March 5, 2010

Socks and Shoes

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , |
[23] Comments 

Got my bags packed up and ready to hit the road to Santa Barbara….

I decided to retire my old Mizunos WaveRider 12’s for good today.  They have 515 miles on them, and with my thutt aching after the last and final run, I thought it’d be a good time to say goodbye.

When they were babies and brand spankin’ new... Goodbye, my first and second marathon shoes.  And half marathon PR shoes. and BQ shoes.  Would someone please stop me from being so lame?!?  please, Shut me up already!!

I’ve upgraded to the 13’s only because they don’t make the 12’s anymore; I broke these in already and used them for my last marathon.

I had hoped to put about 600 miles on the shoes, but pain-free trumps 85 extra miles any day.  I’ve also decided to use these for ONLY running, not cross training, walking the dog, running errands, wearing just so I look hardcore….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of you asked about the compression socks from Walmart.  Compression is like stretching; some studies show it helps and some say it doesn’t.  The idea behind them is to “improve oxygen delivery to muscles, speed lactic acid removal and stabilize the lower leg for greater muscle efficiency.”   (I have no idea why the font is so small)

Women’s CEP Running 02 Compression Sock $59.99

HERE is an article about whether compression socks work or not from the Running Times Magazine.  It basically says that there wasn’t any improvement to runners wearing them WHILE running, but they did speed recovery after runs.

I personally like them for recovery; I’ve never worn them while running but I put them on after most long runs.  I even wear mine snowboarding or if I’m going to be on my feet all day.  They just feel good, like your legs aren’t as tired.

Problem is they are expensive.

Zensa compression sock $49.99

There are also leg sleeves that are a little cheaper, but I talked to a running store employee who said they don’t work as well as the socks do.

Zensa Womens leg sleeves  $39.99

So what I use is Truform classic medical-style stockings from Walmart.  I said they were $11 but I am a liar.  They’re actually $19.97 at Wally’s take over the World.  But they are way more expensive online which is weird.


Sweet leg, dude.

I bought the smallest and tightest ones they had, meaning they have 20-30 mmHg of compression (if you get less compression like 15mmHg, they might not work as well) which is the tightest and a size M which was the smallest size Walmart had.  They feel tight but not uncomfortable or anything.  You pretty much forget you have them on until you go outside in a short dress and look like a complete goober.

My husband is a complete giver; he said that he would even take a Sharpie and write “Zensa” on mine so I’d have namebrand ones.  I’m also going to have him do the double C’s so I can have Chanel Tempo shorts, LV on my Louis Vuitton Target sports bras, and paint the soles of my shoes red so I’ll have Christian Louboutin running shoes!

Do you do compression?  Thoughts on it?  Think it works or just a money pit?

 

March 5, 2010

Santa Barbara

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , |
[14] Comments 

WORKOUT – Elliptical/bike ~30 mins/30 mins

I am driving up to Santa Barbara this weekend to nanny for the family that I worked for through college.

March is going to be crazy fun with:

*SB this weekend

*Dallas next weekend for the Rock ‘n’ Roll half

*our anniversary (I’ve got some sweet secret plans!) on the 16th

*LA Marathon the following weekend

*Then going to Phoenix for a week

*Running the Chesebro half in Calabasas with my friend Reese on the 28th.

Busy traveling and running, some of my favorite things.  I bet running isn’t one of your favorite things, now is it Oprah?

Speaking of her, she has a ‘lil vacation home in Santa Barbara: (you like that segue into celebrity gossip?)

And these stars were in Santa Barbara for their International Film Festival recently:

Emily Blunt.  I’ll be blunt: fabulous figure, ugly dress.  I think she’s engaged and getting married soon.

Hillary Duff.  Also engaged.  Also ugly dress.

Those two.  I think this was from 2008 or 2009 back when they were still in competition with Octomom and Kate Gosselin.

 

March 4, 2010

Be a WINNER not a weiner

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , |
[9] Comments 

Things that aren’t subtle:

1. Adam Lambert’s love affair with make up.  Wonder if I could get my hands on that shade of lipstick or at least the foundation…

2. Boy George. enough said.

3. Me proclaiming: #70 Katie O, YOU ARE THE WINNER of the $10 Chocomize gift card!  Isn’t this the best day of your life??!!  Like better than your upcoming wedding!  Now all your wildest dreams will come true!!

I used random.org so hopefully all is kosher and we won’t have to do a Floridian recount…  Katie, please email me at skinnyrunnerblog@gmail.com your email address and I’ll send you the gift certificate via email.

Thanks to all 172 people who entered the giveaway; I didn’t even know 172 people knew about the blog…

 

March 4, 2010

Anna Wintour is so jealous of me

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , |
[22] Comments 

WORKOUT – Elliptical ~ 65 mins

After being uber preachy preachy about stretching and injury prevention, it came back to bite me in the buns.  Literally: my right thutt started to have a little pain in it yesterday after my 10 miler.

