The Next Running Challenge

I have almost flat feet. I never knew that until I went to Varsity Sports in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to be fitted for some running shoes. The first thing out of the salesperson's mouth after watching me walk two steps was, "You have REALLY low arches." I guess I couldn't have been drafted into the army.

Anyway, that explained why I had always been plagued by shin splints. I got a good Saucony shoe with arch stability, but still had lingering shin splint problems until I tried these.

The love it or hate it Vibram Five Finger shoe.

There are complicated reasons involving where your foot hits the running surface as to why they help, but they virtually eliminate my shin splints. I will let you google that for a much better explanation than I can give.

I am not ready to throw all my running shoes in the garbage quite yet though.  You have to develop calves of steel to be able to run in these for any significant distance and the loss of cushion can be really jarring, especially if you have a lot to jar, as I do. And I don't know, I just have some kind of attachment to traditional running shoes that I can't really explain.  I just feel like I NEED to run in them at least sometimes.  Plus my oldest son has banned me from wearing Vibrams in public when I'm with him because they "look weird."

Also, Varsity Sports, mentioned earlier in the article is 100% awesome and a must-go if you are in the Baton Rouge or Mandeville area and thinking about starting to run.

My First Running Challenge

There is no other way to say this...I have larger than average boobs. If I don't have on some sort of heavy duty, industrial strength sports bra that looks like those things your grandma ordered out of the JCPenney catalog back in the day, they HURT when I run. I also live in constant fear that my boobs are going to sag if I run, and if they ever do, that will be THE END of my running, so I put a lot of time into researching the latest in sports bra technology. So far, I have found nothing that works better than the Enell Sports Bra. Not the most fashionable or comfortable thing in the world, maybe a little pricey, but your stuff doesn't move.  You will praise the Lord in heaven when you take the thing off, but again, very effective at what it is designed to do.

The inspiration for the blog title

Pulitzer Prize winning writer Rick Bragg wrote this feature for Gourmet Live and I immediately identified with it.

http://live.gourmet.com/2010/11/app-exclusive-the-guiltless-pleasure/

According to the story, there are two types of people in the world, mayo people and mustard people.  Through a complex combination of nature and nurture, I am at my core, a mayo person.  Healthy eating and living does not come naturally for me.  If I could eat a Raising Cane's chicken finger box every single day and sit in a  recliner and watch sports all the time and still feel and look great, I probably would.  However, I like to look cute and I would prefer not to die of a heart attack before I see my grandchildren, so I need to embrace the mustard lifestyle as much as I can.

The fact that the first link I posted on a running and fitness blog is to a feature on Gourmet Live pretty much sums it all up.