New running shoes; on training theories and approaches

 

Not long ago I was telling a friend who runs about it seeming odd that I've only bought close-out sale shoes for running, none of which were probably well-regarded examples of standard contemporary technology, not even medium performance level shoes.  Then with some research it turned out that the last close-out sale pair I'd bought were actually "real" running shoes, a now-dated version of New Balance Beacon 3.  That indirectly led to re-visiting running training and equipment themes.  

And also my Dad, who just had both knees replaced with artificial joints, recently told me that the condition is genetic, and that running is one of the worst things you can do for your knees--no secret there.  Since I'm 54 now I'm conditioning to stay in good health, but the typical age for me to experience such problems is drawing closer now that I'm on the later side of middle age.

older than last year's model at this point

I'm not a serious runner.  I've been running for four years now, but weekly distance has been limited, and training approach is non-existent; I run whatever I run.  Nothing here should be taken as actionable advice, and it would probably be more interesting to non-runners than runners, who would already know more than I do.  To maximize training effect I was using an interval theme for quite awhile, running a 2 mile loop (around a square city block, on a running track), at near maximum speed for one 800+ meter segment.  That essentially goes against the main standard training theories and approaches, running that short a distance, and emphasizing running one part faster on every run.  I'll add a little about reviewing running training theories here later.  

That early intention related to replacing spending 20 minutes on a cross-country simulating exercise machine, which didn't seem effective at all, with a half hour or so of light running.  Later that was much more pleasant, but early acclimation to running isn't a great experience.

Skipping ahead, looking at online Youtube channels about running themes naturally led to me wanting to upgrade my shoes, not the decent new pair I just cycled into rotation with two others, but replacing those others.  Eventually a performance and biometric tracking sports watch would seem essential, but I've resisted that part up until now, because I don't want to run in that kind of structured way, to be up against a clock and training theme every day.  It's nice running by feel, and I'm not training for any set purpose, like achieving a race time.  

Since I did run cross country and track in high school I'm not afraid that I'll get something completely wrong, or injure myself; to me it's just running.  Injury risk is real, and I've experienced two minor injuries, so the point is that I want to be careful but I don't feel like I need to follow running culture consensus input to be safe.  

Back to the shoe theme, the main thread here, New Balance shoes are well-regarded, in general, but it seems like Hoka maximum cushion shoes are more trendy now, maybe with a few other brands catching up over the last few years.  A range of carbon-plate energy return racing shoes are one of the recent themes, with varieties of designs and foam types (and uppers, the top, and so on) evolving every year.  And Asics shoes are especially well regarded, and all the more attractive since I've ran mostly in Asics and New Balance shoe versions so far.

After local shopping, including a trip to an outlet, I found an especially highly praised "shoe of the year" contender on sale through a local online outlet, and bought a pair of Asics Novablast 3 (the first photo).  After one outing I can already say that they feel great; it's like running on a stiff trampoline.  [Edit:  make that two runs in two days; I'm so excited about the new shoes it might be hard not overdoing it.]

How my running is going

As to the training side I still don't have a performance tracking watch, so I don't know details people normally would, like heart rate, but I at least did recently carry a phone to track how fast I'm running now.  It had always been telling me about how many steps I walk a day, without me asking, so that only involved clicking on a pre-installed app that I hadn't been using.  

I'm running at about 6-6:15 minutes per kilometer, or 9:40 and up minutes per mile, across varying distances.  I tracked half that two mile circuit at about that speed, then a 6.25 km run, then 9.8 km run, all the same.  It's a normal pace for me now, it seems.  Messing around with bumping distance and frequency have screwed me up a little, not always with positive effect, but that 6 minute km range is comfortable, so I'll stick with that for awhile to normalize the experience further, then add in limited faster runs later.  

the local palace that I run around

Looking at those stats in 9 days I've ran a relatively comfortable pace on that 6.25 km loop (two rounds) in 43 minutes, then 40, 39, and 38.  Those times are a little faster than they appear for that time including a short 4 minute warm stretch after the first mile or so (1.5 km, roughly), a step that I added after an injury years back.  I've ran 6 times in 9 days, lots more than my earlier 2 or 3 outings per week.  

