Three Things Thursday

 1. After a very nice week of beautiful fall weather a storm rolled in Sunday night and left us with a very frosty countryside Tuesday morning when I left for work.  I thought it would be all melted off by the time I got home from work, but it had stayed foggy at home all day and it was so beautiful.

 The frost was a good one and a half inches long on everything. 

Remember this guy?  Rocky was more interested in my giving him his supper than watching me take pictures of all the frost. 

2. The kids had school pictures recently.  Cade isn't very impressed with his. I think it looks like he is about to say something.  He didn't want to do retakes so we will just stick with it I guess.

Avery looks so grown up in hers.  Hard to believe my baby is in kindergarten!

yesterday was much sunnier than Tues and Mon

3.  I ran 4 miles on the beautiful snowy frosty roads yesterday.  I really do love running in this kind of weather. It was 25, sunny and a minimal wind.  It just feels so invigorating.  The bad foot felt good and I wanted to run and run and run, but I did the smart and boring thing and quit at 4.  Hard to believe I only ran 3 times all of October.  November better be a different story!

Did I mention it was beautiful out? Did I mention I love running in the winter.

 (disclaimer: I reserve the right to whine about winter running when the weather gets really cold or when I am ready for spring)

What about you winter runner lover or do you just stay inside and miss out all winter? 

Perky Jerky Review and giveaway

A couple of months ago I was sent a Kona Kase that had some Perky Jerky inside.   I love jerky so I was pretty excited about it.  I was so excited in fact I emailed them and asked if they could send me some other flavors to review on my blog and asked it they were interested in supporting Team Beef/ Montana Running Rancher at our Ragnar in Colorado.

They were super awesome and sent me a box full of Perky Jerky.  A box full of samples for the team to enjoy and help keep us fueled at the relay and several larger bags of different flavors for me to try out.

How Perky Jerky came to be:

Our story -- like most good stories --- begins with two Jerks in a ski lodge. After a long, hard night of energy-drink-cocktail-fueled libation, these jerks settled in while the winter storm raged outside. The next morning they awoke, loaded up their gear, and headed out to the mountain. Amongst this gear was an open bag of peppered beef jerky, which had, unfortunately became drenched in some of the energy drink that had been carelessly spilled the night before. On the first lift up, it made no difference. To these jerks, jerky was the only breakfast they needed, altered or not. Much to their delight, the jerky had retained its original flavor, but was more tender by the accident. What's more, as they floated their way down the mountain through bottomless powder, they realized they'd been given an extra boost - the jerky had taken on some of the pep of the energy drink. On the next lift ride up, the greatest innovation in jerky since cracked pepper was born.

Since then, these Jerks developed a very sophisticated process for making Perky Jerky. The result? Just the best tasting, most tender jerky around. The bonus? Perky Jerky is now the ultimate snack to help get you up the mountain, down the slope, or off on whatever adventure you decide..

My thoughts

• The beef is better than the turkey (I could be unfairly biased)
• It is moist and tender (especially the beef)
• I think it is a great snack alternative
• I often get tired of sweet snacks so it is nice to have something a little salty and full of protein, and with an energy kick.

My favorite flavors are the Sweet and Spicy and Teriaki Beef flavors. 

 The only flavor I didn't try was the Hot and Bothered flavor. 



Perky Jerky is

• a healthy low calorie, low/no fat, low carb, and loaded with protein snack
• contains no nitrates, preservatives or added MSG
• flavored with a hint of Guarana
• all natural, tender premium jerky

and since I came home with some bags of jerky from the Ragnar in Colorado I am going to share the love and give some away.  If you want to be entered to win some single serving bags, just comment below.   I will pick two winners using random.org on Monday November 4th.  Each will win three bags or Perky Jerky.  YAY!

disclaimer.  I was sent Perky Jerky to review and for Team Beef Montana. I was not compensated in any other way or required to give a positive review. All opinions are my own.

You can check them out on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter if you want.  I do.

in a ski lodge. After a long, hard night of

Monday Motivation and Weekend Wrapup

It is so easy to take running for granted when you are healthy and running good.  This year that has not been my story.  I like to think I have learned a lot this year about listening to my body.  In April I felt pretty invincible and pushed my body when I should have been resting.  Then I kept pushing it just a little instead of just resting.

