I was sent the Moji Ice Pack to review for my lower back. I have had some lower back pain, that I’ve had my entire life, especially when starting to run longer distances (12+ miles) and I really was interested to see how the product would work out for me. Sometimes I ice my back, but being a harder area to ice, I usually forgo it because of the mess and annoyance it causes me. It seemed to be very well made, and for the price, it should be. I really liked the material and the idea of the fact that it was reusable and I didn’t have to deal with drippy ice bags all over my back or the ‘blue ice’ packs filling up my fridge. Also, since it Velcros around your waist, the added compression is also a benefit that I wasn’t expecting.

I really liked a lot of aspects about the Moji Ice pack. First off, the fact that it has Velcro and you can easily affix the Velcro together really makes icing easy, which I think is one of the main reasons I sometimes skip icing. Also, the cold ‘cell’ that you affix to the inside of the back part of the ice pack really holds the ‘cell’ in place while icing as well. The cell is thin and really holds the coldness for the allotted time that I have it on my back, which is usually 20 minutes.

This is a picture of it on my back. The Velcro is in the front so it stays on nice and tight. They also have a knee option which looks really cool and I wish I could try that out out as well. I could totally see how it would be easy and make icing my knee much more efficient then how I am icing it now, which is just with a plastic bag. You can check out the knee option here, but I would assume that it’s just as well made as the back icing option.

I also felt that the fabric, material and overall product was made REALLY well, I was surprised at it, to be honest. A lot of times stuff for sports and athletics doesn’t seem to be made well and this was a huge exception. It’s not cheaply made and you can really tell with the sewing and the many nice features of the Moji. It seems to be made of super durable material and I wouldn’t be worried about it falling apart or not be worth the price tag, which leads me to the only issues I have with the Moji icing system. It’s a little pricey, but then again, I work for peanuts so I would have to save for probably two months to get the knee icing system. In my mind though, this is TOTALLY worth it. I love it just like I swear by my Zensah goods, which you all know is a LOT!

This is a photo of the back part of the ice pack without the cell attached to the Velcro section. As you can see it has the things that go around your body with the velcro on either side. The velcro on the back part is where you put the ice cell.

Here’s a closeup of the Velcro section that you would affix the ice cell. At first I was skeptical that it would attach and stick on tight for the entire time that I needed it to be on my back, but I was really surprised, it is never a question of not being totally attached.

This is the part of the section that you wrap around your body. You can see the Velcro section that attaches to the other side, I was surprised how strong and easy they stay together as well.

This is the whole back pack wrapped up, how it would be on a real person. In the front it has a little pocket that you can put your hand in to wrap it around easily.

This is the ice cell that you just keep in the freezer. The back of this is the other side of the velcro, so it can attach to the back part of the pack.

Here is the ice cell attached to the back part of the Moji, once you attach it to the Velcro it stays no problem at all.

This is the Moji from t he front when the Velcro is wrapped around and attached. It’s easy to put on and makes icing your back very easy.

This is the back of the Moji like seen above. I really like the size of it and how it covers a large area of my back. Most of the time though I wear a shirt underneath the Moji to make sure that it doesn’t get stuck on my back from the cold.

I totally recommend the Moji Ice pack for icing your back and knees if necessary. I was pleasantly surprised with the overall great quality and ease of use for the product.

Since Moji is a totally sweet company, they are going to giveaway one of their icing products on my blog! You can enter two times. One entry will be if you leave a comment on this post. Get another entry by tweeting about the giveaway! Remember, in order to be entered for the second twitter entry, put @chicrunner and @gomoji somewhere in the tweet. Here is a sample!

I entered the @gomoji giveaway from @chicrunner today. I hope I win!

The winner will be announced on Friday, and be sure to check back tomorrow for my big announcement!

xoxo

Ohhhh weeee! I’m excited for this week! I have so many exciting things going on it seems, including a giveaway, a sweet review and of course, a huge announcement on Wednesday! So prepare yourselves! I got in a 10 miler on Saturday and the first 3 miles I was tired and knew it would be a long run to get through. Then I started slowing down a tad, and for some reason when mile 6 came around I thought, four more of this and you’re done. I turned it on and brought it home with no knee pain and really felt great. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to run this distance so I was really happy I could still pull it off. I iced a lot when I got home and then spent the afternoon tooling around the Long Beach Bay on a boat. It was really fun to see the areas where I had just ran and it was a gorgeous day!

