Appreciation for all I have learned: My year in the woods

A beautiful sunset in one of my client communities

When I am not running trails, chasing my little boy, spending time with my wife, or generally living life, I actually have a day job. I am a community planner. I use the term “community” because the older term, “urban planner” seems to be so much more narrow than what a planner actually does.

As it turns out, very few people have a good idea of what a planner does. We work in large cities, rural areas, and everything in between. We are actually involved in a lot of things, and people who identify themselves as planners may be engaged in a wide variety of jobs. There are also lots of people who studied planning only to get more involved in city administration, law, or social work.

Brooks Pure Connect Wear Tested Review: Sorry, Brooks, it's not me, it's you

The Brooks Pure Connect was one of those shoes that I had anticipated for months. As a former Brooks devotee (before I "found" natural running and minimal shoes) I was really hoping for a smash hit with the Pure Project and eagerly bought a pair of the most minimal shoe in the lineup as soon as they were available. I bought the shoes the day they went on the market, and posted my initial analysis shortly thereafter. You can find that detailed review HERE. As you will find described in my "policies and terminology" description, I review products in two stages. First, I give you the initial review and analysis designed to give the reader an idea of what the product feels and looks like in-hand. I make it clear that in these posts I will provide technical information, describe the materials and construction, weight, stiffness and flexibility, give you high-res, annotated photos, and generally try and put you right there as a reader. Then, I follow up after a bit, after I have had some time in the product to reveal more fully the merits or issues I may have. This is my first formal follow-up, wear tested report, and I am sorry to say that for me, the Brooks Pure Connect just didn't work out. At first I thought maybe it was my form or some fault of my own, but no, Brooks. It's not me, its you.

My reviews: A recap of my top 6 in-hand reviews

I have had a great summer and fall looking at a lot of interesting new shoes hitting market now and in spring 2012.  I have raced a marathon, a 50k ultramarathon, and have enjoyed a couple of hundred fun runs, training runs, group runs, trail runs and solo runs.  It has been a great running year and I look forward to 2012 being even better.  Please have a look at a few of my in-hand reviews from this summer and fall.  It has added a whole new degree of fun when I can go on a run and give a pair of shoes a real thrashing.  The muddy Inov-8s in this picture were literally only hours in my care when they already looked like this! I have loads more in the pipeline, thanks to my readers, my partners in the running shoe community, and to my friends at Elite Feet in Brighton.  

NOTE: Click on the shoe name and visit the main review page for that shoe.

Winter shoe ideas & a BIG THANK YOU to my 35,000+ readers

I have been fortunate to see a rapid rise in blog traffic these past few months.  I had a pretty low readership for a while there after Moira recovered and I stopped writing for a while, but once I decided to start talking about natural and minimalist running and the various shoes I have tried, everything really blew up.  So, first of all, thanks to all my readers, who have come to Average Guy Hits the Road from countries all over the world, literally in the thousands and thousands.  I have been getting a few emailed questions lately and I thought I would put up a pair of posts for two purposes...first, a quick Q and A I did with a reader about winter shoes, and then a summary/link list of my latest 6 in-hand product reviews.

Merrell Barefoot Road Glove Review: Initial Thoughts and Analysis

Click on any photo of the Merrell Road Glove for a larger image

This summer, I ran 122.8 miles in Merrell Trail Gloves (not all at once!).  That may not seem like much to the die-hard marathon crowd, but for a guy like me with about 14 pairs of running shoes, it is a lot for a single pair in a single summer.  What that says about the Merrell Trail Glove is that I love the shoe, especially in its native environment, the trail. The Trail Glove was my go-to shoe for my regular Thursday night P.R. Fitness Trail Run, and it absolutely killed it on the rolling, packed dirt trails of the Pinckney Recreation Area here in Michigan, where I did my long trail runs in my Stumpjump 50k buildup.  In fact, I also bought the Sonic Glove (the Trail Glove’s water-resistant cousin) and the ToughGlove (the all-leather variant, for my business casual day job).

Skora Running: Now Taking Pre-Orders for an Eagerly Anticipated Product

Skora Base ($125) in Blue

The long wait for Skora Running to hit the pavement is finally set to end. Skora, a company I favorably compared to Apple, has delayed release and tantalized the minimalist running shoe crowd for nearly two years while they refined their product to meet what is clearly an exacting standard.

The vision of David Sypiewski, Skora’s founder, is to develop the ideal running shoe that would offer real-world protection and full natural foot function. His tagline, “run real,” is tucked at the end of every facebook post, every tweet, and every email from Skora’s Portland, Oregon headquarters.