RUNNERGY
  • Runnergy
  • Blog
  • Video's
  • TIPS
    • Online Shoe Buying Tips
    • Plantar Fasciitis
    • Runner's Loop Lacing
    • Whole in my shoe!
    • Why Insoles?
  • Contact Page
    • Email Sign Up
  • Coaching
  • Products by Category
    • Neutral Control
    • Medial Control (Stability)
    • Motion Control
    • Performance "Tempo"
    • Trail & ATR
    • Barefoot
    • Track Shoes
    • Cross Country
    • Road Racing
    • Trail Racing
    • Walking Shoes
    • Insoles/Orthotics
    • GPS Watches
Move Well, Live Well

Runnergy Blog

July 31st, 2019

7/31/2019

0 Comments

 
10 Reason to get a GPS Watch in 2019
Here is a little secret to successful training wither it is for a coming 5k or a marathon in 6 months. It is the GPS watch which stands for Global Position Satellite. Some athletes who use it including myself say it is like cheating. Here are 10 reasons why and why you might want to start cheatinging as well. IF YOU WANT TO WATCH MY VIDEO INSTEAD CLICK HERE. https://youtu.be/_kUV5ZEHb7M
Reason #1 is the most obvious accurate mileage for your workouts. If you’re training for a marathon, which if you don’t know it is 26.2 miles and you need to run 18 miles you don’t want to find out that you actually only did 15. As embarrassing as it is I once ran what I thought was a 7 mile run only to find out it was 4.5 miles. My mother actually was the one who said “sone that is in no way 7 miles, drive it”. Ooy! She was right. Bottom line you want to know your mileage and you want it accurate.
Reason #2 If your goal is to run or walk your event/race in a specific time you are going to need to train at a specific pace. Such as if your goal is to break a 3 hour marathon you’ll need to run under a 6:50 minute mile pace according to my Google assistant. GPS watches can not only display your current pace some can display your average pace which may be more important for you timely goal.
Picture
Reason #3 Many GPS watches not only can wirelessly connect to a very accurate heart rate strap that can be worn across your chest, but many current GPS watches come with a built in wrist heart rate reader as part of the watch itself. Although not as accurate as a chest strap unit they are much more convenient and practical for most of us, I included. Your heart can tell you a lot about your training and health so I highly recommend getting a GPS watch that includes a built in heart rate monitor. More important I recommend understanding at least the basics of how to utilize the all so important information your heart can provide.
Reason #4 Some, not all GPS watches can display your cadence. What is that you ask? Cadence is how many steps or in the bike world how many time you spin the pedals around per minute. Again for you runners. Cadence is how many steps per minute, aka SPM. This piece of information is helpful as it offers a clear presentation of your overall running technique and sometimes conditioning. A known sweet spot is 180 per minute, that 90 per side. Left foot 90 and right foot 90 just to be clear. Too low of a number like 140 means your out of shape and/or your over striding. On the other end 220 or more is too many and isn’t efficient resulting in early burn out. Many running form issues can be corrected simply by raising your SPM. Keep in mind don’t jump straight up to 180. Anyway, it is great information that GPS watch can provide.
Reason #5 Unlike traditional stopwatches GPS watches typically have rechargeable batteries which is much better than dumping batteries out. Just beware of no name brands with junky batteries. Also there are a big range of battery charge life spans. Lower price point GPS watches may only have 3-4 hours which will be a problem if your planning to do a marathon. Others like the Garmin Fenix 5 shown have a 24 hour battery like and can even be set up to 40 hours. This is great for someone doing an ultra marathon, but keep in mind this setting will reduce it accuracy for distance.
Reason #6 Here is mouth full. Collection of past training information. What the what? Many GPS watches connect wirelessly to an app you can install on your smartphone. This app can collect and store all your workouts so you can look back at them. Many coaches recommend and even require you have this so they can log in and see your training performance and how your hopefully improving. This is one of my favorite features as it is so much easier to look at all that information on a smartphone screen compared to a small low resolution watch screen.
Reason #7 Have you ever walked, hiked or ran, heck biked a trail and had no idea how to get back to the start? Well, let me tell ya, it sucks especially when it's 100 degrees. Anyway, this is a fairly high end feature, but some GPS watches actually can display maps. YEP! Maps with directions back to where you started. This feature ranges from simple bread crumb maps and others have complete in color maps with trail heads to help direct your back to the start. Very helpful. Unfortunately usually only on pricier watch options. A great start with basic bread crumbs is the Garmin Instinct. I’ll talk about that more later on.
Picture
Reason #8 Okay we got most of the key training and functional reasons to get a GPS watch, but here just a cool everyday reason. Many if not all can be used as an Activity Tracker like a Fitbit. If fact many Fitbits have GPS and can be used as both an Activity Tracker and a training watch for light use. Basically your not gonna get much use from it training for a 100 miler, but put to a half marathon is possible as long as it has a great battery or your really fast. GPS will drain the battery so buy accordingly. Also keep in mind after 6-12 months batteries can lose their steam so again go with something that has better battery life for anything over a 10K. And just Incase you don’t know a 10K is 6.2 miles and a hapl marathon is 13.1. Rule #7 Never assume!
Reason #9 Beyond being just an Activity Trainer many GPS watches have Smartwatch features like connection to your phone and alerting you of emails and text messages. This is great if you want one watch for training, activity tracking and work when you always need to know when someone is trying to reach you. Some like the Applewatch can even do phone calls. Yes, I once got a phone call in the middle of a run and yes it is very annoying. Luckily you can turn this feature off which not only allows you to complete you workout in peace, but great saves your battery.
Reason #10 okay this is a fairly new reason, but all so important. Only a few GPS watches have this feature, but I assume many going forward will include this and it is Emergency Alerts in the case of an unfortunate situation happens like you crash on your bike or you have a heart attack. Sadly these things do happen. In my case I almost had a very bad day on a trail run a couple years ago in 106 degree weather. This feature would have at least made me feel much more safe. In the meantime, I strongly recommend Road ID. Check them out, great product and company and they guy with that had the heart attack. Well, Road ID saved his life.
Okay all. That is my top 10 reasons to make a GPS watch part of your training equipment. Hope that helps and let me know what you think or if you have any other questions please leave it below.
0 Comments