I've been working on slowing down the runs in order to get out more often, and I think instead I've trained to where roughly the same pace that had seemed more challenging earlier now does feel slower, that 6 min / km / 9.5 min / mile range.  It doesn't really follow a training theory, but I've been at least hearing about those more lately, if not actually putting them into practice.  I don't think I've conditioned significantly more in the last two weeks, to be clear, it seems instead that relaxing more while I run makes a big difference, which is easier said than done.

To someone who hasn't been a "jogger" for a few years it might seem odd that I keep placing myself on the level of a "couch to 10k" training non-runner, after four years of running several times every week, when I just said that running a 10k distance in an hour is just a moderate intensity training run for me.  People who run, whether they are or aren't serious about it, would get it, that there are a variety of levels.  

Intermediate training level runners, people who race, and take training moderately seriously, put in more mileage, and generally start to experiment with different running paces, training themes, and heart-rate based approaches, which I'm not experimenting with.  Or on to trying to adjust cadence and breathing patterns, mechanics, or any number of details.  Running 10 miles per week isn't much conditioning base, and I haven't been averaging that prior to just now.  I've only increased from 4 miles to 6 on longer runs within the last month or so.  I just ran 36.5 km in that 9 days I'd mentioned, by far the most I've covered in that time, or 22 miles, but that's still not even 20 miles per week.

A word of warning, which probably should be more of a starting point:  randomly messing around with these themes and variations is a good way to get injured.  I think that even though that limited-distance higher-intensity segment I practiced, for well over a year, or maybe 2, isn't a good approach for conditioning for cardiovascular capacity improvement, it probably did still build up muscle and connective tissue strength.  Because I had worked up to increasing intensity for a year or two first I didn't get injured (two minor injuries came earlier, in the less demanding build-up period), but I was probably still lucky.  That approach is surely terrible for routine training in relation to impact on your body, and as a result I would run at most every other day, a cycle I've been having trouble moving past.  In general 5 or 6 days running a week seems to be more of an intermediate level norm.  

People serious about running might just run and run, 50 to 100 miles a week, even though that sounds unsustainable.  How?  I don't completely get that part.  It might be that they condition to tolerate more and more volume, that being better and better acclimated to it keeps reducing the impact on your body.  It's easier to learn about details for training approaches than it is about training experience progression, which I'll cover next.  Two main inputs (parts of that explanation of tolerance for higher miles), which I don't cover much here, are building up to any degree of running intensity, frequency, and distance, and how helpful it is to just not be in your 50s.  

In my 20s I would go out snowboarding however often it came up (living at a ski resort), working labor intensive jobs in the days or evenings, or both (restaurant server, bellman, whatever it was), and after adjusting to the demands I didn't experience any muscle soreness day to day.  I could go hike 16-18 miles, going up a 14,000 foot high mountain with no preparation, and just felt a little sore the next day.  Now I experience recovery as more of a concern, exercising much less, more consistently at lower intensity over a long period of time.  I think older people (like me) can train to do challenging things, it's just that the process is really slow compared to when you are younger.

Running training theories

On to the theories and standard approaches then.  A very basic and standard idea that comes up is an 80-20 approach, running relatively slowly, well within your conditioning limits, 80% of the time, and mixing in faster running for the rest.  This video goes into levels related to that, identified by heartrate, by a charismatic, "non-elite" runner (his characterization) and popular Youtuber nicknamed Kofuzi.  It's funny how he can run a sub-3 hour marathon--equivalent to four under-45 minute 10ks in a row--and still feels a need to qualify the intermediate level that places him within.  

Of course it's not nearly that simple, just "80-20," and there are competing versions of training theories and approaches.  One part that should be kept clear is that many of these approaches are sophisticated and advanced practices that probably wouldn't be relevant for people without a sufficient training base (which of course I don't have, or at most am only now approaching; in six months to a year I maybe could be ready for more serious training).

Back to training approaches; another common theme is low heartrate training, moving further towards reducing intensity.  The idea is that it's possible to add considerable training volume (mileage) if you just moderate experienced heart rate to a lower level than many people training for races might intuitively take up (see that earlier video reference for a range for that, or a lot more detail in this one, Floris Gierman of the Extramilest Youtube channel).  On the positive side per many accounts this seems to work, and it's a natural fit for people new to ramping up training routines, from taking no formal approach to including more of that.  It's not framed as a beginner practice though; it's said to work for advanced, previously conditioned runners as well, an approach that people might have good results from as an intermediate.

