No makeup, messy hair, and an expression reminiscent of Charles Manson, but that's ok because you're looking at my boobs.

As posted before, I wear Target sports bras, not because I think they’re the best, just that they’re cheap, cheerful and do the job. That said, I’m always curious about “nicer” bras so when Zensah offered me up one of theirs, I was all over it.

Zensah, btw, is known for compression gear (the calf sleeves in particular are extremely popular with many of my runner pals) in fact I had no idea they even made sports bras until now. Turns out they make the whole kit and kaboodle: compression bottoms, tops, etc.  But back to the bra, I wore it on two runs to give it a proper try-out.  Here are my observations:

Color: The color choices are great.  I got the pink one, which is a lovely dusty shade so you can wear it under white tops without show-through.

Fabric: Extremely soft and stretchy.  The front is a double layer of fabric, the better to help against radar nippage and the inner layer has some gathering at the center for shape.

Style:The nice thing about these bras is they have textured detailing on the straps and back (almost like a pin-tuck pattern) so it’s not entirely plain, it has some style to it.  What I didn’t like so much, and this is just my own thing, is that the neck is a little high for my tastes, I find a lower scoop more flattering.  This might be due to the fact that I’m a small-busted gal or because I have trollop tendencies, either way it’s a minor deal and I’m sure many women prefer this higher cut.

This is the back of the bra so you can see the pretty textured pattern.

Fit and Performance: They only come in 2 sizes which, for me, is the bra’s downfall.  It comes in Small/Med and Med/Large.  This is ok for dry sports or fitness classes where you don’t sweat much, but if you’re like me when you run and end up with a soaked sports bra (even in winter), the support you leave the house with is not the same as that upon your return – as the bra gets wet, the fabric becomes looser.

Now, this isn’t specific to Zensah, my Target bras do the same but this is why, when I started running and didn’t know any better, I bought medium sports bras.  Then after a year of that, I switched to smalls and more recently, started wearing x-tra smalls.  The garment sizing didn’t change, it just took me a while to figure out what holds me up best since I couldn’t tell there was floppage just by looking down;  it took race photos and video to enlighten me (thank you very much, Brightroom).

For the record, I’m not a tiny person (5’4″ and 123lbs at the moment) though as you can see, I’m not busty by any means.  Still, I need support and the limited sizing here coupled with the stretchier fabric makes this bra iffy for smaller, sweaty runners or other high-impact sporty gals.

For low-impact activities, however, or if you’ve got a larger frame/chest, a Zensah sports bra would work like a champ and keep you extremely comfortable throughout.  I’ll wear mine for Pilates and similar activities, just not for running.

Note on the right shoe, my trademarked snip at the base of the shoelace trim piece. Also of note, I do not have cankles though the photo makes it look like the left one is. It isn't. Really.

I’ve heard a lot of great things about the Brooks Pure line, so I thought it worth a shot.  The PureConnects would have been my first choice, they’re the lightest, but too many reviews mentioned a narrow fit so I didn’t even bother. The PureFlows, however, according to Shoeftr on Running Warehouse and the reviews I’ve read, pointed to a wider fit and roomier toebox, so I ordered a pair. Here are my thoughts:

Weight: I’m currently wearing men’s models in both the Kinvara (size 7, 7.1 oz) and Adios (size 7½, 6.8 oz). For the PureFlow, I bought women’s size 8.5.  At 7.5 oz, they’re slightly more shoe, but not noticeable to me.

Heel drop: Since I’ve been wearing Kinvaras for ages, it feels normal.

Fit: Feels great.  The toe is rounder than the Kinvaras so there’s more room for the tootsies.  There’s also a thick elastic band that crosses the instep which turns out to be pretty cool, keeping your arch snug to the shoe.  The trim frame around the laces is hard plastic and I had to snip it for my right foot (sensitive big toe knuckle), but I do that on all my running shoes now, so no biggie.

