cander49

1 month into the contest, 2 months of wear.

 

Back:

 

Really interesting horizontal line patterns developing on the back of the thigh (haven't seen this before):

 

Other interesting fades below the pocket:

 

Combs:

 

Hem:

 

Front:

 

Lap:

 

Sorry for the lack of posting in the last couple weeks.  Have still been wearing everyday and keeping up with the thread, just not much interesting to report yet.  I have been wearing them quite hard (skiing, hiking, a little extra running for transportation, etc, with them), so I'm expecting them to keep breaking in nicely!

I'm trying to run everyday but I'm having trouble staying motivated. Maybe I need to find a new route.

Use this for motivation:

Potentially the best run of all time?

Galen Rupp, the American who got the silver in the 10,000 in London, is the fastest in the world for 2013 for 3000 meters so far, and he ran a full 10 seconds off what Komen did.

How do all of you feel about rain and general water contact in general and then early on in your jeans life, i have an ocd of not letting them get wet too early on so they don't bleed everywhere

IMHO, the people that get the best fades are usually just the people that don't care about minor details and just wear them. Wear them hard and they're going to fade a lot. Don't wear them out of avoidance of rain, etc, and they won't fade as much.

Diesel, from their newest season, at a price tag of $398:

Terrible cropped inseam, atrocious fit otherwise, and that floral print. This might actually be their worst pair ever.

That Boston thing today was completely fucked up. Fortunately, all of my friends running it were fine, but I can't even imagine why someone would senselessly attack such a pure celebration of humanity's enduring spirit. It's not like targeting the Boston Marathon targets only the US - it is an absolutely international event with participants from nearly 100 countries, typically including champions from impoverished nations. I wore my Boston jacket tonight when I went running and I'm going to keep wearing Boston gear every chance I get in order to honor this great event.

710's in their 5th year

Absolutely outstanding. Hope I can get my new 710s looking this good someday.

Good thing we're not competing against you in the heavyweight championship! That's some sick fading for only 4 months!

First truly specific workout for Utah Valley Marathon today. Since it's early in the training cycle (2nd week), this is on the easier side of things, but they'll keep picking up.

Workout was 12 miles, with 9 at marathon pace, 2 at tempo pace, and 1 at 10k pace, so basically a progression with an emphasis on quality after a number of miles at marathon pace.

9 miles at 6:22/mile (MP goal pace is more like 6:18, but it's my first serious workout back!), 2 miles at 5:56/mile (tempo is probably more like 5:50 when I'm really fit), 1 mile at 5:33. The marathon pace was riding a nice line of feeling fast but remaining pretty relaxed, the 2 tempo miles felt relatively hard, and the 5:33 12th mile nearly killed me. This is very in line with what I expected, so I'm pretty pleased.

I'll do another workout like this in the not so distant future, except that I'll just be running 3 tempo miles instead of adding on a 10k pace mile, and then I'll attach another (hopefully) 4 marathon pace miles at the end. It will be a really really hard, but it will force my body into developing efficiency at low-6:00/mile pace when my legs are feeling pretty dead.

Workouts with this sort of emphasis (especially the longer one that I'm planning for next time) are really great, and they're recommended pretty heavily in the Daniels Running Formula.

How long did it take you to get to a position where you're running sub 4 minute KMs over that kind of distance?

I ran my first marathon in Fall '06 in 3:52 on a few weeks' training after being an average high school XC/track runner for 2 years and a very mediocre D3 college runner for a year (so 3 years total half-assed running). After another 5 weeks of just running a moderate bit of miles, I ran 3:38. I trained hard for the next year and got it down to 3:00:10 in Fall '07 (lots and lots of mileage, as I did a few longer races, up to 100 miles, in between). I snuck under 3:00 the next Spring and then in Spring of '09, I ran 2:53 and 2:52 a month apart (just above 4:00/km). Actually, after that, I had an injury prior to my Fall marathon and then I got mono, which prevented a Spring one. I tried to train through mono and got really really sick, so I didn't run at all from Summer '10 to Summer '11. When I started running again in Summer '11, I had to drop 30 pounds, which took a little while, and I had no speed, so I didn't do a road marathon again until this past March, when I ran 2:50:00.1 (I wanted sub-2:50... hah...) with a bad cold. I figure I was good for 2:47 if healthy, so I'm going to train a little harder and try to run a little faster early summer.

If you want to run a good marathon (and I'm not there yet, but I'll get there), these are the keys, in my opinion:

1. Mileage. You can't run fast for a long distance without training a lot of distance. My highest week of training I've ever recorded was 164 miles, and that was actually with a day off. This many miles isn't necessary, but 70mpw should be typically be pretty comfortable.

2. Being well-rested for workouts. Seriously, easy days have to be easy or the days that count won't be at their full potential. This is really really important. For example, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya (2:03 marathoner) does a couple easy runs every week at 8:00/mile (ie 3:30 marathon pace), which is obscenely slow for someone that talented.