Loved looking downtown and seeing all the pretty buildings and boats! It was so sunny and just so much fun. I have never been on a boat in the ocean before, only on a lake!

Then we cruised around over to San Pedro, which is a huge port where tons of container ships come into. It was really crazy to see how many boats were in the port and how massive they were. Those containers are stacked so high! It was very interesting to me. It also reminded me of Whale Wars and the Nissa Maru! Bad Nissa Maru!

Then, of course, we had to cruise by the firehouse and see the fire boats. That huge gun looking thing that is on the front of the boat shoots water. It was such a nice boat and it’s crazy how much water is can hold and shoot out of that gun. Another very interesting and different experience. Overall it was a great day though and relaxing after my ten miler.

Then this past Sunday was a fun little race that took place in LA called the 13.1 Marathon. Kind of an oxy-moron since it’s a half marathon, but whatever works. I went to actually cheer for some of my friends with my good friend and my big asian brother, Billy. We geared up on bikes and I wore my tutu for fun too. It was even more fun since we brought along a boom-box. I kept yelling Keep it up the entire race. Billy told me some guys might have a problem with that. So then I apologized it anyone had that problem. We thought of other good things to yell, like you are looking really hot, and it was a ton of fun!

My good friend Chris and I before he took off for 13.1. He recently completed his first Ironman and is such a fun, vivacious guy. I love his encouraging words and really look up to him!

Billy and I first posted up at mile 1. Riding our bikes there was pretty chilly since it was pretty early in the morning still. We also set up our boombox and all the homeless people in the area loved it. I also had a homeless man tell me he loved my tutu. Precious.

Some fast people flying by the first mile of the race! We were cheering our hearts out for everyone, and I tried to be entertaining and funny. That is what always makes me laugh when I’m running so I attempted.

Chris is the best! He is always so pumped up out there and cheering for him is really easy because you can tell he totally appreciates it and is all about pumping up the crowd too. He did awesome.

Here is Billy and I amp’ed up for some people. Yea, totally cheering poses. We took a ton of pictures and even made some fun videos.

My crazy running friend Emil was out on the course too! He was volunteering with Team World Vision and passing out water. Many thanks to all volunteers for all races!

After the race we caught up with our good friend Stuart. Stuart is the shiek runner! He is hilarious and is a CRAZY long distance runner. Billy also found some ultra runners, and about pee’d his pants when he saw them. It was fun to see such a community come out and everyone was so nice and thanked us for cheering and being such great supporters.

I saw Chris before the race, and after! My friend Rich Cruse took these photos, check out his site, Richcruse.com if you get the chance, he is a great sports photographer, and I’m lucky I’ve met him.

As you can tell it was a beautiful day. Wow, this nice camera makes the tutu look bright! I also met Majken who is the sweetest. Such great people out for such a fun race! (Picture by Rich Cruse again)

Then, a little girl came up to me and wanted to talk to me. She told me that she liked to wear her tutu too and she thought I looked very nice in my tutu.

Cutest moment EVER!

The course was a flat, out and back course and it seemed that many runners liked it a lot and I heard from everyone that is was amazingly organized. For an inaugural event it sounded like everyone had a blast, so great job!

Watch out now, ready for some videos!

First off, Billy is made to be a back-up dancer! Check out his sweet moves while cheering!

Then I decided to do a cartwheel. I’m just glad I didn’t land on my head.

Lastly, we have me cheering and doing some sweet moves as well. Embarrassing to say the least! For those of you who think I might be peppy, no, I was never a cheerleader.

