Mermaids Take Manhattan

October 7, 2014October 7, 2014 / Jess / 2 Comments

Get ready for some full-on running love, folks! A few weeks ago, I learned that my virtual friend Helena (aka Head Mermaid In Charge over at The Mermaid Club) was going to be in my area on business for a few days. And when she suggested we meet up in NYC for a post-work run and a chat, I just about died. I mean, this was like a celebrity chef inviting me to bake cookies with them, or a famous singer bringing me onstage for a duet!

After having one of those, “try on and toss everything around the room while finding the perfect outfit” moments before hopping on the train to meet her, I finally decided on an outfit and had the most magical night ever with the Queen Mermaid herself! We did everything from running past the UN to saying hello to a fancy horse, and more!

Yes, I said a fancy horse. I didn’t stutter.

I was excited not just to meet Helena, but also because – I’m actually quite embarrassed to admit it, but – this was my very first time running in NYC! Yes, I live only 45 minutes away by train, and hang out in the city almost once a month, but I have never once gone for a run in that gorgeous city!

And I’d never done the Gun Show pose underneath an unfortunate angle of the Atlas statue either, so hooray for two milestones in one day!

When we set off from the hotel, I know it sounds cheesy but I could literally feel the pulse of the city as I ran. Weaving in and out of rush hour foot traffic, racing to beat the walk/don’t walk signs, breezing past the UN… and all with this amazing inspirational athlete by my side? Talk about a dream come true.

The UN: so shiny…

So we clocked a little over a mile of stopping and starting to get to Central Park, where we took a wrong turn and ended up in the zoo. Which is still magical, but kind of funny because we both had no idea where we were going.

But we did get to see sea lions and the NYC skyline in one shot, which is so stinking cool.

Once we acclimated ourselves I steered us towards the famous fountain. On our way there we almost got plowed by a couple of guys going super hard (it was the first time I’d ever been the recipient of an “ON YOUR RIGHT!”, sorry guys), and we even stumbled upon a full-fledged training run with pacers and bag check and everything – holy crap do those runners know what they’re doing! It made me so jealous of these folks who live right there and can do this every night!

But to be fair, I got to run with this chick, so I won 🙂

We chugged up and down the famous Central Park hills and chatted about the club, our families, our jobs, running, training – you name it, we covered it. And soon we were at the fountain, jogging and taking pictures and marveling at how gorgeous the place was at twilight.

I had to be a tourist. A running tourist. A Rourist ™.

The fountain – not very good to hang around because I was super thirsty at this point.

I wish I could run here every day!

Mermaids take Manhattan 🙂

Once we circled around the fountain and through the other side of the park, we realized A) we were more than 3.5 miles from the hotel and still had to go 1.5 miles back and B) we had both forgotten money for water or a cab. So we slowly made our way back to the hotel with a few walking breaks and made it back to the hotel at about 4.5 miles. Then we swapped into some dry gear, headed out to a little pub around the corner, where we devoured vast amounts of delicious food and beer, all while swapping our favorite race stories.

A true running fairy tale!

I was so happy to share my stories (and a bunch of hearty laughs too!) with Helena – she’s done so much for my confidence as a blogger and a runner since we “met” online a year ago, and connecting with her in person was really an awesome experience! She really helped me put things into perspective with her awesome outlook, and I’ve found myself adopting her mantra: “coz why not?” So while I was sad to say goodbye, I was excited and re-energized to look at setting some new goals – like, perhaps a sprint triathlon is in my future sooner rather than later? Who knows? Coz why not?!

And after we parted ways, I managed to round out my mileage to an even 5 when I had to sprint the last half mile back to Penn Station to catch my train! Considering we’d aimed for 2-3 miles at most before calling it Beer Time, I’d say that’s not bad for my first run in the city!

Have you ever met a virtual friend in real life and had a great adventure like ours? Tell me about it! I’m always happy to hear about people connecting in a great way. Share the love!

