Running shoe shopping

It's time for some new running shoes. I'm convinced I'm wearing the wrong running shoes—so that's why my achilles hurt and my times are slower. So I went to the fancy running store and got my gait analyzed.

I had the sweetest most patient salesperson in the world, but I think I just wasn't in the mood to buy shoes.

I went in and the girl watched me walk (no treadmills and iPads at this store, like the store my husband went to). I don't pronate. I have a neutral gait. (Nothing learned here.)

And she brought me out about 8 pairs of shoes. And I hated all of them.

I didn't want to be that person. But I was.

The first pair she bought me was hideous. "You're not going to look at your feet when you run," she told me. Like it didn't matter what my shoes look like.

Like she didn't know how important gym outfits are to me. I was horrified. It was the beginning of the end.

The shoes were also too small. My feet measure a 6.5. But I take a 7 or 7.5 in running shoes. I put no stock in shoe measuring devices. I know I wear a 7.5. So that 7 you bring me isn't going to fit.

The second pair had a white bottom—and I would NEVER wear those on a muddy trail.

There was a really ugly pair of Nikes that I didn't even try on.

I told the girl that I was really picky about colors–and would buy shoes just because they're cute. I like pink, purple and blue.

The fourth was a pair of pink and purple Mizunos. In an 8! And they were cute-ish (best looking of the group. Nothing that I would pick out off a shelf). I loved the heal in them. Super comfy. However, I HATED the plate in the shoe. I tried walking in them. And maybe I could learn to like them. I tried running on the pavement and they were SO BAD. It was so stiff. It hurt my feet. I could not run in these shoes on the pavement.

The plate was in the bottom of the shoes. Like the spikes I ran track in. It was uncomfortable and made the shoes very inflexible. Felt like torture to me. After running in them it was a hard NO.

So I kept trying shoes.

I tried a pair of Pearl Izumis and toe box was too big and I didn't like it. The heal also slipped. I tried another pair in a better color at the very end. And it all blurs together. Some were too flat. Or too stiff.

Eventually I tried on everything—except the newer version of the Asics I currently have, which I don't like.

I hated wasting this girl's times. (I hated that she insist on lacing the shoes for me! HATE HATE HATE.) I just wasn't in the mood for shoes. And for $120, I wanted to love the shoes. I didn't love the shoes.

They just had such a small selection.

I wanted a running shoe that was light and flexible. No white bottoms. Preferably in jewel tones.  I was pretty clear about this up front. But kept getting white and lime green shoes.

I went home really upset. That I couldn't find shoes. That I wasted this girl's time.

So I went online and easily found  five our six similar to what I tried on—with better prices and better colors. I think I might just do a huge order and send a bunch back. I just hate interaction of sales people. Just let me shop by myself. I know what I want. And it's not for you to tie up shoes. Or bring me ugly shoes. The end.

I ended up getting two pairs of Mizuno running shoes for $100 on 6pm.com. They were older year models in much cuter colors. So much cheaper. I think online shopping has spoiled me.

No white bottoms here. Someone understands trail shoes! 

Online Lululemon addiction

My lulu. I own that striped shirt.

I buy way too much Lululemon online. The girls at work make fun of my weekly package deliveries.

But here's the thing: I love online shopping. It is just so easy to grab my laptop when I'm bored and search for something, click on it and put it in my shopping cart and done. It ships to me and it's so easy.

Don't get me wrong. I do like shopping in my local Lululemon. The store is pretty, well-lit, in a trendy part of town. I love trying on the super soft clothes and perusing the sale rack. But it's not easy.


1. My Lululemon showroom has crazy hours. They're open roughly 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
I can't swing by after work. Most Saturdays I have plans—or there's a football game and traffic is too awful to brave that side of town.
They're hours aren't easy at all. No Sundays, no evenings. Maybe if they were open more hours, I'd go more, but right now it's a struggle to go during my lunch break.

2. Parking.
Because they're in a trendy part of town there is no parking my local Lululemon. I've driven there, circled two parking lot three times each and decided it wasn't worth it. I don't need to spend money today.

3. Selection.
The local showroom just didn't get the selection that's online. They get a fraction of the products or colors. And it's so much easier to scroll through tops than go to a store and look through racks and racks and ask if they have my size in the back. Nothing compares to trying on clothes and seeing how pants fit my thighs or butt.

4. Fitting rooms.
I don't always feel like taking my clothes off and putting something else on. Sometimes I'm in a hurry. Sometimes it's easier to click than to try. I do have to try on eventually though.

And eventually, I do my returns to the store. It's easier than shipping it back. And the girls at the store are nice. I'm just addicted to online ordering. The Tuesday uploads and Thursday markdowns only make it a really expensive obsession of mine.  

Workout Review: Above Barre

Where's Waldo? You can barely see me in this photo.

With Pure Barre ever so popular, a second barre studio opened up in Athens. My interest was piqued. Would the classes be smaller? The  memberships less expensive?

Above Barre is located next to the Omni on Atlanta Highway. It opened in late December so it hasn't even been open a month. And they're offering your first class free so I decided to try them out. The plan was to go with my sister, who took ballet in college.

I get to the parking lot and text my sister "I'm here" in case she has trouble finding it. She's not coming. Her toddler threw up in the car. Groan. So perk of Above Barre: Childcare is provided.

I go into Above Bar solo. The reception area is pretty and well lit (not a lot of chairs or space to wait). The staffers are nice. I buy a pair of Sticky-Be socks. They say "Be Calm," something I struggle with. Maybe the socks will help?

There's one lady waiting for the next class. I worry that the class will be too small.

