Health and Fitness Holiday Giveaway Hop

Well that's another weekend gone!  Only 17 days left till Christmas folks, are you ready?  I don't know about you but I can't wait.  I've still got some vacation time left and the studio usually closes between Christmas and New Years so I'll probably have a couple of weeks off.   I'm looking forward to hanging out with G and my family as well as getting some things done around here.   G put the lights up today and brought out our Christmas lawn ornament but we still need to get our tree.  I've been really hit by the Christmas spirit these last few days so I'm jonesing to deck the halls and get the tree up.  But that will have to wait until next weekend.  In the meantime I'll start wrapping my Christmas presents.

Speaking of presents, I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be part of a Health and Fitness Holiday Giveaway Hop that Kristy over at Runaway Bridal Planner is hosting.  YAY!  There are 30 of us in total, all hosting giveaways!  Not only will you get introduced to new blogs but that's 30 different giveaways to enter!  You might be able to win a few extra stocking stuffers for yourself or another runner in your life.  Happy Holidays indeed!

I've put together a bunch of goodies from Clif and of course a pair of Sweat Pink laces as my giveaway item.  I may add a couple of things to it later on in the week, I just have to make sure I can get my hands on them.  My giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada so go on and get clicking on that handy little Rafflecopter giveaway widget.  And don't forget to hop on down the list of all the participants.  You'll see it at the bottom of this post. The giveaway runs from Dec 9th to 16th.  The winner will be announced on the blog on the 17th and will also be notified via email.  You'll have 48 hours to respond before another winner is chosen. 

Happy Hopping!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vacation Time & A Winner!

Happy Friday Ya'll!!

I'm just a little excited today.   Why?  Well let's see....

1.  I have today off.

2.  I am finally getting re-fit on my bike 

3.  G & I head out to Lake Placid for our holidays tomorrow

4.  I've got a winner for my first ever giveaway!

Drumroll Please - courtesy of the greatest drummer on earth - Neil Peart.  Sorry, it's a *wee* bit long.

And the winner is: Laura R Muise  

Congrats Laura!  Email me your info at phaedrakennedy at sympatico dot ca and I'll make sure this gets out to you right away.

Thanks to everyone that entered!  I'm hoping to start hosting a few more giveaways in the coming months so stay tuned!  If you want to check the entries you can do so here.

Good thing I've got the day off today, I've got a million and one things to do and only a day to do them.  First off, my 3.5 hour bike fitting, some running around, then a long run and I somehow have to finish the laundry, clean out the fridge and finish packing.  There are two things I hate about going on vacation:  laundry and cleaning out the fridge.  Funnily enough they are the same two things I hate about coming BACK from vacation, ha. 

I'm really looking forward to going back to Lake Placid.  We haven't been back since we did Ironman in 2006.  I'm super excited to be heading back.  It's the perfect place to take an active vacation.  You can hike, you can ride, swim, kayak, run, you name it.  I can pretty much guarantee that we'll ride one loop of the Ironman course and I know we'll definitely be swimming in Mirror Lake.   I'm also thinking that I'd like to try and tackle the climb up Whiteface Mountain.  Apparently it's very similar to riding up l'Alpe d'Huez in terms of gradient (10% in some points!).  We drove up the mountain the last time we were there and my ears popped almost all the way up.  Getting up won't be easy but getting down will probably be much harder for me.  I'm SUCH a horrible descender, I may have to walk down.  I don't mind going fast in a straight line but thrown in some winding roads and I completely freak out.  I suppose this could be a good test of my mental fortitude.   We'll see.

Anyway, I must get this show on the road.  I'm not sure how much blogging I'll get done but I'll definitely be on Instagram so if you follow me, consider this a heads up:  there will be lots of pictures of trees, lakes, bike stuff, beer and coffee. 

Happy Friday! 

Crazy for Clif! Review and My First Ever Giveaway

Disclaimer:  I was given these products by Clif Bar in an exchange for a review.  I was not compensated for this post in any way.

When I started riding, usually just used gels for fuel because I never rode much longer than about 50km.  Once I started training for Ironman, my rides because progressively longer and I found myself bonking on a regular basis on the bike.  I wasn't riding hard, I just struggled with getting through my rides with enough energy.  Gels didn't seem to be working for me.  My coach at the time recommended that I experiment with solid food to see if that helped.

Enter Clif Bars.   I swear if it wasn't for these nuggets of goodness, I don't think,  I know,  I wouldn't have made it through my first Ironman.  The thought of eating gel after gel after gel for 6 hours straight on the bike was so unappealing.  I needed solid food.  

I have A.D.D. when it comes to my food.  I don't like to eat the same thing over and over, especially when I'm training.  Clif Bar to the rescue!  They have so many amazing flavours, there was no way I was going to get bored.  For my long rides, I would take a few different bars, cut them up into bite size pieces and put them in a ziploc so I had my own personal grab bag of Clif Bar goodness.  Each time I reached in, I never knew what I was going to get but I knew it was going to be good.

My fave Shot Bloks & my Clif Bar grab bag

 Over the years Clif has continued to set the flavour bar high.  When they came out with the White Chocolate Macadamia nut a couple of years ago, I lost my mind.  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they came out with Coconut Chocolate Chip.

Are you kidding me?  Amazeballs.

The other product of theirs that I quite enjoy are the Shot Bloks.  Yet another genius idea.  They are blocks that have the consistency of jujubes.  So if you don't feel like having a gel but don't want the density of a bar, these are perfect.  The range of flavours is also pretty amazing as to be expected.  They even make a margarita flavoured one with extra sodium.  I use those on days when it's super hot out and I'm sweating a bit more than usual.  Nothing like having a margarita on the bike!  The best part?  I don't have a hangover the next day. 

You can imagine how jacked I was when Alex from Clif sent me a bunch of product to try.  These guys really do cover all the bases from racing to recovery.  Don't even get me started on their Builders Bars.  Oh my. 

Are you a fan of Clif Bar Products?  Well guess what?  Today is your lucky day! Clif has given me an "All Inclusive Workout Pack" to giveaway to one lucky winner.  It includes:

4 new Clif Bar Flavours (2 White chocolate Macadamia Nut & 2 Coconut Chocolate Chip)

A pack of Cran-Razz Shot Bloks

and

3 Builders Bars

Are you excited yet??  I know I am!   Contest is open to Canadian Residents only.  Sorry U.S. pals, I hope to host another one in a while that will be open to you guys too!

What do you need to do to enter?

Tell me what flavour of Clif bar you go crazy for in the comments below.  

For bonus entries:

* Follow me (or already follow) me and Clif Bar on twitter.   Leave a comment telling me that you do.

*Follow me (or already follow) me and Clif Bar on Instagram.  Leave a comment telling me that you do.

*Share this giveaway via Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or your blog and tag me and Clif Bar.   Leave a separate comment for each share!

I would have added a bonus entry for liking my Facebook page as well as Clif Bars Facebook page but apparently it's against the Facebook rules for contests and promotions.  It won't get you an entry but stop by and show some love anyway!

Contest runs from today until this Thursday August 1st at 11:59pm EST.  The winner will be chosen on via Random.org on Friday August 2nd just before I run away on my holidays!