Yaktrax Pro Review - Getting a grip on winter running

I'll spoil the suspense for you; they worked awesome for me and I'll tell you about it.  I got the perfect storm, so to speak, of new toys and awful weather.  Couldn't ask for better weather to test out traction devices in.

Ironically my new YakTrax Pros showed up while I was out running in the woods last week in 4 inches of thick slush.  I was thinking to myself that they might come in handy before I left. Then there they were, leaning against my garage door in the freezing rain when Buddy the Wonder Dog and I got back from our sloppy 10k. 

I was yet to know that Old Man Winter would provide me with the industrial strength proving ground I was looking for before the week was out!  

It started as snow, turned into rain and left 4 inches of slush like you get out of the Slushy Machine at 7-11.  Brutal stuff.  After it stopped raining the temperature dropped.  This is the worst scenario.  If you don't get the slush up it freezes into a wonderful layer of hard snow and ice that cannot be moved at a later date without the use of dynamite or blow torches.  

Once you have the slush storm followed by a freeze it creates the worst winter running conditions.  These are icy conditions that are downright treacherous even for a sure footed hobbit-like trail runner.  Well - actually, I'm not too surefooted, but I am quite hairy like a hobbit.

As the weekend approached the forecast was for another snow storm on top of the hardened slush ice.  I decided I should move my 12 mile long run to Saturday and try out my new YakTrax.  I'm the master of dual tasking.  Test the YakTrax and get a long run in...seemed to make perfect sense to me.  Yes, I know, never try out your new footwear on a long run or a race, but that doesn't apply to me? Right?

I thought about what the appropriate shoes to strap them to would be?  I decided on my old trail shoes.  They only have a couple hundred miles on them and only one ultra-trail-mountain-marathon but they've started to fall apart.  It turned out to be a good choice.

I got the "large" version of the YakTrax Pro.  They fit my size 12D very well, snug and comfortable. Like a glove.... They didn't pull on my toes or feel loose.  They have a Velcro strap across the top like sandal to keep them on your feet, but mine fit so well I think the strap was superfluous. 

Conditions Saturday afternoon as Buddy the Wonder Dog and I headed out for two loops of our woods 10k were cold and icy.  The snow/slush had hardened to 2 inches of snow with a 2 inch ice crust on top.  It's a real pain because sometimes you fall through the crust on your foot plant and sometimes you don't.  The crust was pure smooth ice.  If you dropped a hockey puck it would slide away towards the horizon with no impedance. 

Some jerk with a dog had gone out and run the trails while the slush was still wet and left large, frozen, fossilized footprints on my trail!  4 inch deep size 12 bomb craters right down the middle of the trail!  Heffalumps! Woozles!  Usually if I leave footprints I can use them as toe-holds on subsequent trips, but these were so deep and icy as to be dangerous trail hazards.  Can you say "ankle-snapper"?

The YakTrax were awesome on the ice.  The coils bite well on both the heel and the forefoot.  That's where the coils form large diamond patterns that provide maximum surface area for grip.  They are not so good on the mid-foot and I'll touch on that later.  I started out cautiously, but quickly go the feel of them and was able to run my normal mechanics and stride.

At one point I run a section of asphalt road to get to the next trail head.  I thought this would be terrible but the ride wasn't that bad.  For short distances the YakTrax felt fine on the road.  Indeed for one uphill section that was heavily sanded they provided extra traction in the grit.  The trail shoes I put them on had nice big lugs and a soft ride and I think this absorbed much of the hardness of the coils.  I didn't try it, but I'm thinking my road shoes, being stiffer and thinner would not ride as comfortably on the hard surfaces. 

The best traction is on the forefoot.  It's pretty good on the heel too, so that covers most runners.  The blind spot is in the midsole where the coils cross.  The only time I fell was when I planted my foot on an slanted icy corner - the midsole coils caught, but not enough to keep me upright and I couldn't recover.  It was a sideways slip and fall which are typically better than the high-impact head over heels falls you get when you heel strike on a patch of ice. 

I routinely run in less than perfect surface conditions and I tend to adjust my stride to be more flat-footed to maximize tread-to-trail surface area.  That's not a great strategy with the YakTrax.  They work much better if you can maintain a good high turn forefoot churn.  Perfect for you Chi-Runners.

The next day I had some very light leg fatigue but no leg or knee pain.  There was no weird fatigue or discomfort.  This tells me that the YakTrax didn't change my running mechanics. 

Over the following days I have run in deep snow, both on the trail and on the road with them.  They aren't really designed for deep snow, but will give you some extra toe-off ability even in the deep stuff.  On the road in the ‘marshmallow' snow along the side they were ok - not perfect, but better than road shoes.  

Late in runs they started to slide off the toe - mostly because one of the cross strap lined up with a trench in my trail shoe.  Overall a quick tug and they're back into place and good again.  Buddy was sliding on the ice - I was gripping!