Per that account I've linked to only after reaching a plateau of conditioning "gains," which could take quite awhile depending on history and training volume, are faster runs and higher heart rate running re-introduced.  That's also covered in detail in a first person account here by Gareth King, there interviewed on that Extramilest Youtube channel.  He reduced his marathon time from 3 1/2 hours to 2 1/2; pretty impressive.  I'll probably never train to run that distance in the first place.  As I mentioned recovery times are slower at my age, and I'm surely not going on hormone replacement or taking drugs just to post daily training results and race times on Instagram and Facebook.

In one last example of training theory (not last in the sense of this is all there is, since it keeps going, just the last I'll mention) Jeff Cunningham covers "the five pillars of distance training" on the Nick Bair podcast.  A lot of that overlaps with what I've already mentioned, adding more about recovery and other themes, especially related to other levels of varying intensity training between "light and heavy." That's not just about shorter distance speed work, but about sustained training tied to varying heart rates, oxygen capacity levels, and in relation to lactic acid removal threshold.  It's good stuff.  Too advanced for me to do much with, but still interesting.  Jeff mentioned in deciding if Nick would be suitable for training that his prior marathon experience, dedication, high weekly mileage capacity, and ability to run a 5 minute mile all factored in as positives.  Right...

The continually recurring theme of capturing biometric and running results data in all those references sounds interesting and also negative to me.  As an engineer--industrial, but they all kind of apply--I like functional stats and data as much as the next person, but for undergoing human experience I don't necessarily want to try to "hack" my exercise responses, or any part of my life experience.  Maybe someone could see fasting as that, but I don't.

As I'm able to run more I'll improve in conditioning, and I can run slower and faster, varying distance and theme outings, without adding any theory at all.  I'm more concerned about injury, or dropping dead, the big injury.  I'm not even sure when I'll get around to running any kind of race, or what I could run for a decent 10k time right now.  Under an hour, for sure; I just ran that as moderate intensity training.  I'd add in more speed work to drop that current 9 1/2 minute comfortable mile time range, but since I'm already pushing it recently for increasing both frequency and distance I'll get to it when I get to it.

Conclusions

What's the take-away from all this?  Running is a cool experience, after you move past hating it on to craving it.  There is as much theory as you would ever want to learn about, ten times as much, and it's kind of practical to put it in practice just by going out and running, a fairly natural activity, after some initial acclimation.

Then of course people have to go and make it weird by adding countless levels of things to buy, not just shoes and high performance biometric tracking watches, but also special clothes and socks, nutrient gels, electrolytes, recovery gear (foam rollers, and the next 100 inventions), yet more biometric tracking stuff, knee braces, exercise bands, and it just keeps going.  God forbid you might go out and run in an ordinary cotton t-shirt (which I do, in 90+ degree tropical weather; it's nice after it seems more normal).  Then beyond the Insta and FB posts people join running clubs, attend races, join social media discussion groups, anything at all that can promote that identity for others to appreciate.

So it goes, the information age.  I write here; I'm not completely different.  And I've watched a bit of a shoe review channel with an associated podcast that I like, Believe in the Run.  Those content creators are personable, and bring the ideas to life in engaging discussion, as Kofuzi also does.  As someone progresses in training they would probably learn from content that is more and more applicable to them, which I'm not really onto yet, it's as much for entertainment.  

There are countless shoe review channels, and plenty that offer lots of tips on running, how to optimize breathing, change stride or other mechanics, on through range you'd never even consider.  It's interesting watching videos about how famous and accomplished runners train, even though it's probably better to not see that as practical input.

Now that I think of it two people I knew were into that ultra-marathon theme way before it ever became popular, in the early 90s, both running the local Leadville 100 (miles, of course).  Somehow they did that while the internet was in its infancy, never mind contemporary social media, which didn't exist yet.  As I recall they just ran a lot to train.  I remember one telling me that he would drink a beer or two while running that, because he desperately needed calories but it became disgusting just drinking sugary drinks, Gatorade and whatever else.  He said that the alcohol would just metabolize right out.  Too bad that he couldn't buy the for-purpose gel tubes people eat now.

As for advice to others who want to start, but aren't sure how, that's the easy part:  walk before you run.  Literally; spend 45 minutes walking a few times a week and once that's quite comfortable get some ok shoes and check out jogging.  I'm not sure if it made any sense but I wanted to experience the mechanics of jogging at moderate speed early on, instead of slowly, to continue with that later, so I was running somewhere around a 10 minute mile pace from the start, stopping to walk as often as I needed to in order to keep it up.  Roughly; I wasn't timing that, so maybe it was 12, and just felt faster to me.  

