Category Archives: Reviews

See my vest: A RoadNoise road test

Posted on September 13, 2012 | 10 Comments

Guest post alert! Loyal long-time readers (you rock, by the way) will have noticed Hubby’s influence on this blog, especially in the shopping department. I let him loose this week for his second guest post…

There have been a few times when my shopping has been the inspiration for posts at Stride & Joy: Bunny Bars; Bai; Mamma Chia.

Most of these products we continue to buy in bulk. This must concern the delivery man when he is lugging up heavy boxes of beverages from Amazon and wondering why the hell these two can’t just order T-shirts! A few months back, he got his wish – something light, something filled with music, something that is making me run to a different tune.

I had tried a number of options for headphones during runs, but the wires would always get tangled, or the headphones would slide out of my ears because of the water I douse myself with. Sometimes I think the folks at the water stops must feel they are encountering Ted Striker when I throw another cup of water over my noggin’ . Well, if those folks are of an Airplane-appreciating age …

It became more frustrating on longer runs, and there are only so many runs with bands along the route. Something had to be done. So instead of resorting to running with a boom box, or backup vocalists, I was fortunate enough to find salvation from a group of fellow frustrated runners with some product savvy.

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Bai curious

Posted on February 9, 2012 | 12 Comments

It’s a truism that runners love free stuff. Big races are ideal places for companies to promote their latest energy-giving/electrolyte-restoring/brain-boosting/fast-making/life-altering products. At the end of an event, participants can often be seen trotting back to their cars car with their arms full of goodies, mostly of the edible/drinkable/wearable/coupon variety. (The Oscars themselves would struggle to compete on sheer swag volume.)

Bai Jamaica Blueberry

Best Bai!

Which is how we came upon Bai, a newish addition to the family of drinks that are 95% super-powerful-previously-undiscovered-awesome-ingredient-du-jour and 5% liquid (Mamma Chia also falls into this category).

Why single out Bai? Well, Hubby was clearly so enamored of the beverage’s “astonishing antioxidant power of 4,000 ORAC units” that he had to buy 24 bottles of the stuff. Savvy readers will recall his similar purchase of 48 Roco Choco Banana Bunny Bars this past Christmas. What can I say, the man likes his foodstuff in bulk form …

What the heck is an ORAC?

This vaguely menacing term stands for “oxygen radical absorbance capacity,” which is a lab value used to compare the antioxidant content of foods. Perfect to highlight on the side of your product. Completely baffling! Slightly scary! Yet intriguing!

Bai’s off-the-charts ORACity comes from “coffee’s secret superfruit,” the formerly unloved product of the coffee plant that has been reborn as a beverage superhero with “astonishing antioxidant power.” Here’s a helpful diagram that may clear up any confusion:

Bai: What is ORAC?

ORAC attack. From the Bai website.

In your face, blueberries!

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Posted in Humor, Reviews, Running

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Take the Bunny and run

Posted on January 6, 2012 | 10 Comments
Rocco Choco Banana Bunny Bar

Box o' bunnies.

We recently got a $50 Amazon gift card as half of an extremely generous Christmas present from my sister in Australia, and Hubby decreed that he would spend it. Go nuts, I said. (I got the iTunes half.)

He tossed around a few ideas, mostly of the unsexy we-need-it-but-it’s-nice-that-someone-else-is-paying-for-it variety. So you can imagine my intrigue when I happened upon a box on our porch that at first glance didn’t appear at all appropriately sized for a motion-sensor light (told you, unsexy). Further investigation revealed that this package in fact contained 48 Rocco Choco Banana Bunny Bars. That’s right, Hubby spent his $50 Christmas gift on 48 Rocco Choco Banana Bunny Bars.

Who knew Amazon even sold granola bars?

What does this have to do with running, you ask? Well, my Granola Bar Fiend (ie, Hubby) is always looking for his next good post/pre/mid-run hit, and he seems to have found it in the bunnies.

He was particularly swayed by the presence of chia. Those who read my post about the weird (but surprisingly tasty) Mamma Chia will recall that I was convinced Hubby is on the payroll of Big Chia, as he has so far brought both the seeds and copious amounts of the aforementioned beverage into my life. Well, this just confirms it! (For the uninitiated, chia is considered to be running fuel.)

Rocco Choco Banana Bunny Bar

Thanks to 18rabbits.com

But what does it taste like?

Normally, I’d rather munch on my own shoe than eat a granola bar. Mostly because when I eat a granola bar, it feels like I’m … munching on my own shoe. But, for the greater good, I decided to sample one-48th of Hubby’s Christmas gift while he was away on his weekend with the National Guard. Did I mention that he bought an entire box of granola bars?

The Bunny Bar is definitely yummier than your average shoe. Among the bars I have eaten (usually while trapped under something heavy, and out of options), it ranks extremely high. At least I can actually taste the banana. I’d probably eat one again, and I know Hubby is planning on taking these along as he attempts 12 half-marathons over the next 12 months, to complement my 52 Weeks, 52 Runs plan, so I’ll no doubt get the chance.

What I love about this product is that (a) it’s made in the US and (b) the company, 18 Rabbits, gives more than one percent of all bars it makes to kids in urban schools. Nice.

A non-granola bar postscript

A massive hello to everyone who came upon my blog thanks to its recent appearance on Freshly Pressed. I am truly honored to have you all as readers/followers and I hope you’ll enjoy my running journey insanity.

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These tights are hard core. Unlike me

Posted on November 23, 2011 | 11 Comments

CW-X Expert Insulator TightsWhen you live in Freezingtown, USA (also known as Boston), running outdoors takes on a whole new chilly, windy, frostbitery dimension – one I was quite unprepared for in the apparel department.

Apparently, I needed fancy new tights.

We’re definitely not talking your average, everyday gym leggings here. The stretchy marvels that were delivered to my abode yesterday, made by CW-X (the company also does compression socks – which still give me the fear), are from another universe™. They insulate, you see, with “WarmStretch™ temperature-regulation fabric to maintain a constant comfortable surface temperature in a variety of conditions – perfect for the cold weather athlete” (um, that’s me!) –  according to the CW-X website. They also feature Support Web™, which uses “kinesiology-taping technology to create an exoskeletal support system” (well, I do need all the support I can get).

The thing is, these tights are just so full of awesome, there’s no way I can possibly live up to them. (Did I mention that mine are called Insulator Expert Tights? That’s right, EXPERT.) I put them on and immediately feel like a fraud. They’re for marathon runners for whom a 5K is a casual jog around the block; not for me, who breaks into a lavish sweat after half a mile and still hasn’t managed to go 5K without walking.

They scream hard core where I scream: “Where’s the couch?”

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Mamma Chia: Can I resist ya?

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 5 Comments

Mamma Chia Rasperry PassionUntil recently, my only exposure to chia was in the form of those hairy Pets that were big in the ’90s (they also now come in the form of a chia George Washington and a chia Abraham Lincoln, which is just wrong).

But I learned via Hubby, who brought home a packet of chia seeds and implored me to make a pudding out of them (I haven’t yet), that chia is known as “the running food.” As lore has it, the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas could run all day  powered by these tiny seeds.

To test the theory, I warily consented to try Mamma Chia (also procured by Hubby, who seems to be on the payroll of Big Chia). This “vitality beverage” – which is apparently loaded with omega-3, antioxidants and other healthful ingredients du jour – claims to be “fun for your mouth – great for your body.” I was dubious.

However, as Australia is the world’s biggest producer of chia, I decided to give Mamma Chia a go – in the interests of national pride, of course.

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