Sole: It’s got a harder sole than the Kinvaras which makes it much more comfortable over gravel, you don’t feel each rock.  I like this a lot.  However, it’s also said to be slick in wet conditions (as discussed on the last few pages of this) so I’ll switch out on rainy/snowy days.  I could do without the split sole design since the resulting space will surely grab an occasional rock and it doesn’t seem to do anything perceptible, but this is just a minor “eh”. (Edit: I took them out on a rainy day and for the most part, traction was good, though under a couple bridges I definitely noticed some slippage.  So I won’t be using them for snow or racing/workouts on a rainy day but rainy training runs are fine)

Comfort: Super comfortable!  Well padded and an enjoyable ride.  My first run in them was Friday, a planned 8, but they felt so good, I took it to 14mi.

Conclusion: I really like these shoes and think we’ll be buddies for a long time.

A Cutback Week In Review
My paces improved significantly this week.  I’m still not back to September fitness but getting there.  In the meantime, today I start posting my paces again.

It’s probably not apparent but the shape of the week was purposeful: lower mileage at the start for faster recovery, higher in the middle and lower today since next week will be high again.  Ordinarily, I wouldn’t be so anal about it but after that accelerated mileage bump, it seemed sensible to treat it like an ocean wave chaining the weeks together (calm, crest, calm).

As far as effort, it was all easy runs aside from today, when I did my first bit of faster running in a long time.  Boy did I need it, mentally as well as physically – the nag of workouts has been on my mind and while I said I was going to add strides, I hadn’t yet.  It was fun without any pressure for distance or pace, just “go to that curve” or “where those people are standing” and as a result, I got a couple 7:3x miles in, which I haven’t had in ages.

Mon: 6@8:53
Tues: 6@8:28
Wed: 8@8:17
Thurs: 10@8:44
Friday: 14@8:24
Sat: 9@8:23
Sun:8@8:11 (fartlek)
Total: 61 mi

Backtracking a day, yesterday’s run wasn’t awful or painful but it followed a rest day, so I naively expected to be tangibly improved.  Granted, I was tired from a long job and it was windy, but my leg was not magically done and frankly, I’m sick of noticing or thinking about it.  So when I got home, I called the ART lady to finish the thing off.  Appt made for 1pm today.  Cool.

Forward to today, I have a great run: 7 miles, a few around 8:00/mi, feeling the best I have post-injury.  In fact, had this run happened yesterday, I wouldn’t have even made an ART appt.  Still, I’m excited at the prospect because I know that with a little therapeutic mauling, it’ll be over for good.

50 minutes before the appointment, I get a call from the office asking if I’m going in for the original injury.  When I say Yes, she tells me that, due to some stupid law called Direct Access, I can’t have the session without a referral.  Nice.  The therapy place isn’t in my HMO network, and even if it was, doubtful I’d have been able to get it taken care of with less than an hour to the appt.

I’m not freaking out because today’s run was so good, but I’m pissed and disappointed – it takes a lot for me to seek help.   Also, there are very few ART or Graston people in Philly and since I have to rent a Zipcar to deal with it, I’m not going to find someone else.  Hopefully the week will continue to play out well on the heels of today.

Edit: Turns out Direct Access is actually a Federal Law and a bunch of states do this.  They make it a “feature” that they allow you to seek PT without a prescription for 30 days.  Maybe I’m pissed at Pennsylvania a little less now.  Maybe.  Back to hating the damn health system as usual.

Baby’s First Wheels!
I’m old (Olde), and it’s taken me this long to figure out that traveling with a duffel is dumb.  Every time I go anywhere, I look longingly at the other travelers with their handy little wheeled bags while I do the Quasimodo carry.  But at the same token, I always think “how do they fit anything in those?”  After Vegas though, I vowed to get a wheeled bag, no matter the sacrifice to size.

Well blow me down, I found the coolest bag.  It’s roomy, has a lot of variations on how you can pack it, is half hard-case, half duffel (expandable, at that) and lastly, it comes in different colors – easier to spot than black.  It was a little pricey but it’ll last for years, so I figure it’s worth it. First use: San Diego in April.  yay!

