Running Products - More Gear You Need for Amazon Prime Day Featuring Scott Strool

Scott Strool: There's some merit in these biomechanical devices. The stride does attaches to your foot and it gives you the power is one of the critical numbers that it reports, but a better watch. So if you're getting more than a basic watch, you'll get power out of it Kevin Chang: And when people are looking at massage guns, I know, I know that there are a couple of things that they should be taking a look at. You know, obviously the number of heads or different types of heads stall force is one of those things. It's like, oh, when will the, the head actually stall? How much pressure are you allowed to put on it before? You know, it completely freezes up. Bertrand Newson: And when you're coming off of a long, hard run or preparing for one. Ice bath is a good way to get your lower torso. So it helps you recover quicker to stay active versus, you know, when you're getting those hill repeats in or a long trail run along, you know, 15, 16, 18, 20 plus miler, it's going to help you get back to the game quicker. Kevin Chang: Hello and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 5 3. I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and I'm joined by the head coach of RaceMob and master motivator, the incomparable Bertrand Newson. All right. RaceMob crew. We are back for part two of our product recommendation series, and we're so thankful to welcome back to the program Scott Strool. Welcome back, Scott, how are things going? Scott Strool: Things are going great. I got my run on nice and showered and ready to talk about more products with you guys. Kevin Chang: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I know last time we left off with the essentials and those were the things you absolutely needed just to even get started. And now we're starting to get into some of the fun parts. So some of the things that you may pick up, some of the purchases that you may want to get to this Amazon prime day. Let's start with some of the things that will help you initially and in your initial runs, and I know watches or some sort of GPS tracker, or some sort of tracker, this is oftentimes, you know, the thing that people pick up, it helps them stay motivated. It helps them keep track of, you know, not only the distances that they've run, the paces that they're running a lot of these important metrics. So Scott, talk to us about what watch you, you wear, and yeah, if you have any insights on some of the best watches or things that we should keep an eye out for. Scott Strool: As a beginner, you really just, the most important thing is that you're going to have something that's going to be telliing you where you've been. So it's basically going to track your miles, be able to calculate the time that it took to do that. So what was the, the amount of time it took to run those miles, and then it's a calculation. The watch does that calculation for you to tell you the pace. And what's important about that is when you work with a coach or if you just have a running plan, you want to be able to stick to that plan and run the specific amount of miles or a specific amount of time. It's a 30 minute run today, or it's a 5k run today. And to see if you're improving, you want to understand your pace. So the best way to do that is with a watch. It's really funny to see people still running with phones, looking at holding their phone in their hand to see what their paces are. I mean, phones can do that because phones have GPS, but you know, the watch does a whole lot more than the phone does. It also will capture a basic watch, will catch your heart rate. So that's also important to know what your heart rate is at those paces. The watch that I'm wearing today is the polar vantage. It's more of a triathlon watch. And I only say that because it has multiple sport modes, you can run bike, swim, climb, a mountain, play badminton, roller Derby, many things that I don't do. Ski, golf even is on here. The watches have to have these profiles that are gonna allow you to capture more events that you're working on. But a basic watch Garmin this week. And I imagine we're going to see some sales and next week on prime day a basic watch from Garmin, is the new Garmin 55. Our listeners eshould probably look on YouTube for some good reviews on that product. It's gotten rave reviews and it's like at, at around a $200 price point and it does everything that a basic runner needs. Bertrand : Great insight, Scott. Kevin Chang: Yeah, coach. What do you wear? Do you wear a watch? Well, we do run with my phone. Oftentimes I, I have an apple watch. I have an apple watch. Yeah. I'm that guy on that dude. I have, I have an apple watch, but it never connects. And I feel like every time I look down it doesn't work so well, but that's like the apple too. So, you know, I haven't, I haven't upgraded yet. It's something I'll probably need to do at some point. Bertrand Newson: I'm the dude who runs with two watches at times. I have the Nike watch. The apple watch, Nike branded, so it has Nike plus built into it. And also have this kind of basic level entry-level Garmin watch that does what Scott said there, it records time and distance uploads data to my smartphone. Then I can analyze the data. Again, a very low price point. I think I got this off Amazon and it was refurbished for under 50, like 50 bucks. And it retailed for probably twice that so super value, very durable. And it gives me all the core data that I need as a runner. Very good for beginners. And as Scott said, as we're talking about with Amazon prime day coming up, you're going to be some great deals going on with all types of watch brands across the board. So. Kevin Chang: Yeah. and I know a lot of our audience knows. I bought a watch for my mom on the last Amazon prime day, was it, it was a Fitbit, I think, Vantage, and it has really helped her keep her steps up. And she's doing over 10,000 steps, sometimes even 20,000 steps every single day. So just that little wash that can be ultra motivational. So, fantastic for us to talk about. The next thing I have on the list for beginners. I wa I love earbuds. I mean, I love to listen to music. I love to, have something in my ear, whether that be a podcast like this, or, you know, some, some music, some jams, some something to keep me motivated and go in, or an audio book sometimes I'll, I'll listen to an audio book as well. Do you guys have any favorites in terms of earbuds or things that you use while you're running? Scott Strool: Absolutely. 