Showing posts with label barefoot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barefoot. Show all posts

2014-06-09

The Vibram Five Fingers Lawsuit

Last month it was reported that Vibram, the company that makes the Five Fingers minimalist footwear in which I run, decided to settle a class action lawsuit against it rather than take it to trial. Many of my Facebook friends posted incendiary sensational articles about it on my wall as if to say, "I told you so," about my goofy shoes.

The lawsuit alleges that Vibram used deceptive marketing messages to imply health benefits that would come from wearing their product and that those health benefits were not proven to exist. In settling the lawsuit, Vibram has not admitted guilt; rather it has admitted that going to trial would probably cost substantially more than the $3.75M settlement.

Imagine that: a marketing message may have its validity disputed. You might as well sue Axe body spray for not delivering on its promise of attracting hoards of attractive girls every time you use it - or every beer company ever for not magically transporting the consumer to Rocky Mountain streams with his best buds.

For a pretty fair and balanced assessment of the lawsuit, the research that is and isn't behind it, and its implications, see this post from The Science of Sport.

As for me, I'm planning to collect my settlement refund, viewing it as a discount on future Vibram purchases!

2010-03-14

10k Race Report

Yesterday I ran my first real 10k, the HEB Bayou City Classic. Per my previous blog post, I've been loosely training for it the past few weeks. Thursday I loaded up on complex carbs, Friday I took it pretty easy, and Saturday morning I woke up early and ready to go. The weather forecast was beautiful, sunny with a high of 68F. However, at the 8AM start time, the temperature was still in the low 50s with significant wind chill.

Still, I knew how quickly my body would heat up so I raced shirtless. I also raced in my Vibram Five Fingers barefoot running "shoes." The scene at the start was pretty chaotic but I secured a place pretty close to the front. We were packed in like sardines, which was helpful in protecting against the wind. Before we started, I reviewed my race goals:

1. Total race time under 47:00
2. Negative split: second 5k faster than first 5k; specifically 23:50 and 23:10 respectively
3. Final km under 4:06
4. Final 400m under 1:15
5. Each km time for the first 9k within +/- 4 seconds of 4:46

The starting gun went off and almost 1,900 of us simultaneously launched forward. It took me four seconds to reach the starting line, after which the wide Louisiana St offered plenty of room for the pack to spread out. My GPS indicated that I was starting way too quickly--a sub-4:00/km pace--but I didn't trust it due to interference from all the tall buildings downtown. After a few minutes of consistent readings, though, and a heart rate higher than it should be--already 169--I realized that I must actually be running too quickly and I consciously reigned it in. I was frustrated to have started off poorly and I hoped it wouldn't cost me later on in the race.

As I ran past my office building, I hit the 1km marker. Rather, I hit two 1km markers. First my GPS told me I hit 1km at 4:16--30 seconds too early! Then, 0.05km later according to my GPS, I hit the 1km road marker along the route. This confused me and threw me off a bit. I was running a carefully planned race according to data from my GPS. If my GPS were feeding me garbage info, my decision-making would be garbage too. I decided to trust my GPS and hope that the distances would even out ahead somewhere. Regardless of the location of the "true" 1km marker, I was way ahead of pace and heart rate so I needed to slow down.

Slowing down wouldn't be a problem as I soon met my second big surprise of the race: a hill! Well, not much of a hill, but about 100m of 10% incline followed by about 100m of 10% decline as we took the ramp onto Memorial Parkway. Frankly, this scared me. I used to do hill training all the time for football but all I've done for the past few years are very flat runs. Plus, the hill training I did was always anaerobic sprinting; during this race I had a very specific heart rate zone I was targeting and hills could throw it off. I hadn't done any research on how best to run hills in a race and it hadn't occurred to me that there would be some topography in this race--shame on me for poor preparation! I decided to slow my pace down a bit on the inclines, trying to keep my heart rate constant, and stride it out a bit on the declines to make up for lost time. This seemed to work OK on this first hill. I finished the second km in 4:41 (Again, according to my GPS--there was a growing discrepancy between it and the physical markers) and my heart rate had dropped below 167.

All right, so now things were looking up! I decided to trust my GPS and my hill methodology and get down to work. The third km came and went in 4:39 with an average heart rate of 168; the fourth km was 4:46 with, again, 168. Gentle hills kept coming and going but I was in my rhythm now. I hit 5km at 23:16--or so I thought--and a 169 heart rate. I passed the 5km road marker at 23:27.

Let me just jump to the punch line here at the halfway point: my GPS was wrong. The course--including the mileage markers--had been painstakingly measured and certified. So here I was thinking I was 30 seconds under my goal pace whereas, in reality, I was only around 15 seconds under. This didn't affect this portion of the race, but it would affect my decision-making later.

The course turned around at Shepherd and the next several km breezed by.

6km: 4:43, 172 heart rate
7km: 4:41, 173 heart rate (During this km I passed Katie and some Rice friends going the other way, which was fun!)
8km: 4:51, 172 heart rate (One of the roadside bands on this stretch was playing "Louie, Louie," Rice's unofficial fight song.)
9km: 4:50, 173 heart rate

I intentionally took these last couple of km pretty conservatively as I thought I was 30 seconds under goal pace and I wanted to ensure that I had plenty of gas in the tank for my final 400m. I passed over the last "big" hill, the exit off of Memorial back into downtown Houston. As I hit what my GPS told me was 9.6km, I was confused because the finish was nowhere in sight. The time was 45;19, much earlier than the 45:45 at which I was planning on reaching the 400m-to-go point. Because I seemed still to have plenty of time, I proceeded cautiously, waiting until I turned the corner ahead to kick it. I didn't want to pull the trigger too early and die before the end.

