2017-01-07

Today I had the opportunity to try a lot of new things on my run. A new haircut, new jacket, new headphones, and a new route. I must say, they were all great! The haircut: minus about 6 inches - OMG, it was so nice to put my hair in a ponytail (using only one elastic) and be ready to go! No wrapping and twisting and pulling and securing and having to start over three times to make sure it wouldn’t fall loose during my run. And with the new length I can put the ponytail through the hole of my Trailheads headband/ear warmer thing, before the hole was pretty useless to me with the huge know of hair. New Jacket: The North Face Cyclone Hoodie – I found this little jewel for $35.00 at TJ Maxx. I really LOVE LOVE LOVE my Salomon Bonatti jacket, BUT I hate using it as a windbreaker on training runs and then it stinks so bad I can’t stand it and end up washing it 1-2 times per week. I just want to make sure it remains waterproof for those wet days and I worry that frequent washes are going to wear that feature down. So I’m glad that I found this cheaper jacket to throw on for windy, cold, and dry days and I don’t have to worry about the frequent washes. It was great for my run, kept the warmth in, the hood is easy to use, zipper glides well, it’s bright pink so that helps with visibility on those isolated dirt road, the compression around the waist is perfect for keeping the wind out. For $35.00 it was a GREAT deal and I’m glad I found it. New Headphones: Bose Soundsport Wireless Headphones, Citron – Lots and lots of research went into which headphones to buy. I have been using Bose wired headphones and with all the layers and iPhone 7’s lack of headphone jack I really wanted to go wireless. I thought I might be able to go cheap but after trying the standard ones that Apple sends with their phones I realized that after years of Bose I’m a sound snob and should probably go with Bose again. I watched the RizKnows review on them and was a little worried that they might be too bulky or not stay in my ears well, but I have had ZERO problems. I used ear warmers for half of my run and surprisingly they were still able to fit snuggly enough against my ears to keep them warm even though the Bose are bulkier than I would like. I kept my phone in a case, in my spibelt, under my jacket, and had dual layer ear warmers and sometimes a hood and didn’t have connection issues. It kinda “glitched” maybe 3-4 times but that was mostly when I was fiddling with the controls or taking layers off and putting them back on my head. When I didn’t have any layers on my head I had zero connectivity issues. The New Route: 4.6 mile loop – I am so glad I tried this loop, running 2 miles out on the access road and 2 miles back was getting old, there’s so much debris on the access road, and having to worry about the entrance and exit ramps gets old. I drove the loop first to make sure there weren’t any stray dogs or other sketchy things to be aware of. It’s a lot of dirt road, which is better than pounding pavement. It goes by cotton fields and cows, who are very skiddish about me and the dog. I saw a few cars, which actually gives me a little peace of mind to know if I got hurt or something that I’m not so isolated that someone would never find me. But few enough cars that I’m not dodging them the entire run. I wish I would have started using this route months ago but my scaredy cat solo female runner brain got the best of me. I think I’ll be staying off the access roads from now on and trying some more dirt roads around here. On the bod today can be found in "labels"