Enid Burns | Evolving Consumer

Cycle to Foot, Keen Pedal Footwear Goes Extra Mile

Biking to work or cycling into town to meet a friend for lunch or run a few errands means compromise. You have to bring an extra pair of shoes or walk around in your cycling shoes and worry about your cleats getting scuffed and scuffing a few floors. KEEN now offers its popular Presidio women’s shoe (Austin in men’s) in its Pedal line. The lace-up passes for a casual office setting or even a light hike.

The SPD-compatible shoe has tread that extends further than the cleat. Therefore when walking you don’t need to worry about the metal scratching wood floors or getting ground up by the pavement. Even for more serious rides, it’s nice to step off the bike and be able to walk normally.

KEEN Women’s Presidio Pedal ($120)

KEEN Men’s Austin Pedal ($120)

Gear Up on National Running Day

Today is National Running Day, and I woke up to pouring rain. In hopes it will soon clear, I’m pointing to some gear to help you hit the trails.

An iPod nano is small enough to clutch in your hand while running, but that’s unnecessary. Secure your music with the iSkin DuoBand. It straps on your arm with an adjustable, breathable porous band. The nano slides into a protective case and then into the cradle.

Check out some of our previous picks. It really helps to have a heart rate monitor to tell you how hard you should push, or ease off, during a run. Timex just released a new Ironman with a tap screen so you don’ t have to fumble for little buttons on the move.

RoadID keeps you safe in the case of an accident. Strap on this bracelet and hope you never need it.

National Running Day might just be the day to replace your running shoes. You should consider replacing them every six months or so. And if you start feeling the ground as you walk or run, run don’t walk to the nearest runner’s shop. The Reebok ZigTech is one to check out. The innovative design reduces the load on your leg muscles.

Games For Health Gets its Conference On

Boston is hometown to many sports. Beantown is home to the Boston Marathon, Head of the Charles crew boat race and the annual college hockey tournament Bean Pot (hence the name Beantown). This week the city played host to the sixth annual Games for Health Conference. The conference is part of Games Beyond Entertainment. At the show there were demos of exergaming using the Nintendo Wii and other gaming systems, a study for a fitness-themed virtual world, and training for therapeutic disease management.

It looks like there were demos of a few music games such as Guitar Hero, and surprisingly the players (guitarists) sat down to play. Kinetic Shift encourages playing Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other games in the category. However we advocate playing them while standing. Most games on the Wii are difficult to play while comfortably seated by design, and that is true for virtual strumming of the guitar. We hope other game demos set better examples for active gaming.

Australian Football Players Train Under Big Brother

The heart rate monitor and GPS device is no longer personal for world football players. Australia’s World Cup players are picking up data via satellite for each player’s workout. Teams get competitive data on their own performance, and their competitors, according to “Socceroos go high-tech to gain an edge over rest of the world,” an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Players down under were able to compare their training to that of their Russian counterparts. Team coaches also use the data to provide support for their players. “We’re analyzing the players’ volumes of sweat and composition so we can accurately predict how much fluid they’ll lose during a game and at training,” Australia’s strength and conditioning coach Darren Burgess told the paper. “We want to have a rehydration strategy for each player.”

It will be interesting to see what other teams and leagues pick up this method of training. Will it lead to real-time data access to personal workouts instead of uploading details upon return from a run?

Light Up Your Ride

Last weekend I went to the bike shop with a friend to get a new road bike. While at the register I told him to go and get a blinkie for his bike, he thought I was kidding. OK, maybe I should have used a less toy-like name. But lights are a crucial accessory for every bike, especially when you plan to remove the reflectors. Enter Knog Frogs from Australian company Knog. They come in 12 colors, and light up in white or red, your choice. A stretch waterproof rubber housing wraps around your seat tube, handlebars, helmet, or other objects to light your afterhours workout. Two straps wrap around, no fitting, no adjustments, and no slipping. The battery supports 80 hours of burn time with the light on steady, and 160 hours if you choose the flashing setting.

With 12 colors it’s easy to match your bike and stay fashionable. I got a bright yellow that goes well with my Felt road bike. When the sun goes down and I’m still on a ride I push once for a solid red light to alert cars on my tail, I push a second time for a blinking light — hence the “blinkie” reference. These lights are available at most bike shops. My friend didn’t buy a blinkie on Saturday, but does plan to pick one up soon.

Knog Frog

Available at many bike shops, including Trophy Bikes in PA for $15.

Shake and Tone

Dumbbells are just not intelligent. You have to lift them, lower them, and know how to use them in order to get results. The Shake Weight is one part gimmick, one part intelligence for your workout. It’s shaped like your typical dumbbell, but has an accordion gasket on each of the weighted ends to give you Dynamic Inertia, which claims to increase muscle activity by as much as 300 percent compared to traditional weights. A Shake Weight workout is also completed in six minutes compared to half an hour of toning and sculpting.

Pick up the weight, give it a little jolt and hold it while you jiggle the Shake Weight in one of a number of positions. Hold the weight with both hands in front of you and tone your triceps, biceps, and chest. Weights come with a DVD that shows you several moves to tone your targeted areas such as your upper arms. Other workouts such as the firm — with controlled, slow movements, promised to do more for your fitness in the past. This one may also overpromise. But it’s a but welcome to see an update to the classic dumbbell.