99% of my runs. I'm going to have earbuds in. He ones that I've been using since they came out or the Jaybird Vista. Before that I had an a Jaybird run. And so this is my second round with, with Jay Bert's. They're great. They're light. So light that they don't, you can't even know when they fall out of your ear. That's not a good thing, but you got to kind of just keep doing that every once in a while to make sure that they're in. And they, they, the battery power on those is amazing. They connect to my phone very quickly, but since we were just talking about watches and phones, you guys know, I really don't like running with my phone. If I'm going to go somewhere where I want my wife to track me or someone to track me, if I'm going on a longer run, or if I'm going off my kind of a path, someone wants to know where I am, so I will keep my, watch my phone. Cause then we have a location services. Bertrand Newson: Good. Scott Strool: But when I connect, when I wanna run without my phone enough, I'm just doing a three mile around the block. I use this little MP3 player, a Bluetooth MP3 player called the Mighty. M I G H T Y. And that syncs to your earbuds, the little thing that you notice about the size of a quarter and a, you can put like 600 songs on it. Kevin Chang: Wow. Scott Strool: So I went with that and my earbuds, unless I want to listen to an audio book or a RaceMob podcast, then I take my phone with me. Kevin Chang: Coach, I know when we talked last year, you were not much of an earbuds person, not much of a music person, or are you supporting any earbuds these days or you go on sans? Bertrand Newson: Some, some things never change. They may in the future. I mean, I'm, you know, if I'm not running with somebody, I just like to get immersed myself in the run itself. So it is the extreme exception that I'm running with music. There have been maybe a handful of occasions when I've been out and about listening to a great RaceMob podcast or some of our guests who have their own podcast or YouTube channel, i. E. Scott. But in most cases, I'm, I'm just soaking up the noise around me or kind of letting the thoughts in my own head kind of play out and get some time for myself as well. So, but I do love music outside of running. You know, it's always music playing in the house all the time. So I'm learning here in this podcast on, you know maybe some gift options in the future. I may have to step my earbud game up. Kevin Chang: Yeah. And I've been in the market for your ear buds. I really have. I know we, even, when we had Mike on, I asked him about earbuds and he had recommended the Jabras. So I went out and got the Jabra elites, I think 85 T I wasn't a big fan of them. I'm not sure why. You know, I think there's some oddities with it. Just like when you remove it from the ear, it just shuts everything off. You can't actually like share earbuds with anybody else. I had an issue where one dropped out and I didn't know it. And then I couldn't find it for a while. When I finally found it, I couldn't turn them back on. So I don't know. I wasn't in love with the job Braze. I've tried the Skull Candies. That's what, another one that I'm trying right now, but also not in love with it. I've got like a cheapo $40 pair that I found on Amazon that worked fine, but I'm not in love with the battery life of it. So I'm still in shopping mode for earbuds right now. So I may go check out those Jaybirds I think I'll just go check out the Jaybirds I think let's see. Yeah. Mike also recommended PaMus. So I think that's another one that he had recommended, but I'm going to go check out those Jaybirds I think, I think they may work really well for me, so fantastic. Bertrand Newson: It was on Instagram live a few weeks ago and I couldn't find my plugin earbuds for the iPhone. So I picked up a pair of. Earbuds and they were cheap JVC and I, and I've used them like twice, but the battery life on them was pretty good in my ear. They fit well. I don't have a photo of, or, you know, have them in my periphery, but yeah, just got to throw that out there. So. Kevin Chang: Yeah. And, and maybe it's partly the difference between the active noise canceling. So the ANCs versus the, the ones that kind of just fit and plug your ear and cancel it and kill all of the noise. So maybe it's just, I'm not used to the ANC ones or I'm not sure, but both the Skullcandy one and the one that Mike recommended, they were both ANC types of ear phones and maybe they just don't fit all that well. They just felt a little bit loose. Like they would fall out all the time and in fact, one of them did fall out. So. I guess we'll keep trying. We'll keep trying. I'll see if I can make a recommendation at some point. Scott Strool: Yup. The other thing that you could do to help them fall out is put on that RaceMob headband that's right. The coach is right and it can't fall out. If you have your ears covered and you'll look cool doing it. Kevin Chang: Awesome. Next on my list and it was something that we were recommended for beginners was a scale. So smart scale. I know that I use one, I think it's called that connects via Bluetooth to my phone so I can track, not only weight, but percentage, body, fat, bone weights, a couple of those things. And I don't do it every day, but every once in a while I want to check in on, on how I'm doing and, and be conscious of that. Do you guys use any scales at home? Is that anything that you're looking at? Scott Strool: So I will have to admit when you wrote scale. I didn't think of weighing myself and I ran upstairs and I got it. I, shoe geek as we determined yesterday, I have a scale to weigh my shoes. Kevin Chang: Ah, Scott Strool: Every new pair, every new pair of shoes, I weigh it and I keep track of the weight of the shoe. So I don't have a recommendation for a shoe scale. Just go get the, no that works. Bertrand Newson: Yes, I do have a couple of scales as you know, Kevin, the move you're like, what is going on? Kevin Chang: How many scales do you need? You calibrate one to another what's going on here? Bertrand Newson: And we have incorporated, on Wednesdays at Hammertime. So we have a couple of team members all voluntary. So I track performance. I track time trials for everybody. And sometimes people are looking to just get an idea maybe quarter to quarter, month to month, but first half the year, second half of the year, pre-race, training block versus closer up to training block and just tracking that. And for me you know, being a six one sometimes, you know, in the one eight high one eighties too, you know, teetering around 200, it's important for me to see where I'm at. As I'm looking to tweak diet nutrition, and you know, we're, we're on the cusp of uh, a challenge that we, we had in February of this year. That's, we'll be coming back the cut to crap challenge. So good opportunity to get familiar with where you are at. And always, as Scott mentioned with measuring time and distance, measuring scale weight is an important way, to see kind of touch, touch base and kind of where you're at. So. Kevin Chang: Yeah, and in fact, when this podcast goes live, the Cut the Crap challenge will also be live. I think we are launching the Cut the Crap challenge on the 17th. So 4: 00 PM Pacific standard time. We're going to have a meetup with Tony julian. If you all remember, fantastic guest of the podcast has a really great challenge where we cut out some of the things that we should be cutting out of our diet for 14 day challenge. So that'll be a lot of fun. We'll kick that off a lot of information up online for those that want to join us. And last time we ran the challenge back in February, we saw some tremendous, incredible, incredible results from the community and the community has just banded together and helped each other throughout that whole journey. so it was a lot easier to cut crap when, when others are giving you fantastic recipes when they're giving you encouragement day after day. So really looking forward to that and that'll be live right when this podcast episode goes live as well. Scott Strool: Excellent. I got a week or so to finish my ice cream sandwiches. Kevin Chang: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Well, as you guys know, I'm going to Hawaii this week, so I just hope that I don't gain too much weight, Bertrand Newson: and then Papaya, pineapple, alcohol free muay thais. Soak it up, man. Soak it up. Kevin Chang: There you go. Well, another gift that we had talked