Alone on the Mountain

To celebrate the first day of summer and the longest day of the year, I decided I would take to the hills and do a little riding. So I hit up the trails on Blue Knob to try and hone my technical riding skills, which ultimately always leads to me getting angry and hurting myself. It was beautiful though, enough mud to make it fun and hot enough to make it feel like a workout. I would have loved to had company, but I was left alone by my counterparts to fight off the bears and mountain lions by myself. Apparently a road bike is a necessity to be part of our merry band anymore, and running is a forsaken jaunt. Neither here nor there, the trails were fine and the humidity was glorious!

HAPPY FAHTER'S DAY

I got some neat gifts from my girls. I got some pj pants, an apron and grilling tool set, a coffee mug travel kit and a dust pan and brush. The dust pan and brush was picked out specifically by Charlie. She knows I like to clean up crumbs.

Happy Father's Day to all fathers that read our blog!

Nothing better than a morning Road Ride

We did a road ride today. I didn't keep track of the milege but it was probably 30 or so. Steve, Greg and Joel picked me up at my house. Well Joel did. The other two went to Sheetz for coffee. I would have had coffee too with them but figured I would end up making a few pit stops along the way. Which we ended up doing anyways. It was a great ride. The weather was perfect. My legs felt good. I think part of that was because I moved my right cleat on my shoe back some. Not sure if my foot shrunk or maybe the cleat moved over time, but it seem too far up on my foot. So I moved it two lines, and that seemed to be much better. The left shoe was fine. Thankfully nothing major happed good or bad. Like the other day J-man and I were riding and this other dude meant up with us in the loop up near Ken Wertz's place. We started down the hill and the other dude was in the lead and a cat ran across the road. He ran over the cat and skidded down the road on his head. Luckily he was ok after a few minutes and actually road home. So nothing like that happened today. I am starting to think J-man is a disaster to be around. He either crashes, or people crash around him. Just be warned if you decided to workout with the J-man.

Ode to Kaiah

For the best, kindest, stinkiest pup I have ever had the pleasure of caring for. You are missed deeply, my baby.

Seeing is believing

Band-aids my friend, band-aids!

Believe it

Told you so.

Shop News and So Forth

T'was the day before Wednesday and what to my extremely hot garage did arrive but eight boxes full of AWESOME SALOMON SHOES!!!! Being Sales Manager at your own running store has its advantages. Such as I sat and stared at three styles of shoes for about an hour until I decided which one to... ahem... uh, test? And the winner was the Crossmax! Not my original choice, but I have my reasons. I decided it was an awesome idea to take them for a spin on the six to ten this morning after being at the gym till 12:30 last night. Let's just say that the run itself was a little less than enjoyable. My body was slightly angry. Nevertheless! My feet were extremely happy. I decided to carry Salomon without any prior personal experience due to awesome reviews and testimonials I found while researching companies for the store. I'm not disappointed with the decision. You can tell just by looking at them the time and thought that was put into their design. We are carrying three styles for both men and women: Crossmax, Speedcross and XA Pro. All three are just nasty looking. The tread on the Speedcross (the racer of the series) is sick. No slipping and sliding at Hyner in July!! The Crossmax is a great, balanced shoe with slightly more heft and a little more tame tread, but still luggy (not a real word) enough to carry you through the mud and enough support to reduce ankle collapse and provide a larger landing base. The XA Pro is heftier still, but still very manageable. It is the support shoe, providing a large landing base and lots of, well, support. All three are amazingly comfortable!

Other good news, we are about set with Mizuno, and Brooks says he will be back with me by week's end. It honestly should not be too long; it had better not be, because for all intensive purposes I'm moving to Morgantown, WV to take a position with Mylan Pharmaceutical. Therefore, this shop needs to be up and operational by... two weeks from Monday. That's the goal. Prayers are accepted.

Now I'm taking care of some orders with our nutrition companies: Pacific Health Labs (Accelerade/Accelgel), Achiva and Tram Bars. Check them all out by googling or on facebook. Achiva is a very young company from Utah. Their product is mainly chia seeds and dehydrated coconut milk, and is marketed as a natural energy drink mix. I personally can tell a difference, and urge anyone to give it a try! Free samples can be obtained through their website.

It's National Running Day! So get our and celebrate accordingly! Also, today starts National Outdoors Month, and Saturday is National Trails Day. Again. Celebrate to your heart's content! I know I will be.

Get our there and enjoy yourself! Keep cool!!

By the way, for some good summer listening, check out The Decemberists. Specifically their The King is Dead album; it's very folk inspired and easy to listen to. Kel and I are headed to Md on the sixteenth to see them. Just a suggestion, hope you like them!! Also, Mumford and Sons. They're up there in my list of favorites. Somewhere near Cash and Sinatra.