A Case of the Runs

Not-so-secretly, I have dropped a few hints that I have been dabbling/dipping into another sport. First, for anyone who follows me on Twitter , you've probably been annoyed by my Foursquare check-ins to an aquatic center. I mentioned something about some new goals in my mid-year recap . Also, there are the Speedos in my Insanity results post , as well as vague mentions of "light cross training in the PM" on some of the weekly update posts. In spite of my regular forays in the pool nowadays, I have been somewhat trying to not admit to the fact that I've been swimming.   First of all, I used to consider swimming something that only people with money or nice parents who would go out of their way to take their kids to a pool and pay for lessons could do.  I grew up with limited contact with the pool, and in those instances (fewer than I have fingers on my left hand), I remember mostly drowning or something to that effect.  My high school didn't require swimm...

The folks at CLIF sent me a sample of Kit's Organic bars.  They come in Berry Almond, Cashew, Chocolate Almond Coconut, and this Peanut Butter flavor. I've eaten many, many bars by now -- crunchy ones -- ones that are grain-based, gluten-free -- sticky ones, etc.  So, I was a bit worried that is one would taste just like other date and nut bars ( ahem ), but these are actually different. They are less moist than similar bars, and they are around 100 calories less for approximately the same size.  They also have a little salty flavor in there, so it's not just a sweet brick of dried fruit. ------ FTC Disclaimer: I was sent a sample of this product to review and have not otherwise been compensated for posting a particular opinion.

UPDATE: 7/24/12 First of all, I loved some of the comments you guys left.  Gotta try that rubber band thing sometime! The winner is #33, Katie at Wish and Whimsy !  I will contact you, but if it misses you, please e-mail me your address! For everyone else... Even though you didn't win the giveaway, CORE Foods wants to give you a chance to try CORE Meals too!   SAVE 20% on a single sample pack of CORE Meals at  our online store .  Use Coupon Code " acaseoftheruns" after checkout.  This discount expires 8/8/2012! ------ This post has been sitting in my Drafts, for a long time, but I'm super excited about it because I REALLY love this product!! I've tried and reviewed many, many bars in recent times, but CORE Foods bars are truly something different. You might think I'm a pig, but when people claim that something "keeps me full for hours!," I end up disappointed when, after an hour, I'm hungry again....

Between June 4 (after the Ojai Marathon where I ran a good-for-me 4:22) and June 29, I ran one time.  I was in Boston and didn't want to leave the city before logging some miles  there.  Did a grand 2.5.  It wasn't a pretty run, either -- the weather was humid and about to rain, and I was running around the airport with a sore ankle that I got from wearing heels for too long during my stay there. I ran for five days in a row when I was in the Chicago area, mostly for the same reason but also because I had just finished Insanity and needed to do something different.  The hotel I was in had a pretty good gym, though stuffy.  My 3-4 milers on the treadmill would end in urgenc y and a good amount of sweat. Then, back at home, I ran a couple of times on my usual routes.  I can't say I felt any different having been away from it for a few months. I'm about to start P90X , or some variant of it.  Where does that leave running? Running almost...

When I bought my Garmin , I thought I'd never feel inclined to buy another fitness watch again. sciencedirect But as I learned while doing Insanity , when you try to use a running device during a regular cardio workout, the distance value that gets plugged into the watch's formula is zero.  And zero times anything is zero.  I later learned that my Garmin model doesn't track calorie burns for cross-training (the CX models do).  Luckily, I plugged in some numbers online to get that number, so no big deal.  I just wanted a number so I could tell how hard I was working (and how many candies I would need afterward... =P). As an even bigger issue, I was wary of the accuracy of Garmin's heart-rate monitor, as sometimes I'd be dog tired, heart exploding in my chest, and my heart rate would jump way low.  After a month of this, I decided to take the plunge and buy a dedicated heart-rate monitor. My verdict so far: totally worth it. Here are the pros...

