On and On

I mentioned in my last post that I’m part of a multisport team called Team Total Fitness. (Read more about Total Fitness here: TotalFitness-Mag.com) Nice eh? Admittedly though, one of the better perks of being a part of a well-back team is that you get pretty nifty sponsors for your training equipment. Like running shoes for instance.

 

On Cloudsurfer

New shoes… woohoo! Yep, it’s always nice to try new stuff, particularly those that claim amazing performance breakthrough worthy of a Popular Science cover. Does Adidas One, Nike Shox, New Balance Zip, Newtons, Skechers Resistance Runner, Vibram Five-Fingers, Somnios, or Luna (huarache) sandals ring a bell? Yes? Then all you avid runners would have probably heard of this new brand in the market called “On.”

Born out of some Swiss’ mission to create the “perfect” training shoe, On’s products are built upon a new type of cushioning system called CloudTec. Their website describes this technology as: The 3D flexibility of the 13 On CloudTec™ elements are responsible for the astonishing sensation of running light, almost as if on clouds. The subtle, subliminal instability stimulates the postural muscles, regulates muscle tone, improves posture, and activates the metabolism. As a result, runners or walkers feel more awake, experience less pain in joints, ligaments and muscles, strengthen their muscles whilst toning and slimming their upper thighs and buttocks.

Quite a mouthful. So how does the shoe fare in real life?

Form. For a shoe that uses huge rubber rings as sole, the Cloudsurfer looks quite, well, normal. In fact, the absence of loud markings found in more popular brands is a welcome sight as the entire upper looks quite elegant in all its black glory. The sole and laces (which was too long btw) though… well, let’s just say that I’m not a big fan of the neon green fad that’s sweeping the kicks nation nowadays. Suffice to say, it’s loud – like, traffic sign loud. And conservative peeps are better off with the more subtle blue version.

Feel. Putting on the Cloudsurfer is reminiscent of the first time I wore Nike’s Air Max, which something short of saying that it felt like standing on clouds. (though I’ve never actually stepped out of an airplane in transit) Nonetheless, I must say that it feels good on your feet – roomy toebox, quite breathable, very nice padding all throughout (you can wear this sockless), and very very cushy. One trade-off I guess with all the comfort is that it is noticeably hefty… heavier in fact than Nike’s (cross) Trainer 1.2.

Substance. On road, the Cloudsurfer felt good. Really good. Like running with bedroom slippers on thick carpet kind of good… which is to say that each step felt springy and had this certain kindness on your joints. The shoe itself had adequate support, though having said that, the instability brought about by the huge lugs could cause some problem with some. (an acquaintance complained of plantar fasciitis after using it)

 

And speaking of lugs. While I had serious doubts on their durability, I’m happy to report that mine are holding quite well even after 80k. (most of my shoes retire at around 300k) On the downside, they have very little traction – small contact with ground and relatively smooth surface. Thus, I wouldn’t recommend them for trails or wet terrains.

And the verdict?

For all its tech features and performance on road, the Cloudsurfer is one solid running shoe. Cool (not your usual run-of-the-mill mall variety shoe), comfortable, fun to run with, and seemingly does help in lessening the pain associated with the pounding of long runs… it is definitely one of the best running shoe in the market right now. Admittedly though, its retail price of Php7,995 can be a deal-breaker for many. Definitely not cheap. For the same amount, one could get two decent New Balance shoes… or even Asics’ flagship model – the Kinsei.

Thus it’s a toss up… if you have the dough, then I highly suggest the Cloudsurfer. Otherwise, ordinary Juans have a number of more affordable options. Ciao!

PS. I’ve always done shoe reviews before I actually used them on the road (mostly mall walks)… which I admit is really not the proper way of doing it. So to give all my words some substance, I’ll start posting stuff that I’ve used quite extensively starting with this Cloudsurfer review.

 

Aloha 2012!

