Hi, my name is Patricia and I am a soda addict

Anyone who knows me knows I love Coke.  At times I am sure I would trade a coke for a meal.  Everyone is always telling me to give it up but I have just not been motivated to do so.  Well now that I am running and trying to lose weight I know its time.  Up until now I have been researching other options with no success. Nothing just seems to satisfy that craving.   Back during Bootcamp I confessed my shortfall to one of the trainers. She suggested trying Seltzer water and Stevia.  I went out and bought some right away.  However it took me a few weeks to get the guts to try it.   To my surprise it was not bad at all.  I think I may be able to work with this.  I started thinking of different concoctions and this is what I decided on this morning.

You know that strawberry flavored soda.  That is what it taste like.  And the great thing about it are there are so many brands and flavors of "drops" to try.  I personally like the dasani drops.  I started off with the Mio but came to realize I do not like the taste too much.  Dasani has 6 flavors in all, newly added pomegranate and grape.  I have only tried 2 so far but the pineapple coconut is very good.

I am really hope this will help me nix my soda habit.  And in return also help with my water intake.  I am still working on that habit.  

I am curious as to what other people drink during the day, besides water of course.

Good Form Running

Yesterday afternoon I attended a Good Form Running Clinic.  They taught us 4 key points to good form while running.

1.  Posture
2.  Mid-Foot
3.  Cadence 
4.  Leaning

One of the cool things about this clinic was they video taped you running and then analysed your form.  Sometimes you can't tell your running wrong unless you see it from another point of view.  I have to admit I was really nervous about the play back because I was thinking I am probably the least experienced runner here and the owner mentioned she saw one toe runner and I was thinking oh boy watch me be the one.  Turns out almost everyone was a heel runner and needed some type of work.  My shot turned out to be not so bad.  My foot was almost parallel to the ground which allows that mid-foot land.

The trainer suggested you focus on one thing at a time in hopes of eventually mastering them all.  Cadence caught my attention.  I have heard of this in another term in spinning but not with running.  Cadence is the amount of times your feet hit the ground in one minute.  Good form running teaches that in order to be most efficient at running and preventing injury you should run at a 180 cadence.  We practiced this outside with some metronomes.  Currently my cadence starting out is about 160.  But as I get tired it drops quickly.  I can only imagine how cumbersome it would be to focus on cadence during an entire run, so to avoid that I will probably focus once or twice during each run on cadence, maybe at the beginning and the end.  This will allow me to see where I am at and my progress.

http://www.goodformrunning.com/

Turns out you can actually find songs to match your desired cadence.  The website below allows you to search for songs.  I thought this was pretty cool so I had to share.

http://jogtunes.com/

I am not going to give away all the details however if you are interested in taking the class it is free at Track Shack.

This is why I run!

  FLAVOR RUN!! One of my favorites so far!!!!!!!!!

                                         

                                          

                                                          

                                        

                                                            

                                                            

                                                           

                                        

                                          

     

    

    

    

     

        

        

     

     

Splash N Dash

Finally, some pictures from the Splash N Dash.

Tomorrow starts week 5.  Here is the plan.

Walk 3:35

Run 1:25

Repeat 9 times 

What is your most important running accessory?

Yesterday I ran Week 4 Day 3 again.  It was much better than Monday.  Maybe I was having an off day Monday but I am glad I re did the week.  I feel confident to go on to week 5 now.  Also, I thought of a way to keep each run interesting.  On Wednesday my pace was 15:49. First I made a goal to get down to a 15:00 pace.  Now after my run I realized that will take some time. My pace on Friday was 15:46. So I gained 3 seconds.  So I changed my goal a bit.  Every run I am going to try bet my previous pace.  I am actually looking forward the seeing those numbers go down.

Anyhow, back to the topic.  This past week I had a little extra money.  I decided I was going to use it on some type of running accessory.  I had 3 ideas in mind. 1. Something to hold my phone. 2. Some type of container for water and 3. A towel I do not have to hold. 

1. Something to hold my phone - I have an arm band for my iPhone but I do not use it.  My phone case is too big so every time I want to use it I have to take the case off.  And it is not super easy to take on and off. Also, even if I do that, the arm band is not comfortable.

2.  Some type of container for water - I have been looking at different options for this.  I really want a camelbak backpack but I think that would be silly for my 3 mile neighborhood runs.  I have also looked into that belt with the water bottles but the idea of having 2 or more bottles bouncing around my waist doesn't sound pleasant.  And also a little silly for neighborhood runs.  

3.  A towel I do not have to hold - it is hot in Florida!  Even at 7 in the morning.  I do not like running and having nothing to wipe my face off.   However I do not wam too run around with a towel in my hand.

I needed to choose one.  I have a temporary solution for my phone.  And I am still unsure about the water deal so, the Towel it was.  Drumroll please..... I decided to go with a Swowel.  I know, you may have no idea what that is.  It is a towel, wash cloth size, connected to a belt, that you can buckle around your waist.  This allows one to carry the towel hands free.  And easily buckle and unbuckle while running.  It comes in 9 colors and is not a bad price. Here is picture of mine.

                                           

                                     

Even cooler, that grey strip you see is a reflective strip for running in the dark. (Never alone I hope) 

                                        

It It comes in this mess bag that you use to keep it protected in the washing machine. 

                                       

So far I have used the Swowel twice.  And the one time I forgot to put it on I regretted it.  I am happy with my choice! Best of all, it is a family company.  Who doesn't want to support one of those.  Here is the website it you are interested.  http://www.swowel.com/index.html

   What is your most important running accessory? Shoes and sports bras don't count! 

Week 4 x 2...?

Isn't that the truth!!!  Despite my lack of posts I have been trying to get back into gear this week.  On Monday morning I went out to finish week 4.  It was awful!  I do not know what was wrong with me but it was my worst run yet.  Half my intervals I could not complete and a few I skipped all together.  It was definitely a disappointment.  But then I remember something a fellow blogger told me.  P.S. She has a great blog. You can find her at http://seejenroerun.blogspot.com/.  Anyhow she told that I need to go at my own pace.  She mentioned a friend of hers, who also has a great blog http://www.carlyshrinks.com, had to do week one of from couch to 5K for three and a half weeks before moving on to week 2.  So in light of that, and my tough run, I decided I should repeat week 4 this week.  I ran again this morning.  It was a lot better.  I made it through my intervals and even got my pace average down a few seconds.  I am going to run the last day of week 4 again on Friday and then hopefully continue with week 5 on Monday.  Week 5 goes up to running 1:25 and lowering the walking breaks to 3:35.

One other thing she said, "I think it's better to be slow and steady and see small but meaningful progress. Going from running for 30 secs. to a whole minute within 3 weeks is significant! It's double!"  Good point!