Summary:

• - Good fit

• - Normal running mechanics

• - Great on ice

• - Added value in deeper or softer snow

• - Not horrible on the road

• - Recommend trail shoes with them

Two thumbs up.  I'll keep running in them and let you know if the great stress of my high-mileage Clydesdale training causes them to prematurely deconstruct.

In the meantime - I'll see you out there!

Chris,

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy.  Chris is the author of , and  short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack.  Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at http://www.runnerati.com/.  Chris' Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at http://www.runrunlive.com/. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners.  ChrisRunner@runrunlive.com

In the Ultra-Taper - It's not that scary...

Ultra-training is easier than training for a Boston qualifier.

I'm not an official bib-number carrying ultra-runner yet, but after Sunday's 36 mile training run I think it's in the bag. Training for this ultra-trail-marathon - The VT 50 Miler - has been one of the easiest training programs I've done when compared to your average Boston qualifying campaign.

I know it's a paradox, but ultra training is easy. Let me try to explain.

Like many of you mid-packers I started running again late in life to get healthier and caught the bug. The key difference being that I ran X-country in high school - so I knew how to run, I knew I could do it. I had no expectations beyond building up to 5 miles or so 3-4 time a week to keep my weight under control.

My big eye-opener was when some ‘friend' said "hey, let's run the marathon!" (In Massachusetts you don't have to say "which marathon") Qualifying for Boston was an amazing learning experience and quite difficult. It involved tempo and speed and hills and long runs at pace - plenty of late, painful nights at the track doing mile repeats at the edge of my ability.

Even after 10 Bostons, qualifying is work for me. That's why it came as such a surprise that stepping up to the ultra would be so easy, both psychologically and physically. All the painful speed and tempo work is replaced with long-long-long slow run-hikes in the woods. After you break the barrier - you can run forever - it doesn't get worse.

Of course I'm coming off a base of training for Boston and Mt. Washington. That's quite different from starting from scratch, but if you're a solid marathoner, stepping up to an ultra distance is a piece of cake. The hardest thing is scheduling the 5-6 hour long runs, but it's no more difficult than trying to schedule two high-quality midweek speed workouts.

Here are my 2009 predictions:

• - Ultra-marathon distance events will explode in popularity and participation as mid-packers graduate from the marathon.

• - Runner's World will run a saccharin piece on the explosion of ultras and some troubled person's quest to finish.

• - Main stream media and some dopey celebrities will get ultra-involved for some dopey ego charity.

• - 10-20 books will be published on "Zen and the art of the Ultra" and "The beginner's guide to Ultras", one of them will make Oprah.

• - Related endurance events in swimming, biking, relays and adventure racing will also see double digit growth.

• - Some old idiot like me will keel over spectacularly in one of the events and the national pundits will bash these events as ‘bad for you'.

• - I'll smile at the dog, pick up my feet and put them down, ignoring all the hoopla.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it - I'll see you out there (for 9+ hours).

C-,

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of , short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at http://www.runnerati.com/. Chris' Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at http://www.runrunlive.com/. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners. ChrisRunner@runrunlive.com

Rainy ramble on the rail trail - Dateline: Cape Cod

How often do you find yourself saying "It's an easy week I only have to run for 3.5 hours." Welcome to Ultra training. So far I'm digging it. Lots of slow easy miles. Plenty of eating. All the good things in life.

Buddy the Wonder Dog and I ventured out for an easy 90 minute out and back on the Mid-Cape Rail Trail. It was as close to raining without actually raining as it can get. Nice and cool for July 5^th, but still very humid and the dog wasn't digging it.

There were many random tourists on poorly fitted bicycles. Some looking as if this may be their once-a-year ride. There were a couple of girls on those pseudo-cross-country-ski things with the poles and everything. There were a half dozen runners and joggers.

Buddy and I parked at Thompson's conservation land on Rte. 39 in Harwich. This is a great little park to take your dog to. On any given day there will be 10-20 dogs being walked (off leash). It is a regular love boat for dogs.

Today we parked there because it has access to the rail trail spur. The Mid-Cape Rail Trail goes all the way from Dennis up to Providence Town - over 60 miles. The surface is of the parking-lot-asphalt variety. Not too hard. There is usually a strip of unpaved grass to one side for the dog to trot in.

The Trail itself skirts beaches, ponds, highways, state forests, state parks and cranberry bogs as it makes its way Up-Cape. The section I run from Harwich up to Brewster and Orleans is quite heavily traveled. Lots of families on bike outings. It crosses Rte 6 for the only major elevation gain. It also passes through the large fresh water ponds in Harwich.

Buddy had to stay on leash today because of the traffic. He doesn't like it. If I give him too much leash he'll inevitably make his way to the center of the path and end up running directly into oncoming traffic. I think it's because his breed originated in Scotland - where they run on the wrong side of the trail.

We do just fine on the rail trail. Most of the bikers are faster than us and we are faster than most of the runners. We don't get caught in traffic. We mind our own business.

Today we passed two women on the way out. Buddy doesn't like following. If we are close enough to another runner - Buddy will insist we throw in a fartlek to take them. One of the women was evidently a sophomore like my daughter. She had a shirt that said "Class of 2010" on the back. I thought "Huh - Class of ‘80" when I passed her.

