Shoes for OCR and Endurance Racing!

My Shoes of Choice

Almost daily, there are posts on various Facebook OCR pages (Corn-Fed Spartans, SISU, Death Race, among others) about shoes.  What type of shoe works best for this or that; how does this shoe handle mud or drainage; what's affordable and comfortable; the questions go on and on.  It makes sense really--nothing is more important in racing than the survival and maintenance of your feet (check out my previous blog on feet and socks).  I've broken down some points to think about and what shoes I prefer in the world of OCR and extreme endurance races.

Cost

We all have a budget.  I tend to spend way more on shoes than I do on anything else, mostly because I love shoes, but also because I tend to go through shoes rather quickly.  This is a little problematic because my all time favorite shoes are Salomon shoes and they tend to be on the pricey side.  While the positive side is I have an ambassadorship from them, reducing the cost significantly, that certainly doesn't help you out very much.  What I did before I got my ambassadorship was have a good training pair of shoes and a good pair of racing shoes.  I trained in two pairs of shoes: the Sense Mantra two (my favorite road-to-trail shoe) and the Speedcross 3 (pictured below).

You can find this shoe currently on Amazon between $73-$130 based on size and color selection.  The Sense Mantra 2 runs around $65 with a little internet digging. For a Salomon shoe, that's a great deal.

My racing shoes aren't cheep, but like a fine Italian sports car, you only bust these out when it is time to impress (terrible analogy but you get the point).  I have two shoes that I live by: the Fellcross 3 and the S-lab Sense Ultra (both pictured below).

Sense Ultra

Fellcross

 Amazon has these running around $160-$170, which is pretty consistent everywhere.  You won't find good deals on these because they are from the S-Lab section of Salomon, meaning, fancy fabrics and excellent materials.

What's so great about these shoes?

Everything.  The grip, the drainage, the comfort, the style, weight, are top flight when it comes to the S-lab stuff.  Sometimes you have to bite the bullet when it comes to quality.  If you are serious about your craft, you best be serious with your wallet.  

Cons?

Besides cost, not a lot.  I found that the Fellcross became waterlogged overtime, but that was the Fellcross 2.  Granted, I put these through many Spartan races, a winter's worth of trail races, a 24 hour race called Legend of the Death Race, and was one of my shoes for the Ultimate Suck.  I was waterlogged after all of this!  The shoe's exterior didn't break down at all, which shows how tough these shoes are. The new model promotes that they don't get water logged.  Not sure if this is true considering I haven't abused them that much yet, but if they do become logged, I will report it out. The Speedcross is a little bulky, but again, this is my training shoe so it doesn't bother me that much. Overall though, they all rock.

Shoes for Indoor and Weight Lifting

I will say that besides Salomon, I really like Inov8 shoes.  They are less expensive, but still have a good quality.  I tend to use them in weight lifting most though because they are so low to the ground. You don't want a big heel to toe drop in a weight lifting shoe.  I use the F-lite 195.  It's a bit of a cross-training shoe as well as a weight lifting shoe.  It works well for quick transitions from lifting to small distance running.  I would keep the running to under a mile in intervals though.  You will feel it running in these after a while.  Amazon has them running between $65 and $120.

Take Care Of Your Feet

I've learned a lot of important lessons in taking care of your body while training and performing for big races/challenges, but perhaps the most valuable of them all is foot care.

I'm lucky. I've got great feet.  I'm shocked by how good my feet are.  26 years of soccer and my feet are still super duper.  Training for an ultra: still great feet.  24 hour races, 36 hour races, and all the obstacle course races in the world have yet to break my feet down.  Yes, they get pruned and a little nasty looking, but they retain their structure. And when you have structure to your feet, you can keep going.

Three Simple Rules

Rule 1: Socks and more socks

While most races only need one pair of socks, many of the races that I do require to be in water, mud, and anything else that can ruin shoes, socks and inevitably feet.  In a previous blog I talked about my favorite socks, but essentially, I stick with my favorite brand now--Darn Tough socks.  I rotated through six pairs in my 36 hour race.  We are talking about the Ultimate Suck--it required me to be walking in water for 6 hours with 50 lbs on my back-- it sucked.  Among other things, I swam through disgusting ponds, rucked through mud, carried really heavy weight for many, many miles, and while all this is going on, I steadily rotated socks.  This kept my feet relatively fresh (as fresh as they could be).

Rule 2: Lube

Friction kills.  Keep your parts lubed--feet, groin, nipples, armpits--any one of these can rub raw and cause terrible discomfort.  My lube of choice is Trail Toes.  Body Glide works well, but Trail Toes seems to stick for a long time.  Trail Toes also has a great foot and body care guide on their website.

Rule 3: Shoes and inserts 

People go on forever about shoes that fit and stores that stress the importance of this for a reason: it is super important!  I use Salomon shoes.  Between the Sense Mantra, Speedcross and Fellcross my feet had the best overall shoes that I could afford.  I need a little extra support for my feet though for challenges that require me to carry weight.  For that I use Superfeet.  My feet are super flexible, so when added weight stresses my body, my feet tend to bow a bit.  The inserts kept my feet from breaking down and also kept them comfortable.  Unfortunately, a couple of water soaked races later, the inserts broke down on me; however, their customer service sent me a brand new pair for free!  I don't think the inserts are necessarily designed for 36 hour races, but for everyday running and lifting, they hold up great.  In fact, they are in all of my everyday shoes as well.  

