ski hotel is not the same as a suite in a normal hotel.  Here, a suite means you get a bigger room, king bed and a pull-out couch.  I guess you need all of the room for your ski gear but it is nice to have the extra space for a summer visit.

The king bed is a memory foam bed.  I never slept on a memory foam mattress.  It felt odd but I slept well on it.  The pullout bed was not as comfortable as the memory foam but it was one of the more comfortable pullout beds that I have tried.  The bathroom is okay with good water pressure.  It was nice to have the sink outside of the shower area.  This is probably to keep things moving along on busy ski mornings.  I did not notice a breakfast area that I would consider essential for a ski hotel.  It does not seem right to get a hotel across the street from a ski resort then have to drive to breakfast.

I did not notice if the TV had cable or a bunch of HDTV channels.  It did not matter to me because it seemed like there were plenty of channels.  There were no plug in ports for Internet connection anywhere in the room.  The hotel does have Wi-Fi but the bandwidth is pretty low.  We got a better connection to the hotel next door than we did to the one here.  There was enough bandwidth for me to check my email this morning but connecting to the Internet tested my patience after dinner.  I did not come out here to play on the Internet anyway.  I came out here to check out the sights, hike, swim and run.

The next time I go to Tahoe, I will look into staying at the Park Tahoe Inn again.  The people at check in are very friendly.  The location is great, the price is great.  The room amenities are a little light but it is well worth limited bandwidth for a clean hotel with nice people at a great rate.

I usually rent a house or condo when I go to Tahoe.  It costs more for one night than it did for three nights at the Park Tahoe Inn.  It is really nice to spend more for food than lodging.

I went to the foot care lecture at REI on Saturday morning.  As you know, 11:00 A.M. on Saturday is a bad time for runners and a lousy time for cyclists.  Us runners are usually doing our post-run socializing until about 11:00 and the cyclists are right in the middle of their Saturday workouts.

The people training for a triathlon don’t even have a chance at making it.  I was there because an injury had me resting for the weekend.  Parking is also tough at the Berkeley REI.  There is plenty of meter parking around the store for $1.50 per hour.  The streets look a little rough but I have never had any problems with parking in that area.  Take standard precautions, I don’t leave stuff in my car.

Enough with the logistics,  I appreciate REI for putting on events like this.  John Vonhof knows his stuff and he has a good website .  John is not a podiatrist; he is a foot care specialist with a goal of keeping us moving on healthy feet.  When things go wrong, he helps us perform first aid and teach prevention techniques to keep us moving.  That being said, the lecture started with a talk about the benefits of shoe inserts.

He held up Superfeet in one hand and Sof Sole inserts in the other hand.  I am a firm believer in high quality inserts, and I think they help me keep my running mileage up.  I used to get all types of injuries before I started wearing inserts.  John pointed out the different types of inserts, shoes and feet.  We should try different things until we get things sorted out.

After insoles he moved on to talking about socks and blister prevention.  I found it interesting that he passed around some Injinji toe socks.  I used to get a lot of blisters on the hilly trail half marathons until I started wearing the Injinji socks.

He spoke about different types of socks and ways to prevent blisters.  One of the hikers mentioned using duct tape to help keep you going after a blister and for blister prevention in general.  John broke out some kinesiology tape and gave us some pointers on how to use tape to patch up our wounds and prevent injuries.  After primary prevention, he went on to discuss first aid for various injuries and types of prevention.  Visit his site for prevention tips.  It has a lot of good information for foot care.

I love to see companies like REI doing all of this community stuff.  These lectures are really informative and helpful.  REI is not a store where I buy running, biking or swimming stuff but they are a great store for warm stuff and stuff you want to try.  They have a good selection of electronics and are one of the few stores that let you return your electronics goods.  Sometimes, you can spend $500 for something and just hate it when you try it out.  Give their classes a try.  The free class was good.  I am thinking about taking the bike repair class for $150.  It seems like all of the pay classes are $20 less for REI members.  I wonder if the REI memberships cost $20?

Mike’s Note:  The street parking isn’t too bad in the immediate vicinity around REI, but don’t stray too far down San Pablo… parking in one of the residential neighborhoods can also be ideal.  Also, feel free to take a look at the REI membership perks, which should be great depending on your likelihood of shopping there.

If you are buying a 4gb mp3 player with a camera and tuner for $22, you better bring your sense of humor with you.  I bought my eSport for $30.  I should have gone to Walmart and picked one up for $22 but it was worth extra money to not have to go to Walmart.  I have nothing against Walmart.  It is just the time it takes to get to the store, find the item, then pay for it, do not make it worth the trip to save $8.

