Merrell Bare Access Running Shoe Review - The Perfect Natural Runner Shoe

The Merrell Bare Access is a light weight, zero drop shoe ideal for those who have a natural running form with a forefoot strike, but want a bit of cushioning. It's somewhat minimal but, if your looking for a barefoot shoe with good road feel, this is not it.

Merrell initially marketed them as a barefoot transition shoe, but seem to have realised that there are people, like me, who want zero drop with some cushioning. They are now marketed as a running shoe in it own right and also come in a trail and more cushioned 17mm stack height Ultra version.

Now, let me just let the cat out the bag... this is my favourite running shoe for anything up to a half marathon. I'm a forefoot striker, so high-heeled running shoes are crazily annoying. My criteria in order of importance are zero drop, some cushioning, wide toe box, narrow heel and mid-foot. This leaves surprisingly few shoes and the Bare Access fits the spec perfectly. For longer runs, Merrell has now released the Bare Access Ultra model with extra cushioning.

How to Train for an Ultra-Marathon and Still Have a Life (and a Wife)

So you've made up your mind to run an ultra-marathon. For whatever reason it seams like a good idea. I'm really not sure why I want to put in the hours of training and push my body seemingly beyond some yet unknown physical, emotional and perhaps spiritual limit. Maybe it just to see what exists past that point of exhaustion and find out how I deal with it, to see if I can or for the pure experience. But maybe there's no need to know or even have a reason. I think it's it enough just to feel the powerful attraction and go for it.

Of course there's a whole practical aspect to an ultra - the training, nutrition, recovery, mental preparation. But there's another side to it that many don't discuss - the run-life balance. If you really want to have a positive experience and don't want running to become the enemy in your relationships, you need a strategy minimise the time impact and allow you family to enjoy the positive benefits of you life-style choice. If your partner is a runner, it makes things easier, but for many of us that's not the case.

If your starting with a 50 km ultra, as I am, training time demand at least 50 km (30 miles) per week, preferably up to 80 km (50 miles) plus 2 hour of cross/strength training. That's around 6.5 to 9 hours a week at my 5:15 min/km pace. That's not a crazy amount of time, but it is time away from you family. So what I do is to look a what "wasted" time in the day I can replace training time.

Commuting

Almost every-one needs to commute to work daily. My commute takes about 1 hour each way in peak traffic. That a free 2 hours a day to use for training. My run to work is 12 km which also takes me, yes, 1 hour! Add 15 minutes to shower and effectively I've spent no time to training but added 12 km. I don't run back because I find I risk injury by running twice a day. Instead I do 2 hour run once a week and a long run on the weekend.

Lunch Break Runs

Many people use their lunch break. Personally I like to run early in the day when its cooler.

TV

The average American watches almost 5 hours of TV per day. I'm sure you don't but man, TV is such a curse. It really represents the modern persons desire to be fed with junk, junk TV and junk food, and take no responsibility for their health, mental and spiritual well being. Just choose 1 program a day to watch and get a PVR or watch on demand, so that you can set your own schedule. Then go to be bed earlier and use the bonus time to run more in the morning.

Recovery Walks

I find that walking is one of the best ways to recover. It flushes the lactic acid and help prevent connective tissue stiffness (I'm writing more about recovery in a later post).  My wife walks often, so it's a great way to spend time together doing something that she enjoys.

Pre-run Meal - My Favourite Power Smoothy

Over the years I've been experimenting with different pre-run meals. I've tried everything from the regular bowl of muesli, pasta or a couple of bananas. The trouble with the solid foods is that you need to give yourself at least 30 minutes to digest them. Not ideal when you trying to get out early before work or before 30° sun beams start beating down on you. Bananas are a good all round nutritious and digestible option, except for me personally I can't stand eating plain bananas - they literally make me want to dry wretch! However, bananas blended with other tasty ingredients are a winner.

The great thing about a smoothie is that you can tailor the ingredients to match you nutritional needs, it's super digestible, quick to drink and tastes great. I usually have my smoothie first thing after getting up. By the time I'm dressed, got my gear together and warmed up, 20 minutes have passed and I'm good to go for up to 25 km.