2012… my gulay, it would seem that I have forgotten about this little site for the greater part of 2011. Pathetic really, considering that I’ve spent the past few months making up for that rather devastating August. And mind you, “making up” is a pretty conservative term.

 

Let’s see now… a few races here and there (50min 10ks, sub 2hr 21k, and two duathlons), completed the Cervelo S2 superbike project, got accepted in a newly formed multi-sport team – Team Total Fitness (yes folks, I actually succeeded in fooling some peeps into sponsoring me), ran in some weird park in Beijing China on my first business trip outside the Republic, and climbed my first summit in Camiguin with my wife.

 

Yes, wife. Oh, didn’t I mention that I got hitched last December? Hehe.

Anyway, now that I’m tied down (er, have more structure in my life) maybe I can squeeze in more time for blog writing. Yey. Ciao!

PS. Oh yeah, please visit our little “travel” blog at tripfor2.wordpress.com.

 

life goes on…

there comes a point in one’s life when destiny plays these bitter little jokes on us. two weeks ago, for example, i was at my peak training for the coming ironman in camsur… then in a blink of an eye, i was battling dengue in makati med. now i’m already semi-well, but my dream of finishing ironman would have to wait another year. sadness.

anyway, if there’s anything worth raving about (aside from staying alive), it’s that i’ve learned to appreciate the value of being healthy. seriously, i’m thankful that all these time i’ve never had to deal with any other serious ailment… that most of the stuff that come my way are actually just due to my own ineptness… and that i can say yes (without batting an eyelash) to roy anytime he would ask me to run 21k just for fun. (three times so far this year… hehe)

yep, even i must admit that life’s been dandy so far. and if camsur must wait, then so be it. ciao!

a fat man in a trisuit… in powerade 2011 leg 1

my mileage has been dwindling the past few weeks to a pretty pathetic level. from 30k+ a week, i’m now down to half of that… and it seems to be getting worse. and it’s not helping that my right heel seems to be suffering from sort of injury that keeps sending this searing pain every morning. arg! >:( not good really, especially since i’m joining the baguio 21k race this weekend.

oh well. if there’s one thing i should be happy about though, it’s that i did pretty well in last sunday’s powerade philippine duathlon open leg 1. the official results placed me at 71st spot (out of 276 male participants) at 1:48:27.00 – which, although is roughly 20mins away from the lowest podium, is actually enough to land me 3rd place overall… if i were a girl. haha!

also, here’s a not-so-little something worth raving about (for me at least)…

sorry for indiscreet and totally self-serving image, but yup folks, that’s me in a one-piece sugoi triathlon suit (tights, batsuit, gaysuit, leotards, or whatever you may call it). quite disgusting eh? hehe.

what amazing about this whole suit thing is that i actually got that thing last year (april or may i believe) in the hopes that maybe one day i’ll be lean enough to actually wear it. (of course, it was offered din to me for free… kaya saying naman. haha.) now for the first time, i actually felt semi-confident to wear it in a race. woohoo! (of course, i’m still borderline obese… but i’ll work on that later.)

yun lang naman… sorry for ruining your internet experience. hehe. ciao!

sundays.

aloha!

i miss writing. i miss thinking. i miss doing stuff that have meaning (for me at least). it’s been quite a long while since i’ve posted anything remotely relevant in this blog. it’s not that i don’t have time to post, it’s just that all the internal strife and constant bickering at the office has left me pretty much drained… even at 7am on a monday. sadness.

hay, i wish there were more sundays in a week. no, not friday (i rarely go on gimmicks nowadays) or saturday (pwede na rin… but i usually spend a lot on saturdays. a whole lot.).

sunday.

sun is the day when i have the entire time for myself. i wake up earlier than on weekdays. i run ‘till my blisters turn red. i bike ‘till my exposed skin turns a dozen shades darker. i eat/drink taho. i spend an hour talking to my best friend about the dumbest topics – mainly about philippine politics. i spend quality time with my loved ones (no, not sexy time… not on a sunday at least. haha!). i binge on enough food to feed a small baranggay. i stroll around the mall to splurge whatever is left from saturday (or just plain indulge on visual stimulus). i try to learn how not to drown and dream of skinny dipping while in a public pool. then i sleep. c’est la vie!