I don't think that works as advice for a good approach, but the idea of making it your own still might.  It might work to run at a faster pace you want to get to later and walk often enough to make that comfortable, and then do other runs at a slow pace, so you can experience those running mechanics part of the time, and actually build up a cardio base the rest.

If you push it for intensity, duration, or frequency an injury will let you know when you've exceeded your limits, and it's nicer to not experience much of that.  I had a knee problem right when the pandemic hit, a bit over a year into running, so right when half of Bangkok took up running I took six weeks off, letting my knee recover on its own.  Pairing running with plenty of stretching, yoga, light weight training, or swimming might help with avoiding that.  Or just run slow, and not far, taking breaks to walk some; that would work.  

Past a certain point it's addictive, and then it's on to managing not ramping it up too fast again, but in a different form.  People would probably break in one of two main directions related to placing the social aspects, joining a running group or else avoiding that, but to an extent that part doesn't matter, taking up secondary aspects or connections that are either appealing or not.  Experiencing races might be nice; eventually I'll get to that.

Geothermal heated near-Arctic Alaskan tea production

Jenny and her team in that space, second from left (all photos provided by her)

Jenny Tse grows tea at 64 degrees North, about 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, outside Fairbanks, Alaska.  It's by far the furthest North tea has probably ever been grown, or maybe will ever be grown.  A feasibility study on growing tea in Scotland raises a couple of context issues that I'll address further here, which helps place that:

...While Scotland is the furthest point from the equator that tea has yet been grown commercially (Forfar is at latitude 57° north), the evidence is in the ground and on retailers’ shelves that it can be grown here. The big questions are whether it can be grown here commercially for profit - and if so – how?

What Jenny is doing doesn't change the accuracy of that; it's a still-limited experiment in growing tea plants in controlled greenhouse conditions (a building she calls a high tunnel, really), part of an existing resort's geothermal-heated food production garden, also supported by geothermal power generation systems.  So it's completely sustainable!  The "commercial for profit" part might develop further later on.

That's at the Chena Hotsprings Resort, which this doesn't cover in as much detail as it might, since the basis for this writing is to communicate one discussion's worth of input from Jenny.  It's odd that Chena resort's site doesn't even mention geothermal power generation, or growing plants there for food, even in the winter.  They do all that; of course Google search results adds lots more about it, or a Facebook page at least has photos of the resort and local environment.  It's also interesting that their resort's Trip Advisor rating is 3 1/2 stars out of 5, so quite positive, but they are still heavily criticized by a minority of the guests, related to all sorts of details; so that can go.  One guest's towel was stolen by someone; different things can come up.

A bit of an aside, early in this blog's run I researched tea being produced in North Korea, and supposedly tried some, provided by the same Chinese guide that brought Dennis Rodman there (but it can be hard to place claims about tea origins).  A quick search of references shows that to be more in the 37 degree North range, so a bit far up there, comparable to the upper border of North Carolina in the US, but nowhere near the Scotland based growing range, never mind Fairbanks, Alaska.

My first thought was how could that even be a remotely practical commercial venture, and what must it cost to set up and maintain that.  Very little, really, because that resort is a supporting partner, so the entire contributed infrastructure includes part of one of the four building growing areas already there, an existing heating and environment maintenance system, geothermal power to keep the tea plants warm, and geothermal based power supply for lighting.  Everything but the plants, basically.  

It's a fantastic venture, hopefully one that can be managed to produce some quantity of exceptional tea, and get that resort the broader recognition it deserves for setting all that up.  Coincidentally my parents have visited there before, and said that it's absolutely amazing.  They had a heat-pump system in their house earlier on, extracting home heat from spring water, so that general geothermal energy subject was of particular interest to them.

The Chena resort's main purpose related to setting up winter growing environments is to provide food for resort guests and staff.  The power generation part may have been completed in part just because it's possible, beyond the obvious commercial justification, that the numbers add up, that it works out to be lower in cost than using generators for off-grid remote power supply.  Jenny said that the resort owner was involved with creating the Alaskan pipeline, and is currently undertaking a second geothermal power generation project somewhere in the Aluetian islands, so for sure there is as complex and compelling a story about all that infrastructure development as relates to the tea themes.  Maybe I'll look into that later.