I Can Run Clearly Now…

September 15, 2014September 15, 2014 / Jess / 2 Comments

Last week, after facing my deepest, darkest fears about possibly having to drop to the half marathon, I actually felt lighter. Physically and mentally, I was less burdened by the things I was afraid to say out loud, and I found myself enjoying the run even more. Knowing that I had this safety net to fall back on if my body didn’t want to cooperate actually made the idea of a race FUN again!

I started thinking about how cool it would be to race a half marathon. If I focus on halves for a while, I can take my time to train smart, build up my confidence at that distance, improve my pace, and eventually a half will be nothing. In short, I was excited to run again. Cue the angels and harps and cheesy dancing!

And bad-fake-running-poses.

Which was perfect timing because I was scheduled to host the local NJ meetup of International Mermaid Day bright and early Sunday morning! It ended up being just my friend Kevin and I, but it was a gorgeous, crisp, late summer morning and we had a great time jogging and chatting and living life and making waves 🙂

Fins Up!

The rest of the week I took it easy and focused on strength training. My brain was fried from my day job and a 2-day migraine knocked me out until Wednesday, when I decided to go by feel for my nighttime run. The no-pressure attitude really works, because 6.7 miles later, me and my knees were still smiling!

I stopped the watch for the 10K time but kept running to 6.7 for fun. For FUN!

My 10K time was also a minor victory – my last one was around 1:18, and even a small improvement is still reason to celebrate!

… by drinking almond milk out of a wine glass in an ice bath.

All in all, it was a low-mileage week on my legs but a high-performance week in my self-esteem, and I’ll take it as a win.

How about you? How is your training is going? Are you enjoying your runs? Let me hear it.

The Finish Line

August 21, 2014August 21, 2014 / Jess / 4 Comments

Let’s face it: there is no greater sight during a race than the finish line. We love running, the thrill of pounding the pavement is second to none, but that finish line is what it’s all about.

As I reach the halfway point of my training and find myself fighting burnout and negative thoughts, I’ve been trying out some positive visualization techniques and while I usually roll my eyes at the Stuart Smalley school of thought, this approach is actually pretty helpful!

but I’m not about to put on a cardigan and talk to myself in a mirror.

When I start to get down on myself – usually in the final mile or so of a training run – what I do is I envision myself crossing that marathon finish line. It’s easy to do – I’ve run this race before (well, the half), and so I know exactly what the finish line looks like! But unfortunately the last time I crossed that finish line, I was in bad shape. So crossing that line happy is a big deal for me.

Aside from the serious physical pain I was experiencing from my freshly-torn ACL that I earned at mile 12, I was also majorly humiliated. I don’t mention this very often, but I actually crossed the finish line for my half approximately 10 seconds after the female marathon winner. As I hobbled to the line I heard sirens and screams of pure joy and thought “I can’t be the last person, can I?” Then I looked over my shoulder and there she was, motoring past me and through the tape to a huge cheer from the audience. I was emotional to begin with, but this put me over the edge. I started to cry – in happiness, embarrassment, relief, pain, all of it – but I still crossed the finish line with a smile and promptly vowed to never ever run another race again in my life.

This just in: I am a stubborn liar.

So now, when I envision myself crossing that line again, I am strong. Sure I’m exhausted and drained and I’m probably wishing for the sweet relief of death. BUT – in my positive, motivational finish line vision, I am strong. Both knees are intact, I’m smiling, and I’m certainly not being clothes-lined by some jackass like this poor soul:

Who am I kidding? I’m so slow that there won’t be any other people around to do that to me!

And that positive image has helped me push through some pretty tough stuff. I will trust my training and make every one of the next 58 days (HOLY CRAP) count, so that I can turn my vision into reality come October 19th.

How about you? Do you have any positive visualization techniques, or other things you do to get you through the really tough times? Share your story, because I need all the positivity I can get!

