Brush Brush Brush Your Teeth

It has been awhile.

I’ve considered blogging again many many times but life is so busy it just hasn’t been a priority. I was recently presented with the opportunity to participate in a review and giveaway, and felt like I couldn’t really give the review I needed via IG alone, so here we are. Perhaps it will be a lead in to starting again. I have kind of missed it.

So onto the real reason why I am here. About a month ago, the company Smile Brilliant (who I worked with awhile back on a whitening system) reached out to me asking if I’d be interesting in a review and giveaway of their electric toothbrush, the CariPRO. Bryan owns an electric toothbrush but I could never bring myself to spent the money on one, despite my dentists recommendations.

I am hooked.

Yes, on a toothbrush. These are the things we get excited about in our 30’s (gulp, almost 40’s).

The CariPro toothbrush cleans with 40,000 vibrations/minute, has 5 different brush modes (see below) and has a 30 day battery life. It is automatically set up to run on a 2 minute timer and stops briefly each 30 seconds so you can move it to another part of your mouth. As an added bonus, if you’re someone who really likes to multitask, it is waterproof so you can brush your teeth in the shower (this may be something I should consider since I’ve accidentally sprayed toothpaste on my mirror more than once)! It also comes with a 60 day guarantee and 2 year limited warranty.

Before you ask, yes, you can get a cheaper electric toothbrush, but none of them come with more than one brushing mode and don’t come near the vibrations per minute. I looked up what I’d consider to be a fair competitor, and even it didn’t get as many vibrations per minute, had a shorter battery life, and didn’t come with a warranty or guarantee that I was able to find. Also, the competitor was more expensive.

We brush and Evie looks bored

I’ve tried each mode and can feel a distinct difference. I actually had to use the sensitive mode for the first few times because the clean and whitening modes tickled my gums too much. After I got used to it, though, I started using the clean and whitening setting regularly. The gum care setting is nice too, especially since I’m not one that is great about flossing! (Not saying you shouldn’t floss – floss people!) Lets break it down a bit:

Clean – pretty self explanatory, but compared to a regular toothbrush, removes up to 7x more plaque. Can’t beat that.

Whitening – works a little harder than the traditional clean setting to help remove stains. I can feel a difference between the two and honestly use this one most often.

Massage and Gum Care – these really should be used in conjunction with a cleaning mode, but gives the gums a little extra TLC and help removing any extra plaque that got missed.

Sensitive – I started out with this mode at first as I found the clean and whitening modes too intense. There is absolutely a huge difference so if you have a sensitive mouth or teeth, this is a great setting to use.

I really appreciate the timer, because let’s be real, I was NOT brushing my teeth for the recommended 2 minutes. Heck, sometimes I’d hold the toothbrush in my mouth with my teeth while I put on my pants and counted that (I don’t recommend that). I only get one set of teeth in this life, and I’m not getting any younger, so now more than ever I need to be more consistent and better about taking care of them.

#smilefearlessly

Now for the fun part! I am giving away one CariPRO toothbrush package, which comes with one ultrasonic toothbrush, 2 replacement heads with tongue scraper and one charging dock. This is a $119 value! Can’t wait or don’t win? Take advantage of 20% off using promo code: acoursetothefinishline20

Take me to the giveaway!

Training for Life, Motherf*cker (4/24-5/7)

April 24-April 30

Monday – treadmill tempo/yoga. 1 WU/3@7:23/1CD. Bryan had to leave for work earlier than usual so I drug the twins upstairs with the promise of some IPAD time to get my tempo run in. Miles walked on the treadmill after, and then we all hung out while I stretched 🙂

Tuesday – swim/ride. 2525m swim/9.6 mile ride. Starting to finally get used to getting up at 4:30am….kinda. My last kiddo of the day canceled so I hopped on my bike for 30 min after work and tried not to get hit by any cars. I’m kidding. I wasn’t close to getting hit. 