Overall it was a really fun day though and even though it was exhausting, I know that cheering for people makes such a huge difference. I truly appreciate everyone who cheers for me when I’m out running in races too. I am so glad today is a rest day because I am sore and tired. I can’t wait to share the cool product I have for review tomorrow and my announcement on Wednesday!

xoxo

So in hopes to eat ‘healthier’, relative to me, which means not eating fast food like it’s my 2nd job, I have been packing my lunch every day to bring to work. I have two lunch bags that I choose from, which I enjoy, and I also went to the market to get some lunch foods for my new lunch packing routine. Now, this reminds me of going to elementary, middle and high school and when I brought my lunch to school. This lunch included a bag of chips, a sandwich, a cookie or some type of ‘dessert’, some type of granola bar and fruit of some sort. Today, not much has changed in my lunch, most of the time it’s some type of fruit cup, a sandwich of some sort or instead of a sandwich, I’ll get crazy and bring a Cup-o-Noodle, or leftover Macaroni and Cheese from the night before, a bag of chips, a granola bar, and the ‘dessert’. I have been known to eat some cinnamon graham crackers as well. I know, I eat like I’m 12.

When shopping at the market, I search high and low for things to put in my lunch that will keep me full for the day. I also try to switch it up from day to day. I think I might have something called food ADD because I get really bored with eating the same things. I also don’t eat salad. I am not a rabbit, so I will not be eating LEAVES. So most of the time I either have a chicken sandwich with pepper jack cheese, or a peanut butter and jelly. Thrilling. I like to either get Pop Chips, Sun Chips, or on occasion Doritos, “Tacos at Midnight” or Cheetos “Puffs”. For the dessert, I found these little gems the other day while in Target. I was super excited to try them out, you know, the box looks appealing and I perhaps may be one to judge a book by it’s cover.

I thought, this would be a perfect addition to my lunch for my dessert! I am not the biggest chocolate person, but I knew that I could try these out, see if I ended up liking them, and 100 calories sounds good on paper. I used to LOVE Little Debbie stuff when I was a kid and she never disappointed before. Those oatmeal cookies with the frosting in the middle, Holy Toledo, those were the BEST. I would trade anything for those bad boys at lunch time. The other morning, I’m packing my lunch, getting everything ready, and I open the box for the first time. Imagine my extreme disappointment when THIS fell into my hand.

Excuse me? Miss Little Debbie? What is THAT? I understand obviously, I bought the 100 calorie pack, and that means portion control, and let’s all be real for a second, a cake for 100 calories? How true can this be? Well obviously it can’t be true! This little guy is SUPER tiny. I mean, I pretty was like, welp, that was pointless. Here’s a picture of it at my desk next to the normal sized pen I use.

I seriously laughed at these little things, then I ate it, and it was just as disappointing. You broke my heart Little Debbie. Just give me my cookie next time!

xoxo

So 2010 is here and it’s looking rather, well, I’ve seen better days and I’ve seen worse. I have still been having pain in my knee on occasion and it’s tender to the touch, but I have been implementing new workouts into my routine and I feel that this is really helping it allow me to still run when need be. So the new workouts do include swimming, and I have to admit, I do not like getting my hair wet that often, and I have too much hair for a swim cap to keep it completely dry, but overall, I really do like swimming. I was skeptical that I would feel like I was getting in a good workout, but it just works out different types of your body and I really like that. I can feel my back and arms getting stronger when I swim as well. Though I love running, right now my knee is just not cooperating as I would like it too, so mixing it up is really helpful to me and giving my knee a break.

That being said, I’ve been working out a decent amount since 2010 started. I had to switch up my training plan because of my new part-time job, tutoring in English, I switched my rest days to Monday and Wednesday and I will be working out on both weekend days. I actually am okay with this since I’m pretty tired at work if I work out almost every day of the week. Therefore here are some of the workouts I’ve done this year thus far.

New Years Eve was greeted with a mini triathlon in the gym. If there is time, I really could work out for a long time, alas time is fleeting and I’m usually limited to an hour. I luckily had a few extra days off and got in some stellar workouts. I am not the biggest fan of the gym either, but if I’m in the zone I can just pump iron with the best of them. Yea, not so much, but hey! It’s an attempt! So I ran one mile in 7:24 on the old treadmill, biked as hard as I could for three miles on the stationary bike, and then decided that I would attempt to swim. I swam about 1500 m, which is a lot for me and it felt great. I really focused on using my arms and when I swim, at this point, I don’t kick at all really. I was pretty exhausted after this workout but felt really good. I made my last 50m in under a minute because I wanted to see where I was if I timed myself.

