Tag Archives: cycling

March 1, 2013

Fitness Favorites

Today is March 1st! Can you believe that? Not only is it the start of a new month, but it’s also the start of a new challenge for Travis and I. We have decided to not buy anything that is not a necessity for the month. Because we are both addicted to Amazon Prime, this may be a challenge to us. We are mainly doing this so that we can feel more secure with our money moving toward summer. Neither of us are guaranteed an income of any sort over the summer, so we are trying to get as much money saved up as possible.

While we are saving, can you please shop for me? haha I will live vicariously through you all! You can even shop some of my favorite products! Seriously, though. I’ve decided to give you all a look inside of my favorite things. I’ll break it down by categories to make it easier for you all haha. I have grown to rely on all of these products, and am curious to see if any of you do, too!

Injury Prevention

Foot Rubz Massage Ball – helps loosen up the pain in my feet! And for that price, totally worth it!

Gurin Massage Roller Stick – not only is it a pretty blue, it helps to get the tiny knots my roller can’t always pinpoint. And it’s easily portable.

Tommie Copper Compression Tights – SERIOUSLY the best things ever. They make my entire length of my legs feel so much looser.

ACE Reusable Cold Compress – the best way to ice sore muscles! It’s flexible, stays cold for long, and doesn’t drip down your leg! haha

Swimming

Speedo Women’s Vanquisher Swim Goggle – just ask my mom, I’ve gone through about 100 pairs of these goggles, and I will never wear another type as long as I live. I LOVE them. And I definitely take advantage of the tinted lenses for outside swimming and lighter lenses for inside. Plus I always had my “special” blue race pair that made my eyes bulge out of my head. But at least my goggles stayed on during races! P.S. the blue racers are below!

Speedo Pull Buoy – only the girliest pull buoy ever made! And always good for a nice arm workout!

Suave Kids Detangling Spray – I admit it. I use children’s apple scented detangler after swimming when I have somewhere to go right away and don’t have enough time to fully pamper myself.

Running

Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor – fairly self-explanatory. And I use this for cycling, too!

Philips Flexible Earhook Headphones – cheap headphones that actually stay on my ears. I don’t feel so bad when I lose them, or step on them Winking smile

Cycling

Kinetic Indoor Bicycle Trainer – the BEST trainer for indoor cycling in the winter and bad weather…or just when I want to watch TV!

Camelbak Podium Big Chill – between Travis and I, there are a LOT of these around!

Pearl Izumi Women’s Sugar Cycling 3/4 Tights – FAVORITE cycling bottoms ever! I am totally a capri workout girl Smile

Topeak Joe Blow Sport II Floor Pump – perfect to get all of the pressure our bikes require!

While these aren’t ALL of the products I use regularly, these are the majority of them. Especially with swimming, it took years for me to figure out what works for me, and there’s no way I’ll stop using them now!

Do you have any must-use products?

Do you use any of the same things I do?

14 Comments

Filed under Exercise, Product Review

Tagged as cycling, favorites, injury prevention, products, running, Swimming

February 2, 2013

Join the Club

Happy weekend, everyone!

So far, this weekend is off to a good start. Friday night consisted of a trip to the teacher supply store, Ruby Tuesday face stuffing, froyo from Tutti Frutti, watching What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and finishing up with a few episodes of Parenthood. Pretty pathetic when you have to tell yourself “no” to everything in the teacher store because you could literally spent your life’s inheritance.

Travis had never seen What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. It is such a tremendous movie! If you’ve never seen it, you have to. It stars 1993 Johnny Depp and Leo DiCaprio, and Leo plays an amazing adolescent with an intellectual disability. Seriously an amazing movie. I highly recommend it.

This morning, I went to my first swim practice since MLK day. Let’s just say my body had fun readjusting to the water…

This is me looking really good post-swim. Goggle marks on your forehead is the new trend, if you didn’t know.

Today’s workout:

500 warm-up
10 x 75 kick, swim, sprint 1:20
10 x 100 50 pull/50 sprint 1:35
6 x 75 rotating sprint 25 1:15
300 cool-down
Total: 3000 yards

From there, I headed to a meeting for the new cycling/multisport club that I joined!! Go me! You’re looking at a new member of Shore Velocity. I am pretty excited to see how the group is and gain a few new people to ride with! And hopefully I can meet some new friends since I currently don’t really have any since the move.

Now we’re spending the day watching Penguins hockey and relaxing!

Maybe I’ll push for a second trip to get froyo. Nutella and peanut butter flavors together is a huge YES in my book.

What are you up to this weekend? Do you belong to any fitness clubs or teams?

9 Comments

Filed under Cycling, Food, Swimming

Tagged as cycling, froyo, gilbert grape, shore velocity, Swimming

January 21, 2013

A New Do

Notice anything different about my space in the blogosphere? Thanks to my wonderful fiance, Life After Swimming is in the process of a full body makeover. He truly is fantastic, and I am super happy about how it is all turning out! Smile

At one point yesterday, the entire blog had been deleted but he was able to restore it and keep me sane at the same time. I will admit to tears, though. Kind of like this day back in 2008:

We were at the beach, and after the week was practically over, I somehow managed to delete EVERY single picture we had taken over the course of the vacation. Notice the puffy eyes from crying? Well, he kept me sane and even allowed me to “stage” some of the pictures we had taken throughout the week haha. He always knows how to make me happy!

Just as happy as the Pens have been making me this weekend. Starting the season with back to back wins?! We are a bunch of happy hockey fans today!

I read an interesting article yesterday detailing the importance and perfection of the bicycle.

Here’s a little excerpt that I really like:

But what really makes the bicycle Man’s Most Perfect Invention is the undeniable impact it has had on society. The bicycle offers an unsurpassed combination of benefits including recreation, mental and physical health, stress relief, reduced traffic congestion, reduced environmental impact, and perhaps the most important aspect, affordability.
In countries like Cambodia where people struggle to feed their families, let alone buy fuel for a motor scooter, the bicycle is a lifeline. It’s relied on for travel, to find work and for transport. And with recent innovations like the bamboo bicycle, third world nations such as Ghana can even make bicycles from scratch with their own natural resources, providing not only a self-sustainable means of transportation, but also a viable product for export.

If that right there isn’t enough reason to get out on the roads a bit, I don’t know what is! Head here if you’re interested in reading the article!

And head over to the Event Crashers to read about how Travis and I chose where we’re having our wedding! Thanks to Steph for our little wedding installments Smile .

Also, last day to enter the Sambazon Smoothie giveaway!!

If you’re a cycler, why do you enjoy cycling? If you’re not, why do you stay away from it?