Category: Gear

Review: PediRoller

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pedirollerThe PediRoller from Carnation Footcare is a ridged rubber cylinder which, according to the blurb, ‘can help keep your feet healthy and toned and reduce the pain associated with heel and arch problems such as plantar fasciitis’.

It comes with a leaflet showing some foot exercises and also a Fizzy Feet tablet that you dissolve in water to soothe your tootsies.  

I haven’t tried the Fizzy Feet tablet but I did try out the roller on my foot arch that’s been niggling me for what seems like forever and it felt great. In fact, I’m using it now while writing this post.

Recommended, and only £4.99 from Boots.

Bargain.

That’s the boobs sorted, all I need now is a belly bra

9 comments

As I don’t have one of those proper day job things that involve sitting in an office all day, I don’t get that Friday Feeling but I still feel the need to celebrate public holidays by drinking and eating too much and wasting time on Facebook and Twitter, but wasting time on Twitter can pay off. My last three web design clients have come from there (a charity in Devon and two authors) and the other day, I tweeted about my new sports bras that had come in the post (yes, my tweets are that exciting) that no, weren’t freebies but yes, I had paid for them.

Shortly after tweeting this mega-exciting update on my life, Boobydoo tweeted me and said oh, you should have got in touch with us, we’d have sent you something, and so I said I could always do with new sports bras and so they sent me a Shock Absorber Run Bra.

It looks highly technical with all its straps and clasps. My favourite sports bras have been the crop top type that you pull over your head and then struggle to get off after you’ve sweated all over it. This one has kind of polystyreney feeling adjustable straps going down the back (don’t let that put you off, I’m not sure ‘polystyrene’ is the right word but I can’t think what I mean; maybe more neopreney than polystyreney). They’re different to the usual bra straps where you have to lengthen the strap by tugging at it and adjusting it as these have little hooks that you pull out of a little sleeve and put in another sleeve, either higher or lower.

shock_absorber_run_bra

There’s also a clasp at the top and the usual hook and eye clasps at the bottom. As I’m lazy and used to my crop tops, I try to pull it on as a crop top and don’t undo the bottom clasps, but it gets stuck around my shoulders so I pull it off and undo the clasps and try to do it up like a normal person. It takes a while to do up as I’m not very good at doing up bras but I get there eventually and this must be the comfiest bra in the world ever. Being the most comfiest bra ever isn’t the most major factor in sports bra factors though: boobage movage is, so I tested this by jumping up and down. Nothing moved. Result. Another good thing about it is that it’s not padded like the Shock Absorber bra I got at the traumatic Mateivator workout that has removable pads that which, because they’re removable, get all twisted and folded up in their pockets when they’re being washed and then you have to faff about taking them out and untwisting them and putting them back in. So, comfort, support and lack of faff, splendid.

I put on the rest of my gear and decide to wear my Haile Gebrselassie world record breaking shoes and set off down the street.

My world record breaking shoes are really light and I feel like I’m gliding along (I’m well aware that any witnesses would probably not have used the word ‘gliding’ if asked to describe my running style) and my boobs are staying in place which is more than I can say for my belly which is wobbling about and I wonder why no one’s invented a belly bra and if any inventors are reading my blog, can you invent one please?

I decide just to do two miles and to do it without stopping but I get to two miles and I’m feeling good and so I decide to do three miles and whoop whoop, I do three miles at under 11 minute miles which must be some kind of miracle or maybe it was the new bra, which is by far the best sports bra I’ve ever worn (I’m never going back to cheap ones again) or maybe it was the Trion:Z bracelet or maybe it was the world record breaking shoes or maybe it was my athlete’s dinner last night of two slices of garlic bread and half a flapjack or maybe it was all the spin and body pump classes I’ve been going to?

And speaking of spin and body pump classes, I’ll be doing those at the gym tomorrow morning, where I’m going, not to avoid the Royal Wedding, but to avoid Twitter where my fellow human beings will dishearten me by directing a load of scorn, contempt, hatred and abuse at a young couple purely for having the nerve to get married. I mean, they’re hardly Jordan and Alex Reid, are they? Just because Prince William’s mum was a media-hungry attention-seeking strumpet, doesn’t mean he and his bride-to-be are. Good luck to them, I say.

