Iceland Hike - North to South

Awesome video of Russell's 20 day, 400 mile trek from Hraunhafnartangi to Vík in Mýrdal across Iceland.

Wolverine 1000 mile boots 5 years on, review, pictures, and how I care for my boots

I bought these Wolverine 1000 mile boots five years ago, in 2012, in San Francisco. They have held up pretty well and I have made sure to clean them and oil them regularly. At first they were a little stiff, but the chromexcel leather quickly adjusted to my foot and now these are one of my most comfortable shoes. 
They are very different from how when I first got them. The color was much lighter, but now they are more dark brown. Still very nice, but I kinda miss the original color.

When they were brand new, I made the mistake of listening to some fellows in a Carmel shoestore who recommended using saddle soap to clean them. Don't do this. The saddle soap along with a moist cloth (water) cleans too much of the oil from the boot and makes it dry. And then they suggested using mink oil, which is too oily and darkens the leather too much. It is better to use just something lighter like "Saphir Renovateur - Luxury Leather Care Balm", and apply it immediately after you get the boots. Make sure to wipe down dirt as soon as you get them dirty and reapply Saphir or something similar to keep them water resistant. And don't forget to apply oil liberally to the leather sole.  And use shoetrees. 

I have taken them to a cobbler three times in five years to have them resoled. First I had them put on another leather sole. Then I had them put on a thin rubbersole since I was starting to wear the boots in the rain and the snow. The original rubbersole they put on was too slippery for the snow and Ice, so the last time I had them put on a little more substantial sole, but still thin enough to not alter the look. Another thing I had the cobbler do is to lower the heel. I found the heel being too elevated for me and preferred more flat shoe. Just a personal preference. You can see in the pictures how they differ from the original look. 

I wear these boots in the winter here in Iceland. To begin with, I only wore them when it was dry since they have a leather sole. Reykjavik throws salt on the icy roads in winter so if you are not careful cleaning and maintaining your boots, the salt will penetrate the leather. But these boots, if you have them soled and oiled properly make great winterboots. 

When I bought them I believe I got them in 1/2 a size too large. I have a wide foot and they felt just about right in the store. After wearing them for a while the leather became super soft and adjusted too my foot width. So the boots change shape with wear. I soon noticed how the shoes were a little larger than I would have preferred, too long basically. This was pretty annoying since these were pretty expensive, but since I wear them mainly while wearing thicker wool-blend hiking socks, it's not an issue at all. 

Overall the Wolverine 1000 mile boots are very comfortable, just like wearing slippers. And boy, do they look good. I wear them with everything between jeans, khakis, wool jeans, flannel trousers, and workwear. I might wear them in the office during the week and while working in the yard on weekends. I don't wear them with suits, but they work fine for semi formal dress like flannel pants and a wool blazer. 

I will have them resoled for the fourth time this fall and expect to keep these going for many years to come. The pictures are taken just after I cleaned and oiled them as described above. The shine comes from a final touch using one of these shoe shine sponges for extra gloss, I don't use these on my boots normally. 

Would I buy them again? Yes, definitely. However, I don't need another pair. My next boot purchase will probably be the Alden Indy 405, the ones from Alden not J. Crew as they come in calfskin, not chromexcel. The calfskin is more rigid I understand and the boots might keep their shape better. Does anyone have any experience with the 405?

Anyway, with regards to the 1000 mile boots, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on these boots, any experiences, how you style, how and where you wear them, and thoughts on how you maintain them.

An Expedition Across Iceland

This is one crazy expedition across Iceland, up into the highlands from the North, towards Hofsjökull glacier, across the glacier, and then paddling down Þjórsá, Iceland's longest river. Undertaken by professional adventurer and author Alastair Humphreys and photographer Chris Herwig. 

View their Iceland Expedition kit list here and the gear review here.

Alastair is a writer and has published a few books including Micro adventures, local discoveries for great escapes, pointing out the fact that adventure is closer than you think and doesn't need a long-distance travel. 

