Goodbye Runs on the High Line and Red Mango Giveaway Winners

Good morning!

One day until Friday! We can do this. Sourabh and I didn't end up making it to the beach on Monday since I had so much studying I needed to get done, but we did go to a nice local park and got amazing Indian food from a local restaurant. I had one of my favorite dishes, baingan bharta (an eggplant stew, basically), and it caused both of us to say "wowww" after tasting it.

Either the beach or a hike this coming weekend is going to be my reward for a good week of studying -- we're heading back to NJ again, just from Friday to Sunday evening. I definitely tried to earn it today, and I'm hoping the next two days will be equally productive!

Why does train travel seem so much nicer than air travel?

Tuesday night, after we got back from Jersey, I celebrated being back in NYC by sweating it out at Uplift Studios with the deceivingly perky Shannon (she seems so nice until OUCH you cannot lift another weight).

This class left me drained, but I loved every sweaty minute of it. Shannon had an awesome playlist that included old school hip hop and a few fantastic throwbacks, like Aqua's "Barbie Girl." This picture is basically a preview of what the lucky winner of my blogiversary giveaway will get: sweat, smiles, and sparkle. Yup, of course I wore a Sparkly Soul headband to Uplift! :)

Speaking of Uplift, I updated yesterday's post on free and discounted fitness around NYC after hearing that they are slashing class prices in half for off-peak class hours through Labor Day. Check out the updated post. If you can make those class times, take advantage of the great deal!

Yesterday morning, less than 12 hours after the class, I met Ashley for a farewell run. She's leaving today for Geneva, Switzerland, where she's been given an amazing work opportunity. I am so excited for her, but I'm sad that she'll be gone! Since marathon training started, we've worked out together several times since our marathons are the same weekend so we matched plans quite often. It was wonderful to have an early morning workout buddy and I'm sad to see her move!

Since she was working from home on her last day, and I had no plans besides studying, I offered to meet her in Gramercy for my 55 minute easy run. We headed west and hit the High Line. We'd planned on going down the West Side Highway, but Ashley proposed we run the High Line. I'd never run it before so I was totally game!

It was totally gorgeous and was such a fun new place to run in New York City! If you can make it down there before 9:00 AM, when the crowds start to arrive, you should. I'd walked it with my mom before, but it's a totally different experience to be running up above the sidewalk, with flowers and foliage at your sides and skyscrapers in your sightline.

After descending from the High Line, we headed toward the West Side Highway run path, logging a few more miles on that route, before turning back towards Chelsea and Gramercy. There was a nice breeze, which always feels like a huge blessing when the humidity is high.

Hudson filter for the Hudson River running shot, obvs.

The run turned into 50:45 minutes instead of the 55 planned minutes. We could have found a few loops to make it 55:00 minutes, but my legs were feeling extremely tired after Tuesday night's totally-awesome-but-totally-kicked-my-ass Strength class at Uplift Studios. The heat was also starting to beat down on us, and since we were right by the delicious Barry's Bootcamp protein shakes, we decided to end early. Yes, cold smoothies made our decision for us. You can't blame me, right, Coach Jess?

OH HEY, speaking of Coach Jess, look whose running coach was featured in Runner's World!!

I feel like a celebrity just for knowing her :) Although this morning I'm doing those hill repeats, so I may be less smiley after those...


Red Mango Giveaway Winners!

Temperatures on the East Coast continue to be absolutely sweltering, so I'm pleased to announce the three lucky winners of $25 in fro yo and smoothies Red Mango! They are...

Congratulations Brittany, Michelle, and Allison!! Please email me at jensbestlife (at) gmail (dot) com with your address so I can mail you the gift cards!


What do you do when you lose a training partner? What are your hot weather training tips? Am I going to survive hill repeats???

Sponsored: New Red Mango Frozen Yogurt Smoothies

Hi guys! 

I have an AWESOME giveaway for you today! That is, an awesome giveaway if you love smoothies and frozen yogurt. So basically, it's an awesome giveaway, because who doesn't love those? 