There you have it

Moral of the story is take care of your feet and they will take care of you.  

Ice Bucket Challenge

As a teacher of teenagers, it's important to teach students about caring.  Students get caught up in the concept of "if it doesn't really involve me, then why should I care?"  I don't blame them really--adults aren't really that different. We all need to look at helping others.  Do a little soul searching and you all would agree that we don't do enough to help out our fellow man.

I teach the book "Tuesdays With Morrie."  It's a book about selflessness, caring for those not just around us, but for all people.  It's also a book about a man dying with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and even in the face of death, how one can embrace life.  We can learn a lot from Morrie, and because of current trends in ALS awareness through the "Ice Bucket Challenge," I believe there is an opportunity to teach students about caring for others.

The Challenge

The video below is from ESPN and helps explain what the "Ice Bucket Challenge" is. 

So What's the Challenge, Mr. Gura?

I'm issuing a challenge to Byron High School.  You will have one week to pledge and donate $1 minimum to the ALS Association.  During lunch on the dates of September 2nd-5th, make your pledge by signing up and donating your money.  On September 8th during PRIDE Time, we will do the challenge on the football field.  As a school, we can work together in an act of selflessness and donate to a good cause.  We will challenge three other schools to follow suit. 

Socks, Socks And More Socks

Warning

I have good feet, so all of you people that tend to get blisters or macerated feet or whatever else that feet can have, I may not be the best expert on your feet.  Conclusion for this: try on different socks and do different runs and exercises in each one so that you find what works best for you.  It's what I did, and I'm just that cool.

Socks For Obstacles, Trails and Endurance Challenges

I love socks.  I have a variety to choose from that go along with an arsenal of shoes.  Foot care is everything for OCR, trails and endurance challenges, and this is coming from a guy that has very few issues with feet skin care.  So for those that have issues, you know better than I do just how valuable good socks and shoes are.  I won't be talking about shoes...yet, maybe another blog, but for now, I'd like to shed some words on several socks that I think are the bees-knees, or bees-socks.

In order of favorite to least favorite

1. Darn Tough
2. Dry Max Socks
3. Prosok
4. Injinji

Let's start with number one and why

Darn Tough socks rock.  I have four pair of them in a variety of styles.  I picked the socks from their company that incorporate smart wool, basically wool that dries very quickly.  The cool-max sock (pictured right) is my particular favorite because it moves whatever moisture there is away from the foot.  The stitching is great, but what I really like is the fit around the ankle.  No slippage and it keeps from stuff falling in the sock--rocks, leeches, twigs, whatever.  Here is the best part: Lifetime warranty on the sock--crazy.  If I live with one type of sock in my bag it is this sock

Dry Max were the first pair of socks that I had for trail running.  I found them on Amazon and said, "hey, these look pretty solid," and bought them.  They run around $12 a pair, which is about $5 cheaper than Darn Tough.  That may not sound like a lot, but I'll buy four pair at a time.  I've always thought these were a solid sock.  They act similar to Darn Tough, though they tend to get pretty warm, but it isn't anything that would cause hot spots.  I just tend to get sweaty, hot feet.  Overall, I find them to be a solid number two

Prosok was a huge craze for me when I was training for my first ultra marathon.  I liked how they gave gentle compression; I liked how they were cushy.  In fact, I ran a trail ultra in them and didn't regret the choice.  However, I think I would have if the conditions were wet.  They hold a lot of moisture.  I think because of the bamboo in them, they are meant to do so.  If I wear them on wet days, this is something I notice.  A lot of Death Racers swear by them though. I can honestly say, I haven't worn them beyond basic running to really accurately judge them.

Injinji Socks are another brand of sock that Death Racers and Spartan Racers swear by.  I did a 24 hour endurance challenge in these socks and thought that they held their own nicely, I'm just not a big fan of toe socks.  Sometimes I feel like I'm five wearing them.  I get it though--reducing toe friction.  It's not entirely comfortable, but you get used to it.  I have both the wool and the performance sock.  I favor wool because it expels liquid faster and keeps the feet pretty warm in cold water, which was good for the race I was running while wearing these.

My ultimate advice is try different socks out in similar environments to what you are competing in.  Maybe some socks will work well in one situation, but not so much in other spots.  Prosok worked great for ultra running, but doesn't work for me for other challenges.  Find your sock. Also, lube your feet up too.  Trail Toes pairs nicely with most of these.  Cut your toe nails too and make sure your feet aren't all crusty, it causes your feet some serious issues when they start to break down.  Feet are everything in big challenges and looong running.  Keep them happy.

