In My Element - Giveaway!!

You may remember when I posted about EarndIt, the site that gives you rewards points based on your workouts using Garmin Connect, Nike+, and a variety of other sources.

Well, I quickly earned enough points to trade them in for some Element Bars. My points got me a BOGO offer on a box of bars.

The neat thing about Element Bars is that while you can easily purchase a variety pack of bars they've created, you can also create your own!

Not only do you get to choose your base bar and all your additional ingredients, you also get to name your bar. As you add ingredients, Element shows you the calories and nutritional breakdown and will warn you if you've added ingredients they don't recommend as compatible.

What went into my creation? I chose the "Endurance" line and started with the Nutty Chew base. Then I added some additional whey protein, brown rice syrup, pumpkin spice, pumpkin seeds, and some glucosamine chondroitin. I call it "Pumpkin Power". Jason didn't care for it but I think it's quite yummy.

For my free box I chose a variety pack that consists of Cranberry Crunch, Cherry Charge, Blueberry Repair, and Bananas A Whey. Jason LOVES the Cherry Charge. In fact, when I told him I was going to do a giveaway he was a little sad that he wouldn't get to eat all 5 Cherry Charges himself.



So, just what is this giveaway? If you win, you will get:

1 each of the Pumpkin Power, Cranberry Crunch, Cherry Charge, Blueberry Repair and Bananas A Whey

A certificate from Element Bars for one FREE box of 12 custom bars

How do you enter?

1. Go to Element Bars
2. Leave me a comment telling me what you would put in your custom bar

It's that simple!

The winner will be chosen at random on March 1st.

And, even if you don't win the bars, anyone who comments with their ingredient choices will get a discount coupon that they can use to order their creation!

You can also use this link to order a variety pack for 20% off and FREE shipping.

So, tell me, what energy bar would put you in your element?

Note: I'm doing this giveaway because I really liked the Element Bars I purchased with my own money. Element Bars did not pay me or bribe me or cajole me in any way.

Crazy Pants and Pancakes

You, too, can own your own crazy pants...for your cat.


I think I'm officially a crazy runner.

At least I'm not alone.

Saturday morning a relatively large group of us met up for a long run. Sure it was 10^oF. Sure it was snowing. Sure there was the occasional ice patch. But we were out there running.

My schedule called for 11 miles (at between 9:20 & 10:00 minute pace; I'm allowing myself to be a little flexible this time around) so I did 11 miles at an average 9:51 pace.

My legs felt like lead for the first few miles. Thankfully I was plenty warm enough (thank you, Under Armour!) even if there were snowflakes in my eyelashes and icicles in my hair.

Told you. Crazy.

The worst icy parts were through the cemetery (I guess dead people don't need clear paths) and a few places where we had to go up onto the sidewalks. I have my fingers crossed that this hardcore winter will mean a cooler summer.

When I got home I was craving something sweet and carb-y. You know, like waffles or pancakes. Sadly, I had neither ready to go in my freezer. However, even in my cold-addled state I managed to whip up some pancakes from scratch. Normally my pancakes turn out like hockey pucks but I may have finally created a keeper.



Ingredients:

2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
2 large or jumbo eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter, plus a little more for cooking

Whisk dry ingredients. Whisk wet ingredients. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and whisk. Add more flour if the batter seems too watery. Melt a small pat of butter in a non-stick skillet. Pour batter to make whatever size pancake you want and cook for a minute or two per side.

These end up tasting like a cross between a pancake and a crepe. Yum! I literally ate them with my fingers as they came out of the skillet.

All in all I would call it a successful morning. Even if a bit crazy.

Saturday OPRC Run by snmnstrz21 at Garmin Connect - Details

Winter Misery One Miler

I feel like I dropped off the face of the planet for awhile there. Celebrating the holiday with family and having house guests left me little time or motivation for running, going to the gym, or anything active. My mom and I had plans to go for long walks while she was visiting but the weather conspired against us.

The weather also conspired against my attempt to run just one mile as fast as I could for the Winter Misery One Miler. But, never fear! I did run. And it was pretty miserable.

My mom was awesome and offered to make dinner on Monday night while I went running with the running club. It was cold out, but the roads were relatively clear. However, I hadn't run in almost a week and my body just was not in the mood. My legs felt like lead. My lungs felt as though I had rubbed my face in cat (note: I'm horribly allergic to cats. Not just sneezing and itchy eyes, but my throat actually swells shut and my chest gets tight. Sort of like an asthma attack.). I didn't even take off my gloves and normally they are the first things to go after about a mile.