Blog Feed
I finally got rid of my original domain name (girl-in-motion.com) but I still have about 90 subscribers still using it in their blog feeds or blog rolls.  If you’ve noticed that the last post in your blog reader (or however you subscribe to this thing) has stopped updating, you’ll want to check that the link is girlinmotion.com (without dashes) to keep getting the latest boring, complaining, whining crap from me.

Perplexed and slightly weirded out, I say belligerently  “Uh, what’s up? this is supposed to my room.” and the guy stands up quickly, looking quite scared actually, and tells me they were given that room and didn’t like it but their replacement room isn’t ready.  While he’s explaining and quickly gathering his stuff together, I realize they’re very nice people, and I’m tired from traveling (7+  hours to get there) so I just plop down on the bed, insist they hang out till their room is ready and we shoot the breeze for a while.

At one point, he asks how much the room costs and is shocked that it’s around $200/night.  I ask what he’s paying and he tells me it’s free.  Apparently, he lost a shitload of money there in a previous visit ($8000) and when you do that, the hotel will send invite after invite for you to stay there for free.  The good news is that the money he lost was actually won there first, so he came out even.  Anyway, that was my little education on how to get free rooms in Vegas.  Of course, I had to take a photo of them for Facebook because the situation was so ridiculous.

Roomies for an hour

About an hour after that, I meet up with my long-time yet never-previously-met online running sister, Carrie, who I’ve just loved for ages.  She and her friend Dina were hilarious and so easy to hang with, it was like we’d known each other forever (a theme for the entire weekend, actually).  We went to the Expo and dinner, then spent over an  hour trying to figure out how to get back to our hotel.  Here we are in the midst of the Venetian trying in vain to escape.

Dina, Me and Carrie

The next morning was CIM (California International Marathon) where the crazy doublers were doing their first marathon of the day along with a handful of non-doubling friends, so I had great fun tracking their races.  Almost every single person I knew PRd with a seamless, wonderful race…it was just a joyful morning.

After that, I went over to the Aria to meet Jay, who had flown in that morning after doing the Northface 50-miler the day before.  Jay is a gifted, speedy runner (he’s shooting for a 2:26 this Spring at Boston) and while he had signed up for the 50mile race, he hadn’t been training for it though he’d been doing some crazy stunt running in the weeks beforehand (Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim).  As it turned out, our friend Steve was doing the 50-miler but at the last minute, lost his pacer, so Jay offered to pace Steve.  Those guys kicked crazy ass, coming in well under Steve’s goal and almost 2 hours faster than the previous year.

Anyway, Jay was feeling amazingly good for having done 50mi the previous day.  We had brunch and bloody marys at around noon, which was my pre-race meal and hydration plan.  It was the last thing I had before the 5:30 race start, which worked out fine, except for me fighting drowsiness in the interim.

Jay and me brunchin' it up

At around 3pm, most of the CIM crew showed up in the lobby for a quick pre-race meeting.  It was so exciting to see them, some I’d met before and some for the first time: Paul, Matt, Kevin, Catherine, Holly, James and Matt’s girlfriend, Erin.

With a couple hours left, I went back to the room to get my running garb on before meeting Matt for the race.

The Race
First off, thank god I was injured for this one, because if it was a goal race, I’d have been incredibly pissed.  It was a clusterfuck on many levels, though for Matt and I, running at la-la-la pace, it didn’t affect us, but we could easily see the mess it was for those who were running the full or anyone trying to get a goal.

As far as my leg, I was really nervous about it.  My last run, a 5-miler on Friday, was not a feel-good run, my leg was pissed at me for having made it do two 8-milers before it was ready, so I was very nervous about how I was going to get through 13.  On the good side, Saturday was a rest day and I had most of Sunday as well.

Since the race started & ended at my hotel, the place was a madhouse with runners everywhere you looked (there were 44,000 participants).  Here I am with Matt before the race.

