Well the season has been great so far since completing my last road race of the season. Now it is mountain time! What's new? Well since signing with SCOTT sports I have been really loving the shoes and they have worked well. To add to that, a new line of improved footwear hits the market in a few months. I was asked recently if I could make a trip out to the headquarters for a sales meeting to learn about the new line as well as refresh the brain on the small things you need to know with footwear like sizing, support, mechanisms for efficiency. Let's see, altitude, Sun Valley, Mountains galore, a chance to see the fleet of shoes coming in for 2013, mmmmm yeah I made the trip. Since arriving in Sun Valley, Idaho I have really been loving the trail scene. Sun Valley is sort of nestled between 5900-6100 feet with trails leading up gulches and mountains surrounding the city and plenty of bike paths throughout. I fell back into memory lane when I found a dirt road that routed long. The SCOTT headquarters seems to be a great training spot with trails literally a minute from the office.
While in Sun Valley I had teammate Jonathan Basham on hand to suffer through the altitude with me. I hadn't really noticed the altitude until about 30 mins into a hill workout we had after being in town a few days. Heading up a 1900 foot gain in just a hair over a mile we both found ourselves sucking for air. Just a day before I had a nice ascent up Mt. Baldy with no problems really. So, I guess its true that you don't really feel altitude right away. It was nice to use my Mio Energy Pro for the run up Baldy. It came in handy when dealing with drastic temperature changes as you approach 7,200 feet. Even with the dry air of Idaho when you add in sweat and cold temperatures wearing a heart rate strap has its disadvantages. For one, when you make your way up from the foothills you go from pretty warm conditions causing you to perspire to climates so cool that snow can be found in piles. The Mio Energy Pro allows you to check your heart rate accurately by pressing your fingers on the sensors without the extra weight of a strap and without the sweat build up around the upper torso which could ultimately cause chills at high altitude.
The town itself had a nice mix of restaurants and great places to fill your face with Elk burgers with blue cheese, warm brownies with ice cream or even a nice medium rare piece of steak. Needless to say the meat is great here and Elk are found in bundles so you most likely will not experience a shortage of elk meat at any restaurant or hear "we ran out". It seems everyone in town is into either trail running or mountain biking so of course at almost every turn you see a SCOTT bike or someone churnin up the trail in the SCOTT eRide Grips.
Into the SCOTT sales meeting we go. I found out quickly that cameras are not allowed in certain rooms at the Headquarters. Wish I could show a few pics of new SCOTT bikes, apparel and even glimpses of shoes to be released in 2014. I can say this the shoes coming in 2013 are looking very nice and certainly have hours of research to back up the quality in the product coming this January. SCOTT has worked closely with a company known as i-Generator who tests, designs and upholds a very simple slogan "Science+Innovation". After a quick class with a member of the i-generator team I felt confident that SCOTT shoes has a bright future in both trail and road running with top notch shoes that will definitely beat out some of the giants in the footwear industry. Even got a lesson on how to effectively use a brannock device. Its funny Scott McCoubrey of SCOTT sports taught me more about sizing someone for footwear in 20 mins than I learned in one year of employment at a shoe store a few years back. In my final days here in Sun Valley I plan to compete in the Sun Valley Half Marathon and then back to business in preparing for the rest of the summer which includes competitions outside of the US in Switzerland as well as Canada.
Here is an article on my next race where I will represent the USA at the NACAC Championships. I will be going for my 4th consecutive victory at these championships. The current record of 3 championship victories total and also for most consecutive victories is held by Joseph Gray.
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