Day 72 (2/7): 5.0 miles + Mini Bra Review

5.0 miles. 52:28. 10:30 pace.

Well, there's another chapter in the bra saga for you to enjoy.  Tonight while I was waiting for a prescription to be filled at Walmart, I found myself looking at their sports bra selection.  Since I had some time to kill, I kinda wanted to see how truly "high impact" their bras labeled such actually are.  In the past, both Target's and Walmart's idea of high impact support has been kinda laughable to me.  I grabbed a couple, including one labeled "extreme impact" and headed off to the dressing room.

The "extreme impact" one really truly surprised me.  Enough that I bought it.  Holy shiz right!?

Now, the smallest size they have, 34B is slightly too big for me in the band, but I felt it offered the same level of support as my 32C Moving Comfort Juno.  I had to do roughly the same number of bra adjustments as the Juno, if not less.  It feels really comfortable over the shoulders and back, and I feel like this could be an everyday bra as well.

Tonight I wanted to try this bra on it's own to see how it would fare.  After a mile, I did end up tossing another cheapo bra over the top of it and that combo was perfect.

My only complaint about this bra (besides the lack of sizing variety) is the straps.  In the back there are adjustable straps and they loosen too easily.  This is probably why I had to toss another bra on after awhile.  At the $13 price point, however, I have no problem sewing the straps so that the sliding adjuster is unable to move.

Since I plan on going back to Walmart and picking up the other 34B that they had in stock I feel like I can recommend this guy.  If anyone else has tried this bra out or had any other Walmart/Target sports bras surprise them, let me know!

So anyway... back to the run.  It was pretty uneventful.  Just a basic, run of the mill 5 miler. Afterwards I came upstairs and watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies with Karl and Mercedes (Max was in his room and Callie and Taylor were at a basketball game).  Mercedes didn't last long. My little sleepy snuggle muffin kept me warm and I loved it.

I was really impressed with the opening ceremonies.  Granted, I've never watched either an opening or closing ceremony before but wow, the projections on the floor of the arena were amazing!!!

Day 70 (2/5): 1.0 mile + REVIEW of Clif "cookies & cream" protein bar

1.0 mile. 10:08.

I apologize for the 2 day delay in getting this posted.  I didn't get my run in until 10:30 at night.  We bought a new belt for our el cheapo treadmill and it took him over 3 hours to replace it.  I don't think that our treadmill was meant to be taken apart.  He had to break two pieces off in order to get the deck off because the manufacturer super glued a plastic cap over where the hole for the screw was.  I don't have pictures... but just take my word for it.  It was quite a job.  I'm going to have to re-lube the deck this weekend and I'm not looking forward to it because I'll have to loosen the belt again and the tightening/centering of the belt took a good 45 minutes.  Grr.

But... We have a working treadmill for both of us now.  The last two weeks I've been the only one able to use it because I didn't need the belt tightened as much as Karl did to avoid the belt slipping.  If we were to tighten it any more, the crease in the belt would have rubbed against a the plastic motor housing and eventually would have caused the belt to split into two pieces, I'm sure of it.

Since we've gotten the belt replaced, the treadmill feels a bit more rickety... but that could be because it isn't in exactly the same place that it was before and we (stupidly) have it just on our concrete basement floor which isn't completely level.  I'm going to stop at Lowe's tonight after work to see if they still carry the rubber workout flooring.  Hopefully it won't raise the height of the treadmill too high for Karl to be able to use.  He's 6'4".  We currently have the treadmill situated between floor joists so he has some head room.  Oh the things you don't have to consider when you're short....

So... I've been in a "try new things to review" kind of mode lately.  Today since it's just a one mile post you're going to get one of those reviews.

I follow a few people on instagram that post mostly about their workouts and things related to their workouts.  A lot of people have been posting pictures of this cookies and cream flavored Quest bar.  Well... I haven't been able to find any in my town.  I think they are available at GNC though from what I gather on Instagram. I can't find a stock photo (I don't want to borrow anyone's Instagram shot) of the actual bar to use to show you just how yummy this thing looked.  It looked like cookies and cream ice cream but in a bar form if you can picture that. 

So imagine my surprise when I'm at the grocery store picking up a couple of Lara Bars when I saw that Clif had a protein bar in the cookies and cream flavor.

As soon as I got to work I wanted to try it out.

I tore off the wrapper and was a little surprised that I saw a chocolate coating.  I guess I just expected it to look exactly like the Quest bar which is mostly white.

Undeterred, I took a bite.

And that's when the REAL surprise occurred.

I was expecting this bar to taste sorta like an Oreo. This tasted like a really bad peanut butter and chocolate knock off.

I even went on Google to find a picture of what the actual Clif bar looked like because I was convinced that there was a mix up at the factory and the wrong label was but on this bar.  As it turns out... there was no mistake and this is exactly what it is supposed to look like.

I gave a bite to my mom to try (we work in the same office) and she said that she could taste the cookie and cream flavor.  I told her she could have it.

I'm sorry Clif.  I know that this flavor seems to have gotten pretty high reviews on Amazon, but when I think of something that is a cookies and cream flavor... I expect there to be a cream (a.k.a. white chocolate) flavor.  Where is that in your bar?  The cookie chunks were also few and far between.

Alrighty... I'm pretty much done hating on Clif for their "cookies and cream" flavored protein bar.

I think I'll pick up some mega stuff Oreos tonight.  At least they never let me down!