It got warm enough that I ended up shucking my shirt and running in my "racing sweater". I'm old enough now to not care if I scare the locals with my Elephant Man good looking naked torso.

There are at least 5 porta-potties in the 5 or so miles I went out. That's outstanding port-potty density. There is also an ice cream stand and a general store.

On the way back I let Fur-Boy go for a swim in one of the ponds. It reenergized him. He came out of the water wanting to run some tempo. The dog has no pacing skills. We got tangled up racing a family of four on bicycles. I think Dad could have taken us and Mom would have been a tester, but we had the two little kids hands down and lost them on the up-hill over the highway with a little burst.

And so it goes. Another place, another run. Back to the burgers and chips. Tomorrow morning we'll see if we can get up early enough to sneak Buddy onto the real beach.

See you out there...

C-,

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of , short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at http://www.runnerati.com/. Chris' Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at http://www.runrunlive.com/. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners. ChrisRunner@runrunlive.com

Does anyone really care what you think?

Running is such an intimate act that I'm surprised we haven't seen Hollywood find a way to wrap an awful C-list celebrity reality show around it. Maybe they have and I just don't watch enough TV to know.

The logistical problem for the aspiring Spielberg's is that all you would see from the outside is some sweaty old guy plodding down the road for hours on end with a spacey look in his eyes.

Where's the turmoil? The angst? Where's all this striving and falling short of the man in the arena that you runners are always on about? Apart from the occasional collapse, regurgitation or ungainly dash behind a bush it's all going on inside the head (and bodies) of us - the participants.

That's what makes it so hard to capture visually. That's why the raw emotive power of a run lends itself much better to the written form. It's an inner world with its own funky architecture of towering spires and murky bogs. It's a fantastical Suessical of our own making. It's that undiscovered country beyond the doors of perception that we get to glimpse into every time those happy running chemicals start to seep into our meninges. Think Naked Lunch or Don Juan.

We used to write books and articles, but now we blog. That is the bite sized chunk of hyperlinked text that more and more runners are using to adequately describe the emotional journey of "my first marathon" etc. I think that's great - it makes the sport even more inclusive.

Getting under the covers; letting the participants use the paint brush of a wordscape to share the powerful emotional impact of that "first marathon" is a further democratization of our sport. Of course it creates a chaos of mediocrity tempered by the glow of authenticity. Out of this chaos, perchance a sparkling gem of a thought or phrase or story will arise through the genetic selection that is the internet.

We get to ride along and tap that unfiltered emotion of a hard run in the pouring rain with Joe Runner.

It's hard to make a movie about such things imagined or real as played across the inner screens of our minds, but how about an audio recording? I've been sampling the running podcasts recently and some of this ‘raw feed' of running is out there to be listened to on your commute to work.

Like any new medium it's got good and bad. Let me start with the top 5 reasons running podcasts are good.

• 1. Entertainment. Podcasts can be entertaining as well as informative (think Car Talk).

• 2. Multi-task. You can dual task and listen while you're working out or driving.

• 3. Direct and immediate. They allow us to tap directly into the emotions of that runner at the point of the activity - no waiting - no filter.

• 4. Communication of mode specific info. There are certain things that are just easier to describe by speaking, like trying to describe what a tempo pace should feel like to a new runner.

• 5. Intimacy. It feels many degrees more intimate and emotional content is easier to convey.

Now for the bad news. Here are some bits that didn't work for me from some of the Podcasts.

• 1. Listening to you run is a bit creepy. One of the most common things was that the podcasters would just carry a recorder with them when they went out for a run. It sounds good in theory but I found all that heavy breathing and rhythmic footfall a bit *****-soundtrack weird.

• 2. Stop being preachy. Hand people a microphone and all of a sudden they step into the pulpit. This is one area where the written word works much better. I know it's harder but find a way to tell me how good it is without telling me how good it is.

• 3. It's not about you. You know, at the end of the day, we really only care about you in the context of what it means to us. I only care about your race or training run if you can build a bridge to me. Try to answer the question, "Why do I care?"

• 4. I don't have all day. Maybe I'm just lucky but I only have a 40 minute commute to work. Who can listen to a Podcast that is 1:20 long? Come on folks! That means I'm going to more than likely only listen to 40 minutes of it and then just worry that I missed something good.

• 5. Infomercials. This is a problem with podcasts in general that at some point they turn into an infomercial. Refreshingly enough none of the running podcasts I've sampled so far have this problem.

• 6. Give me content! That's what I want! Valuable advice, entertaining stories, interesting people wonderful ideas - give me content!

Look what you've made me do! I'm 300 words over my self-imposed blog limit and still going. Go on out and sample the available sound imbroglio at iTunes or RunningPodcasts.org. Tell me what you think.

See you out there,

C-,

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of , short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at http://www.runnerati.com/. Chris' Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at http://www.runrunlive.com/. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners.