Training Wrap-Up Week Five

Whew!  This past week was exhausting in my typically slow-paced life.
Every year, during the first week in October, we attend a conference in Atlanta (Catalyst).  This year everything changed at the last minute when the Government shut down.  Thank goodness my husband was not furloughed - but as an "essential" employee, he was prohibited from taking leave of any kind.  So, it ended up that I went and he stayed.... I hated that!  Also, one of my daughters was celebrating her 19th birthday so that party had to be planned (something I had not anticipated being a part of, but got drawn into!)
By the time I left Wednesday morning, I was already tired... then there were the 3 days of non-stop conference stuff and eating.  Yes, eating!  I realized that the only time I ever actually eat 3 full meals a day is during vacations.
I'm not sure how I survive the other 50 weeks a year!!

So, let's recap shall we?

• Days running: 3
• Long run: 9 miles
• Total miles: 19
• Runs while on vacation: 0 
• Days strength training: 1
• Best running-related discovery: denture cleaner!

The low point this week was my long run on Saturday evening.  After 3 days of "3 squares" I was tired, bloated and miserable!  The whole run was slow and laborious.  However, by Sunday evening I was feeling more myself and had my best run of this training season... 5 miles at a 10 minute steady pace!  That was a full 35 seconds per mile faster than I ran the same run last week!  

JOY!

My daughter's birthday party was a success!  It was a murder mystery party, where each guest came in character and one was revealed to be the murderer.  Here is the murder scene (in our guest bathroom):

Pretty awesome!!

I enjoyed the conference very much!  We had a special guest star: Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty.  I'm not really a fan of the show, but It was still neat seeing him in person (PS... he sounds exactly the same as on the show!)

Sorry about the lousy quality of the photos, but there were over 13,000 people there and all I had was a cell phone!

And now for my favorite new product!

A few months ago, I received some Bottle Bright cleaning tablets in this StrideBox.  I thought they worked great at cleaning our hydration belt water bottles, but when I looked them up to purchase more I found the cost way too high.  $10 for 10 tablets!!!!

So, I looked for an alternative, and thanks to helpful reviewers I discovered that denture cleaner works great on those hard to clean bottles!!

Best of all, 90 tablets cost me about $2!

First I fill the bottle about 3/4 full with warm water.  Then plop in a denture tablet:

It fizzes and starts cleaning right away!  I then put the top on and do a little dance and shake it all around (no reason I can't have fun, right?)  My next step is to open up the spout and squirt some of the liquid out so that the solution gets in all the crevices of my spout:

Been using this Amphipod bottle for about a year, so it's a little beat up!

If the bottle is really nasty, I leave it propped upside down somewhere for a while, then give it another shake and empty it out.  The denture cleaner is easy to rinse and - if anything- leaves a fresh minty smell behind.  I've never noticed any aftertaste.

So there you have it - an easy, low-cost option for cleaning your water bottles!

Any new products you have fallen in love with recently?