John H. Saxon Jr. Memorial Park

You may have noticed something happening on the South side of highway 9 just East of the USPS training center. It appears as though someone has plowed a big trail through the brush and trees out there.  Turns out that the City of Norman is working on a new park, John H. Saxon Jr. Memorial Park.  This park is going to be a big deal.

Google's satellites had not noticed this change yet, so I took to the trails during my lunch break to find out what exactly was going on over there.  I parked suspiciously at the end of John Saxon Blvd, which dead-ends into a dirt access road leading in the general direction of the activity.  The park is located about a third of a mile East, behind a metal walk-through gate, surrounded by a barbed wire fence.  Just beyond the gate lay a cinder gravel track, as wide as a single lane road.

As a runner in the city of Norman, I seek out the softer surfaces like dirt trails and non-paved paths like these.  I don't believe we have enough of this in our fair city so I was happy to see it.  I ran the entire system as it is now.  I would descibe it as a 1.3 mile outer loop encompassing various interconnections which could be used to create loops of different lengths.  All are the same quality wide cinder trail, mostly flat with a few smaller hills.  It is about 40% wooded and 60% open grassland.

My GPS data, I tried to hit all possible trails

The city has already done a lot of work where the trail is concerned.  They have added several culverts over the stream that meanders through the property.  There is some minimal trail errosion from the recent rain, but I'm sure they will make adjustments to the drainage to prevent that as it becomes apparent.

Researching the proposed park on the City of Norman's website, I found the park proposal here:

I will say that the City should do a little better job advertising work like this, even a sign along highway 9 would probably suffice, because this is going to be a major asset to the area and things like this make me very happy to live here.  The proposal shows that official park entrance will be off 36th Avenue, not the access road I traversed.  The stream will become a small lake, there will be pavilions, playgrounds, fitness stations with commercial quality outdoor equipment (I read that as pull up bars and things along those lines).  It looks like another paved loop will be created to the south of the loops I ran but there is nothing there yet.  In short, this is going to be a great family friendly destination for a nice weekend day.

This is exactly the kind of thing I want to see Norman doing.  It's a good addition to the standard city parks that are scattered about Norman, and very complementary to the slightly more technical and wild Sutton Wilderness.  I would love for Norman to somehow connect everything now.  We have pieces here and there, and even some non-road interconnectivity like the Legacy Trail system along the central corridor.  I imagine a future where you could pack your bag with running shoes and frisbees, take off on Saturday morning on your bike, hit all the trails and parks and frisbee golf parks in Norman, refuel along the way at waterstops, and do it all with minimal road travel.

BabyJogger FIT Review

Here's my quick and dirty review of the BabyJogger FIT running stroller.

I received the stroller packed tight in a box from my local running store, OK Runner. I was surprised at the size of the box, expecting something much larger. So was the guy working at the store who joked about how long it was going to take me to set it up.

Assembly

When I got home, I opened the box and there were 4 parts inside: the stroller, and 3 wheels. It turns out that assembly was super simple, just unfold the stroller and pop the wheels on. The wheels are quick release, so they just snap into the axel and can be removed for transportation or storage. The stroller itself folds up remarkably well by just lifting a strap under where your baby sits.

Usage (Runner's perspective)

There is some adjustment I had to make running with a stroller. You must hold onto the stoller (obviously) so your arms don't swing naturally, which left me a little sore after a while. eventually I moved to pushing with one hand and swinging the other, which was a little better.

The stroller itself is very smooth. I was initially concerned with turning since the lead wheel is fixed, but it turns pretty easily (though sharp turns require minimal effort to lift the lead wheel up). Another nice feature which I initially thought silly: breaks. Running downhill means you have to pull back on the stoller to prevent your kid from careening down the hill ahead of you and crashing into the bushes or something. However, with the FIT, just apply some break and there's no need to alter your form to accommodate the stroller.

I am able to run as far with the stroller as without. There doesn't seem to be any (or at least very much) extra effort to push this thing, even with a 25 pound baby (not included). I generally use it for shorter runs, under 5 miles. The BabyJogger is extremely smooth, something I didn't feel with some of the cheaper alternatives.