about before was a fitness planner. So some way for you to track your upcoming. You know, runs kind of schedule things in have some structure around your training plans. There's a number of these different fitness journals running journals. I've seen them in the past. I've used a couple in the past. They make a great gift for Amazon prime day. So if you have a runner in your life that has a birthday coming up, this may be something of interest, you know, you can track all sorts of dynamic warmups to do beforehand, you can take a look at different stretches. You can really kind of tweak a lot of different things and then just keep track of every single run. So whether that's the physical or, you know, I think that there may be some online versions of this as well, but that might be something interesting to get the beginning of runner, get the motivated. Scott Strool: Yeah, I liked that it has tips into too, so it could have stretches and a pre-workout plan right in the book. So that's a benefit to having a physical book to look at. Bertrand Newson: And I was gifted one for my birthday, paper base, which is really cool. And you know, I like to try to make the best use of my time. And so I'd like to integrate a lot of that electronically, but having it paper-based as much as I'm a good note taker. Great gift idea, Casey. So you two could end up with the ease and in the future, so good stuff. And we thought talked about giving maybe as a swag item, in the future. So stay tuned. RaceMob community. Kevin Chang: Let's get down to what some intermediate runners may need. So I know that there's a lot of difference when you start going from a three mile or a 5k run to when you start getting into that 10 K distance and then the half marathon distance, you know, you're out there on the road for much, much longer. You need to start thinking about hydration. You need to start thinking a little bit more about, you know, Nutrition and other things. So let's get into some of the things that you guys may recommend for you know, for people kind of who are now more enthusiastic, we are running now is starting to go longer, further. What are some of the things that you guys may recommend or that are in your arsenal? Scott Strool: Yeah, I would say that if you're going to be out there for an hour or more, especially now the time that, you know, the season that we're in and for you guys, it's always summertime. So plan your hydration. You can't just think, oh, I'll just drink when I get back, because dehydration is real. I think everybody here on this call has experienced it and it's, it feels it's sick, sickening. And hydration vest either a vest that you could wear over your, on your back, or I also really like these hydration belts that it just goes around your waist and little has little pockets for small bottles. If you're going out for two hours, you only need about 20, 30 ounces of liquid. So you don't need a whole vest that you don't need a five liter vest if you're just going out for an hour or two. But so those hydration would be the number one thing I would get if you're planning on running from an hour. Bertrand Newson: Yeah. Well said, Scott. Yeah. And to piggyback on items for intermediate runners, depending on what time of day you run, if that's, you know, early in the morning when you know the sun is not out or you're running, post-work when the sun is not out having some type of safety, reflective gear, safety lights, some level of illumination, and always err on the side of safety. Kevin Chang: Which brands and which gear do you use? Cause I know that you've tried out a couple of different brands for safety lights. Bertrand Newson: Yeah. Nathan has some Nathan brand. They have, you know, they have hydration vest, but they also have a brand of portable safety lights as well. So that's, that's worked for me in the past and some other fellow running teammates. Scott Strool: In the winter time we run, we I'm going to Tuesday night run club, just like you guys have your hammer time. We'd run at 6: 30 PM on on Tuesdays and in the wintertime, six 30, it's already pitch black, very dark. And I purchased a couple of years ago. The Nox gear light up vest at B links. It's about, it's very light. It's got these little tubes in it that light up and it's got a blinking component in the back, runs on two AAA batteries. So it's easy to make sure that you always have, have it working. You can't feel it when you're running and that's, that's the light system that I use when I run at night Nox gear, it's always on sale and probably will be on sale again next week. Kevin Chang: Nox like N O X? Scott Strool: N O X. Kevin Chang: Yeah. And I know I have some Nathan for my hydration bills and stuff. There's either the one that kind of sits across the back or the like multiple small bottles and whatnot. You know, they made some fantastic gear. Just gotta make sure that they're sized, right. That they're sitting on top of your hips, nothing worse than chaffing. Which is the other thing that I was going to get to too is, is when you start getting into that half marathon distance, and you're out there for awhile, you want to make sure that you have a good anti chaffing stick. So there's a couple of these and people don't, don't tell you too much or you may have to, yeah. We don't want you to have to learn the hard way Bertrand Newson: to have a once or twice that isn't. Kevin Chang: So a little stick of that. It almost looks like a, you know, like an antiperspirant stick, you know, you do want to get your nipples, you want to get like inner thighs outside of the feet inside of the feet sometimes. Sometimes in the armpit area or on the sides of that you know, just, just make sure use it it'll make you more comfortable too. Oh yeah. Scott Strool: I screamed the loudest I ever did. I imagine. Last fall, I went for a long run with and it was cool. So I had long I had tight, running tights on and I came along and got in the shower and scream so loud that my wife thought that I just butchered a cat or something. And she was a little bit scared about how, how I yell. So you don't want to, you don't want to wake the dead, get the two. Bertrand : Good call, good call. Scott Strool: It's worth it. Kevin Chang: And I think one thing that we alluded to last time is some of the compression socks or compression sleeves, the calf sleeves, those types of things. I know that when I start getting to longer distances, these do help me a little bit, both with the run itself and recovery afterwards. So I don't know if you guys use compression sleeves on your longer runs or, kind of, kind of leave it as is. Scott Strool: Yeah, I certainly do. I was graced with the very muscly calves. My wife says I would have been an awesome Pilgrim, back in the day. And I'm glad you guys got that. So they do get sore. So I the brand that I use is two, two times you or 2XU, you. It's, it's a neoprene or a polyester it's very comfortable and it just, it's a little bit of compression. It just keeps the muscles from moving around a lot. So again, on long runs or if I'm sore, I will wear the compression sleeves on my calves. Bertrand Newson: Yeah. Great brand, very popular with triathletes. Also CEP and pro compression either compression, calf sleeves, arm sleeves, and we talk about sizing very important, especially for your ordering online. To look at the directions and make sure that you are ordering the right size. If you have the opportunity to measure your calves or comforts or arms or conference