Right Back to Where We Started From

August 11, 2014 / Jess / 6 Comments

I have no excuse for the last 2 weeks.

Well, no running-related excuses. Just a lot of life happening around here. And while I’ve slowly worked training back into my schedule, it hasn’t been my focus. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, I am more than just a runner. I’m a wife, daughter, employee, friend – and lately I’ve found that life is more about balancing those different roles than focusing on one.

However! This is a running blog, right? SO. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on in my running world lately 🙂

When I last left off, I was bouncing back from a bout of hand, foot, and mouth disease (I refuse to call it coxsackie on principle alone) and I was also nursing a tender knee. After my last post, the foot blisters eased up in time for my return to running on my birthday, July 31st!

Full disclosure: I ran just to earn the Nike Plus badge.

My knee felt surprisingly great – the unexpected week+ off from running because of my illness gave the rest of my body the chance to heal up, and while I stayed cautious on downhills and stopping/starting, the sharp pains I had experienced the week or two earlier were nowhere to be found. Score!

Later that day, all I wanted for my birthday was new running shoes and cake, so we went to RoadRunner where I had my gait analyzed again, and discovered that all of my cross training and lifting has helped strengthen up my legs so I don’t need as much stability in my running shoes as I used to! Second score!!

The new babies!

And when I broke in my new Asics Gel Nimbus 16’s on Saturday, I felt like I was running on air! Don’t you just love the first run in the perfect pair of new shoes? There’s nothing like it 🙂

Later that night, I went to a Soundgarden/NIN concert with a group of friends and let me tell you – Trent Reznor is still as hot as ever, and I will fight you to the death over him.

I love you guys. But seriously? I will cut a bitch over those biceps.

He was my very first rock ‘n roll crush – and while I was too young to see them live when my obsession was at its peak, the nearly 20 year wait was entirely worth it. So much so, that I matched my running shorts *and* my sneakers to my music as I rocked out to some early NIN on Monday’s run:

I like to think Trent would be proud.

The rest of the week went by, with 3 progressive runs of 2.5; 3.1; and 3.5 to get my knees back into working order, with the goal of a long run of 5 miles on Sunday. Which I succeeded at. Just barely.

Because I set out too late in the day, it was hot. Like 90 degrees in the sun hot. I also only got about 6 hours of sleep, didn’t fuel very well, and drank just a bit too much on Friday, so my system was NOT long-run ready. But I tried a new route at the park near Rutgers, with a nice path that goes along the Raritan River, near the RU Stadium, past a little zoo, and under a couple of cool bridges. I’m all about switching up the scenery, and this did not disappoint – I will most certainly be going back there again!

I mean, come on! Look at it!

But even though it was beautiful there, I struggled. I took a lot of walk breaks to deal with the cramps and side stitches I kept developing, but I powered through until mile 4.5. I passed a field were a pretty serious soccer game had just wrapped up and slowed to a walk to deal with a new cramp. The teams and their families were all packing up and chatting near the path, when one guy nudged another as I passed, pointing and laughing at me. I had one headphone in so I could only hear snippets, but once those two laughed, the rest of the group they were with all joined in too.

And it really hurt.

I took off running at full speed and kept pushing til I hit my 5 miles, then ran right for the bathroom where I had a little moment. I can usually brush off meaningless immaturity like that, but I was at a pretty low point to begin with, and that just pushed me over the edge into a full on meltdown. My confidence as a runner was tenuous at best, especially after the run I had just shuffled through at a snail’s pace. I was feeling weak and not very prepared, and frankly the thought of running a full marathon in just over 2 months actually makes me laugh because I think it’s that ridiculous and impossible.

But I couldn’t hide in that bathroom forever, so I sniffed it all back and repeated my favorite new mantra a few times: “One run at a time”, snapped an attitude-packed selfie because I was proud of how my legs looked in my shorts (#sorrynotsorry) and headed home for a shower and a big-ass cheeseburger. Because I’m a runner and that’s what runners do. We take it one run at a time and keep moving forward.

