I hope everyone had a great weekend, but its back to work again. I wanted to inform you that rogue has a wide variety of Equipment out here that we feel our friends and customers could use. Come out and see us if you are in the market for a new pair of trainers or just shopping around to find what might be a good match for you. We have a great group of guys out here who have first had experience with the equipment who can assist you to find the right match for you.

Yes Beer tasting again at Rogue EQ!  What's new with that?  This is what is new.  Josh Hare Rogue former manager is now formally a beer brewer extrodiare!  Come taste Josh's latest collection.  Starting at 7pm on Thursday night Josh & his beer will be at the store for tasting.

He is also selling dog biscuits!  Why biscuits? This is what he does with the left over grain from brewing the beer.  Bring some cash and purchase some treats from your furry friends or for mine. 

Rogue has a stash of Rogue EQ shirt from Brooks.  Men's colors are green, white and red short sleeves.  The women's shirt are in white, pink, red and navy blue.  We will have some Brooks long sleeved logoed shirt in by December 5th.   These make great holiday gifts.

Rogue Equipment is now carrying the newest line of running watches, Soleus watches.  Rogue carries 4 of their basic models described below & the heart rate monitor. 

Lighweight, simple design, easy to use. This is all you need in a sport watch as a true runner. Get back to basics with the men's Soleus 26.2 Sport Watch featuring a face with the largest viewing area on the market. Track up to 100 laps using multiple interval timers and dual display viewing. Sweatproof.

The men's Soleus 13.1 Sport Watch gives you all you need to achieve your running goals, plus the largest viewing area of any watch on the market. Track up to 50 laps with multiple interval timers and dual display viewing. Sweatproof.

The Soleus 10K watch features 30-lap memory and one-run data storage. Real-time viewable options. Two alarms, water resistant up to five ATM. Five interval timers and dual time.

Chris McDougall, author of the widely popular and incredible inspiring novel, Born to Run, will be at Rogue Equipment on November 11 from 2-4pm.

The book delves into the ultra-running Tarahumara indian tribe in Mexico and explores the theory that humans actually evolved as long distance runners.

Whether you've read the book or not (and we know that most of you have!), you won't want to miss this opportunity to talk with the author himself! Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Chris McDougall
Rogue Equipment
500 San Marcos St.
Austin, Tx 78702
Wednesday, Nov 11th
2-4pm
 

Fluid Fulcrum Ride- A very spacious nuetral shoe offering maximum comfort for all you heel strikers

Stable Fulcrim Ride- A fairly lightweight shoe while offering plenty of stability.

This week begins a new series of articles that will pay attention to your favorite topic—or, rather, my favorite topic—running footwear.  Shoes.  Kicks.  Trainers.  Flats. 

The topic each week might not be the newest, or the latest and greatest, and certainly it won’t get glossed over with the marketing and promotional material that the vendors send us.  Instead, we’ll pick a shoe or two and tell you how it really functions, how it feels, and what the benefits are, if any. 

Along the way, too,  there will be a bit of history, perhaps some not very well disguised soap boxing, and perhaps some insight as to what the running shoe industry is doing to make you a healthier and happier runner.

BROOKS LAUNCH
This week, I chose the Brooks Launch because it is arguably the hot shoe of the year.  The other side of the argument will be discussed next week, so kick off your shoes stay awhile.

I very seriously doubt that Brooks expected the Launch to be as successful as it has been.  And by successful I mean not available.  They’ve pretty much sold out of the thing, and our wait list for the Launch is ridiculous.  It has become our best selling model to both men and women in a matter of a couple months. 
If you haven’t worn it yet, you’ve at least seen it on the trails.  The colors for both men and women are pleasantly obnoxious—there are no flames or flowers on them, but the colors are pretty out there.  Designed and marketed as a neutral lightweight trainer, the biggest surprise behind the success of the Launch is that it is a shoe that works well for almost anyone.  My memory works intermittently, so I can’t remember when there was a shoe that worked so well for such a wide range of people.  Probably right before the time when someone decided that pronation is a bad thing.  I’d even go so far as to argue that the target audience got the short end of the stick, which is to say that a real lightweight trainer could be a bit lighter and certainly a bit more responsive.  But neither of those statements is a negative.

 About the only people I’m not completely comfortable with wearing the shoe are those with Flintstonesque peds—it is not a roomy, wide or high volume shoe by any stretch of the imagination—or with overpronation visible on Google satellite maps. 

The design and construction is pleasingly simple.  It is, in my very humble opinion, what running shoes should be.  No proprietary compounds or gels to reduce sensory feedback; no arches, no bridges, no trusses to cast the foot; no posting to inhibit natural movement.  Simple foam that is in complete contact with the ground surface from heel to toe, allowing for the smoothest ride of any standard trainer sold today.  It’s like butter, if you could run on butter.

The people at Brooks tell me it is because of the foam compounds they use in the midsole, but I think the shoe is so smooth because there is nothing in it to screw up what should always be a smooth ride.  I imagine if they made the shoe a bit firmer, more repsonsive, the ride might not be as plush, but it certainly would not make for a ride any less smooth. 

