What I’m Drinking Wednesday–Hydro Coach App Review

Posted by hellyontherun in Healthy Eating, Running and tagged with Agua, App, Apps for Android, H20, Hydration, Hydro Coach, Tracking Water Intake, Water, Water Intake January 7, 2015

I swore I’d never do any of those What I Ate Wednesday posts–
But, this is a “What I”m Drinking” post 🙂

I’ve gotten tons of people asking me about the app I downloaded that helps track my water intake. I realize I should’ve posted the name of it when I first mentioned it lol!

It’s called Hydro Coach and surprisingly, it’s only available on Android phones. Usually, I’m the one bummed because most apps I want are/have been iPhone only–woohoo, for not having an iPhone this time (not that I want one–I’m def an Android girl lol).

Sue was sad that it wasn’t compatible 😦 Hugs, Sue! ❤

It’s a very simple app. This is a def plus because I’m not good with numbers, technology, and anything that has a lot of complicated steps.

Once you download the app, it will ask you a few questions like your age, sex, weight, and what’s your measurement of preference–I chose ounces.

It will ask you if you work out and how much and put that in the equation to determine how much water you should drink. It told me I needed to average 69 fl. oz. so a little more than half my body weight in ounces (it added about 10% because of my exercise regime).

The app asks you what time you wake up and what time you go to sleep and at first, I was like, um, why?? But it takes those times into consideration as that would be the range they’d work with to send you alerts. Smart!

I entered 5 a.m. as my wake up time and 9 p.m. as bed time (Yeah, I’m 80). The app sends me alerts/reminders about every 4 hours. I entered that my typical water intake is 16 ounces (a bottle of Dasani) so about every 4 hours, I should be drinking that amount (and a little 5 ouncer at the end).

Once you entered the necessary info (which took like two seconds) you’re ready to start drinking!

There are different measurements of water that you can click on to add to your total. So if I drank 12 oz instead of my typical 16, I would click on that option.

It will add it to the goal and tell you how much you have left to drink and how much you’ve drank so far.

If you miss an alert/reminder to enter, then it will add it your next check-in goal. So if I miss my check-in of 16 ounces, I’ll “have” to drink 32 ounces to make it up.

I have 12 minutes left to drink 16 ounces. If not, I’ll need to 32 by the next check-in.

At the end of the day, if you reached your goal, Mr. Water Drop comes out to party!!!

Party Drop 😀

But if you don’t, then he packs all his stuff together and threatens to run away 😦

I feel so guilty for having let down the poor water drop :(

😦

If you get close, Mr. Water Drop is left reminiscing about the party days of yore….

Don’t you want to party?

Mr. Water Drop is the sole reason I’ve been pushing to make my daily goal. I mean, did you see his sad face!!?? I just can’t do that to him. And I also don’t like leaving people hanging….

You can also see a chart of how you’ve done that week:

You can also share you day with friends on social media 😀

Because everyone needs to know how much water you’re drinking

I hope this information has helped. So far I’ve really liked the app. There is an option to go “Ad free” for a small fee but the free app has worked well and I don’t mind the sparse pop ups that happen.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Bottoms up!!!

❤ helly

–Do you track your water intake?

–-Would alerts/reminders help you drink more water or would you just ignore them?

I was not asked to review this app or given free water by Hydro Coach. All opinions expressed in this post are solely my own.

Week 8 Marathon Training Recap–Halfway there!!

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running and tagged with Beast Mode, Frozen, Hydration, Marathon Training, Phoenix Marathon, Running January 5, 2015

Wow. Time has been a-flying!

I can’t believe I just finished week 8 and am now counting DOWN the weeks til Phoenix Marathon!

#itsgoingdownatphx

I’m pretty pumped 😀

So, this was my last week of vacation from work and again, I took full advantage of the time off.

Monday, I got in a tough 6 miler on the treadmill. It’d been a while since I’d gotten on one of those things and I could definitely feel it. I still was able to maintain a good pace at 9:22/mile though which pleased me.

I took the day off on Tuesday but I wanted a good last run of 2014 so on Wednesday I headed out for a neighborhood run..

my adios run to 2014

With two kids, very young kids, we were in bed on New Year’s Eve at 9. We try every year to make it to 10 to at least see the ball drop in New York but this year, it just didn’t happen. We were out! And sure enough, at 5 on the dot, my son woke up and woke us up for the first day of 2015 🙂 So, Thursday I hung out with the fam, relaxed, and welcomed the new year.

My kids went to school on Friday and I took advantage of a free morning to get in a cold 5 miler with friends.

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#frozen

My buddies made me work! I don’t know why this pace was so hard; I’ve done it before, but I was def lagging behind them on this one. I’m blaming the cold.

I was worried running, and running so fast, would mess with my long run planned the next day. It was my dreaded 16 miler that for some reason has always given me trouble. My last 16 miler when I trained for MCM was very respectable at a 10:06/mile pace but when I get to mile 16 in the marathon (the two that I’ve done) it’s where I start to go downhill–and not good downhill lol.

