Toes, Twitter, Feet and FaceBook!

So a while back I was contacted by a company representing Toe Juice…would I be interested…you know where this is going don’t you. And so a week later I got a box of stuff. Not only did I receive two bottles of Toe Juice but I got a couple of Hog Wash also. I will let the product speak for itself:

“Toe Juice® is a fast drying liquid, which refreshes, soothes, and softens dry cracked feet, in addition to stop itching, burning, and annoying irritations. Toe Juice® effectively remedies most skin problems like psoriasis, eczema, athlete’s foot, dry patches on the skin.”

…and…

“Hog Wash infused with DermaVine is specially formulated to naturally promote new skin growth, leaving hands clean, soft and hydrated”.

Now my feet are…well runner’s feet, they’re not exactly Hollywood foot model caliber, a broken toe, insanely short toe nails, dry hard skin, Morton’s toe and the occasional black nail…you know the usual! So I figured the only way is up, right! To effectively review Toe Juice I thought I would simply document the progress over the next ten days and so I present Exhibit A: My left foot, well heel to be precise.

Day 1, before first treatment

Yep pretty it ain’t! Now here’s the good bit, the folks at Toe Juice have put together a superb Prize Package for one lucky person and two lucky feet who really need it. So here is the competition, it’s the usual deal, you need to (a) follow them on Twitter here, then (b) follow them on FB here and then (c) post a comment saying you’ve done that, if you don’t do Twitter or FB that’s cool too, just say that in the comment…doing these things get you the right to enter the real fun. Then send me a photo of your foot/feet and then you the readers will decide who really needs the prize…the gnarlier the better! The competition will run for 10 days, as long as my foot experiment after which I will post the pics and you can all vote. Now if you want to know what you’ll be winning, here’s a most excellent photopshopped picture of the swag up for grabs!

Who says I don’t love you! So get clicking with your mouse and camera and email the photos to quadrathon@gmail.com and a big thank you Toe Juice for putting up the prizes!

Bottom up…

So right about now I am about halfway through week 4 of what I am calling pre-base, it lasts 8 weeks, you can see the plan here. I am firmly trying to stay Zone 2 which for me is 139-148bpm, this equates to around a 9ish minute mile, but the truth is I am not even paying attention to the pace. Now trying to stay in Zone 2 actually resulted in trying to stay under Zone 2, I set the alert on my 305 to chime when I go over and that has proven to be very effective.

This morning’s run really reinforced this “not going over” and when I looked at the data I saw that the percentage of time spent in Zone 1 (83.5%) was by far greater than Zone 2 (16.5%). Hmm as comfortable as it is cruising along in my recovery Zone it’s not the point, so now I need to shear up the bottom limit and have set the alert for that too.

Now moving forward I am sure I’ll be hearing a few more beeps but it also means is that my base is being laid down and dialed in one mile at a time.

Review; HydraPak Gelbot

If you have ever run with fuel and fluid you’ll know that you need three hands to open the gel and carry the handheld and get it in your mouth and not all over your hands or down the front of your shirt! A simple challenge but one that has bested me more than a few times! Enter the GelBot…a 21st century solution.

Now usually it’s this point in the post when I copy some text from the Manufacturers website, well this time there’s a video…so here you go, it’s only 89 seconds long:

And yes it is that simple! Ok so here’s the website blurb:

“The Gel-Bot delivers two performance essentials, fuel and hydration, in one easy to use sport bottle. This patent-pending design lets you fuel or hydrate with just one hand. Perfect for racing or total gel addicts. All the Gel-Bot components can be taken apart and easily cleaned”.

There are two sized bottles 20 fl oz /3 oz gel $13.99 and 24 fl oz /3 oz gel  $14.99

So how does it perform…I love it, it does exactly what it says it should do! Filling it up is a doddle, especially if you have bottles of gel, it does all come apart and you can throw everything in the dishwasher. The plastic is soft enough to squeeze the fluid into your mouth, the gel take a bit of suck; and unlike some gel bottles it’s not like you have to suck a golf ball through a hose pipe, the plug in the gel cylinder creates a vacuum minimizing the pucker needed. It takes a bit of practice getting used to the half open/fully open valve but once you’ve got it you’re good to go.

Now there are some downsides. Limited capacity of gel 3.2 oz is about three gels. You could waste a bit of gel especially if you’re using a thicker type or its a cold day as the fluid will keep the temperature of the gel down and increase it’s viscosity, but this is a summer review so I had no issues using my gel of choice, Chocolate #9 which is the thickest gel I have ever used. One other issue could be that in theory you would be consuming a gel every 45 minutes and so you might get through the fluid at a faster rate than the gel? Of course you do not have to fill the gel cylinder up completely. I used the GelBot for running only but my assumption is that for cycling it’s even better; tearing open gels at 20mph is just plain dangerous.

As mentioned the bottle comes in two sizes, go for the larger one for $1 it’s crazy not to. They’re available through Hydrapak’s website or through your usual online sources including Amazon for a minimal discount.

Also I did see online the bottle can come with a waistpack which increases the price by another $20:00 or so.

All in all an relatively inexpensive way to take care of the nutrition/hydration issue in a single package. And if you don’t believe me check out the other reviews on their website or look at the list of sponsored athletes; including ultra runner Devon Crosby Helms and 3 times World Champion Rebecca Rusch.

This product was provided free of charge by HydraPak. See previous gear reviews in the sidebar on the right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.

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This is the fourth in a series that focuses on hydration, next is the Nathan X Trainer Mutation