Anyway, I drove out to the trails and kept the BEX Runner in a cooler with ice packs to keep it from melting before I even got out there. Walking the quarter mile to the trail head, I held it by the strap so my hot hand wouldn’t cause it to melt either. Once I was ready to take off, I put the BEX Runner on my left palm, made sure it fit comfortably and off I went. It lasted for a total of 14 minutes and 50 seconds before it was completely melted down. I flipped it over so it was now on the back of my hand per the instructions, and went on. At the time it melted, it was 90F (105F heat index) and I wasn’t quite halfway through my run. So all things considered, it lasted a decent amount of time — who seriously runs in that kind of heat anyway? (besides me)

I don’t know if it was mental or a placebo-effect, but I have to admit that while it was still frozen, wearing the BEX Runner actually made me feel quite comfortable. I actually ran faster (I could tell by my splits), even though I was running uphill. Once it was a soppy blob though, I definitely felt less comfortable and the heat started to adversely affect my run, even when running downhill. Obviously, unless I have friends stashed with coolers and BEX Runners throughout my route, using this device for long runs isn’t feasible. But I can see where using it after T2 in a sprint triathlon would come in very handy. It would also do great for 5k road races, which are typically scheduled for early in the morning before the real heat kicks in. In locations where it doesn’t get as hot and humid as here, the BEX Runner would logically last longer.

On a cool side note, the BEX Runner is the “official cooling sponsor” of Conrad “The Caveman” Stoltz, 5x World Champion Triathlete.

So all things considered, I really like the concept and the performance of the BEX Runner and will continue to use it. Most likely, I’ll use it mainly during my early morning runs out on the road during the summer. It’s 78F at 7:00am with 8,530% humidity; I can use all the cooling I can get.

For those of you interested in getting a BEX Runner of your own, use this coupon code to get a 10% discount: CAVEMAN (tell them ChariD at Intrepid Athlete sent you!)

ETA 07/13/2011: Wore the BEX Runner late yesterday afternoon for another trail run. It was 94F(105F heat index) and a cloud cover came over just as I took off running. This time, the BEX Runner lasted a good 20 minutes. I think the cloud cover made a difference in the thaw time of the device. Direct sun definitely affects the speed at which it melts.

Note: This post may be updated over time as I use the BEX Runner more. These updates will be time-stamped for reference.

When I run on the trails in the afternoon, I wear a FuelBelt Helium with 2 bottles and carry a microfiber hand towel (to sop the sweat from my face). Hydration is important when you’re literally sweating buckets, but not over-heating is just as significant; especially when you’re miles away from a paved road and easy access to help. Obviously, one of my concerns with regard to the summer months is performance, which is pretty crappy when the air temp is 97F. My mileage goes down as does my speed. Add in humidity, and you’re looking at a heat index of over 100F.  So when I read on one of my favorite running blogs about a product that could possibly allow me to lower my core temp a bit while running or during recovery, I had to check it out.

It’s the BEX Runner. Essentially, it’s a freezable gel pack you strap to the palm of one hand. Apparenlty, like a dog’s foot pads, humans have blood vessels in their palms that help to regulate the body’s temperature. These blood vessels are called arteriovenous anastomoses (AVAs) and they bring hot blood to the surface to allow outside air to cool the blood. This cooler blood is then circulated back into the body, helping to keep core temps cooler. The folks at Cool Palms, LLC have come up with an idea to enhance that cooling process - by creating the BEX Runner, which you wear (frozen) on the palm of one  hand during exercise or during recovery.

BEX Runner in Package

Naturally, being the research junkie I am, I read up on the product and decided I HAD TO HAVE ONE.

When he heard of my enthusiasm and interest in his product, Brett - the inventor of the BEX Runner (he’s also the President and Founder of Cool Palms, LLC) – offered to send me one to try out. Not being one to look a gift horse in the pie hole, I readily accepted. Full disclosure – I did recieve one Women’s BEX Runner from Cool Palms, LLC at no cost in return for an honest review of the product. Honest means that if this doesn’t do crap for me, then that’s what I’ll be tellin’ y’all.

The Women’s size is a smaller version of the Men’s size. Both cost $29.99 each plus shipping. I have pretty big hands but the Women’s still fits comfortably. When wearing it, the instructions state that it should be secure enough that I don’t need to clench my hand to keep it on. The device needs to be kept in the freezer for at least 4 hours or until frozen before use. Brett also advised that if I plan on taking it out to the trails to wear while I run, I should put the BEX Runner in a cooler with ice until I’m ready to use it (great idea; I’ll also put some small, damp towels in with the ice to assist with cool-down).

