So what did you get?

Now that Christmas is over we can all stop talking about how it’s better to give than to receive and we can start boasting about all the great gifts we got. Did you get any good running gifts for Christmas? Go ahead, make us all envious. I tell you what, I’ll start.

I got all kinds of running apparel, cold gear, hot gear and gift cards to buy whatever-the-hell-I-want-gear, but the one thing that you’ll all be jealous of is the slap bands that I got in my stocking. Not just any slap bands, but reflective slap bands. They go on my wrists or on my ankles or anywhere I want to be reflective, and perhaps more importantly they make me want to do the Electric Slide. Come let me take you on a party ride. And I’ll teach you, teach you, teach you, I’ll teach you the electric slide.

Half-Fast - Now With 50% More Cross Training!

As you know if you've been reading this blog for any length of time I've been using the FIRST half marathon training plan. This plan calls for 3 runs a week and 2 or 3 cross training days. Until now, I've been using soccer as one of my cross training days and doing strength training for the other. I'll now by adding a third cross training day by riding my brand new bike! My lovely wife got it for me on my birthday, it was a total surprise. Almost. (More on that story here, if you're so inclined.)

No, unfortunately mine does not have cool spinners like this one.

I'm so excited. I haven't owned a bike since I was 15, because I figured once I could drive what was the point of a bike? Remember those days? When you were too cool to be seen riding a bike because you drove a car. I remember driving around during the summer months with Will Smith's Summertime blasting on the speakers, wearing my mirrored sunglasses and rockin' a hyper-color T-shirt. How cool was I? (That's rhetorical, please don't answer it.)

Anyway, here's a list of things that I know about bike's:

• They have 2 wheels.
• You have to pedal them to make them go.
• They have gears.
• The seat is not comfortable - I learned this from my first ride this past week.

And that pretty much sums up my knowledge on the subject. So if you know of any helpful websites or have any helpful advice for a newbie cyclist like "don't ride on the street against oncoming traffic like a runner," or "don't stretch cold muscles before you cycle" (where were you guys on that one?) then please feel free to leave it in the comments or shoot me an e-mail.

I don't plan on becoming a serious cyclist or even competing in triathlons, I'm just a runner who doesn't want to have to run every freakin' day, so this is something that will help me to maintain fitness on days that I'm not running.

Why Vanilla?

In the comments section of my 100th post, Marcy asked the question posed in the title. Why did I choose the name Vanilla as the name to post and comment under? The answer is really quite simple, that's my real name. Not my first name, it's my last name: Pete Van Illa. No? Not buying it? Ok, how about this:

My real name is Vernon Angus Neilson (V.A.N.) and I have always thought that I was a pretty illin' dude, to use the 80's street slang. Hence VAN-illa. Ok that was worse than the first one.


Here's the truth. I began using Vanilla as a username a while back on various message board forums. I picked the name to keep my true superhero identity secret. (So much for the truth.) I've always maintained that I'm a plain vanilla kind of guy, what I mean by that is that I'm pretty boring and incredibly average. 1 wife, 2 kids, 1 dog living in a moderate house in suburbia (mine is the beige one), working in an office, driving an SUV, blah blah blah. It came down to Vanilla or some variation of Average Joe and the more I thought about it the more Vanilla made sense. I really do prefer vanilla to any other flavor of ice cream, I order vanilla latte's, vanilla milkshakes, and vanilla frappuccinos. And if it makes you think that I'm like Vanilla Ice, who is quite obviously the coolest person on the face of the planet, well then that's even better for me.

Check out this video and tell me you don't wish you could be that cool. He's the epitome of cool.


Laugh all you want but you know you wanted to get up and dance to that.
If you were so inclined you could find my real name quite easily from the information that has been given in various posts over the past 4 months, but then I'd have to get a restraining order against you. Besides, you'd just be disappointed because I'm much more interesting and there's a lot more mystery and intrigue if you continue to know me only as Vanilla.

So what is my real name? I'll give you a clue; You can spell it using the letters in VANILLA, not all of them, and not my last name just my first name. Your guesses* in the comments, plus whatever else tickles your fancy. I may even tell you if someone gets it right. Word to your mother.

*Guessing competition not open to family members. Must be a US resident at least 18 years of age or older, other restrictions apply.

New Running Shoe Technology

I admit that I’m always skeptical when I hear that, but in this case I think it’s valid. Today I came across Newton Running and was very impressed by their website, apparently they’re located right here in Boulder, Colorado so you see, good things do come out of Boulder.

They have engineered a line of shoes that are designed to make your feet feel like you’re running barefoot which causes you to land on your forefoot, which in turn reduces injury risk and is a more efficient way to run. Essentially, your feet are suspended on a hammock over the sole of the shoe, but you should check out their website for a more technical description of how it works.

When I hear ‘hammock’, I’m thinking about relaxing, not running and I’m biting my tongue to suppress the childish ‘banana hammock’ joke that must be in there somewhere.

I will say that I’m genuinely intrigued by these shoes and I’m seriously thinking about giving them a try but I’ll have to wait until they come down in price because I’m not going to pay $155 for shoes that look like they’re straight out of the 80s. So if you’re going to buy some, be sure to wear them with your matching slap bracelets and dig up the old leg warmers to complete the look. And remember, if you’re planning on running early in the morning: Wake me up before you go go.

Tip of the hat to The Goat for finding this first (or before I did at least).