Saturday, April 12, 2014

Shorts

I have never had a pair of running shorts.

It isn't that I don't own any or haven't tried many of them on. I have tried on almost every damn short in my local running store. I own a couple of pairs. It is that they don't fit me and if I think about it long enough I am filled with rage.

Go to a road race and you will see every body shape and size known to man. This is particularly true in the women's race - because women of all body types are taking to racing. But you wouldn't know it from the selection of clothing available to runners.

I read this snarky comment from a fast running blogger about how she thought it was so WEIRD that so many women run in capris instead of shorts and how they must be insecure about their bodies and not REAL runners and it was awful and bitchy and I won't link her here because she is clearly ridiculous. And it was also missing the point. I think most people are wearing capris because they don't want the chafing on their thighs.

I don't have the classic runners body. I know that this doesn't matter. My body is strong and I love to run. I just wish that the running companies (including the ones that claim that they are fitting a real women's body) would look at other body types. It looks like they are fitting their elite runner and then scaling it up. And then not trying it on the larger size. I have a small waist and big hip ratio. I have large thighs. So the shorts all slide at the waist and squeeze in the legs and ride up like you cannot imagine. It is not flattering, it is not functional and it pisses me off.

Google women's running shorts that fit and you will see running board after running board with women with my problem. We've all tried the big brands like Nike and the small brands like Oiselle. And nothing fits.

I keep looking though, summer is coming after all. And maybe one day I will find that short for me. Until then I still want to punch that blogger in the face.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Letting Go

The last month has been a damn training disaster. JR has had two surgeries - injuries and nothing life threatening but it means he can't do any child care or household work. I started a new job. The baby is teething. It is . . just a lot.

I often am smug about how you make time for what is most important to you and I think that is largely true. But when your life explodes even the important things fall apart. I haven't honored my training program - not one bit - and my race is in a month.

I am starting to panic.

Though I keep saying this is my comeback race and I just want to finish the truth is I was planning to PR. And I was planning to PR by a LOT. This sounds crazy because the baby is not even seven months old and I didn't run while pregnant and I had a c-section. But the truth is my Half PR is actually pretty slow even for pokey me. I did both races within three weeks of each other and I was undertrained. So while I am incredibly proud of those finishes and I feel like they are achievements I wanted a faster time. And I had this weird plan to just crush my PR and act surprised.

That is not going to happen now.

Now I am back in the realm of struggling to finish. I don't feel strong. My legs and core are just not quite where they should be yet. Four weeks is not a lot of time to get into that place. It is more than possible that I will finish slower than I did before.

In the big scheme of things this does not matter at all. I will finish. It is my comeback! But it is still hard to let that dream go.