2011 was a good year. Here is a list of some of the things that got me through the last year in running. I originally planned to post this as a Christmas list, but my December hiatus postponed this post.
Some of my favorite things are the same as last year, but I have a few new ones as well.
1. Nuun.—I am a new Nuun convert (a “Nuunie”). I had tried it in the past, but didn’t become loyal until this year. They have lots of yummy flavors, so I will never get bored. I am so spoiled now that I don’t even use water. My kids are hooked as well. They drink it during hockey and soccer practices. It seems to really keep me hydrated—no more calf cramps. Keep reading for giveaway below!
2. iFitnessDouble Neoprene Pouch—I have already written about this one, but it remains my favorite accessory. I use it for nearly every run. I honestly don’t know what I would do without this accessory. It fits my phone (an HTC Incredible 2, which is not a small phone), camera, cash, lip balm…whatever. Keep reading for giveaway below!
3. Knee Socks. Fellow Hood to Coast Nuun Plattuuner Tonia (from Racing with Babes) got me hooked on knee socks. They make a fashion statement AND when they are compression socks, they help my muscles feel better after a run. In fact, I have enjoyed running in compression socks so much that I ran St. George in my hot pink Recovery Socks. I also have compression socks from Zensah and Bauer (they came free with my husband’s hockey gear).
4. Arbonne Lip Saver lip balm. This little lip balm is awesome. It has SPF 30 and stays on for a long time. It smells nice, but isn't overpowering. It is smoother than chapstick and other lip balms, but stays on longer than most smooth or creamy lip stuff. You can buy it HERE.
5. Sugoi Versa jacket—I received this for Christmas last year and I love it. The sleeves come off to leave a vest. The bolero style sleeves stash neatly in the back pocket. I t is great to wear on a chilly morning, especially one that is a little breezy.
6. Arm Warmers—I love my arm warmers. I have four pair and enjoy all of them. They are different brands. The weather around here can get pretty crazy. We have had runs where it is 40 degrees when we start and 70 when we end. This is when arm warmers really come in handy. When it warms up, I just pull them off and tie them around my iFitness belt.
7. Garmin—This little gadget continues to be a staple in my running. Pacing and split management was key in my success in St. George. I still need to find ways to use it to its fullest potential. I rarely use the heart rate monitor and haven’t learned how to use the virtual partner.
8. Rockmyrun.com—My new source for running music can’t be beat. Have you discovered this site yet? Do yourself a favor while it is still in Beta. Their running mixes are FREE right now! And they are awesome. They have worked with runners to find some great mixes with the perfect beats per minute.
9.Jamba Juice—I still love my Jamba. I love the smoothies, I love the oatmeal, I love just about everything. I am trying to add more greens to my diet and have recently started having a wheat grass shot every time I go in. My kids beg me for the frozen yogurt. Did you know they had frozen yogurt? disclosure: http://cmp.ly/2/lHtGGa
OK…now the part you were looking for! The GIVEAWAY! I am giving away FOUR of my favorite things! I am giving away one iFitness Double Neoprene Pouch, one tube of Nuun (and a bpa-free plastic bottle to drink it from), a $5 Jamba Juice gift card, and a tube of Arbonne Lip Saver!!!!! I will have a total of four winners--one for each prize.
You must be a follower to win, but other than that, all the entries are optional. You get an entry for leaving a comment saying which prize you want to win, if you have a preference. It is optional, but if you don’t leave a comment, I won't know what you want, so you get what you get. ;-) If you tweet, please use @momtomarathon so I know you tweeted. Also, if you like a Facebook page (mine, iFitness or Nuun), can you stop by and leave a comment so I know? Thanks!
Please make sure you enter using the Rafflecopter entry form below. I will use Rafflecopter to pick a winner on January 23.
If you are reading this blog, you are probably interested in fitness. If you are interested in fitness, you have probably heard of HIIT—high intensity interval training. HIIT is a format of exercise
“which you alternate short, very high intensity intervals with longer, slower intervals to recover. This type of training has been used by athletes to improve performance, but it's also been shown to benefit the average exerciser. HIIT training not only helps performance, it also improves the ability of the muscles to burn fat.”
According to Beachbody.com, HIIT gets the body’s motor going for a longer period than traditional steady-state cardio, creating an “after-burn effect.” This means that you can work out for shorter periods of time to burn the same amounts of calories.
My Body Back classes use an interval format. Not only does it help clients get great results, but it breaks exercise sets into bite sized pieces. It is easier to ask a woman, who hasn’t exercised for years, to do an exercise for 30 seconds or a minute than it is to get them to jog for 30 minutes. My workouts involve a warmup (about 7-10 minutes) HIIT workout (40-45 minutes), ending with abs, stretching and meditation (about 10 minutes).