Matt and me before the race. I'm a dead ringer for Eddie Munster.

We line up, freezing our asses off (very windy at the start) and at 5:30pm, the gun goes off.  Matt and I, Lame and Lamer, begin our night-time journey up the Strip.  He was a total blast to run with, we talked and laughed, stopped at iHop so he could take a piss (44,000 runners and they had about 3 banks of Porta-pottys on the whole damn course).  I mentioned my leg but didn’t tell him how scared I was about it, so when I’d innocently ask “do you need to go slower, are you ok?” (he’d just run a 3:01 marathon that morning) I was actually doing it for myself as much as him, always relieved when he’d say “let’s pull it back”.

As it turned out, my leg was not a problem at all.  I was ever so slightly aware of my groin (all that’s left of the injury), but it never got worse so it wasn’t a factor at all.  And as the miles ticked by, I felt stronger and less careful, so he eventually had to ask me to pull it back regularly, which I was totally fine to do – the race was a wash as far as time, I couldn’t have cared less what we ended up with.

I wore my Garmin, btw, but the satellites didn’t catch for over an hour into the race, so I never looked at it, though I did press lap during the iHop stop, just for posterity’s sake.  With about 2 miles to go, Matt realizes if we speed up a bit, we can come in under 2hours.  I didn’t care but it was kind of fun having something to shoot for at the end.

When we were almost done, we discussed how we’d cross the finish to which I instantly replied “holding hands!” because I’ve never had the occasion to do that and this was a special little situation we had here.  Some guy next to us heard us and said how sweet that was, so we chatted with him for a bit before giving it a “kick” (totally deserves quotation marks since our kick was probably around 8:30 pace, lol).  As we turned the corner to the finish area, we passed Cheap Trick playing their one big hit “I Want You To Want Me” which was kinda fun.  We made it in 1:59:54. Hilarious.

As for the finish, not only did we hold hands, but we did it total noob-style up in the air which makes for a totally goofy finish video but if you keep watching, you see us hug and that was a pretty sweet moment. 2nd video on this page, we come into the frame at 6 seconds.

We thought we got a racing shot together but I guess the photographer missed it, bummer.  Behold my general demeanor throughout the race:

Happy Me

As for the rest of our crew, Paul, who was supposed to do the double and is actually the person who thought up the crazy scheme in the first place, missed his plane to Sacramento, so Vegas was his “only” marathon of the day, but as mentioned, the race was a clusterfuck so while he did great, it was nowhere near his potential had it been a regular, not screwed-up race (ex. the pacers were having to run up on the sidewalks due to walkers in the one tiny lane they allotted to the Full people).  Carrie also had a tough time and gave up on it being a goal race after the merge of Halfers and Full people (terrible for the full folks) but luckily she found Dina so they finished together.  The doublers all finished between 4 and 5 hours, some of them stopping at a liquor store for beer, midway.

Party!
After the race, Kevin and his wonderful wife Catherine had reserved the Media Suite at Mandalay for a party pad and it was so cool:  floor to ceiling windows with a magnificent view of the city and a bathroom as big as my apartment.  Eventually, everyone trickled in, including some folks I hadn’t seen yet – Steve, who had done that studly 50-miler the day before the Vegas full, arrived with his wife Gina and her two friends, Melissa and Katy (who ended up being a total blast to hang with, more on that below) as well as Beth and her husband.  Beth has Lupus and was the impetus for Steve doing his particular contribution to the double race craziness, running it for charity.

We finally make it out to find dinner but because the place was so packed with runners, we didn’t eat until 2:30am.  After dinner, Steve, Jay and I hit the Black Jack tables…a totally new experience for me.  I’ve been to Vegas twice, once for work and once as a jump off for a Grand Canyon trip but the only gambling I’ve ever done involved one-armed bandits. The tables have always been a complete mystery to me, so it was really fun to watch and learn.  We stayed there till 4:30am.  Classic.