BEX Runner on Palm

BEX Runner and indifferent Chihuahuas

The pups had to check it out while I was wearing it. They sniffed a bit and then went on their merry ways. It felt comfortable and I didn’t have to secure it too tightly to get it to stay in place. It wasn’t frozen yet - so I still can’t speak to how well the device works - but I am interested to see once it is frozen if my performance improves at all while wearing it running in the heat. I want to see how long it takes before it thaws enough so as to not be effective anymore, and I also want to test out if it improves recovery if used after a run in the heat.

Check back soon for a separate post on how well or poorly I found the BEX Runner to perform for me.

So, a few months ago, I conned convinced about 20 friends to sign up for the Champions Mud Bash. I told them it would be a day of mud, fire jumping and free beer. It turned out to be a day of dry field/trail running, dodging literally tons of large cow turds in various phases of dryness (some new – ick), climbing over way too many hay bales, FIRE JUMPING, slogging through dirty water and ONE free beer. OK, so I guess I probably exaggerated a bit when I got  my friends to sign up — in all honesty, I was going by the fantastic publicity the Champions Mud Bash folks and their web site offered. Truly, I hope that if they do survive this first year and decide to come back for a second annual Mud Bash, that they listen to all the criticism they’ve recieved and realize that 99.9% of us want them to succeed. Just add some real mud (a lot), add more obstacles (a lot), add more free beer (a lot), add more things to do throughout the day (a lot) and lower the price to particiate (a lot) — oh and for shit’s sake, add more aid stations; one is not enough in heat like that.

My group was in the 10:30am wave; one of two waves that completely sold out. We had over 400 people in our wave alone. It was good fun; as with anything, it’s all what you make it. We as a group decided long ago that anything we’d do together would be fun, damn-it. Here’s our group photo before the our wave took off (click it to enlarge):

Get back now!

I’m on the bottom, far left. Don’t we all look mean?
After we finished, there were two tanker trucks filled with water on which they had connected fire hoses. This is where we went to “clean up”. We stood in line and each got hosed down one at a time. When I got up there, a short woman holding the fire hose asked me, “do you want me to spray your head?”, as she shot me in the face. Nice. After I was done, my friend was next, and again, the short woman asked, “you want me to spray your head?”, as she shot my friend in the face. They aim to please!
All in all, we had a great time — our oldest member won his age group, our second oldest member got 2nd in her age group and we all made it out alive with little to no injury. Side note: don’t dive into the “mud pit”; it’s only about 12 inches deep.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun -- and Beer

Everyone except two of us in our group was a newbie to racing (running). The girls promptly decided that we were going to do the next mud run that comes anywhere nearby. Watch out!

But I managed. I did swim this past Tuesday! Yay me for finally beginning to train for my triathlon that will be in TWO months. I’ve been stretching every.single.day to get my back un-stuck (and so I could at least walk without groaning) and to get that damn hamstring looser. It’s all still a bit twingy, but I have a 10k tomorrow that I have been looking forward to for quite a while. I’ll be damned if I’m not going to at least try to finish it. Oh hell — I *will* finish it. It’s been almost 30 years since I’ve run a 10k. The last one I ran was in 1983 (I almost typed 1893 – shut up), when I was in the Marine Corps. We were out at El Toro MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) in southern California, in the middle of the desert. I remember throwing up immediately after crossing the finish line, I was so dehydrated — stupid me just blew by the aid stations, in ZERO humidity. They handed me a yogurt drink (eww) at the finish and I sucked that thing down so fast I almost lost a hand. Of course, it curdled the moment it hit my parched stomach and retreated the way it had come. Landed right on some volunteer’s foot. Oops.

Anyway, I finally found a use for all those KT Tape samples that I kept getting in my race packets. My lower back and hamstring will be all taped with a lovely light-blue tomorrow morning and I will hit the road and get me a new PR. Hell, technically since PRs only last 2 years, no matter what time I finish it’ll be a PR.

So we’ve got several wild fires out here in Central Florida now; the largest of which is over 17,000 acres in size. It’s supposed to get even bigger today as the wind begins to pick up with 25mph gusts possible. Since this wind is blowing in from the east, the metro Orlando area smells like a campfire. There’s also a light haze of smoke hanging close to the ground. Basically, your eyes sting a bit, you can feel a bit of heaviness in your lungs and everything stinks.

Listening to the radio on the way home from work yesterday, I heard them talking about a rumor as to how the fire was spreading. According to one of the talk show hosts (this is a local program — number one in its timeslot), she’d heard that bunnies were catching fire, running across roads and then catching the other side on fire when they arrived. She also heard that due to this horrible natural disaster of EPIC proportions, they had hired a bunny sniper.

