My muscles and throat ache. Ironically the best I felt all weekend was when I was out running 13 km this morning. Boyfriend attempted to stop me from going as I have been sick, but I stubbornly told him to mind his own beeswax. Sunday’s run is sacred. It is my church – my time to think and digest all that happened in the week, the good and the bad. 

What I always neglect to do after most runs is stretching. I tend to rely on my one yoga class per week to keep me limber, but today I felt that I needed to stretch. As I didn’t feel like popping out for a full yoga class I decided to do a workout from Booty Camp’s DVD – Seaside Serenity Stretch.

The 26 minute stretching segment on the DVD was good and definitely stretched out parts of my body. The location was beautiful and the voiceover soothing. The one thing I would say is that if you have no knowledge of yoga you should watch the segment before doing it (as many of the moves are yoga inspired), so that you understand what the moves are and how to do them. 

After wrapping up the serenity stretch I took a peek at the Booty Booster workout (15 minutes) and after watching a minute or two I decided to do that one as well. A little bit of a backwards workout – stretching followed by a glute workout. Oh well. Loved this one and mid-way though was muttering all sorts of unmentionable words at the TV. But I know my booty will thank me in about a month when I slink my way into a great pair of jeans. Definitely motivating. Only question is how often do I have to do this to have this happen!? 

PS: Thanks to Lisa @BootyCampFit for sending me a copy! Much appreciated!

For other Booty Camp  DVD reviews check out:

Embracing Balance

Life, Health and Fitness

Loved wearing my latest Lululemon piece on this morning’s run. I saw it last week on another runner and knew I had to have it (she has the lilac). After finishing yesterday’s 5km race my very sweet boyfriend bought it for me. I’m feeling that this is going to be the perfect transition piece for Toronto’s weather – is thick enough to keep warm without having to put on another layer, has a hoodie, built in mittens and a very cute pattern on the back. I got the grey coloured one.

I was torn between this piece and a few others, but decided this one was the most practical for the coming winter months. That said maybe Santa will bring me this.

I couldn’t resist downloading the new Runner’s World iPhone app. The app which was released late July lets you browse through 100+ shoe reviews to find the best running shoe for your foot type. If you don’t happen to know what shoe is best for your foot type they also have a few instructional videos that will help with this. 

As per usual, this app would be 100 times more cool if you lived in the U.S. Why? If you find a shoe you like you can have the app find stores near you that have them in stock AND you can even put the shoe on hold for you. I totally want to cross the border to try this out. Maybe in the next release they’ll get this working for their Canadian friends. I hope so.

The wrong shorts

As you will soon begin to figure out my sport of choice is running and over the years that I have been running I have developed a love of also buying cute running clothes. Only issue is that cute running clothes are not always practical and don’t perform well during a run.

My recent shorts purchase at Lululemon is a perfect example of buying a piece of clothing that just was a pure waste of money. Now I usually love Lululemon clothes (apart from that sports bra that I bought last year – I now have a permanent scar from wearing it during my Ottawa half marathon race), so what happened on last nights run was just maybe plain unfortunate.

What happened?

On my lunch hour I wandered up to the Eaton Center as I was determined to buy a pair of running shorts. I had seen this pair of shorts (a.k.a. the Knock Out Short) before and thought they would be the right choice. How wrong was I? Within 5 seconds of last night’s run I knew that these shorts were going in my do not wear again pile.

The main issues?

They rode up immediately and just did not fit right. Basically I felt like my behind was showing. Not a pleasant feeling for someone that feels she could stand to shave a few inches off of it in the first place. So, I spent the 6km run in pure discomfort and tried to run way at the back so as not to be in front of people I do not really know yet. Not good.

I should have maybe bought “The Skort”.