Stats
Distance: 3.02 miles
Time: 32:48
Pace: 10:53
Calories: 317
Friday Feelings: 0
Boobage movage: 0
Belly movage: lots
Fantastic new sports bras: 1
Nasty mean people on twitter to be avoided tomorrow: hundreds
Music
Jamiroquai
The Wombats
Ladyhawke
The Jam
The Killers

Review: Trion:Z dual loop bracelet

7 comments

I was contacted recently to see if I wanted to try out the Trion:Z dual loop bracelet and the first thing I noticed on their website was “The most difficult decision you have to make is what colour to choose”.

They weren’t kidding. There’s flipping hundreds of colours to choose from (this may be a slight exaggeration). I almost opted for the Audiofuel colours of black and orange, but my inner goth won in the end and I picked the purple and black one.

When it arrived, I looked at the accompanying leaflet to find out what it was supposed to do. The accompanying leaflet didn’t tell me. Hmm. As Warriorwoman has also mentioned on her blog, there’s lots of quotes from athletes extolling the bracelet’s virtues and how they wouldn’t race without a Trion:Z necklace or wristband, but they don’t actually say why.

The blurb on the website says:

“Trion:Z’s original dual therapy bracelet combines Trion:Z’s patented Ionic AND Magnetic therapy into one unique and stylish wristband. With TWO identical loops of Negative Ion releasing “Mineon Health Fibre®” and twin patented ANSPO orientate therapeutic magnets, making it the most powerful ionic wristband on the market.”

I took my stylish loops of negative ions out for a bike ride and I don’t know if it did whatever it was supposed to do but I didn’t fall off, so all was good.

Boiling in bamboo

5 comments

I got sent a BAM – Bamboo Clothing Zip Neck Baselayer to try out but because it’s got long sleeves, I thought it would be too warm to try out now as although it doesn’t take me long to freeze indoors, when I’m out running it doesn’t take me long to melt.

But this morning I decided to give it a go, although it looked warm and sunny outside and I asked Shaun to take a photo of me wearing it and he took a photo and said ‘you look quite thin’ and so I said ‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN I LOOK THIN? ARE YOU SAYING I’M FAT?’ and when I got home after my run, I uploaded the photo and yes, I do look fat, so you’re not getting a photo of me but this is what the top looks like.

bamboo

Nice, huh?

It’s beautifully soft and silky and it’s got thumbloops to keep your wrists warm and to, um, keep snow going up your wrists.

I want to wear the little thumbloop things as I’ve never worn anything with little thumbloop things in before but then I have a dilemma.

Does the Garmin go inside or outside the sleeves?

I decide it has to go outside the sleeves, otherwise I won’t know how far I’ve gone but then I have another dilemma.

What if I get really hot and want to roll my sleeves up?

I decide that I’ll just have to make the effort to unhook my thumb and unstrap my Garmin and roll my sleeves up and then put my Garmin back on again.

I get about a mile and see a poster for a missing cat and someone’s scrawled on it ‘this is why you should keep your cats indoors’ and I think that’s not very sympathetic although my cat stays in but that’s because I let her injections lapse years ago when she didn’t go out anyway because of a local cat picking on her all the time.

