Why You Should Clean Your Camelbak

If you are like me, you may have seen this Camelbak Cleaning kit before and thought "why would I waste money on a a set of brushes to clean this thing."

Except one day when using your Camelbak, you might notice some funk in the middle of the tube.

It turns out funk is hard to photograph. 

But I digress. 

The funk made me think twice about that Cleaning Kit (the fact that I still had a credit at backcountry.com, and that they were offering free 2-day shipping for 4th of July weekend didn't hurt either).

The mouthpiece detached from the tube easily.  Once I got past the hard part (pulling the tube off of the "bladder"... needed the man of the house to do that for me.  Or, I just loosened it up for him.  Either way)  --the cleaning part was quite easy. 

 But also quite disgusting.

The above funk was obtained from the "delivery tube."  I ran hot water through both ends of the tube first, before swabbing it with the brush.  I stuck the brush in from both ends several times, washing the brush off in between, until the brush was finally clean when I pulled it out of the tube.

Ta Da! A clean delivery tube. 

(That's just water inside).

And that, my friends, is why you should clean your Camelbak.

(I used the larger brush to scrub out the bladder/reservoir but I think I have done a good job of opening it and allowing it to air dry in between uses and therefore did not produce any gross-ness from that cleaning).

Recap: HM5, Week 3 Training + Week 1 of FitAbs

5th Half Marathon, 3rd week of training.  Here was the plan:

7/4-10

10k?  or   11 mi

bike  +arms

1E/4T/1E  +core

1E/3H/1E

away

away

core

17 or 22

Here's what happened:

Sooo Monday, 7/4 it was really humid and had POURED the previous day, and after driving 8 hours back from Cleveland, I didn't want to get up at 7am, so I didn't go run the 10k.  I didn't run my 11 mile long run either.  But I did meet my friend from work for an easy run (which allowed us to take our time walking around the muddy spots from the down pour). = 6.34 miles

Tuesday, 7/5: I did not bike.  But I did do my Tempo Run that day since I didn't kill my legs the day before.  It consisted an easy mile for a warm up, then 3 tempo miles at 9:36, 9:35, 9:28, with .25 mile recovery periods, then about 1.2 miles cool down.  My goal pace range had been 9:30-9:50, so: success!
= 5.99 miles.

Yes, 5.99.  My Garmin died during my cool down.  Had I known, I would have run an extra .01 mile to make it even.


Wednesday 7/6  Just an easy 1.9 mile easy run with the hubs.  So easy, my average HR was 146.  That's low for me.  Especially when it's 75 (which actually, is pretty cool given the recent temperatures).

Then I did arm stuff:
All of the following with 5 pounds in each hand.
3x12 Deadlift --> Upright Row
3x12 Lateral Raise
2x12 Tricep Kickbacks (both sides)
2x12 Tricep Overhead Extension
2x12 Bicep Curl
2x12 Shoulder Press
10 chest pushups on toes.  I forgot to do more on knees.


Thursday 7/7: I did my long run for the week, 11.11 miles in 2:07.

I didn't love running 4 days in a row (but I was not in pain from it either) but I prefer to sprinkle in some rest days.  However, we left town at 7am Friday morning and returned late Sunday night, so I did that to get all my runs in.

Total: Ran 25.34 miles.

Fit Abs Challenge - Week 1 Recap

July 1: 75 reg. crunches, 25 v-sit twists w/3# weight = 100 reps
July 2: 60 bicycle crunches, two 1-minute planks, 30 oblique crunches = 110 reps
July 4: 5 Brazil Butt lift sequences from Ashely's Vlog, 50 v-sit twists with 5# weight, 60 bicycle crunches = 160 reps
July 5: 50 Tucks from Ashley's Vlog, 1 min plank, 30 reg. crunches, 30 oblique crunches = 120 reps
July 6: 40 oblique crunches, 30 bicycle crunches, 20 reg. crunches, 10 tucks, 1-min plank, 2-30 sec side planks = 120 reps
July 7: 30 crunches, 20 tucks = 50 reps

Abs Total: 660 reps

In case you missed previous training recap posts: 

Week 2 Recap

Week 1 Recap 

The Plan 

First (and Second) Green Smoothie

 A couple weekends ago I asked for suggestions on how to make my first green smoothie.

Spinach was my planned green, as we already had some in the fridge.  Thanks to those who responded!

Here's what I had on hand:

Sooo I started off with a handful of spinach.

