Headlines

🚴 Kyrgyzstan Crowns local Champion: The Silk Road Mountain Race is no easy feat but it was Austin, TX’s own Hannah Simon (USA) winning the grueling 1,939 kilometer course over 8 days, 20 hours, and 16 minutes. Not only was Hannah the first woman to finish, she also finished 9th overall. Most impressive though, she rode 400km’s on a pedal spindle. Read more…

🏃 30 Marathons, 30 Days: “A humbling experience.” That’s what UK’s Spencer Matthews said after completing The Great Desert Challenge in Jordan. Running for charity, Matthews now holds the Guinness World Record for most marathon distances completed on sand in one month by a male. Read more…

🏊🚴🏃 NHL Legend Headed to Kona: I’m convinced if you’re a pro athlete in one thing, you can just about do anything else. That’s the case for retired NHL (National Hockey League) defenseman Zdeno Chara. Guy spent 24 years playing hockey, transitions to IRONMAN, does a 10:40 and qualifies for the World Championship in Hawaii. As simple as that. Watch out for the 6-foot-9 come October 26. Read more…

🏃 4:05 mile… at 15-years-old: My brain actually can’t compute this, especially at such a young age. But the Brits are taking over and it shows. Evan Grime’ just set a world’s best mile time in the UK U17 distance. Read more…

…but let’s talk the Beer Mile: Yes, it’s a serious thing. The Beer Mile World Championships went down last week in Canada. The rules are simple, competitors drink a standard 12-ounce beer (5% minimum ABV) before every quarter mile, totaling four beers over the one-mile course, fastest time wins. Corey Bellemore (CAN) won the men’s race with a blistering 4:30 mile while Elizabeth Laseter (USA) took gold with a 6:06 mile. Read more…

Boston Marathon Updates Cutoff Time: To cut off any confusion, the Boston Athletic Association has announced a change to its finish line procedures. Previously, runners had 6 hours from the time the final starter crossed the starting line to get to the finish line in Boston. The problem was, runners out on the course couldn’t know what time the final starter crossed the starting line, so they also didn’t know when the 6-hour clock began and what time they had to beat. It was a moving target. Now. The official fixed finish time is 5:30 p.m. Read more…

🚴 Meet parc. The best cycling bag ever.

Local Austin brand and parc founder, Sam LeFebre messaged me and I was excited to exchange some pleasantries and find out we live similar lives. He’s passionate about cycling and running, is an Austin resident, and we both have startups.

Just good people trying to make it in this world. 🤝

Also, I’d never heard of parc before but honestly, it’s a huge solution to a problem I have at home and on the road. I’m OCD organized but when it comes to preparing for a bike race or triathlon, I do not have a bike bag that holds everything. I dump out everything from my 45L TYR swim bag and pack accordingly with ziplock bags. It is neat but a hassle. All my tools, gear, and everything else still finds a way to momentarily get lost, providing me with unneeded anxiety.

It sucks. parc is a solution. So let’s jump in and talk to Sam.

Tell us about yourself and parc.

I’m a pretty normal 35 year old husband and dad of two girls in Austin, TX. Total cycling and running junkie. Grew up in western CO and caught the cycling bug in high school. First mountain bikes, then road, then cyclocross (my favorite to race). Found a deep love of running (long time goal to run a sub-5 mile – the mile is the perfect distance) during the pandemic, but I’ve always loved doing and following endurance sports in general. Racing is living.  

Parc was created in 2019 to make The Bag. It’s just me, but I’ve had a ton of help along the way. 

How did you go from idea → Kickstarter → production? 

In 2019, my itch to try something entrepreneurial finally became too much to ignore. The Bag was the one idea I couldn’t get rid of. I needed it, as a cyclist. I had two problems. 1) going to races or rides was just a headache to pack up, get there, search for stuff and unpack the messy car when I got home and 2) I didn’t have a good home storage solution that kept things easily accessible in one place or that made travel simple. 

