activelink, revisited

Yesterday on my Facebook page, Christy P asked about ActiveLink -- thoughts now that it had been a while with it.  And that was a great idea for today's blog post!

In all, I'm pretty pleased with it.  First the pros:

1. It speaks our (Weight Watcher) language as my group leader Lisa says.  That's a really big point.  I don't need to worry about converting anything or getting stuck in the micro of steps, etc.
2. I was most definitely over crediting myself for activity points... Way way over!  I think the 7.5 mile run I did last Saturday would have gotten me 20+ points before but it was only 8 for the day in reality.  That's a monster difference when you're running to lose weight.  Even my shorter weeknight runs were netting me 3 or 4 where now taken into account on the whole day (and my very sedentary desk job), I'm killing it if I get one (yay - a point!)
3. Even though it doesn't tell me where I am with points specifically (more on that in the cons), you do get a feel for the lights relative to your point scale -- and they are different.  Initially, 6 lights (=150% of target) barely got me a point or two.  Now I know I probably have one if I'm at 100% with the next light blinking (i.e., it's somewhere between 100-125% of target).  Target is the key here.  Where initially my target was lower, the lights meant less over 100%, if that makes sense.  Now my target is a little more active and I don't need to get as far over 100% to start scoring.
4. The battery is amazingly good.  I've left town for 5 days and it's hardly needed recharging when I finally plugged it back in.
5. It has made me more aware of my movement but this is kind of a neutral vs good or bad for me -- I know how what I'm doing impacts my day (very good) but it hasn't really inspired me to move more (not as great).

That said, there are two big cons:

1. There is no way to tell on the face of the devise how many points you have actually earned.  As I note above, I can tell when I'm positive but when you're on vacation and doing a lot of walking (and a relatively higher amount of eating and need the extra points), you have no idea where you are unless you drag a computer with you (which I haven't done).  This is specifically a Disney thing.  On my last Wed-Sun family trip, I was completely flying blind on Fri and Sat -- I had definitely eaten more than my allocated points and extras for the week but I was pretty confident that I had them covered with sheer miles walked.  (Sunday I knew my points reset so I could just "pay" for that in the following week.)  Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as covered as I thought.  This is a big point for me since I'm so much less likely to be good and tracking and such when I'm out of my comfortable routine at work and home -- that's when I need good information the most.
2. There is no wireless sync -- you can't see your progress on your smartphone.  This would take care of #1 above but vastly improve the whole interface.  Other similar devices have so it's not new technology.

Bottomline, I'm pleased with the purchase -- and if WW upgraded to a wireless version and would talk to my phone, I'd buy it with no complaint.

Hope that helps any of you considering a purchase.  What have the rest of you found?

hotlanta . . .

Wed training run - 1.4 miles in 30 min
Pace:  21:26

I definitely slowed down for the run last night.  It was suddenly over 80 degrees at 6:30 pm here in the Atl.  Yow.  That was an unpleasant and unexpected surprise!

Conventional wisdom is to slow the pace in the heat, but I still felt a little bit like a slug for doing it, particularly as I needed to shave off the additional 8 min the rest of the group was doing to get to a meeting.   A short-cutter and a slug!

epiphany of the week . . .

Random comment from Weight Watchers meeting this past week that really resonated with me:

Snacks and treats are different things.

Huh?  Huh.

Think about it:  your daily snacks should by and large be as nutritionally worthy as your meals.  Treats are just that -- something special.  So not an 8 pm calculation of [remaining points for the day divided by chocolate] as I'm prone to do...

This sheds a whole new light on my late night "snacking" which has traditionally been mostly treat-laden.

zippy turtle . . .

Mon training run - 1.66 miles in 30 min

Pace: 18:07

I tried hanging with the 30/30 group last night as I didn't have anyone specific to run with.... I made it about 5 min but they were just too fast.  Five minutes though -- that's good.

Whew though.  I kept pushing and finished the 30 min with an 18:07 pace (i.e., smokin' for me!)

I'm also glad I didn't quit 11 min in.  I was so tempted -- it was Monday, I was tired, I was by myself, etc.  I wonder if you ever get over that mental battle?  I just kept thinking about Dumbo being only 3 1/2 mo away at this point and how sitting on the wall waiting for everyone to get back wouldn't get me across that finish line...

the power of the group . . .

Sat long run - 7.6 miles in 2:46

Pace: 21:51

Whoa. The last 3 miles of Saturday's long run were definitely rough. I was hot. I was tired. I was over it...  And (worst of all), there was an oh so convenient shorter way back to my car between mile 5.5 and 7.5 (only half a mile vs 2).

But I pushed through and finished with the help of my running peeps. Yay me!  (And, seriously, everyone needs running peeps!)

7.6 miles. Whew. It's been a while.

weekend to do list . . .

Big weekend . . .

Mother's Day is Sunday (hi, mom!) and I'm running 7.5 miles tomorrow morning.  It's been a while since I've gone that distance.

Time for a nap!

something new . . .

Wed training run - 1.76 in 36 min

Pace: 20:26

P came to run with a pedometer last night.  Huh.  (She works for a very very large company and they're having a healthy living challenge with prizes and stuff.) 

I wondered what was going on when she wanted to loop around a way we don't usually go -- good change, making it a little harder -- but then things clicked when she pulled the pedometer out after our run.  She was at 5,500+ steps but I'm not sure if that was for just from our run or for her whole day.  (I don't really think in steps-math.)

This could be interesting.

a wild adventure . . .

Expedition Everest Challenge race report:

5K: 56:32 - Pace: 18:29

Clue Hunt: 1:02:01

Net time: 1:58:33 

I finished in under 2 hours... Woohoo! And, my 5K was slightly faster than my last one.  Double woohoo!

