Giveaways Galore!

So, since I have gotten behind on posts, I also have a couple giveaways that are due.  I JUST realized yesterday that I never did a race recap on the Biggest Loser 10k I ran on June 29th so I plan to do that tomorrow.  I had held onto these giveaways until that point because that was the day I was intending to try both products and time just got away from me.  Anyway, for the Biggest Loser race I decided to try out my Spun Compression socks as well as Energybits!

ENERGYbits

Coming into this race I had been having terrible runs with a capital "T."  About 8 days before this I had switched over to a low carb diet and the one long run of 5 miles I had completed left me drained and out of whack very quickly.  I am assuming my body was still adjusting? I am not sure but they were bad.  I had high hopes that the Energybits would get me through this race.

It is recommended by the ENERGYbits people that you use 30 bits prior to activity so about 15 minutes before the race start I took 30 bits.  To begin with these smell very...green.  Since they are 100% algae that is completely expected.  While there is an option to chew these in reviews I had read before, I knew to just swallow them whole.  They are the size of maybe an Advil, so it was fun to swallow 30 of those, but it was doable.  During the race I did feel more energy that I had felt on my last run.  I made it farther than I expected based on my previous performance in the week so that was good as well.  The great thing about these is that they are all- natural and they are a FOOD and not a supplement.

From the ENERGYbits website:
Made from 100% organicallly grown spirulina algae and loaded with 40 nutrients, ENERGYbits® algae tabs have the highest concentration of protein in the world (64%) all for just one calorie per tab. Endorsed by the United Nations as the most nutritious food on earth, spirulina algae has been a favorite of Olympic gold medalists for decades and is a super food in every sense of the word, delivering instant and enduring energy to your brain and body.

I think that I will give these another go soon as my general level of energy has continued to come up over the time since the race.  I would like to try these again when I am having normal runs and not terrible ones like the week I did manage to try them.  Want to try them, too? Enter the giveaway at the bottom of the post!

Those entering in the giveaway will win one sample pack of ENERGYbits!


Spun Compression

It was very humid and the temperature was rising quite a bit the morning of the race so I decided to wear short socks during the race and save these socks for the long ride home after the race.  Like I mentioned above, I had a terrible run and my calves were kind of achy.  I jumped in the shower when we got back to the hotel and put my Spun Compression socks on right away.  I am always worried because I seem to have large calves so I tend to wonder if they are going to be too tight.  These actually felt great on my legs.  I didn't have any issues with them being too tight and they put just the right amount of pressure on my calves.  I kept them on for the whole ride home and then a couple more hours after we made it home.  I was definitely glad to have them!

One great point about these compression socks?  They are much cheaper than many others you will find out there.  Regular price they run 34.99. Why?

From the Spun Apparel website:

Spun Performance Apparel was born out of necessity.  When our founders began searching for compression apparel to aid them in their performance and to speed up their recovery, they shared a common sentiment, "Why's this stuff so expensive?"  So, they set out to try to find the answer.  There were a few factors that led to most legitimate compression apparel being so expensive:

• It's sold through retail locations, so there is an extra level of markup, sometimes as high as 200%;
• Many compression apparel companies pay athletes to wear their gear;
• It's worth it.

While we share their sentiment on the final point, we wholeheartedly disagree with the first two. 

Why drive to a specialty running or cycling store to try something on for a minute or two in a cramped dressing room when you can order online and try it on in the comfort of your own home.  If it doesn't fit, we'll pay for you to ship it back to us.

I plan on also getting these in green soon!

Enter the Rafflecopter below to try to win these awesome products!! There will be 2 winners for this giveaway.  Giveaway runs from August 21-31, 2013.  Winner will be announced in a blogpost on Sept 1! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just when I thought things were calming down... (non-running related)

it came time to gear up for school!  While we homeschool, and my kids are still very young, we have a very flexible school schedule but the kiddos are showing serious signs of needing some structure in their lives so I have been prepping.  It is reminding me a lot of when I was in a classroom. 

We were ALMOST ready to start.  Rex is 5.5 and going into 1st grade this year and Curly just turned 4 and is starting kindergarten this year so I had ordered everything for them and this week I pulled everything out to get it set up.  I got the first few lessons of our reading program ready, got math pages put into binders, and got all of our phonogram cards torn apart and put into the card box. 

Then, The Husband looks at me during a discussion when I was telling him I would like to get a table for the school area rather than the desks that we have now, and tells me that it would be great to be able to move school into the playroom.  Well, my brain took that and ran with it and for the last 2 days I have been in hyper-drive.  So far I have: organized Curly's closet, deep cleaned her room, picked up a cabinet and bed for her room, turned said cabinet into a dress up closet, had The Husband move her room around and take a shelf down, then move it back and put the shelf back up (sorry TH), and moved all of her stuff from the playroom into her room.

Still left to do is deep cleaning Rex's room and moving his toys into his room from the toy room then taking all of the school stuff down off the wall and moving it into the new school room. I am excited to have more wall space to work with! Non-school related, we are picking up Rex's bed and painting it. He wants the headboard to be camouflaged and The Husband is going to Home Depot soon and getting materials to build shelves for their rooms so we can have storage for the toys moving in there. And, don't tell the Husband but I have visions of paining their rooms very, very soon. I have quite a bit of stuff on craigslist that I am hoping sell soon because I am running out of room to store things in the meantime.