speaking of dreamy sunday, here’s a particularly memorable one from last week. adventure, romance, suspense, and drama… all rolled into one crazy long bike ride around the province of rizal (cainta, taytay, angono, morong, teresa, antipolo, pasig, cainta).

you can view the entire gallery here.

well yun lang naman. nope, i’m not back… this is just my clone posting some weird nonsense in this practically defunct blog. ciao!

ps. i hope i win the lotto.

pps. pero sana tumaya muna ako. :p

keeping track of what’s important…

oh lookie what we have here… condura skyway run discussion @ pinoyfitness

interesting.

me, i like joining expensive races… ‘coz i’m a gazillionaire and i can afford to join every single race in the republic every weekend even if it costs a million bucks each. joke. seriously, i don’t mind paying premium if the organizer can cover all the basics flawlessly – namely ease of registration and excellent logistics (traffic control, proper hydration, etc) from start to finish. well planned, in short.

everything else comes second (or third or fourth…). yup, i don’t really care much about the glitz (fireworks, showbiz endorsers, lcd walls… these belong to noontime variety shows), kilometre markers (hate being reminded how far i am from the finish), or whatever csr causes the organizers are promoting (yeah, it’s nice… but i believe coursing your help through organizations like wwf, vso, unicef, etc. is a better and more sustainable way of reaching out). in fact, i seldom stay long enough after a race to fully appreciate the freebies and awarding program.

and if i wanted good running pictures, i would bring a friend (or hire a professional photographer) along to capture me in all my narcissistic running glory. simple. ciao!

ps… again, the photo’s not mine. i believe its taken from one of the disney marathon.

starting (and running) the year right.

oh yes, it’s practically february and i haven’t got a single sensible post in this blog. should have known that new year post was a one-hit-wonder kinda post. hay, talk about tamad!

if there’s one thing i’m quite happy about though, it’s that my january life hasn’t been as sedentary as it was in the later part of 2010. in fact, i’ve never logged so much kilometres in my entire running life. whereas last year’s january kilometrage reached 115kms, this year i’m hitting 116km with still several days to go. so with the scheduled 21k run on sunday and planned recovery on monday, this figure could swell beyond the 140km mark. (to think i haven’t even done any long run this month – 15k lang pinaka-mahaba.) sweet.

and my bike life isn’t too bad either (by my standards at least), with two bike sessions – one of which was a brick session at the circle. (must improve on this though)

anyway, just to keep things interesting, i blindly signed-up for two consecutive half marathon races – xterra pang-rave run and condura skyway marathon 2011. la lang. i’ve joined the past two condura runs, doing 21k in both (and achieving a pr on the first one)… so i might as well keep the tradition alive and hopefully break my 1:59 time. xterra, on the other hand, well… just seems like great fun.

well yun lang naman… good luck to all you folks running these events. ciao!

happy new year! :)

happy new peeps!

last year i posted a little note on the benefits of keeping all those loose coins sitting idly, well, practically everywhere – under the car seats/carpet/couch or inside office drawers/pen holder/bag pockets/etc. well, guess what? it’s a new year, and here i am again showing all you folks that saving those little silver coins has its rewards.

2009’s loot reached a more-than-modest php8,070.20, which amazed me considering that i only managed to collect 5k+ in 2008. now, the question is… how do i top that. well, with php9707.30 of course! ($221.32) woohoo!