Hi, Haters!

So how was your weekend? Tell me about it – is your training coming along nicely?

Keepin’ it Real

July 23, 2014 / Jess / 5 Comments

I don’t want to delude anyone or say everything’s happy slappy when it really isn’t. So here it goes: my knee is killing me. My good knee. The one that wasn’t cut open and operated on last year. It’s the knee that stood strong after its partner was disabled and carried me solidly through the finish line of my half marathon in April without a twinge. Until this past month. It started after a random run in mid-June. A stabby-ache started ust under the kneecap and I would baby it when I wasn’t running, but still the pain returned.

Getting real tired of your shit, legs.

It finally became a thing last week. A hard run early in the week, excruciating pain while walking downstairs at work in platform sandals the next day, and the ankle roll on Friday all culminated into a very bad, no good long run that didn’t pan out this past weekend when I went up to Packanack Lake to join my “marathon machine” friend (I’m sorry if you don’t like the name, Tina, but I’m not changing it) because our long runs were the same distance. In case the knee gave me hell, I brought my bike along. And it’s a good thing I did. Because give me hell it did.

Thank goodness the view was nice.

As we got to the parking lot at the end of the first 2.5 mile lap, I tapped out and hopped on my bike. My knee felt much better, but as I struggled up one last hill to start lap 3 on the bike, I hopped onto the downward spiral:

I had 8 miles on the schedule and I didn’t do it. I failed at a long run. And my knee would probably prevent me from getting one in this week. What if it really was injured and I had to skip running for a week or more to let it heal? How would I recover from that in time to run a marathon? Would I have to defer? How humiliating would that be?!! If I talked it up for months and then had to drop out? What a failure. I can’t even train for a marathon right. Millions of people do it every damn year and I can’t even train for 2 months properly without having to quit. Typical, I can’t see anything through to the end…

As I was about to finish 5 miles on the bike, I told myself to suck it up and tried running Tina in as she finished. Instead my knee gave out on me and I hobbled with her back to the car. We chatted for a while, took some selfies on a pretty bridge:

Why is my head so huge? The world may never know.

Then she took me out for a great post-run Starbucks trip, after which I drove myself home and cried for the. Whole. Hour. In the car. It was not my proudest moment. I just couldn’t help getting caught up in the fear that it was happening all over again and that I was doing everything wrong. So I got home and cried some more, went to lunch with mom for her birthday, and resolved to call the orthopedist the next day. And that’s basically where I’m at right now. Waiting for an appointment to see where this knee takes me and resting in the meantime. I haven’t run since Sunday and it’s still a bit tender. I’m hoping that a few more days of rest will help it get back to normal and that I’ll be smarter about the rest of my training (I’m even looking into a local running clinic to work on my form), and I’m grateful for everyone who’s offered me encouragement and advice these past few days.

I posted this photo with a little caption about my knee pain on Instagram and was so overwhelmed with positivity from my virtual friends that I cried.

The running community is seriously the best.

So keep checking back as I post more about how this knee feels, how my training goes, and everything else that’s knocking around in my brain – in the meantime, how’s your training going? Tell me everything and let me run vicariously through you in the comments! 🙂

International Mermaid Day is Coming!

July 16, 2014 / Jess / Leave a comment

Exciting news here in Jess Runs Happy-ville:

10360785_502163769917386_2503083998204952304_n International Mermaid Day is coming!

The Mermaid Club is proud to announce the first ever International Mermaid Day! Yeah, we mermaids are so damn cool and badass that we deserve our own special day 🙂 To celebrate this inaugural event, TMC has partnered with the Make-A-Wish® Southern Florida and will be hosting a virtual 5k run, swim or bike event to raise some funds for this wonderful and inspiring charity.