I would race The Driveway in Austin, TX after work, or race cyclocross on the weekends in Chicago and just always ended up with piles of stuff in my car. I’m also not great at getting places early so I was always digging around hurriedly, losing my warmup time searching for gloves or whatever. I’d seen lots of other gear bags and a trail running bag that all had features I liked but no one bag or system that combined it all. 

To start, I literally drew what I thought would be cool and would work in a notebook, then used Canva to create a digital version. I literally wrote out what I’d want at a race, then planned the pockets accordingly so every size and shape of item was accounted for. 

From there, I found a guy with outdoor bag industry experience on UpWork and he helped me make a real design and tech pack (the details the factory needs). We used his factory connections to find a manufacturing partner in Vietnam and started doing samples. I think we went through 3 or 4. That part was wild, having something I designed from scratch on notebook paper show up at my door. Hugely satisfying. 

I launched my Kickstarter in early 2021 and we hit our funding goal in a few hours. Ended up 320% to goal in total. Minus the photo and video, I did all of that myself. Huge learning experience but I definitely benefited from my day-job experience in digital advertising. Met a ton of great people though along the way and really saw that if you just ask people for help or advice, they’ll probably be happy to help. 

After the Kickstarter, it took something like 7 months for production and shipping because of COVID. We got caught up in the great global shipping crisis. 

But we got through it and now we’re just hummin’ along, still trying to get the word out everyday. 

‘The Bag’. Tell us more! 

In backpack mode, it’s pretty large. Feels like a travel backpack, but still comfy to ride with. Definitely not a commuting bag or daily carry. It can be carried on a flight, but take out your tools and Co2 first! The outside is water resistant and made to be rained on, or to get muddy. Built to withstand proper ‘cross conditions. The inside has a large pocket covered with waterproof material for keeping your wet and dry gear separate. All the materials used are moisture resistant. 

It can hold everything you need and everything you MIGHT need. 16 pockets. You can easily fit shoes, helmet, nutrition, gloves and socks, tools. Hand pump, spare parts, wallet, phone, etc. Right now a US pro is traveling around Europe racing using The Bag as his travel bag for cycling gear and everything else. It’s a spacious 32L of pocket space. 

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Meanwhile

🚴 Cycling for Weight Loss?: The science says, if cycling is your main form of exercise, experts recommend a minimum of 3 cycling sessions per week that total 150 minutes per week. Easy peasy. Put in an hour each session. Read more…

🏊🚴🏃 The all-new Garmin Fenix 8 launches: It’s got a month long battery, sensor guard, leakproof buttons, and a 40 meter dive rating. But. It is $999. Read more…

🏊🚴🏃 A $699 Triathlon Suit: Wyn Republic dropped a CDA Aero Tri Suit this week. It was 2-years in the making and 15 prototypes were developed. Looking at the results from the test athletes, Wyn is claiming a 14% power savings or 25 watts while racing at an athletes race power. But decisions, decisions. Those savings come are $700. Read more…

Training Tips

Because training is life.

Your most important exercises for runners: Exercises to strengthen your core and knees, while preventing injury but making you run faster. Got it.

Helpful Workouts to improve your marathon time: Adaptable interval sessions and speed workouts can help you knock off valuable time.

How to fuel an ultramarathon | 10 tips from pro ultrarunners: Sponsored by Precision Fuels so take that into account but hear from heavy hitters like Hayden Hawks, Dan Jones, Lauren Puretz and Eric LiPuma as they share their top-10 fueling tips.

Rewatchables

Content for long training days inside or just everyday life.

Reasons to Ride: Chronicling the Silk Road Mountain Race, an unsupported bikepacking race in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

100mi gravel race on a $100 bike: Ben lost a bet. Goes on to torture himself with a 9 speed $100 bike in a 100 mile race. Brutal.

The all-new Garmin Fenix 8: Check out Ray Maker’s review of the all new Garmin Fenix 8 watch. Beautiful. But some things to consider.