The next day, I met up with Steve and his harem for a little more Black Jack fun before meeting the folks who hadn’t left yet, for lunch.  There were about 13 of us still, so it was a pretty good crowd.  Here’s a photo of me and the guys from our forum thread.  What a studly lineup.

Kevin, me, Matt, Paul, Steve

Monday Night
Everyone had dispersed at this point but Steve and the ladies were still around so we had a blast perusing different casinos, doing this goofy novelty Photoshop thing where they Photoshop your head onto models who, of course, are bustier and hotter than you’ll ever be.  Here we are in the casino:

Katy, Gina, Steve, me, Melissa

Steve, btw, not only was my Black Jack instructor, he even let me lose some of his money, which scared the shit out of me, but to counter that, I conferred with him or Gina every time it was my turn to make a decision.  Was great fun, thanks again, Steve!!

At around 2am, drunk from margarita, beer and vodka, I ventured onto the karaoke stage.  I figured it out today, it’s been 12 years since I opened my mouth to sing so I knew I’d suck.  Choosing a song was crazy because there were so many to choose from and I don’t have a go-to karaoke song having only done it once before.  I ended up with Walk On By, and if it wasn’t humiliating enough sucking in general, the key was too high, so I had the guy start it again in a lower key.  I still warbled and ended up in pitch-hell, but fuck, it’s Vegas, so no regrets.  Here’s your proof:

2am Karaoke Hell. Note how I'm really getting my groove on (please God, when will this song be over?)

And that’s it.  An epic vacation and one of the most fun weekends I’ve had.  Big love to all you guys and gals that I got to hang with, I’m sure we’ll be doing it again sometime, somewhere.  Viva Las Vegas!

Toward the beginning of the week, things were chugging along and paces were getting recognizable again.  Tuesday I did a 5-miler averaging 8:36 with a couple 8:20 miles in there.  This was heartening and made me think I’d be back in a timely fashion or at least, Vegas wouldn’t be a big deal.

It was also notable because towards the end of that run, I got hit in the ear by a goose.  The odd thing was that there was a lady walking her dog a few feet away and I’m sure she heard me (one doesn’t get sideswiped by a flying goose without emitting a shocked noise that might include “oh, shit!”) but she didn’t even glance my way.  I would have appreciated an amused witness but No.

Starting Wednesday, things went wonky.  I developed a couple tweaks, one that didn’t worry me and one that did.  The worrisome one was a tender muscle in the left inner thigh, the area of my injury.  I took the next couple days very slowly, capping them at 4mi, but when it wasn’t better on Friday, I figured I should take both Saturday and Sunday off.

You already know what a ball of fun I was on Saturday so it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you I considered cancelling Vegas.  Another thought was to give my bib (minus the chip) to our friend Jay who will be jumping in for a bit to run with the Half or Full crew, but the idea of spectating would be too depressing for words. I’d probably end up at the slot machines downing Mai Tais and blubbering over lost nickels.

On Sunday, however, perspective and common sense returned. I reminded myself that Matt, the friend I’ll be running with, will be in great pain from having done a marathon that morning so we’ll simply be better matched than I initially predicted, no reason to think I’ll be a drag on him.  I also decided that if those 2 rest days didn’t do the trick, I’d make an appointment with the ART lady.

Happiness and joy, today was the best run I’ve had since coming back. I was slow as hell and will continue to be all week (pace has no place coming back from injury, now I know. duh) but I ran 6 blissfully untweaked miles – the farthest I’ve gone so far. I only have a few days left to regain some distance and obviously, will be topping out appreciably under 13.1, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to complete the distance.  Pathetic, but a step up from teary drunken nickels.

Hairdo
I got my hair cut off yesterday in a pixie cut.  I did have some momentary Beiber concern while the hairdresser was blowdrying it, but luckily it was just a passing trick of the eye.  I love it, actually.  Plus now I get to play around with Product.

I love how the hairdressing industry has managed to make Product an encompassing name in its own right to describe all things bottles and jarred.  Why waste breath on that pesky “a” beforehand?  Let the dweebs use a product or even products…I use Product.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to cook Meal.  See ya later.

