Test Lab Thursday + Free Sample + Giveaway

First, since I know all of you love free stuff, GU is giving away a 6 pack of their new Roctane flavor—Island Nectars with a purchase on Gu.com.  It’s the perfect unveiling right before the Ironman World Championships in Kona.  And if you're going to Kona, there will be a special swag bag at the Gu energy house, details in the link below.  Who doesn’t want a bit of the islands throughout their fall and winter?!  Click on the link below and have your own island getaway amidst your next long run.

GU promotion 

C-YA and C-SPOT Review

Now onto my review and giveaway.  Awhile back Samantha from C-YA  (website: www.perfecthindsight.com) contacted me to review her product line of reflective magnets.

Overall  rating: A

The C-YA product and the C-Spot (for you doggie owners) are a great reflective product that won’t damage your clothes.  I have a pack of Nathan reflection stickers which are great but not transferable to different clothing items.  The C-YA is a small, about palm sized, magnet.  Literally, you can snap them onto your shirt, hat, shorts, etc.  I was worried about chafing or overall bunching of clothing where I placed the C-YA but I came away unscathed.  I have to say that my wonderful Zoey wasn’t a huge fan of her C-Spot.  She kept scratching at it like it was bothering her.  Next time I try it with her I might attach it to the leash itself instead of her collar or put her in the harness and attach it to the harness.

The only suggestion I have for Samantha is to do a bit of updating to her website.  While the product is great and modern, the website looks straight out of the 80’s, in a jazzercise-y way.

 

GIVEAWAY:

Samantha was so gracious in providing me with multiple C-YA’s that I have decided a lucky reader deserves one too.  I’ve decided to giveaway my lightning bolt C-YA.  It’s literally the shape of a lightning bolt---you can think about how fast you’re running as you sport it in the wee morning hours or post work.  Since it’s getting lighter later and darker earlier it’s a perfect time to invest in some reflective gear.

To enter, leave a comment that answers the following questions (please consolidate your answers into one comment—3 entries per person):

1.  Are you an early morning runner or an evening runner?

2.  Go to the website (www.perfecthindsight.com) and provide a piece of constructive advice on how to make it better.

3.  Since I got so many great answers on my movie question last time, I’m asking another.  What’s your favorite night scene?

Tea sandwiches, cupcakes and cookies...oh my

This week was BUSY.  I did some more planting and digging in the yard, went for a VERY wet and cold hike with my Dad, worked at my real work some and threw an amazing housewarming party.  

Notice, there was no running to be had this week---oh well.  Hiking, gardening, walking and swimming all count as exercise.  Goofy training starts Monday so I'll be getting back into the groove next week.  I'm going with a 16 week plan this time since I'm so out of running shape.  Probably first 4 weeks of building and then hit it for 12 weeks.

Our backyard is pretty much planted for now.  We can't do much until we can start the vegetable garden for next year so, we decided to tackle the front.

 

Here is my Dad starting to tear the weeds out.

Weeding away!

Holes for the new roses!

All planted!  3 new roses and 25 pansies.(Yes, I know they are annuals but I wanted some color for the housewarming party.)

And a new tree that replaced a very large ugly, dying bush.

Plantings from a different view. Zoey wanted to make sure that everyone knew she helped too.

After planting and sprucing up the front yard on Wednesday, my Dad and I set off for an adventure on Thursday.  I knew it wouldn't be the best day for hiking as the weather went from a pleasant 70 degrees to below 50 and raining BUT we went anyway.  We trekked up toward Mt Hood and started from the Elk Meadows trailhead.

As we started hiking, it was a lightly drizzling but not too bad.  We we happy hikers trekking across streams on bare logs and chatting away.

Zoey and my Dad.

Me and my Dad.

Happy hiking Doggie

 Trail eventually went up.  Would have been a nice view if the weather was nicer.

I stopped taking pictures at this point because it started to pour down rain and all three of us, Zoey included, were very cold.  After our cold 5.5 mile hike we sat in the car with the heater full blast trying to thaw out.  Once we got to civilization we hit up starbucks for something extra hot and cozy.

 

Friday was a busy busy day preparing for the housewarming party.  Cooking, cleaning and decorating.  Saturday morning rolled around and it was go time.  Final cooking and decorating ended and we got to sit back and enjoy our wonderful friends who warmed our house wonderfully.

