Lace ‘Em Up Only Once!! Slick Laces {Review & Giveaway}

Posted by hellyontherun in Giveaway, Product Review, Running, Shopping and tagged with Giveaway, Product Review, Running, Shoe Laces, Shoes, Slick Laces, Triathlete August 5, 2015

I’ve mentioned numerous times before the awesome running group I’m in. It’s a pretty large group of about 80 or so regulars–not all run on the same meet up days, but cumulatively, that’s about the average people active in our group.

Anyway, I’m pretty good friends with everyone but not many know I blog. (It’s one those things you just don’t announce, you know? lol!) A couple of months ago, a friend in the group, Mark, who does know I blog, told me about a product a friend of his had designed.

It’s a shoe lace but not your normal shoe lace.

He showed them to me as he had them on as we spoke and they did indeed look very interesting. No loose strings? No bunny ears?

My curiosity was piqued.

His buddy Jason, the designer/inventor, hooked me up with a pair and told me to give ’em a shot. He even was nice enough to show me how to lace them! (The product comes with instructions and there is a very helpful video on the website as well.)

As he taught me how to lace them properly, he gave me a little background on his product. Jason is a triathlete and in preparation for a 70.3 Ironman a while back, he found that he was losing precious seconds tying his shoes getting off the bike. Lo and behold, inspiration for Slick Laces was born!

He knew other products like it existed but what he wanted–and what he created–was a no-tie lace that can be reused. Similar products are sold for a one-time, one-shoe use but not Slick Laces. End of the road for your current shoes? No problem, transfer the laces to your new pair.

Big, big plus.

Questions I had:

**Will my shoe be loose or become loose after taking it off and on?

The answer was no. When you first lace up the shoe, you decide how tight you want it (not crazy tight because you need to put it on) but you can still create a snug feel because the laces expand. They expand but they DO NOT become loose-er as you wear them. The Snap Disc (the pink part on my laces) prevents that from happening. I’ve taken them out for a few miles already and they’re just as snug as the first time I put them on.

**What do I do with the excess lace?

Do not cut. Cutting prevents you from being able to re-use the lace as the length my differ in your next shoe. Cutting will also cause the lace to fray. Instead, it is recommended you tuck the excess lace underneath the crossing of your shoe.

I do not feel the excess lace at all when I have the shoe on. I also don’t think there’d be a crazy amount left over for it to be an issue.

**What if I tie my laces in an unorthodox way?”

Doesn’t matter. You can tie your Slick Laces any way you want.

The Rundown:

Likes

–The big one: It can be used with any shoe even after your old pair are done for. (Yes, I do like to save money 🙂 )

–Easy installation. The instructions on the back are thorough and the company does a good job of detailing further in its video online.

–No more worrying about your laces coming untied. The worst is when you’re mid-race and have to stop to tie your shoe. Then you of course have to tie the other to make sure both are equally tight, right? Not a problem with Slick Laces.

–For the triathlete, when you’re transitioning from bike to run, all you gotta do is slip on your shoe.

–I tie my shoes the good ‘ol fashion way but have friends who do it differently. They’re not singled out with this product.

–Not just for runners. Slick Laces would be great for my kids as they begin to transition into big boy/girl shoes (kid lengths available) and for my grandma who is over having to bend down and tie her shoes (love you, Nana!).

Dislikes

–Not at a lot of color options for the Snap Disc at the moment (hello, where’s purple?!) but they have the basics down.

–Currently, laces only come in black.

This isn’t a dislike but just a head’s up: it does take more than a minute to lace the first time, but once you do, you don’t have to worry about anything ever again. Just slip on and go! 🙂

Before and after! 🙂

Jason was sweet enough to gift me another pair to give to ONE OF YOU!!! You’ll get to choose the color of the Disc so check out their website!

To enter, all you have to do is click on the Rafflecopter giveaway link below — A winner will be announced on Monday, back-to-school/work day for Helly 😀 (Giveaway is for readers in the United States only.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’re interested in Slick Laces but don’t wanna wait to see if you win, check out their website and treat yourself to some extra free time. 🙂

I was provided with a pair of Slick Laces to review but as always, opinions expressed on my blog are honest and my own.

–Have you ever had to tie your shoe(s) mid-race?

–Were you taught to tie your shoes using Bunny Ears?

Linking with Smitha and Erica for the Wednesday Giveaway Roundup!! Thanks gals!!

Chicago Marathon Training: Week 8 Recap (with special guest: Ronald McDonald’s Boot!)

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon Training and tagged with Boot, Charity Run, Chicago Marathon, Marathon Training, Ronald McDonald, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Running August 3, 2015

Happy August!!! Isn’t crazy how the 8th month of the year is here??

It was a busy week last week and not a standard training week as far as my runs are concerned. I had to do some changes to my schedule because of some family events and other surprises 🙂 .

Monday I was just lazy. I usually bike for 45 minutes but I just wasn’t feeling it for some reason so I gave myself a break. I intended to “make it up” later in the week and never did. Oops!

I kinda did on Tuesday though when I was able to get a double run in. First, I made it to the 5 at 5 group and ran a pretty good 5 miler, almost negative splitting except for one mile.

Then in the evening, I met up at the local running store’s run for a 3 miler. I was able to negative split this one despite the heat.

Wednesdays are usually track days but my kids had a school function later in the evening so I forced myself out late in the morning. It felt even hotter than what it was because of the humidity (54%) but I managed four negative split miles– 9:33, 9:18, 8:59, 8:35.