1. The morning before my houseguests arrived, I prepared my usual hot cereal w/ peanut butter but forgot to add water before I nuked it.  Thus, the stagnant stench of burnt death was the aroma de weekend.  Neither open windows, air freshener or nuking lemons (a tip I read) would make that disappear.

2. I stupidly neglected to take photos of the apres-race gathering at my apartment.  I’ll blame it on the early morning Irish coffees and the mimosas after that.  Thus, there were a handful of other cool folks not pictured but present over the weekend.

These are my main forum crew of those visiting. Really hard to believe we all met online, we know each other so well now.

A gaggle of racing boys at Friday's dinner: Ron, Chris and Nick

The Cheering Squad: Stevi, Moi, Amy and Chris

Running!
My return to the road has been joyous, though on the 2nd day when I did my first continuous run, it was clear I’d lost fitness.  I did, however, enjoy a moment of smug satisfaction on that 3-miler when I passed another runner, leaving him in the dust.  Nevermind that he was 80 years old and wheezing heavily, I was on fire.  Or at least I was definitely faster than walking.

Saturday was my slowest of the three days with 9:30s.  I was a little creaky from DOMS but it was beautiful out and knowing I’d be off the next day, I went wild and ran 4 whole miles.

I’ll be going 4mi today, too.  Hopefully, I’ll find that old man so I can ruthlessly pass him again and show him what a real jogger is.  Barring that, I’ll harass a walker or two.  If I can catch ‘em.

It’s a spot on the upper third of my femur that I’d already noted on the MRI yesterday, so it wasn’t a surprise (I kept it to myself since I don’t know shit and didn’t trust my observation).

On the left is my hoo-ha. Many thanks to Kristin for providing hours of hoo-ha humor.

This is a not such a bad result; since it’s only a reaction and I’ve already completed 17 days of rest, I only need to take off 2 more weeks.  I can handle this, no problem! (FYI, stress reaction is the precursor to a stress fracture, run on it long enough and it will become a full-fledged sfx.)

After my 2 weeks of rest are over, I’m to start at 25% of my mileage (working off 90mpw) and increase around 10% per week from there.  I love my doc.

The doctor btw, is totally cool with the mileage volume I was doing, never once raised an eyebrow or suggested I alter it.  Today, I asked him about my theory, if it could have started with a simple muscle strain that grew from lack of attention.  His response was “Absolutely!”  though not because of muscle pulling on bone as I envisioned (a la shin splints), but because the muscle tweak started affecting other muscles and that would have altered my gait.  So mechanical, but situational.

It’s wonderful to get that confirmation, it means I don’t have to worry about this happening again, there’s nothing inherently weak or that needs changing.  I just have to deal with it earlier – if I can’t find the problem myself, call the doctor at the start.

As for the next 2 weeks, I’m not going to join a gym.  He wants me to avoid lower body stuff anyway, so I figure I’ll do my pilates and yoga dvds just to feel like I’m doing something.  Lost fitness is not a pressing worry since I have the winter to regain it, though my friend Jackie has put the notion of the Surf City Half on February 5th in my mind, so I’m toying with that.

The other cool thing about the timing of this is that in a month, I’m going to Vegas for the Half and would have gone whether I could run or not since it’s going to be a huge gathering of beloved forum pals.  But here’s the deal, some of those crazy pals will have spent their morning doing another full marathon, then hopping on the plane to run Vegas (it’s a night marathon).

My friend Matt is one of those doubling kooks, but he’s doing the Vegas Half for his second race.  He plans on going reeeeeal slow (like 9min/mi) since he and the rest of those crazy cats will be hurting.  This works out perfectly for me: I don’t have to worry about fitness loss or pounding my legs – it’ll be a fun and funny run with someone I adore.  I imagine lots of alcohol will be involved.  Good times.

I’ll close with more thanks to everyone for following this soap opera.  You kids are great.  Later, gators.