Saturday 19 October 2013

Community powered sports? I like the sound of that..

Hey folks, thought I would do a post about a very interesting company that got in touch with me recently...


What really interested me about these guys was how they have gone about things.

"Community powered sports" was the thing that got my attention and made me look a little deeper.


"On August 7 2013, Tribesports launched a Kickstarter campaign. We invited sports people everywhere to join us in our mission to revolutionize the sportswear industry, creating the  world’s first community-powered sportswear range. The 30-day campaign ended at 400% of the original funding goal and the first ever Tribesports Performance range is now in production.
We will be working with our community, customers and backers to design, spec and spread the word about Tribesports Performance wear. From providing the training data that tells us what kit you really need, to color choices, to technical features, to modelling the finished product – the Tribesports community are in charge."


The idea is simple really, use the same designers, the same fabric and the same factories with a bit of a twist.
By using folks like myself who are happy to blog about this kind of stuff, they can keep the costs down and pass it on to the final consumer instead of being tied up in all the other rubbish that is far to complicated anyway! WIN!
According to the website this means we could be getting some tip top gear for 40% cheaper than we would by heading for a shop! Brilliant! Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie!

But alas! At the bottom of the site it reads "TribeSports online store coming November 2013" GAH!!

HOLD UP! Never fear my faithful chums I have been chatting away with the wonderful Tribes-persons (is that actually a word?)  and I have some concept artwork that I can share with you!!!
I'm good to you eh?!


   



So what do we think so far? Well I for one am really excited the get my hands on some of the gear and give it a good thrashing! :)

Apart from the gear it also has to be said that the website has a really nice community feel to it. When you sign up you can take part in challenges and join "Tribes". So far im really liking it. You can sign up through Facebook or Twitter which I thought was a nice touch if you want to share things with ease.
There is almost too much to do on there! Challenges, training, workouts, questions, discussions and tons more! I am only just scraping the surface really.

Head over to the site and have a look for yourself and while your there keep and eye out for a certain Cardiosaurus G! *wink *wink! Click here to go there now (TribeSports)

Keep your eyes peeled for updates as hopefully I should be getting some bits to review! :D

Catch up with you all soon!

Cardiosaurus

Monday 7 October 2013

Just your average run....with Scott Jurek!!!!! *UPDATED*

So what would you do if your saw one of the greatest ultra runners in the world was not only in the UK, he was going for a fun run only a 45 minute train journey from your house?!

So I got up at 5am and stumbled myself to the train station by 6.
Arrived at Marble Arch at 7am and paced about a bit to keep warm and hope I was in the right place and it wasn't cancelled or something. You know how your brain gets when you are excited?!

I`m there on my own, 45 minutes early due to it being my only train choice with plenty of time for my mind to come up with every option of why he wouldn't show.

A few more people arrive and we cross the road and stand at Speakers Corner taking a wild guess that we are there for the same reason as we are all sporting our best t-shirts. I of course wouldn't do such a thing I just happened to pick up my gleaming, crisp, white NDW50 t-shirt *huh hum* moving swiftly on....

We have a nice chat and I`m pleasantly surprised to find a lot of the people there are sporting half marathon t-shirts so I ask how many are ultra runners (maybe a dumb question?)
So many people answered that they were working on it with a small smile but most were at around half marathon experience. Some of course were ultra folk and a few were pretty hardcore. One guy I was chatting too had been doing them for 7 years and was wearing his latest UTMB shirt. He even dropped back to watch me run to give me some tips on why my Hamstring and Achilles give me problems. The suggestion was to start doing one legged pistol squats to strengthen my left side as my left knee very slightly drops in. Other than that he said there is no problem with my form at all. WIN!!

Thanks Ewen (hope that's how you spell it)!! This is why I love Ultra folk!

Right just to backtrack a little....
Speakers Corner, about 20 people now and its getting close to 7:45am. 
Bang on time a group of about 30 runners with Scott in the middle come bopping up the path and join us.
Lots of pictures and autographs later and with gentle buzz of excitement we all set off at 8am.

The pace felt steady and comfortable. We were all chatting away and I was surprised to see that we were doing about 8:30 to 9 minute miles! Most of my training runs are about a minute a mile slower, guess it was the atmosphere helping us all along. It really showed me that I could step up my training over the winter and hopefully get a little quicker.
It was such a nice experience to just be among so many runners and not be racing. Just a group of people having a run with a top ultra runner. :D
Myself and Scott Jurek! Wow I look small ha ha ha!
Every couple of miles we would stop somewhere and pick up another small group and move on. People dropped in and out as some went to work, some had other commitments but all left with big smiles on their faces after exchanging goodbyes and waves with Scott.
Strangely enough I have never run around London before even though I live pretty close. It was so nice to be out so early and it felt more like an open bus tour as we ran around the popular tourist sites, before looping round and finishing off back in Hyde Park 7 miles later. 
We arrived at a coffee shop as people were running past taking part in the British Heart Foundation Hyde Park Run. Just to show the pure passion for the sport of running this man has regardless of distance, he clapped and whooped the runners as they came past then went back to chatting with the rest of us!
He then gave away some free stuff, signed things, posed for pictures and chatted with everyone that wanted to. Then came the idea that as I don't wear running shoes maybe he should sign my foot......then maybe get it tattooed, you know just for the laugh! :)
So I approached Scott and asked him if he thought it would be funny or well......just creepy! Thankfully he thought it would be funny and said that a guy he met once had one on his arm. So much to the amusement of everyone around this happened.... 
I have not managed to get an appointment with a tattooist yet but I shall do a quick post as soon as its done!
Ha ha ha nuts I know but its got to be done right?!
Scott Jurek signing my foot! :)

Ciao for now!
Cardiosaurus

*************************UPDATE!*************************************

As promised folks here is the finished piece!