Beginning Sunday, September 7, 2014, you can opt to run, swim or bike your distance on any date that week, with your choice of location. And I’m thrilled to be hosting the local New Jersey meetup!!

When, Where & How

When: Sunday, September 7, 2014
Cost: $25 with 20% of all proceeds being donated to Make-A-Wish^® Southern Florida
Where: Everywhere! You can map your own course, but if you’re local to NJ and you want to join your fellow mermaids (and yours truly!), you’re more than welcome to! Mermaid Club reps will also be hosting meet-ups in: Sarasota, Tampa, & Boca Raton, Florida; South Amboy, New Jersey; Los Angeles & San Francisco, California; New Orleans, LA; and Melbourne, Australia
Registration is available on Active.com right here. That’s your official registration page, and if you want to come to the NJ Meetup, be sure to check in at my Eventbrite page as well so I know who to expect that day!

What happens next?

It’s easy! Sign up & we will mail you a bib. Then you run, bike or swim your event, snap a picture using the hastag #MermaidsMakeAWish and after the event you’ll get the most amazing TMC bling you have ever seen?

So come on Mermaids, what are you waiting for? Let’s Raise our Fins and give back by making a child’s Wish Come True with Make-A-Wish®!

My Epic Babies ‘R’ Us Adventure

June 24, 2014 / Jess / 4 Comments

In blogging, just like running, consistency is key. So I hereby promise you that I will try to post at least once a day for the next week, even if it’s just a few words and a photo of my cat. Because hey, who doesn’t like cat pictures?

She’s very friendly, I promise.

If I’m going to be writing regularly, that means that the more mundane (read: non-running) details of my life are probably going to get more coverage. I’ll try to make them as interesting and/or funny as possible to keep from boring you to death.

Let’s start with my trip to Babies ‘R Us after work yesterday.

I’ll start right here by saying I do not have children. I do not plan on having any children in the immediate future. My husband and I are in agreement on this, and that’s how we like it. Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled for people who have kids or are in the process of growing kids. You have my sincerest thanks for single-handedly continuing the human race, one infant at a time. Without you folks procreating, we’d all be doomed and the machines would rise up and inherit the earth. So thanks.

But I will not be joining your ranks anytime soon.

So I went to Babies ‘R Us to pick up a baby shower gift, after ordering it online and choosing the “pickup in store” option. I did this to save on shipping costs (cha-ching!), and to eliminate the need to spend any longer than I needed to in a bricks and mortar Babies ‘R Us establishment. So after paying online, off I went after work, and I must say, it was a truly magical experience!

Within 5 seconds of walking in, a kind-hearted associate at the front desk must have smelled my fear and trepidation and greeted me, “Hello, miss! How can I help you today?” Wide-eyed and silent, I held up the printed out email with my order pickup info and she immediately swooped in, “Picking up? Great! Come right this way, I’ll walk you there.” Fantastic! A guided tour!

In the roughly half-mile* journey to the pickup kiosk (*I may be slightly exaggerating), I experienced no fewer than 4 children throwing tantrums, 3 very pregnant ladies screaming at said children, 2 befuddled fathers, and a partridge in a pear tree. My guide never showed any signs of fear; in fact, she walked at such a brisk pace that she became my running back (is that the correct term? I don’t know football). She cut a swift path through the bedlam as I followed behind her dutifully.

When she wordlessly deposited me at the pickup kiosk (which was in the back of the store where the crowd had mercifully thinned), I followed the instructions sign, which told me I simply had to scan the barcode on my email and wait. In about the time it took me to check my email, a teenager materialized before me, toting a Babies ‘R Us bag filled with my order. Prepaid, pre-packed, and ready to go! I thanked him and lugged my stuff out of there as fast as I could, and before I knew it, I was back in the safety of my car and on my way home.

And that’s the story of my epic Babies ‘R Us Adventure.