So I’m going to take a couple days off from running and cross train instead and also keep up with icing/stretching routine.  I have 3 races in a row starting next weekend so my thutt’s gonna get more lovin’ attention than Justin Bieber at a Tiger Beat convention.

Yesterday I showed you my Marathon Maniac singlet/tank that I got in the mail.  Well, I decided that it’s so horrendously ugly that it was begging me to make the most heinous workout outfit out of it:

Oh yes.  Those are $11 compression socks from Walmart.  Jay calls them my grandpa socks.  I call him grandpa so I think we’re even.

This is like a stop sign threw up on the McDonald’s sign.

Never fear, I didn’t leave the safety of my home in that.  Instead I went with this to the gym: (because let’s face it, we’re in SoCal where you aren’t even allowed in the gym unless you’re wearing Prada sneakers or at the very least, a Gucci gym bag)

I’m very partial to Nike Tempo running shorts, as in I don’t even associate with people who don’t wear them, but my older brother and SIL Niki gave me these Under Armour shorts for Christmas, and I’m digging them.  They run smaller and shorter than the Tempos so you can’t dookie your pants and get away with it, but they’re still pretty rad.

In a futile attempt to dethrone Marissa Miller as the hottest model ever, I tried to show off my modeling pose but ended up looking like I have spinal bifida.

I will announce the winner of the chocolate giveaway in the next post so if you haven’t entered it, you better.

Although I firmly believe in buying friends, love, and blogger viewership, I don’t plan on having many giveaways up in this joint so this is your one chance!

 

March 4, 2010

Stretching by Picture

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , |
[20] Comments 

Lana and Beth both asked what specific stretches I do for running…

Here are the stretches that I do, in the medium of photography and bestowed with my own personal titles:

This is the Figure Four.  This stretch and the following one are the two that I do the most.  The FF is great for piriformis.  and for wrestling.

Just ignore my face, the double chins, the rolls, and focus on the stretch.  Focus, people.

This is the Upside Down Splits, a great stretch for your hamstrings.  These two stretches I do about 3 times on each leg.

This is also known as the Jane Fonda because this is how I imagine her doing aerobics back in the day.  You should feel it in your hamstrings; if not, you’ve got issues.

Another piriformis stretch that the PT recommended is the Black Eye by Knee:

You pull your leg across your body to stretch out your hip muscles.  These three stretches were recommended by the PT for piriformis and hamstring tightness.

These following stretches are ones I’ve made up on my own to do:

The What is this Flab Hanging off my Inner Thigh?! targets your inner thigh especially when you keep your toes pointed up.

The Pelvic Tiltawhirl is where you get in a lunge position but push your pelvis forward to stretch all those hip muscles.

After the Pelvic Tiltawhirl I lower down into the Tight Jeans Ripper and eventually lower down until my knee touches the ground.


The last stretch is the VPL, the visible panty line, because with this stretch if you have them, you’re showing the world exactly what kind of underwear you wear.  The VPL stretches your lower back and if you pull your toes upward it will stretch the calves.

Those are the main stretches I do for my hips.  I also do a few others to stretch my upper body, hamstrings, etc but those ones are specific to the hip area where I’ve had my injuries.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**If you haven’t, you better enter my Chocomize giveaway now because I’ll be announcing the winner this afternoon.  To keep things fair I’ll be using a random number generator.  and accepting cash bribes.

 

March 3, 2010

For my Firecobra

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , |
[3] Comments 

I want to dedicate this (short) post to my Firecobra little brother:

Matti, I know Johnny Weir’s your idol, but you’re mine…  Plus you look really good in Mom’s leather Michael Kors jacket.

By the way, can you give me some tips on how to get abs like that??  Clearly, they are not genetic.

 

March 3, 2010

More hardware and fashion

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , |
[17] Comments 

WORKOUT – Ran outside 10.25 miles/1 hr 27 mins

I generally don’t lack motivation to run; even on bad runs it’s relatively easy for me to get out the door.  Today was not that day.  Jay had to drag me by the feet while I was digging my nails in.

(photo credit)

(Contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t wear dresses and I don’t wear suits. normally)

I couldn’t decide where I wanted to run; I was mentally going through list of running spots and thinking:

Huntington Beach: No, too many surfers.  Probably’d see Kelly Slater and he’d want to date me and ruin my marriage.

Dana Point Harbor: No, too many boats.  Would remind me of fishing season and have nightmares.

Long Beach: No, too far.  Would have to get on the freeway. Hate freeways, would get in car wreck.

Wooded Trail by house: No, probably a pervert convention is hiding out in the woods waiting to rape me.