Back to the review.  Since I had my sense of humor handy, I decided to get the pink model.  I like the color.  I think it sets my dark running shorts off nicely.

When I plugged the player into my computer, it worked!  It actually started to charge.  To make things better, my Linux Mint operating system recognized it.  I was so shocked my mouse hand went numb!  I opened up a random music folder and dropped the whole thing into the mp3 folder and the player took it.  When I looked at the folder, it contained both mp3 and ogg files.  Ogg is the open source music format.  Since it took the music so easily, I got cocky and drug an avi file over to see what would happen.  To my surprise, all of the music played.  As an added bonus, the Japanese music showed up on the display in Kanji.  The video did not work because I did not resize it.

The music player worked.  The buttons are extremely clunky but navigation is possible.  The player comes with a cheap little speaker that works.  It is kind of neat to clip it onto the back of my bike jersey and listen to poor quality music.  When I am going up the side of a mountain, it is nice to have a tempo to help set a pace.  I don’t really listen to the music but the tempo is there.  I listened to the player through some Bose headphones with satisfactory results.  It was not like listening to the music from a PC with a $200 sound card but the sound was okay.

The video camera works.  With 4gb of available memory, you can record for a while.  The camera works.  It has a flash but I am not sure it does anything.  Half the time when I take a picture, I am not sure if I took the picture or not.  ¾ of the time when I take a picture, I am not sure if I am in the camera mode.  The pictures and video transfer to my computer by drag and drop.

I am currently using it as my car mp3 player.  It has about 6 hours of battery use and still going strong.  When I turn it off and back on, it remembers the track it was playing.  Every time I throw it back into its hole for the trip, it changes the song from the touchy controls that are only sensitive when you don’t want them to do anything.

Pros:

It is cheap
It works!
Very easy file transfer
Plays variable formats, mp3, wav and ogg.  I did not feel like looking for Apple files to drag over.
Lots of memory storage
Expandable memory
Nice colors
Comes with a cool video about a rabbit

Cons:

It is cheap
It is slow
Navigation is frustrating
I can’t figure out where the buttons are located
It is big

Final grade – Pass

It is a $30 mp3 player.  It does what I want and some extra stuff.  It is easy enough to figure out.  I did not read the instructions and managed just fine.  The buttons do not work very well but they get the job done.  I will not cry when it breaks.  I bought a cheap mp3 player so I could sweat all over it and not cry when I get caught out in the rain.  Remember your sense of humor when use something like this.

The Finis Tempo Trainer Pro is a nice simple timer that slips into a swim cap or under the band of your goggles.  It has 3 buttons and a clock.  The top button is for mode select and timer reset.  The bottom two buttons are for the timer up/down and the on/off functions.  Push the right button to turn it on.  The top button is to select your mode and push both bottom buttons to turn the unit off.
It is really easy to set the unit up.  Select the mode you want to try, set your desired time, push the reset button and you are off.  The tempo trainer is advertised as a stroke tempo timer.  I really like to use it as a lap tempo trainer.  The instructions give you a lot of good advice on how to set the timer to suit your needs.  It is also easy to figure it out for yourself.  I don’t like to carry instructions around so I just do my own thing.  Here are some of the things I like to do with the temp trainer:

• Set the timer at 30 seconds then see how long it takes me to lap the timer.  Take a 30 second break the repeat until I can’t catch it anymore.
• Set the timer at 30 seconds, increase the speed by one second until I can’t keep up any more.  Take a 30 second break then repeat.
• Set the timer for 25 seconds then maintain the pace for a mile.  If I want to see if I can do a sub 30 minute mile, I try to stay ahead of the timer.

I like the tempo trainer.  It is a simple device that helps me vary my workouts.  I tend to get into a rut with swim training.  Having an easily changeable metronome in your ear encourages change.

Pros:

• Fits well under the Finis Lightning goggle band and does not fall out
• Very comfortable
• The timer is very easy to reset while swimming
• Easy to use while swimming
• It encourages change to workouts
• Instructions are not really required to get the thing working
• Different beep tones, I prefer the triple beep
• Easy to reset, when things go wrong
• Replaceable battery
• It floats

Cons:

• It falls out of the headband of wide lens goggles
• If it falls out, it can cause weird things to happen to the timer.  The timer has to be turned off then back on, to reset the matter

I really like the Finis Tempo Trainer.  It can be found for $40 to $50.  If you have wide lens goggles, it can be troublesome to get in the band just right.  You have to be careful when using the cadence timer.  It can cause short stroking, in an effort to keep up with the clock.  I did not feel the timer under the race goggles.  When I was wearing wide goggles, I did not feel the timer until it fell off.  Once I got it into a good position, I could not feel it on my head.  This is one of those times, when simple is good.