Finalizing the tea sandwiches and setting out the bar.

 Second spot for bar goodies.

 Our non-alcoholic selection.

 Alcohols

 One side of the food spread.  Grape jelly meatballs and veggies/dip.

 Our First Home--sugar cookies.

Tea Sandwiches.  One of the four kinds Mr. Pi made.

Another tea sandwich--they were yummy.

Food Spread!  4 kinds of tea sandwiches, deviled eggs, melon mint salad, sugar cookies and lemon curd infused cupcakes with raspberry marscapone cheese frosting.

Both sides of the spread in our dining room.  MMMMMMMM!

 We made grape, red wine and white wine jelly favors for people to take home with them.

 Up close of the white wine jelly.

In addition to the stuff we made, several people brought other yummy additions.  We also got a couple of awesome plants, lots of new wines to try, an awesome gardening book, a wine towl and a basket of Italian goodies.  I cannot tell you how loved we both feel and how awesome it is to have a space to entertain.  There will be several more parties at Casa Pi! I'm hoping Mr. Pi or some of our other friends took photos because once the party got going, I didn't take a single photo!  Bad me.

It's time for me to finish up laundry and start working on my Goofy Training schedule.

Diggin'

So let's just get the "fails" out of the way.  No swimming or biking and only two runs.


I did do one weights session--yay and I did run twice.  My second run on Saturday morning was my longest trail run to-date (nearly 7 miles, Garmin lost satellite so I'm not really sure).  It was amazing!  Thanks to Amy for picking a great (tough) run.

sorry it's all blurry!  Mr. Pi was out there running too in his new Vibram FiveFingers (as Amy calls them his "creepy shoes")

The rest of Saturday and most of Sunday were spent "diggin" in the yard of course!

hoeing to make room for spring bulbs

my hoed section along the porch

Mr. Pi building garden bed #2

Some assembly required

Fully placed!  We also had all the dirt delivered yesterday so now we need to get to planting!

In training news, I went for a great walk/hike with Amy through some trails near our workplace.  I think I might run on them next week assuming the weather holds and it's not pouring buckets or something.  Then, when I got home I was feeling like I wanted to get in some running miles so I hoped on the roads for a quick and easy 3.2 miles.  I did a different loop and found a great long residential street with limited cars and a huge bike lane that I ran along.  I am really loving my new neighborhood and being a homeowner.

I also am going to start thinking about Goofy!  Yes, I know it's still a few months away but maybe if I put a couple of goal half's on the calendar for the fall, I'll get more motivated to think about Goofy.  Goofy is going to be a fun run only---I'm going to be taking lots of pictures and not worrying about my garmin time at all! 

Fall halfs I'm considering:

Oct. 10/17 Nike--well, I'm already doing this race but also just for fun!

Late Oct. 10/24 Columbia Gorge Half---Looks beautiful but HILLY! (also depends on whether my sister-in-law is doing a 5k that day up here that I would run with her.)

Nov. 11/20 EWEB in Eugene---I've done this race before and it is a fast course but it's 2 hours away and I'm not sure we want to travel that far again.

Dec. 12/12 Holiday Half---a few Pdx'ers have already emailed about this one, I'm on the fence as it's rather pricey for a half and I think it'd probably fall on a weekend I have a 20 miler for Goofy.

Test Lab Friday & Blogger Award

I forgot to do Test Lab Thursday yesterday--what can I say it was a busy day.  

The great folks at Outside PR sent me a new flavor of Gu Chomps to test out!  I've tried the orange and strawberry chomps before and really like them.  My only complaint about them is that sometimes I'm still hungry afterwards.  However, I'm beginning to think that maybe wasn't a Gu Chomp issue but rather an "I'm not eating/drinking enough for 50 mile rides" issue.  So, chomps.  They are like a chewy sweet treat.  I tend to prefer chews versus gels on the bike.  Running I can go either way but gels don't cut it on the bike for me.


Here is what Gu says about their chomps:

"GU Chomps offer a change of pace from gels and an answer to that moment in your run, ride, ski, swim, hike…. when you just gotta have something to chomp on.