important, because I know of runners that have just picked up on the fly and was wearing a compression garment that was too small for them, and it can restrict it, their blood flow during long run and it can be debilitating so very, very important, to make sure that the sizing is right with compression garments, especially on your lower limbs. Scott Strool: We want to compress not constrict. Kevin Chang: Yes. Yeah. Cool. Very cool. And I know, yeah, I haven't used arm sleeves before, but people swear by them. And I know when we had. Dean on, Dean, even in his book the runner's high he talks about like forgetting his arm sleeves on one of the it during Western states and that having just a dramatic impact for his whole race. So, yeah, maybe something to, to play around with, especially if you're in warmer, temperatures, hotter, temperatures you know, if the sun's beating down you know, how can you use arm sleeves for shade or for cooling effect. Those types of things. I know people also use arm sleeves sometimes when it's cold and... Bertrand Newson: Just to keep them warm to me. Right? Yeah. That works yet. The versatility. Scott Str: They're really great. If you're trail running and you're going to possibly run between trees, sometimes you'll get caught by a branch in a trail sleeve could save you from getting a cut on your arm. Kevin Chang: Let's talk a little, a little bit about, you know, those going for the marathon distance, the ultra distance you know, those going further. And maybe some of these like advanced techniques, some of these things that are trendy or, or, you know, on edge that may help them train for those distances and, and get there quicker. So one thing, I guess, that I haven't done a lot of research in, but I know a lot of the big YouTube stars have at least tried out or at least talked about some of these are some of the newer training methodologies. So either whoop, which I think Amazon has like a whoop brand bracelet, I don't know too much about. I know that it tries to track your body composition along with other stuff. And then I know that one, that Mike uses a stride. So I think stride some sort of foot pod or something, maybe along with like an online subscription or whatnot. I don't know if you guys have heard too much about these or, or know know much about them. Bertrand Newson: I've heard. Yeah, I've heard of stride. I know that are friends with 80 20 endurance. Their ambassador crew, has access and a percentage off. Understand the principles behind the technology in measuring, like it's, you know, your, your stride rate, cadence, stride, length, and all that, others, that data. If you're really looking to elevate and looking to shave off seconds or minutes at that elite level, or at the longer distance, because it's all about efficiency and that type of data, it will allow you to fine tune your running mechanics. Make some, some measurable improvements. Scott Strool: There's some merit in these biomechanical devices. The stride does attaches to your foot and it gives you the power is one of the critical numbers that it reports, but a better watch. So if you're getting more than a basic watch, you'll get power out of it. The coral swatch at, at my polar watch also has a power value that comes out. But also important is cadence is an extremely important metric that you're going to want to track. And that's hard to do with a watch. You usually need to put something on. I purchased this a few years ago, it was called the Garmin running dynamics pod. It's a little clip and it goes on the back of your shorts and it basically can tell which way your, your body is angled. One interesting thing it knows about is percentage of time on your left or right leg. So it knows if you're favoring a leg and it could tell you if you're hurt, it'll say, Hey, you're 60% on the left leg and only 40% on the right. So I know that I'm struggling. If I see those numbers far off, not a good on trails cause trails, you're going to be left and right all the time. But if you're running a flat pavement, I'll use this too for a better tracking of my cadence, as well as my left right. Foot Kevin Chang: balance. Wow. That's really cool. So it's, it's called a Garmin pod? Scott Str: Running dynamics pod. Kevin Chang: And does that connect with then your Strava account or other accounts, or. Scott Strool: It kept it connects to your watch and the, those additional details will get uploaded to Strava. Kevin Chang: Wow. Wow. That's really cool. What about heart rate monitors? I know that's another thing that people take a look at. Do you guys have any preferences? Have you used any in the past or use any today? Scott Strool: Yeah. I got one, a few weeks ago since I got the polar vantage watch. I bought the holders. They have an H 9 and the H 10. The H 10 was just I went for the little less expensive one that it was on sale. So I got the H nine. They still sell the H seven, but the battery power I understand is not very good on that. So you're going to be replacing the battery very often. So you might be saving money, but you're going to have to buy these little. 2032 size little batteries too often. Now they work really well. So as soon as you pair it with your watch, if the watch sees it in near you, when you start running, it automatically turns on. And I've noticed that it is a little bit, I can't say it's more accurate, but it's different than the optical heart rate sensor on my wrist. So my heart rate is a little bit lower when I wear the heart rate monitor. Then when I get it from the wrist, I have two numbers, which one's correct. I'm going to say that the strap is probably more accurate because it's, it's only an inch away from my heart where this is not anywhere near my heart. Bertrand Newson: Good, got ye with my apple watch. It has a heart rate monitor and also has a built-in EKG as well. So, you know, it's interesting that people are, you know, have to be mindful of that. It's good. Metrics for me personally. So I'm a big fan of that. Kevin Chang: Yeah, I know I used to use a polar as well. I might be in the market for new heart rate monitor, as well as some point in time height. I just got one of these exercise bikes and they connect to a heart rate monitor too. And I'm like, oh, I should probably track that. I mean, I, there is some really good evidence on, you know, heart rate based training and, you know, we talk about, you know, what level should you be at for this polarized training, you know, at a fast pace at a, you know, a 90% plus heart rate or you know, should you pull it back from the majority of her runs? It's nice to know what your heart rate is to, to know that level of effort, because it's so individualized and it's so individualized, even on the day because of the temperature, because of how your body's feeling, because of, you know, all sorts of other things that sometimes are often heart rate is the best measure of a level of effort. So, interesting, interesting, to know. Scott Strool: Tracking your heart rate zones is an important aspect when you're at this level, because it could be just a couple seconds off of, off of that mile pace. One technical aspect. When you're buying these heart rate monitors, they, they sit they expose a frequency and the two that they use are Bluetooth or something called AMT+. So you need to know that the watch, the receiver end supports the type of transmission that the heart rate monitor is going to put out. Most of them will do Bluetooth and, and plus, one or the other