When I got home from work to discover a couple of water bottles on my desk for review, I thought to myself “Water bottles, eh”.   I usually get water bottles handed to me at expo’s or triathlons.  They are not really something I give much thought.  I expected to be carrying around a $2.00 water bottle that I would have nothing to say about.  I was wrong.  I was carrying around $15 water bottles that I love.

When I removed the lids to wash the bottles, I noticed a clean smell.  New water bottles always smell like plastic.  After washing, I took my water bottle out for a trial run.  The water did not taste like plastic, quite impressive.  The flow out of the cap was perfect.  Now it was time to take the bottle out for a bike ride.  When I go out for long bike rides, I add an extra 50% concentration for my electrolyte drink in both bottles.

I like to drink my fluids warm which really adds to the plastic leaching into the drink.  I spent more than 5 hours on my bike with no odd flavors to my drinks.  After my bike ride, I threw a half full bottle in my clothes bag, filled up the other bottle then took off for a run.  At the run turn-around, I stopped for a gel pack and drink.  I noticed that I was not dripping water on my shirt before I started drinking water.  The water tends to stick in the bottle before you squeeze.  Nice touch.  When I got back to my car, I found that I did not push the cap closed on the bottle before I threw it into the car.  It did not leak.

The Specialized website for water bottles state that infused silicon dioxide create a barrier to the plastic.  If a waiter tries to sell me infused food, I tell him to take a hike.  If a water bottle is infused, I say it is cool.  I guess there is no way of explaining how I think.  Check out their website.  It is pretty good.  It is not really detailed but I probably would not understand the details anyway.

For some odd reason, this review wound up in the in process queue since last year.  After about a year of use, the Purist bottles are still my preferred water bottles.  I left a purist bottle and a $20 running bottle in the car overnight.  The running bottle had a distinct taste of plastic.  It was very sad for me since the running bottle is my second favorite bottle.  I plan on replacing my water bottle collection, now that I can taste the plastic.  I hope Sports Basement has a sale.

Mike’s Note:  Specialized bikes have become even better in recent years, with the company’s accessories also making huge efforts as of late.

Finis XtreaMP3

An MP3 player that works under water! Finis is not an MP3 player manufacturer. They are a swim equipment manufacturer. That being said, you need to read the instructions to figure out how to work the MP3 player. It is not too hard to operate the MP3 player but it is not intuitive.

I turned on the player, strapped it onto my arm, stuffed the ear buds in and jumped into the pool. I suppose I should have had some faith that it would work. I expected a total failure and I was happily surprised that it worked. It has quality sound under water.

I started swimming laps and immediately noticed a pull on the wires for the ear pieces. I tucked the wires up under the strap for my goggles and that helped for a while. Clips that support the ear piece wires to the goggle strap would be nice.

After a couple of laps, I had to stop and adjust the arm band as it got too tight for an arm that is working. This happened two more times during the swim. A bit of elastic on the arm band could go a long way towards improving the comfort. I am sure that I could figure out a way to attach the player to my goggles but I won’t go through the effort for a loaner.

It is hard to find music to match a swim pace. I swim at about 36 strokes per minute, the music I had was running at about 120 beats per minute. The pace was a bit awkward but it was really nice having music while I swam. After about ¾ of a mile one of the ear buds pulled loose and did not work any more because there was water in my ear. I took the player off and really missed having the music. Something like this MP3 player will be great for long, timed swims and I am not counting laps. The music really helps keep me distracted. I haven’t tried it in the bay yet but I am not too sure about open water swimming with an MP3 player in my ears. I like to be able to hear boats in the water.

This is a demo unit. I wonder if I will buy one when I see it in my local swim shop.

This is a two year old review that wound up in the archives.  I don’t know what happened to the review or demo unit and I have never seen the swim MP3 player in a swim shop.  I might add that I have a lot of swim stuff so I don’t venture into the swim shops very often.

I am a reluctant cyclist who likes to ride up a big hill every now and then and survive the middle leg of a triathlon.  For me, a bike saddle is nothing more than a fancy term for a bike seat.  Sella Italia heard about my feelings when we did an interview with them recently so they sent us a couple saddles to review.

I wound up with the Flite as my test saddle.  I put it on my titanium frame with semi-stiff Aksium wheels and never looked back.