Let that one sink in…

Flaming Bunny of Death

Now living in the South, I have no problem visualizing something like this happening*. Well, maybe not the flaming bunny part, but definitely the possibility that some local jurisdiction hired a bunny sniper just in case said rabbits were in fact spreading the fire with their singed fur. Just blow ‘em up before they reach the other side, y’know?

Running in the haze, smoke and stink is quite the feat. They’re warning folks with breathing issues to stay indoors and there I go — running off into all that crap. There was one other guy out there today, so at least I’m not the only ding dong. My voice got a bit raspy today, but overall aside from the smell it hasn’t bothered me today like it had a couple days ago.

Before I head off into the smokey sunset, I just wanted to leave you with Cooper as she channels our favorite manic celebrity, Mr. Charlie Sheen:

Yes, I”m very proud of her. The photo was not-retouched; those red eyes are just Cooper, the method actor.

*And no, there are no bunny snipers and no flaming rabbits spreading fires… at least not yet.

The entire race, I ran behind a guy who looked like the “Commish” (in his later episodes), who was dressed head-to-toe in black (with yellow stripes) adidas gear and black knee socks. In all honesty, it looked like soccer gear; not running. His gait was painful to watch and looked as though it would take an enormous amount of energy — and yet — I only caught up to within two feet of him ever. It was as though he could sense when I’d try to move on him and he’d gallop off ahead again. So, I turned my attention away from him and set my sights on the old dudes.

There were three of them who kept hovering around my running space — the area I like to keep clear of other runners so we don’t collide — and they were beginning to bug me. The first mile came and went pretty quickly, but the second mile took forever to show its ass up and by then, I was ready to kick these geezers in the butt. They’d speed off and I’d accept the fact that they were going to beat me, and then suddenly, there they were again, right in front of me. It was the constant speeding up/slowing down thing that was pissing me off. Just like the adidas dude, they seemed to sense when I was going to make my move and they’d totter off and leave me behind.

As the race went on, I kept speeding up steadily. I believe in running a consistent pace, but speeding up as each mile passes. This helps me keep from being one of those guys I see who blast by and then end up sheepishly watching us all go by as they walk off a cramp. See, I’m a 9:30 – 9:50 runner in most races. I have been working on speed lately — and I can see that just doing that has helped my pace. I also self-seed at the start of a race in the correct location; I”m not saying I’m wonderful, but hey — if you can’t run a 9 minute mile the entire race, don’t sit your butt in with the 9-minute milers at the start. Where was I?

Anyway, when the 3 mile marker was in sight, I sped up to an 8-minute mile. I felt like projectile puking, but by god, I was going to pass the old coots and catch up with adidas dude. And, I did pass the old coots! Adidas dude finished just ahead of me. There was a younger woman who came running up on my left and tried to pass, so I sped up again. We raced side-by-side as her husband cheered her on. About 50 feet from the finish line, I kicked it again and left her behind. Yay for small victories!

Another small victory? Not puking after crossing the finish line. That was Extremely Difficult.

The SO was trying to record a video of me the last .10 mile to the finish, but I went by so fast, all she got of me was from behind. Probably good; not sure I’d want to see what my race face looked like at that point, what with dry heaving and all.

Trackshack still hasn’t contracted with any professional sports photographers for their races; a few races ago, the company they previously used went out of business. Since then, their staff has been taking photos during races and posting them on their Facebook page. Nice, but NO! All this to say — I don’t have a race picture to share. And haven’t had one for the past three races. Whiney-whine-whine.

That’s it, that’s all I know.

Anyway all that to say: I got nothing, folks.

Oh except (let me rant here) – Thursday morning when I was running at 6:50am, it was tremendously foggy. I mean like you could see maybe a quarter mile in front of you. My RoadID firefly was attached to my waistband of my shorts, flashing its bright, blue light, and I felt pretty safe. That is until I saw how many vehicles out there didn’t have their headlights on. WTF, people?

While I realize that a lot of new cars these days have automatic headlights, it appears that some owners of these vehicles lull themselves into a false sense of security that these marvels of technology will have some common sense (which the driver obviously lacks) and will always “know” when to turn themselves on. Automatic headlights can’t sense FOG, people. They sense light — or the lack of it. And although I’m sure you’re a bursting bag of wonderfulness and can light up my life, you still can’t cut through the fog and make your car visible, Special K. So turn the damn headlights on, OK? Headlights will not only allow us to see YOU, but they will allow you to see ME and my reflective gear, which requires a modicum of light bouncing off it to make it REFLECT. Assmonkey.