It is so hard for me too rest, but as a result it took my quad way longer to heal than if I had just RESTED.  So when I hurt my foot I didn't mess around.  I rested.  If an activity hurt my foot I avoided it.  Except for walking at work I had to do that.  I iced. I elevated. I massaged. 

It is feeling better now but instead of going right out and running 5 or 6 miles on it, I did on easy 2.25 Friday and then went back to the elliptical for the rest of the weekend.  Maybe a little over conservative but at this point I have nothing but time.  There are no race deadlines looming, just a long cold Montana winter.  and since the snow is blowing straight across the field this morning I bet today is another play it safe day.

I am missing those long runs the 7-10 mile variety.  I think that is my favorite distance to run.

We had a fun weekend.  My son scored his first touchdown in flag football.  To say I was proud of him would be conservative.  He plays so hard and wants it so bad!

After his football game we ran to the car and drove to Bozeman for the Bobcat football game.  We missed most of the first quarter (but it was worth it for Cade's first touchdown).

Not sure why Cade looks so grumpy here, he really was not.  Guess he didn't want his picture taken.

See all smiles with Champ! 

 
 
 
 
 
 

How was your weekend? 

So I made a dipstation

Since I am not running I have a lot of time to do things I have been putting off so I made a dip station  with PVC pipe that my husband had laying around.  Since I was using what we had it is made from 2" pipe, I think ideally it would have been made out of 1 1/2" pipe to make gripping it a little easier, but this works  great too and I am not complaining.

 It was fun to get to play with power tools and cheap to make since we had most of the parts already.  I did have to buy the end caps and a couple T-connector things.  My kids helped decorate it with some bright tape too.



it is hard to make a happy face while doing dips...fact

My husband is thrilled that now I have another piece of exercise equipment he can trip over and hang laundry on.  It is great for other exercises besides doing dips.  Like... pullups on one bar

 or two

 Knee raises.. you are welcome for another constipated face.

 and how about some elevated pushups.  Aren't you glad you can't see my face in all the pictures?

pretty sure there are more things I can do with this.  My kids list of things to use them for making tents, obstacle course races and ninja training. 

Are you a bored injured runner and want to make one too, or just want to make one?  Here is what you need. Remember I used 2" pipe, but I have seen them made with 1 1/2" pipe and think it actually would be better that way, just make sure you buy quality stuff so it holds up!

I also recommend some PVC pipe glue, but be sure to put the glue on BEFORE you really get the pipe in the connectors good.   I used colored duct tape on the top of mine to make it prettier. 

Do you make your own workout equipment so you don't have to buy it?  I do :)

Three Things Thursday

1. Since my team got 2nd in our division in the Ragnar Relay in Colorado we all got these cool relay baton awards.  Since we didn't stick around for the award ceremony they were mailed to our team captain and she in turn mailed them out individually.  I got mine in the mail yesterday.

My kids were really impressed and I was tempted to sleep with it.  I  still think back on that first leg of the relay with such joy.  It was a perfect run if there ever was one.

2. I also finally earlier this week got the Ragnar jacket I had waited forever to order.  It had been out of stock forever.  I have been wearing it everywhere. Now I can carry my baton around with it and be super geeky. 

3.  My plan is to do a test run next week. Sadly this perfect fall running weather will be gone by then but I want my foot to have lots of time to heal.  I did not like limping around!!!  It is nearly back to 100%.    It is a little bit of torture to have to not run with the weather so perfect right now.  TORTURE!

What I am doing since I am not running

Foot update...  nothing new to report really.  It does a little better every day and I am guessing it will be at least another week before I think about running again.  I really want to have it healthy so I don't reinjure it. 

I miss running dreadfully but after then kind of year it has been for running what is another couple of weeks of no running.  Not much in the big picture.

I am able to get on my elliptical finally and work up a sweat.  That feels amazing.  Not the same as getting outside and getting a good run in but better than nothing!  I probably could hop on my bike but it has been windy and cold and I am just as happy to slog away on the elliptical and watch Netflix.

Seriously sometimes I wonder how I survived without Netflix.  I used to read magazines or books while on the elliptical and that helped but watching a movie really makes the time fly by.

I bought this for my husband over the weekend. 

He is pretty sure our house is 5x more homey now since we have a teapot that whistles.  Excuse the dirty stove. 