On “Cloudstratus” shoe review

7/18/2019

0 Comments

 

I’ll be honest, I haven’t had much luck with On running shoes for my feet. They’re design is kinda the opposite of what I typically wear which is Altra. Altra’s have a wide”natural” foot shape toe box and no heel lift, although I add a heel cushion for 2-3 heel lift.

Back to the On’s. I recently got a chance to try out the On “Cloudstratus” a high end running shoe that possibly has changed my tone for On shoes. This review will be broken into 5 sections and a closing statement.

I’ll start with FIT which was surprisingly good. Not tight nor blousy. Materials are very good and functional without being over the top techy. There’s a plastic external heel counter for a nice snug heel fit and offers additional heel support which was a nice welcome as I need that these days. The forefoot fits wider than any other On I have tried in the past which always pinched my bunions. No pinch here, just super comfortable straight out of the box. Not unusual for this category of shoe. I’ll touch on that later. Anyway the fit is on the short side so I had to go up a half size. Other than that they fit very good unless your feet are really wide or your feet are really narrow and you like your shoes uber snub, aka too tight. Materials are soft and form fitting. Arch fits snug, but not intrusive. The instep “top of the arch” fit snug and comfortable, the laces did not pinch. Speaking of the laces there is an unusual lacing pattern to these shoes, but I did not notice anything negative from it unlike most shoes with weird lacing designs. In general the fit is snug, but not tight.

