Running apps and smoothies

Two exciting things today that are indirectly workout related:

First, I was at the verizon store because my stupid phone (really, I love my phone) wouldn't charge. Of course, the moment the guy at the store plugged my phone in it started charging without a problem. I asked him if he would be willing to let it sit there and charge for a while and he agreed. Meanwhile I was looking around the store and found something very interesting. Motorola has released a fitness tracker called MOTOACTV. I was drooling over it. It is a GPS watch, heart monitor, pedometer, odometer, you name it. You can wear it as a watch, it has a clip, and you can even strap it to your bike to monitor your speed and whatever else bikers monitor. You can store music on it and it will learn what songs you best respond to and you can program call kinds of workouts which it will coach you through.

It was close to $300 in the store, but I was able to find it for a little over $100 on amazon. As I drove home, I was all but certain that I was going to buy it. It occurred to me, though, that I could find an app for my phone that might be able to effectively do the same things as the MOTOACTV. I was sort of disappointed by that realization, but decided it would be reasonable to look for such an app and give it a try before I spend way to much money on a device that does the same thing (though it is designed soley for that purpose, is sleeker and much lighter than my phone). Because I was not spending $100 I decided I could justify purchasing an app, as opposed to finding a free one, so I ended up spending $5.00 on Endomondo sports tracker. I didn't have much time to try it out, so I used it while I was driving to the gym. It was able to track my route and monitor my speed and distance. All without having to do really anything to set it up. I haven't had a chance to really explore it's capabilities, but it has ever different kind of sport imaginable as an option (including weightlifting!). It is also compatible with a heat monitor which I will probably purchase eventually. I still have a lot to learn, but for 5 bucks I think I got my moneys worth.

Now for the smoothie portion of this blog post. As I was driving home, I had an interesting idea for a smoothie recipe (now, hear me out!):

1 scoop vanilla protein powder
5-8 fresh strawberries
1 package strawberry greek yogurt
.5 can cherry coke zero

So sue me, I have a diet coke addiction. I must say that the smoothie was delicious. It was fizzy and refreshing. My only complaint was that it wasn't cold enough (the coke was room temperature) and it wasn't thick enough. Next time, I might try putting a banana in to see if that helps. I think I will start using this recipe for my AM smoothie, as the caffeine would be a helpful pick me up! :)