To speed this along I'll switch over to a Q & A summary format.

Just how cold does it get there?  Down to -50 or 60 F in the winter, or -50 C at the coldest, way too cold for any plants not evolved to go completely dormant in that kind of environment, to endure a very hard freeze, which tea plants can't survive.  The "high tunnel" environment uses two plastic layers (that are translucent, allowing for some external light contact), using an interior air space as effective insulation.

another look at that space before all the plants were in

How does the geothermal heating work?  Hot water from a moderately hot version of hot springs (not like Yellowstone, where plenty of the pools are boiling) is pumped through pipes in the ground to maintain ground temperature.  The plants are growing in the ground, not located in pots.  Piping within the structure also heats the air, moderated by thermostat systems.  It doesn't sound so different than baseboard hot water heating, commonly used in some US homes, just based on a different heat source, with more sophisticated control demands, requiring flow moderation to maintain a desired temperature range.

Isn't humidity level also a concern?  Sure, of course.  The resort has built pond-foggers to increase humidity (so a type of humidifier), similar to what is used in mushroom growing environments.

Can the tea thrive in the natural environment in the summer?  Yes, it does.  The very long light daytime period doesn't seem to negatively affect the tea plants, and the local environment climate range is quite suitable.  There is more of a concern related to cool period dormancy requirements for the plants, that they "expect" some form of cooler time period related to cooler season exposure to support a natural rest cycle.  Adjusting to support or optimize that is an ongoing work in progress, coordinated along with resort facilities staff.  It's a conditions parameter that the same building is also used to grow vegetables, so the goal is to maintain an environment that all the types of plants growing there can thrive in.

Have you produced any finished tea yet?  There aren't so many plants growing now, only 40, and the venture only started in 2021, less than two years ago, so actual production has been very limited, but they did make small test batches.  The tea turned out very well.  Of course dialing in optimum processing takes practice, and a limited withering time to soften the leaves caused the tea to break up during processing early on, but the modified version of green tea produced was very pleasant, very smooth and flavorful.  Jenny thinks that the high mineral content from using water from the hot springs might help give the tea a unique and pleasant character, based on it seeming distinctive.

Plant types (sourced from the Camforest nursery, in South Carolina) include Sochi Russian versions and other Chinese varieties, so a mix of types.

a better look at the plants

What are the main problems that you've encountered?  Shipping the plants that far was a concern; they needed to be flown the last routing step to limit how long they needed to go without water.  Sorting out all the details was a concern, but especially inconsistencies related to temperature variation in different parts of the growing space.  It's not as if the facilities aren't under good control, but matching conditions in relation to other plant types requirements has been an ongoing challenge.  Just learning tea plant type reactions to growing conditions inputs involves a learning curve.

Are there plans to ramp up production, to explore turning this into more of a commercial venture, instead of an experiment?  That depends on coordination with the resort partner, that owner, and for now limited space has been allocated.  It may work to increase scale, as proof of concept develops further.  Based on early trials the tea could be exceptional, and good quality, positive aspects, and novelty could enable sales at the higher end of market range.  Building an additional high tunnel growing area might require too much investment, but over time that higher volume scale could develop organically, in ways that are hard to foresee well ahead of time.

If someone wanted to visit to see Northern Lights (a different subject), when would be a good time to visit?  February or March is considered a good time, or in the late fall.  They can be seen in the peak winter period, Dec-Jan, but it's quite cold then, and the "polar night" effect causes darkness most of the day.  There is currently an ice sculpture contest as a main tourism attraction going on (the World Ice Art Championships).  The day that we spoke (Feb. 18) temperatures were up to 8 F during the day, and down to -16 F at night.  That's bitter cold, for someone living in the tropics now, but not all that bad for them.  For me growing up in the Northern US East Coast, and later living in Colorado, it's familiar range, if a bit cool.  