I understand there are various renditions for the Gel Flite saddle.  I have the latest and greatest with titanium rails.  There was something about the geometry of the saddle that confused me during the installation.  I wound up putting the seat a little bit forward and tilted down slightly.  I rode like this for over 100 miles when I decided to try riding without cycle shorts.  My old saddle often felt like the seat was loose because of some weird wobbly feel.  The Flite never gave me that sensation.  I rode with spandex shorts and I was comfortable for an entire 50 or 60 mile ride.  With that test out of the way, I decided to put aero bars on my bike and try it like that.  I kept the seat on a slight angle and slightly forward.  My bike is setup for a single purpose, to survive the Vineman triathlon.  The way the saddle is configured, I am up on the nose when I am in the aero position and in the middle when I am on the handle bars while climbing and descending.

The feel is pretty good when I am down in the aero position.  After an hour or so of aero, I am ready for a hill so I can get into the middle of the seat.  Riding in the middle of the saddle offers a unique feel.  It is not a soft ride, it is comfortable.  Soft gets squishy while comfortable feels like it is formed to my body and it absorbs a lot of the shock from the road.  I could tweak the setup some more but I am not going to mess with something that works until after my triathlon next week.

What I like about the Sella Italia Flite

• It is comfortable
• It fits my butt when I sit on it
• The flex from the carbon fiber base or the gel give it a molded feel when riding
• It is the only visible bling on my bike
• The long rails give the nose a firm feel
• No two seats are exactly the same
• The shock absorbing action from the middle of the saddle
• I can’t really say what I don’t like about the saddle as it is the only high end saddle that I have ridden but I can say I like it.

Here is a brief on the biggest surprises of the year for me.  Most of the time, new companies squeeze into a niche by doing the same thing as the big guys while specializing in one area.  Sometimes things can be a lot different.  Who would have thought, a company could come out with wool athletic gear?  I forgot where I got the photo of the woman wearing the Icebreaker shirt but the poster credited it to Treehugger.com

Icebreaker wear is my winner of the year for performance clothing.  I wear the run ace running shirt just about anytime an opportunity presents itself.  I love the way it feels.  The material and design make the shirt very nice to wear.  It is so nice to wear the shirt was promoted (demoted?) to an everyday shirt.  The running shorts are nice but they have an oddly shaped pocket that is not convenient for my work access badge so I do no wear them for my lunch time runs.  I inadvertently wound up with the shorts for a yoga session one day and they were immediately converted to yoga shorts.  Running shorts and gym shorts are pretty much designed for forward motion and do not work very well with the stretching activities.  The wool stretches with my activities and does not stick to my legs.  Icebreaker is a bit hard to find and a bit expensive but they make some nice stuff.  I think you can get it at Fleet feet, out in the valley and REI.  If you find it in a store, try it on.

Greenlight Apparel came into view in 2011 by being the official clothing at both the Oakland Marathon and the California International Marathon.  They announced their consumer product line to us at the Oakland Marathon expo back in March.  Their products are comfortable, affordable and produced responsibly.  Because of Greenlight Apparels responsible manufacturing process, I will buy from green light if all things are close.

Injinji toesocks were a pleasant surprise for me this year.  I did not expect the socks to be so comfortable.  It did feel a bit odd having my toes separated by the cloth but I liked it.  It was great running up and down big hills without worrying about getting blisters.  The nice fit around the foot keeps the sock from moving around when you run.  No motion and no bunching mean no blisters.  My favorite socks did wear out rather quickly but that was expected with the way they fit.

Jockey wins the durability contest.  I was surprised to realize how much Jockey wear I own.  They make good stuff without a lot of fanfare and it lasts a long time.  They also know how to make stuff fit.

I have been waiting for the Finis Swimsense to come out since it was announced and I was not disappointed.  It is pretty hard to get an accurate distance tracker that straps onto your arm for swimming.  I tried a couple of GPS style swim monitors with poor results.  The Swimsense works with a better than 98% accuracy rate for me.  I usually swim about 2,000 yards and the Swimsense will add or subtract 25 yards to my total distance.  I am not too concerned about the difference between 1,950 and 2,000 yards for my morning swim.  I just like the idea of only having to watch the clock on the wall and not count laps when I am doing a morning workout.  The Swimsense will let me know if I went a different distance for my swim duration.