3. Hammering really hard long workouts frequently. Tempo runs (60 minutes at a pace that would kill if you if you ran it for 70-75 minutes), wave workouts (alternating just over and just over marathon pace for 15-18 miles), and 15-18 miles of marathon pace with tempo surges mixed in for a mile here and there are my favorites. At the beginning of a training cycle, I can't hit these workouts, but by the end, I do something like this at least once a week.

4. Consistency. This is way more important than most people realize.

5. Staying healthy. When I did stupid things to my body and tried to train through serious illness, I literally set myself back a few years. Listening to your body helps you avoid injury and long term illness and then you won't waste time in getting faster.

I think most younger men should be capable of close to 3:00 flat off a couple years of very focused training (if reasonably active before running), but it will take dedication and the willingness to put in miles when you don't want to.

Getting training going again, for Utah Valley Marathon this time, so I just uploaded everything for the past month, which has been quite light, up until a few days ago. Looking for sub-2:46, I think (we'll see how I feel about training right before the race). I'm already pretty fit (just ran 2:50:00 with a bad cold in early March), so I have 8 weeks to fine-tune things and run a lot of miles before tapering. Should be good timing. After 4 days, I'm on track for a good 80 this week and am hoping for 6 of the remaining 7 weeks to be at least 80, maybe with one backed down to around 70 halfway through.

Continuing the pattern of trying to break in my 710s fast and hard, I ran a few miles in them today as part of my commute to my lab on campus (and a few extra miles of running never hurts training-wise). I think I'm going to make a habit of this on days that aren't too hot, just to avoid driving and dealing with finding a parking spot. I don't know what it is with the way I wear them, but the back of my thighs seems fade super fast on all of my jeans. In any case, these things are bleeding color fast!

Intro / catch-up episode. Nothing really happened but I wasn't expecting anything crazy. Book 3 didn't get that intense until kinda far into it.

Sure, but still great to watch. This is one of the best shows on TV right now (only Breaking Bad is definitely better, IMO).

My money is on MaxPower, Dingo, Cander49, & Saintkeat from superfuture...

Me? Hahaha. We'll see about that. The longest I've ever worn a pair of jeans in the past is 15 months, so I just hope I don't destroy them before 24 months is up.

HC-SF-43, 19oz 710xx, with another set of initial fit pics that shows the fit better. Still on the fence about what to do hemming-wise.

Ok, fellow competitors. Give me some advice. Should I keep long and stack or hem? Stacking can work reasonably well for 710s, but I'm still undecided... Here's how they look right now...

I don't think I'm really feeling a cuff this time around. FWIW, my style has generally been pretty basic of late (pretty plain stuff, nothing too crazy).

Nice, I didn't know there was another Utahn. I'm counting on mountain activity to break in my contest pair as well. I'm patiently waiting for my IH MBB pair to be sent.

Right on. Are you near Salt Lake City?

710XX, 27th wear, surprising amount of color poking through already, but they've been worn really hard so far and have spent a lot of their time up in the mountains here in Utah.

HC-SF-43, 710XX, 27th wear, surprising amount of color poking through already, but they've been worn really hard so far and have spent a lot of their time up in the mountains here in Utah.

Definitely better odds of winning for us pansies not in the super heavyweight category.

By the way, what pair are those 17oz 710-BIG that you have? Are those the old Blue Shadow (VX) model?

Got it in Utah! (not my contest jeans, obviously)

Thanks Jimmy, I figured I should start checking my mail for it soon. Sounds like I'll have it in a couple days out here in Utah!

My jeans spent some time with my dog up Mueller Park Canyon on the Mueller Park and Kenney Creek trails this weekend:

Weather was absolutely gorgeous! I really ought to get Holly a raw denim bandana... I bet she would fade it in nicely. Oh, and jeans are at 18 wears, so I get 12 more in the next 21 days.

Macros at 14 months of wear (have had for 14 1/2 months and wore daily until I started rotating them with another pair a month back):

Great jeans, I'll have to get a pair just as soon as I finish this contest in 2 years.

i used to have some kinvaras. nice shoes. nice time as well. i've just stuck to half marathons and get tons of grief about it from my friends, but it doesn't phase me. i'm in no hurry to do fulls lol.

26.2 is, IMO, the hardest distance out there. It "should" be an ultramarathon, in that the cutoff for an ultra really should be the point at which glycogen runs out (around 30k to 20 miles) and you have to start dealing with food/digestion. With a marathon, you have to deal with the food and stomach nonsense, but you also have to run really hard the whole time. With that in mind, running 50s or 100s can be a lot easier because you don't have to hammer it from the gun. Running 100 miles is super mentally tough, but this marathon today beat my legs even more than my last 100, not to mention that the last 20-30 minutes of a well-paced marathon near your capability is agonizing. That's also not to mention that training for a 100 is way easier: you just run a lot of easy miles. In 10 miles and half marathons, a good pace will make you hurt the whole way, but things just don't fall apart the way they do in a marathon. It's really horrible if you're not ready, and even if you are ready, if you run hard, you can be in this much pain for the last 10 miles:

(Yuki Kawauchi, who isn't sponsored but runs a 2:08:10, usually looks like this from about 16 onto the finish and almost always passes out at the finish). Fun, right?

Marathons suck, but they are super addictive. Hah...