So last week, I was doing some blog stuff, cruising the Facebook, and a picture of this sweet boy popped up on my feed.
His story? Apparently, the Beagle mix had been dumped in Garner, and the woman who has hanging on to him was concerned, as her dog was acting aggressively toward him. She, and some friends had posted his photo on Facebook after scouring Craigslist for his owners, and they were looking for someone to at least foster him until a wonderful home could be found.
I immediately moved on the little guy, and by Sunday morning, Nelson, as I started calling him, was happily cruising toward my home in my little Lancer.
I don’t think I can keep him in this little apartment with the cat and the dog, but he really has been a joy. His first night, he ran about 2 miles with me on the Greenway, and hopped up on the bed with me. I woke up early yesterday morning, and hit the dog run with him before work.
I have to admit, now that I potentially have a very kind family lined up to take him, that the thought of him not being here sort of makes me sad. But while he’s here, he sure makes a damned good running partner. 🙂
I worked at Fleet Feet this past Saturday, which means, quite unfortunately for my budget, which we’ve talked about here, it starts to feel threatened and starts shivering.
For months and months, I drool and daydream about various pieces of technical running gear, until finally, I feel comfortable enough to actually purchase it without feeling guilty. As soon as I walked into work yesterday, I spotted a few items that will need to be made into little family members in my growing collection of running stuff that I’ve acquired over the past few years.
This photo has been popping up on my feed in celebration of the Nike Women’s Half Marathon, and went on sale for 90 euros. Now, I’m not the bomb with math, but that’s not looking too good for the running budget.
This was staring at me when I walked into the store on Saturday, and I’m a total sucker for anything that’s a 3/4 tight, and textured. It probably does nothing for making me look svelte, but I really don’t care. I love how fun a textured tight looks, and I’m sick of just running around in my basic black 3/4 tight.
And I totally wish that I could let you guys touch fabrics through the blog. This top was lined with a really light fleece, and I think since it’s starting to get warm, it will be on sale pretty soon.
But alas, this is just a wish list.
Anything you’ve seen that you wish you could just stick in your closet?
Hi! Head over to Sara’s spot at Loving on the Run to see my sweet guest post about the disaster that befall me in the Middle of the Greensboro Marathon.
Sara is actually a Carolina girl, and has been fun to email with. Blogger besties? Too soon to tell? Am I being creepy? Not sure. Head over beautiful readers!
So, before you read, 100% understand that I have been team Brooks for millions of years. And by millions, I mean for about 2 years, which is as long as I have been working for Fleet Feet in some capacity. Originally, I was fitted for the Brooks Adrenaline, which is pretty decent stability, but my “princess and the pea” hoof was not having that stability posting. From there I tried the Glycerin 10 which is what I ran my first half marathon and my first marathon in, and moved to the Ghost for my shorter runs. My poor rugby knee seemed to really really appreciate the cushioning.
Ouch!
Okay so anyhoo, I actually called our Brooks Rep up on the phone, Chris, and had a really good chat with him about the Transcend, because honestly, I’m not sure I was getting the concept.
The Trance, which the Transcend replaced, was a pretty high stability shoe – felt like a dang dream on your foot, but had a really decent amount of stability in the shoe, so we “prescribed” the show sparingly. Additionally, the steep price point would sometimes scare folks off who were, at the time, expecting to pay maybe $100. (The shoe’s price soared to $150, and this was before that was pretty standard for a pair of high-cushioned stability shoes).
So anyhoo, Chris had great insight and great explanation for the way the shoe differed.
The shoe is still considered stability, but instead of there being a huge stability posting that your poor pronating foot slams into with each step, the shoe relies on “guide rail” technology that works to gently guide your foot into a more neutral position. Still following? The other big draw of the shoe is the cushioning, that Chris repeatedly described as “plush” but it’s referred to by Brooks as Super DNA, which is their original DNA cushioning, really beefed (or in this case), fluffed up. Whereas the Glycerin or the Ghost felt a little more firm, a little more stable, the Transcend, out of the box feels straight up smooshy for lack of a better word.