9.7k bucks-worth of coins… amazing noh? and to give you folks a more dramatic visualization, here’s an image of exactly how much 9.7k is worth. (sorry pala, this might only be interesting to my running friends… hehe)

yep, that’s an asic kayano 16 (7.1k), halo visor (1.6k), nathan booster belt (850), and two clif shots (150)… of course, one can also get a more modest 4k shoe and spend the 3.1k on a running shirt and shorts to complete the outfit. or better yet, spend it on a december flight to the singapore marathon (cebupac promo – 6.5k+ and 21k reg – 2k+). sweet.

alternatively, with 9.7k…

1. bikers can get some pretty high-end stuff – 3t palladio team seat post (6k+), giro ionos helmet (8k), look keo 2max carbon cleats (7k), etc.
2. techies can get a decent jbl iphone/ipod dock, monster diddy/hearts/just beats (9.5k+), or a basic android phone.
3. stone collectors – a sideshow comiquette
4. fashionistas – a complete zara/mango wardrobe set (boyfriend shirt, shorts, and ballet-style slip-ons… of course, you’d have to scout for stuff that will fit the budget)
5. bookworms – a few tpbs/coffee table books
6. etc.

or you can just bank the money. plain and simple. ciao!

sneakerhead(ache)

back to running… well sort of.

now, those new to this site (wow, para naman ang daming nagbabasa nito… stats show that i barely get a hit/day – mukhang mostly accident pa. hehe) may have probably noticed that i have this certain fixation with running shoes. now that seem quite normal considering that they’re the most basic yet essential piece of equipment all runners most posses. *oh yes barefoot runners, that includes you. vibram five-fingers (vffs), terra plana vivobarefoot, zem, and all those minimalist are technically “shoes”… hehe.

yet admittedly, i’ve probably gone overboard with this one. i have this ridiculous compulsion to acquire all them pretty footwear, from the faddish high-tech stuff from nike, highly-rated ones from asics, to bargain new balance deals. in fact i currently own around a dozen running footwear, half of which are practically new (used primarily for malling ‘coz i only use two pairs of training shoes at a time). the others are used for specific applications – treadmill, racing, and trails (which have never “set foot” on anything closely associated to the great outdoors). real silly.

anyway, over the past few months (at least since i last updated), i’ve managed to trim down my shoe purchases to a few pairs. probably i’m slacking with my training, i’ve shifted most of my runs to hamster sessions, nike lunarglide+ and new balance rt801 are proving to be more durable than most, or just maybe, i’m getting bored with collecting shoes. (of course, i could just be running out of funds… hehe)

in any case, here are some stuff that recently came in…

nike airmax+ 2010 limited

the latest (as of buy-time) incarnation of the popular airmax line… this one features a full airsole, nike+ compatibility, and several fancy colorways. seriously, i’ve actually never tried one… which kinda brings sad childhood memories of all my classmates having nike airs and me with a world balance shoe. sniff.

anyway, this is one of the softest ride i’ve ever experienced… which means that it could be a really nice training shoe. unfortunately i have serious doubts about its durability (mr. runningshield reported his deflating at less than 200k) and it’s ride is also too high which could cause some instability. and with it’s obnoxiously high price, no, i probably won’t be running with these in the near future… purely japorms lang.

nike tailwind+ 2

and another one of the nike air assault collection for 2010 which carries the tailwind name… featuring a large heel airsole unit, breathable upper, nike+, and several colorways. it’s not as plush as the airmax, but doesn’t ride as high.

now this is probably more practical than the airmax… in fact, mr. runningshield actually seems to enjoy riding his.

new balance mr662

as basic as a running shoe can get… and i got it on sale. (around 2k i believe) woohoo! now this is my dedicated treadmill shoe, and I love its very durable sole and simplicity.

puma cell meio special

and finally… a shoe I got from limketkai, cdo. yep folks, that’s cagayan de oro, mindanao.

well this isn’t exactly a real running shoe (some crazy americans swear that it’s a nice running shoe) but what makes it interesting is the fact that usain bolt’s signature is printed on it (along with some incoherent message about perseverance and stuff).

so with its very stiff unbreathable synthetic leather upper and non-existent cushioning, this is definitely staying close to the other casual footwear… far from running, or any sport for that matter.

well that’s it for now… oh yeah, closet pic above is not mine. hehe. ciao!

…still her guitar gently weeps