New Year’s Day was another mini tri in the gym, and this time I added weights because I wanted to see how I would swim if I really wore my arms out first.  Ran one mile, faster than the day before, at 7:13, biked 3 miles at a higher level to try to kill myself and then opted to hit the weights. Now, me hitting the weights is basically me doing the cable cross machine, sit ups, and bicep dips over my shoulder. So we are not talking heavy lifting. So I did my three sets of 12 on each of my given weights and then did 150 sit ups and went out to the pool. I swam 2500m and felt great. I just kept going back and fourth back and fourth. Also, it helps me to count the laps by thinking in my head the entire time about what lap I’m on. If I’m on lap six, I chant, six, six, six, six, in my head the entire time. Weird, but it works out really well. That was a LOT of swimming, but I worked a lot on my breathing and engaging my arms and pushing myself through the water. Then I wanted to beat my time from the previous session and made my last 50m in :54 seconds! I am becoming a dolphin!

Sunday was a rest day, along with Monday and Tuesday was my first day back out strictly running. The small break I had given my knee seemed to be helpful and it didn’t start hurting until mile 4 of my 5 miler run. BUT, it was a great run because of my new schedule I get home much earlier and can still run in the daytime! Hooray for not getting attacked or ran over by cars! So I ran pretty quickly yesterday, because I wanted to be home before dark and made it just in time. I iced my knee and everything seemed to be okay for the most part. It’s been a little tender, but I’m making sure it’s mobile and I walk around a little at work.

Yesterday was another rest day since I had to tutor at night after work, which I’m okay with. I really like having my rest days during the week actually. That being said, tonight after work is another gym sesh and my swim coach is going with me to see how I’m improving. He came to one of my little workout sessions when I swam and told me that I had improved a ton and that he was very proud of me for swimming so much so quickly. When swimming I really focused on my breathing and going slow. Sometimes for some reason I feel like I have to speed around the pool like Jaws on the hunt, but swimming is more about relaxing and just repetition and focusing on making your arms work for you.

So 2010 is starting out on the right workout foot, and I plan to keep it up, especially as I get ready for Surf City the first weekend of February, exactly one month from today.

xoxo

This is an article about how I ‘became’ a maniac that is going to be published this week in the Magazine that featured the article about my blog last month! Enjoy!

If you would have asked me a year ago if I wanted to be a Marathon Maniac, I would have thought you were referencing a cartoon show for 5 year olds. I had just ran my first half marathon, though I had been running off and on for 8 years, and there was no way I was toeing the line for 26.2 miles in my near future. I had no desire to double the distance I was currently running, nor put in the time and training it took to conquer the marathon monster. The marathon to me was a ‘bucket list’ goal, or one that I would do once in my life simply to say that I’ve ran a marathon.

Then, for some reason that I have no explanation for, I started to think about what would happen. I could do it, couldn’t I? My mind started to wonder about the full marathon, why not? Once the seed was planted by perusing some blogs, online training plans, and watching a few inspiration videos, the idea blossomed into an obsession. Before I knew what was going on I was reaching out to a few people, getting a training schedule in place and committing to my first full marathon.

The first marathon was not all I had hoped it would be, and as I crossed under the finish line there was no tears or sense of accomplishment, which was devastating. I wanted to have the tears of joy, the excitement, the accomplishment as the medal was placed around my neck, but I felt empty. Thus, I swore off running another marathon because of the empty feelings I had. I didn’t want to run another marathon and be miserable again. Four hours, twenty eight minutes and fifteen seconds is a long time to be on the verge of tears. For some reason though, deep down I knew I could do better. I deserved another chance and convincing myself that was a challenge but after two months I started finding out more and more about different training plans, and I got back on the proverbial horse and signed up for another marathon. I wanted redemption and I knew I could get a much faster time if I gave the marathon another chance.

