Disclaimer: I received a sample of RECOVERYbits for the purpose of this review. Opinions are all my own.
I train a lot. There isn’t really an off season … maybe just a little downtime before the next challenge begins. I have to be careful I don’t push myself too hard.
You’ve all heard the saying, “you never regret a workout.” Sometimes it might be appended with, “only the workouts you don’t do.”
That isn’t true for me, though. I don’t regret skipping workouts. I can’t even count how many times I went back to sleep after my 5 a.m. alarm went off. As much as I enjoy my 6 a.m Bikram yoga classes, and as much as they help me stretch and stay loose, sometimes I just need more sleep. I can get an extra two hours if I skip the class. I feel like I’ve become a pretty good judge of when I need a little more rest, and when I should push through the desire to stay in my nice warm bed. I make sure to take at least one or two rest days per week, and I’ll often skip boot camp classes when my body is feeling a little beat up.
When I was contacted by a representative at ENERGYbits to see if I wanted to try RECOVERYbits, it was good timing. Allergies were making my throat itchy, people are starting to get winter illnesses, and my training was at its peak. RECOVERYbits are 100% non GMO, organically grown chlorella and a natural way to boost your immunity.
Now, I only got a couple days worth to test with, not long enough to see any immune-boosting powers. But I’m a health-food person. I like consuming products that are good for me, and I definitely believe the claims. It will take a little getting used to, swallowing so many tablets (they’re food, not pills!). Chewing them is OK too, but it’s a strong taste that might take some time to get used to.
One serving.
I sampled ENERGYbits a year or so ago. I like both of these products — they are natural ways to get really good nutrients. It’s pricey, and I haven’t taken the leap yet to make them a part of my everyday routine. But definitely something I’m considering as I continue to push my body and improve my health.
Want to try RECOVERYbits? Enter below to win a sample! (U.S. only, sorry!)
And today only … shop ENERGYbits’ “Cyber Monday” promotion. For the next 24 hours you can order as many bags from www.energybits.com as you like and you will be charged just $5.00 shipping. So, stock up on your Christmas gifts now because it doesn’t matter if you order 1 bag or 100 bags, you will only be charged a flat rate of $5.00 for shipping! (USA orders only)
I LOVE to dress up for Halloween. These days, it’s usually for a fun run rather than a party or event. But I like to be creative … often times that hinders the actual ability to run.
I’ve written about my love of costumes before, but it’s been awhile. I’ve missed sharing quite a few here, so let me go back a few years:
2011 — this was intended to be a potted plant, but everyone called me a Christmas tree. This may come back in the future, fully decorated …2012 — I re-purposed my previous Mr. Potato Head costume into a baked potato. I thought it was brilliant, but not everybody figured it out!2013 – XRay, complete with glow-in-the-dark skeleton. Um, that didn’t glow all that well. But good enough to place in a costume contest!
The tree was worst for mobility, but I tried to top it this year:
Though, I actually made it farther in the fun run this year than I did the tree year … if you call a 50+-minute 5K (that I cut short) “running,” LOL!
This year’s costume cost $2 — for blue paint from the “oops” shelf at Home Depot. Everything else was created out of things I already had at home. Just a little time, but I obviously have a lot of fun with this.
Do you love dressing up as much as I do? What’s your favorite costume?
For the past month or so, I’ve been using the EveryMove app to track my workouts. I heard about the program through SweatPink, and was excited to test it out.
EveryMove gives you points for your workouts, which you apply towards rewards. There’s a huge database of activities to choose from. Everything I do I’ve found easily (running, biking, swimming, yoga, boot camp classes), but you can find just about anything in there. Roller Derby? Shuffleboard? Mopping? They’ve got you covered!
Most of the rewards are discounts, but you can also earn donations for a charity. It seems the choices rotate — the first three rewards I worked for were $1 donations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Lately I’ve been working towards donations to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. I’ve earned $4 for them so far, and I’m getting close to another dollar!
You can manually enter workouts, but EveryMove can also link it to dozens of apps/sites. Running, of course, is my favorite way to #sweatpink … and I import all my runs into Strava, I was able to link Strava to EveryMove and it’s fantastic — all my workouts are automatically imported!
I still have to manually add other workouts, but it’s quick and easy to do from my phone. Earning points gives me incentive to keep my EveryMove account up-to-date. In addition to the rewards, there are badges. I’m not sure what they all mean, but so far I’ve earned Bodhisattva for logging 10 yoga activities within 30 days, Road Warrior for running 26.2 miles in a week, and Orange Crush for earning seven orange hearts in a row. (You get an orange heart every day you log an activity. This means I did not take any rest days in seven days … but don’t worry, I”m not overtraining. My ‘rest’ days often still include yoga!)
