Pedales Automatiques

Note: Happy Easter everyone! It's been a long, trying weekend but I managed to sneak in a little fun/sadness relief. I put this post together late Friday, and finally got a chance to put it up now. I'll have some updates this week, and we're going to be working hard to crank up the race prep for the May race.

While I mention my sponsors on occasion, review certain products and make sure people know what I like and don't like; I rarely actively tell people they should definitely use something. I feel like everyone should make up their own opinion, and while I use something and love it, you might not. That said, I highly encourage everyone who uses my blog to give MyPoints a try. MyPoints is a web site that gives you points for online purchases, reading emails, visiting sponsor links, and completing surveys. You redeem the points for gift cards. I mostly use it at the holiday season when I'm going to be purchasing things online anyways, and I earn free stuff by going through the MyPoints site links to visit retailers. I've been using it for several years and have earned a couple hundred dollars worth of free stuff.

How this all relates is that I recently redeemed some points for a $25 REI gift card. REI is a sporting goods store that operates as a co-op. They offer a membership to the co-op that gives you a dividend each year, plus you get some pretty good coupons along the way. They have an REI right around the corner from our house, so we walked their today while showing Rachelle's sister around some of the city.

You might remember a couple weeks ago Rach and I visited the Multisport World Expo when it came to Boston. I picked up a pair of Adidas Vueltano road bike shoes for $25, a substantial discount from the $100 they sell for. I was excited about this because bike shoes combined with cleats and the matching pedals keep your feet firmly attached to the bike throughout the entire pedal stroke. This allows the rider to leverage power from the leg throughout the stroke (ie Pedales Automatiques in french). I followed that up by picking up a pair of $79 Look pedals and cleats with my dividend, a 20% discount and the $25 gift card for a whopping sum of $39.

It's not your imagination, those shoes are glowing with power...

Buying new gear is always fun, but it's even more fun when you get good gear for great prices. Between the new pedals and picking up a new pair of Tyr swimming goggles for $6, I had a good day for new gear.

Then I went running. There's nothing like running to take all of the momentum out of an otherwise good day. With just a bit over a month until the Season Opener, I really need to get moving on my running. While I'm far from ready for the full swim and ride @ Timberman, my running has been neglected. It's my least favorite of the three sports, mostly because I'm terrible at it.

I'm following a couch to 5k plan I found at Cool Running. Basically it's designed to get you running a 5k in about 2 months time. Being that I started late, I'm working at a faster pace, except this first week. I'm alternating walking 3 1/2 minutes and then running 1 1/2 minutes for a 30 minute workout. My recent purchase of shoes and insoles to support my arches have made running more tolerable and a little bit easier.