Category Archives: Product Review

Product Review: Team Zealios Sunscreen

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

🌞Product Review: Team Zealios Sunscreen 🌞 

Do You HATE Getting Sunscreen in Your Eyes?

If you’re anything like me, you hate getting sunscreen in your eyes!

I’m here to help you put the fun in your run and learn all the things that’ll help make running so much funner instead of hating it. So today I want to talk about a very specific product that I love. It took me a while to find this, but I finally found it and ironically today, as I’m shooting the video for this blog, I’m in beautiful sunny Tempe, Arizona. This is where I live and usually, it’s very sunny. Of course, the day I’m talking about sunscreens, it’s NOT! 🤣 But you know that it’s very important to use sunscreen on  your runs, even when there’s cloud coverage, right? So today I’m going to share with you my favorite sunscreen.

You can probably already tell by how much I love this, because I have the biggest size bottle possible!  The brand is Zelios and I absolutely love this product.

If you go to their website, you can see all the science behind why it’s a great product. I don’t like to get all sciency on stuff, but I do like to have products that are as good and as natural as possible, so I always look for that in a product. But the thing I love most about this brand is the way they’ve created this sunscreen so that it doesn’t drip down into your eyes.

Since I live in Tempe (a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona) and it’s (USUALLY! lol) always sunny here, I have to apply sunscreen pretty much daily. So, once I found Zelios, this is now absolutely my favorite sunscreen. They have it in a couple of different sizes. I just showed you the biggest size (32 oz), because that is my absolute favorite (the one I buy and the best value). They also have these little trial sizes. I usually order these because I like to give them away here locally to my people and as samples at different events.

Chapstick / Lip Balm

Finally, they also have my absolute favorite chapstick. Again, I’ve gone through I don’t know how many different brands of chapsticks in my life, and I have finally found this one. The reason I love this one so much is that I just love how soft it is on my lips. There’s also no flavor (I’m not really big on flavor with these things.), so I just love it. I even put it on before I go to bed at night. It’s just my favorite chapstick and, of course, here in Arizona. It’s very important that we take care of our lips as well, being out in the desert and sun. 

Other Team Zelios Products  

Zelios also has other products, by the way, but I’ve never used those so I can’t honestly say whether I like them or not. What I can say is that a number of my TRU Tribe ladies have used some of their other products and have told me that they absolutely love them, too. 

Here’s an affiliate discount link,  if you’d like to try out any of Zelios’ products and get 15% OFF. Regardless of where you live, putting sunscreen on is really important, especially if you’re a walker or runner spending lots of time out in the heat and sun. 

Where else can you find me on social media?  

Hey, out of curiosity, did you know that you also can find me on Instagram?? I’m at @TRUCoachLisa. I do post there daily, so hopefully, I can inspire you over there, too. If you go check out Zelios, I’d be interested to hear what you think about their products, too. 

What To Look For In A Running Shoe

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

My Favorite Running Shoes

Having a good pair of shoes is definitely a great way to make sure that your run is more comfortable and more fun, so there are definitely things that I look for in a shoe. (PLEASE NOTE: I’m going to be a little bit biased 😉 since I am an ambassador for Altra running shoes.) 

One of the best things you can do is to have more than one pair of running shoes. I know that can get expensive but if you think about it, it’s an up front cost. You can wear out one pair of shoes alone quicker than alternating between four pair. In the long run (pun intended), it will save your feet to have more options. I actually always have FOUR pairs of running shoes that I’m running in at any given time: two road shoes and two trail shoes. I also like to have a shoe that’s a little more minimal (I’ll explain that in a little bit) and those are usually for my shorter distances, whether that’s trail or road.

So those are two different shoes. If I’m going on a longer run, then I want to have a little bit more cushion, so I will tend to have a different shoe for a longer run on road or trail again.

Why Altra Running Shoes?

The major reasons I love Altra running shoes: 

  • They allow me to move my body as naturally as possible. 
  • They have a wider toe box that we call Altra FootShapeâ„¢ technology. What happens is if you look at some at some running shoes they come to a point like a pizza box, right? A triangle! And our feet are not triangles! Unfortunately, the shoe industry has really really caused a lot more running injury issues for people, because they’ve used the shoe to help mask all the problems, which is why people don’t learn technique. So they use shoes to help them, but in the long run that’s not the best thing to do.

Toes in toe box Altra Running Shoes

  • Altra shoes are also specially designed so that your heel and your toe are basically at the same level. (If you watch the video, you can see that the heel and the toe are same distance from the ground.) This is called a Zero Drop. There’s no heel lift, because what happens is when you have a heel lift in your shoe (usually measured in millimeters) it’ll say, you know, “five millimeter heel lift.” Now you’re putting your foot in this position that is not natural, and when you put your foot in this position it’s changing your entire body alignment. 