I fell behind almost immediately. I fought with my Garmin for almost the first half mile. As much as I wanted to go faster, I just couldn't find the energy. I was SO happy when the park that marks the 4 mile marker appeared out of the darkness. I was the last to arrive. I guess this just goes to show you how important routine is when running. My routine's been off for almost two weeks.

So, instead of running one speedy mile, I ran a slow, painful 5.5 miles (although, the Garmin indicates I only ran 5.1 but that's because it wouldn't find a satellite for the first few minutes).

My results for the Winter Misery One Miler? My fastest mile (out of 5.5) was 9:18.



And the temperature? A balmy 29^oF.

You know what you need after a run like that? A nice, warm meal. Preferably prepared by someone else. My mom had a bowl of Orcecchiette with Roasted Broccoli and Walnuts (she also added chicken sausage) all ready for me when I got home. Yum! But a bowl of soup would have been good, too! Good thing I won Healthy Tipping Point's soup give away! My winnings came in the mail this week:



The swag included three cans of soup, a reusable bag, a pen, a notepad, and coupons. Awesome!

The running group is having a morning run on Christmas Eve starting at 8AM. We're all supposed to wear Santa Hats or red and green. I couldn't find a Santa hat, per se, but I did find something. I promise, there will be pictures. Stay tuned!

Better Stuff

So, I've got this 8K race coming up on the 27th. I'm not REALLY training for it. I mean, I want to, but my schedule is just all sorts of screwy. I printed out a 10K training plan that actually has me running an 8K on the day I'm truly schedule to run one. I've kind of been following the plan...when it works with my schedule. This weekend, it happened to work perfectly with my schedule. Meaning Saturday's run was supposed to be six miles with two at race pace.

On my way home from work on Friday my $100 Bose in-ear headphones crapped out on me. They're doing that thing where the connection somewhere inside the wires goes flakey and one side loses sound intermittently. As you can guess, I'm pretty irritated about it. I went to Best Buy to look for replacements. Sadly, our Best Buy no longer carries these headphones. I guess they ARE two years old. Anyway, I have lots of headphone issues due to having a small head and tiny ears. Most in-ear headphones just fall right out of my ears, especially when I'm running. So, after wandering the aisles for 30 minutes, I finally decided on these Sony ones:



They're not perfect. The part that actually goes in my ear is a little too big, they take some skill to put on (especially when my hair is down), and the tops interfered at first with my visor. But, they stayed put during my run and did their job of conveying the music to my ears. I have to say, the staying put thing was a leg-up on the Bose ones. Even those would fall out of my ears occasionally. I still want to replace my Bose ones for commuting purposes, but I think these will do for running purposes.

While at Best Buy I also picked up an armband for my iPhone. Strangely, they only carried one option. This Rocketfish brand one:



It gets cruddy reviews on the Best Buy website and I can sort of see why. I, however, took it entirely out of the packaging at the store so that I could try it on. It fits great and the neoprene is soft on my bare skin. However, it is neoprene so it certainly holds in the sweat! Blech. I agree with the reviews that it's a pain to change the volume and I can totally see this thing falling apart in less than six months. But, it was all they had and it was still better than my jerry-rigged armband.

So, with my gear upgraded, I set out on my 6 mile Saturday morning run with the goal of doing two miles at race pace. I decided "race pace" would be anything under 9:25 minutes per mile. Now, I know the goal is to run those fast miles in the middle of your run, but I hadn't run at all since Wednesday and that was only 1.5 miles! Plus, the weather was perfect and I actually felt good for once. I'd tried a new pre-run fuel routine of a Mini Clif Bar and a small glass of skim milk with Hershey's syrup. My fresh legs combined with the new fuel put such a spring in my step that my first two miles ended up being my race pace miles at just under 9:00 minutes per mile each! Whoa! And, believe it or not, the next four miles all stayed under 10:00 minutes per mile each. I didn't run negative splits, but all six miles were strong and I didn't have to take any walk breaks.

This is definitely better stuff.

Oh, and speaking of that 8K I'm running, it's serving double-duty. I'm not only running it as an actual in-person race, it's also counting as my run for the Fall Five Miler being hosted by RunningLaur. Definitely check it out. I mean, look at the adorable race bib!



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Stats

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 627 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 09/19/09 Up/Downhill: [+134/-134] Time: 08:32 AM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0   Weather: Mostly Cloudy   65 F temp; 70% humidity   65 F heat index; winds S 6 Performance Distance: 6.03 miles Time: 0:57:40 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 34 /mi Calories: 713 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 54 -0' 40 6.7 +0.5 +3 ft 2 8' 52 -0' 42 6.8 +0.5 +10 ft 3 9' 48 +0' 14 6.1 -0.2 -6 ft 4 9' 59 +0' 25 6.0 -0.3 +13 ft 5 9' 55 +0' 21 6.0 -0.2 -17 ft 6 9' 54 +0' 20 6.1 -0.2 -3 ft end 9' 10 -0' 24 6.5 +0.3 0 ft Versus average of 9' 34 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Fall Run and Full Review

As you can see from the above photo (taken on my run on Saturday) it appears that fall is descending. As much as I will miss summer, I'm excited about cooler weather. My 8 mile run on Saturday was not nearly as much of a struggle as many of my shorter runs from the past few months.

