As I sit here waiting for Hurricane Arthur (as in Bea? Cuz it should be.) to arrive, I would like to share a public service announcement you won't get from Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel crew. Sorry guys, but this one's for the ladies.
Ladies. Particularly the busty ones. The sports bra industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade. Meaning they actually now make sports bras that can minimize how much you shake whatcha mama gave ya as you leap and bound. And run. Particularly run. Buy them. Wear them. Your life will be forever changed. Promise.
I, myself, had some huge knockers when I was younger. I hated them. They were oversized for my 5 foot frame, uncomfortable, and completely distracting to myself and most likely those around me. When I was pregnant and nursing, they reached porn star proportions. Of course Mr. Fancy loved it, but I was not particularly fond of peeling off not one but TWO sports bras, sometimes feeling as though my shoulders would dislocate trying to Houdini my way out.
I don't remember exactly when it happened, but at some point, I stumbled across a new brand of sports bras called Moving Comfort. It sounded too cheesy to be true, but I tried one on and brought my milkshake to the yard right there in the dressing room. Ya gotta give it the bounce test! The first style I fell in love with was the Fiona.
The shoulder straps are slightly padded and are adjustable with velcro, not those stupid plastic thingamabobs that dig into your shoulders. It closes in the back like a regular bra, so no more acts of contortion to get it on and off. It comes in bra sizes, none of that small, medium, and large bullshit. It'll run you about $50 and is worth every cent. My first Fiona was a D cup, and I had to go up to a DD when I was pregnant with and nursing Camryn. Much to my surprise, this bra held those watermelons high and tight, and I ran comfortably without feeling the need to hold them lest I get two black eyes.
When I started increasing my mileage and doing P90X regularly, my body changed dramatically, especially in the breastular region. I no longer had these huge...tracks of land...rather what I referred to as 5 lbs. of potatoes in a 10 lbs. bag. I was slimmer all over, and I no longer wanted to hide my body behind the big, baggy t-shirts I had been wearing since my big fat college days. I thought the racer back style tank was flattering for my broad gymnast shoulders, but not so much when I was stuck wearing Fiona underneath. And even though the chesticles are considerably smaller than they were when I started running, I still don't enjoy the feeling of them bouncing around in my shirt when I haul ass down the street. Luckily, Moving Comfort now makes their magical undergarments in a racer back as well. I'm particularly fond of the Rebound Racer (even though I think using the word "rebound" in a sports bra name is rather amusing), and I just bought myself another one with some of the money I got for my birthday.
The RR has everything I love about the Fiona, except with the slightly more stylish look of the racer back. And now it comes in this cute gray and yellow color combo, so it will probably look pretty longer than my white one did. I'm in love.
So the takeaway here is that running can do amazing things for your body. Some of us just don't want to watch those amazing things happening in real time. The excuse that you can't run because your boobs are too big is no longer valid. Grab one of these bras (after the bounce test in the dressing room, of course) and get out there.
Now that that's off my chest (ha ha...chest...I kill me), let's talk about today's run. It was sucktastically wonderful. I woke up and did my ITB rehab exercises in my bedroom (this time on both legs as a preventive maintenance effort for the right leg), then walked out the door and into the brick wall of 80 degrees and 84% humidity. Blech! I ran one of my regular routes for the first time in months, which really has me feeling like this is for real. The first two miles were into the wind, which provided a little relief from the humidity, but made it a little tougher to run. Coming out of the wind for the second half of the run, I was able to pick up the pace a little, but it was at the expense of my heart and lungs, which were on fire by the time I hit 3 miles. My knee was like butter in this heat, and feeling good made me want to push it a little for the last bit of the run. Turns out that little push was a 7:27 min/mile pace for .73 miles! Oh happy day!!!
I've got one more session of 10 minutes running/1 minute walking left before jumping up to 15 minutes running/1 minute walking, which would be my last week of taking walk breaks. This point seemed so far away when I first started, but it seems to have gone by quickly. By August, I should be running 30-35 minutes non-stop, and hopefully by September, I'll be ready for some speed work. Perfect timing for when Mother Nature flips off the humidity switch and the crowds on the boardwalk go back to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Quebec, or wherever they're from.
Greatest bumper sticker in the city
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