Further off topic, my family visited the edge of the Arctic in Murmansk, Russia, to see the Northern lights, right at the winter solstice, at the very end of the year.  It was down to -27 C then, if I remember right, -17 F, but their temperatures are moderated by "warm" air coming off the sea there (warm in a loose sense; warm for that far north).  The polar night effect was really cool, for being there for a short week of time frame.  Jenny said that Northern Lights aren't best viewed the furthest north, as one might imagine, that there is a band slightly further south where the effect is even stronger, presumably related to how the magnetic field works out (my guess; she didn't get into that part).  

a dogsled camp outing on that Murmansk trip, in mid-afternoon

When I saw the Northern Lights I was a little disappointed that they appeared almost completely black and white, since at very low light levels our eyes can't see color (the rods and cones theme), but Jenny said that the brighter displays actually look green.  A camera can always see the true color, so in our case it was a little odd not seeing them as it did.

I want to thank Jenny for being so open and clear about all those details.   Near Arctic sustainable tea production, using geothermal heating and power generation, is an interesting subject on a few different levels.  I wish them the best related to pushing further with development, to expanding and scaling up production, and dialing in all the levels of inputs.  

Jenny's tea vending business page includes more on her background, and a Youtube channel includes more tea background videos, and podcast style content.  A recent version with Nicole of Tea For Me Please was nice to watch; they're both personable, and that was a good match for their well-informed perspectives filling in a range of tea themes.  Or Sipping Streams Tea has Instagram and Facebook profiles, but those are more about their tea business, not focused on this geothermal production subject.

Wawee Tea Thai-Yunnan's Hero series 2014 sheng

 

More about Wawee Tea sheng; this theme is starting to repeat.  I bought some after that friend in Chiang Mai sent samples, and they sent me a sample of another older 2014 version along with the 2021 sheng that I bought (which I've not written about; the sample my friend gave me should be either quite similar or else identical).

Thai teas are a favorite subject, and sheng is my favorite type, so I don't mind revisiting it and writing about it more or less weekly.  One of those weekly reviews was about a black tea (not by Wawee Tea) and a novel oolong version (by them), so that broke up the cycle.

I really wouldn't have expected this tea to still be available but in checking their website it seems to be:

Chinese:  Gu Su Cha 古树茶

Type:  Green Puerh Tea (Puerh Cake), listed for 2750 baht

Cultivar:  Assam Tea [that would mean Assamica, described as from 400 to 900 year old plants]

Origin:  Wawee Mountain, Chiangrai , Thailand

Harvest date:  2014/04/25

Storage Methods:  Sealed , Prevent moisture , Seal in a dry ambience and Clean.

Tea Master:  Pan Yongchang

I'm not certain that's the same tea; it could be a coincidence that they sold two versions from 2014, but it seems more likely it's a match.  Just because it shows up there doesn't mean that it's in-stock; they sell teas in different ways, and not updating a website page quickly would seem normal.

Let's break that down a little, just skipping the part about it being pu'er or not related to not being from Yunnan (I must've typed that out hundreds of times).  We can just set aside the 400 to 900 year old plants part; maybe some material was from older tea trees, and hopefully all of it was naturally forest grown, and that's good enough.  It's not that I don't trust them, I'm just not overly interested in stories, true ones or false ones.  That price is unusual, $80 for 9 year old tea; they should raise that, if it's as good as I already know it is, since I write the intro parts after the notes.

For storage:  sealed, really?  I take everything I read with a grain of salt, and don't know how to place that as likely to mean something in particular, or meaningful if the tea really was very well sealed.  It wasn't all that fermented for being 9 years old; maybe they're not kidding about that part.  And character seemed a little unusual, which I took to probably relate to an atypical starting point set of aspects, but who knows.

The tea is good, the main thing.  It's not nearly as far along in fermentation as something I'd have kept around here in Bangkok for 9 years, but lots of places in Thailand aren't as oppressively hot and humid, so that doesn't mean anything in particular to me.  On with description.

Later edit:  I asked the producer if this was the same as the site listing, and it is.  Actual pricing is currently at 3050 baht, so around $90 instead of $80, a fairly standard 10% annual price increase, with 3 or 4 percent of that just relating to inflation, to money being worth less every year.  More on the background:

This tea was produced in the spring of 2014 and the tea cake was pressed for sale in 2015.

We named Thai-Yunnan's ​Hero​ series to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers in the 93rd Brigade.  In the past, our tea factory used to be a residence for soldiers in the 93rd Brigade before going to Taiwan.

That's not familiar, but it all makes sense.

