Change in Direction

If you are friends with me on Facebook you may have seen that I recently posted that I am now a guest writer for Runblogger, a very popular running blog by my friend Pete Larson.  I will be writing about trail running. As such, I am hoping to get back to writing more personal thoughts on this blog.  I will be posting links to my column, “The Dirty Runner” here, but the full posts will be on Runblogger.

The opportunity to write for Pete is one that I am really looking forward to.  Here is a link to the first post, which is simply introducing me to his readers.

After 4 years of managing, editing, designing, and writing Runblogger entirely on my own, I’ve decided in 2013 to enlist a bit of help. One of my limitations is that I don’t run a lot of trails (at least not yet). I hit the trails behind my house on occasion, but rarely for long distances, and I’ve only run one trail ultra in my life (a 50K). As such, my reviews of trail shoes are limited mostly to those that work both on and off road, and my ability to write informed posts about the ins and outs of trail running are limited as well.
Given this, I asked my buddy Nate Sanel if he’d be interested in writing a trail-oriented column for me in 2013. Nate lives a town over from me, and has a shoe collection that rivals my own. We have worked collaboratively with shoe companies as wear testers, and chat about shoes often. When it comes to trail shoes, I respect his opinion as much as anybody else’s. Nate’s preferred race distance is 100 miles (I crewed for him at the VT100 last year), so he has the background to know what’s needed in a shoe that stays on foot for multiple hours over rough terrain. It also helps his ability to review shoes that he can load miles onto shoes really quickly :)
With that as an intro, I’ll let Nate take over from here:

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Introducing Nate Sanel: The Dirty Runner
Allow myself to introduce…myself (in my best Dr. Evil voice).  My name is Nate Sanel.  I am a business owner, family man, blogger, occasional motivational speaker, and many other things.  And oh yeah, I like to run.  A lot.  In just the last three years I have run almost 10,000 miles.  Most of those miles have been on trails.

When I was younger I was consumed with riding bicycles.  After growing up on BMX bikes I started riding and racing Mountain Bikes.  I developed a deep love for being in the woods, flying up and down trails.  Unfortunately all of that riding led to knee troubles and much less riding.  Growing my business became all consuming and soon I realized that I was gaining weight and was more anxious than ever.  I needed to exercise!!  I decided that I would start running.  My first run was in 2005 and I went 2 miles.  And then I couldn’t walk normally for a week because I was so sore afterwards.  To read more, click here……

New Balance MT110 Boot Winter Shoe Review

About a year ago, when reading Anton Krupicka's blog I noticed he was wearing some funky blue shoes.  Thinking that they were the next version of the MT110 I zoomed into the picture and noticed that it appeared to just be a booty of some sort.  We now know that it was both. It was a MT110 with a built in booty for winter conditions.  New Balance recently introduced that shoe, the 110 Boot, also known as the MT110WR. 

Same tread as MT110

Recently New Balance was kind enough to send me a pair to test and write about.  (Disclosure:  These shoes were a media sample provided free of charge).  Since todays weather was so incredibly miserable I figured it would be the perfect time to give them a proper test.

A real "Pain in the Ass"

End result of No Shave November

Long time readers of my blog will recall that I used to write about other subjects than just shoes.  While I love sharing my passion for shoes I have missed sharing more personal stories.  Other than my shoe reviews, my highest viewed stories have been about health and diet.  In the last view months I have been through a couple of medical scares that I have wanted to write about, but thought the subject matter might be to personal.  After much thought and discussion with Amy I have decided to write about it.  After all, it was just Mens Health November month and my story relates.  This topic is not easy for a lot of people to talk about, but embarrassment is no reason to neglect your health.

NOT what pee is supposed to look like..