 

Wednesday speedwork. 3x 1 mile repeats with WU and CD – 6 miles total. My computer still wants to autocorrect this to spadework. One day I might just leave the correction. It was a very warm evening and we got kicked off the track because of a soccer game, so I ran on the trail. I made the mistake of trying to run at 50-60 degree pace in 80+ degrees and completely bombed the last repeat (7:01, 6:57 7:31), which just goes to show you that if someone sends you  an email with suggested pace changes due to temperature, you should probably actually follow it. 

Thursday swim – 2500 meters. Still really early in the morning. Still torturous. 

Friday long run. 9 miles@ 8:49/mile. It was already 75 degrees when I started. Ugh I am so not ready for summer. 

Saturday long ride/run. 25.36 miles @ 19.9mph/3 miles (2@ 8:20, 1@9:06). My legs could still feel the effects from the previous days long run. Even though the pace wasn’t fast the heat makes the long runs feel that much more tiring. So, it took me a bit to warm up and get them going, but I stayed with a smaller group even pulling a couple times without hearing too many sighs (not that I could have heard them anyway). Afterwards, I ran an “easy” 2 miles with John which turned out to be more like tempo pace for me given the temps, and then one actual easy mile, so I could round out April with an even 100 miles. 

Sunday rest day

May 1 – May 7

So I’ve decided that to avoid burnout (and injury) over the summer I’m going to train 3 weeks with a focus on speed at 7-8 hours per week followed by one cut back week doing whatever the hell I want. So welcome to week “whatever the hell I want”

Monday easy stroller run 5 miles @ 9:25/mile. Apparently so many runs I’ve had to stop and pee with the kids that Miles frequently asks me if I need to go. Today he didn’t, but I did need to stop….and then miraculously Abby did and so did he. Go figure. 

Tuesday – swim/trainer ride. 2625 meters/30 minutes trainer. I actually got to swim on time this morning, but still didn’t come close to finishing the work out in its entirety. In fact, I picked the WRONG lane, and was lapped frequently. #guppy.  On the plus side, this was the first post swim work day that didn’t feel 80 thousand hours long. The bike was nothing to write home about, just trying to get some time in because I knew I wouldn’t be riding much more (ahem – at all) this week. Afterwards, the twins and I went for a walk, where Abby insisted her skirt wasn’t too big.

It’s not too big-uh!

Wednesday speed. 6 x 400m with WU/CD. 5.25 miles total. I drug my poor unsuspecting neighbor out with me and now she won’t talk to me anymore. Kidding. But she may never run with me again. My splits were faster than they should have been because my quads were sore for 3 days, but I hit one split at a sub 6 (5:57)!

Thursday row. 4100 ish meters/25 minutes. Yeah, you read that right. I used a rowing machine. So I drove from Charleston to Virginia with a friend and flew home Thursday morning. They happened to have a rowing machine in their spare room so I jumped on at 4:30 am (which, insanely, doesn’t seem all that bad anymore) to get a quick easy workout in. 

Friday – rest day

Saturday 10k race plus short cool down. Definitely not my best thanks to some asthma and side cramp issues but it was still a fun race and I had a blast (recap to come).

Sunday easy stroller run. 3 miles @ 9:25/mile. This run included bribery because my kids are now old enough that they want to run and walk themselves more than they want to be pushed. I’m wondering if my stroller days are numbered. 

Training For Life, Motherf*cker (4/17-4/23)

Last post I wrote about how I wasn’t really training for anything, and Amy said she heard somewhere that if you’re not training for a specific race you’re “training for life”. That sounds better than “training for nothing” so we are going with that.

Monday – tempo run/ride. 1 easy/6 @ 7:35/1 easy.  8 total. The speedier runs in combination with the biking and swimming are a little easier but overall my legs still feel tired much of the time. I hit the paces but not without a few rest breaks, even with a temp below 60. 30 minute trainer ride/6 miles I needed to get my bike to the shop for a cleaning and to see if I needed new tires so I hopped on the trainer after the run so I’d at least get the 2 rides in. I’m not even going to share how slow I was going

Tuesday swim. 2500 meters. The swimming will get easier, right? RIGHT?