So I finally decided on running some hills, some new neighborhoods and the last 4 miles of trails.  It was a hilly, slow run but at least I got it done.  Sometimes just getting out the door without too many claw marks in it is considered a W.

~~~~~~~~

On with the mail…  Besides the chocolate (go enter the giveway unless you’re unAmerican and don’t like chocolate), I got a few more surprises in the mail that were almost as cool as the credit card bills and HOA dues.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll group sent the Desert Double Down medal which was for running the Vegas and Phoenix marathons.

I also received my finisher’s certificate from Phoenix.  Any Rock ‘n’ Roll event you do, they send you a really nice certificate.

If you want to run Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona next year on January 16, 2011, use the code BACKTOAZ for $15 off registration.  It’s good until March 31st.

And the last thing I received was an incredibly stylish and cutting edge piece of fashion; I’m pretty sure I even saw these at the NY Fashion Week, and I heard Rachel Zoe was trying to get her tiny hands on one of these for fall of ‘10:

This thing is small and short!  I’ve only seen guys wearing these tanks so I assumed they were mens’ sizes, like most race shirts.  Definitely not a man’s size.  Well, maybe Johnny Weir’s size…

Remember to go make your customized chocolate bar from chocomize and enter my giveaway!

**Another deal that’s sweet but not quite as sweet as free personalized chocolate:

At runningwarehouse.com if you click on “team discounts” and enter CP20 you’ll get 15% off.  And the shipping’s free.

I just bought these Pearl Izumi Women’s Aurora Splice Knickers that were on sale; with tax they were only $36 down from $60.

 

March 3, 2010

Chocolate!!!

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , |
[173] Comments 

The word of the day is MAIL.  Not MALE as in male review, as in the Chippendale’s, as in my husband’s favorite Vegas show.  Ok, not really.

Yesterday’s word was pictures, all pictures of Mammoth.  Today is all about awesome stuff that I got in the MAIL while I was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently I read about a company called Chocomize.  The idea is similar to MixMyGranola, but granola is so 2009.  Here you customize and create your own chocolate bar.  Custom Chocolate Bar??? Genius.

It was started by 3 young guys, and even more cool is that they are dedicated to being a socially responsible company; they give 1% of proceeds to select charities.  Have your chocolate and help others at the same time?  That’s a wrap right there.

I recently contacted the company, fooled them into thinking I had millions and millions of viewers, and asked to review a couple of their products.  I picked out 2 combinations, and they were sent immediately to me.  Score!

At Chocomize, customers can select their favorite chocolate base (dark, milk, or white) and then add up to five out of 100 fine ingredients to create their choice chocolate bar. This allows for more than 10 billion possible chocolate combinations. In other words, if every citizen of New York City ate one different chocolate bar a day, it would take over 3 years until two people had exactly the same chocolate bar

Chocomize uses only premium Belgian chocolate and the finest ingredients for its chocolate creations, be it Pecan Halves, Banana Chips, Pineapple Dices, 23 Karat Gold Powder, Rose Petals, or Bacon.

The website is super easy to use and fun; I’m actually pretty jealous that I didn’t think of this idea.  Or that the guys haven’t asked me to become an official tester of all chocolate products.

I decided to go with 2 different bars both with the dark chocolate base.  My first bar is named “La Vida Dulce” or the sweet life.  I love candy. way too much.  So much so that my dentist cringes every time he sees me.

This chocolate bar is PACKED with so much candy I think I teared up a little when I first saw it.  I definitely had a moment.

If you caught me on the right day of the month, I would gladly trade my husband, my BQ and my smart car for one of these.

La Vida Dulce = Dark Chocolate with Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, Runts, Gummi Bears and Strawberry Gushers.

The first thing I noticed was that these bars are BIG. and heavy.  We’re talking like a massive pound of chocolate and candy here.  Or so it felt.

This bar is jammed with candies, not just sprinkled with a few things.  When you get an add on, they don’t scrimp with it.

The dark chocolate itself is very good, not so dark that it’s almost bitter but not so milky that you feel like you’re eating a stick of butter.  You can taste it and tell they’re using high quality Belgian chocolate and not the leftover mini candy bars from Halloween 2007.

My second bar is called “The Health Bar”.   Instead of a Heath bar, get it?

It has Dark Chocolate with Goji Berries, Pineapple Dices, Papaya Dices, Coconut Flakes and Sliced Almonds.

I’m almost sad to say this, but this bar was even better than La Vida Dulce bar!  The nuttiness of the coconut and almonds mixed with the sweetness of the dried fruit is fabulosity to the maximus.

Again, this thing is massive and chock full of toppings.  The toppings guy must be in a generous mood because these bars are filled to the brim with goodies.