GU Chomps deliver the premium ingredients and performance benefits you've come to expect from
GU Energy products:
• Amino acids for added focus, rippin' energy and speedy recovery.
• Vitamin C + E, those mighty antioxidants that combat tissue breakdown.
• Sodium and potassium to restore electrolyte balance.
• Exclusive blend of complex and simple carbohydrates."

http://www.guenergy.com/products/gu-chomps

Outside PR sent me the watermelon flavor which is a new flavor of chomp.  I don’t usually like real watermelon however, this summer I gave it another try and I found I do really like it but it has to be really COLD.  So when, they asked to send me something watermelon flavored I was a lot more excited about it!  I had wanted to test these out sooner but I’ve been enjoying some lazy time off since my HIM.

Overall Rating: A-

I took the chomps with me last weekend when my Mom and I hiked in the gorge.  They were quite yummy with enough salty-sweet taste to satisfy us on the hike.  We ate one bag between the two of us.  Each bag has 2 servings.  One serving is 4 chomps and is 90 calories.  Since we hadn’t hike too far that was about plenty for us.  If we had gone farther, I would have suggested for each of us to have our own bag.

Flavor rating:  B+

I still prefer the orange and strawberry over the watermelon but it was certainly good, just not great in my opinion.

Satiated rating: A-

This flavor tasted a bit saltier than the others and I think it satisfied me a bit more.  However, like I mentioned before I think I was still getting my nutrition strategy down before when I was using the chomps.

Thanks to Outside PR for letting me try out a new Chomp Flavor!

Onto the blogger award.  I was given the Cherry award by both Colleen from Irondiva and Aimee from I Tri to be Me.  Thanks ladies!  If you don’t read their blogs, you should. 

So for the award I have to answer a couple of questions:

1)  If you had a chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?

I tend to think I’ve had a pretty fantastic life however, back in college I spent a lot of time thinking about going abroad but ultimately chose not to for a variety of reasons.  If I could do it all over again, I’d go abroad.  I had originally wanted to go to Australia.  I ended up going there and New Zealand for my college graduation trip.  I think though, looking back, if I went abroad, I’d want it to be somewhere really different and unique.

2) The second thing you have to do is pick 6 people and give them this award. You then have to inform the person that they have gotten this award. 

Anyone that is reading this---consider yourself picked!

3) The third and final thing is, thank the person who gave you the award.

I get to thank both Colleen and Aimee!  Thanks you guys for giving me the award.  You are both contagiously positive in your outlook on life and training.  I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability---that’s part of what makes a good blog.

Flying Solo 2010

My wonderful Mr. Pi was away for 10 whole nights.  What did I do with my solo time?  Technically, I was only solo for half of those nights since my Mom flew up to hang out.  Here’s a photo essay of what I did while Mr. Pi was away. (I didn't get a pic of my mom and I shopping, which is something we do quite well!)

cuddling with Zoey on the couch

hiking with my mom in the gorge

Zoey went too!

We also drove the "fruit loop" and were treated to great views of Mt. Hood

I started hanging all of our race bibs on the wall in the basement (I know I have more at my Dad's somewhere and my first races I don't think I even saved my bibs)

I also started hanging our medals. Most of mine are at work so those are mostly Mr. Pi's (on the left).

Zoey and I took lots of walks around the neighborhood and I started taking pictures of flowers that I want to plant next year.  Anyone know what those pink/white ones are?

More flowers from the neighbors.  Orange ones anyone?

I liked the orange/red leaves of this ground cover stuff, again, anyone know what this is?

Flowers Mr. Pi and my Stepdad sent my Mom and I

And finally, a great pic of Zoey soaking up the sunshine.

In exercise news, I failed at my running goal.  I only ran twice!  Wait, wait, I can explain.  I came down with a little cold during my LONG weekend which I thought deserved less running and more relaxing on the couch.  I did manage to strength train once and I put the bike up on the trainer (due to rain) and rode intervals for an hour. 

Goals for this week: Same as last week (4x running 20-25 miles; 1 x swim or bike; 1 x strength train).  Also, I need to start working out in the morning.  I love it once I’m in the habit, what is my problem!  Oh right, the bed is all nice and cozy in the morning, that's the problem.

BIGGEST goal for the week---SPENDING TIME WITH MY AMAZING HUBBY!!!!

Yup, that's the guy!