2017 Holiday Athlete GIFT GIVING GUIDE

TOP list of awesome items any athlete would love to get for Christmas this year!

Do you have an athlete, runner, triathlete or swimmer on your Christmas shopping list you need to buy for?

Here are some quick and great ideas of what to get them. 

Some of these ideas can be a gift themselves or maybe a small stocking stuffer. 

Get Arctic Cool wear for the golfer, runner or any athlete in your friends or family circle. Sure there is the popular crew workout shirt, but they also have polo shirts and tank tops made with the same material and various colors to choose from. Keep them cool during their workouts. I know it may be cold outside, right now where you are, or even snowing, but the summer heat is guaranteed to be back. 

ARCTIC COOL

Keep them on track with the Suunto Spartan WHR. This sweet GPS with optical heart rate monitor will gather workout data that can later be looked at and tracked.

The Orange Mud Hydra Quiver is perfect for keeping anyone hydrated out hiking or running. This great hydration pack can hold more than just a bottle, it can hold numerous items including gels, nutrition, cellphone, keys and much more. Check out their site for other hydration carrying options. 

ORANGE MUD

Or maybe Orange Mud's transition wrap! This too is on their website.  Perfect for bringing to the pool and using to dry off. Use it to protect your car seat inside your vehicle, or even use it to wrap around yourself to quickly change out of wet swim trunks, without fear of getting a ticket for indecent exposure.  

Cat-Ears will keep your cyclist safe by letting them hear others around them while riding. These simply strap onto any helmet's straps, placing them in front of the ear.  Air Streamz by Cat-Ears
are proven and very affective. For winter riding outdoors they also produce a great ear warmer/sound reducing Ear Cover, check them out and order them in a combo pack.

Cat Ears

Ear Cover, perfect for winter riding outdoors! 

Udderly Smooth body and foot cream will keep your runners feet and skin smooth or buy them a jar of Udderly Smooth's Chamois cream to keep them chafe free on long training rides and races.  Check out there full line of products. 

UDDERLY SMOOTH

Give them a little squeeze year round with RecoFit's calf compression sleeves. These are great for runner or cyclists. Recovery has never been so easy. 

How about the very innovative See.Sense smart front and/or tail lights.

The See.Sense 2.0, the ICON or mid 2018 the release of the ACE.  Intelligent 
technology, motion gesture control smart tail lights with CREE LED’s provides a 180 degree light pattern. 
Check them out at 

SEE.SENSE

The See.Sense 2.0

 The See.Sense ICON, connect to your smartphone with a blue-tooth app. 

And last but not least, maybe for the runner your shopping for that suffers from plantar fasciitis. The compression cold therapy decreases recovery time for athletes. Use it on your knees, ankles, neck or back.  Help joints recover fast with Frozen Peaz!  Theses can be used or either hot or cold therapy. Simply keep them in your freezer and apply after a tough workout. 

How about keeping their muscles loose and workout tight knots. The better than you typical foam roller, are Rumble Rollers. Check out the Rumble Roller itself or the new Rumble Roller GATOR and even the Rumble Roller BEASTIE.  All sweet products from Rumble Roller. 

RUMBLE ROLLER

or give them a pack of Pickle Juice Sport, proven to help fight cramps. 

Pickle Juice Sport

and even Olbas essential oil to use as Aromatherapy or massage oil. It works as both. 

OLBAS OIL

The Spruzza 

Keeping your cyclist cool with the Spruzza mist system. Forget dumping water over your head to cool off next summer in the heat.  Simply mist yourself.  It sprays your head, neck and chest to keep you cool while riding. Don't believe me? Check out my blog when I first tried it out. 

Spruzza Mist, trying it out and YES it works

So there you have it.  A ton of great gift options for the athlete in your family or your group of friends.  

Con-Cret!, Creatine HCI (Creatine Hydrochloride)

I am excited to be using Con-Cret!. The Creatine HCI (Creatine Hydrochloride) in Con-Cret will help with my endurance, increasing my strength and speeding up my muscle recovery.  Although I am not logging as many hours on the bike right now, I am working more with my weights. Wanting to build up some muscle this Winter and prepare for Spring. 

I am using the Con-Cret as directed. I take the power, two scoops, being I weigh just over 200 pounds. One scoop for every 100 pounds. The scoop is included inside the container. It can be taken before or after a training session.  Each scoop provides 750mg of Creatine HCI (Creatine Hydrochloride). I have tried both the Blue Raspberry and Watermelon flavors. Both very spot on to the taste. For those that don’t like to mix flavors in their drinks or find a flavor they like you can always take the supplement in a capsule form. They both have the same dosing, 1 capsule for every 100 pounds. Both the capsules and flavored powder have the same amount of doses in them.  They are easy on the stomach, even when taken on an empty stomach. Increase my water intake to help saturate my muscles with the Con-Cret Creatine HCI. 

I want to extend a discount for those that would like to try it themselves. For followers of mine, either twitter or my blog, you can get a 25 percent off discount by using the code “SMHacker25” when ordering. 

#promerasports #con-cret #sponsored #cretnation #training #muscle #ConCret #TeamConCret

Arctic Cool for the holidays!