sometimes they'll do both. Kevin Chang: Good to know. Absolutely. All right. The one that we wanted to highlight here we were fortunate enough to have Bree Lambert up on our podcast a number of months ago. And so one of the tools that we got to test before Bree came on was the Running Pods. She's an entrepreneur. They are fantastic devices. We got to train with them for quite a while. I even have a YouTube video on, you know, what I like. And, even the thing that I w I wanted them to improve, they were able to improve, and that was heavier running pods. So they have now the mercury running pods. So fantastic device Coach, talk to us a little bit about your experience with running pilots. Bertrand Newson: Yeah, one, I like how they fit in my hand, they don't move around the weight. I mean, the ones I have are one pound and they do make me more conscious of arm swing, that I'm running my center mass. I think there are studies that, you know, you do get a greater calorie burn. And if you're burning more calories by carrying an extra two pounds and pound in each hand, that's a good thing. A couple of of our athletes have picked some up as well. And they've also given us some very good reviews and Kevin, your online review of this product was fantastic. One of our more popular, YouTube videos ever produced. So I highly recommend and good call on your part to suggest a higher weight for some people. Then that would be beneficial as well. But yeah, I'm a fan of, I probably, you know, when I was running pre broken foot, okay. Probably half of my middle distance runs during the weekday. I would always have the run pods with me. Kevin Chang: I think the benefit that I didn't realize when we got them would be how conscious you are of arm swing and how it improves, really your running form, you know. Your arms, they have so much impact on your momentum, on your ability to run quicker run faster, you know, making sure that they're in time, making sure that you're, you're like shooting back with the correct arm all the time. So just that consciousness of where your arms should be. That helps quite a bit. And yeah, I mean, they did talk a little bit about the calorie burn and an increase in calorie burn and, and all that. But to me, it was all about, wow. It really does make you conscious about running form and where your, you know, where your upper body is. Bertrand Newson: So. And if somebody steps up on you, you can knock somebody out with them too. Where does that person have a little grenade? So there is a safety aspect to it as well. Kevin Chang: So that's true. That's true. If you like it, your podcast, and sign up for our newsletter, where we give you weekly tips on how to run your best race and have fun in the process. Just go to RaceMob dot com and sign up today. I know one of the most popular items that Seth James Damore talked to us about was the slant board. And I know that it was another thing that we talked about when Scott came up on the podcast. So for our audience who haven't, hasn't heard about those episodes Scott, tell us what a slant board is and why somebody might use it. Scott Strool: Yeah. So, this landlord board is it's, it's a piece of wood. It's a couple of pieces of wood that you can elevate into like a, a plank. And you, can you stand on it essentially to stretch your soleus as well as your calves. I hurt my soleus and my gastroc muscle just a few weeks ago. And. Instead of going to PT and spending a whole lot of money and doing stretches. I just stood on the slant board at the lowest level at first, and then gradually upgraded to the more steep angle. You just need to stand on it. And so you can stand on it while you're washing dishes or you can stand on it while you're watching and YouTube channel and or, or RaceMob and YouTube channel, or just any YouTube channel works with any YouTube channel, and... But just standing on it and you can also stand on it either way, so toes down or toes up, depending on what kind of stretch so you can change the direction. Sometimes I'll do some slight knee bend you know, simple squats to get to work, engage the calves and the glutes. And I'm finding it very useful. I use it a couple times a week. It's part of my, my extended workout, my extended home workout. And it's called thus Latin board. There are a couple of knockoffs, a couple of different models, but there'll be one on sale on Amazon, so anyone will work. But the, the one brand in this landlord is the original. Bertrand Newson: Pick mine up off of Amazon last year. And it's a have it underneath the, my work desk here. So very important. Very practical. Scott Strool: Yeah. It's ingenious. I mean, you could just stand on a curb and put your toes down. That's what we used to do, but you don't have to go outside now and it's, it's safe and the angle is really perfect because you can adjust it. Kevin Chang: Scott, the soleus. So I know how to stretch my calf muscle blood, but which muscles Scott Strool: The soleus is the muscle just below the calf. So it's between your ankle and your calf is your soleus. Kevin Chang: Ah, then maybe that's what I injured earlier this year and I probably should be stretching that out and strengthening of that. So that's. Scott Strool: There's a tendon called the gastro tendon. And that goes between your calf and your soleus. And that's the one that core. And I got to internal bleeding and actually got, you know, therapy for wow. But it's all better now took about, yeah. About a month to go away Bertrand Newson: Soleus train. Oh, soul, train him. Sorry. Scott Strool: Oh, there we go. Oh, that's a good idea for my next video. Kevin Chang: Well, one of those other products that we've heard recommendations for are these like Norma tech type boots. And I know that there are probably a couple of knockoffs that happen on Amazon prime day that are probably almost equally as good, but, oh, well, we'll probably get into some of these recovery ones. I think NormaTec is like top of the top of the top of the line. Like if you're really doing these ultras and, and going long distance I've heard. Some good things about, about the normal taxi. Do either of you guys use one? Scott Strool: I've only seen them. I have not experienced them yet. I saw them in the recovery room at, at, at our gym. But I did not get a chance to use them, but I'll tell you how popular they are and how much their, their revenue must be going up through the roof because the company was acquired by the company that makes the hyper volt massage. So Norma tech is now part of hyper volt. That's just an interesting aspect that, you know, they're doing well, that they were to get acquired. Kevin Chang: Yep. Bertrand Newson: That's I was just going to say that. Good, good call Scott. I have used them some race expos will have them. So you can go and sit and experience, and there is a location in the south bay where it would get cryotherapy and they also offer those boots as well. So we do a kind of, you know, two for one. Good. Yeah, just this pricey, you know, if the price point comes down, it's a good investment. But, you know, they have to you know, they, they, they're not, they're not cheap Kevin Chang: And what do they do, I mean, it's kind of like air compression and they, so you sit in, you put your legs in a boot. Are they, is it randomized where the compression is or are they trying to, to move blood around in, in very, particular motion or, or what? Bertrand Newson: Very, very good question is compression from like say pointer down to your