Can you tell that I love my sneaks and that I love my job at Fleet Feet?
Okay, onto the review!
Cons (which I always start with so you can end on a positive)
I wear a size 10.5 in women’s which is already pretty big. I felt like the Transcend made my hooves look HUGE. You’ve got a skinny little chick in tights wearing giant pink shoes – not the most attractive. In fact, I felt a little goofy.
Being used to the snug, foot-hugging Cadillac feel of the Glycerin, the shoe felt huge at first as well. It took me so definite getting used to.
I’m used to the boat shape of the Brooks Glycerin and the Ghost. The sort of flatter shape of this shoe reminded me of the Brooks Dyad, and threw me off a little at first.
But, after an initial test-drive….
Pros
Out of the box, the shoe is obviously a well-engineered, quality-manufactured running accessory. I don’t need to name names, but sometimes that is not necessarily the case.
I got a lot of compliments on the look of the shoe – maybe I was being a little overdramatic on how big they looked on me?
My feet usually cannot stand to have any stability within their vicinity. The Guide Rail technology was very very comfortable to me, and seemed to really do some guiding. I’m interested to see what my wear pattern might look like after a few hundred miles.
Need cushioning? Bad knee, sore hip? This is the shoe for you. You feel virtually nothing as you’re cruising, and that’s so weird, but so cool.
The forefoot of the shoe kinda felt like the Ghost used to. As in, there was a ton of room up there. In a good way, not in a weird way.
The shoe is very smooshy. I’m trying to think of something to compare it to in real life, but it’s sort of like running on….sorta of like a firmer marshmallow. A regs marshmallow would be really weird, it has more structure than that.
Overall, I liked the shoe, and I’m glad that working at the store, I was given first dibs on a pair of these shoes. Had I not been so intrigued and wanted to try them, I may have just stuck in my old habits. I’m interested to race in them and kind of see what we think in a race situation.
Anyone else tried this shoe? What do you think?
[Full disclosure – FF Ral was seeded a few pairs, and I was a lucky FIT Specialist who got a pair. But all opinions are strictly my own!]
I saw this on Living in Yellow yesterday, and I totally hope you don’t mind I borrowed your awesome image, but I was totally so excited about the challenge, I had to tell you guys all about it.
You guys know how much I love a good challenge right? I love a streak during the fall months where there isn’t a whole bunch of racing going on, and this thing proves as no exception. For this challenge, I (and hopefully you guys when you get into this challenge), we will be doing 1800 minutes of activity between the April 1st through May 31st. That math kinda filters out to about 30 minutes of activity today, so in my mind, with my training for my two half marathons in April, I am totally ready for this, and totally read to make sure that after my half on April 27th, I don’t fall into a lull where I don’t want to do anything anymore.
Plus, Mama is getting married in August, gotta make sure I’m looking good right?
Firstly, I’m having a blast of a time with the new camera that my future mother-in-law got me. Seriously, I don’t think that you will be hearing any horror stories from me, she’s awesome. I made sure to play with some filters, and took photos of brunch on Sunday morning with a friend.
The place was Coquette in North Hills, and in addition to some delicious french toast, they had bottomless mimosas for like $10. I’m not mad at it, plus I got to hang out with a friend who I’d not seen in a while 🙂 that is the literal best.
Anyhoo.
I totally stole this idea from Sara at Loving on the Run, but it got me thinking – what are the 5 most memorable moments in my life (thus far)? This one is tough, but I’ll do the best to get a few of the biggies together.
1. This is really dorky, but my senior prom was pretty awesome. I was a big reader in high school and in middle school, and I’d always read about proms and stuff, so I really built the magic up in my mind. Senior prom was sick awesome, and I think that was one of the most fun nights that I ever had in high school (and I’m 26 now). I honestly just remember that I didn’t stop dancing the entire time.
