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Sweaty Bands Review + Giveaway

| cheriarmour

So fun fun fun product giveaway time!

But before that!

The other day I came home to a sweet packages from the folks down at Sweaty Band.  In case anyone is reading this and doesn’t know this about me, nothing makes me more happy than when the UPS man stops at my apartment with presents.  Granted, the Sweaty Bands came through the mail, but you get the general gist.

Presents = Happy Cheri.

1908237_10100282974818173_154770636_n (1)So this, along with a very sweet letter showed up.  Seriously, this company is great to work with 🙂

1376511_10100283203225443_1457915345_nSo almost immediately, I honed in on the band with the mustaches on it, cause that’s adorable, and I popped in on to teach my Zumba class on Tuesday night.

One thing I didn’t know about the Sweaty Band?  I have a lot of hair, so this usually isn’t a problem for me, but I know a lot of girls have issues with headbands sliding off their heads.  The band was sent with specific instructions in the letter – wear the band as close to the hair line as possible and the band shouldn’t slide at all!  Who knew?

So I wore to to teach, and wore it into Whole Foods after, were I got compliments from the girl who checked me out on the headband.  SCORE!

Pros: 

  • So the bands are really really cute, and a great alternative to those rubber bandy things you can get from Target.
  • The inside of the band is coated with this velvety stuff that hooks onto your skin/hair without tearing it.  It’s also pretty absorbent, so you don’t have to worry about sweat dripping into your eyes.
  • They’re easy to clean.  All you have to do is swish them around in the sink and hang them out to dry.
  • They don’t slip!

Cons:

  • Eh. I got nothing.

Giveaway time!!!

I’m giving away a really cute sweaty band to a reader, and it’s super easy.  All you need to do is comment below, tweet me, or post on my Facebook wall (after you follow me of course)!  Tell me what you’re gonna do with the Sweaty Band when I send it to you, and best answer gets the purple band!  The mustaches are mine, sorry!  Keep ’em coming, cause you’ve got until 3/13/14 at 12:00am to shoot me your comments.  Good luck!

Full disclosure: I received a Sweaty Band for review.  All opinions are my own though 🙂 

 

 

 

New shoes are important! #runchat

| cheriarmour

Runner’s world published this staggering number last week that runners who rotate shoes (and I am the queen of the rotation because of my job),. reduce their chance of injury by 39% That’s incredible!

For someone who doesn’t work in running retail, there may be a few factors keeping you from buying new shoes, or buying more to rotate (the best way to get some bang for your buck).

  • “My shoes aren’t even worn out!” I hear this all the time.  And then you ask the customer when they last replaced the shoe.  They’ll swear it was three months ago.  But when you look back in the records, it’s over a year ago.  The official number is this.  Shoes get about 350 miles on them.  Minimalist shoes get even less, about 250.  Shoes naturally start to break down after about a year, so even if the shoe was just sitting in your closet, the shoe has lost some juice.
  • “I only wear my shoes to go to the store”.  This logic blows my mind.  If you wear your shoes every day for a year and a half to do your errands, your shopping, your trips to the post office, and your trips to the Y, what do you think is happening to them?  You don’t have to be running marathons to wear your shoes out.
  • “Shoes cost too much.”  A good shoe is gonna start at about $110.  And depending on the amount of cushioning, they can climb to $175.  Yes, it’s an investment, but you’re protecting your body from the earth.  Why would you want to pay $60?
  • “I don’t have time to get shoes.”  Take the time to get fitted one good pair.  If you like it, stick with that shoe for a while, at least until the update.  That should give you 9 months to a year of not having to try on shoes and wait on a fitting.

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And even though I’m the person who knows this stuff, it occurred to me at some point a few weeks ago that Austin’s shoes might have been worn out.  He’d been complaining that his IT band was hurting when we ran, so I told him to jump on my foam roller.  And thenI looked down at his feet and realized he was wearing the same Brooks Glycerins I’d gotten him at some point last summer.  We’d been either running or in the gym an average of 5-6 days a week since then, and if that wasn’t enough evidence, the, *ahem* fragrance from the shoes should have given it away.  The shoes had aged out right under my nose (hee hee).

So for about three weekends I badgered him to come down to the store.  He was too busy.  He was eating a sandwich.  He was asleep on the couch.  He couldn’t make it because someone on his fantasy football team was benched.  All sorts of excuses to not take off his shoes.  Finally, finally, on a rainy day last weekend, I cornered him in my kitchen.

“Let’s go right now.  What are you doing right now.”

He agreed, only after he ate a sandwich.  And off to the store we went.  After trying a few things on (the Glycerin had updated and felt a little funny to him), he settled on the Saucony Ride 6, and on a test run later, he reported zero IT band pain.  Win.