Posts Tagged ‘ running ’

WWYWT? 2.5 miles of Brian McKnight?

May 1, 2012
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I’m actually just kidding about the Brian McKnight thing, but for some reason I can’t stop laughing at the absurdity of Brian McKnight’s latest Youtube vid… especially since one of my friends from high school brought it up this morning. Dude is on one for real! On to today’s run: Let me show you how your legs work on a 2.5 mile run when you are a big guy. Once again I was in pursuit of my son and his neverending goal of riding standing up. Watching him makes me forget I’m jogging because for the life of me I can’t remember having to learn how to ride a bike standing up. I just remember getting on the bike and automatically jumping hills and curbs.

Temperature: 82 degrees. It’s warm out but there was a small breeze which was great when I was running with the wind, but not so good when I was running against it.

Terrain: The suburban concrete jungle (with weeds, bugs and the non stop supply of lawn dudes chopping the grass.

Distance: According to Google Maps it was 2.5 miles.

Time: 25 minutes I have to stop  answering the phone during runs, but like Jon Coffee “I can’t hep it.”

Soundtrack: Talib Kweli on Pandora. I can definitely listen to the Talib station. Talk about classic material again and again! Rakim, Talib and the most memorable song during the run was Scarface: My Block. People forget how much of lyricist Scarface is. Most motivational track Dead Prez: Way of Life. The video below is not the actual video but it is a perfect representation of the song.

What was your workout today? Leave comments in the bottom if you want.

Stay motivated.

Need some running shoes visit the site www.arch-usa.com

 

WWYWT? More Roadwork – 5K? Better believe it.

April 25, 2012
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Wednesday morning!!!!!!Yesterday was officially my last college class as an instructor/professor. Very bittersweet moment overall. It was a great class, but it’s time to start a different phase of my life away from education after over 17 years. Sigh… enough of that. Today was more road work for the kid. I plotted a great map on Google and took off.

Temperature: 65 degrees. By the time I finished the run it had edged up to about 70 and the sun was pretty bright. It was still very nice weather for a run.

Terrain: The suburban concrete jungle, the skreets, the hood, actually just the sidewalk with moderate hills. Then again a lot of the street didn’t have sidewalks and the road was too narrow so I actually went off road today. My legs don’t like the instability of the grass and dirt.

Distance: According to Google Maps it was 3.3 miles. A 5K and it felt pretty easy just for the record. I ran a pretty decent pace as well.

Time: 36 minutes, give or take a phone call and some texting about a buisness meeting with my PR guy. Aspiring writers have to eat and if he can get some books sold (shoulder shrug).

Soundtrack: Pharoahe Monche channel on Pandora. I just can’t stop listening to this one channel.  Dopest song of the run? I Try: Talib Kweli featuring Mary J. Blige. For the life of me I can’t figure out why people really respect a lot of Hip-Hop artists out there. I guess it’s all a preference thing, but if I can get motivated and get political with a song that I can run too, why would I listen to anything else? I know… sometimes I just want to bob my head. What was your workout today? Leave comments in the bottom if you want.

Stay motivated.

Need some running shoes visit the site www.arch-usa.com

 

WWYWT? Running the Streets

April 23, 2012
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Monday morning!!!!!! I hope everyone had a great weekend and you are digging in for another week of work. I also hope you are still rolling on your own personal workout schedules and getting it in! Last week I finished the week with two days of virtual workouts on the Wii and on the Kinect. This week I started with a nice long jog with my son in tow. He rode his bike though, which is still pretty tough.

Temperature: 50 degrees. I’m trying to figure out what happened to the warm weather all of a sudden.

Terrain: The suburban concrete jungle, the skreets, the hood, actually just the sidewalk with moderate hills.

Distance: According to Google Maps it was 2.17 miles. I give myself 2.5 just for the record.

Time: 24 minutes, give or take a phone call. Hey, I’m a business… man.

Soundtrack: Pharoahe Monche channel on Pandora. I think I made a good decision in buying an Android phone finally. Streaming music is the bomb!!!!! I really didn’t know what I was missing.  Dopest song of the run? DWYCK: Gangstarr featuring Nice and Smooth. Talk about a song that was just right for the moment! On that note I have to drop the vid here and leave it up to you. What was your workout today? Leave comments in the bottom if you want.

Stay motivated.

Need some running shoes visit the site www.arch-usa.com

 

WWYWT? What Was Your Workout Today?

