Hello, my friends! It was quite the dark and mysterious morning for a run. Anyone else get out there in the fog this a.m.?
My running buddy Mary is fiiiiiinally back from the holiday break, so we made plans to meet up this morning bright (err… dark?) and early at 6 a.m. for a 6 miler. Yay for having her back!
We set off down into Rosslyn and stopped on Key Bridge for a quick photo. Mysterious looking, eh?
We ran through Georgetown, which I always love in the early morning because we have it all to ourselves. It’s normally so crowded!
From there, we headed down to the water. I’d never seen it so hazy out! Spooky. I was glad I had my buddy with me. 🙂
When we reached Lincoln, we stopped for a quick photo.
And a sweaty one of us, too, for good measure.
From there, we ran over Memorial Bridge and up through Iwo Jima and hilly Rosslyn. Totally dominated the hill of death today. Living where I do has certainly made me a better hill runner, that’s for sure!
6 miles – boom.
Great pace, too!
Splits:
- Mile 1: 8:49
- Mile 2: 8:22
- Mile 3: 8:56
- Mile 4: 8:45
- Mile 5: 9:06
- Mile 6: 9:27 (great steep hill pace!)
It was such a good run – felt strong and it was great to catch up with Mary, too. So glad she’s back! Thanks for getting me out there, girl! Love early morning runs – you feel so awesome the rest of the day knowing what you already accomplished.
While we’re talking running, I wanted to share my love for these gloves that Asics sent me for my LA Marathon training. (They are the main title sponsor of the race this year.) What’s so great about these gloves? Well, two things. First, I have really small hands, and these are seriously the first gloves I’ve found that actually fit me snugly! (They sent me size S/M.) Very exciting stuff. Normally all my gloves (even though they are size small) are way too big, which means they still work great to keep me warm, but it’s awkward if I need to try to use my phone or get my key out or anything because my hands are swimming around in them.
The other awesome thing? They have a velcro key/money holder on both of them. So handy!
While we’re talking about great fitness gear for the new year, let’s also talk headphones! I had the opportunity, through a sponsored FitFluential LLC campaign, to try out these cool Koss fit series headphones. These headphones are designed by women, for women – Koss’s female designers teamed up with Gold Medalist Dana Torres to create them, with active women in mind.
Did anyone else spot the photobomber, by the way? 😉 She basically follows me everywhere I go around the apartment and was very intrigued by these headphones! Okay, fine, I’ll take a picture of you, Zara. I know I’m biased, but she’s SO cute. Her huge whiskers are my favorite. 🙂
(In case you’re wondering, her arm is partially shaved from when she got spayed before leaving the shelter – it’s where they put in her IV – apparently cat hair takes FOREVER to grow back.)
Anyway! Back to awesome fitness gear. I tried out both the headphones on a solo run last week, and I have to say I love them! I’m pretty picky about headphones and normally have problems with them falling out on me, but these both actually stayed put. One cool thing is that they both come with exchangeable ear cushion sizes – there are small, medium, and large options, and the headphones are made specifically for women so they are daintier overall, too. The fit buds (pictured below) are actually 33% smaller than any other earbud Koss has designed!
Normally I’m an ear buds sort of girl, but their fit clips (pictured below) changed my mind about that! Really comfortable (and I feel like clip style headphones often aren’t – or at least they haven’t been when I’ve tried Matt’s on in the past), and didn’t budge. These are officially my new go-to headphones! Like the fit buds, the fit clips are specifically made for women and fitness, really lightweight, and apparently sweat resistant, too, although since it was pretty cold out I didn’t really test that function out yet.
Thank you so much to FitFluential & Koss for the opportunity to test these out! If you’re interested, you can pick up a pair online at the links I provided, or they can also be found at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Walgreens, KMart, and Sears.
And now – it’s back to work! Lots to do today – a mix of AnneTheRD client work, emails/blog work, and prepping for teaching tomorrow morning at GW. I definitely won’t be bored this spring, that’s for sure! 🙂 Have a great day, everyone!
What’s your must-have fitness gear for the new year? On the yoga front, my brother bought me this yoga mat for Christmas and it’s officially THE best yoga mat I’ve ever owned. I’ve tried a ton of brands, and this one is pretty much head and shoulders better than the rest. It’s REALLY sticky and non-slip, which is what I usually have issues with. Nothing worse than sliding around when you’re trying to do a yoga pose, right?! Highly recommend it (and thanks again for the great gift, Steve)!