It looks like I’ve been extra lazy this week … but I ran a marathon on Sunday! One of the extra rest days before was for travel … and after I was just tired 🙂
The orange heart can also be flaming of you unlock a very active bonus. With many long workouts and/or multiple workouts a day, I earn these quite frequently! Consistently working out also increases your Level. You ‘Level Up’ by earning a certain number of points in a timeframe. I seem to be quickly climbing!
There is a social aspect to the app, too. You can add your friends — Facebook, Contacts, RunKeeper or Fitbit. I haven’t worked with this feature at all yet. I’m still pretty happy using it solo for now.
EveryMove is available for iPhone and Android, or you can use the website at http://everymove.org. The iPhone app was recently updated, but I’m still waiting for the new Android version. It’s still fully functional, but I think there are some design changes coming.
A website screenshot from today. (Already out-of-date as I just added a boot camp class!)
Disclaimer: I reviewed this app as part of a SweatPink campaign … but EveryMove is a free app. I was not compensated in any way. Opinions are my own.
I did my first sprint triathlon in 2008, and continued with a once-a-year shorter distance until jumping to the Olympic distance in 2012. I’d been thinking about moving up again, but needed a little push to pull the trigger.
That’s where the Annapolis Triathlon Club comes in. I had joined the club and made some friends, and when a few of them decided to race Raleigh, it didn’t take much arm-twisting to get me to sign up. I was ready for it, I just needed to know I wouldn’t be racing alone!
We ended up with a large group down in Raleigh, with 17 of us participating in the June 1, 2014 race. I drove down the Friday before the race with two friends who would be my roommates for the weekend. We stayed just outside of town at the Residence Inn, which was more like a townhouse than a hotel room, complete with a loft, murphy bed and two bathrooms. And plenty of room for three bikes and all our gear.
We watched the Iron Kids race on Saturday morning before hitting the expo. Not too big, but I got some excellent souvenirs — a bike jersey, a visor and a T-shirt with all the racers’ names on the back.
After the expo, we headed over to the lake for a quick swim. There wasn’t access at the race site, but there were public areas open so we could get a feel for the water. It was nice! Next we went over to the transition area where we’d rack our bikes, but went out for a short ride first. I was a little nervous about riding before race day, but took it super easy. One of our tri club members wasn’t so lucky — his chain broke during his shakeout ride, and he crashed. Probably a bit bumped, bruised and sore from that anyway, but a gash on his leg was too deep to risk lake swimming. He was unable to race, but was a trooper and provided excellent support, cheering and taking photos of us on the course.
We didn’t have time to head back to our hotel to shower before dinner (oops!), so we had to settle for a quick change in the car. Good thing it was a casual place. We were able to get two huge tables at an Italian restaurant in a back room … that we were sharing with two birthday parties! I got pasta primavera with grilled salmon — a perfect pre-race meal. Salmon has been kinda lucky for me, resulting in lots of good races and PRs!
When we got back to the hotel, we had a bit of packing to do — T1 and T2 were in different places (we biked from Jordan Lake back to downtown Raleigh). We would set up our run gear before boarding buses in the morning, plus had a bag we could gear check pre-race in the morning, and another to pack up our swim stuff before hitting the bike. We’d claim all our bags when we picked up our bikes post-race.
It took a bit more thinking to make sure everything was in the right place than when you just have one transition area! We were all a bit nervous and got to bed later than we should have, but who sleeps well the night before a big race, anyway?
I got a little sleep, at least, but it was a very early morning. We prepared our breakfast (peanut butter sandwich, which I would eat on the bus ride), grabbed our gear, and headed downtown in the dark. Parking was easy and close by, and we quickly got our run gear set up and hopped on a bus.
It wasn’t until the bus ride to the start that we learned the race would be wetsuit legal — just barely at 75.4. That was definitely the news I wanted to hear!
I had a lot of time to kill before my swim wave would start (women 35-39 went off at 8:10, wave 19 out of 21), but it want quickly. I got my tires pumped, waited in a ridiculously long porta-potty line, and then hung out with my fellow tri-club members until one by one they started their races.
And then we were off. The lake is beautiful, and I was calm right from the start. I remember thinking how this would be the most relaxing part of my day, and tried to really enjoy it. It got a little crowded at times, but nothing too crazy. I’m a non-aggressive swimmer and I’d rather just move out of the way. I finally found some open space after the final turn … when I realized I drifted a bit far from the buoys. Oops! I pulled myself back on course and swam to shore.