After I’ve finished reading the cat missing poster, I decide I’m boiling and I’m going to have to make the effort to unstrap my Garmin and roll my sleeves up and then I see a sign for a bridleway and I wonder where it goes and so I go down the bridleway and looking at the tracks in the mud, it would appear that there’s more tractors go down there than horses and then I wonder where I am and then I think I know where I am but I have thought incorrectly and I’m at the bridge where the half-built housing estate is and I wonder if builders work on Saturday as I try to avoid men in hi-vis clothing wherever possible and I decide they don’t work on Saturdays and so I run through the half-built housing estate and then I don’t know which way to go as it all looks the same and I see two oast houses and I wonder if I live near them and I decide I do and so I head towards them and yay, I’ve gone the right way after all and then I’m at the path and there’s a runner running towards me and I wonder if he’s seen me walking and I start to run and I decide to run on the road so I don’t have to go past him but I’m too slow and our paths cross and he says hello and then I decide to go down the path and there’s a man with an Irish Wolfhound and the man smiles at me and I think ‘I’VE PULLED A MAN WITH AN IRISH WOLFHOUND. RESULT’ and I’m mega mega boiling and although this top is mega mega comfy and would be warm and cosy in the winter, it’s just too warm and clingy for this time of year and then I’m running down the hill and there’s a girl running up it and she says hello and I think she looks familiar and I wonder why as I don’t know anyone round here and then there’s another girl running up the hill and she looks like Miranda and she doesn’t say hello and I get back to the house and I’ve done 2.91 miles and I want to round it up to 3 so I go round the corner and run past the front gate and I still haven’t done 3 miles so I carry on and I get to the gap in the road which leads up to the end of the garden and I think I’ll go up there but then I remember that Shaun says the man at the end of the garden says it’s not a right of way and so I turn round and go back the way I came and Shaun’s leaning out of the bedroom window and he’s seen me running past the house and back and asks me if I got lost.

Stats
Distance: 3.05 miles
Bamboo tops: 1
Garmin dilemmas: 2
Cats missing: 1
Unsympathetic people towards cats missing: 1
Bridleways with tractors, not horses: 1
Half-built housing estates: 1
Oast houses: 2
Men with Irish Wolfhounds: 1
Girl runners saying hello: 1
Girl runners not saying hello: 1

New third prize

14 comments

For today’s Janathon, I exercised my HTML and CSS skills by adding another prize to the four already on offer: a pair of Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses.

sunglasses

I have a pair of these and they’re pretty cool and I blogged about them last year.

To see the other prizes on offer, go to the Janathon prizes page.

(I may cycle later)

Stats
New Janathon prizes: 1
May cycle laters: 1

Heaven 17

7 comments

Grim was postponed! Yay! I didn’t have to do it last Saturday! Yay!The bad news, though, is that it was only postponed and not cancelled, so I still have to do it. On 15 January 2011. But that’s quite cool, as it will mean a hardcore Janathon effort and the most hardcore Janathoners win, so hurrah for me. Oh, I can’t win my own competition? Bollocks.

Still, with just over five weeks until the new Grim date, I thought I’d better get out there and do some training, now that the snow has just about gone. One of the reasons I was going to pull out of Grim was because I am the world’s most nervous car passenger (I am, really. I scream whenever a car comes towards us on the other side of the road) and couldn’t bear the thought of being in a car for 100 miles or whatever it is in the dark and the cold and the snow and the ice but now that excuse has evaporated along with the white stuff and the excuse of not being fit enough has gone (assuming I do some training), it looks like I’ve run out of excuses.under_armour

So this morning I put on my new Coldgear Under Armour compression top, which apparently is ideal for temperatures under 12 degrees and as my weather widget said it was 1 degree this morning, it seemed an ideal time to try it out. I was a bit dubious as it’s very thick, tight fitting and has a high neck, and I’m more of a thin, loose fitting, nothing round my neck type person but I squeezed into it and put a looser light green short-sleeved top over it, so as not to look too much like a middle-aged, lumpy Catwoman.

I set off for my run and forgot about the high neck immediately and the top was warm and comfortable, and not restrictive at all. It may also have magical powers as I actually managed to run up most of the hill, too, although that may be down to spending a lot of time in the gym last week and nothing to do with magical powers at all.What was even more amazing was that for most of my run, I was going at a smooth, steady pace and that could either be because of the magical powers of my new top or because I’d been on the treadmill a few times recently, which keeps you ticking over as steady as a metronome.

I even managed to run quicker than my recent usual *speed* of 12 minute miles and ran at an average of 11:17 minute miles, which when I got home, realised sounded like Heaven 17 and then tried to think of more paces that sounded like 80s pop bands but couldn’t think of any.