I’ll leave that right there….
2. My entire experience at Elon University. I’ve talked nonstop about how much I fell in love at Elon, but I really learned so much there. I had incredible classes, incredible teachers, and incredible experiences there. Incredible incredible incredible.
3. Years and years ago, I dated someone, who, when I told him about my plan to become licensed in Zumba and teach classes, told me “You aren’t even athletic,” and made fun of me for wanting to try to teach. I think he apologized later, but it still hurts to think that someone that cared about you could say something like that. Years later, miles later, and plans later, sometimes when I’m feeling lazy, or when I’m feeling like I don’t want to work I think about this, and it pushes me through a rough time I AM athletic. I AM fit. I AM strong. What someone says shouldn’t determine how you live your life. And I’m so happy I went through with the licensing process, because it was the gateway to all the running I do now. And I feel like it changed my life.
4. Us. Our first date, our second date, the whole getting-to-know you phase, and us, all the way to our engagement.
We’ve been together for almost three-and-a half years, and the entire process has been fun. He started out as that guy I kinda was interested in, and he moved to being that guy that we would go on beer dates with each other, to this guy I went on a date with and now we’re getting married and having 5 babies. Just kidding (kinda!).
5. Running my first half-marathon. My first half was the Hallowed Half in Wake Forest. There are not any pictures unfortunately because Austin was out of town at a funeral, and the entire time I ran, I just thought about Austin, how much I loved him, how I needed to get back home to him, and how bad my inner thighs were chafed at the time.
Okay, so I think I have a few more, so I might split this up into parts, but this is what I got for my 5 most memorable (thus far). I have some more, but we will get more into those at a later time. Give me one of your favorite memories!
I know that I usually do my Here’s What posts on Fridays but I’m not feeling particularly passionate about anything (I told you guys I had a rough day at work yesterday), and I feel like, rather than force myself to concoct a list when I’m not really feeling it, why not just chat with you guys?
First, a little news!
We ordered my wedding dress yesterday, and the sketch for my save-the-dates was emailed over to me today. After that, all I do is take them to the print shop, and they can get sent out after it’s sent to me via PDF. If the weekend passes and I tell you that I haven’t gathered addresses, please come to my house, kick down the door, and strap me to the couch until it gets done. But it’s getting real, and it’s exciting and scary and so cool all the same time! I want the day to be here and I don’t all at the same time. Eeep eep eeep eep!
Now, I’m stealing.
I stole this over from Krystyn at Chits and Giggles, (hope you don’t mind, babe!), but I love love loved the thought behind the post.
If you could get paid do anything you want, what would you do?
I love it because that’s the question that really indicates what you’d be doing if you could do it.
So what would I be doing?
Some of it, I do. I teach Zumba classes a few times as week which I love.
But if I could do anything, anything in the world and get paid for it, I would….
….Blog mostly. Blog and travel and read other blogs, take photos and blog some more.
…Run. I would run and probably run faster if I thought that there would be some money attached to the deal.
…Travel. Since I was a kid, one of the best parts of any trip is the stay in the hotel room, and nothing about that has changed. If I got to travel around everywhere, run and blog about it, and sleep in delicious hotel beds, I would do it in a heartbeat.
So, that brings me to this. What would you do if you got paid for it?
So in my non-Zumba, non-blogging, and non-Fleet Feet life, I am a social worker, and yesterday flat-out sucked. I literally told my boss “I hate this day,” before I left the office, and called Austin in a cranky mood.
I was tempted to lay on the couch and call it a day, but when I got home, I cracked one of these.
And I cracked it while I moseyed around and found some clean running clothes, which was no small feat. There were clothes everywhere, and I had to set out to clean those up.