ankles. And it, it is, it does rotate. The intensity does, and the location does so up down gradual more intense and the, you know, the, you can administer, you can affect the amount of intensity and certainly the duration as well. So, I mean, I've been in as long as 45 minutes to an hour. Then the times it's that comfortable when you get used to it, you can actually almost fallen asleep to it. So, and do I feel better afterwards? I mean, I have, some would say, do you do it before a long run or do you do it from a recovery standpoint post I'd like to do it before personally. So, and I know people that do both, one of our athletes to Cole has a, a pair. I don't know if it's this particular brand that we're talking about that has been acquired by hyper bowl, but yeah, she probably should be using them more. I'm calling you out Nicole, as active as you are. Use those boots more. Alright. Scott Strool: Yeah. That's like number one on my recovery list of items that I would, but I don't have, you know, you guys don't have a lot of stuff and that's one thing that's on my list. Looking forward to get one day. Kevin Chang: Yeah, well, I mean, while we're on the subject of recovery Scott has a fantastic YouTube video on the recovery items that he uses. So Scott, I break down some of those items for our podcast audience. What are, what are the things that you swear by and that you use? Scott Strool: I dig vibration. Good guys. If it vibrates, I like it. So the massage gun, the kind of vibration that you safe to do in front of the family. So but I just got this thing and this is an interesting, it's called a agility ball, but it's a massage ball. It's basically a massage gun in the form of a a small baseball. What's nice about this is you can kind of sit on it and use it in your either glutes or your back of your hamstring. Or even on your cash, but you can use this as a roller too. So this has been my new favorite that I just been experimenting with. The company that is sending me or allowing me to do reviews for them is called life pro fitness. They're just, they're a massage company, a recovery company. And I do like their products that life pro massage gun. The one that I like the best is the one called the pulse FX. That's the one that I ran on my channel. So I reviewed all of their, their, their products. I also use their foam rollers. So they have vibrating foam roller. So you're getting a massage at the same time as foam rolling. So you get a two for one there, their newest one, which is the last review that I did was their heated foam roller. So it has a heated sleeve that goes on top of it. So that it generates some warmth over your muscles, which kind of feels good in that. In the, you know, to just warm your muscles at the same time that you're stretching them out. Bertrand Newson: What those two or three items you just mentioned from that particular company. Can you give our audience an idea on the price point? Scott Strool: Yeah. The vibrating foam roller, the heated one, which is called the surger pro, it lists, or it can be found on Amazon for $119. I, I hope that they're going to have a promo. A lot of times it'll go on sale with a $20 coupon. And there's also a discount. I might, if you watch the, my review, there's a discount in the, in the video notes, to get 10% off lifetime from life pro fitness, the massage guns are in that $149 range. But the one that I have, what's nice about that is the, is really long. It has nine interchangeable heads. So it comes with a flat head, the, the pointer, if you want to get into some joints, Another one that I have is the LX mini at the last one. I want to talk about what's nice about that is it's a massage gun. That's about the size of a cell phone. If I was going to Hawaii next week, it would be certainly something that I would put in my bag and take with me. Kevin Chang: And when people are looking at massage guns, I know, I know that there are a couple of things that they should be taking a look at. You know, obviously the number of heads or different types of heads stall force is one of those things. It's like, oh, when will the, the head actually stall? How much pressure are you allowed to put on it before? You know, it completely freezes up. Noise. You know, some of them are like loud turbo engines and some of them, you know, are much quieter and much easier to to manage. And I think also penetration depth, like some of them have different depth at which they will hit your muscles. So I think that those are a couple of things. Oftentimes when you're taking a look at reviews or taking a look at specs of those products you want to take a quick look at how each massage gun and stacks up with each other as well. Scott Strool: Yeah. The life pro ones, they do have significant force. But yeah, compare where you're looking for. The one that I have does compare to the going that coach has the the one that most people are acquiring the... Bertrand Newson: Hypervolt. Scott Strool: The hypervolt. So it is similar to that in style. But it's, it's, I wouldn't call it a knockoff per se, but it is modeled in the to look like a hyper volt. Kevin Chang: I mean the hot hyper volts are our best of the best right there. You kind of cream it over off if you, Scott Strool: yeah. The two that you think about are hyper volt and Faragon, I think those are the ones that most people will have heard that Bertrand Newson: they start, they start. Scott Strool: Third gun is loud. Yes. Bertrand Newson: It's like a Jack hammer. There may be a sponsor in the future. So it's very, it's a great, great tool. Great tool. Kevin Chang: If you can't defend Scott Strool: a gun, you're also going to want it. I would get the Jaybird headset, Bluetooth headphones, the therapy. This should be a fine Kevin Chang: one. Get one, Bertrand Newson: a nice Bumble right there. That would be Scott Strool: a nice combo. They bundle for someone and some Bluetooth headphones. Kevin Chang: Yeah. I think, I think that there are guns. They just use like, those reciprocating saw saws, you know, and they just like tweaked it a little bit. So to put a little foam head on it, but it really is Scott Strool: sure the product I'm sure the prototype was just a Skilsaw. Kevin Chang: Yeah, exactly. Bertrand Newson: Wonder how those initial beta test went. Kevin Chang: Scott I know on your channel, you also have the recoup ice ball. That's another, so talk a little bit about like the ice. When do you use ice? When do you use heat? What are, what are, yeah. How are you using them? Scott Strool: The recoup fitness, the recoup ice ball is fantastic. No one actually won the one that I was giving away. So I'm going to reopen for prime day. Anybody who's listening to this will have to figure out a way Kevin, for someone to win one. Cause I have a few extras and I'd love to be able to share it. How you put it in your freezer. It's a little bit bigger than a baseball, smaller than a softball. Ice is great for when you first get hurt and you want to reduce inflammation. So I use it quite often if I have some pain and I'm just sitting in the couch and I want to roll out on my generally I'll use it on my hamstrings or, or my quads, even my low back. But what's great about it is it's it's just holding in your hand and it it's a ball. So it evolves inside its handle. Anybody can look it up. It's called recoup fitness. They sell for $50. And someone listening to this podcast can win one. Bertrand Newson: That's great. Yeah. I gift had one and actually re-gifted