I also recently purchased a food strainer after borrowing one from a friend at work and loving how easy it made making applesauce.

I made three batches of applesauce over the weekend.  I canned a bunch of applesauce in single serving size jars so they are great for putting in lunches.    I even bought a bigger pot so I can make bigger batches.  (This no running thing seems to be hard on my wallet) Suddenly I have so much more time on my hands for shopping.

Next I will have to get some more shelves for the basement and or pantry.  It is getting crowded in there with all the canning I have done this year.

this is a small portion of the top shelf, I can't show anymore, it is too messy.  The kids like to play in the pantry.

kind of over canning and I still have three buckets of apples...  it is just so much work!

I have also been doing some older Bodyrock.tv workouts with Zuzanna.  Mostly picking out ones that are low impact for the sake of my foot.  I did this workout yesterday slightly modified with my kettle bell and home made dip station. By the end I was wiped.

The kids had a busy weekend of playing with cousins, Grandparents, and various other family members and having cousins over to play.  Lots of fun and action and both kids were asleep last night before 8.  YAY

Tell me a highlight from your weekend!

Three Things Thursday

1. Yes I am still not running.  My foot is starting to feel better and I am making sure not to do anything crazy.  Since I don't have any races in sight I have decided to just concentrate on getting all healed up.  I did ride my horse for about an hour and a half yesterday while helping my husband sort off some pairs and had no issues with it.  YAY! I was also able to push quite a bit harder on the elliptical and if it warms up enough I am hoping to go for a bike ride soon.

2. I told myself I wouldn't buy any more running clothes while currently on my injured and not running status, but I failed that when I made a trip to Target.  These great shorts were 50% off  and this shirt was very reasonable and will be great for winter running.

I didn't realize how much I needed to clean my mirror until just now..  Kids are so messy!  The shirt is fleece lined and warm!  I wore it while riding my horse this morning in 36 degree weather (with two other layers) and stayed warm except for my fingers which were freezing!!

and the big reason I had to have the shorts was that they match my yellow Swirlgear shirt and my green Handful bra.  Sometimes the smallest things can make me happy.

3.  Everyone else seems to be weighing in on it so I will too.

Weight loss is hard, getting into shape and staying there is hard.  Doing it all with kids and a full time job makes it all even harder.  I only work part time, but it has always been a priority for me.  Sometimes people comment that it must be nice having a good metabolism or not having to ever worry about my weight. 

I work for it.  I know it is harder for some people but I have always since college made it a point to stay in shape and healthy while I see people who have not.  I don't agree with the people who are being mean to Maria over her picture.

Personally when I saw it I thought "lucky her she didn't get stretch marks all over her belly like me" .  I find the picture inspiring.  She looks good.  Does everyone need to look like her? Certainly not, but in a country with an obesity epidemic I applaud her and if she motivates even one person to change their life.. awesome.  I hate that people are hating on her for looking good and wanting to motivate others. 

Maybe her "what's your excuse" is a little harsh for some, personally it motivates me,  but I also have never weighed more than 150 while not pregnant so I don't understand the viewpoint of an obese person. 



 
 
 
 
 

A runner needs to run.

Well today is day 13 of no running. 

My husband kept asking me yesterday what my problem was.  Apparently I am a little crabby.  A runner needs to run. Makes life better on so many levels.

It's been 13 days of no running.  I sat around all weekend in the pickup driving to and from Ronan (a 7+ hour drive with kids one way).  I could have done more over the weekend, but I was really making a concerted effort to take it easy on my foot.   (Heal already left foot).  I need my me time.  I need my stress relief!

I did do an hour pretty easy on the elliptical yesterday with no ill effects, but if I tried to push very hard left foot would let me know it was not impressed with my efforts, so I kept it easy and tried to concentrate on using the handle thingys more.  It sort of felt good to be moving and exercising, but it also felt a bit frustrating to not be working up a drippy sweat.

I keep thinking maybe I will do some yoga.. so far I haven't done any... 

I did do a pretty good strength workout yesterday while I caught up on last weeks episode of Grey's Anatomy.  I was doing the Betty Rocker 30 day challenge, but since I was busy limping around last week and still am not ready to do any kind of jumping high impact stuff I pretty much took last week off and decided to stick to low impact this week. 

I did four different sets of exercises.  I started with the first set, did all four exercises three times and then moved on to the next set.  It was a pretty good workout.

