Helly Hansen Trail Lizards - a competent shoe for shorter trail runs

Helly Hansen is a Swedish outdoor apparel and equipment company that specializes in durable rain gear. In addition, they have a full line of shoes including several trail runners. We put one of these trail shoes, the Helly Hansen Trail Lizards, to the test at Long Island's Stillwell Preserve. Our exploration of the preserve covered over 4 miles of variable terrain that included wooded trails and open fields. The challenging course varied from packed dirt to mountain bike singletrack to loose sandy soils and wide puddles. This variety allowed us to prove the shoes' versatility.

Men's Trail Lizard

Initial impressions for the men's shoe raised concerns about the total volume of the toe box, which seemed roomy at the expense of side-to-side stability. The shoe provided more than adequate front-to-back stability up and down steep hills. The Trail Lizards felt responsive off the heel in a way that encouraged forward motion.

Women's Trail Lizard

The woman's shoe offers the same features and last as the men's shoe although it did not have the same roominess in the toe box. The most you can ask from a shoe is to do its job without broadcasting its existence and the Trail Lizards did just that. For the first quarter mile I actually forgot I was testing the Trail Lizards. While the soles were rugged, they still allow you to feel the trail.

The Trail Lizards proved themselves as a good shoe for variable surfaces but the roominess, especially on the men's model, worked against us near the end of the run. The instability from shifts during lateral movements made the shoes less comfortable by the time we reached the four mile mark. The lack of waterproofing in the shoe undercut their utility as it required that we awkwardly step around large puddles that could be forded directly with a more capable Gore-Tex equipped shoe. Another limitation to the shoe is its performance on harder surfaces. We found that their responsiveness on the trail did not translate well to paved roads. The men's shoe did not provide enough support in the arch to allow comfortable runs for more than a quarter of a mile. The woman's shoe fell short on the street as well, as Adventure Girl reported pronounced shin pain after a couple of miles running on the road. Granted, these shoes are not marketed for road running.

Many trail running shoes now come with drawcord style lacing systems that do not require tying. The Helly Hansen's lacing is traditional and employs webbing in the place of eyelets. Even though it wasn't overly engineered, the lacing allowed for a comfortable, snug fit that again helped combat the roominess in the toe box.

The men's models come in four different color combinations and the women's are offered in three. All available colors would well withstand the inevitable dirt accumulated during trail running. All in all, it's an attractive shoe.

We pondered the question of whether the Helly Hansen Trail Lizards would be a good replacement for my New Balance 460's or Adventure Girl's Salomon XA Pro 3D XCR trail runners. Due to the limitations we experienced on the trail we both felt that we'd stick with the incumbents for our upcoming 10K trail race. The Helly Hansens will be put to good use for shorter trail runs in dry conditions, especially when a lighter shoe is desired.

Reported by Adventure Girl and the Emerging Runner

Fruit2O Essentials Water - Sucralose Sweetness

After a 4.7 mile run in high heat and humidity The Emerging Runner and I were excited to sit down in front of six well-chilled bottles of Fruit2O Essentials water for a taste test. The flavors we'd been provided were exotic and broad-ranging. Each claimed that they acted as a substitute for one's daily recommended allowance of fruit, contained zero carbs from sugar, and offered electrolytes and vitamins ranging from phosphorus to B6. We each sampled all six flavors in moderate quantities. You can see our set-up in the below photo.

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As we tasted each flavor we jotted down immediate impressions on Post-It Notes, and after tasting all six, ranked all flavors in order of preference. Here's a sampling of our notes:

• Peach Mango: Strong fruit smell with decidedly more peach than mango. Too sweet to be refreshing. Neither strongly preferred nor disliked by either The Emerging Runner or Adventure Girl.
• Citrus: Smells like grapefruit. Tastes like lemonade. Most refreshing of all flavors. The Emerging Runner's flavor of preference.
• Strawberry Kiwi: Very mild aroma. Tastes like strawberry Jello. A close runner up to Citrus and Cranberry Raspberry.

• Blueberry Pomegranate: Fresh blueberry scent. Taste is too strong and complex for water, and hints of astringent. A runner-up to Cherry Acai for least preferred.
• Cranberry Raspberry: Milder scent than other flavors. Subtle, balanced flavor. Adventure Girl's flavor of preference.
• Cherry Acai: Smells like wild cherry cough drops and tastes like cough syrup or watered down cherry soda. Both The Emerging Runner and Adventure Girl ranked this flavor least preferable.

In conclusion, the drink's sweetener, sucralose, which is known to be 600 times as sweet as table sugar (it's the sweetener in Splenda), was just too cloying to be refreshing. Both The Emerging Runner and I will stick to water for now.

Finally, Fruit2O Essentials is sponsoring a driven young woman who is attempting to become the youngest woman to run cross country. We applaud Fruit2Os sponsorship of Katie Visco and her cause which she's dubbed Pave Your Lane.

QStarz GPS Sports Recorder - Does the Q stand for Quirky?