Review 

first infusion:  a little light, not completely started yet, but a couple of early notes are interesting.  This has a nice resinous edge to it, both the feel and a flavor reminiscent of how pine sap smells.  Tone range is on the warm side.  Depth is not going to be an issue for this tea.  It's funny how a rich feel develops so early on, while the flavor profile is still filling in from the tea not being completely wetted yet.

even more intense than it looks

second infusion:  I went a little longer than usual to get this more fully wetted, and infusion will be a little inconsistent while it gets started.  Compression level is on the high-medium side, which should slow aging slightly, and get brewing off to a slower start.

This is a little strong, but the slightly long soak will make it easier to get a consistent round next time.  A pine-like edge is strong, brewed this way.  There are complex layers beyond that, which will be easier to list out brewed lighter.  A flavor that seems to connect to the sweetness is really nice, towards molasses, in the range of complex warm tones.

third infusion:  there it is, becoming more dialed in.  Related to bitterness there is still some, that didn't drop out related to transition yet, but the level is moderate.  It integrates well with the pine resin and warm tones.  What I was interpreting as molasses like sweetness is a bit towards a malt, not the Assam malt, like malted milk ball malt, or the version in milkshakes.  Beyond that I think floral range is filling in complexity, but it doesn't stand out as much as the rest, it's more of a background or base.  

I've tried teas that were only 3 or 4 years old that were aged / fermented to a comparable level; I think higher than average compression level and probably also moderate humidity and temperature input kept this transition at a moderate pace, which is fine, that can kind of be better in a sense.  Heavier and rougher tones are avoided that way, a basement smell, or towards-peat earthiness.  This is clean in effect, and overall balance is good, with plenty of complexity and intensity.

fourth infusion:  warm tones shift this round, a pine edge changes to resemble dark wood towards aged furniture a bit more.  It's all a bit subtle, as a change that is occurring, but it seems like both dried fruit and spice are picking up.  The fruit range is close to dried Chinese date, jujube, and the spice tone is within the range of warm incense spices that I'm not so good about identifying.  

I'm feeling this tea already, a heady sort of light buzz and relaxing body feel, even though I had breakfast not long before partly to offset that.  I get it that many people love drug-like effects from sheng but I don't try to maximize that.

fifth infusion:  really interesting, for how much this is transitioning.  A general warm tone level stays the same but the parts going into that keep changing.  I suppose it's not so different in terms of description from the last round but it has shifted slightly.  Feel is really pronounced, resinous, full but with just a touch of dryness.  Aftertaste effect really lingers.  For as much intensity as this possesses, and the aspect range it covers, I think this would be really good in another 9 more years, once it had time to move through more of the rest of an aging cycle.  

It's fine now, as a different kind of tea experience, but I could see someone interpreting this as in between profiles that they like, not the partly softened 3 to 4 year old sheng range, and not yet fully switched over to warmer and deeper tones, kind of half and half.  I find it pleasant like this though.

Drinking water after that round tasted very sweet, as if it was a light stevia infusion.  Is that effect familiar?  There is a certain bitterness aftertaste range, I guess that people would often associate with hui gan, only partially translated as "returning sweetness," that causes plain water to taste really sweet when you drink it after sheng.  I'll take a break and do a few things and then add notes on a couple more rounds; this feel effect is a bit much to keep going.

sixth infusion:  this had included plenty of warm tones before but an actual woodiness is increasing, along the lines of sawdust pile or barnwood.  For taking a break that tea must have cooled, so the next infusion will make for a truer test, with the leaves starting brewing already warmed.

a couple rounds later, leaf color showing fermentation level 

seventh infusion:  that did change a lot, perhaps related to the brewing temperature going back to normal (hotter).  A pine edge stands out again.  I let that brew for over 10 seconds, on the long side for this proportion, round, and tea intensity level, and it probably would be back to more optimum under 10 again.  Heavier earthy or woody flavors are ramping up, just in a different form than last round, leaning more towards earthy range.  

I could swear that I'm really feeling this tea again, after drinking just two more rounds.  It would make sense to go with a much lower proportion to actually make it further through a round.  I picked a chunk from a sample set of chunks, and brewed that, which is even further into guesswork from my normal approach.  It looked like plenty, and it was.

taking a couple back out might've occurred to me, but overdoing it is habit

eight infusion:  it's nice, sweet, pleasantly viscous, with interesting and complex flavor range, and loads of intensity.  I'm not saying much about bitterness here because that input just seems moderate to me, but without acclimation to that as an input this might come across as harsh.  As far as a flavor list goes the set I keep describing just keeps shifting in balance, the pine resin edge, warmer earthy and woody tones, dried Chinese date / jujube fruit, underlying warm floral base tones, and some degree of light and sweet malt and warm aromatic spice tone.  There's a lot going on.  