Celebrate You (now with 100% more Jim Carrey)

May 30, 2014 / Jess / Leave a comment

While I’m sure we all try to be positive people, sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged and down on yourself.

I don’t know about you, but all it takes for me is one “bad” meal to get sidetracked and fall into the labyrinth of self-doubt and regret: You’re such a freakin’ pig. You can’t even stay on the wagon for one day. Did you really need that slice of cake? And you wonder why it’s so hard to break a 10-minute mile. It’s because you can’t keep your trap shut after a normal amount of food.

And so on.

Sometimes I get so into beating myself up over my failures; but how often do I actually congratulate myself on my accomplishments? Think about it – when was the last time you truly patted yourself on the back for a job well done, whether it was at work, or in running, or even just for checking everything off your to-do list over the weekend? Go ahead, think about it. I’ll wait.

You’re having a hard time thinking of something, aren’t you?

I say no more. Our society praises success against all odds and achievement above all else, but who’s actually holding the measuring stick?

Screw it. I’m going to be proud of my accomplishments. Every day, I’m going to try to find one thing to be proud of – to show myself that I can finish what I start and be successful, even if “success” that day is putting on pants not murdering anyone in traffic on the way to work.

…the power to not kill people!

Today, I’ll kick off this new positive outlook by looking back at how far I’ve come on my weight loss journey, with the only non-Jim-Carrey picture in this whole post:

In 2003, I weighed over 267 lbs, I was miserably uncomfortable in my own skin and I had a severe anxiety disorder. The following summer of 2004, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer (and later beat that cancer’s ass, hooray!!). That’s when I realized that I had to turn my damn life around. So I started running. And doing yoga, and kickboxing, and the elliptical, and the bike, and weight lifting, and I stopped eating every damn thing in sight. And after 5 years, I lost over 100lbs. And I’m not planning on going back to that size anytime soon.

I do have days (weeks even) where I feel like that girl on the left again. When I eat too much for a few days in a row and slack off on my workouts and call myself a failure. But that’s when I look at that picture up there, then glance in a mirror. I’ve come a long way. A really long way. I worked hard to get here. But dammit, I did it, and I can keep kicking ass because I’m a winner and that’s what winners do.

We wear bad wigs and plot revenge against Bruce Wayne.

So today I encourage you to do the same thing. Think about something you’re really proud of. Something that it took effort to achieve. Have you run a full marathon? Cleaned your whole house lately? Raised a family? Are you wearing a bra today even though you don’t want to be wearing one?

Or are you flexing your freedom muscles and going bra-less?

Tell me about it. I want to feel the love like Chip Douglas up there. Shout out how proud you are of your accomplishments and let’s share the happies!

My First Nike+ Run

May 20, 2014June 6, 2014 / Jess / Leave a comment

Let me preface this post by saying that I love Instagram. If you are on it, and not currently following me there, please do me a favor and give me a follow (if you’re so inclined). I’m on there multiple times in a day, and I find so much joy in “meeting” new people that like to share their journeys too! On Instagram, it’s all about the community. Everyone there is just so encouraging and helpful and inspirational – and as I’ve mentioned before, it’s even been a source of fashion inspiration for me too!

So last week, my runner friend at work Instagrammed a photo from her nightly run: a gorgeous scenic photo, with her Nike+ run info along the bottom. I’d seen plenty of other IG’ers with the Nike+ jargon, and have always thought “Eh, it’s too complicated, it’d just be one more thing to carry and sync and post and drive my friends on FB crazy with when I post with it.” The photo was gorgeous though, and when I saw her at work the next day I complimented her on it. We got to talking about Nike+ and she reassured me how easy it is to use, how it doesn’t drain your battery, how you can create challenges with friends – well, before I knew it, I was inspired to take the leap and jump on the Nike+ bandwagon, and now I’m wondering why it took me so long to do just that!

…and if all my friends jumped off bridges, I would too.