On Sept. 29th, in the middle of a beautiful sunny trail run and only 5 miles in, I stopped to pee.  Even thought I had new sunglasses on, my pee looked strangely dark.  I lifted my glasses and saw that it wasn't dark, it was bright red.  Like watered down cranberry juice.  I was totally confused.  I am pretty aware of what the different colors of urine indicate, especially in terms of dehydration.  Thats just the type of stuff you know when you are an ultrarunner.  It is an excellent visual guide of your level of hydration and possible issues with your kidneys.  I also know several different reasons that you might have blood in your urine.  But having so much blood after only running a short distance scared me.  I slowed my pace down and took the quickest route home.

Top 5 Trail Running Shoes of 2012

As the year draws to a close and the promise of new and improved trail shoes hangs in the air, I decided that it would be appropriate to make a list of my top 5 Trail Running shoes of the year.  This year the traffic on my blog has increased drastically, and my most read posts are related to shoe reviews.  As a result of that, I have had an increase in manufactures sending me shoes to test and review and/or evaluate.

I only have one absolute rule for what goes on my feet.  The difference between the heel and forefoot cannot exceed 5mm.  My sweet spot for a long distance running shoe is a lightweight upper combined with enough cushioning to run for hours upon hours at a time.  I have sorted my list based on the number of miles I have put on that model this year.  As of this writing I have run 3048 miles.  Over 1500 of those miles were run in these 5 shoes.  With that, I give you my top 5, in descending order. 

Salomon S-Lab Sense

#5 Salomon S-Lab Sense. (56.2 miles)
Pros - Light weight, snug fit, great rock protection, bad ass looking
Cons - Traction could be better, $200 MSRP, reported short life

I love the way these shoes feel.  I have run few miles in them because I'm trying to "save" them for just the right race and training situations.  You can read my review of them here.

Merrell Bare Access Shoe Review

Merrell Bare Access

I'm lucky to be friends with Pete Larson from Runblogger.  We both share an almost unhealthy obsession with running shoes.  But we both come at it from different points of view.  He is very analytical.  I'm more emotional.  He can tell somebody all about the technical reasons a shoe works a certain way.  I can't.  I can just say how it feels on the run.  Regardless of how we go about it, we both just can't resist a new shoe and both of us have a huge closet of shoes to show for it.  I have purposely never sat down and figured out how much money I've spent on shoes.  I don't want to.  I'm afraid.

Pete from Runblogger.com

Ghost Train Rail Trail 100 pre-race thoughts

I really should be writing a review of the new Merrell Bare Access shoes.  Merrell sent them to me two weeks ago and I've worn them almost exclusively as my every day shoe.  They are an awesome shoe and I have a lot to say about them.  Even so, I just can't concentrate.

All I can think about is whats going to happen in 2 days.  This weekend I'll be taking on what might be my biggest challenge, as far as Ultra-running goes.  At 9am Saturday morning I'll toe the line at the Ghost Train Rail Trail Ultramarathon.  The race is run on a 7.5 mile stretch of trail starting in Milford NH.  The idea is to do "out and backs" of 15 miles.  Anybody doing an "Ultra" distance of 30 miles or more starts Saturday.  On Sunday there is a 15 mile race, while the remaining Ultra folks are still on course.  The longest official Ultra distance is 100 miles, but the RD has decided that after that, if anybody is dumb enough, bonus miles can be run.

I'm dumb enough.

Running High Mileage with Plantar Fasciitis

It makes me so sad.  When I first started running I jumped up in the mileage pretty quickly.  What resulted, other than stronger legs, was a case of Plantar Fasciitis.  I struggled with it for months before going to a foot doctor.  He diagnosed me with PF and sent me to Granite State Physical Therapy.  This is when I met Brian Verville, the owner, for the first time.

Over the course of several weeks (maybe 6?) Brian got me back up and running using the techniques that I will describe in this post.  During this same time I also realized that my shoe choice might be another factor and began experimenting with more minimal, less cushioned and more flexible shoes.

The net result is that it went away.  I wasn't sure how much was due to the PT and how much the shoe change, but all that mattered was that it was gone.