ZonePerfect Portable Charger giveaway winner!

Congratulations to Arena for winning the ZonePerfect portable charger! Arena, please get in contact with me with your address.

Thanks to everyone for participating, and stay tuned, because I have another giveaway coming up soon!

Blog Forward Challenge 2014 by ZonePerfect #2 and GIVEAWAY!

Well, that was a bit of a hiccup in blog updates. I am fairly sure that last trimester was the toughest one yet (my last blog post began with "next week begins finals," so we all knew these sparse updates were coming), and then this girl got engaged (congratulations Molly Pritz and Max Stein!), so when break finally came, I was a little preoccupied. So, you may remember earlier this year, I joined the ZonePerfect Blog Forward Challenge and posted up a few New Year's Resolutions for 2014. Well, now it's May, and it's time to do a self-assessment!

Gear Review: Correct Toes

First of all, allow me to apologize for my sparse updates lately. Midterms hit, and then Part I of Boards, and next week is finals. Between this trimester's course load and Boards, I can see why they've dubbed fifth tri "hell tri." I also wanted to get some time with this particular product before I got a review up, since it's not one of those products where I'd expect to put them on, and within a week or so have a good opinion of them. Nope, this is something that I wanted to have a little bit more time with, and also get through the majority of this trimester's Postural Assessment course before I went and reviewed. However, I have a short breather before finals, and I've spent a couple months with playing with these now, so here we go...here's the Correct Toes review!

Gear Review: Brooks PureProject Jacket

 

Brooks launched the initial line of PureProject shoes back in 2011. This year welcomes the third iteration of the PureConnect, PureFlow, PureCadence, and PureGrit (the PureDrift, which was the most minimal of the group, does not appear to be getting an update and looks to be discontinued, as far as I can tell). However, for 2014, the PureProject name will also extend to an apparel line, described by Brooks as a streetwise collection that marries performance and style, such that it's appropriate "for wherever the run takes you." Today I'll be reviewing the Brooks PureProject Jacket.

Mizuno Wave Rider 17 giveaway winner!

Congratulations to Jason, who won a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 17s! Jason, please get in contact with me with your size and address. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Blog Forward Challenge 2014 by ZonePerfect

I have a confession to make: I suck at New Year's resolutions. It's not that I'm against self-improvement, but pinning it all on one day is a lot of pressure. One of my friends and I have this motto that states: "New training plans start on Mondays." It's a lot less pressure if I screw up (and it's inevitable that at some point, I will screw up), but having a definitive start date prevents the whole "I'll start tomorrow" procrastination deal. Now, of course if I mess up on Tuesday, that doesn't mean I throw in the towel for the week, but you get the point. So I was going to go another year of no New Year's resolutions...until ZonePerfect emailed me and told me about their Blog Forward Challenge. Basically, I make some resolutions to better myself, while hopefully inspiring you guys to also better yourselves. And then every so often ZonePerfect sends me ZonePerfect bars (which I already buy whenever they're on sale, so it saves this poor grad student some money), and throughout the year, ZonePerfect says they're going to be hosting giveaways and have coupons for you guys. Sounds good to me! I think I can change my Monday resolutions to New Year's resolutions for that. Plus the extra accountability of having this all online won't hurt. So here we go:

Gear Review: Mizuno Wave Rider 17 and GIVEAWAY!

The Mizuno Wave Rider has been a mainstay in the neutral running category for as long as I can remember. Seriously, the first Rider was introduced in 1998, and I didn't start running until '99. And I'd bet there are some young'uns reading this review who are actually younger than the Rider! In an industry that seems to have remarkably high shoe model turnover, for a shoe to last that long without being discontinued or replaced, it must be a fairly successful shoe. This holds especially true for Mizuno, who currently seems to be in the process of hacking down its line, with the Elixir and Precision being consolidated into the Sayonara, the Ronin and Musha being replaced by the Hitogami, and the Nirvana and Alchemy being discontinued in favor of the Paradox. That's not to say the Rider hasn't hit any stumbling blocks, with the original Rider being a bulky nightmare nicknamed the "Kiss boot," and even the relatively recent Rider 14 getting a lot of negative backlash from longtime Rider fans. After the Rider 14 debacle, Mizuno returned to more familiar territory with the Rider 15. Two iterations later, Mizuno hasn't strayed far from that formula, introducing a familiar, yet much lighter, Mizuno Wave Rider 17.