X-1 Audio review

X-1 In My Ear And On My Arm

Here is my review on X-1 Audio equipment.  While I do enjoy using the equipment, particularly the iPod arm band, I wish the ear buds would mold a little bit better to the hole in my ear.  Then again, I have big ears and apparently my right ear hole doesn't support any bud without eventual fall-out.  I'm doomed.  X-1 if you are reading this, make ear phones for large eared people like me.  Overall, they are definitely worth the purchase.  There aren't a lot of brands out there that can support the sweatiness that is known as me and still operate without problems.

Training for the Ultimate Suck

Most of the time when I tell people about the challenges I train for, they give me the "you're crazy" routine.  I don't think I'm crazy; I think I want to see the depths of my soul.  I want to see what makes me, breaks me, can change my perspective on who I am and what is possible.  I consider the Ultimate Suck that kind of challenge.

How do you start training for something like this?  It isn't a basic OCR or follow the guidelines of a running routine.  It's a little of the unknown mixed in with a lot of reps of general conditioning, heavy lifting--shit, I have to perhaps shoot a gun (don't do that very often) and perhaps survive pepper spray!  What the hell did I get myself into?

Breaking Up My Training

The Suck is at the end of August.  I finished running an ultra (Ice Age 50) May 9th.  I have roughly four months to gain back all the weight I lost plus a little from pure running.  Ultra running isn't my thing, but I did it with a friend because I wanted the challenge.  I'm not what I consider a super strong person, but what I do have is enormous amounts of endurance in weight training, calisthenics, and repeated workouts.  I have a motor.  What I need to gain is some muscle mass and no how to carry shit around for distance.  The video up above isn't a far cry from some of the concepts I've built.

Building a Base

I'm taking this concept right out of Mark Twight's book, Training for the New Alpinism.  Mark Twight knows a bit about endurance and carrying your body around for a long time.  What I've concluded is that to survive races like the Suck or Death Race or anything that is 24 hours plus, you must have the ability to carry your body around and do fitness without breaking down.  

To start my weight gain and muscle strength plan, I broke up my weeks into 10 day sessions.  within that time frame, I can give my body rest.  For some reason, if I set my plan up in a 7 day plan, I feel cramped with what I want to do and don't give myself time to rest.  Base building is all about general fitness.  I have a good base already, so building up general strength and not being sore everyday isn't something I have to worry about.  The plan was something like this:

1. Strong lift 5x5 (traditional olympic lifts.  I pick three, usually squats in there and dead-lift)
2. Recovery day of light push-up and pull-up work throughout the day
3. Soldier of steel workout (sometimes I picked a workout from here; sometimes I made my own cross fit style workout).
4. Recovery day of hangs and FLR's, perhaps a run.
5. Long day:  This is a day that I make that simulates what I would do in the race.  Example:  I'll hike with a weighted ruck, chop wood, flip tires and bear crawl the stadium at the local high school, drag weight, farmer carry buckets with weight, so on and so forth...
6. Nothing.  Rest, you need it.
7. Strong lift again 5x5 
8. Recovery day exercises
9. Split wood, followed by cross fit style workout (usually more body-weight and burpee heavy)
10. Recovery day

I do this for roughly 4-6 weeks depending on my time before my race.

Building Endurance

Once my base is what I consider good, I'm ready to shift into more endurance, more long pounding workouts.  While cross fit style workouts are good at getting some general fitness going, I find it to be a bad short-cut into building sustained energy for races such as the Suck.  There are no short-cuts in this kind of conditioning--gassing out in 20 minutes won't help you prepare for 36 hours of work.  

So I change my 10 day plan up a bit more.  There are more "long days" and my 5x5 days have extra exercises.  My Soldier of steel days, change into more of a "carry and suffer" workout.  Observe:

1. Strong Lift 5x5, rest for 5, begin pull-up routine (discussed further down), weighted box step-ups for 20-25 minutes
2. Recovery day
3. Carry and Suffer: weighted sled pull while farmer carry, kettle bell swings x20 into sled sprints, front squats into sled sprints, waiter carries, weighted box step ups for time.  Rest for 5, go out and run 400-800 repeats.  Start basic in week one (2 miles) and build to 5-10 miles based on your running skill set.  Break up repeats with burpees. 
4. Recovery day
5. Long day: Same concept as the base building
6. Recovery day
7. Long day or carry and suffer (based on time allotment)
8. Nothing
9. Strong Lift 5x5
10. recovery day

Recovery Days and other days

Do what you want with recovery days.  Some days you'll need to do hardly anything...maybe stretch or something really light.  Other days you may feel like you can do a rather rigorous light workout (do some push-ups or pull-ups, maybe a little light weight) or perhaps a good low pace run or swim.  Whatever they are, keep it light.  The body needs recovery time. 

Sometimes, because of time, I have to break up my days into two parts.  I'll do part of the workout at god-awful early times and the other part either during my kids' nap times or later in the evening.  You have to be pretty flexible.

It's a plan, not a schedule

I have two kids and have a wife, a life is more important than this.  I can do most of this because I train like this in the summer and I'm a teacher.  My workload becomes less in the summer.  Even still, in the school year, I'll take on some of my schedule in the morning in my own makeshift gym and the other part after school in the weight room where I supervise.  This plan works for me.  Take what you want, but be flexible.  The most important thing is being consistent with workouts and recovering.