October 25, 2011
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Everyday you should do something that keeps the heart pumping. I hit the pavement again for today’s workout. While the weather may have changed at around 10pm the temperature is perfect for a nice jog. While most of you are probably working or in school at that time and you may find it hard to run, the weather is equally as nice at around 5-6pm. Let me know what you do in the comment area for a change. I know this is a sneaker site, but sometimes you have to use those expensive sneakers to relieve stress and keep the body in tune.

Exercise: Jogging/Running Shoes: ARCH CG097 II ES

Distance: 2.5 miles

Time: 25 minutes

Surface: Streets, concrete and grass in certain areas, moderate hills with one really big hill that I stayed on my toes and pushed it hard to climb

Soundtrack: Aesop Rock, Del, Talib Kweli, Common and Bilal.

Most motivating song of the run: Guerilla Monsoon Rap (Talib, Black Thought and Pharoah Monche)

What did you do today? Stay motivated and buy some kicks.

Chris B.

WWYWT? Running at Shelby Farms

October 2, 2011
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Woodland Park Shelby Farms

Actually I was supposed to post this on Friday. After playing some backyard soccer with my son and daughter, and basketball as the workout during the week, we took a family day to Shelby Farms in Memphis. They have an incredible park for the kids named the Woodland Discovery Park, which is surrounded by bike paths and trails. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get in a run out of the neighborhood. I only intended to run about a mile, since I was not familiar with the trails, but about 1 mile in I pulled a Bugs Bunny and took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

So instead of a 1 mile jog, I ended up running past the Pavillion taking a turn and entering one of the older trails that was off of the new path. Since I was lost, I just kept running and saw some of the coolest parts of the park, that I’m sure I wasn’t really supposed to see considering I ran across a family of deer. 

One of the many trails

Yep I ran far enough to actually experience wildlife and a mouth full of a swarm of gnats or some random bugs. I ended up gone for about 35 minutes, but with the change of scenery I kept a great pace and pulled off about 3.5 miles. My biggest issues when running is still my weight overall and actually my shoes. The CGs are going flat, and it’s about time. My feet actually were sore a little the next day, but overall it was a great run and my goal now is to find various locations and run them throughout the city of Memphis. Maybe I will keep everyone posted and you can join me, beat me, run past me… whatever you do get up, get out and do something.

Stay Motivated

WWYWT: What Was Your Workout Today?

September 9, 2011
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I was using Facebook Notes to do my updates for WWYWT? So today I decided to come back to the blog. For the past 2-3 weeks I was using the Wii for my workout. Don’t laugh… I dare you to do 10 matches on Wii boxing and 5 matches on Wii Tennis and then round it off with baseball, bowling and 9 holes of golf.  It’s an incredible workout. Seriously. I was on the Wii because I had a calf strain and I had to rest up but I didn’t want to lose the cardio.  With a calf strain it is very hard to toe off which means running is out of the question.

Yesterday I rolled off 2.5 miles. Today I went back to 3 miles. Using the Wii actually strengthened the muscle because in boxing I was lunging and in tennis I was doing toe raises.  So how did I do today?

Distance: 3 Miles on the road with several medium hills and one very big hill.

Time: 9:40-10:15 Not a very good pace at all. But those hills were tough. 35 minutes total.

Style: A combination of forefoot striking and heel to toe. My feet begin to roll towards the end.

Shoes: CG097II I continue to love the lightweight feel of the shoe. Although I can feel a lot of the rocks in the street, the lack of weight allows me to keep a solid stride instead of dragging my feet.  In most shoes for big guys the shoes add another 5 lbs which over the course of a 5K can really slow you down.

Soundtrack: The Reunion Mixtape- Talib Kweli and DJ High Tek.  Excellent running music.

Get up, get out and do something!

Stay motivated.

Summer 2011: What I’m Working on Now-ARCH CG097II

August 18, 2011
By

CG097 II GA

Okay it’s been a couple of years and I’m right back to square one again, starting over. When I made the basketball shoe sample it drained the funds. I began selling more Nikes, Adidas and various brands to recoup. I was making great headway and was generating between 4-6K per month with ebay and street hustling. The money was coming back in. I had stopped working and was focusing solely on sneakers because I could. I paid for the new samples of the CG and took design cues from Ian Gale. He stressed changing the materials for looks. I didn’t realize that this would also create a lightweight jogger. First though the ebay stuff.