Usage (Baby's perspective)

I'm not a baby, how wold I know? I'd ask the kiddo but he's more interested in leaves waving at strangers. Actually, I can tell he rather enjoys the run, even though he hates being in strollers. I think the extra fast stoller excites his inner speed demon. He doesn't like me pushing down the cover, because he's worried he can't see me and perhaps that I've left him rolling down a hill alone. But other than that, he's comfortable, and happy to ride as long as I'm willing to push him.

Conclusion

So the BabyJogger FIT is awesome. Smooth riding, no impedance to distance or pace, baby likes it. The only cons are a hefty price tag, but you get what you pay for.

Babyjogger FIT

Just got a call from the local running store letting me know that the Babyjogger FIT jogging stroller I ordered [seen below] is in. A wise runner once told me it's easier to get out of the house to go running if you "take some meat with you". Innuendo aside, I'll try taking along some meat next time and maybe I can get out of the house before 9:00pm.

Look for a review in the next couple of weeks.

Embassy Suites, Livestrong 5K

Broke through the 25 minute mark in my last 5K, ran it in 23:37. I didn't think that would be possible this summer, since my prior best time was in the 26 minute ballpark. Yet fate intervened, or maybe caffeine failed to intervene, and I did something that dramatically increased my time. I forgot the GPS.

I love my Garmin 305. And I love having all the numbers to crunch from all my runs (except treadmill runs). And I'd really love to have the PR saved on disk in perpetuity. But something interesting happens to pace obsessed watch watchers like myself, when you run a race watchless.

I'm always adjusting my pace based off previous experience, "I better slow down, can't keep this pace up" or "Speed up, going to slow". Instead, I'm just running. I turned the corner and saw the clock ticking upwards of 22 minutes and I thought, "WTF? Short course?". But no, I just ignorantly ran faster than usual.

Like I said, I love this thing, and I'll wear it in whatever race comes next, but I'll make a pact with myself not to look until after I cross the finish line.

Disturbing time at the Running store

My last post was brief, but all about running in Vibram Five Fingers. While I'm up to 7 -8 miles in them, I'm logging 18-20 on the weekends as I get ready to run the OKC Memorial Marathon at the end of April. So as I transition to VFFs, I still wear shoes for longer runs.

I am currently wearing a pair of Asics 2140s which I got at my local running store. The guy there took a look at my old shoes, my feet, and ascertained that I need stability shoes. That was before VFFs and Born to Run [Amazon.com], so I bought them and ran in them. They are okay, comfortable, cool looking, but they give me blisters like crazy. I am also unable to land mid-foot in them. I don't totally understand why that is, except that the heel of the shoe is quite built up and somehow that has an effect on my running form.

So I went back in and asked for something lighter and more minimal, which would facilitate a mid-foot strike. The guy sighed...

"Can I just talk you out of that?" He said, literally twisting my arm slightly. I must have appeared confused by the torsion on my arm. "I'm twisting your arm." He clarified.

I was a little surprised by this, after all I was there to buy shoes, I wanted shoes in which I could run how I like to run. For lack of anything better to say, I mumbled, "um".

"Can you just go back to being a heel striker like the rest of us?" He said. "It's a fad created by people who want to sell books and movies." Said the guy who wants to sell shoes.

My mind wandered, "There's a movie?"

"Look, for runners like you and me, we need that stability..." He droned on for a bit while I felt weird. Who was this guy? How well does he know me?

He eventually pulled out some stability shoes and told me to try them on. They all felt like the ones I had been wearing. They proved equally difficult to strike mid-foot while testing them out on the sidewalk. I asked for something different and he shrugged and told me that I need to stick with stability shoes only, that the lighter more neutral trainers would only wear out faster and that only the best runners need to strike mid-foot. I could have insisted, but felt better just leaving.

Instead I decided to try ordering something more like what I'm want from Zappos.com. I'm going to give the over-the-top colored Brooks Launch. Hopefully that ought to facilitate a mid-foot strike but with enough cushion until I can acclimate to the VFFs full time. I'll post back once I've tried them.

Vibram Five Fingers

I've been running in these babies for a while now. I'm up to roughly 7 or 8 miles in them, on pavement, and I can say that I do not miss the technology I usually wear on my feet when running! It's amazing how different you run, instinctually, when not wearing shoes!