it. So they're probably listening and saying, oh, what's that I already Scott Strool: You gave it away? Bertrand Newson: I did. Cause I had other cold therapy remedies and I felt it was kind of repetitive. Yep. Scott Strool: Make a gigantic margarita that perfect for that too. Kevin Chang: I was going to say a whiskey ball and it kinda like that. Yeah. You don't want to dailies your whiskey, then you plop one of those right in there. This looks like a big pinball. Bertrand Newson: Yes. Kevin Chang: Hey, Scott, talk to us a little bit about you know, you had gifted us a couple of these deep blue rub which is fantastic. I used it on my ankle when I got injured as well. So talk to us a little bit about what's in these, what you use them for, where people can find them Scott Strool: Yes, so deep blue rub is a it's an ointment, that has, essential oils as well as other peppermint oil that really helps reduce pain. You can kind of think of it as the grown up Ben gay, you know, 20, 30 years ago, maybe our grandparents or my parents would use Bengay for a sore back. But this is much, much better. It's, it's healthy. It doesn't doesn't stain your skin. It does burn your eyes. So don't put it anywhere near your eyes, but I don't actually have my here, but deeply rub is it's a great product for just getting that recovery when you're feeling that pain. There's some more details about how it works and why it works on my, on my YouTube channel. But yeah, I did send it to you guys and let me know when you need more, where you get it down, you can get it from a company called doTERRA, to Tara has wellness advocates. So we recommend that you speak to a wellness advocate, to help you place an order. So you don't need to necessarily pay for it, pay at retail. And also the retail, the wellness advocate can help you determine what other products you might need to supplement your, your health and Bertrand Newson: endurance. Very handy, very practical. Had a couple of packets and thank you for the gift. As Kevin referenced, I was on a long trail. Run slash hike 20 plus miles, only two of our teammates were navigating through some hamstring discomfort and those deep blue packets saved them. It really did big fan of Scott. Is there any place where you prefer that it, the rub doesn't get applied? Scott Strool: Yeah. Anywhere where your underwear is, it should not be applied and anywhere where you wear your eyeglasses, those are the two Bertrand Newson: places hypothetical, or you're just asking for a friend you're blushing over there. Scott, what's going on there in New Jersey. Scott Strool: I mean, it's, it's, it's not safe near the Can I say the boys? Yeah, I did. Okay. You want to keep it away from there and certainly keep it out of your eye and your mouth. It's not, it's not ingestible. So you don't want to, if you have, if your lips hurt from kissing too much, that the deep blue is not gonna Bertrand Newson: all right. Deep blue. Kevin Chang: It's good. On the Bertrand Newson: bigger muscles. Yes. Quads, hamstrings, glutes calves. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Scott Strool: Yeah. Biceps to low back biceps, biceps and shoulders. I did some shoulder exercises last week and I definitely use too much weight. And the blue went on me for a few days. Bertrand Newson: The benefits of a ice bath spiked in a good way with Epson salt. You know, athletes will ask from time to time. Hey coach, what's a good way to recover. Especially after a long strenuous run in the heat or incorporating some elevation, you know, ascent and descent, you know, net gain loss, ice bath is a great thing to do, but I always recommend in that same breath, put some Epson salt in there as well. Just takes on a deep cut for me. It takes off that super cold edge. There's just a different level of muscle soreness, relieving effect that Epson salt has. I love it. Kevin Chang: That's so good. Interesting. I would've thought, and I don't know how it is as a, as a, if it's actually made of salt, like Epson salt, I guess I should take a look at it, but you know, salt makes ice colder, right? The freezing temperature lowers the freezing temperatures. So yeah, that would have, that is a surprise to me. I would've thought it would've been even more excruciating or even colder or a hard, hard to handle, but. You think that it works pretty well? Hi. Yeah, Bertrand Newson: for me, I, you know, an ice bath without Epson salt seems to be the edge is more intense. You know, it's like a little bit dark. Ah, when I filled it, they had the ice the, the, the absence salt in there. It does seem that I can tolerate the, the ice that the coldness longer. And then there's that, that the soothing component of the Epson salt, which brings to you as well. So it's it's a win-win. Kevin Chang: For our audience that, that doesn't know why you would do an ice bath. Talk to them a little bit about ice baths, when to do them, are you actually putting ice ,in your ice bath or just like cold water? Bertrand Newso: I think vanilla. I said it best ice, ice baby. And so as Scott referenced with the cold ball, Cold restricts blood flow. Then also promotes healing. And when you're coming off of a long, hard run or preparing for one. Ice bath is a good way to get your lower torso. So you're, you know, from your hips all the way down to the ankles, immersed in water and ice, it's very tough because the body's naturally going to react to want to get out. But you can in spurts for some people. If it's 30 seconds in 30 seconds, out 60 seconds in some people will get in with their socks on shorts on tights, on I've had athletes, recent athletes swear by, you know what, coach you've said it, you said it, you said it. I was reluctant, but I think it really helped me recover quicker. I would have normally skipped a day or two. I was able to still get in those workouts. And that's just putting you exponentially, you know, on your training plan or maybe getting you ahead of the game. So it helps you recover quicker to stay active versus, you know, when you're getting those hill repeats in or a long trail run along, you know, 15, 16, 18, 20 plus miler, it's going to help you get back to the game quicker. Kevin Chang: Love it, love it. Yeah. I mean, there's just, there's so much value to cold therapy, cold showers. You know, we talk both about like the hot and the saunas and those types of things, as well as cold and the benefits of cold that there's so much benefit to it. So probably with therapy, Bertrand Newson: what was it like Adam was, what did Adam Duran say? KC? His showers are. Kevin Chang: Cold showers. Yeah. Adam welcome talks about it too. I guess both Adams sometimes I'll jump into a cold shower as well. It has a lot of benefits in terms of brown fat and burning a lot more energy teaching your body to be more efficient. So it really does have a lot of weight loss benefits in addition to a lot of other benefits as well. So cold showers when you can. Scott Strool: I'm a big fan of that. I happened to have the privilege of belonging to a gym that has a cold plunge. Kevin Chang: Ah, that's cool. That's cool. Scott Strool: It's a small swimming pool. The water is about four feet deep about maybe three people can fit in it. And after I run, I go and get very often, the water, I just actually had to Google how much, what the temperature is. It, they keep the water between 50 and 55 degrees. That's really cold when your body is 98. So it's, you know, I can stay in. If I'm warm enough, I can stay in for about 15 