Zensah Sports Bra Review

Disclaimer: I will be talking about boobs a lot in this post. Specifically mine. Let's remember that sports bras are for function, they get stinky and gross and sweaty. Let's try to not be hormonal 13-year-olds, k?

The lovely people at Zensah sent me their Seamless Running Bra an embarrassingly long time ago to review. First, a little background on my sports bra history...

While I'm a self-proclaimed Nike apparel wh0re, I have been really slow to jump on the quality sports-bra and sock-wearing train. I have bought most of my sports bras and running socks at Target, also known as the $100-minimum-purchase-store or also My-Favorite-Store-In-The-Whole-Wide-World. The $12.99 (when on sale, normally $16.99) Champion C2 sports bras from Target have been working just fine for me. One time, I did get fitted and sprung for two, $35 fancy-pants Champion sports bras and I discovered that sometimes you have to 'break in' a sports bra. I had insane under-boob-chafing no matter how much I body-glided, but after a few washes and wears, they've been just fine. But were they dramatically different from the cheap ones at strapping these puppies down? No, not really.

The first thing I noticed with Zensah was that there was no size chart on their page for the sports bra they were offering to send me. I'm pretty average-sized, and I wear a medium size sports bra (34C, if it's helpful) in all other brands I own. The Zensah sports bra comes in 2 sizes: Small/Medium or Medium/Large. I certainly wouldn't categorize my boobs as 'Large' and I'm pretty narrow-shouldered, so I chose the Small/Medium. I would really like to suggest a size chart on the website, or to offer small, medium, and large sizes separately.

The Small/Medium was REALLY tight. And unfortunately not the good, these-babies-are-supported tight. It definitely runs small, so take that into consideration when shopping. I ran in it 4 separate times for a total of about 27 miles, even after a wash to see if it would loosen it up a bit, before calling it quits on the grounds that it was too small for me.

Here are the good parts however: the material is simply amazing. I took it out of the package and it felt so soft and light and airy that I was dying to run in it. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but there is a waffle-ly rouching in all the right places that I can tell would be really comfortable and make for a closer fit to one's body. The bra is also double-layered which is great for wicking. When I took it off after my runs, it was much less sweat-heavy than my other sports bras feel when I take them off. Seriously, the material is wonderful.

So because I felt that I didn't get the right use out of this bra since the size was off, I have passed it along to Aron, who usually fits into a small or x-small in running apparel, and she has agreed to review it as well since it was a freebie for both of us. From what I hear, she LOVES it! Stayed tuned!

Thank you, Zensah!

*************************************

T-minus four days to the Malibu Marathon! I'm excited about it because of my running gals who'll be running it also, but to be honest, I know I'm under-prepared after so much time off after the tooth surgery. My goal is to Galloway-it so I don't hurt like mad afterwards. My level of taking this race seriously is marked by the fact that I'm running it in a freakin' tutu, however, I respect the distance. Galloway it is.

Happy Running!

Good-bye Pfitz, Good-bye teeth and Hello New York!

Thanks to everyone for sending some mojo in my direction....I didn't activitate it until this week however but PHEW! Back on the wagon is good. Especially since I have 2 marathons coming up in the next 4 weeks. Sigh. It seemed a good idea at the time. But it will be fun and that's what matters!

So here's what's been on the haps lately.

1. I quit the Pfitz.
2. I have 2 less teeth.
3. I went to New York City.

I just wasn't feeling the Pfitz plan this time around (it was my 4th time in a row using it) and was suddenly so behind, I felt the urge to play catch-up. Anyone who has used the Pfitz plan knows this is a recipe for getting injured. So I reassessed and started to do a mix of a Runner's World custom plan and Maritza's fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants plan. This was short-lived however, given that I was soon popping vicodin like a freakin' addict.

My dentists (I've had 2 different ones) have been telling me to get my wisdom teeth pulled for about 4 years now. I kind of ignored the referral because they didn't hurt, bother me or anything. At my last cleaning, my dentist told me that my wisdom teeth were highly impacted and pressing up against my back molars and I could lose teeth, my teeth could get all messed up and crooked and basically yelled at me. This was back in June. I kinda still ignored her advice.

