Running...

Let's face it... I am not a runner. I was not built to run... I hate running... can I make this any clearer??

That being said, I have started running... again... blech.

For Mother's Day, my son Chris bought me a very nice pair of Nike Shox at the Nike Employees store in Portland. These are supposed to be the most comfortable shoes for running they have. I'd just started going to the Fitness Center at Gowen Field (Air National Guard Base) to run on the treadmill, as I'd hit a plateau losing weight just going to Curves, and wanted to bump up the calorie burn.
These shoes are ones which have the space in the shoe for a Nike+ sensor, so you can sync it with your iPod Nano and track your runs/walks. Too cool!! The only problem was that neither of my iPods are Nanos. Not cool! So, I put about 75 miles on the treadmill with them, writing down my milege in a diary.

Now, though, Nike has come out with a new Nike+. This one has a wristband with the sensor, so you can use it without an iPod. It has a USB connection that you just plug into your computer to download your stats. I want!!

http://www.nike.com/index.jhtml?sitesrc=USPL&l=nikestore,nikeplus,overview&re=US&co=US&la=EN#l=nikestore,running,what_is,_pdp,cid-1/gid-181290/pid-181290&re=US&co=US&la=EN

Anyway...
I have always been a treadmill runner, recently running to Podrunner beat music. But today, I went to the High School track to see how I'd do with "roadwork". I still used the Podrunner music, trying to figure out which BPM (Beats per minute) rate was good for me. I did 2.75 miles in about 45 minutes, and that included a lot of walk/run laps. Not too bad for an old lady, eh??

The point of blogging all this is to keep me going.

Are you a runner? How do you keep motivated?? Are you a morning or evening runner? Inside or out? Let me know!

Jelly Belly Heaven

When I planned my drive to San Francisco in April for a Navy weekend, I left early enough in the day to get (I hoped) to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA before it closed. I knew the last tour was at 4pm, and the store closed at 5pm, but I was remembering it as being closer to Sacremento than San Francisco. Boy, was I off by 100 miles!! Fortunately, I arrived right at 4:45, in plenty of time to buy a few pounds of Jelly Bellies!!!

If you EVER have a chance to go through this tour, or the one at the Midwest factory, do it!! It is a fascinating tour, well run, and great for all ages. When I took the tour 10 years ago, I had my then 18 yo son with me and since we had already taken the Alcatraz tour that morning, I gave him the option of staying in the car and sleeping, or going in with me. He came in, and admitted afterwards, it was one of the best tours he'd ever done. Well! Who'd've thunk??





















In the lobby of the Gift Shop, where the tour begins and ends, there is a very nice art collection up on the walls, all made from the different flavors of Jelly Bellys. Here are a couple of them that I was able to take pics of as I was leaving.