Although nothing really beats a good run, but better than nothing!

One of my new obsessions right now is fillyflair.com  I haven't ordered anything yet, but I am so tempted. Here are some things I think are cute.

Total random thing but my nephew left his iPad outside my house where it stayed for nearly three weeks, in the rain, snow etc until the UPS man found it.  (it was left by a door we never use)  and it still works.  I have to admit to being pretty impressed with that!

Do you have any new obsessions lately?  Feel free to share them with me :)

Hoping to Move you Monday

I haven't been on here much this last week, but I guess I don't have much going on in my running world since I am NOT running.  My foot is doing a little better I am at least walking without a limp.  Not running of course opens up a lot of time in my day for doing other things like reading.

We went up to my father in laws house this last weekend to help some of his neighbors move the cows home from the summer pasture closer to home.  Since my foot is bothering me I elected not to ride and stayed back at the horse trailers with the kids.  The kids had a great morning and were covered in dirt by the time we left.  I read an entire book.  Unheard of these days, so really it was a great success.

It is a 7 hour drive from our house to Ronan so I feel like a hug portion of our weekend was spent cooped up in the pick up trying to keep the kids entertained and myself. 

I did spend some time reading about the blizzards in South Dakota and the devastation that has followed.  I had to stop reading at times because it is so heartbreaking.  Ranchers lost huge portions of their cattle herds and so many people instead of wishing them well made angry accusations that the ranchers were not caring for their herds properly and heartlessly let them die in the storm.

Obviously these people have no concept how much ranchers care for their cattle, depend on their cattle and the things that all came together to make the blizzard such a "perfect storm" for devastation.  Most of you know I am a Team Beef Montana member and do most of my running on my family's ranch. This is so near and dear to me I want to help get their story out.

Some of these people lost not only this year's income, the calves that would be shipped in the coming weeks, but next years in the form of the pregnant cow that perished. 

Here is a personal account

Just east of Box Elder, two more families suffered incredible losses, The West family and the Simpson family. The West family who live 20 miles south of Union Center, sat in their house as the storm raged on, praying to God that he comforts the livestock in their pastures. When they were finally able to get out on Sunday, they went out to see what the storm had left behind
.
“What we first saw didn’t look too bad, but when we went and looked off over a bank unto the river bottom, our hearts sank. There were our cows, all dead in piles. They were trumped in mud and over in our hay field, baby calves and cows tried to get protection from some round bales we just put up, but not many were very lucky,” explained Amber Bruce West. “As we were riding through the pastures, looking at all these dead mama’s and babies that we raised and cared for, I came across 5 baby calves that were born during the blizzard we had back in April. We brought them in and kept them in our bathtub and those little suckers fought for their lives, we fought together and they made it through that storm and to see them lying dead after this storm was absolutely heartbreaking. It broke my heart into a million pieces. Those were our babies. Those were ours and there was nothing we could do to bring them back.”
  

Amber started counting how many they had lost but stopped counting when she got to 80 cows and 70-some calves that had been lost.

“We heard of a family close by that lost 350 out of their 400 head of cattle. That large number of cattle helped feed and support not only one, but two families! We were only 11 days from taking ours to the sale. We were hoping to pay off a good chunk of our cattle loan and get me a newer truck since mine was on its last leg. Now we don’t know what to do.”

“The worst part about it is we were not prepared for this storm. The weather channel told us we would be getting only a couple inches of snow but what came instead was a blizzard of epic proportion. The wind gusts were over 70mph and with that and the snow and the rain, even if your cattle had shelter and wind protection, the snow and rain likely suffocated"

if you want to read the whole story and the rest of the article check it out HERE  It is worth the read.

There are a lot of questions certainly and I did come across a blog that answered them very eloquently. Questions like why weren't those cows in a barn, don't they have insurance and didn't they know the storm was coming.   

It seems like the news has been pretty quiet on this so I am curious if you have heard much about it where you are and I would love to answer any questions you have. 

Three Things Thursday.

1.  I'm crabby.  Might as well just get it out there and admit it.  My foot hurts and I am crabby.  I haven't ran in 8 days and I am crabby. I hobbled around work like an old lady the last two days and I am crabby.  I read some old blog posts where I was all "this was such a great run, I love running, running is my favorite" and since I can't run right now that makes me crabby.  You get the idea.

