Birthday Gift

After lusting after GPS watches for months, I think I have finally made a decision as to which watch I'm going to get. Since I'm turning 31 in a week, Pete will probably get it for me for my birthday as he has no idea what else to get me (after 13 years how can he NOT know??? lol) so that makes it even better.

If you're one of the lurkers readers of my blog, you know that I've been wanting a Garmin Forerunner 10 - and when they released it in purple I had my heart set on that color. As we all know I'm not a very advanced runner at all so I just need something basic. One of the main reasons why I didn't take the plunge and purchase the watch was because I live in Wisconsin. Some people run with snow on the ground - I'm not one of them. We got a treadmill so we can stay active when it's snowy and icy outside. A GPS watch isn't going to be very useful when you're on a treadmill.

That's where the TomTom Runner comes in. It is more expensive than the Forerunner 10 ($169.99 vs. $129.99) but there are some important factors that make the price difference okay for me. The first thing is that it has Bluetooth - I can pair my Polar H7 heart rate monitor with it. VERY cool, I wouldn't be able to do that with the Forerunner 10... I would have to buy a more expensive Garmin with a different HRM included, or wear my Polar FT7 watch to get my heart rate. Two watches at once? No thanks. Another big plus for me is the fact that the TomTom has an accelerometer, so it will still give me distance and average pace even if I'm on a treadmill. The awesome DC Rainmaker did an in-depth review on the TomTom (if you are a runner into tech stuff and are NOT reading his blog, you need to start - it's the best, period) and he found that the TomTom was pretty accurate on the treadmill as long as you maintained a consistent pace. I'm cool with that as I'm pretty much incapable of sprinting at this point, haha.

I'm not going to lie - another factor is the fact that the TomTom is just prettier than the Forerunner 10. It is. Check this out:

TomTom has also announced that they will be coming out with different bands that you can purchase for the watch. Wide/slim options and different colors. So I can color coordinate it with my outfits? Whaaa? That's music to a girl's ears, people.

There are negatives to the watch. According to reviews, the website sucks. It doesn't give nearly enough data and it's just clunky and basically beta, which is pretty lame because they should have had that figured out *before* the release date. But TomTom has great customer service, they are listening (and responding) to the needs of the customers and have already been making improvements to the firmware and are in the process of making website improvements as well. This isn't a huge issue for me because you can export your files and load them almost anywhere - even the Garmin Connect website, if you want. The big negative for me is that it doesn't give lap pace right now - just an average. I want to see if I ran 8:30 the first mile, 8:15 the second... yes, I'm dreaming LOL. From what I hear/read this will be coming down the pike, so I'm cool with waiting a bit.

More positives for the watch - the GPS locator is crazyfast. You don't have to wait minutes for it to locate you before you can start your run... I should be able to walk to the end of my driveway and just start running. The fact that the watch is Bluetooth compatible has me hoping that eventually it could be paired with phones - how cool would that be? They haven't announced if this will be happening but a lot of people are talking about it so hopefully TomTom is listening. The watch has a 10 hour battery with GPS on, which is TWICE as much as the Forerunner 10. With the GPS off the watch will last 60 days between charges, if you're inclined to wear the watch as an everyday watch.

They have a Multisport version of the watch for those of you that want something for swimming and cycling as well - that one is priced at $199.99. They also have ones for sale with heart rate monitors included, for a higher cost. For a beginner runner like me, the positives outweigh the negatives and I'm willing to take a chance on this new watch. Once I get it and have a chance to test it out a bit I'll let you know what I think!

Packers 5K 2013

Yesterday Brady and I ran in the Packers 5K and had a great time! I have to admit... I really struggled with the fact that I had to run slow and walk more than I needed to since I ran with my son, yet I'm so glad Brady did this with me. I guess I'm more competitive than I thought! Even though it was my slowest 5K this year, it was still better than how I did last year... haha!

The weather was a huge change from last year - in 2012 I changed from capris to shorts because I was so hot before the race, this year we wore pants! The temps were in the upper 50s but luckily the rain held out... the sky looked pretty ominous though. Brady had complaints of sore legs so he was not at 100% but he did his best and most importantly had fun. I got a lot of compliments on my shirt, which I got from the shop at www.runwithjess.com a while ago. I read her blog all the time so I was happy to spread the word about it!

Here's our before and after pictures... on the left we were lined up with our wave and ready to go and on the right was after we were done - you can tell we were tired! My hair kept escaping from my ponytail during the run so I gave up on it after the run. Brady had crazy hair too (it was in a faux hawk in the morning but by evening looked like you see in the pictures) so it was okay.

