The team at SwimOutlet.com and RunOutlet.com will be running in The Color Run 5k San Jose this month, so we thought we’d try out a pair of colorful running shoes as training gets underway this week!

The growing popularity of lightweight running shoes has been building for the past several years, but what seemed to be primarily a fashion-driven movement done for looks and style has very much become a functional development as some of the best running brands have entered into the category with terrific designs.

A few of the brands that focus on running technology have been putting a greater emphasis on making these lightweight shoes into terrific running shoes by their own accounts – not just resting on the laurels of the low-profile silhouette itself.

The New Balance 890v3 very much falls into this category: a good-looking, lightweight shoe that still doubles as a terrific runner. At 9.55 oz, it’s roughly 25% lighter than New Balance’s classic 990v3 design – so it checks the lightweight test.

Less than a week to go to Wildflower, I spent this past weekend getting race ready. Saturday morning I slipped into my On Cloudracers and linked my Garmin Forerunner 210 to the satellite. Heading out on the trails I started at an easy pace and charged the hills like I was racing up San Antonio Drive. I spent the last mile of my run focusing on my form and pacing to dial in the right speed and comfort for race day.

Sunday I was eager to get on my bike and test out my new Giro Air Attack Aero Helmet. I headed out on a flatter course so I could stay in the aerobars as much as possible. The helmet was incredibly comfortable and felt fairly lightweight. My test on a local Strava segment proved it would help my speed on race day. The remainder of the week my workouts will taper down as my excitement grows for Sunday’s race.

Celebrate Mother's Day by going swimming with your kids!

Swimmer Amanda Beard is not only a four-time Olympian and seven-time Olympic medalist, but also a mother to son Blaise, age 3. She recommends introducing your kids to swimming and water safety at a young age and explains that learning to swim at an early age opens up a lifetime of healthy activities in-and-around the water.

Amanda will be taking her son swimming on Mother's Day, what will you do with your kids this Mother's Day?

Editor’s Note: Along with the broadest inventory of swim gear, SwimOutlet.com has a full selection of gear for all your Triathlon needs (except the bikes!), so we asked if the SwimOutlet.com blog could follow along with our triathlon category manager, Polly Feyereisn, as she prepares for the legendary Wildflower Triathlon in May.

Lake San Antonio… it’s considered hallowed ground in triathlon circles. Maybe it’s the clear sunny sky or the crystal cold water. Maybe it’s 30 years of triathlon history, or my personal history with the race. Maybe it’s the 30-foot triathlete billboards. Whatever it is, this place is special. Where else can you get up at the crack of dawn, roll in for a training day and be treated with the sight of more triathletes than most local races.

As we pull up to the entrance gate, we are greeted by the massive cut out of a runner baking in the sun, a reminder of what is to come. Rolling down to the parking lot – which in four weeks will be one of the largest transition zones I've ever witnessed – I see a stage of swimmers stretching out their wetsuits from a winter of neglect, runners lathering pale winter skin with sunscreen and cyclists pumping up the tires of mountain bikes, road bikes and carbon master pieces. All attracted to this location for their own preparatory reasons, but also for the same reason I'm here: this place is awesome.

Photo: One of Wildflower's famous billboards posted in the park. 

I recently moved to San Jose, CA for my job with SwimOutlet.com from Colorado Springs, CO. It’s been a great transition so far; I’m liking my job, coworkers, being back in the Bay Area, the weather, I could go on and on.  

As a former competitive swimmer, swimming will always be a part of my life; I grew up on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound and I swam on a swim team for 20 years of my life. I am naturally drawn to the water, whether that’s watching the waves crash or enjoying a swim meet ever now and then.

After I decided to retire in 2008, I enjoyed having a little break from the hours spent at the pool swimming laps. I traveled and enjoyed land activities like running, yoga and hiking. But alas, I came back to the sport last year when I was living in Colorado Springs and joined the Pike’s Peak Athletics Master’s team, George and Anna Heidinger started the team and have done a great job of growing it’s membership.

Swimming Masters is a whole different kind of swimming for me, there’s no requirement or obligation to go, it’s purely for the love of swimming! The Pike’s Peak Athletics team was fantastic to be a part of, I enjoyed going to practice three times a week for the social aspect of it as well as getting away from my desk in the middle of the day to submerge myself the liquid escape that is a pool.

With our newly launched sister site YogaOutlet.com; you will begin to see the occasional yoga post on this blog. Our first post comes to you from Olympic Silver medalist for swimming and SwimOutlet.com employee, Emily Silver.

For a swimmer, it’s important to be in the water at least once a day to keep your feel for your stroke. Outside of the water, it’s equally important to get in some dynamic dry land workouts for strength and flexibility.

Coach Teri McKeever, Cal Women's Swimming (2005)

During my swimming career at Cal, coach Teri McKeever had us try a number of different dry land exercises. Our workouts varied from normal weight lifting to hip-hop dance class, Pilates to spinning on a bike, yoga to stadium stairs. We tried just about anything and everything. Looking back the one exercise that really stuck with me and I still enjoy today is yoga. It enabled me to work on flexibility, core strength, balance and mental focus, all skills that translated to success in the pool.

Okay, I admit that I was skeptical at first. What are these moves? I felt like the instructor was trying to turn me into a human pretzel. I also found it hard to simply focus on my breathing and keeping balance in order to keep from toppling over onto my teammate next to me. But once I got the hang of it and felt more comfortable, I was hooked.

Emily Silver, doing a yoga pose at work

Yoga requires the same discipline and laser focus needed to swim lap after lap in the pool but without the mundane repetitiveness of swimming. It also works a completely different set of muscles, which can aid in preventing injury. But of all the benefits of yoga, one thing I liked most was that it enabled me to practice visualization and mental toughness, two things that helped aid in success throughout my career.

 Hello SwimOutlet fans!

You may have noticed over the past few months, that SwimOutlet.com has been increasing its product selection beyond swimming to include running, yoga and surf gear, too. So we’ll have some non-swimming posts from time-to-time. 

We’re building up a running culture here and this weekend a bunch of staffers ran in the popular 408k Race to the Row in San Jose.

Congrats to the participants!

Asics was nice enough to send us a few pairs of the new GEL-Kayano 19 that just hit our inventory to try out for the race – and we took them for a test run out back of our office along the Guadalupe River Trail. 

Having a trail behind our office is a big perk of being at SwimOutlet.com. The Guadalupe River Trail runs 11 miles from downtown San Jose to the southern most point of San Francisco Bay. It’s flat and has both gravel and paved sections, making it a perfect spot to try out the new Asics.

Here at the SwimOutlet.com headquarters in San Jose, CA, we got a conference room makeover with an Olympic swimming themed mural painted by artist Morgan Bricca. She based the mural off a real image from the 2012 London Olympics to capture the essence of Olympic swimming. Watch the video to see the mural come to life.

More information about Murals by Morgan can be found at her website. 

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Women's High End Technical Suits  - Jump to Reviews | Visit Category Page
Arena Carbon Pro - Stupp Review | Product Page
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Swim Tips Tuesday from Fitter & Faster Tour presented by SwimOutlet.com! This week features 2-time Olympian Chloe Sutton and one of her favorite freestyle drills, Rotisserie drill. 

Rotisserie drill - Swimming freestyle from Fitter & Faster Swim Tour on Vimeo.