Last Saturday I did my first attempt at actual training for my upcoming sprint triathlon. After cycling 4.5 miles, I pulled up to the house, took off my helmet, put on my visor and armband (need my tunes) and off I went to run two miles. My legs, at first, were two sausages, gorged with blood (isn’t that a disgusting visual?). But by the time I hit the first mile, I felt pretty normal. It still felt like I was running pretty slowly, though. Doing the 2 mile out and back only took me around 19 minutes! It came out to a 9:27 mile, which is relatively fast for me! Considering this was my first attempt at a brick workout, I’d say I did damn good. The weather is starting to get warmer; we’re at 80F for the end of this week and the beginning of next week. Water temps should start to get warmer as well, so I can start doing some swim workouts soon.

Tomorrow, I have a 5k — the House of Hope Run Around the Pines 5k in Winter Park. Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll beat that 70 year old race walking dude again.

Party Time!

 After completely freaking, I logged into the puppy cam online and watched with horror as the girls happily pulled, chewed and tore a myriad of receipts that I had thought were craftily stowed in the office file cabinet thingie. Apparently, when the girls get bored, the girls get busy. Then, Duncan joined in on the fun.

Three's Company!

 Even though it appeared everyone was having a high ‘ol time of it, I was really worried that someone was going to eat something that would make them sick or worse. So I left work early and interrupted their shindig. They were all so happy to see me and had absolutely no clue that they’d done anything wrong. Of course, I couldn’t scold them; they’d have no idea what the hell I was upset about. Pups have the short term memory of a gnat. So unless they attempted to chew on something as I was picking up the mess, I didn’t scold them.

Post Apocalypse

They clean up good.

*The “puppy cam” is a Logitech WiLife security camera we setup when the girls were wee little pups so we could keep an eye on them during the day while they were in their pen. Now that they’re free-range pups, we use it to keep an eye on their comings and goings throughout the day. It only records when there’s movement, and then it will send me a snapshot via email during the times when the system is armed. We can then choose to login via the Internet to view a “live” feed that’s actually got a 17-second delay. Pretty nifty, right? C’mon, you *know* I just geeked some of you out!

A headache, puffy eyes and water weight make me grumpy. Stay away if you wish to keep all your fingers.

Something interesting (or frustrating; depends on your point-of-view) I’ve found while researching the different sprint triathlons here in the Orlando area is that there doesn’t seem to be a set distance for any of the legs in these races. Well, maybe there is, but it’s a sliding scale type of thing. For instance, my first tri in May has the following: .75km swim, 12.4 mi cycling, 2.8mi run. Most of the others I’ve looked at had a .25mi swim, 10mi cycle, and a 5k run. They run the gamut, people!

The swim portion on my tri is .466 mi. — that’s almost half a mile. It’s open water, in a lake… here in Orlando. All lakes in Florida have gators. I’m sure they’ll have folks out there on kayaks keeping an eye out for us. But STILL. Also and too — does anyone know what inland lake water temps are in late May here? I do not have a wetsuit and have no intention of buying one; at least not yet. I’m just trying this triathlon thing out and will see afterward if it’s something into which I want to invest more time and money.

My bicycle is a mountain bike. I do not have a swimming pool (yes, some of us who live in Florida actually CHOOSE to not have a pool). I’m screwed.

I found an Orca tri suit on Sierra Trading Post for a great price – a nice sleeveless one piece — in which I surprisingly do not look like a sausage (bonus!). We do have community swimming pools where I live, but by the time the water temp in those things is warm enough for me to dip a toe in, they’ll be crowded-ass puddles-of-pee, filled with kiddies, dirty teens and bird poop from the ducks that flop over the fence from the lake nearby. Not that the lake I”ll be swimming in for the tri won’t be similarly bacteria-filled…

So here’s my plan — again, regarding not wanting to sink a gajillion dollars into something I’m just trying out — I’m retro-fitting my mountain bike with street flats (tires that are not KNOBBY). I’m installing some strapless toe clips onto my pedals that I can slip my foot into; this way, I won’t need new shoes and I won’t need to clip in and out. I’ll just slip into my running shoes after the swim and slide them into the toe clips and off I go! I have some friends who live about 15 minutes away who have a large, mostly rectangular pool, and they’ve agreed to let me splash around in there on my own schedule. What else… Oh – I’ve removed the laces from my running shoes and replaced them with iBungie laces (very, very nice; they slip on and they slip off — when I want them to!). I’ll be using a great backpack I have for my transition bag; it actually holds a helmet!  I’ve got some goggles for the swim; I won’t be able to see too well anyway, as I wear prescription glasses for near-sightedness. Guess I’ll be lucky if I don’t totter off somewhere and get lost after I exit the lake…

So aside from actually TRAINING for this thing, I think I’m pretty ready. Sorta. I still wake up in the middle of the night, wide-eyed and covered in sweat wondering what in the hell I’ve done, but all-in-all, I feel good about this. I think.

::faints:: No, really, I can do this.

So what stupid-ass thing have you committed yourself to recently that you’re freaking out about?