The Packer tunnel was so congested with people that we HAD to walk it, but we were able to run around the field and Brady loved it. Seeing yourself on the Jumbotron is pretty flippin' cool:

In case you can't tell, Brady and I are on the left in green. My mom and my "Aunt" Leanne (technically she's my mom's first cousin, but I grew up calling her aunt) did the Packers 5K as walkers and enjoyed themselves so much they are already planning on doing it next year! I think my mom is catching the running bug a bit because she's interested in signing up for more runs this year. Either that or she's doing it for the t-shirts, I'm not sure...lol. Here's a sweet picture I took of them before the run - Leanne is on the left, and my mom is on the right.

Brady and I crossed the finish line at the same time and our official time was 38:08. By far my slowest 5K time this year but I'm trying to focus on the fact that we had FUN and I was keeping pace with Brady who wasn't feeling his best. I have my shot at improving my time when I do the Aurora run on the 17th so I'm really looking forward to that. Next weekend Brady and I have another fun run - the Electric Run in Madison, which should be awesome!

Almost forgot! I took a quick Vine video when we were running through Lambeau field... I'm going to try to post it. The Packers 5K is an awesome experience and a run I would recommend to anyone - we'll probably do it again next year. This year they had 5,948 finishers!

Veronica Mars = LoVe

Generally on my blog I write about running and my never ending mission to be a healthier person. Today, I wanted to share this image:

Saw this on ONTD and had to spread the love. They need to come out with some high quality stills of this and make them into wallpapers because I will totally put that on my computer. Yes, I'm one of the 91,000+ Kickstarter backers for the Veronica Mars movie. Loved the show, I'm sure I'll love the movie, and I'll be reading the two books that come out after the movie as well. I probably shouldn't admit to this, but Pete woke up this morning to find me watching the first sneak peek from the movie with tears streaming down my face. I cry when I'm happy, I can't help it! I'm a sucker for my favorite TV shows. Can't WAIT to see the surprises that will pop up in the movie that they haven't shared!

In case you were wondering, here's a meager update on my running: I went two miles today. Aside from the Ella Run, it was my first time out in two weeks. It was super rough and was struggling the whole time but felt very good about myself when I was done. Time to get back on track. Loving the WI weather today - wishing this weather would stay, hoping the humidity doesn't come back!

Ella Smetana Memorial Run

I've been a bad girl. I haven't been eating as well since the holiday... I do pretty well on the days I work, but on my days off not so much. I hate humidity so I often use that excuse to avoid my running. Normally I wake up really early so the humidity isn't so bad - but I haven't been sleeping well lately so when my alarm goes off I stay in bed. None of this makes me feel good about myself but I'm being honest... I just haven't been feeling it lately.

Before today, my last run was July 7th - six days ago. I only made it 1.57 miles and finished the rest of my route walking. I had been taking too many walk breaks during the running portion and just didn't feel up to it so I bailed. It sucked.

Today was the Ella Smetana Memorial Run/Walk to honor a little girl who died of cancer. I very briefly entertained the thought of not doing this run because I've been so off routine lately, but then I realized that was awful and I needed to suck it up. A sweet girl died of cancer and damn it, even if I had to walk the whole thing I was going to do it - all proceeds from the run go to the American Cancer Society which is really important to me. So I woke up this morning, got my gear on and hit the road.

It was only $12 to sign up for this run and I got a t-shirt (white with pink tie-dye), granola bar, drink packet and an herbal foot soak sample, which I thought was pretty generous considering the low cost! At the finish there was water and Gatorade, orange slices and bananas, cookies and bagels - the usual spread but a nice selection.

This was considered a fun run, no timing chips - just a lady with a stop watch at the finish shouting out times. I used my Endomondo app and my time was consistent with her watch so that's good enough accuracy for me! I started off not knowing how I was going to do or what to expect. I took my first walk break just before the first mile marker - I definitely felt more fatigued than usual - but I did my first mile in 9:30 so that was a pleasant surprise. The second mile sucked because we were running directly into the sun and I do NOT do well running in hot weather. I run at 4:30-5:30 in the morning to avoid the sun, lol.... so this was brutal for me. Lots of running/walking/running/walking. I have been known to pass out on hot summer days (I passed out on a person in church once) so I made sure to hit both water stations and not push myself too hard.