Wednesday speed. 6.25 miles with 5×1000 between 6:25-6:33. This run went surprisingly well. It was warm, but not TOO warm (around 75).

Thursday swim. 2800 meters. At some point I’m going to get used to getting up at 4:30 am right? RIGHT? I mean I’m not even trying to be an Ironman right now. I must be nuts.

Friday long tempo. 8 miles @ 8:09.  The goal was 7:50 so that tells you how this run went. I did the first mile easy and then tried to pick up the pace, which went ok for 3 miles and then I was done. I tried one easy mile and the picked up the pace again, but my pace was 10 seconds off of goal so I ran the last two at my future goal marathon pace (8:15) and called it a day.

Saturday rest day

Sunday ride/run brick 25 miles @ 18.9 MPH. There was a larger group at this ride and I took it easy for most of it, but pulled for a couple segments at between 20-21mph to get a little speed in. 1.13 miles @ 8:35/mi. 

 

I’m Training for Nothing (4/10-4/16)

I’m not really training for anything, and it feels kinda weird. I still have a 10k in early May in mind, but it’s really going to depend on how warm it is. I guess I am “training” for the Charleston Sprint series?

I started swimming with the YMCA Masters group last week (I skipped the recap) but only swam once because of weather, so this week was the first week of getting up at 430 am both Tuesday and Thursday. Ya’ll, I am a morning person, but 430 is EARLY. 430 is still night time.

So what I’m planning through the summer is to keep up my tempo/speed/long runs probably 3 weeks out of the month and then do one easy week. I’m going to swim twice a week and ride twice a week. My focus will be mostly on running and swimming so my bike is going to take a backseat this season. But really, other than Kiawah my races are only 12 miles. This week was tough because I’m trying to add a good amount of swimming (2500m or more) twice a week in addition to riding AND my speedier run workouts.

Monday – tempo. 6 miles. 1.25 easy/3 @ 7:23/1.75 easy. This went fairly well, though I warmed up a bit longer than a mile so it threw my pace off for the faster part. I took one rest break and ran a 7:21, 7:17, 7:18.

Tuesday swim/strength 2500m swim/15 min leg workout. There was a big focus on kicking for the swim workout but I figured since I was wearing fins I didn’t need to worry too much. Then I got home and decided a 15 min leg workout was necessary, which I paid for dearly later.

Wednesday  speed (ish). 6 miles with 4 x1200 and 400 recovery. I woke up and my quads were a little sore, which is never a good sign. I felt ok during my warm up, but once I started my 1200’s I knew I was going to be throwing my pace goals out the window. I was shooting to run them in a 6:42. I ran the first in 6:44 (not bad) and the second in 6:41, but thats only because I literally stopped and rested halfway through. The third was a 6:58 and the fourth a 7:10 – slower than my last 5k average page. My legs were just totally trashed.

Thursday swim. 2500 meters. 4:30 comes really really early. My legs were still tired. I felt them all day.

Friday long. 9 miles progressive. 8:00 average. I woke up Friday and my legs were still tired, but at least no longer sore. My goal for the day was supposed to be 8 @ 7:50 but after Wednesday I decided to start easy and see how it went. The last thing I want to do is end up injured. So I started at a 8:35, ran the second and 8:20, and decided to try an easier progression. 8:35, 8:20, 8:12, 8:00, 8:01, 8:00, 7:49, 7:35, 7:23.

Saturday ride/run 25 mile ride @ 17.6 MPH/1.7 miles @ 8:56/mile I joined Tammie on her long ride, which was my first of the season. I’ve hardly been on the bike at all this year, honestly, and it was nice to get a good easy long ride in.

I took zero pictures this week, so if you’re still reading I’m impressed.

Do it Yourself

A few days ago, I read a really eye opening article.