Hopefully I can have some before and after pictures soon of our new school room area and of the kids' room makeovers.  Also, hopefully we can get started on school sometime before December! =) 

Since I haven't mentioned running yet, I should also say that I am trying to decide on a traiining program.  The Husband mentioned maybe I should run a half program a couple times from now until time to start the marathon program and then start at a normal marathon training point? I haven't decided yet and need to look at the calendar to decide.  I need to give myself as much weight loss time before I reintroduce higher carbs as possible and since the last couple days I have been off the wagon, it may take FOREVER to make it to goal!

Happy Running!

My Big Plans!

I mentioned I would try to get back tonight to talk about my plans and figured this is the perfect opportunity.  The Husband went to bed early because he's going to run into work for a few hours tomorrow, Rex has been in bed for quite awhile now, and Curly went to spend the weekend with Nana (my mom).

I am a bit nervous to even say...er, type...this because it is not something that I thought would even cross my mind for a couple more years.  I have decided to run a MARATHON in May.  Yes, all capitals because when I think about it, that's how I imagine it in my head.  I am scared out of my mind, ya'll, but I really, really want to do it.

The whole thought came out of nowhere.  The race schedule that I had in mind is looking like it is going to need to change and we have decided to move a couple races and go back to the Flying Pig this year.  We were between it and the Indy Mini but we had so much fun at the Flying Pig and the kids are wanting to race again.  Unfortunately we don't have any options for kids races nearby and the Indy Mini doesn't offer one.

So, after making the decision to go back to the Pig, I wanted to do something different.  I originally thought that I would do the 3 way which is running the 5k and 10k on Saturday and then running the half marathon on Sunday.  That has been my plan for while but the other day when we were getting ready to run the marathon just popped into my head and I said "I want to do that!"  Now, I am fairly certain that is what is going to happen.  There are a couple things that may change this decision.

1. My weight- I know, I know that shouldn't change my decision to do something I really want but recently I have gone low carb.  I am talking induction level low carb so only 20-25 carbs a day.  This is just enough to fuel my short runs right now but I really wanted to be at or very close to goal weight before I move into a more Paleo-ish style of eating and adding back in fruits and sweet potatoes.  I have 23-28lbs before I get to what I consider my goal and I would like to be within 10lbs of there by the time my mileage ups to the higher miles.  I am fairly certain I can do it but you just never know when you will hit a plateau.

and

2. My leg- The day following my half at the Flying Pig in May I had what I thought was an extremely sore hamstring on my left leg.  Only problem is that it still aches now when I run or do a lot of walking like we did at the theme park Wednesday.  I have an appointment with a chiropractor and I am going to see if that helps.  If not, I am off to my general doctor to get a referral to a sports medicine doctor.

I have decided to do Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme program just because I run much better when I have a program to follow so starting 30 weeks out is not necessarily what I HAVE to do but what I WANT to do. I am sure I could start 18 weeks out on the normal training program and be ok but having a set plan keeps me focused and on track.  Therefore, training for the May 4th race will begin October 6!

Thanks for listening to my rambling!

Happy Running!

Making a Comeback!

For the past few weeks, maybe longer (I am not sure how long ago my last post was without looking), I have been dying to write, to catch up, and connect with other bloggers again.  This summer I have been TERRIBLE about reading blogs, writing on my own, and keeping up with my other technological fun stuff. We have had lots going on this summer.  We have season passes to the local waterpark and on the days it hasn't been unseasonably chilly, that is where we can be found.


We've hiked, biked, had birthday parties, park playdates, attended story time, gone to the zoo and a theme park, vacationed, and chilled out at home.

 We went to Old Man's Cave.  It is absolutely gorgeous there and a good place to get some family fun and exercise in.  The kids loved the new panning for gems/fossils thing they added since we were there last.

We have memberships to the zoo and even though it is over an hour away we try to go as much as possible! Also, Curly had to have 2 parties this year because her pool party got rained out so we had a small party at the house for family only and then had her pool party the following week for all the kids that were invited.

 For Curly's birthday this year we decided that we would get her a couple small things from us and then get her an experience.  Everyone always buys them so much and the house is only so big, so we decided we would take her to Kings Island for the first time.  I think she rode everything she was big enough for, the above "supergirl" ride (as she called it) at least 3 times!  Rex loved walking through their animatronic dinosaur park.  It is apparently the largest one in the world?

 We love our library's story time! For such a small town they always have great programs: Reptile guys, the zoo, life-size puppet theater, etc.  We also have gotten lucky enough to get to know another family that homeschools and our kids get along great! We have done lots of playdates in the last year.

 All in all, I am calling this a successful summer! I am not liking the turn of the weather and have my fingers crossed that we will have at least a few more warm days so we can get more use out of our waterpark passes before the cooler weather is here to stay.

The title above is not only making a comeback to blogging.  I am about to amp up my running all over again.  I have a goal in mind that I want to start working toward (more on that later) and I need to get myself back into some semblance of order when it comes to running.  The Husband has been working over quite a bit and it doesn't seem to be on a certain day so some days I have planned to run I end up needing to alter the plan.  Either way, I have big plans for the weeks to come and I intend to post about that tomorrow.. maybe tonight if I can sit down and write again.  I need to document my madness. =)

Happy running!