M80 Roller Review

April 7, 2015 by Zucchini Runner in Review | 1 Comment

A little over a month ago the recovery fairy delivered this amazing M80 Roller to me.

Ok ok, there is no recovery fairy — but wouldn’t it be cool if there was?! She/He could just wave a magic wand and POOF your muscles are magically ready for the next workout! Well, I may not have received it from a magical fairy, but when things are provided to me from my connection with Run Eat Tweet AZ, it certainly feels like I’m winning something! I could not WAIT to try it out! And guess what?! YOU could win one of your very own as well… keep reading to find out how. 🙂

Let me start out by giving a brief history of my experience with foam rolling. Very brief. I’ve been using a foam roller pretty consistently for the past 3 years. It became a necessary tool in my arsenal of recovery tactics. But after a while, it started to lose it’s impact. I think you can see why in the photo below… a little misshapen.

So I “upgraded” to this ~~medieval torture device~~ rumble roller. Which was OK, but honestly since it got SO deep it was a little hard to talk myself into rolling on that sucker. So, you guessed it, I didn’t end up foam rolling at all. That’s a running NO-NO.

(Here is a side-by-side comparison of all 3 for size, shape, etc.)

But the M80 Roller seems to be JUUUUUST right! (Zucchini Runner and the Three Rollers… new book title?)

So, over the past few months I’ve been adjusting to my orthotics, which have completely alleviated my plantar fasciitis, but seem to have created a new problem — a tight left hamstring. Rolling on the M80 Roller gave me IMMEDIATE relief! It was painful, but the right kind of painful and I could easily reduce the pressure like my orange foam roller. Their website describes it perfectly: “M80 Roller goes back to the basics of what Self Myofascial Release (Deep Tissue Stimulation) really is.”

Due to the firmness of the roller and the overall design, it didn’t give way under my weight or smoosh into the carpet either.

It took less time to get relief and when I stood up to walk around, my hamstring didn’t feel tight! WIN!! You can see the amount of foam padding on the very firm cylinder.

Needless to say, I’ve been using it QUITE a bit over the last month… 🙂

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So, how can YOU win one of your very own? It’s SO EASY to enter! Just head on over to the Run Eat Tweet AZ’s Facebook page and comment on the latest M80 Roller giveaway post of the day! We are picking ONE winner each day until this Friday, so don’t hesitate to enter! I already missed out on ONE of the days for you guys sorry — I’ve been really sick. 🙁 Go enter. Now. Check it out. This is an awesome opportunity you won’t want to miss. (USA residents only please.)

Virtual 5k Run for Courtney

August 11, 2014 by Zucchini Runner in Running | 10 Comments

The great thing about the running community, is that you really only need to find out another person loves to run as much as you do — and then you are immediate friends. Back at the end of June, at the first ever #RunEatTweetAZ meet up, I felt that way x7! We all met at South Mountain’s San Juan road, ran some hot miles and headed off to breakfast afterwards. I left there happy as could be at all the new friendships and connections we had all made. You can read more about #RunEatTweetAZ from it’s creator, Jeremy Heath on his blog Confessions of an Amateur Athlete. There is also a Facebook page if you are interested in joining the group!

Saturday was our third meetup, and while I feel all our meetups are special, this one was extra special. It was the #RunEatTweetAZ Virtual 5k for Courtney. We know of Courtney through one of our fellow #RunEatTweetAZ members, Traci. Here is a blurb, pulled from Traci’s site, about Courtney’s situation:

At 21 years of age, Courtney has been diagnosed with a rare form of childhood liver cancer called Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma. On June 24th 2014, Courtney was admitted into Mayo Hospital in Phoenix to have a liver resection to remove part of her liver and a lymph node in her chest. Unfortunately, her surgeon discovered that the cancer had spread to the healthy part of her liver and the surgery could not be completed. She is currently seeking treatment from Mayo in conjunction with MD Anderson in Houston, TX. Friends and family have been helping as much as possible to assist with raising funds to help cover her medical costs and travel expenses during her battle. Please assit in participating in this Virtual 5k, or donate directly here.

As runner friends do, we all jumped at the opportunity to support Traci and Courtney in raising funds. A special thanks goes to Jeremy, for organizing this as our third meetup! We even created bibs, and I made a special keepsake one for Courtney per Traci’s request. 🙂

It was an early start to avoid the blistering AZ heat, so I set everything out the night before!

Early… but beautiful. 🙂

Jeremy (also known as the Selfie King) even let me test out his go-go-gadget extension arm for taking perfect running selfies. 🙂

There was no racing in this 5k, we always waited for the rest of the group at the street crossings. 🙂

There was some serious talking going on here between Sugar Coated Athlete and myself.

Snagged this great shot of my new buddy Da Silent Assasin, doesn’t this pic just make you smile? You can really feel the aloha 🙂

shane

After all the running was done, we of course went to breakfast and chatted for a good long while, until going about our “normal” days… at the ripe ole hour of 8:30 a.m.

Such a great group! From left to right: Cole (Traci’s son), Shane, Traci, Mike, Missy, Amy, Michelle and Jeremy. You can follow any of these awesome people on Instagram through these names/links: cole_story__bro, dasilentassassin, teporterrun4fun, photoaz33, sugarcoatedathlete, gofastmommy, runningthriteenpointone, and runner_blogger_az