Now, before I go further, I should mention that Red Mango compensated me for this post. But I would not have accepted the campaign offer if I didn't already know that I liked Red Mango's fro-yo and, as they always will be, all thoughts and opinions on the products are my own.

But first, some background. Yesterday, after taking a Barry's Bootcamp class with Ashley, I headed downtown for jury duty. I had forgotten my change of clothes that I'd laid out the night before so I was wearing workout clothes -- at least I'd brought a pullover! 

If you've ever served jury duty, you know it's a lot of "hurry up and wait," as you're moved from one room to another, waiting to see if you'll be selected or not. Finally, at 12 PM, we were given a two-hour lunch break. So I headed immediately to Red Mango to try out their brand new SuperBiotics Summer Smoothies!

Red Mango just launched 22 brand new probiotic smoothie flavors and approached me about trying out one and blogging about it. I said yes immediately. You may have detected the hint of a smoothie obsession around these parts, and I love frozen yogurt, so there was no way I could say no. 

However, whenever I work with a brand, I make it clear that I reserve the right not to like the product and either not to blog about it or to be honest about my dislikes. Thankfully, that wasn't an issue -- these smoothies are delicious!

I ordered the Strawberry Energizer, with an energy boost, and it was exactly what I needed on a hot and humid day after a 6 AM Barry's class and several hours of jury duty (with more to come). The smoothie was sweet, but not too sweet -- just tasty enough to feel like a treat. And at 220 calories, I could pair it with something else for lunch, which kept me going from 12 PM until 5:30 PM!

The girl manning the counter was extremely helpful and not only discussed the smoothies with me, telling me that yes, they're made with fresh fruit (yay!), she also told me about their new fro-yo flavors, including Wild Raspberry and Lucky Taro. I tried both and they were fantastic! At that point, I basically wanted to make fro-yo my lunch, but knew the resulting sugar crash would leave me napping in a courtroom. Not the classiest start to my legal career.

But I'll be back for those flavors! And to taste more of the smoothie types because my Strawberry Energizer was seriously tasty. It was full of strawberry and banana and didn't have that sometimes-chalky taste you get at chain smoothie places.

I also love that the smoothies are made with probiotics, live bacteria in yogurt that have health benefits. Red Mango has a great infographic about their particular probiotics here.

Red Mango has also introduced new boosts for their smoothies, in addition to the protein, energy, immunity, and multivitamin boosts they already had. I'll let them tell you about the new boosts:

• Metabolic Fit 360™: A proprietary blend of protein, calcium and African Mango which supports metabolic balance and promotes healthy weight management.
• Dark Chocolate Mate: Finely ground, Brazilian roasted maté and dark chocolate; a delicious, rich, low-calorie flavor which also supplies a nice dose of antioxidants.
• Tropical Hibiscus: Finely ground, premium Nigerian hibiscus blossoms infused with natural pineapple and lychee; a bright and tropical low-calorie flavor and antioxidant boost.
• Green Tea Acai: Finely ground, premium green tea with açai berries, the Amazonian superfruit; a low-calorie antioxidant boost made with the best ingredients.

Giveaway!
Now for the giveaway: THREE of you will be winning $25 gift cards to Red Mango to try their new smoothies and fro-yo! 

You have four different ways to enter!

1. Leave a blog comment telling me what your favorite fro-yo topping combination is.
2. Tweet about the giveaway, using the following: "I want to win $25 to @redmango from @jensbestlife! bit.ly/14MeW5F" AND leave me a comment telling me you tweeted.
3. Follow me on Twitter AND leave a comment telling me you followed me.
4. Like my Facebook page AND leave a comment telling me you liked it.

The giveaway will end at 11:59 PM on July 9, 2013, so you have a week to enter.

And everyone gets to enjoy a discount to Red Mango that they have going on from now until July 5. All day, every day till Friday, Red Mango is offering their Super Biotic Smoothies for only $2 plus tax for the regular size. No coupon is required, just pop into your local location and try them out!

This post was sponsored by Red Mango. All thoughts and opinions are my own.