Swim time: 45:11
I had my first experience with wetsuit strippers once out of the water. I had unzipped myself on the way there. Two people would pull the suit down, sit you on the ground, pull it off, and help you back up. Awesome!
The transition lot was pretty big, but my bike was in an outside row so it was easy to find. I packed up my swim gear, and quickly got ready to ride. I stopped briefly for some volunteers to spray my shoulders and arms with sunscreen — another new amenity!
And then I was on the road. I started slow, well, because I’m a slow cyclist! I’m also pretty conservative on the bike. I was especially cautious around other cyclists because I don’t want to end up accidentally drafting! It would be really silly to get a drafting penalty when only riding 14mph …
The ride was great, though, and I was well prepared. I had simulated the course on a CompuTrainer, and done some hilly outdoor rides. I was ready for the elevation.
It was still pretty exhausting, and I found myself itching to be finished around mile 43 … only to get a second wind around mile 50. I actually passed a lot of people going uphill!
It felt great to return to downtown Raleigh and get off the bike!
Bike time: 3:57:51. I thought it was going to take four hours, so this was a win!
I racked my bike, got my run gear on, and hit the porta-potty before hitting the road. I knew I’d finish at this point … I felt pretty good!
Not as good as a guy who flew past me in the first quarter mile, shouting, “I finally got to my sport!” I yelled back, “Me too, but I’m not going any faster than this!”
I didn’t know how fast “this” was … so I glanced down at my watch, only to see it in mph. Oops, forgot to change sports! I changed it then, which restarted my run. I’d be a little bit behind every mile marker, and I had no idea how much time had passed already. My run finish time would be a surprise!
The course was a double out-and-back. The ‘out’ portion was mostly uphill and in the sun, while the ‘back’ portion had a little shade and some downhill. My first ‘out’ went pretty well, I had a decent pace. I slowed a little on the way back, starting to feel the hills, and by the time I got to the second ‘out,’ the heat and the hills had taken a toll. I was walking through every water stop, taking sports drinks and dumping water over my head.
Around mile eight I started losing speed. And so did that excited runner, I recognized him walking up a hill. I asked, “are you the runner that was so excited to run?,” and he sighed, “yeah.”
I fought to keep shuffling up that hill. Even though miles 10-12 were in the easier part of the course, I slowed quite a bit, probably extending my walk breaks. But after mile 12, I picked it up a bit. Rally to the finish!
I ended up with a 2:12:49 half marathon time — and I was thrilled! While I can run faster in a standalone race, 2:13 is kind of a benchmark for me. From my second half marathon in 2005 until the summer of 2009, my PR was stuck at 2:13:11 … and I’m still happy enough finishing races in that timeframe.
Going into the race, I had given myself a 7:30 goal. A bit conservative, but realistic. That’s a long time to race, and I didn’t know how my body was going to react. I thought that 7:30 could possibly be a best-case scenario …
I try to be a healthy eater most of the time. Lots of fruit, and veggies. More homemade meals and snacks. Less sugar and processed food. I’m not super hard on myself, especially as triathlon training is in full swing. I’ve got my first half Ironman coming up in a couple weeks — I’ve earned a few treats along the way!
But I’m still failing with clean eating when fueling during workouts. I’m still a Gu eater! When I’m doing two, three and even four-hour workouts, I’ve got to make sure I’m fueling properly!
I’ve been planning on finishing up my Gu stash and focusing my efforts on finding something healthier. It’s taking awhile … I buy in bulk! But I’ll be there soon. When I heard about Vega Sport‘s #fuelyourbetter campaign, I jumped at the chance to try Vega Sport Gel. It seems like the perfect Gu replacement.
I broke all racing rules and tried my first Vega Sport Gel during a race — a sprint triathlon. I wasn’t too worried about having any problems. It was a short, flat course, and I was treating it as training rather than a race. I ate my gel as I headed out on the bike course.
First impression — the texture is a little gritty when compared to traditional Gu, but the taste is pretty OK. It doesn’t particularly taste like raspberry like it’s supposed to, but it’s fine. I happened to have a very good race, too!
I’ve also started eating Vega Sport Gel as “breakfast” before pre-work bike trainer workouts. I don’t always eat before these shorter rides, but some days I wake up hungry. It’s just enough to cut the edge.
The more Vega Sport Gels I eat, the less I notice the texture difference that surprised me the first time. I’m glad I could get used to it, the ingredients are a lot more in line with what I want to be eating:
Overall, I liked the product. It might be on my shopping list once the Gu runs out!
Disclaimer: I received Vega Sport Gel for free through my involvement with the Sweat Pink Ambassador Program. I was not compensated any other way. Opinions are my own.