One of my favorite HIIT workouts uses Tabata sets. Tabatas have you doing 20 seconds of very high intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. You repeat this for eight sets. The entire Tabata set takes four minutes. I can tell you that by the last minute, you are feeling those reps, no matter what you are doing. I have used Tabatas with squats, curls, pushups, and various high intensity cardio moves. You can use them for almost anything.
A key element of the workouts I teach is timing. If you tell someone that they will do a plank for a minute, have them do a plank for a minute. A 20 second interval for Tabata needs to be precise to be the most effective. Using a watch is sometimes unreliable. If you just watch your second hand (or numbers), then it is easy to lose track of the interval. It is difficult to help clients with form and to encourage/motivate them if you are staring at your watch. Countdown timers are good, but my watch beep isn’t loud enough to hear well over high tempo music that I like to play. Lastly, it is difficult to keep track of how many intervals have been completed, especially if you are participating in the workout. You lose some credibility if you tell them that you are going to do eight rounds and then only do seven or hit them with nine.
Enter the Gymboss. It is one of my favorite (and most necessary) tools for my workouts. I can set one or two intervals up to 99 times. It keeps track of the how many you have left so you can look at it and know exactly where you are. My clients love when I let them know where they are. “Half way there!” or “only 15 seconds left!” The beep can be long or short, soft or loud and can also vibrate (so if you really have the music up, you know the interval is over).
Not only does this little timer work for HIIT workouts, but for run/walk running plans as well. The Gymboss is super lightweight. It clips onto just about anything. You could clip it onto a waistband and forget about it (until it beeps, of course). In fact, one of the timers is marketed specifically for Jeff Galloway’s Run/Walk/Run program.
It can also be used as a stopwatch. I used it the other day for fitness assessments for my Body Back clients. I used it for timing one mile time trials and planks. One improvement I would suggest would be the ability to save the data somehow, since I am timing more than one person at a time.
I bought a Gymboss for myself and another one for my Body Back instructor as a thank you. I love it. It is lightweight and once you figure out the instructions, it is relatively simple to use. However, I wish there was room for a “cheat sheet” because I often forget how to change it and have to do a bit of trial and error to remind myself. There are instructions printed on it to change it to a stopwatch.
You may have noticed the Gymboss ad on my sidebar. If you want to purchase a Gymboss, please click through that since I am part of their affiliate program. But don’t buy yet! I have a couple Gymboss timers to giveaway to readers. The first timer I will give away here and the second one on my Facebook page.
To enter, the only requirement is that you are a follower. Click on the first option below in the Rafflecopter entry form and you are in. You can earn additional entries by tweeting, posting to Facebook or your blog (1 entry for each). Please click the options below in order to get your entry counted. I will draw a winner on Thursday, September 29 after 9 p.m.
Please click "Read More" to get to the entry form! Thanks!!
Congratulations to entry #23Kerriefor winning my giveaway! She nabbed this particular entry by “liking” iFitness on Facebook. Kerrie will receive an iFitness Hydration Belt. Kerrie, I will send you an e-mail based on the address you entered, but if you see this first, please send me your shipping information and size/color preference to mom2marathon (at) gmail (dot) com.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I wanted to let everyone know that Kerrie was the second name drawn. The first person that came up, unfortunately did not leave a blog comment with a favorite item from the iFitness website. This was required in order to be eligible to win. I will be having other giveaways in the near future so keep playing!!
My iFitness Neoprene Double Pouch belt is one of my favorite things. In fact, it made it on my "favorite things” list last year. I also have purchased it for two of my friends and told a friend’s husband to purchase one for a third. I wear it on nearly every run and wear it whenever I don’t want to carry a purse (which is most of the time these days).
When I found out that they were coming out with a hydration belt, I was thrilled. I have recently started disliking my belt,* but for long runs, it is a necessity. I have been using my handheld a lot this summer, but I really want to carry both water and Nuun on my long runs. I was eager to try a better belt. Enter the iFitness Hydration Belt (16 oz size).
The iFitness Hydration Belt features:
Water resistant pouch, stretchy and sturdy, made of neoprene will keep your cell phone or iPod (any size) dry.
Two 8oz bottles (BPA free)
2 elastic slots will hold your gels on your belt, for easy access.
A special inner pocket will keep your ID/credit cards or room key securely.
Comes with two reflector strips in the front and one in the back, for night time safety.
Also featured are two toggles to hold your race number, under the pouch.
In addition to getting the belt, I purchased two add-ons. These are holders and bottles that slide onto any iFitness belt. Currently, iFitness only offers a two-bottle option and I need more liquid than that on a very long run. The add-ons are a great option! I can run with two, three or four bottles. In fact, I have put a single add-on onto my double neoprene belt for a short run in the heat.