A typical morning around here consists of about 23432897 million requests for something, from me, made by the twins. It doesn’t matter if daddy or grandma or freaking Santa Claus were around, it is me they are asking.

Mommy I need apple juice. Mommy I need yogurt. Mommy I need peanut butter. Mommy she took my toy. All before I’ve even managed to scoop the coffee out of the container and into the pot.

Bryan works way over the “full time” number of hours each week and has to add even more than that over the next three. Combine that with pending shoulder surgery that is going to leave him one handed for who knows how long (he can’t lift more than a cup of coffee with his right hand for 6 weeks, at least), and I was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed.

So, this article.

It talked about this 4 year old who gets up each morning, brushes her teeth, gets herself dressed, makes her own waffle and eats while her mom gets ready for the day. The night before she helps pick out her outfit for the next day. The twins are almost four, so I think to myself this is perfect. It is time for more independence. I will simply require them to do more for themselves. I share this idea with Bryan, and come Sunday night, I am ready to tackle the week.

That is, until reality hit me.

Monday morning rolls around. No one helped pick out outfits the night before because we were all up late at my parents watching the Superbowl, so instead I figure I’ll have them help me pick out an outfit this morning. I have some extra time. No problem. Miles is easy. He wants a t-shirt and we fight a bit over shorts vs pants, but otherwise his outfit is complete in about 2 minutes. Next is Abby’s turn. My sweet Abby. She turns down every.single. shirt or dress suggestion I make. All of them. I literally go through every option in her closet. Finally a little frustrated, I tell her to choose her own. She says no, and sits on the floor. I pick out a dress myself, telling her if she won’t pick one I will, which results in a tantrum because she didn’t want that outfit either.

So this is going well.

Step two is teaching Miles how to make his own waffle. This actually goes ok, and Miles seems excited about the idea of doing this on his own. Except when it comes to spreading the peanut butter. Then he just simply “can’t do it”. I make him try anyway. Abby chooses yogurt and picks one from the shelf, and hands it to me to open, asking for a spoon. I tell her to get one herself. No, she tells me. *sigh*.

WHY CHILD WHY?

After breakfast, I try to catch them and encourage them to get dressed before they start playing, but no luck. I’m pretty sure I ask them to “please put your underwear and clothes on” a dozen times to deaf ears, each request slightly louder than the previous one. Finally I give up before I lose it, lay on the couch and scroll through Facebook for a few minutes, before I end up helping them get dressed. This lady with her independent 4 year old must be living in an alternate universe.*

 

*I will say that after a couple more days of attempts, each day is getting a little better, so it is a work in progress and I will take it. Abby even picked out her dress last night after rejecting only 10 or so other choices. #winning

 

 

I Have A Need for Speed (1/30-2/5)

Monday: cross. 40 minute interval trainer ride/abs. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with a cold pool this morning so I drug my bike out of the living room and did my usual interval ride. 5 min easy followed by 2 min hard gear/3 min easy. Then I played catch up on the ab group I joined and got 4 days behind.

Tuesday – tempo. 5 miles @ 7:35/1 mile CD. Perfect weather, and except for a pathetically slow incline that slowed my last mile down, NAILED IT!

Wednesday speed work. 10x 400 with 400m recovery between each. Goal pace 6:20. It was a warm warm up mile but I stood around talking long enough that it cooled down a bit before the speed part, and I hit most splits between 6:17-6:21. I tried to speed up the last 3 and succeeded at least for 2 of the 3, at 6:09, and 6:06. I have to say, I’m SO EXCITED to see numbers like this, even if it is only for 400 meters.

Thursday cross. Basically a repeat of Monday. 40 minute interval trainer ride/abs. 