What happened next was a race called the San Fransisco Marathon. I completed the half marathon portion of the race for the ‘California Dreamin’ ‘ series, which basically awards you a huge medal for completing San Fransisco, Long Beach and Surf City races in a year, respectively. I was so happy I completed this, but something strange happened while running my half marathon out on the course that day. There were a horde of people wearing yellow jerseys with Black and Red accents, spelling out Marathon Maniac on the front. My friend was in the ‘club’ and wore his Maniac jersey for this race. Him and I ran the race together for fun, and everyone we passed with a yellow jersey shouted out words of encouragement. Whether it was a “Hey Maniac!” or “Go Maniac” or just a hearty “Maniac”, the camaraderie they all shared in the pain of running made me realize I wanted into the club of crazies.

I wanted to run Long Beach Marathon in October as my redemption race and then somehow online I won an entry to the Inaugural Malibu Marathon in November. Thus the seed was planted for my entrance to the club of Maniacs. I figured since who knew if I would ever run two marathons in a row again in my life, I might as well tack on a third in the third month to reach the lowest entry point of the club, three marathons in three months. Once your in, your in for life, and you get a hideous yellow singlet and numerous other pieces of apparel that you can buy to identify you as part of the group. So I signed up to run the California International Marathon in Sacramento in December and made it a triple threat. According to Britney Spears’ song, “3″, “Three is a charm, two is not the same, I don’t see the harm, so are you game?” I guess I decided I was game for a brutal beat down of my body and running three marathons in three months. I wanted to become a Maniac.

The road to Maniacism was paved but there were a few dips and twists and porta-potties that I encountered along the road to the golden jersey. The first of the three, Long Beach marathon went perfectly and renewed my hope that I could too be a ‘marathoner’ and that the upcoming races wouldn’t completely annihilate my body. It was a beautiful day, I smiled the entire race and pr’ed by over 30 minutes and broke four hours, my goal. Once that race was out of the way, it was onto Malibu the next month, which was the first year the race was being held.

A few of my friends and I decided that it would be fun to dress up in all pink and wear tutu’s for the inaugural race, taking on the persona of “Malibu Barbie”. I was one of those people running a marathon in a costume. Malibu was a fun race and I ran it on the premise that it was for fun, not caring about my specific time, and splits, which worked out well since my garmin died at mile one. The path the course took along the ocean was gorgeous, but the wind on the course was brutal and hills throughout the back half of the course were also no easy task.

After Malibu my legs were not in cooperation with anything I tried to do. I felt like my almost maniac status was taking a huge toll on my legs, and rightly so, I had raced 52.4 miles in two months and had another 26.2 to complete in a few weeks. My legs kept rebelling as I tried to run a few measly miles before California International Marathon in December, but they felt like they were stuck in quicksand on every run I tried to complete. Finally, a quick trip up north and I found myself once again on the starting line to another 26.2 miles. This time, instead of wonderful weather, or a bright pink tutu, it was freezing cold and I didn’t know it would be such a struggle for me to make it 26.2 miles to achieve my maniac status.

The last marathon of the trifecta really took a toll on myself and my body. I was sick from mile thirteen to mile twenty and freezing cold the entire time, but I remember right around mile 19.5, I looked over to my right and saw an older man with a maniacs jersey. That crazy jersey was what I wanted. I started to tear up and I realized that I was so close to being able to say that I too was a marathon maniac. I knew that 6 miles stood in between that title and myself and I continued to propel my tired legs forward

Finally, I crossed the finish line and felt a golden glow creep across my frozen face. I had done it.  I went from never wanting to run another marathon ever again, to finishing three marathons in three months and becoming a Maniac.

­At this point, my legs are shot, I feel exhausted and I haven’t warmed up from the starting line temperature of 28 degrees in Sacramento. The road to Maniac status was difficult, both mentally and physically.  But one thing is for sure.  I can’t wait to don the yellow jersey and pass by people during my next marathon while smiling and saying from Maniac #2034, “Hey Maniac!”