Here is a picture of my double pouch with an add-on.
I received both items quickly. In the past, other belts I have ordered have arrived in a timely fashion as well. There is no set up and while I did rinse them, the bottles did not appear to need to be washed before use.
I have now worn this belt on two long runs (20 miles and 22 miles) as well as during two legs of Hood to Coast
.
Here are my thoughts.
Pros:
The belt fits just like my pouch belt, nice and snug. If I have it adjusted correctly, it doesn’t bounce at all. I prefer it to sit down on my hips where I just forget about it.
The bottles fit tightly into the pouches. In the past, I have had bottles fall out of the belt. A couple times, this happened in a race! Once, during a half marathon, one of my bottles was knocked out by my arm during my sprint to the finish. I just left it. I have actually used rubber bands to secure the bottles during a key race—pretty junk-show. The iFitness belt also has some elastic loops to secure the bottles, ensuring that they never pop out. They are easy enough to get out to drink, however.
The pouch is nice and roomy without being too bulky. It is big enough for my phone, cash, a packet of flushable wipes and a Gu. Saturday, during my twenty-two miler, I also stashed a Honey Stinger Waffle in the pouch.
There are two elastic loops that fit a Gu packet.
The pouch seemed to keep everything dry. On my long run Saturday, it rained pretty hard. My phone stayed dry and protected.
They have reflective stripes for safety. I don’t always run in the dark, but it was pitch black Saturday when we started. I also used it during my night leg of Hood to Coast.
Cons:
I like having ten ounce bottles. The eight ounce bottles aren’t quite big enough and I think I might have to refill during the marathon. When I ran marathons with the other belt, 40 ounces lasted me 26.2 miles. I am not sure if 32 ounces will last. We’ll see.
While I didn’t notice it during my long run, the belt gave me a little bruise on the front of my hip. It was a little tender Saturday night, but don’t even notice it today. To be fair, this happens with any hydration belt I have tried.
The bottles are a little too far apart to fit exactly between my hips. If I wear it straight on, the bottles lay directly on my hip bones. Ouch. I have to turn it a little catty-wompus (is that even a word?) so it lays flat. One of the bottles sits directly in front of my hip bone and the other one sits right behind my other hip bone. This puts the rear bottles in a strange place. It is ok because I drink from the front bottles, switching them with the rear bottles as I empty them.
Pricing**:
The iFitness Hydration Belt is priced competitively with the other belts out there. It retails for $39.95 for the 16 ounce belt. The 12 ounce belt (using two six ounce bottles) sells for $36.95. There are belts out there with ten ounce bottles that sell for the same price as iFitness.
Where the iFitness is not as competitive is when you jump to four bottles. The two bottle add-on is $19.95. That makes a four bottle set-up a $60 investment. There are cheaper options out there. The thing each person has to decide is—is comfort and convenience worth the extra $$. For me, I think it is. The add-ons offer me a lot of options, so they are worth it.
Final Word:
Overall, I really like this belt. I don’t think I will ever LOVE a hydration belt. However, when I want plenty of options for my hydration and fuel, this is a good option for me. I will most likely be wearing this for St. George. I originally was planning on running with my handheld bottle, but I like the idea of having both water and Nuun with me (I prefer to wash down my Gu’s with water over Nuun) as well as the ability to carry 32 ounces instead of the 20 ounces that my handheld holds.
The Best News: I have the opportunity to give away a hydration belt to a lucky reader! Please find all the ways to enter below. In order to be eligible to win, you must be a follower and must go to iFitness and check out their products, leaving a comment about your favorite. There are a bunch of other ways to earn entries. See below for how to enter. The giveaway will end on Sunday, September 18 at 9 p.m. PDT.
Happy Running…
*I have used theRoadrunner/Nathan four-bottle hydration belt. The one I have is three years old and might be a bit different than what they sell today. It has a velcro closure and after losing some weight, it doesn’t fit well. It bounces and I have to jerry-rig it with rubber bands to fit me at all. It ends up looking pretty gaudy.
**I was given the iFitness Hydration Belt (16 oz.) free to try, but purchased the add-ons myself. My opinions are all my own.
I want to thank Alissa for the opportunity to have such a fabulous giveaway! I had a record number of comments for my blog and gained quite a few new followers!
Baby Weight My Fat Ass!! (I really just wanted to type that…) Please contact me at runnermommylisa (at) gmail (dot) com to get your code to use on Alissa’s site.
In case you had any doubts, here is the totally scientific random number generator I got on the internet.
For the rest of you, don’t forget the discount code RUNBLOG04 for a sweet discount!