Thursday is when things got really interesting. My charity, Ronald McDonald House, posted a challenge on the Facebook page for runners to run a route shaped like a Ronald McDonald Boot.

For reference:

I relayed the info to my husband who designed the best. route. ever. Like, for real.

The only slight area of concern was that the back of the boot had me running through the Indian Reservation–which is quite a different area than where the rest of the route is. I wasn’t comfortable running that part alone. So my husband ran the route with me! 🙂

It was a route that was a little over 6.5 miles and we had to start late morning so it was warm. We had to run part of the route twice (the top half of the vertical back end). And at about half way through the boot near near where it curves, we took a wrong turn. Wah, wah!! We didn’t realize it til about over a half mile later and we knew going back would leave a huge line across the middle. We kept going even though we knew our boot run failed. When we got to the reservation part of the boot, sure enough, our concerns were validated as I turned to my husband and said, “Be careful with that dog over there” to hear him reply, “Um, that’s not a dog!” It was a freaking coyote!!! We did our best to run as quietly as we could past it and then skidaddled the heck out of there. A raccoon greeted us as well as we made our way out of the Res. It was definitely and interesting run.

We checked out the boot run on Garmin Connect and sure enough, our mistake messed up the boot and the front end.

We were so bummed!!! I told my husband there was no way we were running through the reservation again and he agreed. We stared at the map trying to figure out how we could re-route it leaving out the res but still maintain the boot shape. Then, we had it!!!

We couldn’t run it again til the afternoon of the next day, Friday, and we knew that it was going to be scorching hot, but we were intent on getting it done.

At one o’clock in the afternoon and in 102 degree weather, we were ready. And this time, zero mistakes!

You can see where we modified the route on the back of the boot where now it’s angled instead of straight and squarish. I ended up liking this design way better anyway 🙂

My family said we were crazy (it was 106 degrees when we finished) but I was so wanting to do this run because it was absolutely perfect. I mean, it’s a total boot!! And even cooler is that the bottom of it runs along McDonald Drive!! I mean, c’mon!! To top it off, there’s a McDonald’s on McDonald Drive. Yes, I took a picture 😀

A #TeamRMHC pic on McDonald Drive in front of a McDonald’s 😀

I don’t know if I’ll win, but I’ll keep you posted. They should be announcing Wednesday.

Since Fridays are my typical rest days and I clearly didn’t rest, Saturday I decided to give it a rest. I needed it.

But I was back at it Sunday on the trails with friends and one of them snapped this awesome pic of me looking like I was trying really hard not to die ❤

Which ended me with 33.58 miles for the week! I ended July with 124 miles–a tie for my highest ever. Luckily, I’m still feeling pretty good. Still truckin’!

Have a great week, amigos!! ❤ , helly

–How was your running week (and July!)?

–Have you run a route shaped like something cool?

A Look Back at July

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon Training, Running and tagged with Chicago Marathon, Marathon Training, Monthly Recap, Running July 31, 2015

Summer is officially over for me this week as next Thursday and Friday I return to work. One of my goals this summer was to really take advantage of the time off and get a good base of running. I wanted to really establish good habits and a routine because I knew once work came, my time would be more limited. If I had already set up a good base, I’d feel more motivated to continue with my training full force.

I am VERY happy with how I did this past month–the first official full month of training. So much so, that exactly what I wanted to happen, happened. I’m so motivated to keep it going with my training 🙂

A quick look at some numbers

My long runs:

Week 4- 8 miles at 10:07/avg pace
Week 5- 14 miles at 10:02/avg pace
Week 6- 15 miles at 9:57/avg pace
Week 7- 10 miles at 9:58/avg pace

I was very happy to see that I stayed consistent. This training I’ve been really working on making my long slow distance runs, slow. And while a 10 minute average isn’t really all that slow for me, it’s the pace I feel like I could run for a long time. I don’t feel like I’m over exerting myself and so far, I’ve felt like I could’ve kept going each time.

My speed work: (each workout was some variation of a drill that accumulated to 3 miles)

Week 4- 25:53, avg pace 8:37
Week 5- *16:08 avg pace 8:07 (*two miles; I had an allergic reaction)
Week 6- 24:04 avg pace 8:01
Week 7- 24:27 avg pace 8:08

Again, I am very happy with these numbers. Week 4 were mile repeats and Weeks 5-7 were Yasso 800’s (6×800).

Weekly Mileage:

Week 4- 21.83 miles
Week 5- 26. 02 miles
Week 6- 32.36 miles
Week 7- 22.12 miles

Thirty two miles in week 6 was my most ever for a week.

Monthly Mileage:

118.50 miles

I have a very exciting run today (that I’ll share with you once it’s done) that will increase this total mileage by about 5 or 6 miles. This will make it very close to my highest monthly mileage of 124 back in January.

The difference this time though, is that I don’t feel tired. (I was working in January however, so that’s a big factor.) I also think that my nightly rolling has helped my muscles and my Monday cycling days have helped. I cycled once each week, Weeks 4-7.

I have a good feeling going into August and back to work, that I’ll be able to maintain this momentum. I’ve seen my body change, I’ve seen improvements, and that’s all motivation to keep going strong.

This was a great July (even with the heat) 😀

Thanks for a great month, friends!! Here’s to an even better August! ❤ , helly

–How was your month of running?
–What keeps you motivated during your training? Seeing your numbers improve? Consistency with workouts?