As I turned the corner, I was less than excited to see 300m of incline ahead of me, then another turn. Where on earth was the finish line?? My goal had been to run the final 400m at a 3:08/km pace but I wasn't sure where the final 400m began and I was irrationally unnerved by the hill. I picked up the pace a little, dropping down to 4:00/km territory up the incline but didn't really kick it. By this point I wasn't really looking at my watch anymore; I was just trying to figure out where I was and whether it was too early to let loose.

About halfway up the hill I could hear music that sounded like finish line music and I realized that I might be running out of time to make my move. I looked down to my watch and saw that I was now at 26:28--I was definitely running out of time to make my move! I kicked down to a 3:00/km pace and began passing runners one-by-one. I rounded the last corner and was pleased to see that the finish line band was a Blues Brothers impersonation band. I can't remember what they were playing because I was too busy being mortified with the realization that the finish line was only 50m away--I had definitely waited too long to kick it!

I reached down and found another gear. I passed many runners en route to the finish, which I crossed at a full sprint. Many people were cheering on this bald, shirtless, barefoot, stocky sprinter, and that was exhilarating! I had a lot of gas left when I finished and I nearly ran over three runners who had stopped in the chutes to suck wind and recover.

The manner of my finish felt AWESOME, but . . . I finished in 47:01.7, barely missing my goal, but missing it all the same. I was crestfallen. Later analysis would show that I finally kicked it at 250m, rather than 400m, due to my confusion over the distance. I grabbed a beer and a banana and waited for Katie out where I now new the 400m mark to be to encourage her on for the last 1/4 mile. She finished three minutes under her goal time!

So let's revisit my race goals:

1. Total race time under 47:00 - FAIL: 47:02
2. Negative split: second 5k faster than first 5k; specifically 23:50 and 23:10 respectively - FAIL 23:27 and 23:35
3. Final km under 4:06 - FAIL: 4:21
4. Final 400m under 1:15 - FAIL: 1:33
5. Each km time for the first 9k within +/- 4 seconds of 4:46 - FAIL: my very first km was way off

Wow, 0/5! That's not very good! I embrace failure, though, if I can learn from it. What can we learn from these failures?

1. Trust the certified race course markers and use those as periodic beacons on which to "calibrate" the data I'm using to run my race.
2. Add hill training to my regimen as most races won't be as flat as Memorial Park.
3. Research the course in advance to anticipate any surprises--it's easier to decide how to deal with surprises when my heart rate's not in the 170s.
4. Play to WIN. I thought I had a cushy lead so I was overly conservative with my end game running--trying so hard not to run out of gas that I inadvertently finished with way too much gas in the tank. I wasn't playing to win; I was playing not to lose.

It strikes me that these lessons apply to the executive challenge just as much as they apply to the running challenge. The organizations I lead will always suffer from times of misinformation and surprise obstacles. I can address these best with some information assurance, some preparation, and a whole lotta playing-to-win culture development. I'll keep these lessons in mind both on the race track and in the board room.

FYI my final results are: #239 of 1,853 runners (87th percentile), #192 of 906 male runners (79th percentile), #21 of 129 men 30-34 (84th percentile). I passed three runners in my age group during the second half of the race and wasn't passed by any. My next race will be in April in Austin; bring it on!

2010-02-01

2010 Goal Progress

With January behind us, it's time to reflect on my progress toward meeting this year's new year's resolutions.

So far my weekly relationship goals have been met; I'm connecting with Katie, friends, family, mentors, and mentees (manatees?) as much as I set out to. My exercise and activity goals have largely been met, although my progress toward body composition goals isn't advancing as quickly as I would like. This may be related to my caloric intake, which is still too high.

Professionally things are moving along. Although I've only closed 25% of our seed round of financing, many additional parties have expressed interest and I am confident that we'll get it done by the end of March. In the meantime we're also progressing toward our Series A financing, which is exciting, and our first pilot installations have been a huge success. By now we have reduced CO2 emissions by only 0.01 tons, but it's a start!

One major goal checked off this month actually occurred on Saturday. I set a new year's resolution to run a 5k race in under 22:00. This time was chosen somewhat arbitrarily. I've only run one 5k race before, almost three years ago, and I came in at 24:28. 22:00 therefore seemed like a stretch goal worth training for.

I haven't done any 5k-specific training other than running a timed 5k a few times a year but I do run greater distances at lower speeds with more frequency. This seems to have helped as I ran a timed 5k last week as a warm-up for this weekend's race and I came in at 22:35. I'm about 15 pounds lighter than I was at my last race and I'm sure that helps!

Saturday Katie and I entered the Texas Med 5k, which kicked off at 8:30 AM. The race route wound its way through the [very flat] Texas Medical Center and proceeds went to the Harris County Hospital District. I had been very excited about this race as it would be my first race running barefoot. My confidence wavered, though, when we woke up to a rainy 35 degrees F! Was this really the environment in which I wanted to debut my barefoot running? Maybe I should wear shoes and save the Vibrams for the next race . . .

I steeled myself, though, donned my Swiss cold weather running gear, put on my Vibrams, and headed to the race. To make a long story short, I blew through my 22:00 goal and finished at 21:43, #46 of 1,000+ runners. #1 came in at 15:21 so I still have quite a ways to go if I want to place! It took a lot out of me as I dry heaved at the finish line, but it felt great to nail one of my 2010 goals so early. I'll run at least one more 5k this year and will see how much I can improve on that time--it would be great to get down into the teens!

Katie also came in significantly under her goal time so we celebrated together at the finish line. They had hot food, cold beer, and live blues for us at the after-race party, but we didn't stick around long--too cold!

Now, with one goal checked off, it's time to redouble efforts in pursuit of the others!