Stats:
Distance: 3.08 miles
Time: 34:46
Pace: 11:17m/m
Calories: 324
Postponed Grims: 1
New compression tops: 1
Paces sounding like 80s pop bands: 1
Music:Audiofuel
Hole

Debenhams XPG Running Kit

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xpg-tightsDebenhams have launched their own range of running and fitness gear (or performance sportswear range, as they like to call it) called XPG. They sent me a pair of 3/4 length tights to try and I was very pleased to see they’ve got a zipped pocket on the back of them, as I’ve only got one other pair that have a zipped pocket and so they’re ideal for running outside in.

They’re also wickable and all that other techy stuff but the best bit is they’re only £18, so a bit of a bargain when you consider that most ‘proper’ running tights sell for about £35.

I also got sent a nice purple hoody (£28) which, unfortunately, still had its security tag on and I had to convince Shaun that it was a proper freebie that I had been sent and not a freebie that I had stolen from our local Debenhams. After being duly convinced of my innocence, he got the tag off with the help of a magnet and a knife from the cutlery drawer.

Although I was going to save the tights for running outside due to their handy pocket I can put my key in, all my other tights were either in the wash or still wet from the wash I did yesterday and so I had to wear my new tights to the gym.

The gym was really busy this morning. I decided it must be the pre-Christmas newbies. These are the people who come in a few weeks before Christmas in an attempt to burn off the calories they haven’t eaten yet, although I’m not quite sure it works like that. Then after Christmas, gyms get really busy with the New Year newbies who, mostly, thankfully fuck off somewhere around mid-February  and then the gyms are quiet again until spring when people come back to try and get that bikini body for the beach. Then they make a reappearance a few weeks before Christmas in an attempt… you get the picture.

Hoka Mafate women’s trail shoes: Review

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I was asked if I’d like to try some new trail shoes and, as I’d recently been pondering buying a new pair due to my other pairs currently being caked in mud and still in the plastic bag they were put in when we moved house nearly a year ago, I thought hurrah, that’ll save me cleaning my other ones, and so I said ok then, ta.

A big blue box arrived for me on Saturday. I opened the big blue box and inside were THE MOST HIDEOUS SHOES EVER. Nothing that ugly has been near my feet since my mum used to make me wear sensible Clarks shoes for school circa 1979.

shoes

See?

Still, they’re marginally less repulsive not actually that bad looking once they’re on.

on

I was a bit scared of bumping into the postman when I was taking my Garmin outside to get a signal, although why I think the postman would laugh at me, I don’t know, as he’s about 65, has a shock of mad frizzy grey hair, and permanently orange legs in shorts that he wears all year round and so if anyone’s going to be doing any laughing, it’s going to be me at him, not him at me in my, um, lime green platform trainers.

After charging my phone that had been drained because of Shaun playing Angry Birds on it all night, I’m ready to go.

The Hoka Mafate’s have a high instep and they squeak on the wooden floor. I’m not sure about this at all but I venture outside and start to run. I immediately don’t care what they look like, as they’re amazingly light and cushiony and comfy and bouncy and it feels like I’m springing along effortlessly. They’re magic!

I run up to where the new sheep are and stop to take their photo.

sheep-002

As I continue down the trail, another runner approaches and I wonder if he’s jealous of my magic shoes and I decide he probably is and he also probably thinks I’m hardcore but then I remember he just saw me stop to take photos of sheep and so he actually probably thinks I’m just a girly wimp in bright green shoes.

I get to the end of the trail and cross the road to go into the cow field. I’m not sure how magic my magic shoes are and if they’ll stop me from slipping off the wet stile as I clamber over it but I manage to get over without falling off and I get into the field but I can’t see any cows, just lots and lots of cow pats and I wonder if my magic shoes will stop me skidding on a cow pat and I decide I don’t want my magic shoes covered in cow poo, and so I dodge all the cow pats and then over on the other side of the field I see cows.

sheep-004

There are cows in that photo, honest.

