Visit to Saucony Headquarters

Saucony booth at the Boston expo

This post is about a month overdue, but better late than never, right?! The day after the Boston Marathon Andrea and I went out to Saucony's headquarters in Lexington, MA. We toured their facilities (including their new biomechanics laboratory), checked out some of the new shoes and clothing that will be hitting stores in the next year, and had a fun time chatting with several of their designers. It was essentially a running dork's dream morning! :-)

Needless to say, Saucony has a lot of awesome stuff in the pipeline. A highlight for us was checking out the new footwear models for events like the shotput, javelin, and sprints. I got to try on a pair of throwing shoes that were designed for Adam Nelson... I could spin around like a top in those things (and nearly fell over!).

Here's a few photos from our tour...

Shoes everywhere - and a runway down the middle of the offices!

Saucony athletes like Wallace Spearmon and Molly Huddle decorate the walls

The biomechanics laboratory

Andrea left w/ some not-yet-released Fastwitch 6s

Then they took us out to lunch, and diet dew was necessary to continue to
post-race re-hydration process! :-)

SAUCONY Christmas!

Jake and I got our new Saucony Hurricane team kits for the year! Lots of great new gear - it feels like running Christmas :-)



I was really excited to see the bright pink Saucony racing sports bra. I will definitely have to wear this for summer races! I also noticed that the company made the short sleeve and long sleeve shirts LONGER and with less flare at the hips. I am pretty tall (5'8") and straight so I need a little extra length and not so much flare in the hip area.

I particularly like the capris, short tights, and split shorts. I have multiples of all and pretty much wear one of the three every day. I've said this before, but Saucony makes the best running shorts in the business. They are so lightweight and move freely.

The backpack is a nice addition to the kit this year, and it'll definitely come in handy with all the traveling that Jake and I do. It's very well made with lots of room and pockets.

I decided to get an array of running shoes so that I am able to rotate my shoes from a more minimalist shoe (Mirage and Kinvara) to a more cushioned lightweight trainer (Cortana and Guide 5). I think it's a great idea to train in different types of shoes. I usually wear the more minimalist shoes on workout days and long runs and the trainers on recovery days. I also picked up some BRIGHT PINK Endorphin track spikes and some Peregrine trail running shoes.

Jake got similar gear to me except all of his clothes are the ViZiPRO Orange color instead of pink.

Kinvara 2

For shoes - Jake does most of his training in the Mirage and Kinvara, so he got several pairs of those, along with some racing flats (Fastwitch, which he also uses for tempo run) and track spikes (Endorphin LD3).

Saucony Fastwitch 5 and Endorphin LD3 (which only weight 3.5 ounces in size 11!)

223 miles worth of food

Organizing food for the JMT has been an ongoing process for the past 1-2 weeks

Coming up with a food plan for a 12 day thru-hike is obviously a challenge. You need relatively dense, high-calorie foods, but you also need some variety. Luckily, Andrea and I like the same types of foods, and we're fine with eating a lot of the same stuff over and over again. We're limited by the fact that we have to keep our food in hard bear cannisters (see gear list).

The plan is to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks per day. Here is the breakdown with some example foods:

Breakfast: Oatmeal, Pop Tarts
Morning Snack: Trail mix, Dried fruit, Pretzels, Peanut M&Ms, Crackers, Chex Mix
Lunch: Whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and nutella (this is an amazing high calorie and delicious lunch)
Afternoon snack 1: Mike & Ikes, Peanut M&Ms, Skittles, Gummy Bears, Fruit Snacks
Afternoon snack 2: Cliff Bar / Powerbar
Dinner: Pouched chicken, dehydrated vegetables, and the primary card source, which is either 1) couscous, 2) instant mashed potatoes, or 3) stove top stuffing

We'll have small containers of olive oil and salt/pepper to add to our dinners.

Basically, we want to eat about 2500+ calories / day and not spend a ton of time preparing food. Yeah, we'll lose some weight, but that's ok... we have plenty of food so as to not go hungry.

We're starting with 6-7 days worth of food (which is about 10 lbs each) and picking up a bucket that we packed with another 6 days worth to the Muir Trail Ranch (which we'll reach after 107 miles). If we have extra (which we will), then we'll have a few double dinners and extra snacks if our appetites are up for it. Plus, we'll be able to grab some snacks to stuff in our pockets at Yosemite Valley and Toulumne Meadows.

There are also two 16.9oz Diet Mountain Dew bottles in our resupply bucket. I don't how we're going to last this long without the dew... but that dew at Muir Trail Ranch is going to taste like heaven!


This is the 5 gallon bucket that we mailed to Muir Trail Ranch. It will be waiting for us at the 107 mile mark, just before halfway. We expect to pick it up on the morning of our 6th day on the trail. It weighed in at 22 lbs, including the bottles of dew that we stashed inside!


I bought this Ziploc system to vacuum seal veggies that we dehydrated. It only cost a few dollars, the bags are cheap, and it works really well. I highly recommend this system for anyone doing backpacking trips.


Instant mashed potatoes are something we are really looking forward to!


This was our major splurge, in terms of packing eficiency - pouched chicken (which is VERY hard to find). We have a 7oz package for every dinner. We could have done without it (it doesn't weigh much, but it takes up a lot of room in the cannister because we can't puncture a hole in it to let the air out), but we both feel that it will be good to have some chicken every night for protein. We can't afford to lose too much muscle mass!

