Back to the blog and back to running after Tahoe Rim Trail .

I only took 4 days off after TRT because I felt so good and I wanted to go get up in the high country and enjoy the mountain trails.  With my coach / manager / wrench duties for the fall and winter fast approaching I really wanted to get some good fun runs in.

So for this post I thought I would Revisit 2 pieces of gear that I reviewed earlier.  I want to give my initial impressions of the new Altra Lone Peak 4.0 (I have about 150 miles on a pair) and share some pics from my fun runs and talk about what I am doing with training and nutrition heading towards my goals of next year.

Shall We revisit some gear first?

A few blog posts back I did a big short review which included, https://www.altrarunning.com/men/trail-short-20

I gave the short pretty high marks, but for 2 reasons gave the other new Altra running short, https://www.altrarunning.com/men/performance-short-20 slightly higher marks.

after many many miles and some racing , I have to flip flop and promote the trail short to my new favorite….but it took a little tweaking. Out of the box I wanted 2 things different.  The leg stitch on the liner was a bit too tight for me, and the “split” seemed too short if not just down right cosmetic.  so…..I noticed that the split actually had a stitched tack in the middle of the split seam, so I removed the tack and opened it up, now its awesome!

The 

The next item was the liner leg stitch was really tight on my thigh…it worked itself out…and I think its going to be ok.  you can see that the stitching has popped…i guess I have big thighs?  at any rate, they feel better now, as long as they dont fall apart.  I still prefer a brief but this short is awesome

 

 

Next Item that, with a heavy heart I gave a poor review.  The UltrAspire fitted race belt, https://ultraspire.com/products/fitted-waist-belt/

you can scroll back a few posts to read that review

I most likely would have just written this item off for my kit, but Tina from UltrAspire emailed me to follow up with my poor review.  After a little back and forth, Tina was convinced I just had the wrong size, and she sent me a different one.  Upon receiving the new size, I loaded it up and took it out for a run.  The thing freaking worked like a charm! Now I can say that UltrAspire products are batting 1000 with me.  ( I have 4 packs, waist belt, and 3 handhelds)

I use a 350ml flask in the back.  Keys, cell phone up front and the gear loops work awesome if you need to shed and carry layers.  Jackpot!

Now this waist belt is on me pretty much every run under 90 min.  So pumped on it.  A big thanks for the awesome customer service.  I love this thing!

Ok, on to the new Altra Lone Peak 4.0,  https://www.altrarunning.com/men/lone-peak-4

I am a big Lone Peak from from the 2.5 forward….I have always been able to make these shoes work really well for me.  Whether its getting the leather punch out and changing the lacing pattern, sizing down to prevent too much upper stretch or coming up with some unique lacing, the Lone Peaks have always been super reliable for me.  My only small beef with the LPs have been the mileage.  I cant get over 300 miles on them before the out sole breaks down enough (because of my poor mechanics) for me to have to retire them. You can see in the following pics the wear from my supination (transverse tib/fib fracture when I was young…) and I feel like the traction is not that great laterally.  Fore and aft is acceptable, but nothing super special. But running down, bounding into a loose apex of a switchback…?  no way I would do it without looking for something like a rock or root to create traction, Just dont have confidence in dynamic situations in the the older versions

So I am eager to see how the Lone Peak 4.0s wear in comparison with the new out sole compound…so far so good at 150 miles

Let me just say this, the Lone Peak 4.0 out of the box is good to go for me.  The fit, the lacing are on point, no alterations required.  my feet are sooooooo happy!   The new upper fits like a glove and is way cooler than the 3 and 3.5.  havent had any sweat stains on the long hot runs on the 4.0s.  The out sole on the 4.0 has a new compound and the “Trail Claw”  The combo of the 2 have made up for the lack luster traction in all directions / conditions so far for me…..i have been running on mostly dry trails, but there has been some mud.  big thumbs up so far for me!  Like I said, I only have 150 miles on them, so I will report back with a more long term review.  But so far, they are the best shoe I have ever run in.

 

With all the gear stuff out of the way…..what have I been up to?  And where am I headed with this running thing?

With my racing season closing after the Tahoe Rim Trail at the end of July I spent the month filling up my soul running up in the mountains, getting a bunch of work done and dreaming up my goals for next year.

While running around the foothills and the mountains of the Sierra Nevada I have had a lot of time to reflect on this past year.  All in all I am super happy. I have had a great year and really enjoyed all the work we (Brett Horning) and I have accomplished.  I am so excited to set goals for next year that are a bit bigger than what I experienced this year.

I am not 100% sure of all my racing next year, but 100km distance is going to be my next bump and The Canyons 100km is going to be my primary spring objective.  What will we do between now and then training and racing wise is really up to Brett, but I have some thoughts on what I need to expand on and be better at.  One thing I never nailed was fueling in the 50 mile distance.  Late this summer I decided to take a serious crack at getting into Ketosis and striving for figuring out the LCHF training and racing plan.  I have dabbled with OFM and the such before, but in a pretty non disciplined way…I know it works, but now I am on it in a big way and really doing the field work to refine it and see if this is going to work for me in the longer races.  I have had a ton of help from Peter Defty of Vespa Power, and learned a lot from Jeff Browning and his experiences. But this go round, I have my chief accountability officer, Tiana Rockwell of http://www.trirealfood.com/ .  things have been pretty good, been a rough patch here and there…and now out on the road has been really tricky.  But I am committed to the experiment.

What else?  Well, I will be traveling a ton between now and middle December which means I have to go find places to run “out on the road”  Right now I am out in Rochester NY enjoying short runs in the area, Mendon Pond Park is my favorite

 

That is about all I have for now.  I think for the next time I will compile a bit of travel trail and report back!

Thanks for reading.