It took some getting used to – I don’t normally carry my phone with me, and I still ran with my Garmin too, simply out of habit. It’ll be easier on long runs or those jogs where I’m wearing pants that have pockets where I can stash my phone, but overall I found that the Nike+ app was perfectly accurate on my pace and distance, and I’ve already connected with some friends on there! I feel like a part of a bigger community, which is always a good thing, and I can’t lie – my work friend who introduced me to it has already said she’ll challenge me, and I can’t wait to bring it. Talk about motivation!

Plus, it didn’t hurt that today was my first solo run around the industrial park near my office, where I was surprised to find beautiful sights like this one:

perfect running scenery

I can’t wait to lace up again tomorrow and see where I go with my Nike+!

What do you think – are you on Nike+ too? What tracking app/product do you rely on? Share your favorites in the comments!

Bad Blogger

May 16, 2014August 20, 2014 / Jess / Leave a comment

OK, so first let me apologize for the lack in posting. Secondly, Happy Friday! I’d like to thank the good people at QuickCheck for caffeinating me enough to answer all the emails in my inbox *and* blog before 11:00AM. Nicely done, folks.

This has basically been me for the last 90 minutes.

I’ve had a good week here, filled with new running gear, jewelry, and more – let’s get right to it!

First, we’ll start with last weekend. On Mother’s Day I participated in a virtual run called Mermaids for Mamas, with my online friends in The Mermaid Club. It was a great day to get some miles in around town, and to take some time to think about all my mother has done for me. To say that she’s my inspiration would be an understatement. Without getting all mushy here, let’s just say that it was a great run that filled me with love and pride in my family 🙂

That’s my mama and me in the bottom right, at my very first 5K ever!

When I got home I found that Lucy had “surprised” me with a Mother’s Day gift: my very first Alex & Ani bracelet!

She did need a little help with the online ordering, being a cat and all.

The warm weather over the weekend made me realize that I need to seriously look at what I wear when I run. Yes, capris/tights feel good and cover everything, but when it’s 85 degrees out, I am not all about that heat stroke life. So on Tuesday, I finally bit the bullet and went shopping for some new running shorts.

Being a larger girl for basically 95% of my life, I was never very comfortable in shorts of any kind. Especially when I warm-weather run. Shorts are a necessary evil, but with the typical swishy shorts I always end up with – let’s be honest – a ridiculous frontal wedgie. It’s just not cute. All of my pictures from last month’s half marathon prominently feature my thighs snacking on my shorts, big time. It’s time for a change.

So a few of my Instagram runner friends have been rocking some SUPER cute little fitted shorts, and it got me thinking maybe I should see what the big deal was about. So off to the Nike outlet I went…

…and I hit the mother lode!

The tank and swishy shorts were my usual style (who can pass up $10 Nike shorts & tanks?), but I’m more excited about the top right and lower left mini-shorts. SO out of my comfort zone – but so perfect!!

Ready to run!

I tried the top right shorts out last night and I’m in love. They are so flattering, and fit like a glove without any muffin top. They still ride up a bit (that’s what happens when thighs collide), but I just feel freer and faster in them. Maybe it’s the placebo effect and I’m really no faster than when I wear my swishy shorts, but I noticed a distinct difference. And also? While we’re on the subject of differences?

Hello, new booty!

I’ve been hitting it pretty hard since my half marathon, and I have to say that I’m amazed at the difference I found in these two pics, only taken about 2 weeks apart. I’ve been watching my sugar intake, I added more protein and veggies into my diet, and I’ve squeezed in 50 squats a day (10-20 at a time) since my half – and magically I earned myself a new booty and belly!! Sure, the usual bloating/diet of the day may have had some effect, but when I saw this last night I actually said “Dayum!” aloud, like I was in a Wayans brothers movie.

So tell me – how was your week? Do you have any exciting plans? Is anyone racing? Tell us about it in the comments!

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