Some of that pine resin / woody / now a bit towards earth flavor aspect lingers quite a bit in the aftertaste, along with a full, slightly dry feel, astringent in an unusual way.  For people who mostly love sweet, floral, aromatic, almost citrusy newer sheng, or else faded to warm, deep, softer, and subtle but complex flavored aged sheng this might not work very well.  Moderately aged sheng can be an odd range (or not yet aged, depends on how one parses out those concepts).  Someone else just mentioned that they also like sheng kind of in the middle in a Gong Fu Cha group discussion, even related to drier storage conditions, and if they meant they love the high intensity then this might work for them.  Versions that are sweeter, fragrant, and approachable early on are something else altogether; this must have been quite intense when younger.

Conclusions

This just wouldn't start fading in intensity, even after a number of additional rounds.  This is some intense tea.  A part I didn't get to later in the Wawee Tea site description sums up my impression well, once you read past the translation:

Note: can brew 15 - 20 water, able to develop itself from raw tea to ripe tea The older it is, the better it tastes.

It would've been more conventional to brew 2/3rds or half as much material as I did, and not lengthen infusion times at all, and this would still surely brew at least 15 rounds, under more normal parameters.  And it has plenty of aging potential.

They mentioned a sweetness tied to bitterness, which I've only read in this description in the final editing process, and also had expressed in the notes.  It's almost odd they didn't mention the feel effect, a solid body buzz and head effect combined. 

I'm not sure it came across clearly how much I liked this, what an objective quality assessment of it is, and how I place that style.  I can definitely appreciate half-aged sheng, and this is an interesting and pleasant version of that, so I really liked it.  I think even in 3 or 4 years this tea's character will make a lot more sense, that it could switch to a very young version of an aged tea instead of being so "right in the middle."  It's quite good, I think, related to the style that it is, so much so that the pricing is unusual.

The heaviness of pine edge may mean more to others than it did to me.  I suspect that it's at an unusual phase of transition, and it was much rougher a few years ago, intense in a less approachable way, and in a few more years it will be different again.  Jing Mai area sheng can have a quite pronounced pine flavor note, but I don't remember it coming up in Thai teas, not that I'm well-versed in styles and versions from 9 years ago.  

This material was a little broken, and that can change a lot, in terms of flavor set and feel.  Maybe that partly related to tearing up more than average compression level chunks, where newer style versions are often slightly looser.  This particular chunk was at the edge of the beeng-hole, so maybe it's not the most fair representation, more compressed than the rest, and I could've factored that in and picked a different piece.

I suppose it would have been possible to brew this like a dragonball instead, taking the first 3 or 4 infusions to mess around with one 5 to 7 gram chunk, working it apart while partly infused.  It's at least conceivable that maybe air contact was very limited, that it was more or less sealed, and that changed fermentation effect to an unfamiliar form, instead of compression level, or that relating to a starting point character input.  I guess I could ask Hojo about that, how sealing the tea affects sheng aging.  I would guess that this had enough air to ferment normally, that character just relates to where it is in a transition cycle.

judging from the Wawee Tea website image breaking it up may have broken the leaves

All in all I really liked it.  This would be a fantastic tea to buy with the intention of trying it once a year for the next half dozen years, and really having something novel then.  You might think "just 5 more" at that point, and then extreme patience would come into play.  Or it's interesting now, and some people would drink this just for the drug-like effect, never mind how much they love or are ambivalent about the rest.  If I wasn't about to move to an expensive place to live, and hadn't just spent some money on tea and a new pair of running shoes, I'd probably try to buy this.  Never mind; according to my wife I already have enough tea to drink for years, and I really love newish Thai sheng, and I just bought a cake's worth of that from them, so I'll be happy drinking that for awhile.  

For others feeling left out because vendors charge you $1 a gram if the word gushu is mentioned, which may or may not relate to a true story and experienced aspects, I've already spoken about as plainly as I'm going to.  If someone hates pine flavor in sheng and would intend to drink it soon then that's that, but even related to that part I'm not sure to what extent that will stick around through further aging.  I would guess that dryness of feel is from the same thing, just where it is right now, not how it's going to stay.