Be Open with AfterShokz TrekzTitanium Wireless Headphones {Review}

Disclosure: Through my partnership as a SweatPink/FitApproach ambassador, I received a complimentary set of AfterShokz TrekzTitanium wireless headphones from AfterShokz in exchange for my review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I love me some tech-free, music-free runs. However especially as I've had some rough runs lately as I try to rebuild my base mileage or when I've needed to give myself a big pep talk to attempt 3-4 mile runs in this heat and humidity, I've been relying more on my Spotify playlists. I'm also highly annoyed by my headphones staying in my ears and dealing with headphone cords getting stuck to me. I'm a super sweaty person so even the "sweatproof" earbuds" I find myself adjusting and pushing back into my ear throughout a run. I seriously don't know what took me so long to try some wireless headphones. 

I'm super grateful I jumped at the chance to try out the AfterShokz TrekzTitanium bluetooth headphones.  

On the website you can choose from 4 color combos with black, and pick what measurements you want. It offers a mini size in addition to the regular, based on the length of the space between your ears. It took me 5 minutes to set-up after charging my headphones with a USB cord, mostly involving connecting the Bluetooth on my phone to the AfterShokz. 

I took them on an inaugural sweaty & humid Baltimore summer run and was pleasantly surprised. 

AfterShokz advertises the TrekzTitanium headphones as IP55 sweat resistant. They also use PremiumPitch+™ technology which gives a great sound with nice bass levels. I haven't let them run out of charge yet, but these are advertised as lasting for 6 hours of continuous music and/or calls on a single charge. Any weird blips in your music are related to your Bluetooth connection, not the headphones. 

Injury Update #3: Don't Call it a Comeback

In case you missed it, I was diagnosed with a 4th metatarsal stress fracture at the very end of October and survived almost 4 weeks in a boot doing zero exercise of any type. I posted my last injury update in JANUARY about PT and all that fun stuff. 

So I have taken a couple months off of blogging because I finished my last semester of classes for grad school (::woop::woop) and had a month off school completely and working for 2 weeks before starting my clinical rotations. Plus there wasn't much to say. 

I got some longer runs in to run the Love Run Half Marathon in Philadelphia after March which I completely in okay time, but feeling crappy. It was too much too soon. I took a week off afterward because of intermittent soreness in my foot the following week (the foot felt fine during the race and the days after).

This spring was my hardest semester of classes and with being busy it was really hard for me to get into a solid running/workout routine again. I feel like I'd skip/miss workouts and then do a bunch of running, etc. and never get a stable base of 15-20 miles. I'd feel some weird soreness in my healed foot (same feeling of the initial injury almost) every couple of weeks that freaked me out and made me take it easy/off running for a few days (or a week in a couple of cases). I even went back to my ortho in April to talk to him and made him do an X-ray just to try to ease my anxiety.  Yes, he thinks I'm crazy. 

So if you are coming back from an injury, it may not be as straightforward as you think. There will probably be some ups and downs along way. 

Now it's July and almost time to start Philadelphia Marathon training which I'm keeping low-key because I've got my eyes on the dream of being healthy for Boston 2018. I still feel not as fast or fit as I was pre-injury, but I've built my mileage up to all 20-24 miles per week in June. I need to do better at my PT exercises, stretching, foam-rolling still (story of my life? most runners' lives?). 

However I feel like I've been really consistent the past month (not working or being in grad school classes/fieldwork, haha) which has been a great reset.  I feel like I'm at a good place where I'm just okay. All my running buddies who I have talked to in the past 6 weeks are like "so you're healed, now?" or "so you're back to normal now?". I'm not feeling that way, but I'm good. I even ran a 6:06 mile on a whim for the Strava #mymile mile PR challenge so I know the speed and fitness is in me-it just needs to be trained and tuned up. I've been doing some fun runs, having good workouts with friends, and re-fueling like a boss (that never stopped!). I'm running and loving life right now.  

Now off to do some resistance band hip and glute exercises...

#5ummit NECS_MA trail race action shot