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!

Frog Fuel Giveaway Winner

Hey, All! I am about to go lay out what to wear for Run For Your Lives tomorrow in this CRAZY cool weather we are having but I wanted to drop by to announce the Frog Fuel Winner.  The odds were really good with only 6 comments (not including my own). Since I didn't use a rafflecopter for this one I went to the trusty Random.org.

So it was the 1st comment which was Karen Orozco! 

Karen- I have contacted you!


Congratulations, Karen!

Don't forget to enter my Rock City Skirts giveaway (ending 5-26) and the Spartan Race Giveaway (ending 5-28)!

Happy Running!

Frog Fuel Giveaway

Ok all! I hope to be back to regularly scheduled blog posts soon ( I also have a couple more giveaways in the wings) BUT this one has a timestamp on it and I need to have a winner to them by 5-26.  I was contacted today by Frog Fuel with the option to give away a 3 pack of their 1oz protein shots.  While I have NOT used this product so I can not post a review before doing a giveaway- I am looking at this like one of the subscription boxes such as Stridebox or Runnerbox.  It is an opportunity to try a new product for after workout fueling that you may not have tried on your own.

 :
 From the Frog Fuel email I received:

Why use FrogFuel?

1. It's hydrolyzed. Faster absorption means better performance and quicker recovery!
2. It's a Pure Collagen Protein - Improved skin, muscle mass and tone, increased joint flexibility, healthier bones, arteries, hair, nails and eyes.
3. Contains Taurine - Help rebuild muscles faster!
4. You can toss it in your go bag.
There are no banned substances, sugars, fats, carbs, gluten, cholesterol, lactose & excess ingredients.

Sounds pretty good, right? 


They have also developed a quiz to determine your fuel level.  It is posted below.  Since this is on such short notice I am going to use the comments rather than the usual rafflecopter.  Post in the comments what the answer to your fuel level was from the quiz OR your favorite workout/fitness tip to be entered! I will draw a winner on 5/24 to give time to get the winner's information to them by the 26th!  Good luck!


Note: This giveaway is only good in the US and they do not ship to PO Boxes.  I was contacted by Frog Fuel to do this giveaway in promotion of the above blog app and was not compensated for this post.