This was a hard race though.  The 5K went well but having to then re-run (re-walk) the park for the clue portion was unexpectedly difficult.  I was kind of done in my head with the 5K finish push and just couldn't get back in the groove.  In fact, once I crossed the finish line the 2nd time and realized the party was back in the park (a 3rd potential loop), I decided against the party.  I think I would have gone if I'd been there with a group but I was toast by then...  And I had my medal so I was good!

I do have to say that I loved the clue part... I was good at that and got all 4 intermediate clues without prompting.  I also solved the final puzzle but it took more time than I would have liked.  If I were a faster walker post-5K, I could have done much better on that part!  (Or if they'd just let us stand at the finish and work the puzzles -- lol.)

Driving home, I realized that my next race is Dumbo... in California.  Wow -- that seems to be at the same time both a very long away and very very (very) soon.  I have a lot of training to do!

The weekend in pictures:

Arriving at Expo . . . . Definitely the smallest runDisney race I've ever done.  No one was in overflow parking.

I do love all the EEC props.  Even though I won't ride Expedition
Everest, I think it's one of the best section of any Disney park.

Packet pickup was in the Braves stadium.  (Not sure what they really call it but it's where the Braves play.)

I did make it into Epcot.  This is what happens when you don't pick a language on Spaceship Earth.  Cool!

I got to the race with plenty of time to spare, parked and made sure to take a picture
of where I was.  Good thing, too -- I got turned around leaving as they were already
breaking down the start area by the time I left and things looked different.

Scouting out the finish area just before the race.
You pass over the timing mats here twice for the 5K and at completion of the clues.

The last puzzle involved using all of the 4 prior clues to create a symbol (in the middle) that matches
one of the bib symbols (the white one).  To get your medal, you point to the correct symbol.  I'm not thinking
many people got it right as the person that gave me my medal was inordinately pleased with I actually got it right!

And there's nothing better than coming back from a race to treats from the hotel (coffee drinks and macarons - yum!)
Thanks to Caribe for (once again) taking such good care of me!

And, of course, this is what I went for...

Cool, right?  :)

Sorry about the wackadoo picture orientation above... Blogger seems to get a little weird with lots of pictures (at least for me!)

catching up . . .

Mon training run - 1.5 miles in 30 min
Pace: 20:08

Last night was one of those run nights where you really hope it's cancelled... and  then once it's done, you're really glad it wasn't.

It was a little misty but it wasn't unpleasant.  It was also overcast and slightly cooler.  All good things.

It was really hard to get moving though.  I had a particularly mad day at work and I was scrambling to make it to run.  Pair that with residual weekend tiredness and I was a bit of a slug.

But we did our 30 min.  Yay, us.  Yay, me!

Note: EEC race report deferred just a little longer.... But it's coming.

yawn!

Race report on EEC (hopefully) tomorrow... For today, I'm just focused on not falling asleep on my keyboard.

may the fourth be with you

shop 'til you drop

Quickie run Disney EEC Expo vendor notes (for those of you interested):

Only a few vendors including New Balance, Sweaty Bands and Raw Threads are on hand:
- New Balance does have shoes but at basically an hour after opening (if that) all the popular women's sizes were gone. By the time I realized you need to talk to the girl with the shoe tickets before trying them on she only had women's 10.5 or bigger or 6 and smaller... It looks like she had a bigger stack of the men's left but they're not Minnie.
- That said, it seemed like they were planning to have a lot more tomorrow since more peeps picking up on Sat than Fri for this race. If you want these, do packet and shirt pick up AFTER heading to the shoes and find that ticket girl first!
- RawThreads.com does have a bunch of the Boston shirts. They have a good range of their villain and princess shirts but nothing really in the XL or XXL ranges. A very nice man did tell me to preorder for pickup before fall Disney races when they're stocked back up and I'll save shipping...
- Official runDisney section was pretty small but I really liked the official EEC for-purchase tech shirt. Really it was just a couple of EEC variations of shirts but nothing else (no magnets, jackets, etc).
- There is a surprising limited amount of generic runDisney and in training merchandise... A few shirts, 13.1 and 26.2 (but not generic rD) magnets and 1 white cap. It really was about the same range you see over at Downtown Disney.

my happy place . . .

I think it's going to rain all weekend.

The race itself starts at 10 pm.... And there are obstacles (disney-fied, but still).

Everyone that might have come with me had one conflict or another.

But I'm still a happy camper. And I will finally conquer this race after missing it due to last year's unfortunate bowling incident.

Plus today is Expo day. I love Expos..., even little tiny ones.

the rough day(s) before a good weekend. . .

Arghhhhh! I'm trying to get out of town early today, so of course everything went crazy at work yesterday. And the network is down this morning. (Blogging from the phone...)

I gave up my run last night and my weight training this morning to try to get a grip on it all, but still ended up working way too late and then going home to pack. Now I'm waiting for the IT guys to fix stuff so I can actually do the work I absolutely have to do before I can go...

It's going to be a long day!

mixing it up a little . . .

I mentioned over on Facebook the other day that my mid-afternoon yogurt was starting to gross me out.  (I'm not a Greek yogurt fan but am ok with the Yoplait Greek... At least until recently.)

So one suggestion was cheese...  And I love Babybel Light.  I was going to have that with a few crackers as my afternoon snack today but I realized that was actually higher in points than my morning oatmeal.  So today, I had the cheese and crackers for breakfast and I'm saving the oatmeal for my mid-afternoon snack.  (I was out of produce in the house is morning so -- I know, I know -- I need to add fruit or a veg to this, too...)

We'll see how that works, but I'm really trying to do a better job of evening out my calories (vs always falling into Nancy Clark's dreaded Crescendo Eating -- light breakfast and lunch followed by heavy evening calories).  It's a struggle but we'll see how this works.