Then it was decided that we State employees were getting paid too much and the furlough plan came crashing down and I ended up with a full week off in October. I decided I was going to go home for the week and have my wisdom tooth surgery. Um yeah. IT SUCKED. Props to anyone with 4 wisdom teeth removed because 2 was plenty for me. My teeth had surfaced so much that I couldn't get any stitches and ended up with two, Grand Canyon-sized crevasses in the back of my mouth. Thank goodness I got knocked the F out for it.

Guess what happens when you are loopy from drugs and you come out of surgery? You decide it's a good idea to take pictures. I look awful, but I'm posting them because they are too gosh-darned funny.




Here I am, unable to talk because of the mass of gauze in my mouth. I'd been awake maybe 3 min. I decide to use the notepad on my iPhone to type, 'now what?'

Here I am with my mom, who babied me for a whole week. It was awesome. You are never too old to need your mom. I told her to make a funny face for the pic but she made her my-poor-baby face instead.

Turns out I was feeling really good because of the drugs from the surgery and as soon as those wore off, it was a different story. It hurt. A lot. I couldn't pop vicodin fast enough to feel decent. I barfed and I couldn't even eat anything! Do you know how painful it is to barf after this?????? I was on vicodin for a week and the oral surgeon suggested another week of no running, until I was more healed and the vicodin cleared from my system.

Cons: Pain, nausea, pain, no running, pain, drug addiction, pain.

Pros: snack paks, 8 lb. weight loss!

Thank goodness, I was feeling better by the time I was set to jet off to NYC to cheer on Tara at the marathon!!! The weekend was so much fun and really helped me feel excited about running again. The NYC marathon is my FAVORITE marathon that I've ever run, and I was so excited that Tara was getting the experience. It was gorgeous weather and I had an amazing time. Here it is, in pictures:

The day before the marathon was Halloween. Tara and I ran around town in our fairy costumes. It was such a blast! Here we are with our costume-matching martinis, what-what!

Rockefeller Center didn't have the tree up yet, which made me sad. But their ice rink was up! I also got to see the real 30 Rock, which I became addicted too while I laid around strung out on vicodin. I watched the entire first 2 seasons while laying on my couch!

Marathon day! Jocelyn, Jenna and I met up and cheered for the runners at 3 different spots, thanks to their fab subway-navigation skillz. These ladies are wonderful wonderful people!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not posting any of my shots of Tara during the race, since I don't want to steal her race report thunder, but I had to post this one. I remember this finisher chute very well. It was amazing. And by amazing, I mean awful. But kind of a little bit amazing.

Good-bye NYC! I'll be back soon to run on your streets again!

This was my first week of running after the surgery and I've got 15 miles under my belt so far. I'm hoping to crank out something from 12-16 this weekend, and then the Malibu Marathon is next week! I was actually surprised at how great and easy it has felt so far to come back to running. And something tells me that that is going to totally jinx how this long run goes....

Happy running!

Missing: Running motivation, sleep, proper nutrition, sanity

I don't know what is going on with me.

Every run is a struggle to get out the door. I can't believe I signed up for 2 marathons 3 weeks apart and so I'm ignoring it altogether. I'm slower, so I don't look forward to runs or skip them outright which, guess what! Only makes me slower.

I hate Pfitz, fuel belts and the Ironhorse trail. I hate Gu and Gatorade and english muffins with peanut butter.

I try to get to bed early and I can't fall asleep. Then I don't get up to run, but still go to work tired enough to nearly fall asleep at my desk.

I am eating okay, but not nearly enough of the right things. My eating is completely unbalanced. I am drinking way too many Monster Lo Carbs.

I know all the things I'm doing wrong, yet don't do anything to fix them. I am hoping that by putting it all out here, I leave it here and get my shit together.

I have to say, I'm finally catching up on all my blog-reading and it's really helping me to hear all about your training and how you guys are doing. Please pass me some mojo from the left hand side.

On week 3 of Pfitz and he already hates me...

I'm not even bothering to make excuses anymore on my lack of blogging....

I started the Pfitz 12/55 plan 2 weeks ago in preparation for the California International Marathon on December 6th and it started off pretty rocky. I think I mentioned a while ago that I had been having some pesky, ear-ringing. It still there (the tear can take up to 2 years to fully heal) and it decided to change pitch the first week of the training schedule. It makes me pretty dizzy and the dizziness makes me nauseous. All in all, week 1 was a huge fail, except that I still managed to run the long run. This was only thanks to the fact that I ran a 12-miler with Tara the week before, at the Los Gatos Creek Trail.

