While I was out on my tempo run this morning I was thinking about a few things that I love for running.  The first one is my SPI belt.  I got it at the Portland Marathon expo in 2011 and there isn’t a week that I don’t use it when I run.  I have the original one but it is water resistant and has the loops to put gels/gus on.  I also have the thingys that you can add to attach a race bib.  I would be lost without it!  It sits in place and holds my iPhone, key, and iPod nano perfectly while running.  It never bounces around regardless of what I am wearing.

My next favorite things is my running back pack, the Wink by Ultimate Direction.  If I have to go run for more than an hour I prefer to take this because it helps with all the food and water needs.  It fits like a dream.  Holds everything I need and I have never had any problems with it.  I used it on my first 50K trail run and I am using it for all my marathon training.  It allows me to have everything I need while running and to carry it comfortably.

Getting ready to start the day!

My last favorite thing is the book Run Less Run Faster.  I have been using this book to train for running races for the last two years. I bought it over three years ago but was intimidated by the workouts; they are hard!  Once I got more confident in my running ability I used this book to qualify for Boston by running a 3:34 and set a half marathon PR of 1:41.  The book is easyish to follow (some of the workouts can be hard if you don’t own a Garmin or have access to a track).  But it works!   That is what counts in my opinion.  It also works great for triathletes since it requires cross training.