Marathon Mom

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Justin's

Disclaimer: I received an Justin's as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Emir and I have long enjoyed te deliciousness of Justin's before they partnered with Bibrave to send us Pros some goodies to try. Don't get me wrong we enjoy our beers and the occasional splurging when we go out to eat, but in our every day eating, we are trying to be smart and healthy. It's this quest that led us to Justin's. A nutty spread is especially necessary in a house with kids but just as necessary in a house of ultra runners. We often fuel up before a long run with a nutty sandwich. It packs the calories and protein we need to give us that energy for our runs. We ended up switching from some other nutty spreads to Justin's because of the all natural ingredients, we know it's a healthier product in general. It also doesn't hurt that the taste is outstanding.

a marathon mom 2014

Since I've been laying around dying from the flu for the past week, I've had a lot of time to reflect on my 2014. Yes a lot of it has been feeling sorry for myself that I haven't run this whole week and being jealous every time Emir laced up his running shoes but there were times I laid there thinking about how grateful I am that most of the time I am able to do what I love, run. And in 2014 I was able to do that ALOT. I ran 2360 miles which is by far the most I've ever done in a year.

A Nice Stroll through Philly

It's December. It's getting colder, gets dark way too early and we have seen some snowflakes already. What does all this mean? It means it's the time of year when a bunch of runners gather in philly to run the exact route of Rocky Balboa in Rocky II. Yes, the Rocky 50K!

This year was the second annual event. Long story short, our friend Rebecca created this event after an article was published that stated Rocky actually ran 31 miles in Rocky II if you piece it all together. As ultra runners, there's no way we could read something like that and not insist on running it! You can read the full story in my post from last year the inaugural event.

Merry Christmas from Marathonmom!!

This whole running thing has turned into so much more than me going for runs. It's been truly awesome. By far the part that has been the best, most inspiring and just amazing is the running community. I just don't even have the right words to express how grateful I have been to have you all in my running life. And I mean everyone including my FB running groups, twitter running chat friends, instagram and of course my blog readers. To show my gratitude I wanted to host a little giveaway for a Christmas gift for my running friends. BioSkin has graciously given me a $20 gift card that can be used for any of their products which I am going to give away to one of you via rafflecopter.

Hurts So Good--Addaday Pro Roller

Disclaimer: I received an Addaday Pro Roller as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Obviously as a runner, a marathoner and ultrarunner, I have a roller. I actually have a foam roller and a stick. They seem to get the job done. I curse them while I'm rolling but am usually happy later that I did it. But once I received the Addaday roller, it was a whole new ballgame.

I chose to go with the Pro model since it had 3 different types of gears. I figured 3 were better than 1 type. There's two gray medium firmness gears, 1 red precision gear and 2 white soft gears. According to the website Addaday rollers are "great for deep tissue massage, designed to massage like fingers and easy to clean"

I agree with their description completely. The shape of the gears really dig deep into your muscles much more so than a regular massage stick. I could definitely feel the difference when I was using it to help me recover from the Philly Marathon. I also liked having several different options of types of intensity. I had some extra sore spots that weren't ready for the extra deep so I used the white gears and then other spots really needed the intense massage so I used the gray gears. And my favorite feature is definitely the little red precision gear. I have had shin splint problems since the day I started running. I've never been able to find something that could really dig into those little shin muscles and give me some relief in that area. That little guy gets in there perfectly, seriously it makes me so happy. The little things ;-)

I've also never had a stick/roller that I felt I could use on my neck, shoulders and back. The gears on the Addaday Pro can really get in those nooks and crannies to work out those knots so now I don't have to beg Emir to give me massages all the time.

And finally, I've found that the shape of the gears are really good on the bottoms of my feet. Lately I've been having some achiness, I'm sure some form of plantar fasciitis. Rolling my feet on a flat stick just really doesn't do it. The curves of the gears really dig in there.