Week 2 saw a bit of manipulation, since I was headed up to Portland (then Hood River) on Thursday night for Emily's wedding. Thank goodness week 2 of Pfitz is still only 4 days of running. I managed to get all my runs in, including a FABULOUS 14-miler with Jen. Phew! I finally feel like I am actually in training and not going to suck at these 2 marathons.

Oh yeah, I decided it was a good idea to sign up for the Malibu Inaugural marathon as well, which happens to fall on the day of my last 20-miler before CIM. I'm seriously questioning my sanity on this decision, but there was no way I was missing that race.

That's about it for now....here are some wedding pics! It was gorgeous!

I have entirely too much stuff to catch up on in the blogworld, so I'll be back soon. It's too much blahblahblah for one post!

I.O.U.

1. One Race Report for the San Francisco Half Marathon. (including video)
2. One Zensah sports bra review.
3. One vacation video recap. (2 weeks in El Salvador, baby!)
4. Lots of blog catch-up reading and commenting.
5. More consistent blogging of my own!

♥,
M

Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon 2009

No real race report for this one since I ran it strictly for fun and with camera in hand. I didn't even wear my Garmin for the first time EVER during a race! GASP! It was very liberating and I had a wonderful time just enjoying the scenery. I stopped A LOT during the race to take pictures and videos so I must have been going at a pretty decent clip when I was running because my average pace was decent. And I even beat my course record by nearly 10 minutes from the last time I ran this race back in 2007!!!

Official Chip Time = 2:17: 33
Official Chip Pace = 10:28




*We listened to this song on the bus ride to the start...yes, it's wonderfully cheesy.

Portland Trip

My first video ever!

Here is the youtube link if that is better for you guys....to be honest, I thought the quality was actually better on youtube than below.

Love ya, Jen!!!

*Song: "Many the miles" by Sara Bareilles (from Little Voice)

What now? Upcoming races

I'm allliiiivvveeeeeee!

I had a feeling I would fall hard off the blogging wagon with work being crazy and the marathon being over. If this were Oregon Trail, I would definitely have drowned in the river or died of dysentary at this point. I did most of my prime blogging and blog-reading at work (shut it, you do it too) and with new responsibilities and lots of other stuff going on like LIFE, I've let it slide. But I've missed it and have some new ideas on how to keep up with writing/reading so I'm hopefully back.

Not that you guys have cared. :-/ I only got one comment wondering where I was and, unless I missed it, I didn't see an amber alert out looking for a short Latina girl who fancies herself a 'runner.' Bastards.


There's been all sorts of stuff that I want to catch up on and I figured I'd start with the easiest one, which is the 'what now?' post and then spread the other stuff across a couple of updates so I don't bombard you with one, monster recap. But I'm planning on posting about my FABULOUS trip to Portland to visit Jen (& even Zach was there for part of it!) A post on my fun, relaxing week in LA visiting the fam, and also my Pacific Palisades/Will Rogers State Park 10K race report are coming up. Some awesome companies have contacted me to review their products, so there will also be some schwag reviews soon. Lots of good stuff!


On to the race calendar!! So, here are my upcoming races for the rest of the year:

July 19th - Napa-to-Sonoma Half Marathon with the ROHOs

July 26th - San Francisco (half) Marathon with lots of bloggy friends, in honor of Tara's Bday

October 4th - Cowtown Half Marathon (goal = half PR)

November 15th - Malibu Inaugural Marathon (training run for CIM)

December 6th - California International Marathon (goal = new marathon PR!)


I'm pretty sure this is all that I'm doing (although I wouldn't put it past the girls to talk me into something ELSE) for the remainder of the year.


Initially, I wanted to PR at NtoS but it's looking like it'll be a scorcher and also, let's face it, I've been run-slacking as much as I've been blog-slacking. I've still been working out and have become a huge fan of kickboxing classes at my gym, but I've lost the mojo for running and I need to get it back. I think I just got tired after putting so much time, energy and focus on SD. I needed a physical and mental break. But I am readdddyyyyyyy to get it all back.


I have some ideas for what races I'd like to run next year, but let's take it one year at a time, yeah? Hope everyone is well and I'll be catching up on reading blogs ASAP!