Friday rest

Saturday long. 15 miles @ 8:18/mile. It was a chilly and windy morning, and my watch did NOT want to cooperate. A somewhat last minute group got together to run and afterwards I was more thankful than usual. It took 1.25  miles for it to find a satellite, so I’m told told the first mile was the slowest at around 8:50. After that though we kept things pretty steady, even speeding up a bit the last 4 miles. The headwind was awful, and a couple times I found myself falling behind, but I made myself speed up, catch up and stay with them. I have to admit, I thought to myself hmmm, If I can run 15 at that pace, surely I can train to run a marathon….ha. Probably, but not this year. Afterwards, we all met for a MUCH needed coffee and breakfast.

Will run for coffee

Sunday cross. 40 minutes yoga/abs. I had planned an easy run but I was feeling more tired than usual and had a sore shin, so I opted to stretch instead. My chiropractor would be proud.

I’ve also been following a 30 day plank challenge, attempting to come up with creative plank selfies.

Will also plank for coffee -Abby says “mommy is kissing a cup”

Getting on Board

One of the things I looked forward to, when I was daydreaming thinking about the fun things I’d do with my future kids, was sit around the table as a family and play board games.

When the twins turned 3, I bought them the game Candy Land – hopeful but not expecting much. I’ve played the game more times than I can count at work, but always with a kid that was at least 4. When I pulled it out for the twins, they promptly started turning over ALL the cards and placed the pieces wherever the hell they wanted.

I put the game away for awhile, wondering who actually managed to successfully play it with a three year old, since its rated 3-6.

Unfortunately, so many of the cards got lost that I had to throw it away before I could even try again.

Today, I made a random run to Target, thinking maybe they’d be old enough. The twins have really been into “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” story lately, so I picked up what is essentially the caterpillar version of Chutes and Ladders. In the car, I told the twins I had a present for them, which of course elicited some excitement. I pulled the game out and Miles asked to see it, prompting Abby to ask where “her game” is.

Yeah, I should have seen that one coming.

Abby is still throwing a fit when we get home and I open the box, while I correct Miles by saying it is for BOTH of them, not just him. Abby still doesn’t want to play.

I don’t want that ONE GAME!

But I set it up anyway, putting together the blue caterpillar for Miles and the yellow for myself, when Abby predictably walks over, sits at the table, and steals my caterpillar.

notice she has the yellow one

We each take a turn, both placing their caterpillar on the correctly colored space. What they won’t do, however is leave it there. Instead, they “walk around” the board. Then, once they figure out the food pieces flip over (it changes the slides), its all over and has turned into a play acting game involving feeding caterpillars fruit.

would you like an apple?

So no, even though the game is rated 3-6, we are NOT at the point where we want to play it as written, however they have spent the last hour pretending to be their various daycare teachers, lining up the kids at the fence and to go outside (FREEZE! LINE UP!), so it isn’t a total loss.

I guess family game night will have to wait 🙂

I Have A Need for Speed (1/9-1/15)

Operation Run Faster continues. With about 7 weeks left to the Myrtle Beach half, its getting close to time to decide if my goal is doable.

Monday – swimming barely not drowning.  1800 meters. It is ridiculous how quickly you lose swimming stamina, especially when you suck at it anyway. I’ve only been sporatic about going since I got my Ironman tattoo, and over the holidays. I considered skipping it agin and just picking back up after vacation, but decided it suck it up and go. It was 30 degrees outside. The water really wasn’t bad as long as you were moving, but after about an hour my fingertips were numb, and it took me the rest of the afternoon to thaw. On the plus side, a fellow swimmer saw my tattoo and said I was a badass, so there’s that 🙂

This pic worked better in my head

Tuesday tempo fail. 6 miles at 7:50/mile. Figuring I had enough weeks of tempo and speed runs under my belt I figured I’d try 6 miles at goal race pace. Well, something messed up on my watch about .75 miles in and my pace jumped from 7:50 to 7:20. I dunno if the satellites were just off, or if I was really running that quickly (I suspect a combo), and then I felt thrown off for the rest of it. Combined with asthma lungs and 32 degrees, this run required a few rest stops and felt much harder than it should have.