Once you create your dream bar, it’ll probably be around $5-$6 dollars, but how many of us have grabbed a tiny chocolate bar at Starbucks or Whole Foods that’s at least $3 or $4?  You might as well make your own design (maybe with organic flax seed and organic cashews??) and get a huge, handmade, customized bar just the way you want it.

I think this would be a really fun idea as a gift – what boyfriend or husband wouldn’t want to try a bacon and gummi bear candy bar?  What, only mine?

Maybe as a chocolate birthday gift, a chocolate wedding favor or chocolate corporate gift:

You can even create your own custom packaging, custom graphics and obtain exclusive rights to your custom creation!

Everyone in your office would love you, even the guy you just fired!

Obviously you can tell I’m fired up about this product and idea.  I just love to hear entrepreneurial success stories, especially about young people following their dreams and making it happen.  Plus I have a borderline unhealthy obsession with chocolate and candy.  And this is such a fun thing to do that you have to try it.

(The Romance Bar with Dark Chocolate, 23 Karat Gold Flakes, a Chocolate Butterfly, Strawberries and Rose Petals.  If this doesn’t get you mood, nothing will.)

So Chocomize is offering all SkinnyRunner readers 10% off!  Just enter the code skinnyrunner10 at checkout.

BUT, it gets even better: because I recently passed the half a million hits mark (thanks Mom for checking my site 472 times a day!), I’m going to give a $10 Chocomize gift certificate to one random winner!

All you have to do is go to their website, create your dream bar and then tell me in the comment section what it is. OR tell me an occasion that you’d create one of these bars for.

I’ll randomly pick the winner by tomorrow night.

Sweet custom chocolate bar dreams!!

*Edited to Add: I just ordered 2 bars (for my family I swear!) and the coupon code gave me $5 off, definitely more than 10%.  Better take advantage of this!

 

March 2, 2010

I walk it out, I walk it out.

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , |
[6] Comments 

So Running Tuesday became Walking the Dog Tuesday.  Oh well.  There’s always tomorrow…

Come back tomorrow for some chocolatey goodness!

 

March 2, 2010

More Mammoth PICTURES

Posted by Sarah under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , |
[9] Comments 

You MUST check back tomorrow because I have a SWEET giveaway!!

And congratulations to Jamie R. who just BQ’ed at the Gasparilla Marathon this past weekend!

On with the pictures of my weekend in Mammoth:

We went to a board store one night to look around and I captured this thief in action:

I tried to do a citizen’s arrest, but then she found this goof:

Yeah, that’s an actual hat you can buy.  not sure as to why…

Friday night we went to Angel’s for dinner, which is a mighty tasty casual restaurant in Mammoth.

They have this random picture hanging there, and since Reese is a midget lover (don’t ask me why), we had to take a picture.

Saturday was Jim’s birthday so Reese got busy preparing a gourmet dinner for us all.  This is why I am her friend: she cooks for me.  and loves midgets.

Happy birthday, you old man, you.

Check out the menu cards Reese made:

Deeelicious.  And yes, we even had ice cream cake for dessert.  I love birthdays.  No, I just love cake.

They guys thought it’d be fun to play the game, “What song from the 80’s is playing on the computer and you girls who were barely born in the 80’s have to guess it!!” Yeah, it was as fun as it sounds.

Sunday night Chef Jayardee cooked dinner all by him lonesome.  We had an Italian sausage and chicken penne pasta dish, garlic bread and salad.  It was pretty good, and I was a beaming, proud housewife…  until I had to do the dishes.

On our way home Monday we stopped for a quick sandwich at Erick Schat’s Bakkery in Bishop.  This place is worth driving to Mammoth for; it is awesome.  It’s a Dutch bakery that sells tons of different kinds of breads, jellies and condiments, sweets, rolls, sandwiches and soups, etc.

I took a couple pictures and evidently wasn’t suppose to because I got in trouble for it.  lame.  I could see getting in trouble for shoving my sticky hands in the donut case, which I wanted to do badly, but taking a picture?  really?

James and I both had turkey sandwiches on homemade bread.  The turkey was hot, freshly sliced and prepared as you ordered.  Then we bought some other goodies:

A loaf of bread, cinnamon apple jelly, roasted garlic mustard, some dried pineapple and papaya that was being freshly bagged as I bought it, and a loaf of pecan “monkey bread” that I ate 2/3 of in the car so I was shamed into not taking a picture.  It was like a sweet pecan roll.

I’d highly recommend going here if you’re ever in the area.  It’s a really cute bakery with really tasty products.  And while you’re there, take a covert picture for me just to stick it to the (baker) man!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Running Tuesday is not gonna happen in the SR household, two weeks in a row, how lame is that?!  I decided to take today off basically because I lost my motivation and I still haven’t found it.

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »