How Runners Can #TurnItGreen and Win $5000!

The following post is sponsored by REPREVE

More and more I'm hearing talk about how we can help the planet through recycling.

In my house we recycle all the time. I live in a town where recycling is heavily encouraged and residents take their trash to a transfer station for sorting. At the school where I work, students and faculty are also encouraged to recycle.

Runners can follow some simple tips to go green too!

#TurnItGreen X Games contest: UPDATED!! Dates: Jan. 17 - Feb. 2.

Grand Prize: $5,000 cash

To celebrate the X Games, REPREVE invites you to share how you "turn it green", or how you live a more sustainable life by recycling or reusing materials, by sharing an image or video on Twitter, Instagram or Vine with the #TurnItGreen hashtag to be eligible.

Once you share the image or video with the hashtag, you will be entered into a sweepstakes where five entries will be randomly selected as the Top Five. Those five will be voted on by visitors to Repreve[dot]com where the image or video with the most votes will win a $5,000 cash prize. The other four video entries will receive a REPREVE Jacket and a Go-Pro camera (retail valued at over $350). More info available here.

**If you submitted an entry before Jan. 17, REPREVE is asking you to resubmit your entry**

How will you #TurnItGreen?

Now let me say congratulations to the REPREVE green beanie giveaway winner: 

Louise Bourque Cunningham 

Please email me your mailing address and I will get your beanie to you right away!

A New Name in Sports: REPREVE Recycled

The following post is sponsored by REPREVE

Here in New Hampshire, recycling is a BIG deal. In our household we do it daily and take our trash to the local Transfer Station where we sort our recyclables. You might remember when I told you about my favorite yogurt company helping the planet and today I want to tell you about how your choice of fit gear is too.

REPREVE is a recycled fabric made from recycled PET introduced to the world in 2012 and already using over 629 million plastic bottles recycled by people like you and me. REPREVE fabric is already being used in many brands that you know and love.

• Patagonia
• Swiftwick
• Polartec
• The North Face Denali jacket
• ChicoBag
• and more listed here

So how does it work? REPREVE takes plastic bottles and other recycled materials and turns it into cool stuff that we wear and use every day. 

For example, it takes 6 recycled plastic bottles to make one REPREVE green beanie.

Would you like to wear an eco-friendly beanie made out of recycled fiber? You can win a REPREVE beanie of your own by entering the rafflecopter giveaway below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I want to thank REPREVE for sponsoring this post and inspiring me to #TurnItGreen. Next month I will be telling you about an exciting contest where you can win $5000 by showing how you #TurnItGreen! 

WIAW: Gluten Free Blueberry Protein Bars

The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Designer Whey.

One of my goals for 2014 is to continue to make healthy food choices. Since giving up wheat in the summer, I have been more conscience of the foods I make and eat. 

One of my favorite snacks to make are my Peanut Butter Banana Protein Bars. Now, even though I am a proclaimed creature of habit, while prepping to make my latest batch of protein bars I decided to change things up with a new flavor: Blueberry.

I used to eat blueberry muffins, blueberry bagels, blueberry toast...you get the idea. My smoothies often have blueberries, but it's not the same taste. So I changed up my peanut butter banana bar recipe and came up with this:

I mixed all the ingredients together (btw - I used a mini-chopper to mash up my blueberries), plopped the mixture down on wax paper, and then rolled it out before putting it in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

After flipping the baked mixture over onto a cutting board and removing the wax paper, I cut it into squares.

It was blueberry delicious-ness! (full disclosure: I will probably double that amount the next time I make them...because I like blueberries that much!)

I love packing these homemade bars for lunch, grabbing one as a pre-workout snack, or munching on one after a good sweat session. They are so much healthier than my pre-gluten-free choices and using Designer Whey protein helps make my food work better for me.

What is your go-to pre/post workout snack?

In case you are interested in more healthy snack choices, head over to the WIAW linkup or join the fun!

A Running Partner, a Challenge, and a Giveaway

Here are three fun things I'm excited to share!

A Running Partner

In June I will be running the BAA 10K, the second event in the Medley Series. I'm so happy because now I will be running it with my stepdaughter! A couple of weeks ago she said she wanted to challenge herself and train for a 10K. She has run a local 5K with us a couple of times, but now she is ready to increase her endurance.

A Challenge

I'm excited to be a part of a sponsored FitFluential campaign for the Under Armour What's Beautiful program. This is a competition to show the world what it means to be a female athlete. All you have to do is set a goal and then work your butt off to achieve it.

My goal: #IWILL run 1000 miles this year. 

When you join the What's Beautiful community, you can share your journey, get inspired, and find motivation. It's all about working together. You can even join a team and work together toward a common goal.

My Team Goal: Log 5,000 (or more) miles together - run, walk, swim, bike, elliptical

The best part is that Under Armour will be giving out rewards to the women who demonstrate a fierce dedication toward achieving their goals. You can win cool Swag Bags and even a trip to Costa Rica for four days!

A Giveaway

Back in January, I wrote a review for Firmoo, an online eyeglasses store. Firmoo offers affordable and fashionable eyewear that is discounted "85-90%".

There are a lot of cute choices and they also offer tinted and prescription glasses.

With summer right around the corner, Firmoo wants to sponsor a sunglasses giveaway.

PRIZES:

1. If there are less than 50 entries:
6 winners will win a $20 sunglasses E-voucher each. The vouchers can only be used on Firmoo sunglasses at http://www.firmoo.com/wrap-around-rx-sunglasses.html.

2. If there are more than 50 entries:
For the grand prize winner (1 person): a pair of fashionable sunglasses, shipping included.
For the second prize winners (6 persons): a $20 sunglasses E-voucher each. The vouchers can only be used on Firmoo sunglasses at http://www.firmoo.com/wrap-around-rx-sunglasses.html.

To enter (mandatory) visit Firmoo.com and then comment below which eyewear you would love to win. Winners will be announced on May 18th.

If you want to have Prescription Sunglasses, choose a pair of eyeglasses frame here http://www.firmoo.com/all-products.html, and tint the lenses into sunglasses lenses. You may visit http://www.firmoo.com/prescription-sunglasses.html to learn how to order Prescription Sunglasses. All the contestants have to be located in the area our delivery can reach to. Please visit http://www.firmoo.com/help-c-10.shtml to get the countries we ship to and details of the postage. You can find help with ordering at http://www.firmoo.com/help-c-5.shtml

TrainingTruths: NYC Half Marathon Week 5

Last week I continued my training for the New York City Half Marathon (just 5 weeks away) and participated in another fun run with family and friends. It was a week of cold and sometimes snowy weather, but I managed to complete my training runs with a little creativity.

I received a lot of positive feedback about the Chilly Challenge. Thank you for letting me know that you had fun, were motivated, and pushed yourselves to run more than ever. 

#TrainingTruths: It's cold - run anyway!

For Tuesday's run, I asked Daisy if we could do 6.1 instead of our usual 6 miles. I owed 3 #milesofshame to the Runner's Wager Super Bowl Edition and I signed up for Kyle's Krusade Virtual 5K, a fundraiser benefitting the Talbert Family Foundation to help defray the medical costs for families with children fighting cancer. 

Thursday, feeling the need to change things up, we did our old hill route. This one starts out with a relatively flat 1+, but then starts climbing steadily (and sometimes steeply) for 2 miles. Once we make it to the top though, we are rewarded with a mostly downhill finish. When it feels like 16 degrees, I should wear more than my no-show socks. Cold ankles on this one. Maybe wearing compression socks like the one's mentioned in this Runner Click article would work.

On Friday I couldn't resist taking a little birthday pre-blizzard run with the dog. It was just to the local pond and my husband followed in the car taking some great pictures. Although we didn't see other runners, I could see shoe prints from someone who ran the out and back before us. 

Our normal Saturday long run was snowed out, so we had to reschedule. Since we were running the Snowflake Shuffle, a three mile fun run, on Sunday, we decided to meet early and do a few pre-race miles. At 12 degrees, my toes were cold until about halfway through a pre-race warmup. 

How did the weather affect your training last week?

#TrainingTruths is not just about me. We all like to see what everyone else is doing and use that information to assess ourselves. It's not judgement. It's a way to share and learn and make changes when necessary.

To participate all you have to do is share your #TrainingTruths:

1. Tag a Twitter post with the hashtag #TrainingTruths
2. Comment on the Running Escapades Facebook page 
3. Leave a link to your own blog post in the comments

I look forward to reading your #TrainingTruths!