ZERO DROPâ„¢ PLATFORM

  • Altra Running shoes are also very flexible! Your foot should be able to move naturally and, even with Altra models that have a little bit more cushion, you can still see (in the video) that my foot still actually moves with the shoe. They’re not very stiff. If you grab your shoe and it’s very stiff, then they can’t move and you can’t expect your foot to move naturally. 

My Shoe Rotation – My Altra Models 

  • Escalante 

    These are my road shoes for short distance because they do have less cushion. 

  • Torin 

    These have that same wide toe box as other Altra running shoes. Even though here you can see here (in the video) the cushion difference, my heel and my toe are still at the same level. There’s no heel lift in this shoe, so these are my preferred longer distance road shoes. The Torins are one of my favorite road shoes and they also allow my foot to move.

  • SUPERIOR 

    So I’ll start with my most minimal trail shoes. (lol, these are a little dirty! They’ve obviously hit the trail quite a few times!) One of the principles with ChiRunningâ„¢ is that we don’t push from our toes to move us forward. All we’re doing is lifting our foot, so we don’t have to push off. I never feel like I’m pushing myself out with my shoes. Everything just stays nice and in place. I use these as my shorter distance trail shoes and you can see here (in the video) that they’ve got these great grips! This is one of the other things I love about the Altra shoes. The grips don’t have so much to do with the mobility of the shoe, but from a trail perspective, these really help out with that. 

  • lONE PEAK

    This is my second of two pairs of trail shoes. Mine are purple – my favorite color. You can see the nice grip on here, so you know when you’re out on the trail, these grips help and there is also a little bit more cushion on these, so these would kind of be a medium cushion shoe for me. 

  • tIMP

    Last, but not least, this is other shoe that I like to wear for longer distances. These are newer to me – I usually wore the Lone Peaks – but I tried these and now I love them! Every time I try a new model, I can’t help it, but these have the most amount of cushion and all have the same qualities that I talked about at the beginning of why I really like these in a shoe. 

That’s why I just love the the Altra running shoes! They help me with my ChiRunningâ„¢ and they help me move as naturally as possible.  

Product Review: Noxgear Tracer360

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

….and My Story Runs On….

I’ve never done a product review on my blog yet so perfect time to start!  I definitely have my share of products that I love and some not so much…

I’ve always wanted to buy one of the Noxgear Tracer 360s.  I’ve seen them promoted mainly online but had never met someone who had one.  When I first started looking into them it was an expense issues as they normally run $69.95.  Now I know that it’s well worth that price to potentially save your life (or your dog’s! They have them for dogs too!).

During the Black Friday sale, I happened to see them 40% off so I decided to go for it and hope for the best.  And it was one of the best purchases I made (as a matter of fact, I am now an Ambassador but more on that below).

On a trail run …you can’t see me but you can see my Tracer360!

Here are a few reasons why I like it:

  • It could save my life!  Recently I’ve heard of too many runners/cyclists getting hit by cars when it’s dark.  I want to be seen!
  • I am very visible to traffic during early morning hours or at night time. There are 8 color options to choose from and it’s easy to access the button on the back to change the colors while you have it on if you want to. (assuming you don’t have any shoulder issues). It’s 360 illumination which means I can be seen in all directions.  The belt is right below the chest and is also reflective.
  • As a running coach, I wear this so my runners can see me. I wear it for track workouts (they know where I am on the track) and also on trail.  If my runners are ahead of behind me, assuming there are no hills in between, they know exactly where I am.
  • It is very lightweight and comfortable (7 oz) . I seriously don’t even feel it on me.  I’ve worn this over my Nathan VaporAiress Hydration pack with no problems at all.
  • It has a 40 hour battery life (takes 3 AAA batteries).
  • It always has bright illumination. Unlike other LED products that fade during use, it maintains maximum brightness.
  • It doesn’t rain much in Arizona but apparently it’s rain proof and all season proof!
  • As already mentioned they have a version for your dog!
  • Great for cyclists too!
  • Might be great for a rave too! LOL

I seriously can’t think of any down side to owning one of these.  Price could be a deterrent but they have sales going on all the time!  I’m also an Ambassador so you can use code RUNNINGU1 and get 35% off if they are not having a sale that is better than this discount (you can’t add this discount if they have a sale).  The only other thing I can think of is that at the beginning, I was worried about how to store it but I just keep laid flat on a shelf.

One of the best running accessories I’ve invested in!

From My Running Story to Yours….
(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)