I get to the end of the field and it’s fenced off and I don’t know how to get any further and so I turn round and go back the way I came and try not to fall off the slippery stile and then I’m back down the trail and there’s a couple walking a couple of dogs which aren’t evil countryside devil dogs but nice happy friendly spaniels or something and the couple say ‘morning’ and I say ‘morning’ back and then I see the poodle man with his poodle and he also says ‘morning’ and I think it’s a nice change to have people saying ‘morning’ and having nice friendly happy dogs and not stupid evil countryside devil dogs and I get back to the road and I see the orange postie and for once he actually sees me running as usually I manage to go past him when I’m on a walking bit (but let’s face it, I do a lot of walking bits) and then I get to two feet of the front door and slip on a paving stone and maybe my magic shoes are only good for trails, grass, mud and puddles and not paving stones or wooden floors and I get in and my magic shoes are muddy

mud

but my socks are nice and clean and dry(ish)

dry

but I’m not sure even the Hoka Mafate’s with their magical properties are going to keep me dry at Grim.

The technical bits:

Through Rocker, Lower Ramp Angle (4mm) and the Ultra Light Weight sole and upper, we reproduce the conditions a barefoot runner will experience when running on grass or sand.

The Oversize frame (mid-sole) with 2.5cm elastic trave will absorb any hard obstacle your foot may hit, and once compressed the featherweight-density eva (-30%) will spring back under your metatarsals for acceleration.

With 50% more surface area in contact with the ground, and a mid-sole that allows the foot to recess into it by almost 2.5cm, the shoes provides protection, stability and pronation control unmatched in universal or support running shoes.

Hoka One One website

Stats:
Distance: 2.23 miles
Time: slow
Pace: slow
New pairs of hideous bright green platform trail shoes: 1
Pairs of trail shoes that prove you shouldn’t judge a shoe by its appearance: 1
Phones needing charging due to boyfriends draining the battery by playing Angry Birds: 1
Fields with sheep: 1
Fields with cows: 1
Nice happy friendly dogs: 2
Stupid countryside evil devil dogs: 0

Flipping farmers furrowing fields

9 comments

I used to hate alliteration before doing my OU course. But then I started to quite like it as it was used quite often and now I think it’s quite the bees’ bollocks (sorry for the mixed metaphor but I was also taught to avoid clichés like the plague).

I did do a run last week that I should have blogged but didn’t. I was going to blog about it, but got side-tracked and I haven’t even got my list of prompts/memory guides so you could at least have had a kind of join-the-dots blog instead.

Still, today I ran and now I’m blogging it.

Some time ago, I received an email about a new range of running tops. Being a blatantly brazen blagging blogger, I emailed back and said thank you for your spam email, the tops look cool. Can I have one to review on my blog please? and they say yes, of course you can. And so I was sent a lovely stripy top from Rainbow Running.

running top 001

Not cheap at £35, I was also a bit perturbed to look at the label and see they’re 100% polyester. I WILL BOIL AND DIE I thought but on investigating properly the blurb I was sent like I should have done in the first place and not just been greedy and grabbing my freebie, it says they’re made with wickable Intera fabric, which rapidly transports water molecules to the surface of the fibres where they can quickly evaporate, the garments offer a cooler and more comfortable running experience.

And after trying the running top, I can say that that’s not just marketing bollocks, as it did keep me cool and dry and I didn’t get home with it sticking to me (and that’s not just because I run [or jog, as I’ve recently been told I do, as I go really slowly, bah] really slowly. Slow joggers runners sweat too, you know. And it fitted nicely and it was comfy and all that other stuff. (Yeah, ok, I’m not very good at reviews. Random stream of consciousnesses are more my thing.)

Another thing I tried out today was my new iPhone 4. I was a bit hesitant to get one as I thought it’s just a phone, isn’t it? And I don’t even use the phone. BUT I FUCKING LOVE IT. I love it. I love it. I love it. I was very scared to take it out with me as I didn’t want to put it in my back pocket with my door key but the protective covers are still on it (although they’re getting a bit manky so I think I’ll have to take them off soon – anyone recommend a case?), so I thought it’d be ok. I downloaded the Runkeeper app, although everyone says it’s shit and loaded up my phone with Audiofuel, Kate Bush and Knifeworld. Runkeeper found my location within seconds (unlike my N95 which found my location once in the two years I had it) and I wondered if it would still go when I pressed the home button and started up the music player. I didn’t really care though as I had my Garmin with me. Everything seemed to be going ok and I shoved the phone in my back pocket. Next time though, I’ll start the music off first as Runkeeper had been going for a while while I was sorting the music out and then for even longer while I put it in my pocket. What do other runners do, if you run with your phone? Can you recommend an armband that gives easy access to everything?