The Launch is so well balanced (for all the above reasons) that even people who think they need some overpronation control have worn the shoe without a hitch.  This is one of those examples that prove the less is more theory. 

We joke around the store that we could open up a store for the Launch exclusively, and we’d kill.  Not all that far from the truth.

Puma has arrived at Roguequipment

Velosis- High Cushion

Vectana- Stability

A list of things that I have found, in 30 years of running, that I cannot live without, and why. In no particular order:

Shoes (no doi!) The simpler the better. Abebe and Zola didn’t need no stinking shoes, but I don’t want to jack up my pedicure.

Compression socks. Seriously. Never, ever would I have guessed that I’d wear tube socks again, unless I was going to some real classy retro-themed party. Until now. After the first night with the socks on, my legs felt fresher. More fresh? If some lab somewhere tells us later that there is no scientific data to support the use of compression socks, I’ll still wear them, because I believe they work. And, no, I don’t care that I look like I’m running the 50 yard dash at the middle school Field Day.

Chronograph. You know, a running watch. Not a gps, not a heartrate monitor…I know where I am and how I feel. A regular old watch with a chronograph feature and a countdown feature, for fartlek. I want it to tell me when to turn around and go home or when I need to speed up or slow down. I don’t want to have to look at it once it starts. I don’t want to have to charge it, nor strap something on my arm, chest or shoe to make it work.

Trigger Point products. I can’t afford weekly massage any more, since my 14 month old son needs diapers. (Whatever.) So the TP stuff is the next best thing. Even 30 seconds, I swear, is worth it.

Arm warmers. Ok, so only for a few months of the year, round these parts. But because you can freeze your @$$ off in the first half of your morning run, and then an 30 minutes later feel like you’re running directly across the surface of the sun, you need these. They peel off in a second, and you don’t have to tie a jacket or long sleeve around your waist.

Running hat. Because !@#$ the sun is hot!

Sunglasses. Because !@#$ the sun is bright!

Brazillian wa…uh, wait, wrong list.

Reflective vest. Because I’m now older and have a little better understanding of my mortality. Often I run early in the morning, or after dusk, and there are some remarkably stupid people behind the wheels of cars.

Mochi. The best post-run recovery food. Everrrrrrrr.

Strassburg Sock. When I feel that little itch on the bottom of my heel, the itch that tells me a lovely case of PF is around the corner if I don’t take care of things STAT. One or two nights with that bad boy on, and I’m good to go. Sometimes I wear it to the Whole Foods. For the sympathy looks.

Unveiling of Team Rogue Elite 

Last night's Zilker Relays was the debut of the newly formed post-collegiate team put together by Rogue founder Steve Sisson.  The Team’s goal for the evening was to showcase their talents in front of an Austin running crowd. Under threatening skies, blasting winds & occasional downpours the Friday evening race was a challenge for all the teams. Team Rogue Elite's men’s team consisted of four former UT men’s athletes.  The lead off leg was run by Joe Thorne, who is currently preparing for his first Hawaii Ironman race in October.  Joe ran a tough race bursting through the first mile at a very aggressive pace.  His stated goal was to go hard from the gun and gauge how he felt from there.  Since he has been concentrating on swim, bike & run for a year he really had not run a lot of runs under 5 minute pace.  He ran is first mile was sub-4:30, as he averaged 4:40 per mile producing the fastest 2.5 mile split of the evening in an 11:22.

Leg 2 was run by Kyle Miller, who is just getting started back to training the last month. Kyle had a strong run and averaged 4:56 per mile running just over 12 minutes.  He handed off to Darren Brown who has been on a break after his summer in Europe racing 1500 meters.  Darren & his dad Barry Brown are the only father/son duo to break the 4 minute mile barrier. Brown ran 11:47 or 4:50 per mile pace.  Final leg for the team was run by Erik “Stan” Stanley.  Stan ran the 2nd fastest split of the evening in 11:35 at 4:45 per mile pace.  Stan has been training with Team Rogue and Sisson all summer for his first road marathon in Portland on October 4th.  Erik is also very interested in trail events and will be running the Bandera 50K in January.

 Team Rogue women also had the fastest overall time of the day in 7:02.  The women’s team has been racing for Rogue for at least 5   years.  The team had a new team member this year in lead off leg of Allison Macsas.  Allison works in the Rogue office & is a post-collegiate runner.  Allison ran the first leg is in 5:43 pace breaking 14 minutes with a 13:57.  I believe she had the fastest female split of the evening.  2nd leg was run by one of Austin’s favorite runners, Carmen Troncoso.  Carmen ran at a 14:12 at 5:49 pace.  We always say it but if any of us can run that pace at 50 we will be lucky.  3rd leg of the women’s team was run by Shannon Presely.   Shannon a former pro-soccer player is a very talented runner who as   been training with Carmen for several years.  She is really gotten fast.  Shannon ran her leg in 14:44 or 6:02 pace.  Another Austin favorite runner ran the final leg of the team, was Cassandra Henkiel.  Cassie was a Olympic trials qualifier 2 years ago in the Marathon.  Cassie has won many of the local running events in town including the Capitol 10,000 more than one time.

Congrats Team Rogue Elite!