My friend and fellow blogger, Alissa, has recently started a clothing company. She has made her own silk screens for a unique, one-of-a-kind look. I have the t-shirt pictured below and love it. It is fashionable and totally ME. My friend told me that the silhouette of the running girl actually looks like me.
Alissa has generously offered to give one of my readers a t-shirt (a $26 value). And for everyone else, there is a discount code. Enter RUNBLOG04 for 15% off.
The drawing will be held on Friday, May 6. Here’s how to enter: Leave a comment for each entry
1) Mandatory--Go to BalancingActClothing.com and check it out. Leave a comment with your favorite style or saying or even if you have an idea of something you would like to see made (Alissa is open to custom orders!). Alissa is always looking for new inspiration.
2) Become a follower of my blog or let me know you already are one.
3) Spread the word about this giveaway. Say it on Twitter, Facebook and/or your blog and leave a comment for each one.
I know I haven’t been much of a blogger lately. I haven’t posted much and haven’t commented on blogs. I have had a lot going on, but hope to catch up with all your blogs and start posting more very soon.
I have flirted with the idea of getting a Road ID for sometime now. If you aren't familiar with Road ID, it is identification that you wear when you are out running, riding, hiking, surfing etc. Here is what the company says:
Road ID was created on the concept that active people should wear ID as part of their gear when participating in outdoor activities. It was started by a couple of guys who began to wonder "why in the heck don't we have ID on us when we go out for a run or a ride?" We looked at our dogs, they had ID. But, if we had an unexpected accident, while running or cycling, we would be in bad shape - nobody would know who we were or who to contact. That freaked us out.
It just seems smart, doesn't it?
I keep putting it off. It is not like it is particularly expensive, but it never seems to be a necessary expense. I am sure I wouldn't think that if I actually needed it. I have seen a couple of blogs giving a Road ID away, so I'm going to try to win one first. If I win more than one, I will get one for my dear husband who goes on crazy long bike rides being somewhat undertrained (Sunday he rode almost 80 miles after not riding for two weeks). Allie at Running Fool is giving one away here. Check it out. Also check out Road ID.
Nikki, at Slow is the New Fast, is giving away a cool looking hat light. Since I often run in dangerously dark clothes when it is cold and dark, I could really use it. Go over and check out Nikki's blog. http://slowisthenewfast.blogspot.com/
Oz Runner is hosting a birthday giveaway with a few cool things in his prize package. Hurry... today is the last day! Tall Mom on the Run also has a giveaway. She is giving away a gift certificate for some great running jewelry/accessories. This woman always has fantastic giveaways. I don't know how she does it!
My Google Reader is going to get FULL with all these great blogs I have found. Erica is another SAHM runner with a blog and she has a FANTASTIC giveaway that expires tonight-- so hurry! She is giving away a seriously SWEET duffle bag. I can't help but think about how handy it will come for Ragnar in February.
Check it out! http://ericarunning.blogspot.com/2009/07/ff.html
There are some generous bloggers right now. I am ready to win something! So go check out Nikes and Ponytails at http://nikesandponytails.blogspot.com/2009/07/ginormous-july-giveaway.html.
Oh... if you are in a generous mood, mention my name in your post. :-)
I really want to win this one. I'm torn... linking to the giveaway might get more people to enter her contest (lowering my odds). However, linking to the giveaway gives me more entries. Honestly, it is a great blog and everyone should check it out anyway. Tall Mom on the Run is giving away a great necklace from a wonderful Etsy store (that I have already bookmarked).
I still haven't figured out how to get people to send me free stuff, but I do have something to give away to two of my readers. OK... it isn't anything super fabulous, but someone may really enjoy it.
I have nineteen packs of Orange Burst Gu* that my husband was given through his former work. My generosity is not entirely altruistic. I can't stand Orange Burst and I am sick of going into my basket of running supplements and grabbing one instead of my Just Plain or Espresso Love. I thought it would be fun to give eight each to two different readers. Because of his expressed love of Orange Gu, I will send OzRunner three of them (if he wants them) just because I told him I would**. *wink*
Leave a comment telling me about your favorite gel, chew or food for running (it doesn't have to be Orange Gu or other Gu). In the interest of expanding readership, if you link my blog in a post, you'll get one more entry. Just post another comment saying that you linked. Lastly, if you become a follower of my blog on Facebook, you'll get another entry (post another comment to let me know).
I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner on June 10 in the evening.
*In the interest of full disclosure, these Gu's are technically "expired." They are about a year old. I have been eating the Espresso Love and Just Plain from the same batch and haven't noticed anything odd about them. Honestly, I am not too worried about a sugary substance packaged in a foil container going bad. But I needed to let you know. I am pretty sure I know why we were able to score so many Gu's for free. *wink* **Oz, if you are interested, send me your address at pslisarg at hotmail dot com.