 

If you’ve been following my updates on www.centercourtbasketball.com then you know that I lost a lot of income due to a crappy resolution on ebay. I had raised enough money to take a vacation and pay for the samples of the new CG. Everything was rolling along and then I got back from vacation. I was supposed to take a month of testing on the CG and then place a production order. The problem was I returned and the location where I sold shoes had been shut down because the people selling counterfeits had been busted by the cops, DEA, ICE, Homeland Security, basically everybody. The problem was they also took out us legitimate vendors by closing the whole place down. That hurt, but losing my ebay account added to the problem and led to a situation where I also lost that extra 3k per month. Just like that I was working on reserve money and I couldn’t complete the order. All of this has been within the last two months. I made a great running shoe and now it’s on the shelf until I raise enough capital to get it completed.

Side and bottom

When running a business decision making is difficult. You never know what is going to happen, but you keep pushing along. Here are the pics of the updated CG097II. It has been testing very well and the switch to a combination of smaller compressed foam, and rubber in sections along with a small TPU has created a lightweight running shoe that will be perfect for a fall launch since I kept the panels from the original shoe. The outsole was inspired by a Nike Hayward design and an Adidas torsion system. Both great running shoe features. I’m excited about this shoe and the goal is to get back in a position to make the shoe without any debt. That means some serious hustling.

ARCH Summer 2010 – CG097 Running Shoe

August 17, 2011
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After the success of the Tori, I decided to get back to my roots in sports. Since I don’t play basketball as often as I use to, I decided that I would dive into training. My background as a NFHS certified coach and my camp coordinator experience led to the creation of the CG097 running shoe. I developed an idea called P Grip which placed rubber lugs where the foot strikes the ground during running. The goal was to minimize the amount of rubber to decrease the weight. The concept was great but the actual production model of the shoe looked akwward because of the outsoles use of foam. The shoe took its inspiration from two of my favorite brands: New Balance and Nike. The name was derived from my boot camp company 097 and my point guard who was murdered in San Diego last year: Courtney Graham. I made only 120 pair of these shoes and sold out. I took the profits though and did something that wasn’t smart. I worked on a basketball shoe sample. I should have continued making colorways. The cost of my samples drained my resources and I haven’t released a shoe since the summer of 2010.
Chris Dixon the winner of the Future Sole Jordan Brand contest made the white colorway. The video below is of me running in the original sample. My current CG097II takes its cues from the original sample and uses a blend of two technologies, but remains faithful to the lightweight concept of using foam.

1st sample

Chris Dixon colorway

production blue/grey

P-Grip

WWYWT?: What Was Your Workout Today?

August 2, 2011
By

Since I redesigned the website I erased a lot of information on the update of the CG097II running shoe. I will try to update as much as I can here. I took about 9 days off from running to concentrate on the business since the big collapse from ebay and the market. Read about that below. Big mistake in regard to my conditioning. I was getting my mile back to under 10 minutes and moved back to 2-3 miles per day. Today, just to get the feel back I ran a short distance, but I used long strides.

Distance: 1.1 Miles on the sidewalk with one medium sized hill. 

Temperature: 90 degrees, heat index 95.

Notes: I am still working on my forefoot strike form to reduce injuries, knee and hip pain, and it is working. My calf muscles are burning and it feels like my achilles is straining some, but there isn’t any pain at all, just tightness. I was able to complete the mile without resorting to using my whole foot when I felt slightly tired.

Shoe Notes: I have had the sample for over a month now and Ian and I have redesigned the shoe. We lowered the collar around the ankle which is the biggest change. Ian suggested an increase in the size of the logo and an added heel pull tab. I wish I could go ahead and make another sample and do the order, but finances have slowed the project down considerably. Which is perfect since the side panels on the shoe were made for Fall running and wear. Back to the shoe. The foam is beginning to compress, which place the foot closer to the ground when running. This isn’t a bad thing. I can feel the ground and I am responding a lot better and not resting my feet between each footstrike. I am staying on the balls and midfoot where the rubber is on the shoe. I have been using the outside of the my foot some and the foam is shredding some, but the shoe is still very responsive. It is still an 8 out of 10. I need to decide on the shoe insert. The thicker foam insert slips some although it does provide additional cushioning, heavier runners may feel some problems with stability.