I hate being passed though, so that kept me motivated lol. My friend Catherine and her buddy Matt met me towards the end to cheer me on and keep me going - but I still walked quite a bit at the very end because like I said, passing out would NOT be cool. The run was longer than a 5K which was frustrating for me but I actually STILL beat my last 5K time even though this run was 3.27 miles! What the heck! I'm still getting consistently better even though this last week was full of fail. Here's my stats:

 

Needless to say, this was pretty awesome. Even though the run was really hard for me I am STILL showing improvement - and what better motivation is that to stick with it? My next two 5Ks I'm doing with my son, so that will definitely affect my speed but I still want to practice as much as I can to keep improving my stamina/endurance. The picture on the left was my view after the run.... not bad!

Progress!

I've been having what feels like ups and downs with my running, but oddly my times have been pretty consistent. I ran on Monday before work and actually felt kinda great - seemed like my walk breaks were getting shorter and even though my breathing wasn't the best, I didn't feel like I was struggling as much with it as I normally do.

I ran today and it did not feel easy at all. My legs felt good, but it was already humid out (at 6:something a.m.) and my breathing was terrible. I felt like I was taking really long walk breaks - but yet my average pace per mile was 10:13 on Monday and 10:19 today. Not a huge difference. I'm kinda baffled... I know I have improved from where I started but now I feel like I'm stuck. I want to be able to run without walk breaks - will I ever get there??? Will it ever stop being so HARD?

In other news, I have been doing well with eating better. The new job helps to give me some structure to my eating habits and it also helps me with my water intake. Most days this week I have drank around 120 ounces of water which is awesome for me! I doubt I will drink as much on my days off, but if I can stick to at least 80 ounces I'll be happy. I know drinking a lot of water is good for metabolism, weight loss, the whole shebang so I'm all for it. I haven't completely gotten away from the drink packets yet, but I try to only use them for one 20 oz. serving. I usually do the True Lemon (no aspartame!) but I also like the Great Value Energy in the Grape flavor (boo, aspartame).

We are in desperate need of groceries at the house but we just haven't had time to do any major shopping this week. I've been running to Wal-Mart before work (it's basically across the street from where I work, which is both a good and bad thing) and getting their $3 salads for lunch and some oatmeal for breakfast. So I do oatmeal, salad for lunch, and a sensible dinner. Even if it's not the healthiest dinner, I just try to watch how much I eat. Yesterday, Brady and I went out for ice cream to celebrate the holiday weekend starting (I've got today AND Friday off, nice!) and we both got Playdough (blue moon with cookie dough in it). Afterwards I felt really ICK and I'm thinking it's because I've been eating so well that I've detoxed my body of junk - which is a pretty exciting thought.

Today for breakfast I ate two pieces of toast with PB2. It was my first time trying the PB2 - for those of you that don't know what it is, it's a powdered peanut butter. You mix it with water and it's a lot better for you than regular peanut butter. I was kind of afraid it would be gross, but I really liked it! Definitely recommend it, and Wal-Mart is selling it now so it isn't hard to find like it used to be.

I saw a good number on the scale this morning - I'm not going to get excited until I keep seeing it for a while, or unless it keeps getting lower. I know how weight can fluctuate. I was 174 at my highest this winter, and I saw 164.4 today! I had been seeing 166 more consistently so I'm still counting that as my weight for now... like I said, I don't like to get too excited lol. But the scale is moving and I could not be happier - I need to stick with it, last summer I was 155 and I need to get back to that so I can fit in all of my clothes again and not be forced to buy new ones! I'm 5'10", for those of you that may be wondering.

Here's a picture of my pretty mom and I from the wedding I attended last weekend:

The dress was very forgiving as my stomach is where my weight problem is and you can't tell too badly in the pictures. Note my Fitbit Flex in the picture - it didn't really go with the dress but I couldn't leave it home. I'm addicted! My cousin Jeremy (now happily married) posted manymany pictures on Facebook of his special day, and here's one of the back of Pete and me:

The older I get the more I could care less about what anyone thinks about my pale skin. I embrace my pasty! I have never been in a tanning bed and I doubt I ever will. The sun gives me freckles so I avoid it. I don't even mess with the fake tanning stuff because it's messy and just seems like too much trouble. I went for a spray tan once and it didn't turn out well. So don't be afraid to be who you are - and if you're pasty like me, just think about how awesome we'll look when we're older next to all of our wrinkly friends who went tanning too much. Muahahaha.

So who has exciting plans for the 4th? Pete has to work so we're not making any lol. Brady is going to be in the parade with his baseball team (I think, they are rather disorganized) and I babysit Chloe tonight so she'll watch the fireworks with us. The kiddo has his last baseball tournament on Saturday morning, but other than that no plans! Just to stay home and catch up on housework, maybe have a bonfire. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

My Week: Work, Baseball, Babysit, Work, Baseball... you get it.