Life Lessons from 100 year olds

Interesting life lessons from one hundred year olds:

 109 year old Richard Overton sharing his secret to life:

Flathead, one of the funniest book review's you'll ever read

One of the funniest book reviews I've ever come across is Matt Taibbi's critique of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat that appeared in the April 26, 2005 edition of New York Press. The review, titled "Flathead," basically rips the book apart. It starts with:

I think it was about five months ago that Press editor Alex Zaitchik whispered to me in the office hallway that Thomas Friedman had a new book coming out. All he knew about it was the title, but that was enough; he approached me with the chilled demeanor of a British spy who has just discovered that Hitler was secretly buying up the world’s manganese supply. Who knew what it meant but one had to assume the worst 

“It’s going to be called The Flattening,” he whispered. Then he stood there, eyebrowsraised, staring at me, waiting to see the effect of the news when it landed. I said nothing. 

It turned out Alex had bad information; the book that ultimately came out
would be called The World Is Flat. It didn’t matter. Either version suggested the same horrifying possibility. Thomas Friedman in possession of 500 pages of ruminations on the metaphorical theme of flatness would be a very dangerous thing indeed. It would be like letting a chimpanzee loose in the NORAD control room; even the best-case scenario is an image that could keep you awake well into your 50s.

...and it goes on from there. Read the full review here.

Wouldn't it be cool to be able perform just one of these exercises?

I'm getting more and more interested in bodyweight exercises and calisthenics after seeing videos like these. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to perform just one of these exercises? The guys in these videos look more fit than any other athletes I've seen. The pull-up bar rules!

My goal in 2014: Be able to perform one hand pull-up by end of year.

My New Exercise Program: StrongLifts 5x5

For the next two months I have committed to the StrongLifts 5x5 program. I think it provides a good foundation to build some strength. I am a little worried that it is too much, especially too many squats, but on this program you're squatting three times a week. But regardless, I think it is fine to try this out for the next two months. If I feel it's too much or if I think I am overtraining, I will scale it back a little.

The program has two workouts, Workout A and Workout B, that you do three times a week, e.g. Monday-Wednesday-Friday.  The first week you do A/B/A, the second week B/A/B, third week A/B/A and so on...

Workout A:
Squat 5x5 (5 sets of 5 reps)
Bench Press 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5

Workout B:
Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5 (1 set of 5 reps)

Lots of squatting in other words. In addition to this I am adding pull-ups and chin-ups on Workout B days.

So at the beginning of this program, here are the numbers:

Squat 5x5:  82.5 kg
Bench Press 5x5:  60 kg
Barbell Row 5x5:  32.5 kg
Overhead Press 5x5:  32.5 kg
Deadlift 1x5:  130 kg
Pull-ups: 3 sets of 9 repetitions

Some notes:
I should note that I just started the barbell row exercise and could probably do more weight. I seem to have some shoulder injury that makes overhead press pretty painful. So I might need to lower the weight or skip this exercise until I get better. I've been doing some squats and deadlifts recently so I have a good foundation there. My deadlift PR is 150 kg single rep.

Alexander Faleev’s Routine

There is another 5x5 program I read about that sounds interesting too. Tim Ferriss wrote about Alexander Faleev’s system that some Russian powerlifters are following.  On this program you deadlift heavy once  week and squat and bench heavy and light twice a week.  And the key to the program is doing less! This program looks pretty good as it allows for more recovery. I am thinking about moving to this program after two or more months on the StrongLifts 5x5.  The reasoning: I will have progressed to lifting heavier weights and need more recovery time in-between sessions.

Now why two months on StrongLifts 5x5? Well, that's May and June. July is vacation time with limited access to the gym, so at the end of June I will assess my progress and decide on whether to continue with StrongLifts 5x5 in August or switch to a program that is less intense. In July where I have limited access to the gym, I will try to pop in to the gym a few times for some very few and very heavy lifts. I will also try to do some travel exercise routine similar to what Steve at Nerdfitness suggests.