Looking for the perfect gift for yourself or for someone on your shopping list?  Keep them cool during their workouts indoors and out. They will love the feeling of staying cooling during their hot workouts by wearing the Arctic Cool, cooling shirt, with HydroFreeze X. The shirt is very comfortable and stretches very well. The more a person sweats, they more they are cooled off. Mist the shirts fabric with water to start your workout with the cooling sensation or just let the fabric do the work and wait until you start to sweat. The fabric wicks sweat and moisture from your skin, leaving you cool and dry.  I have used and love using Arctic Cool’s products especially living here in Arizona. The cooling effect is more noticeable when you are moving through the air, but with a fan blowing on you at the gym will have the same cooling effect. The fabric material is made of 94 percent polyester and six percent spandex while treated to be anti-microbial.  Wash and care of the fabric can be washed in the machine with cold water and like colors. Arctic Cool says it can be put in the dryer but with all my technical clothing I prefer to just hang and let air dry.

Arctic Cool’s fabric with Hydrofreeze X Technology wicks the moisture away from your body and in turn uses it to activate the fabrics cooling properties. The shirt will reduce your temperature by up to 30 degrees. 

Get Arctic Cool wear for the golfer, runner or any athlete in your friends or family circle. Sure there is the popular crew workout shirt, but they also have polo shirts and tank tops made with the same material and various colors to choose from. Keep them cool during their workouts. I know it may be cold outside, right now where you are,or even snowing, but the summer heat is guaranteed to be back. 

Arctic Cool is the fastest growing apparel company that

incorporates cooling technology into it’s apparel. Arctic Cool is an American company, and is owned and

operated from the United States.

Software update for Suunto Spartan WHR

Suunto released the new version 1.11.56 software update for their Suunto Spartan WHR.  It now includes sleep monitoring as well as other improvements. 

Check out the new option for a watch face, that keeps you informed on when the sunrise/sunset is as well as the percentage of the moon that is illuminated. 

Up next....

Prepping for hiking the Grand Canyon at the end of this month.  Hiked 10 miles this morning with my wife at a local desert park. 

2017 Showdown at Usery Race Report

Race Day Recap

8 Hours of the Showdown at Usery Mountain Regional Park. 

It was awesome. I felt much better than last year, physically and mentally. The training leading up to it was tough, as I had a cold and some allergy issues about two weeks out from race day.  I tried everything to speed the recovery along.  Olbas oil in the humidifier was a huge help. 

The team I was on, of four riders, representing Gold Canyon Hearing, hit our expected goals to keep on track. The 10 mile course looked like this. 

*1:  51:40*

2:  46:40 

3:  52:20 

4:  47:37 

*5:  50:37* 

6:  46:42 

7:   54:39  

8:  48:48 

9:   47:57 

*10:  53:13*

*Official chip timed laps* 

Race morning stretched and warmed up in the campsite we were staying at. Felt hydrated and had a +Greens meal replacement, +PlusShake about an hour before the start along with a +Greens +PlusBar, Chocolate Energy. 

Bike was set to go the night before, everything dialed in and adjusted. 

I knocked out my first lap, including the 400 yard LeMans running start, with these times being recorded by my Suunto Spartan WR in 51:57, my second lap in 50:42 and third lap in 53:09. 

Felt strong after the run and getting on the bike.  My heart rate was a little high, but with the excitement I expected that. 

Between the laps I rode, I kept hydrated with water and kept food going in. 

Along with the +Greens +PlusBar, Chocolate Energy bar and +Greens +PlusBar, Natural Bar with 18 grams of protein, I also prepared small containers of white rice with mango mixed in for the carbohydrates as I was burning

1116 calories on the first lap  

1020 calories on my second lap 
and
946 calories on my last lap in the dark. 

The course was a mix of soft and hard desert. Winding turns and as the day went on some portions of the trail were very powdery. There is one optional section of the race where you can climb the Cat Peaks By-Pass, instead of riding the full distance around, possibly for some shaving some time and distance off their lap. 

I am not a huge fan of sports drinks, as the sugar content tends to upset my stomach, but stayed hydrated all day using PickleJuice to keep electrolytes in my system helping stay hydrated and avoid cramping. The weather started off cooler than usual with some cloud cover, and even a sprinkling of rain. That changed as the day went on as the heat arrived later on. 

We ended the 8 Hour race with 10 laps and a time of 08:20:08. As long as we crossed the start/finish line before the end of the eight hours, which we did. We were able to complete that last lap. 
We finished in the Male Quad division in 10th Place. 

After talking with my team after the race was over, we started thinking of what we can do to get our times even lower than they already are. 

Under a week away from race day!

Less than a week away from race day and I'm about 93 percent ready.  A few more training rides and I will start to put in place everything I will need for race day.  The weather looks to be in the mid 80's for a high and low 50's for the day.  I have finally kicked an allergy/sick bug that hit me about ten days ago.  My training has kept going, with difficulty breathing after a hard workout. Coughing keeping me up at night.  Thankful that is over and my nights are back to getting restful sleep.  

With three other teammates, I will be putting in a lap with some good rest in between and time to get some fluids and food to replace what I have spent.  Looking forward to the competition. Excitement it starting to creep in.