John Muir Trail Gearlist

I thought it might be of interest to post an overview of our gearlist for the JMT. A lot of thought goes into this, because if you are going to be on the trail for almost 2 weeks, you want to make sure you have everything you'll need, but not carry anything that you won't. As I write this, we are still tweaking exactly what we are going to bring, but this is a pretty good synopsis. I'll be posting a description of our "food plan" tomorrow.

Backpacks



Andrea is carrying a GoLite Pursuit 50L backpack; I'm carrying a slightly heavier Osprey Exposure 50L. While my pack isn't specifically suited for long distance hiking, its a compromise because when I bought a new pack earlier this year, I wanted to get something that I could use for skiing and mountaineering as well.

Sleeping

Our tent is a Black Diamond Skylight 3. Its bigger than we absolutely need, but we like to be able to comfortably store all our gear inside the tent without sleeping up against it all. Plus, it still only weighs in at 4 lbs. This tent is amazing!!! It wasn't cheap, but its something that I bought not just for this trip, but for all the other trips we have planned in the upcoming months and years. It will be worth the investment, that's for sure.



We will both be sleeping in REI Subkilo down sleeping bags. Down is expensive but we got super deals on these bags, and for a trip of this length, its worth every penny in weight savings (and warmth!). Andrea's bag is rated to 15 degrees, mine is rated to 20 degrees. We both are carrying 1.5" inflatable sleeping pads, and inflatable pillows (when you are hiking 20 miles a day, you need to sleep well!).


Clothing and footwear



Andrea is taking Mountain Hardwear Mesa Convertible pants; I am wearing Ex-Officio Nio Amphi Convertible pants. Yeah, we'll wear one pair of pants for the full hike. They'll need to be washed when we get home! ;-)

While we are still tweaking the rest of our clothing, it will probably look something like this: 2 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve shirts, convertible pants, running shorts, shell/rain jacket, down jacket, tights, 3-4 pairs of socks, 2-4 pairs of underwear, gloves, warm hat, sun hat, bandana.



Yeah, they are dorky, but Crocs weigh nothing and are perfect for stream crossings and wearing around camp. We're both taking a pair. Andrea just picked up a sweet pair of Mickey Mouse crocs at an outlet for $5. Wait until you see them! We're both wearing Gore-Tex trail runners as our primary hiking shoes. Neither of us like wearing boots and we don't think they are necessary.


We'll be washing clothes along the way, but its still worth spending a few extra bucks on stuff that doesn't smell bad (Dri-Fit type materials are a total NO-NO!). Smartwool is the ideal, but its ridiculously expensive. We both managed to get short and long sleeve shirts at the local Columbia outlet with an antimicrobial coating at a great price. Those will be out primary hiking shirts. I spent a few extra bucks to purchase Ex-Officio boxer briefs; from what I've heard, they are indispensable for long distance hiking. We'll find out!



We're expecting to be dealing with some snow, so we're taking Mountain Hardwear Seta Strapless gaiters and Kahtoola Microspikes.

Food and Water Storage



All of our food will be carried in Bear Vault 450 cannisters. We will carry about 6 days worth of food to start, then pickup our resupply bucket which has another 6 days worth of food.



We're both carrying 2.5L camelback bladders and will be filtering water using a Katadyn Hiker Pro. We're also bringing along a 3L Platypus bag to have extra water in camp for cooking and cleaning.


I'm also taking a small Nalgene Canteen for rehydrating vegetables. This way we can add water and hang it on my pack for the last hour or two of hiking each day, and the veggies will be ready to go once we reach our camping destination and are ready to eat dinner.

Cooking


I've had great success with my MSR Pocketrocket stove in the past, and it weighs only a few ounces, so no need to reinvent the wheel on this one. I'll take that stove, one of my Snowpeak titanium pots, and 2 fuel cannisters.

We'll both carry a GSI fairshare collpasible mug (makes a great food bowl) and GSI lexan spork (awesome eating utensil for people wearing crocs!).

Navigation



I'm taking a set of 13 topo maps and compass, but also loaded the entire route into my GPS as a backup. Navigation should not be too difficult, but I'm willing to carry a few extra ounces to have the GPS for insurance.

Camera

I plan on taking A LOT of photos! I'm taking my trusty Canon SD780 with a 4GB memory card and 3 extra lithium ion batteries, and the gorilla pod. Andrea is taking her camera as well... its definitely worth having a backup.

First Aid / Repair Kits / Hygiene


Our first aid kit will have all the basics: variety of medications, gauze, bandages, tape, antibiotic ointment, iodine pills, etc. We've found that moleskin works great for preventing and treating blisters, so we'll have a few sheet of that.

I've got seam tape, duct tape, a thread & needle, and a few other items for repairing gear. I've decided to pack my do-it-all SOG multitool; I realize I could get away with something smaller and lighter, but this thing does everything, so it provides another level of insurance.

We're taking the basic personal products: sunscreen, DEET, chapstick, hand sanitizer, toothpaste/toothbrush, etc. To stay clean, we've got biodegradable soap, but I doubt it will be warm enough to do much lake swimming/bathing, so we've also get body and face wipes. I'm bringing some biodegradable soap that we can wash our clothes with, and safety pins to attach them to our packs so they can dry while we are hiking.

Miscellaneous



Headlamp (so we can see at night!), trekking poles (SO CRUCIAL), Yahtzee (EQUALLY CRUCIAL). I also carry a small waterproof notebook to use as trail journal, and it has a lot of important information in it that I've transcribed from my guidebooks.

That's pretty much it. Put 10 lbs of food in the bear cannister, and that is what we are carrying. We're going to load it all up tonight, so I'll post an update of what the total weight ends up being. I'm hoping to keep Andrea's pack under 30 lbs, and my pack under 35 lbs.