In case you missed any of my Insanity posts (although how could you miss all that?... ha ha), here they are: Phase I Week 1 - Secret Insanity Week 2 - Can't Stick to Any Diet Week 3 - How Hard is It? Week 4 - Running versus Insanity Recovery Week Week 5 - Tough Month Ahead Phase II Week 6 - I was Lazy Before Week 7 - How Long Should One Exercise? Week 8 - Taking it on the Road Week 9 - My Insanity Graduation (Part I) and (Part II, this post ) ------ All Sorts of Results Here are the results of my final Fit Test alongside the others.  I really smashed it on the last Fit Test, probably because of a hard hotel room floor that I had to use because I was away.  If I ever do this program in its entirety again, I need to hide this table from myself, because I would have a "PR" mentality (e.g., the world sucks when I don't beat my old time) when it came time for these, which isn't exactly how I want to approach these exercises. Fit Test 1 Fit ...

This week's workouts: Monday - Max Interval Plyo Tuesday - Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs Wednesday - FINAL Max Interval Circuit Thursday - FINAL Core Cardio & Balance Friday - FINAL Max Interval Plyo Saturday - FINAL Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs Sunday - FINAL Fit Test Whew. How could one be so verbose about doing workout DVDs for two months? I'm an Insanity graduate .  That means nothing... except what I just said in the line above.   When the infomercial comes on, I can say, "Yeah, I tried that."  Strangely, I actually hadn't seen one of their infomercials for a couple of years and recently saw them pop up this past month.  (Or perhaps I'm just watching too much TV.) But, I do get to order an Insanity shirt from the   Beachbody  website... and  I'm really excited to get it *ahem, in 6-8 weeks*, which in my opinion, is harder than obtaining any race shirt I own. Review of the Program: Assuming you're not...

With about four months (holy @#$%!!) left before "The Ukrainian" and I are having our wedding, I've been getting a whole lot of small-talk regarding my progress.  I don't bring up the subject on my own; people just find weddings to be a relatable subject, I guess.  I'm pretty sure I do the same with my soon-to-be-married friends, and there are a LOT of them.  (I also have a ton of expecting friends, too... people are really going through a lot of changes this year!)  I'm not sure if it's the whole " Year of the Dragon " thing or not, but there is a whole cluster of engaged or just-married people at work... as well as many of my former grad school classmates and even some friends.  Go wedding industry, go. *sarcasm* As the date looms closer, I am starting to lose my enthusiasm again.  It did go up briefly after finding the dress, but I think it was more of a relief or my friends' enthusiasm rather than my own true energy.  NOTE: The dr...

I finally got around to posting about the Relay for Life event that I had mentioned that I'd be a part of this year.  It took place on Saturday, June 9th at a local high school. Due to all that was going on, I failed to capture some of the critical moments of this 24-hour walk-fest.  The afternoon got really warm, and even though it had been a few years since I've acquired any significant sun damage (click here to read why I'm pretty set on protecting myself), I wound up with a slightly red face and dark strip of my shoulder that I neglected to cover properly in sunscreen. For an event whose partial purpose is to educate people about cancer prevention, this was no good. Anyway, things kicked off around 9:15 am or so on that Saturday.  The "rule" of this event is that at least one person from your team is supposed to be walking on the track for the entire 24 hours.  I think this crowd was a bit lax about that rule, and thank goodness since we only had four me...

I alluded last week that I had to modify my schedule, so here was my Week 8: Week 8 Reflections : Monday - Max Interval Plyo (originally Tuesday) Tuesday - Rest (originally last Sunday) Wednesday - Max Cardio Conditioning & Cardio Abs Thursday -  Max Interval Circuit (originally Friday) Friday - 2.5 mi run and 10 min swim (in Boston) Saturday - Plyometric Cardio Circuit instead of Core Cardio & Balance so that "The Ukrainian" and I could work out at the same time and save time Sunday - Rest Taking these DVDs on the road with me was definitely a change of scenery and countered boredom a little bit, but it did add the stress of having to wake up unpleasantly early (on East coast time, too!) and wondering if I can squeeze all my jumping in a hotel room and having enough energy afterward to drive to unfamiliar places and run meetings.  Somehow, it actually all worked out pretty well, though. Hmm, as Shaun T says, "Dig deeper!" Meanwhile, back on...