fifteen-hundred meters as fast as you can

I finally live in a city where a car is more of a burden than it is a necessity.  To that effect I sold my beloved Audi TT before I arrived in San Francisco. When I lived in Amsterdam I managed to survive with just a bike, so I figure I could do it here too, along with the help of Zipcar for those infrequent trips to Home Depot and Napa Valley. It isn’t really about being eco-friendly either. I have as much fun riding a bike as I do driving fast. Its more of a sensible change than a motivated one. Its funny that I am as excited now for my new bike as I was a few years ago for my TT. They really don’t share anything in common. The bike is made of steel, the Audi of aluminum. 2 wheels vs. 4. I thought the TT had a small amount of storage space. The bike has that nice rear rack? 3 speeds vs. 6 speeds. If I was a rapper at least I could brag that my wheel size has gone from 19″ to 26″!!! So maybe that’s the indication I need to prove I’m moving up in the world by going car-less. Still not sure they make those spinning rims for bikes, but when they do maybe I’ll look into it, along with a diamond studded grill for my teeth.

(look how happy he is!!)

Check out this article over on Slate talking about the after effects of web 1.0 and 2.0 on service based websites. I like the mint.com platform so I was pleased to see them hit a payday earlier this week.

I just read this article over on Brandweek and found it worth posting here. It made me think long and hard about the current marketing of mens wear. Specifically a lot of the stuff that I buy. I’m guessing that every article of clothing I’ve purchased in the past 6 months is not advertised anywhere, at least in a traditional sense. At the same time almost every brand shares the same general focus on quality while attempting to mute the Euro fashion tendencies of the past that have long been associated with men’s fashion in America. I think men everywhere yearn to express themselves through what they wear but often desire to shy away from the flashy, anything that screams fashion, way of dressing.  They want to be individuals as much as they want to be men. My girlfriend and I have this discussion all the time as I watch her buy dresses she might only wear a handful of times. I’m thankful that if I pluck down over $100 for a shirt that I’ll likely be able to wear it weekly for at least the next 10 years. Clothing never was disposable to men. As more men sense this they will be willing to buy accordingly. It also means that trends in menswear will calm a bit to meet this demand. Its like the microbrew industry. You might have a gazillion different breweries producing a gazillion different styles of beer, but at the end of the day its all made from the pretty much the same ingredients and it is still beer. It has to remain beer or it won’t sell. Men’s clothing has to remain clothing for men or it won’t sell. At least not in a sustainable way.  On the flip side men now have a gazillion different places to buy from, allowing all the subtle differences in brands to speak to and highlight their personality. This is the reality of men’s fashion. Some might have thought the internet would push mens fashion towards the concepts and ideas of women’s wear. Fortunately for us, the internet has likely been the catalyst that kept men’s fashion firmly planted in its tradition, only now with a gazillion different twists and subtleties. Contributing to this movement and promoting the ideas and brands that speak to the modern man have been Blogs like a Continuous Lean, Secret Forts, and A Time to Get. Web-zines like Valet Mag and H(y)R Collective as well. Perhaps these blogs and online magazines are replacing the print industry and are the ones helping to drive the market in this direction. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an Engineered Garments or a Woolrich Woolen Mills ad anywhere, but I know that their brands have flourished in part because of the internet and guys rallying around the new basic tenants of menswear: quality, detail, timelessness, and uniqueness. It remains to be seen how far and how long this, dare I say trend, will last. I think, like the microbrew industry, it won’t be a trend at all, just a shift in the way we look at mens fashion.

Track bikes and fixed gears are fun to ride. The fun gets deflated when practicality comes into play.  What if you want to ride your bike to a fancy pants dinner wearing your fancy pants? A fixed gear probably won’t work. This beauty from Bowery Lane Bikes will. Cheers.

Who doesn’t love to hate on bankers these days? Rolling Stone puts out a whopper of an article on Goldman Sachs. Check it.

Congratulations Coach, here’s a lobster.

(more…)

check it

Dealing with a disappointing performance is something all athletes face at some point in their career. I’m dealing with getting past a terrible performance on Saturday at the Reebok Grand Prix. I went into the race more confident and fit then I have ever been and I can honestly say that. I expected to feel great and all signs from training pointed towards a great performance. Unfortunately after 1000m my legs felt a lot worse than I expected them too and I panicked. Tension took over as my mind tried to grapple with the fact that today wasn’t my day. I went into the race finally feeling that I could challenge for a win again. When I started to dwell on how I felt in the race severe doubt crept in. What happened next was a momentary lapse in concentration. 5 seconds of panic with 350 meters to go took me completely out of the race and I essentially struggled to keep everything together just to make it to the finish line. I have sacrificed my entire life to pursue my passion. Everything about my life pushed aside so I can selfishly seek my physical limits in the sport. In other years there were injuries, illnesses, and sometimes periods of lack of focus that I could point at to say, “I could have done that better.” When I moved to Colorado that all changed and as I look back over the course of the past 7 months I know I’ve trained at my limits and that I am ready to take my career to another level. At this point in my career, after dealing with 2 disappointing years of racing, my biggest obstacle is my own head and emotions. I was holding on too tight. I’ve dreamed day and night about fulfilling my talent and finding my limits of performance. With the Reebok Grand Prix being my first major competition of the year I was in essence holding on too tight and I lost my edge (I think I just stole that quote from Top Gun). So much so that I was unable to relax and let the race come to me. I ran aggressively because I was so excited for where my fitness was but that excitement came out as tension rather than relaxed confidence. For the past 7 months of training this sport has been my entire life. And as they say, for better or worse. So I will move past this race as a minor set back and begin my final preparations for the US Championships. It was a bad race and that’s all it was and if anything it helped me learn to approach races much more relaxed mentally. Sometimes your worst enemy is yourself. 

What no one tells you when you enter this sport is how difficult dealing with those disappointments are. What appears to be a solitary pursuit really isn’t. When a race goes bad an athlete, more than anything else, feels like they have let down everyone who has supported them. My coach, agent, sponsor, family and friends make up my team which numbers well into the double digits. These people are the ones who make this pursuit possible. Thank you all who have supported me and who refuse to give up on me. In concluding this post I will now turn my focus to the most important race of the season, the US Championships in 3 weeks time. This has been the focus of my season and it will continue to be such. I leave tomorrow for Seattle, WA to get back to sea level to start doing some sharpening type workouts and get my legs back under me. I also must now say goodbye to beautiful Colorado for the summer. Nothing quite like living out of a suitcase or two for the next 4 months!  Happy running all. Cheers.

if you are going to wear shoes they might as well be gold right?