Wednesday speed work. 3x (2x 1200) with 2/4 min rest intervals. Actual goal pace here was around a 6:45, but with the half marathon coming up (that I planned to run as a training run but knew myself well enough to know I wouldn’t) I knocked the pace down a bit and averaged between 6:49-6:55. Because SC loves to fit as many seasons as possible in 48 hours, it was 68 degrees during the better part of this run.

Subscribe to purchase our future track calendar – haha

Thursday easy run. 4 miles with stroller. Running snacks! And my kid knows me because Miles asked me 5 min in if I had to pee (I didn’t, but I did later).

Ya’ll – they are heavy

Friday rest day

Saturday Charleston Half Marathon. 13.1 miles @ 8:09/mile. Not a PR but a good solid improvement from my 8:46 average at Sweet Tea. Also, there were yummy Mimosas. Recap to come.

John looks like a pirate

Sunday rest day, since we spent the majority of it in the car.

I Have a Need for Speed (1/2 – 1/8)

Happy New Year, friends! 2016 was a BIG year for me in terms of my running and triathlon goals, so 2017 is going to be boring in comparison. And hopefully faster 🙂

Monday – tempo run. 5 miles @ 7:41 with .5WU/.5CD Typically Monday is my pool day but the twins’ daycare was closed for the New Year holiday and I didn’t feel like it was fair of me to ask my parents to watch the twins for a swim and work both, so I ran. Since the twins were home with me, this run was done on the treadmill. It wasn’t pretty. I did manage to maintain a steady 7:41 with one break to beg the twins to leave me alone and get some water, but an already difficult run was made more difficult when my apparently oblivious kids started asking me WHAT I WAS DOING. I am running. What does it look like? Miles joined me for my cool down, though.

Walk time!

Tuesday – ride/HIIT 25 minute ride/35 min HIIT. It was on the warmer side with some rain expected later. The weather said there was a 38% chance of rain. 1.5 miles from home it starts to rain. WEATHER LIES. I was already out so I turned around once it started to do more than drizzle and headed back home to dry my bike off, and did two sets of high intensity interval workouts with some yoga stretching.

Wednesday – speed. 1 mile, 2 miles, 2×800 with 400/800m recovery, WU and CD – 7.25 miles total. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect speed wise with these intervals. According to my half goal, I needed to run the mile in 6:49 and 2 in about 14:04, then both 800’s in 3:16. I decided to tone it down a bit and shoot for a 7:00 and then a 14:10-14:15, but surprised myself yet again and ran the mile in 6:50 and the 2 mile in 14:06. My 800’s suffered though, with a 3:26 and 3:23, but by then I hardly cared.I ran a 7:06 and 7:01 consecutively and didn’t die, and though running another mile wasn’t happening, it tells me the training is working and I am getting faster!

I AM FABULOUS

Thursday trainer 35 minutes AM/ arms and abs 30 minutes PM. I woke up with a scratchy throat. We had some company the night before so could only squeeze in 35 minutes, but that was fine because I hate the trainer. My last kid canceled so I hit the Y and did a set of arm weights, 5 pull ups (3 then 2) and a set of abs including planks. I also did a short and light set of hips. By then I had some nice head congestion but not enough to warrant skipping. Hot chocolate helped a little.

no, the tissues aren’t used

Friday rest day . long run. 12 miles @ 8:18/mile. Faced with the decision to either run with a head cold or try to bear through freezing rain (or 12 miles on Satans Sidewalk) the next day, I medicated up (relax, I took one Sudafed), put my shoes on after work and headed out. This run was easier than the same distance attempt 2 weeks ago, but was still challenging by the end, so still work to do. Though, the cold probably didn’t help. Also, rain likes me because again, even though the chance of rain was 1%, it rained lightly almost the whole run.

Saturday –nothing. I literally did nothing. All day.I cursed my cold.

Sunday yoga. Painful yoga. Starting to feel better, but still pretty tired, it wasn’t my best yoga session ever.