2. Do I know what it going on with my foot....no.  That makes me crabby too.  I had an ortho sports med surgeon peek at it yesterday when we got done with our cases at work.  We took an x-ray of it and could see no visible stress fracture (not that it always means a lot with a stress fracture) and he pretty definitively ruled out extensor tendinitis.  He thinks it sounds like a stress fracture, but we couldn't find a definitive sore spot and squeezing my foot doesn't hurt either.  To really be sure I would have to get a bone scan.  It could be a nerve issue, or a strain or sprain.  If it doesn't start feeling better with conservative treatment I am going to make an appointment with a foot person next week.

The surgeon didn't think I would need to rest completely and should be able to bike.  I am not so sure but am going to give it a go and see how it feels. I tried the elliptical and that didn't go over very well.  I am so aggravated with not being able to do much. I guess at this point it doesn't make that much of a difference.  I already know I won't be running the half marathon next weekend and might as well just write off the rest of the year and concentrate on getting healthy for next year.

3. In perspective it is a first world problem, my kids are healthy, other than my foot and a slightly stuffy nose, I am healthy.  There is a roof over my head and food on the table.  My family also got nominated for some ranching family legacy hall of fame thing here in Montana so that is pretty awesome too.  We didn't have to deal with the blizzards that western South Dakota got last week devastating ranchers and their cow herds. 

This wasn't really one of my perkier posts, but it feels good to vent to people who get it. I guess I am not sucking it up very well am I. 

What made you crabby this week?

Pouty face

I thought at first my shoes were laced up to tight.  You know that uncomfortable feeling on the top of your foot when your shoes are laced up too tight?  I stopped and loosened up the laces a couple of times, but the nagging pain on the top of my foot never quit went away.  Jump ahead a couple hours in that day.. last Wednesday.. and I had sat on the floor doing some laundry, sitting on my foot for part of it when I got up it hurt so much I had to hobble around for a bit.

Thursday and Friday at work it hurt a little.  Saturday and Sunday over the weekend I didn't run.  Saturday I did do the elliptical for 35 minutes, but cut it short due to the nagging foot pain.  This morning I am admitting it may be more serious than I wanted to accept.  I am thinking it may be a stress fracture.

Which means I have to go back to my mantra from June. 

 I may be smiling in that picture, but I am so not smiling right now. 

How did this happen?  I got a pretty good idea.  I received a pair of Skora shoes to try out.  I have run in them twice, the second time was the Monday before and I ran 5 miles, mostly on pavement and I remember not being in love with them at the time for how hard it felt like my feet were pounding.  Even when I tried to float like a butterfly.  I changed my shoes out at five miles and ran nearly 7 more for a total of 12 miles.  No pain that day, just two days later when I ran.  That is the only thing I can think of that I did different.

My plan... no running, no half marathon in two weeks (insert huge sad pouty face here)
See a doctor.  Back to yoga, cycling. cross training, and sucking it up.

Three Things Thursday

1. Seems like lately my hair has been a snarly mess after my runs, and the longer the run it was the more knotted and snarled up my hair it.  Kind of makes me a little cranky to try and get such nasty rats out so yesterday I finally wizened up at put a braid in my hair.  Did wonders for my disposition the next time I had to comb my hair out.  I have tried buns before but I really dislike running with a bun, it just seems to bounce around and get looser and looser until I end up putting my hair in a ponytail.

I kind of am not a fan of the ponytail braid.  I feel like it whips around and I find myself annoyed by it while running.  I guess I should get unlazy about the whole deal and put in some French braids.

2 I did my first The Better Rocker Rocktober 30 day challenge workout yesterday.  I was worried it wouldn't challenge me enough.  By the 5th round I was feeling it!  Not in a HIIT out of breath sort of way, but in a my muscles are working so hard kind of way.  Each exercise was done for a minute with 10 seconds rest in between exercises.  so the whole thing took me 40 minutes to do. 

 Now I am supposed to do it 2 more times this week and next week I will get a new workout. 

3. My husband called me during my run yesterday to tell me to look up at the sun.  This was as good of a picture as I could get, but there was this huge ring around the sun.  He thought it was called a sun dog.

I have no idea if that is what it is called or not, but it was really pretty so I am sharing it with you. The sky looks really dark, but that was just my iPhone, it wasn't that dark out when I was running. It wasn't see.