I added most of a 6 oz container of Dannon plain Greek yogurt.

I topped it off with a handful of sliced strawberries.

To give my immersion blender something to work with, I threw in a splash of skim milk.

Verdict: a little too bitter.

I added 2 more strawberries, and a handful of blueberries.

Still a little bitter for my liking, I added 2 more strawberries and a splash of almond milk.

Not bad!  Not green either, but I promise it contains greens. Looks kinda like chocolate milk.

Final contents:

1 large handful of spinach
6 oz Dannon greek yogurt
1-2 oz skim milk
2 oz almond milk
1 handful of blueberries
8 strawberries


On Tuesday (July 5th) I made my second green smoothie which included:

-one overflowing handful of spinach
-two handfuls of blueberries
-about one small banana (frozen, cut into pieces)
-6-8 oz almond milk

No adjustments needed!  This one came out way more green than the last, but did not taste much like spinach at all.  It did taste very much like almond milk, blueberries, and a little bit banana (in that order).

 

While there are tiny flecks of blueberry skin and spinach bits, they didn't get stuck in my teeth (hooray!)

I feel like I eat enough leafy greens anyway, but this is a great way to squeeze some more into your diet.  Word on the street is that kale is good in smoothies too, maybe I'll try that next...

Have you ever made a green smoothie?  

If not, would you try one?

What's your favorite combination(s)?

Recap: HM5, Week 2 Training

A little overdue, but here was my plan for last week:

6/27-7/3

1E/2T/1E  +arms

5 mi PRO

bike   +core

10 mi    mid  2P

away

away

core

20

Monday - Tempo Run + Arms

Goal: 1 mile Easy, 2 miles Tempo @ 9:30-9:50, 1 mile Easy
Actual: 1 mile Easy, 2 miles Tempo @ 9:43, 9:06, 1.19 mile Easy = 4.19 miles

Arms:
3 sets of 12, Deadlift to Upright row, 5# in each hand
3 sets of 12, Shoulder Press, 5# in each hand
2 sets of 12, Lunge with Right Leg in front, with Bicep Curl (both arms), 5# each
2 sets of 12, Lunge with Left Leg in front, with Bicep Curl (both arms), 5# each
3 sets of 12, Lateral Raise, 5# in each hand
2 sets of 12, Overhead Tricep Extension, 5#
8 Chest Pushups on Toes; 2 sets of 10 chest pushups on knees

Tuesday - 5 Mile Progression Run

Goal: Start easy, build to about race pace (9:50ish) in second to last mile, easy final mile.
Actual: 12:10, 11:33, 10:42...half a mile @10:01, took a .1 mile walk break, half a mile @ 9:17, Easy/Cool Down of 1.27 miles = 5.42 miles

The brief walk break killed me.  But I had a serious cramp under my left rib cage and had been sucking it up for the previous mile.  If I hadn't walked it out, I wouldn't have been able to do that last half mile faster at all.  And I apparently overcompensated for the walk break!

Wednesday - Skipped the Bike, did Core Only

50 sec plank, 55 sec plank, 60 sec plank on forearms
3x12 back extension on stability ball
2x25 stability ball crunches
3x25 v-sit twist w/5lb dumb bell
2x50 bicycle crunches

Molly helped me by sitting on the end of my mat:

Thursday - Long Run

Goal: 10 mile progression run with 2 pace miles (9:47-9:55ish) in the middle
Actual: 4.34 easy miles, 2 Pace miles @ 9:21, 9:44, 4.12 easy miles = 10.46 miles

Then I didn't run/bike/etc. over the weekend.  While there was a lot of driving and eating and drinking, I wasn't completely sedentary: I did get in some walking and did random crunch-type things while we were out of town for Brother-In-Law and fiancee's bachelor/bachelorette outings.

 Alyssa would love this place.

 Coconut macaroon martini!  

Banana cream pie in the background.

In Other News: July 1st started the Fit Abs Challenge - 3000 reps in 35 days!

Friday

100 reps (various crunches) for the #Fitabs challenge

8 hours in the car

~1-1.5 mile walk

Saturday

110 ab reps: 60 bicycle crunches, 2 one minute planks, and 30 oblique crunches. 

~3 miles of walking

Sunday

~2 mile walk after sitting in the car for 8 hours. Surprised my legs still worked.

Week 2 Running Total: 20.07 miles

In case you missed previous posts:

Week 1 Recap 

The Plan