Options for you guys who like the bling
Motion detector – Distinguishes between strokes and senses distance
Storage – Records time, distance, pace times, laps, strokes and calories burned
Analyze Workouts – Review distance, splits, laps, pace times, stroke count; stroke rate, distance-per-stroke and calories burned. View your current workout and up to 14 past workouts on the monitor.
Software Training Log – Upload workouts to the Training Log to review all past performances and track progress at Swimsense.com
Swimsense Dock – Connect to your computer and charge the battery
Upload workouts – For you Dailymile and Facebook guys out there.  You can chat about your workouts and analyze them with the history.
PRO’s:

• It works
• It is easy to use
• It is pretty accurate
• The battery charges quickly
• Light weight
• Docking station

CON’s:

• The battery dies quickly
• I can’t get the software to work on my computer
• The swim options are only for pools
• Not as accurate as a GPS
• Gets flaky when you do IM sets
• Back light does odd things (operator error)

The bottom line – I like the Swimsense.  A lot of my swims are tempo swims where I get out and swim 1 or 2 miles.  These are pretty mindless swims where I just get out and do it.  I check the watch at approximately 30 minute intervals to check my distance.  If I miss my target of 2 miles by 200 yards either way, it won’t make a difference to me.  I can wear my XTREAMP3, turn off my brain and just go.  I don’t have to worry about counting laps.  The battery life is terrible but I can charge it up enough for a 45 minute swim during my 10 minute commute to the pool with my car charger.  I can see the buttons well enough to start the timer in low light conditions.  The $200 price tag is a bit steep but it is well worth the $150 you can pick it up for at Amazon.

A couple pairs of injinji toesocks showed up at my door a few weeks ago.  I looked at them with some dismay as I knew Mike, the other Alameda runner was in Pennsylvania and it would be up to me to try them out.  When a runner sees an odd looking sock, we automatically think blisters.  The socks are odd looking because they have finger sleeves or pockets for your toes.

Fearing blisters, I tried the socks on to wear around the house for a few hours.  It took me a minute to get my toes into the correct toe slots.  It reminded me of putting finger gloves on a 2 year old.  After I got the socks on, I had this weird sensation between my toes.  It felt odd because I am not used to things between my toes.  After a few minutes the sensation went away and the socks became comfortable.  I really liked the way they felt.

Okay, I like these socks, time for a run.  I tried the socks out on a 4 mile run for my first try.  I really liked them.  I quickly built them up to 13 miles and picked a moderately hilly half marathon for my first try with the injinji socks on.  I do a lot of trail half marathons and always get blisters.  I picked a small race with just under 2,000 feet of climbing.  I don’t get blisters from going up the hills.  I get them from going down the hills.  I did not get a blister when running the half marathon!  I really like these socks a lot.  In fact they are my favorite socks for my long runs.

You may ask why they are my favorite socks for long runs and not my favorite socks.  The reason I don’t wear them for my short runs is because I run at lunch.  It takes an extra minute to get my toes separated and into the socks.  When I am on a tight schedule, every second counts.  It is well worth the extra seconds when I am going on a long run.  Today I went on a long run of 16+ miles and I started off with wet toes because I stepped into a puddle before I put my shoes on.  I ran with no problems.

Sock facts: (New term to be trade marked by alamedarunners)
Toe slots – The socks have slots to separate your toes.  Not only does this feel good, it has a practical purpose too.  The toe slots help prevent chaffing and blisters.
Metatarsal stretch bands – The bands go all the way around your foot near the front of the arch.  These bands keep the sock snug around the front of the foot to prevent sliding and bunching.
Heel box – This is a sneaky stretch material that we I could barely notice.  I don’t know how they do it but keeps the sock snug to the heel.
Ankle band – The ankle band is snug too.  The sock does not move around the top.
Snug package – All of the details put together make this a complete sock.  Toe slots, snug metatarsal area, form fitted snug heel and snug ankle area keep the sock from moving around under any conditions.

The price may seem to be a little stiff at $10 to $16 per pair, depending on the style you choose.  My favorite, the Performance Midweight Mini-crew goes for $16.  Good running socks are in this range, mostly at the lower end but the socks do last a long time and they will outlive a few pair of running shoes.

I love my injinji running socks.  I wear them for all long runs.  I wish I could put them on a bit faster so I could wear them for triathlons.  Perhaps I could speed up the process with practice but I have enough to worry about during a triathlon transition.  Try these socks out.  You will not regret it.

*Ted’s disclaimer – I have no obligation to say anything good or bad about any product on my site.  I call it like I see it.  If I feel something is worth trying, I will say so.  I pay for something that is a dud, I will say so.  I do not plan on giving up my career in engineering for one in marketing.  My comments about the socks are my observations from wearing the socks and looking at them while writing the article.