Are you doing any challenges this month?

Closing September and Jumping into October

September..

• Far and away the highlight of September was Ragnar Colorado, especially leg one during which I had tears of joy.   I could say I can't remember the last time a run felt that good, but I can because it was nearly four months prior to Ragnar Colorado at Peaks to Prairie and shortly afterwards I was on the whining runner injured list with my right quad.

• I attempted some speed work in the two weeks following the Ragnar, I thought it felt amazingly great, but my right quad responded unfavorably so I am back to just running.  My quad seems to like that better. 

• I also picked up a 20lb kettle bell at target on a screaming deal and have been loving changing up my workouts with that

• I spent two weeks trying to figure out how to renew my domain for my blog, what a PITA!!!  If you are on blogger and get your domain through Go Daddy and ever have problems, I can help.  I now have a link that can get fast results.  I already helped one other blogger get renewed.  YAY!

• I dropped my ZGym membership at zuzkalight.com, but find myself missing the workouts. I just like her workout style and I love new workouts every week.  I think I will be renewing soon, plus she just started adding kettle bell workouts.

October

• I am hoping to get in two races in October.  One is a half marathon towards the end of the month.  I have no huge goals other than to finish it. 

• HA! Who am I kidding?

• Not myself anyway.  I always have goals for races, sometimes it just feels scary to share them.  I want to finish it under 1:50.  It is a little hard not to be poopy faced about this goal since my last half marathon was 1:40:18 back in March and I really wanted to do a faster fall half. I feel given all that has gone on in between and the lack of any speed work makes 1:50 a much more realistic goal.

• I am also going to try the Betty Rocker 30 Day Bodyweight Challenge, but I am already wondering if it will be challenging enough for me.  They also want you to eat clean the entire time, which I can guarantee I won't do.   I eat 80-90% clean and am calling that good enough.  Any more than that and I go off the deep end. 

• I became a Swirlgear Ambassador, so be watching for updates with that.

What was a September highlight for you? 

What are you most looking forward to in October?  Lovely fall weather, but not the snow they are predicting will hit us tomorrow. 

Swirlgear Review and a Discount Code

 I recently won a giveaway at magmilerunner and one of the prizes was a Swirlgear cap sleeve shirt.  I picked the yellow one, fell in love with their motto of

strength. style. spirit.

and they are all about  "Celebrating the individual spirit of active, discerning and motivated women" I ended up becoming an ambassador for them. 

Here is the yellow shirt I won.  It is stitched together so nicely that I did my run in it yesterday and never noticed until right after I took this picture, that I had it on inside out. The seams on the inside of this shirt are so flat it could be reversible.

The material is stretchy and breathable.  I ordered a small in the shirt and found it true to size and a maybe a little loose in the tummy area.  It is super comfy to run in and cute to just wear to get groceries or run errands.

Once I became an ambassador I also ordered the long sleeve shirt in yellow, the black jacket and the black shorts.

Once again, I LOVE the long sleeve shirt and can foresee ordering more of these in the future.  It is tighter in the stomach area than the short sleeve shirt, and I thought it fit perfect.

I love the super long sleeves and the only thing I would change about this shirt is to add thumb holes. The seams are flat lock like the short sleeve and the material is breathable.  I see this shirt becoming a regular in my winter running lineup.

I ordered the shorts in a size small and would say they run a little large.  The liner in the shorts is mesh like and I thought the waist came up a little high, but found they are very comfy to run in and I didn't have any issues with them.  I thought the length was great, and not too short.

The jacket has lots of reflective striping.  Love that.  I think this is a great fall or spring jacket. It is wind resistant, but I wouldn't be able to layer much under it, one shirt seemed to be all it could take as it is a little tight in the arms just in the arm pits when I added a thicker shirt to see how it fit.

It does have grippy tape around the bottom to help prevent it from riding up while running. I also would add thumb holes to this if I could.

swirl on!

You can use the discount code "swirlon" to get free shipping.  Downside is that right now they have a pretty limited selection, upside is that they will be having a new line of tanks and capris coming out in December, so stay tuned!!


Disclaimer: I received  a 50% discount as part of the ambassador program. Except for the shirt I won I purchased all of my Swirlgear. I was not required to give a positive review.