The only downside to cooler weather is figuring out what to wear on your run. I usually go by the 20^o rule. Meaning, you dress for weather 20^o warmer than what the thermometer says. But it's really difficult to put on shorts and a tank when you're standing in your house freezing. So, I ended up in capris and a short sleeved shirt on Saturday. Ended up working just fine.

I didn't start out my run with any goals other than to go 8 miles. This would be the longest run I'd done since my half marathon in July so I just wanted to do it. And although my average pace looks speedy, I find it slightly suspect. And, I admit, I did pause my watch at the major intersection, at the halfway point (while I returned a text message) and when I stopped to take the photo.

I almost paused again during the first half of my run. I can around a corner and just a few feet to my left was a doe, happily chomping on my plants next to the bike path. I really should have taken a picture. She seemed unconcerned about all the runners and bikers flying by. I just love it when I see deer while running. Always brings a smile to my face.

Regardless of my original intentions, I decided after a few miles that I was going to try and run at least two miles at "race pace". That is, I wanted to do them at 9 minutes per mile. If you subtract the time spent paused, then I did it. If you don't, then I only got close during mile 6. But I still think it's pretty cool that I managed to hit that after already running 5 miles.

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After my run, I hit up Cosi for some post-run replenishment. I had one of their Strawberry Banana smoothies (it has real bananas in it, at least. I watched the employee cut it up) and a "break bar".

The break bar is an awesome combination of nuts, honey, and dried cranberries. It tasted like peanut brittle but better. I ate half of it and drank my whole smoothie. Both were phenomenal. I will definitely keep Cosi in mind for after my run! I think the smoothie and the nut bar were the perfect combination for post-run refueling.

I also ran in a pair of new Wrightsocks. I received two pairs to try out after posting about socks in the Runners' Lounge forums. Last Tuesday I wore the Running II style for my speedwork on the treadmill. I love that they have the arch support band and, as a fan of cushioned socks, I liked the thickness. The double layers felt funny when I first put the socks on but I didn't notice them after that.

On Saturday, though, I wore the Coolmesh (quarter-length) pair. I didn't like the height since I am more of a lo-quarter gal. I felt like they were too much sock around the ankle. I suppose, though, they would be good with pants instead of shorts or capris. Anyway, they felt good going on and while I was running, but walking around after my run I felt like they were too thin and that my foot was sliding around in my shoes a lot. I did like, though, that I didn't feel the need to adjust the toe area after I put on my shoes. Sometimes socks have those little nubs on ends of the toe seem that seem to sit on my pinky toe the wrong way. There have been days when I've had to take my shoe off, adjust my sock, put my shoe back on and repeat the process a few times before the sock sits just right. I didn't have that problem with this pair.

I don't suffer from blisters (unless I wear strappy sandals and walk over 3 miles) so I can't really comment on how well the double layer technology works. In fact, I've been perfectly happy with my Target and Walmart socks. That is, until I ran holes in my latest pair from Target. I can definitely tell that these Wrightsocks are better constructed. Hopefully they will last longer! I appreciate getting to try them out since I don't think I would have ever bought "fancy" socks on my own. Thanks, Wrightsock!

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Stats

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 621 ft Location: Brookfield, IL Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 08/29/09 Up/Downhill: [+187/-190] Time: 08:35 AM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0   Weather: Mostly Cloudy   62 F temp; 67% humidity   62 F heat index; winds NW 10 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:18:29 Speed: 6.1 mph Pace: 9' 49 /mi Calories: 951 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 16 +0' 27 5.8 -0.3 -3 ft 2 10' 05 +0' 16 6.0 -0.2 +6 ft 3 10' 01 +0' 12 6.0 -0.1 +10 ft 4 9' 25 -0' 24 6.4 +0.3 -13 ft 5 10' 49 +1' 00 5.5 -0.6 +4 ft 6 9' 07 -0' 42 6.6 +0.5 -7 ft 7 10' 08 +0' 19 5.9 -0.2 -6 ft 8 10' 03 +0' 14 6.0 -0.1 0 ft end ** ** ** ** ** ft Versus average of 9' 49 min/mile ** Insufficient data to calculate this split

Posted from bimactive.com