Next, the CUSHIONING which was moderate. These nor soft or hard. Making the shoe padded, but also really and I mean really responsive. My cadence “foot turn over or steps per minute” was at least 10 more steps per minute than my recent runs in my personal shoes. That’s how responsive these were, making them super fast feeling and fun to run in. Again, they are not cushy and definitely not mushy which is great. So, did they feel hard? Surprisingly no, just responsive. You can tell these are made my a performance shoe company. Now there is an 8mm drop which is more than I like, but the shoe was so lightweight and responsive it kinda made up for it. I say “kinda” because I also walk and that is when I really noticed the 8mm drop. Not so much the heel being high, but the forefoot being low and thinner feeling. Reminder...I wear Altra’s with zero heel lift. So, compared to everything else in its class the cushioning is there, but these are not slug around running shoes for walkers. These were clearly designed for runners who like fast, responsive shoes with some cushioning. More than other On’s for sure. I think most walkers won’t notice the 8mm heel lift as they are probably wearing shoes now with more lift than that.

No pun intended, but let's move “on” to STABILITY & SUPPORT. Let’s start by explaining the difference between stability and support. Stability has to do with keeping your ankle in a straight up and down position. If you over-pronate which is when you ankle rolls inwards too much then there are stability categorized shoes that help control the excessive amount of rolling inwards, aka over-pronating. Support has more to do with how the shape of the shoe fits and supports your arch. Now that we got that cleared up. These On’s do have an angle to the heel you can see in the provided photo which does help with over-pronation.

In my experience I have not found On’s shoes have enough stability for most runners. These on the other hand were quite stable, even when I was walking. And yes, walking requires more stability. Look out for my video on that on my YouTube channel soon. The Cloudstratus was surprisingly stable. They don’t look stable, but I felt zero pressure on my bunions nor any on my big toe. These are common discomforts when a shoe is not providing enough stability or support. So, how is On doing this? You’ll see by the provided picture there’s an orange plastic shank running through the whole shoe. P.S. this doesn’t just provide some awesome stability, but helps with rock protection on trail, not that there are trail shoes in any and mean any imagination. Unless you love rocks getting stuck in the bottom of your shoes. Also, the platform of these On’s is wider than other models adding to the stability. You’ll see from the photo the bottom of the shoe is greatly wider than the fit of the upper. Nice addition and needed in order to compete with the competition in this category. Overall the stability is very good providing you’re ankles don’t over-pronate severely

I think we will all agree running shoes are a functional piece of equipment providing the athlete protection, yes? But, we also know that we are wearing them out in public and because of that they better look good enough. This isn’t 1996 when running shoes looked, will let’s just say they looked liked running shoes. As for STYLE & LOOKS there’s no questioning the style that On has brought to the market is clean, sharp and sophisticated. I have seen celebrated like Kevin Bacon sporting On shoes and others. To make this short, they look fantastic and cool. And thank goodness as I’ll mention in the next section.

PRICE, O’BOY! These are not cheap. At $170 I do think you get the best of what On has to offer and yes there a slew of other shoes in this price. Obviously the Asics Kayano which started this category of the premium running shoe (not the New Balance 990) is the Cloudstratus’s biggest competition I’d have to say these are lighter feeling and more responsive. Definitely more responsive. On the other hand the Kayano’s can control more over-pronation. These also have an 8mm drop compared to 10-12mm of the Asics.

In CLOSING, if what you want an awesome looking, great fitting, lightweight and fast paced shoe with moderate cushioning and stability shoe it is really hard to beat the On “Cloudstratus. Just be prepared to pay for it.

0 Comments

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Runnergy
  • Blog
  • Video's
  • TIPS
    • Online Shoe Buying Tips
    • Plantar Fasciitis
    • Runner's Loop Lacing
    • Whole in my shoe!
    • Why Insoles?
  • Contact Page
    • Email Sign Up
  • Coaching
  • Products by Category
    • Neutral Control
    • Medial Control (Stability)
    • Motion Control
    • Performance "Tempo"
    • Trail & ATR
    • Barefoot
    • Track Shoes
    • Cross Country
    • Road Racing
    • Trail Racing
    • Walking Shoes
    • Insoles/Orthotics
    • GPS Watches