Soundtrack: Mos Def “Roses” from The Ecstatic 3:42 seconds, Fashawn “Intro” from Boy Meets World 2:17, DJ Quik feat. AMG “Trouble” from the Best of DJ Quik 3:39, Mos Def “Ghetto Rock” from The New Danger 2:00 minutes. Total time 11:00

Overall: Not a very good time, but that’s my fault for taking all of that time off. Anyway, What Was Your Workout Today?

stay motivated

Part 8: Moving From Ebay – Weekend Update and Websites

July 25, 2011
By

Click the pic to read another guys f-ebay story

July is like the longest month of the year and in Memphis, it’s the hottest. Almost every day has been 100 plus. This makes it real hard to stay motivated, but I am consistently challenging and changing the business profile as I continue to work on strategies to help other sneaker lovers out there, move and retake their power in this biz. If you haven’t been checking up on this. I have moved on from ebay, after one of the worst customer service problems ever. I have been documenting this move and just to update you here are all of the links to each article. Once again, the reason I’m doing this is because I just think sneakerheads and small biz people have to have information available. I may not be Nike, or Adidas, but I can teach and if I have info, not sharing is like having a fresh pair of kicks and never wearing them, well wearing them at least once. Here are the backlinks:

Part 1: Copping Sneakers For A CustomerPart 2: Sneaker Shop UpdatePart 3: I Found A New Way To AuctionPart 4 Another Way to BidPart 5 Check out how Ebid LooksPart 6 Updates and InformationPart 7 Don’t Forget Your Refund

My latest update includes the relevant information to help you make an informed decision on how to recreate your website. I am also going to give you the quick list of wholesale kicks I’ve moved this week into the weekend. The www.ebid.net auction site has not worked out at all and I will let my account expire at the end of the month. It will take more sneaker people to move from ebay for ebid to be formidable in the sneaker community. Once again, I’ve posted my Facebook Ad stats and I will say this about Facebook, actually read what I’ve written here: Is Facebook Good For Small Biz? Facebook has so many of the fake Nike/Jordan boot posts that legitimate sneaker heads are being blocked and spammed because people are tired of seeing it. This is a problem Facebook needs to fix or the sneaker community will have a lot to say about it. So this past week was good. Did a wholesale deal for a client that gave him True Blues, AJXI Lows, and Retro Foams for an average of 105/pair. He is a great customer and it was basically private shopping. I didn’t use any of my own cash. I also made a move to a new market locally. My three day total from the new market with no traffic was 910.00. Not bad for about 100 people total coming through. I think I may have found my spot to set up in for the next few months. As the heat begins to die down, the amount will undoubtedly rise.

On to the information, this is really a repost from something I posted on www.stepbystepsneakers.com Facebook page. Since Kels is going through a redesign, which is good since he is making the site cleaner and more accessible, people are giving him information on the site and one of the comments was that he should use Big Cartel. What most people don’t realize is that sneakerheads are in a unique position of authority. The problem is sneakerheads give their power away because of fear. They are afraid to sit on shoes so they give ebay insane amounts of fees to list, they pay Big Cartel monthly fees for pages that they can’t monetize, they give paypal money from every transaction and then most of them don’t have accounts with Fed Ex, or UPS and they miss out on great discounts as well as getting their sneakers to customers maxima cum celeritate (With Great Speed). That’s latin. I’m keeping it edumucated. Here is my response:  

You should not use Big Cartel. Not hating on the product, but WP (www.wordpress.org) offers a ton of various looks that can create clean and simple layouts, but there are also premium templates that can be purchased once without monthly fees. You know like I know that sneakerheads like to see more than one pic for authenticity so if you buy a premium store template from WP you can set up a store that is more concise and doesn’t charge you monthly fees on top of the paypal transactions. Big Cartel looks good and is a great starting tool, but you could definitely make sure you have 3rd party hosting, install WP and then purchase one of the store formats (This blog has a great update on WP E-Commerce) and go from there. Not to mention I don’t think you can monetize bigcartel. No one is too rich not to have ads.
Sneakerheads have to take their power back from ebay and begin recouping some of the crazy fees these companies are making. Big Cartel is nice if you only post one pic it’s free and you advertise for Big Cartel in your sneaker shop name, so other people set up big cartel. The minute you have to add discount codes or an extra pic it’s 9.99 a month and up. Every little bit helps when you are starting out. Why am I posting these updates? It’s important to share information. I’m bringing control back to sneakerheads everywhere through these posts! Spread the word and if you run, buy some kicks below.
Stay motivated, Chris B. 

The ARCH CG097 II Test Samples: Ebony/Scarlet

June 27, 2011
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Last year I released my first running shoe to pretty good success. The CG097 was made of suede and mesh and was really geared towards fall/winter joggers. The problem was the shoe tried a new idea I had called P-Grip which only used rubber in segments of the shoe. The shoe also clocked in over 1lb which is not very good for a running shoe. (Pictures after the link). Read more »

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