I did my my-job-is-killing-me run (jk kinda!) in these new babies. Two things, how good do they look on my new camera? I played around with lighting, different settings, and different filters today, and it’s starting to turn out beautifully! I’m not a photographer by any means, but my father has done a lot of photography for years, and I think I caught the same bug that he has. Second thing, these moon shoes are the Brooks Transcends that arrived last week. Today was my first real run in them (only 3 miles,) and I will be sure to hit you with the full review once I get some good mileage on them.
The Brooks Transcend is the she that’s replacing the Trance, and honestly, even though I’ve run a lot in the Glycerin (a high-end, high cushion neutral shoe), this shoe is a lot of moon shoe underneath my delicate foot. On that preliminary tip though, it feels okay, but I’m still not used to having SO much between me and the earth. But I’m gonna give it that full college try before I tell you for sure how I feel about them.
Now back to the job thing. What is your real job? How do you feel about it? Be honest, I promise I won’t tell your boss!
So, I wish I could have a subscription to every workout publication that’s out there, but usually, I limit myself to purchasing them when I see someone on the cover whom I love, and Kate Hudson definitely falls into that category for me. She’s funny, she’s Goldie Hawn’s daughter, and I was particularly intrigued by this cover cause didn’t she just have another baby?
At any rate, Kate Hudson teamed up with Fabletics, which is her new, affordable brand of activewear. I’m sure that you’ve started to see all the commercials for things like JustFab, FabKids, Stichfix, and Runnerbox, all subscription programs that you can enroll in, and Fabletics is a similar program, and I was super thrilled when they sent me a few pieces from their spring line to try and tell you guys all about.
The way it works:
You go to Fabletics, and you start by taking their Fit Quiz, which determines what sort of activity you’re engaging in. From there, there are a few options, a VIP membership option, which will allow for more discounts and a full outfit option, and a regular membership option which still allows you to shop, but at a less deep discount. But basically, after selecting your option, you’ll receive a new set of active wear (from a wide array of bottoms, tops, bras, jackets, and all of that), and If you hate anything, or you want to skip a month you’re totally welcome, but the basic premise is that you’re paying less for active-wear that’s pretty good quality, as opposed to a $90 pair of tights, which you can easily do elsewhere (and I’ve done it!).
The stuff.
So the pieces that I have are:
The Kingston Hoodie, which I’ve been wearing nonstop since it came in the mail a few weeks ago. Seriously, I wore this and the tank top like 3 times to work last week with different bottoms, and wore them to my race last Sunday.
The Extension True Tank, which is kind of like a muscle tee, and seems like it would be really good for hot yoga if you don’t want to run around without a bra on. I also wore this in my race Saturday, and it moves really really well with you, but I probably would go down in a size personally, and…
The Lima Capri, which is truly one of the most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen. The tight is really really comfortable and warm, and I’d probably do shorter runs in this one. This one is a little tricky in the sizing – I felt like I’m in-between the small and medium, and when I was down on the floor stretching, I felt like it was pulling in the crotch a little bit, fit that makes sense.
The verdict: I’ll start with some improvements so that we can end on the good stuff 🙂 This seems really dumb, but the tags inside of the clothing are really stiff and crunchy, and in a piece of active wear, that’s a big no-no. I don’t like taking scissors to my tags, because sometimes that makes it worse, so I’ve dealt, but I don’t love that aspect of the clothing.
The good stuff is very good. The clothing comes in the most stunning colors I’ve ever seen, and the photos don’t do it justice. The clothing is comfy and extremely easy to wear or pair with regular pieces to make it more “street-ready” and it translates easily between activity. I taught a Zumba class in them last week, hopped on the treadmill after and ran for a while, and was able to run a full half-marathon in the tops pictured above with ZERO chafing and that says something. At the very least, check out Fabletics, give them or month or two, and let me know what you think about your new (and affordable) digs!
[Full disclosure: Fabletics hooked me up with the beautiful clothing, but these opinions are 1000% my own]
So last week, I was doing some blog stuff, cruising the Facebook, and a picture of this sweet boy popped up on my feed.
Overactive Blogger 