The Qstarz BT-Q1300S Sports Recorder is a GPS enabled device that can be used by runners, walkers, cyclists or anyone who wishes to capture real time data about their sports activities. The device is about the size of a luggage tag and comes with an armband that helps the user position the unit for ideal performance. Also included with the BT-Q1300S are cables for connecting the Sports Recorder to a PC and a cable that can be used to charge the unit using your car’s power outlet. The unit can also be charged via USB when connected to the PC. The included application software for downloading and sharing Qstarz data only works for PC's with no Mac support at this time. The device itself is simple. There's a mini USB on one side and a small adjacent button for turning the unit on or off. That's about it. When this button is pressed there are four icons that illuminate in different colors that represent different things depending upon how they animate. The manual describes these differences, but just barely.

Adventure Girl and I have used the Qstarz BT-Q1300S on a number of occasions to track runs, both on the street and on trails. The capabilities of the Qstarz are impressive but using the device can be confusing. So are the results that you get after downloading the data. Our primary observation about the Qstarz BT-Q1300S is that it seems like it was designed by engineers who don't really understand a runner’s needs. To be sure, much lost in translation from this Taipai-based company. The manuals, and even their website, suffer from the lack of clarity. This is a description from their website:

"Sports Recorder is the most suitable GPS for use in every kind of sports activities which is capable of recording your sports and applying them in QSports software to analyze track, calculate calories, monitor your personal health, and project training plan."

The first time we ran with the device we were, in equal parts, impressed and confused. The Qstarz accurately captured the route around the neighborhood and it showed the run path on a Google Map-like interface (A) along with charts that displayed speed and elevation over time (B). However, some of the summary data (C) didn't seem to make sense as the average speed was far from what we’d expect and some distances appeared to be in miles and while others were in kilometers.

I quickly discovered a problem that has plagued us the whole time we've tested the unit: you’re never quite sure when the Qstarz is on or off. While we recognize that satellite acquisition can be tricky for all GPS-enabled devices, we observed that the Sports Recorder often failed to log data for the first 1.5 to 2 miles of a run. In some cases the average speed for a run event suffered because the Qstarz dutifully recorded long after it had been brought it into the house. Other times the path displaying our runs were noticeably off from our actual routes. It sometimes appears that we are running through people's homes and yards instead of on the path that we actually followed.

Adventure Girl tested the QStarz Sports Recorder during a trail race and remarked that at the frenzied start of a race it can be difficult to confidently engage the very small button that starts the Sports Recorder. Instead of a single push button, the device would be improved with a sliding button that can toggle between on, off, and log. Adventure Girl also noted that while the Sports Recorder is lightweight, the arm band itself was too large for her arm causing the band to occasionally slip off or flop around. The device also has a key chain loop that could potentially rub against a runner’s skin. That said, AG enjoyed using the Sports Recorder to determine the length of a few, favorite trail runs that she’d never been able to accurately measure. After obtaining the initial satellite lock, the QStarz did a commendable job tracking these routes that were covered thickly by trees.

One great feature of the Qstarz is its capability to export a KML file, an XML file that plugs into Google Earth and shows all your run metrics (Latitude and Longitude, speed, elevation) at frequent intervals. This showed how and where my pace had slowed during the run. The biggest issue is that the speed data only appears in kilometers even when preferences are set to miles. This export allows users to share their run data with other Qstarz users, a handy feature for running teams that are planning a trail route.

A fundamental issue with the Qstarz Sports Recorder is its opaque nature. You never quite know if it's on or off. When it is on you never know how well you are doing, only how well you've done after you upload the event data and look at it through the interface. The lack of data availability mid-workout is a limitation that cannot be dismissed, but it’s easy to get hooked on downloading the KML or KMZ file to review in Google Earth post-run. The waypoints (data representing specific points in time) can show running speeds in both out and back runs, a helpful feature for tracking fitness and performance between the beginning and end of a run.

The device is priced at $99.95 at Amazon, an excellent price for a featherweight GPS device that provides some impressive capabilities. The trade off is its quirky, “diamond in the rough” nature, confusing documentation and the fact that you cannot view run performance data in real time, only upon download. It’s a great tool for certain things but the lack of feedback during the run negates its value as a replacement for a Garmin, Nike+, Sunnto or other GPS unit.

Review by the Emerging Runner and Adventure Girl

Moji to Go Test #1 - Soccer Game

Based on feedback provided in the earlier Moji review, the Moji folks graciously sent along a companion product for the Moji Knee known as Moji to Go. This product allows you to keep the Moji Cold Cell (see image above) at a usable temperature outside of a freezer for up to 6 hours.

A more complete review will be posted in the next few weeks, but here is some initial feedback.

After a soccer game, and 3 hours after being removed from the freezer and placed in the Moji to Go, the Cold Cell was practically as cold as when removed from the freezer! It was also handy to have the Moji to Go ice sticks because a teammate injured his ankle a few minutes before the end of the game and the sticks functioned as a temporary source of ice. (I was tempted to try wrapping the Moji Knee around his ankle!) The Moji Knee provided excellent cold and compression for my knee for 30 minutes after the game, and being able to use it as soon as the game ended was a delight and surely was terrific for my knee.

I'm again very impressed with the quality of the Moji products, and I look forward to setting up a test that will require the Moji to Go to keep the Cold Cell frozen for close to 6 hours. It sounds like a good reason to visit some of my favorite, but distant, running trails. A complete review will be posted after that test!