Shake Weight

Sunday Starts the Tour of California

A month until the Tour de France begins another picturesque race pedals down the state of California. Tour of California, an eight stage race from May 16 to 23, starts in Nevada City and ends on day eight in Thousand Oaks. Top teams include Columbia-HTC, Garmin-Slipstream and Team RadioShack. Lance Armstrong is among those favored to place.

We’ll be watching Versus Sunday to Sunday next week as the race goes on, and following some of the new cycling technologies used by the racers as well as the officials to time and judge the race.

The San Jose Mercury News has a handy fact sheet on the Tour.

Amgen Tour of California

A New Angle on Tracking Fish

Anglers in Florida are doing more than just catch and release. Many sport fishers are taking part in a scientific study to determine whether the tarpon fish are holding up to angling pressure, or becoming over-fished. The Suncoast Tarpon Roundup is conducting the study. The organization asks anglers to take DNA scrapings from a tarpon’s jaw to add it to the registry and determine the lifespan of each of the silver fish. According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times, only 11 of 82 fish tagged between 2002 and 2007 died; and most of those deaths were attributed to shark attack. The registry currently tracks more than 2,251,250 tarpon and aims to tag 3,000 more in 2010 with the help of anglers and fishing enthusiasts in the area.

Road Bumps Get Inline

: Newron Axion inline skates absorb the bumps in the road.

Just when you thought inline skating was yesterday’s news, blades get an innovation. Newron Sport developed tandem technology, grouping the wheels in pairs with a shock absorption and pivot system, so skaters get an experience that’s more like ice skating. Inline skates typically present what’s termed “roller-stride,” which means bladers are unable to execute a toe kick with efficiency. That limitation hinders a part of the stride extension. Inline skaters also typically have slower acceleration, less extension and shorter recovery on strides. This is compared to ice skating, and ice hockey in particular.

Newron skates have two pairs of wheels on each foot that pivot as the surface changes to absorb shock and create a smooth ride. This could explain the resurgence of inline skaters we see in the park after a few summers of fewer skaters. Newron makes skates for recreational inline skaters and wheel sets and full skates for hockey players looking to train on the pavement to supplement ice time.

Newron Sport

Hula Shaker

Fitness goes retro-tech with updated hula hoops. An article on Tampa Bay, Fla news site 10Connects touts a fitness version of the yesteryear fad of hula hooping. Today’s hoops are weighted with about one or two pounds, and are said to keep you slim and trim. The activity engages both your core and leg muscles. If you get enough of a spin going you may boost your heart rate to an aerobic level as well.

One source, BodyHoops.com, sells SuperFly, a one pound hoop, for $15 plus $3 for each additional hoop. Many gyms, including Crunch Fitness, offer hula hoop-based workout classes. There’s examples of a few classes on YouTube.

Feminine Sprint

SprintSkort — Moving Comfort Sprint Skort

It’s hard to find shorts for running that don’t look boyish, or just have a feminine and complimentary shape. Skorts, a combination short and skirt, are becoming more popular and give you that flattering shape while not compromising on performance. Moving Comfort’s Sprint Skort ($44.00) is made from aeorosilver, a material that increases performance and endurance by moving sweat away from the body to the outer layer of the fabric. The silver used in the fabric eliminates harmful and odor-causing germs.

The skort has a compression boy short liner under the a-line skirt that has a double layer crotch gusset. It has mesh side panels with pockets to keep you cool and stow ID and keys.

Aerosilver has a number of beneficial properties. It’s clover-like cross section absorbs and evaporates body sweat rapidly. An antimicrobial quality eliminates germs and blocks the spread of any that try to latch on to your skin. Quick absorbtion and quick drying action helps the fabric dry fast and maintains a cool body temperature by wicking and evaporating moisture. A deodorization effect keeps the skort fresh and eliminates odor. The aerosilver also intercepts ultraviolet rays to protect you from the sun.

A flattering fit with a revolutionary material. The Sprint Skort is great for race day or training.

Moving Comfort Sprint Skort

Aerosilver

Break the Ice on Wool

IcebreakerSST — Icebreaker Amazon Scoop T

Wool is probably the last material you expect to wear while running or doing other exercise. All the new technical fibers, many made from old soda bottles, are known to wick sweat and keep you warm or cool, depending on their purpose. Many of those fibers mimic natural fibers such as wool. Now a company called Icebreaker features wool from New Zealand with just enough of the manmade stuff (lycra) to give you a snug fit and hold shape.

Icebreaker began as a base layer company, making thermal underwear and snug tops for layering made of wool. It’s still a strong part of the company’s business, but some of the new designs can take you from the office to the trail with style. The Amazon Scoop ($64.99), a women’s top that can easily be worn on the street, keep you warm on the plane, or wick sweat as you take your bike for a spin. Icebreaker outfits you from head to toe with foot specific wool socks for different sports.

If you’re curious about how your wool became an Amazon Scoop or other style, each garment comes with its own Baacode, which tracks back to the farm, or station, where it was raised. It doesn’t track to the specific sheep, but you get the flavor of the countryside.