Yesterday I went on my first run in an entire week - it was rough but I'm glad I finally got out there. During the week I had various excuses to NOT run (mostly working every day - the job is getting better btw) and one day I even made it 1/4 mile but thunder and lightening made me cut it short. Evening runs don't work for me because of Brady's baseball games and babysitting Chloe... which is fine because I prefer running in the morning anyway.

For the most part I made decent meal choices all week, except for some pizza on Thursday. The weight loss is happening slowly but it IS happening - I've lost a solid 6ish pounds from where I was at my highest this winter/spring. I know that if I was more consistent with my running/exercising it would drop a lot faster but I've been feeling happy/positive so I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm just going to try to incorporate more activity. My schedule drops to three days/week now so I will have more time to devote to exercising and possibly even cleaning my house. Haha.

We have a full weekend with a wedding today and birthday party tomorrow - but not to worry, I will be getting a run in. In fact, I may go right now.... yep. Only two weeks until my next 5K! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Sticking With It

Went for a few runs this week - I have a preferred course mapped out near my house that I prefer to use now. My first one was basically 1.55 miles to a yellow sign, then turn around and come back but that one is pretty boring so I like this 3.1 mile course better.

I still can't run the whole time, but I'm showing overall improvements. I just pray that I stick with this motivated streak so I keep getting better and better. Here's me today - for you guys I'm even posting the pic without a filter:

I got caught in the rain for the last half mile which actually made me feel kind of badass. It was a cold rain too so it motivated me to run the last bit moreso than I would have otherwise I think. I'm still taking walk breaks but I know that if I could just be really consistent with running at least every other day that I'd be taking less walk breaks in no time! I work a lot next week so I'm really nervous about keeping up with my running. I am always worried that no matter how early I wake up, I won't have enough time to run, shower, blow dry my hair, get ready and eat something before I have to make the 30 minute drive to work. I stand the majority of the day at my new job and running after work is full of suckage. I've tried it. Just yuck. I've always preferred mornings for my running anyway.

Note my new band for my Fitbit Flex! I may have made a special trip to Target (the nearest one is an hour away) to pick up the 3-pack of accessory bands. My Best Buy pre-order for them got cancelled, and they're backordered on the Fitbit website as well as Amazon. WTF, Fitbit? Why have you been so lame about all the Flex stuff? Did you seriously not have a clue how high the demand would be? Also, the bands are a pretty cheap material - how can you not make them in bulk, and also offer other colors? I'm thinking silver, lavender, yellow, pink... come on now!

I should really get rid of a bunch of the other running apps on my phone because I always end up using Endomondo. I've found it to be very accurate and I like all of the details it gives. I'm showing today's details because I actually managed to keep all three of my miles pretty consistent! That's the first time I've ever done that. I had been listening to an audiobook on my last few runs which I've enjoyed, but today I listened to music. I also ran faster than I did on my Wednesday run. Coincidence? Maybe... but it was also hotter out for my Wednesday run. It was a lot better to run this morning when it was all overcast.

This was also my first time running in my Pro Compression Trainer Low socks. I have their marathon socks and I like them, but I wanted to try out their ankle socks as I have huge issues with most ankle socks out there. Any socks I've bought from a store tend to slide down my giant feet, which means my heel is rubbing against my shoe with nothing staying in between. I found a winner with Feetures socks - they're made a bit higher in the back which solved my problem, but I wanted to see if I could find a compression version that would work.

These socks FTW. They give just the right amount of compression and they stay on my feet like they're supposed to - perfect for me when I'm running. I can also order size S/M when I get these socks - which make me feel good because I really do have big feet and ordering that size makes me feel smaller and more feminine. LOL. The best part is that Pro Compression has deals going all the time - over Father's Day weekend they had 40% off and free shipping, which was when I got two pairs of these. One of these days when people start commenting on my blog (instead of just lurking... hi, I see you!) I will do a giveaway because Pro Compression socks are awesome.

Another running item that continues to prove it's worth? My Flipbelt. Seriously people, I can't recommend it highly enough. I don't have much music on my phone and hate to drain the battery any faster than I already do, so I just use my phone to run Endomondo and tuck it in my Flipbelt. I use my old Nano (the square one with the touch screen - like a Shuffle only a bit bigger) and clip it to one of the other openings on my Flipbelt for my music. During my races I also tuck my car key in there, sometimes a chapstick. The thing does not jiggle at ALL (oh, how I wish I could say that for the rest of me). Everything stays put and I don't even notice it's there.

So tell me, what's your favorite running gear? What about your favorite running app? I love hearing other peoples' opinions!