But this time I was ready. Like I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve really been working on my fueling and it was on this run that I really put it to test.

So Saturday morning, my alarm went off at crazy o’clock (4:15) and I met up with some friends (aka: other crazy people) who I was able to convince to meet up at 5 to start our long run.

It was effing cold (I wore 3 layers) and we didn’t chat much but got straight to it.

I was doing great, the miles were going fast, and at mile 6 we met up with our other run club friends who were starting at 6 a.m. Here, I made a pit stop to use the potty.

As I got back into the run, I took my first Gu. The whole thing. At mile 12, again, took my second planned Gu. All of it.

Other times I’ve barely squeezed out half of one in a long run such as that.

But this is a new and determined Helly–I ate all that shi-stuff.

By the time I got to mile 14, I was so pumped that I had made it that far and only had 2 miles left. I was rocking this long run!

And then I was done!

I totally felt like a BEETH after finishing that run 😀

On Sunday was my usual Bun Day (and leg). I’ve been working my quads in prep of that eternal downhill that is Phoenix Marathon…I did take it easy though because I was suuuuper tired from Saturday.

Overall, this was one of my best running weeks ever! Each run I was able to keep pace and feel good. I finished off December with 103 miles and the year with exactly 1000.

Total mileage for this week: 34.09

Oh, and I’m happy to report that I met my water goal the last three days. After seeing the poor water drop’s sad face I couldn’t let that happen again lol!

Happy Mr. Water Drop! Or as Salt refers to him: Party Drop 😀

How was your running week?

When’s the last time you’ve felt like a BEETH?

Friday Five Link Up!! 5 Goals for 2015

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with Goals, Link Up, Marathon Training, New Year, Running January 2, 2015

I’d been wanting to write about what I want to work on/improve to in 2015 so I decided to go for a 5 miler this morning to think more about it. When I came back, I opened up my laptop and started checking my e-mails to see two always anticipated alerts–new blog posts from my faves Salt and Mar!

Mar and her buddies Cynthia and Courtney host a weekly Friday Five link up and it’d been a while since I’d joined and it’d been a while since Salt had participated too. I had already wanted to write about this topic so I figured I’d join in on the party too!

Here they are! My 5 goals for 2015!!

1. Challenge myself

This was a repeat from last year. I want to continue to challenge myself and find opportunities to do so. I find that I need challenges to help keep me focused and motivated. I like doing hard things.

That being said, there are times where I get complacent and start to make up excuses on why it’s okay for me to not try. The Fiesta Bowl 1/2 Marathon last month is a perfect example and that race taught me and showed me that if I combat those negative voice and challenge myself, I can do some pretty awesome things.

2. Drink more water

I’ve been a lot better about this having gone through my 100 Days of No Soda challenge but now that it’s been over, I find myself going more for a can of coke instead of a bottle of water. While I haven’t drank as much soda as I used, I could definitely be drinking more water. So I downloaded a free app that alerts/reminds me to drink water throughout the day. Yesterday was my first day aaaand I failed 😦

I feel so guilty for having let down the poor water drop 😦

3. Practice better time management

I’m a busy girl. Between working full time, having two kids, running and training, I often tend to neglect things or prioritize other things that maybe I shouldn’t.

I love blogging and most often than not, I just don’t have the time. And even though I really want to write more, it’s not something that will ever take precedence over more important things in my life.

4. Run more with my family

I love that my husband runs and I absolutely love running with him.

One of my friends sent me this picture of me and my husband approaching the finish line 🙂

And lately, my daughter has said super freaking adorable things–like when she sees me lacing up, “Mommy’s going for a run!” and then, “Run fast mommy!”

And when I get home she’ll tell my husband, “Your turn to run Daddy!”

And then when she says, “My turn!!” I just die…

I mean, c’mon ❤

5. Have more confidence

I struggle a lot with this. I mentioned in #1 how I often make excuses on why I can’t do something and I really almost gave up at my recent 1/2 marathon PR race. I don’t know why but I have this thing where I just psych myself out. Like I’ll run and I’ll be scared to run fast because I don’t want to burn out. And that totally makes sense, but how will I ever know how fast I can really go if I don’t ever try? That’s what I want to work on. I don’t have to go fast every. single. time. but once in a while, why not? I don’t want to get stuck in a comfort zone of a pace because I feel like I shouldn’t go faster.

This is something I’ve known about myself and something I’ve been working on throughout this training. For example, the last two recent long runs have been two 14 milers and the usual me would’ve run those at best at a 10 min average thinking that’s what I should do. BUT, I ran both at what felt good and natural and just going with the flow and ended with a 9:25 average on BOTH!

14 miler Part I

14 miler Part II

Tomorrow I have a 16 miler and already I’m starting to hear the voices in my head telling me how 16 miles is always where I fall apart, where I struggle, and how it’s likely I won’t do well.

I need to tell those voices to shut it! Yeah, I might not run a 9:25ish pace (and really, I should probably slow it down) but I need to believe in myself that I can do it and do it well.

–What are some things you want to work on/improve in 2015??