Finally! I’ve been waiting three weeks for these! Yes, my Focus Night & Day contacts are here. It’s a long story why it took so long, so I’ll save that for later. For now, I want to tell you how great these contacts are.

If you’re not familiar with these, they are contacts that you can wear for up to 30 days continuously. No need to take them out at night. (Hence the name.) I’m not sure about you, but I really got sick of having to take out my contacts every night and clean them. And then having to put them back in in the morning. Now I don’t have to!

What about if you wake up at night? Can you see without your contacts? You could put your glasses on, but that’s just a temporary fix. These contacts take care of that problem, too.

Want to know the main reason I switched to these? I’m a mountain bike racer, and sometimes races require camping out in the woods either before, during, or after a race. It’s not easy or convenient to take your contacts out. If you’ve ever tried to clean your contacts out in the woods, well, it’s not exactly clean!

At home it isn’t that big of a deal with normal contacts, but I really didn’t like dragging my bag of contact supplies wherever I went. It is so much easier with Focus Night & Day.

Now that I have these, I don’t even think about Lasik surgery anymore. Switching contacts once a month isn’t that big of a deal. I think Focus Night & Day are a perfect compromise between the hassle of contacts and the risk (and cost) of Lasik.

Here are some tips if you decide to get Focus Night & Day:

1. Ask your optometrist for a trial pair. This way you can try them out for free to make sure they work for you.

2. Get some lens drops. These lenses will dry out a little easier since they never leave your eyes, so it’s a good idea to keep some drops handy.

3. When you switch to a new pair at the end of the month, let your eyes go for a full day without contacts. They need some time to breathe. Sometimes I go for a few days or a week just to be safe.

The first few days, I actually felt like taking them out at night, out of habit. After that short adjustment period, I realized that these contacts are amazing!

There is only one downside to these contacts: They can freeze during cold winter bike rides. I think it is because these contacts have a higher water content than other lenses (to make them light and breathable.) But whatever it is, these contacts aren’t a good choice for winter rides where it’s cold and windy.

That’s preventable though. If you will be riding or skiing, simply wear ski goggles. That will keep your eyes protected from the elements.

Want to buy some now?

I’ve been getting mine from Lens.com. They have the best price overall, and you can usually find a coupon code for them. I have gotten the best prices by ordering 2 or more boxes per eye (in each order.) [Lens.com.]

You can also try 1-800-Contacts. [1-800 CONTACTS]

Or JustLenses.com. [Just Lenses]

Or check your local optometrist (or Wal-Mart if you must.)

So why do I suggest the online retailers?

That’s explained by the long story I mentioned at the beginning?

So I went to my optometrist for my regular eye appointment. Everything started out OK (except for the customary 2 hour wait.) I didn’t really want to go, but I needed to get a new prescription if I wanted to get the Night & Days.

I got a trial pair, wore them for 30 days, and then went back so they could check my eyes (mainly to see if my eyes had gotten enough oxygen.) Everything was fine, so it was time to buy the contacts.

As expected, they didn’t have any in stock. Since I was leaving the state to go to college the next day, I wanted to go to Wal-Mart or order online to ensure quick delivery and no hassle. Well, my optometrist assured me they could ship my contacts directly to my school. The receptionist assured me they would be there within a week.

Two weeks later, with no sign of the contacts, I was getting very angry. The worst part was, I was currently wearing an older pair of normal contacts, but I didn’t have my cleaning solution. Not a good thing for my eyes. But I had been assured my new contacts would arrive…

Turns out, it took them a few days to order the contacts, then they had to be shipped to one of the office branches. Eventually they were shipped to me. Actually, they were addressed to Maine instead of Massachusetts. Typical doctor’s handwriting.

Anyway, I have them now, and all is well.

My final verdict is…

I’ve used these for a few years now and have had no major problems. They save lots of time messing with cleaners and got rid of all the hassle of regular contacts. (And the increased cost of the lenses is offset by not having to buy cleaning solution.)

So go get a trial pair and see if they work for you!

[Click here if you would like to get your product reviewed on CoachLevi.com.]

I know I need an indoor trainer so I can ride in the winter. Yes, it will be boring, but it’ll be better than riding the crappy stationary bike in the gym.

As I’m writing this part of the article, I don’t have an indoor trainer, but I plan to have one by the end of the article. (And I will because the article won’t be finished till I have a trainer

This article will be written in parts, starting with deciding to get an indoor trainer, and ending with purchasing an indoor trainer. And so the saga begins…

This post is the first part in a potentially long saga, so be prepared. I’ve been looking at indoor trainers for a while now, and I think I’ll get a road bike this year, so hopefully all of my research will pay off. At first, I was sold on the Cycleops Fluid 2, but that changed whenever I found out about the 1UpUSA trainer.

I think I first heard about it in the Road Bike Rider e-zine.

Then I checked out www.mtbreview.com, and it had an astounding 4.78 (5 possible) rating! And from 67 reviews! The other top brands have only about 40 reviews giving about a 4.26 rating.

I made a big discovery in the next phase of my journey.

It was brought to my attention that 1UpUSA is a relatively unknown company compared to Cycleops or the Kurt Kinetic trainers, yet they had so many more reviews on mtbreview.com. Suspicious? Maybe.

I checked out the reviews and it seems that they are all unique. One possible explanation is that 1UpUSA gives a card that says “Please rate our product on mtbreview.com” to each customer. If they do that, that’s a great idea. If they don’t, maybe they should look into it.

So I decided to e-mail the company. I asked them about the situation to get their take on it. (I e-mailed them Thursday night, and got a reply Friday morning!) They reasoned that when an average person uses a great product, they naturally want to talk about it. Sounds good to me.

Now I know that at least their customer service is amazing! (The lifetime guarantee doesn’t hurt, either) I’m definitely looking into the trainer for this fall.

To be continued…