These are the basic ingredients. You can throw in some extra grains, chia seeds, berries or whatever, but often I just keep it plain. In terms of the liquid, I prefer soy milk as dairy creates mucus, can upset the stomach and promotes inflammation. I also like to add some water or ice to make it thinner and easier to drink.

• 1 Banana - Carbohydrates, fats, sodium, protein, vitamins 
• Handful raw oat meal - Carbohydrates, Fiber
• 1 or 2 dates - Carbohydrates, Protein, Vitamins
• 10 Raw cashew nuts - Iron, Protein, Fats
• Tbls Goji berries - Vitamin A and C, Sodium
• Soy Milk - Protein, Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Carbohydrates, fats
• Ice or water - Hydration

Atomic Coffee Machine Brewing Tips - The perfect Cappuccino

I was recently given an Atomic Coffee Machine by my neighbour. It was an unwanted gift, so I was super exited to accept their amazing generosity. If you haven't heard of the Atomic coffee machine, it's a beautiful design from the 50s, handmade in Italy and quite collectable. It essentially combines a stove top with espresso style machine.

If course it's as manual as they get, so expectedly, it would take some practice to get a good coffee out of it. If you use one of these, you have to enjoy the process of perfecting something tricky. If that's not your thing, forget it and get a pod machine.

I first experimented with some old stale grinds just to get it going and figure out how much coffee and water to use. Then I made my first drinkable cup. My initial impressions where disappointing to say the least. It tasted exactly like a stove top coffee, with that over-roasted dark taste. I was hoping for something closer to espresso machine quality.

I did allot of reading about coffee and water quantities, temperature, flow rate and tamping. The thing you can't really control with the Atomic is temperature. It does require quite allot of heat to pressurise the chamber, however, the good thing is that the head only heats up once the flow starts. Other things you can do to lower the heat, is to add boiling water and to leave the steamer valve open till it starts hissing, then shut the valve to start the extraction. That way the pressure shoots up faster and the extraction starts sooner after the water makes contact with the grind.

After about 7 or 8 goes, I managed to get a a good coffee. I mean really good!

This is how I make a large cappuccino (personally I have soy)

Specs:

Coffee Grind	Fine ground high quality! I use Campos. You can order pre-ground for the Atomic
Coffee Quantity	Full small basket (3 table spoons)
Tamping	+-35kg pressure
Water	1 1/3 cup (1 base + ¼ cup shot + a bit for steaming) It's ok to add too much water, because you will swap out the cup once the shot has extracted.

Process:

1. Boil the water pour into the machine and close the cap. 
2. Fill the small basket, tamp and attach the clamp.
3. Open the steamer valve
4. Place on medium size gas ring turned on full. Place cup below the clamp.
5. Once steam hisses out of steam, close the steamer valve.
6. Extraction should start. It should flow in a thin stream.  
7. Once 60ml (1/4 cup) has flowed (you'll need to estimate this), swap the cup for an empty cup to catch the "grey water".
8. Steam the milk using the correct technique, i.e. dipping the tip of the nozzle in and out. I also have an Aldi milk heater/frother which gives me better tasting coffee, although this is probably because frothing technique needs perfecting.
9. Pour the milk into the cup.

20 km Sydney coastal run route

I've mapped out this route as a nice 20 km run to do some time. The map shows one way.

Running injury free for 5 Months

I've been running injury free for nearly 5 months now. Ok, I had a bit of a calf strain recently, so I took a week off. But other than that the body has held out. I've done some longer runs from time to time (+20km) and all was good.

What do I put this down to? These are my injury prevention rules:

1. Run with a bus ticket. When I don't feel good, like a niggle that gradually gets worse, I just stop and walk or take a bus home.
2. Recovery time. I run every second or third day. I'm not commuting daily any more, so I get adequate time to recover.
3. Sufficient warm-up. Get the knees, calves, glutes, ankles and feet properly warmed up.
4. Calf socks - since most of my problems are with the lower legs, I always run with calf socks. I don't know if they really help, but since I've been using then I've had no issues.
5. Focus on running form. Short stride, landing under the body, "claw-back" etc. There are many sources online - chi-running, pose method and these.

Hermitage trail running KOM

I've been working hard to get the fastest time on the Heritage trail on Strava. After many attempts I finally got it. I think I can still improve on it so I'll be hitting Hermitage soon again.