1. To mark the launch of their new cycling jersey, our friends at Atayne are giving away a super-cool custom bicycle from DORNBOX! How cool is super-cool? Retail on this rig would be north of $4,500. For a chance to win, you will need to upload a photo of yourself wearing any Atayne shirt to the contest website by July 4. We want to make it easy for folks who don’t already own an Atayne shirt to give ‘em a try and enter the contest, so we have marked down our inventory of Atayne shirts 40% for the month of June. Good luck!
2. One of our favorite writers recently reviewed a few good light-and-minimal options for carrying hydration and other essentials: Nathan’s QuickDraw Elite handheld, and two waist packs from Ultimate Direction, the Uno and Solitaire.
3. Running trails doesn’t have to mean running long and/or slow. In this podcast, Max King talks with Running Times about some of the ways speedwork can be taken off-road.
4. Best inspiration, non-running source. From cycling blog Red Kite Prayer:
The rouge is that force that suggests to you that what feels impossible just might be done, if only you keep on. It is also the luminous manifestation of failure. Have I cried for having failed on the bike? I have. Have I felt satisfied on occasion for riding my worst? Yes, that too.
And, as on the bike, so it is in life. I have struggled, thought I couldn’t go on, but gone on anyway. I have also ridden in life’s broom wagon once or twice, scooped up by compassionate souls and ferried along until I was ready to ride again, so to speak. Sometimes we live on the front of the pack, and sometimes at the back.
Perhaps it is just my perspective, but I find the important rides of my year are the ones where I carry the lantern, rather than the ones where I feel strong. In strength, I can revel. I can smile. I can feel the power coursing through my veins. But I seldom learn anything about myself at that end of the ride.
It’s up against the wall where I learn the most, where I confront my limits and find the humility I need to keep on.
5. New FKT for Trans-Zion. This route seems to slowly be gaining in reputation. As far as I know, the first time an elite runner tackled it was just a couple of years ago. Since then, it seems to be attracting a steady and growing trickle of them and the FKT has been slashed a few times in the past year or so. This run by Matt Hart probably counts as the first really firm time. Sub 8 is stout.
6. Photo I love (via Meghan’s Crooked Trails). With Memorial Day it is time to bid farewell to Winter 2009-10.
***