After all that faffing around, I start my run. I decide to go through the fields up to the road one and a half miles away and turn round and get back. BUT I’M SCUPPERED. Some flipping farmer has furrowed his field and I can’t see the path.

IMG_0020

Bastard farmer scum. (Yeah, ok, that’s a bit harsh but I was a bit miffed.) This is what it looked like before.

greensands way 029

See, a proper path and everything.

I can’t see where to go and it’s all muddy and lumpy and bumpy and I can’t run on it and so I walk and I’m really pissed off and I go a bit further and I can’t see where the next stile is and so when I get even more pissed off, I turn round and go back the way I came and go to the closed off road and run up there and back down again and because of all the walking I did on the PUBLIC FOOTPATH WHICH IS NO LONGER A PATH BUT JUST A LOAD OF MUD BECAUSE OF BASTARD FARMER SCUM, my miles per minute are really really slow and maybe I should be called whatever one below a jogger is (a Race for Lifer perhaps) and then I get home and look at the Runkeeper stats which, because of the time taken to run after starting it and the time taken to take it out of my pocket to stop it, is pretty much the same as my Garmin.

Stats (Runkeeper):
Distance: 3.07 miles
Time: 42:56
Pace: 13:59 m/m
Calories: 311

Garmin:
Distance: 3.05 miles
Time: 40:27
Pace: 13:16 m/m
Calories: 260

New running tops: 1
New iphones: 1
Bastard farmer scums: 1

Music:
Audiofuel
Knifeworld
Kate Bush

Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses

2 comments

That nice Laura chick from Marketing Zone (aka Jim’ll) sent me some new Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses to try. I think she sent them to me when it was snowing, so it took a while to try them out. In the meantime, I just looked at them occasionally, admiring their stylishness.

image

They came in a hard case and with two extra interchangeable coloured lenses (ok, pedants, one is clear and not a colour. Well spotted). I said to Little Crutchey Man ‘is this so you can swap them round to suit the colour of your outfit?’ and he said no and started going into one of his long rambling too-full-of-technical-details lectures and so I emailed the nice Laura chick and said ‘hello, what are the different lenses for?’ and she said ‘Glad you asked. As it happens, brown is a polarized lens that’s great for very bright days and will give you clear contrasts. The orange is for not-so-sunny days  –  or if you’re out as the sun is setting or coming up. They’re easy-peasy to switch – so whatever the conditions you’ll have some Polaroids that are right.’

So there you go. (Probably best not to wear the orange ones with a green top though, eh?)

Because there’d been no sun, I hadn’t been able to try out my nice new sunglasses. And also, because I look really stupid in sunglasses (doesn’t everybody?), I’ve been too scared to try them out for fear of people pointing and laughing at me more than they do usually.

But today I had no choice. I was going running and it was sunny. So on they went and I went outside. The lenses are nice and dark and made my arms look nice and tanned, instead of the pasty pink they’ve turned over the last couple of days.

I set off for my scheduled two miles and the sunglasses stayed on perfectly and didn’t move at all. I felt quite cocooned in them, as if I was invisible and I wondered if I could wear them at races and eye up the fit blokes before the race started without them noticing. It’d have to be at the start of the race as there’s no fit blokes at the back, where I usually hang out at races. Yes, ‘hang out’ is the new ‘being really slow’.

Anyway, I think the sunglasses must have had extra magical properties too, as I even contemplated going further than my scheduled two miles. Or it might have been the scientifically proved magical properties of Audiofuel Running Music giving me a boost.

And speaking of those wonderful people at Audiofuel, they’re going to let the runner up of Juneathon choose four compilations from their website.

(That doesn’t mean you can all slack so you don’t win the VFFs, even if the Audiofuel tracks are a better prize.)

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