minutes. Wow. And the longer I stay in the, you know, the more recovered, I feel it restricts the blood flow and then my legs feel brand new again the next day. Kevin Chang: Do you guys use anything else for recovery? Anything else that you would recommend our audience take a look at anything else for even like longer runs or anything that we haven't covered today that people should keep in mind? Bertrand Newson: One thing that we've been talking about consistently for the last several months as people are increasing their long run mileage is to really focus on dialing in your nutrition and hydration. We'll talk more about the, can have a whole podcast just on that. I know Scott is working behind the scenes, hard to get some running nutrition and hydration experts for our audience to get some Q and a with. But it's really important that you're not just training cardio and endurance on your longest. Also dial in your nutrition to experiment with a couple of different gels, a couple of different hydrations that work for you. So you're not guessing on race day. Kevin Chang: Coach. And I know that you have some recommendations on gels that you use that have worked well for you. I mean before we sign off, can you talk about some of the ones that have worked well for you? Bertrand Newson: I can certainly let's see, we'll start with a local west coast company, that's been making some waves in the natural vegan nutrition. They're called spring energy out of San Leandro, California in the east bay. They do very good work. What are the pluses one, a higher calorie count than typical jails too, because they're all natural item. You know, plant-based fruit-based that they are very stable for most runners on their stomach, so very low, very low GI distress. When you're ingesting those types of jails. Another gel that I will use is called. EGL been using those off and on for the last probably eight years. I have a, a good friend who completed a hundred K. Now I would not recommend this for everybody completed a hundred K taking Eagles and water. And this event had 12,000 feet of elevation gain. So that may be a unique circumstance very popular on the triathlon, circuit. Why? Because it's a double whammy in a good way because you're getting calories. Also. You're getting electrolytes in that as well. So it's kind of a 2, 1, 1. You're getting, so you don't have to take salt tablets with this. The pout size is a little bit bigger and the consistency for some, cause it can be pretty rich. It can be pretty sweet, but from an inner sustaining energy. Very good. Another thing let's see, Milton. Mere tin is a, I think, made from a derivative of seaweed. So it dissolves quickly gets the energy source into your system. Again, very stable on your stomach. That consistency is different from typical jails, almost like a, like a, a jello, when it comes out just a bit, but breaks down pretty quick and gets into your system, has a relatively neutral taste. They just came out last year. I believe actually in late 2019 with a caffeine based version as well. So those are, that may be a little caffeine sensitive. They have, you know, their, their primary brand does not have caffeine. There are certainly benefits to running with caffeine in your system and longer. And endurance runs even caffeine cycling, which is a co in our elite athletes are, or have been known to do something that we're going to be talking about. Scott, as you prepare for your marathon later this year. So those are a couple of brands that I will use frequently and highly recommend. Kevin Chang: That's great. Scott, do you, do you use anything else or, yeah, I like gels. Scott Strool: I started with the 50 cent Cliff Gel and quickly, grew up, grew up and started reading the labels. The ones that I like and that the nutrition company that I've been focusing I'm using is going to have a nutrition. They are headquartered in Whitefish, Montana, and they opened, they started selling products in 1986. And one of our favorite ultra marathon runners, Dean Parnassus is sponsored by hammer nutrition. And he's been with them since the nineties. So or if you want to run like Dean, I want to be a company with Dean then hammer, hammer nutrition is a good company. Bertrand Newson: It could work for sure. Scott Strool: So I do like their gels, like I kinda like their huckleberry one. When you go to Montana and you go up there, you're going to find a nice little Berry called the huckleberry. And it's like a little grape and they actually produced a huckleberry gel, which is the only place they are the only company that makes a huckleberry flavor gel it's delicious. You can just put it on your ice cream or... Bertrand Newson: What about you? Casey? I've seen you run a half marathon last year. You helped me get to the finish line for the virtual New York marathon. Kevin Chang: I think I just ate whatever, whatever was on the table. I ate everything. I just had everything, anything, whatever was given to me. yeah. Gummy bears. Yeah. I think there were like muffins. Yeah. Bertrand Newson: Ginger, ginger chews and other things. Kevin Chang: Ginger. Yeah. Yeah. And I know a lot of people, if they have GI distress yeah. We'll take ginger, ginger chews, or like Dean says he just takes a straight shot, like straight ginger root and it'll just shove it into his mouth. So, you know, I guess they use their own. I, you know, I think you guys are right when you do take a look at the ingredients for gels. To be aware of, you know, what people are putting in some gels or like just straight sugar. And they'll give you that high. They'll give you, you know, they'll get you a little bit, but then you're going to see that crash come right back. so, you know, pay attention to it. When I was first starting, I was just taking whatever was off the shelf, maybe a little caffeine whatever gel was kind of on sale. Now, I think, you know, a little bit more awareness on what's in that packet. Is there protein in that gel? Are there other things to help sustain your, your energy level over the longer distance? I think that's all pretty important as well. Well and I think with that, we're probably good for products for this Amazon prime day. We're going to have a lot more products. We're going to have Scott back on the program a lot more in the future as we kind of dive into other products. If there are other products that you guys are thinking about, buying other things that you want recommendations for, please go out to RaceMob.com/products. We do have a database of products that we do recommend we're adding to it all the time. We're taking your recommendations and the things that you guys love and there's links right on there to go ahead and recommend a product for us or to ask for recommendations. So go ahead and go to that page. Ask for recommendation, make a recommendation. Let's keep this database Bly for everybody going forward as well. And with that, we just want to say, thank you, Scott so much for joining us again again, first time or first time in a while, but not that we'll keep this segment going and make it continuous for, for a long, long time. So anytime guys. Awesome. Thank you guys. Appreciate it so much. And we'll, we'll catch you again next week. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the RaceMob podcast. Check out all of the show notes or find a running buddy online at RaceMob dot com. Please subscribe to us on apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave us a review until next time. Keep on moving.