Then the class before mine lets out. It's Barre-lates. Barre meets pilates. A few college age girls show up for the next barre class and I enter the studio. It's nice. There are two barres.

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. No one told me. I look and see that everyone has a black mat, black ball and weights. I see the teacher at front and ask her. She says to get all of those and the two--pound weights. She repeats herself several times as about half the class is new.

Even before class begins, I can see that the women who come her are almost exactly the same clientele as Pure Barre. It's mostly sorority type thin, beautiful girls, with a few older women. I'm the odd one out, a little too old for college, but not 40s.

The studio seems smaller too. Pure Barre maxes out at 29 in a class. My class had about 16 and I felt the barre was pretty full. There are two barres, possibly longer than Pure Barre, which has four bars. The space is a little longer.

And class begins with marching in place. There's some arm work with the ball. And then the instructor says to do something in first position.

First position? I have no idea what this is. I've never take a dance class.

She explains it briefly as heels together toes apart in a V. She says first position a lot in this class. And second position. Which I guess is like first but more turned out? And she also calls out releves, which means something on your tip toes, she also calls out some plies, which I know vaguely what it is but not what I'm supposed to do. What are my knees doing? What are we working?

I've taken a month of barre classes, but the terms were confusing to me. I don't know what they are. Not everyone has taken dance.

The class had an arm section, which I really liked. We used the stretchy bands to work biceps, and did some arms with lunges and curtsy (does anyone know how to curtsy these days?). There were sections on the barre—seat work, which I always hate, and some open hip, toes to ceiling thing where I had no idea what to do. If your hip is open your leg is to the side not ceiling. There was the usual ball behind your knee part, where everyone drops the ball. I wasn't that impressed with the ab section. It was ball between your thighs, and lower and up with straight legs, that type of thing.

I got only one correction in arms. I needed to move my arms out with the band. So not so bad. The lady next to me seemed to be a new mom and she was really struggling with the workout. Really. She had Pure Barre 100 club socks on and I later heard her say she'd done a year at Pure Barre.

The class ended with some yoga style stretching. She called out some yoga style poses that I wasn't familiar with. She did call out Happy Baby, which I've heard of but don't quite know how to do.

Then class was over. I perused he boutique, which was nice, and ended up buying a top. (If I get a free class I usually feel compelled to buy something.) They were out of Sticky-B socks. I bought their last pair. I was really looking forward to those.

I wasn't completely wiped after the class. I ran errands for two hours, went home and walked my dog and then ran to stretch my legs out.

Pros: 
• Good arm section
•  Cute boutique
• Nice staff
• Childcare provided
•  Lots of parking (though you might have to hike)

Cons:
• I generally felt like more explanations were needed, but it's new and I've seen this happen with a lot of new instructors. (It's a new boutique. This will get worked out in time)
• I was hoping for it to be cheaper than Pure Barre, since that would be a big draw.
•  Above Barre also offers far fewer classes, 4 classes a day on most weekdays, 2 or 1 class a day on weekends, or about 20 classes a week. (Pure Barre offers 8 classes on weekdays, 2-3 on weekends, for a total of 43 classes a week).
Want a class before work? At lunch? Later than 5:30 p.m. so you don't have to rush like mad out of work and then get stuck in tragic? Above Barre doesn't have those offerings.

The instructor should explain things more. If she wants to appeal to dancers, the ballet terminology is great. If she wants a broader appeal, she should drop the ballet terminology. I wasn't that lost in the class—but I take a ton of classes. And I feel like she was teaching to someone even more hardcore than me. I'd be worried about novices.

Price comparison: Above Barre's pricing is almost identical to Pure Barre.
(Above listed first then compared to Pure Barre)

Single Class: $19 vs $21.
One month new client special, $99 vs $100.
Above Barre is currently extending this to six weeks unlimited to celebrate their grand opening. Pure Barre is doing 5 weeks for January.
Contracts: Pure Barre will occasionally offer 10% off their contracts

Three month contract:  $165 a month vs $170 a month

Six month contract: $160 a month for both
12 month contract, $150 a month for both
20 classes, $340 vs $320
10 classes, $180 for both

My Pure Barre membership is up Monday, so it would make a lot of sense to try this place out for six weeks. It would save me $75 or so. Maybe it's loyalty, but I just like Pure Barre better. They take you aside before class to make sure you know how to tuck, they tell you great job! when you leave. They try to learn your name. They explain more, which I'm realizing the importance of now. They tell you what body part you're working, explain the movement and give clarifications (don't move your knee across your chest, keep your head straight etc.) Also, I have more class options at Pure Barre.  If I did sign up for an AB membership, my only options would be 5:30 p.m. (which would be super stressful to get over there on time) or weekends.

Verdict: Great arms section. I could see myself going once a week for conditioning in addition to my running, climbing and tumbling and various other pursuits. But there's no real deal in going once a week. If I ever get tired of Pure Barre, I'd consider this.

There's definitely room for two barre studios in Athens. Pure Barre classes are always jam packed.

Fabletics Women's Sportswear: my review

Sample outfits on Fabletics.

I am always on the hunt for cute workout clothes—preferably on sale.

I kept getting Pandora pop-up ads for Fabletics. They were on my radar for cute workout wear, but I could never find the cute capris in the ads actually in stock.

By chance I happened to click on Fabletics on the first of the month when they release new products. And I found some capris that I had to have. I bought them immediately.

I went ahead and signed up for the VIP membership. They're an online subscription retailer where you can buy an outfit every month. If you sign up for the VIP membership, you can get better prices, but  the catch is you have to remember to login the first of every month to buy or decline the month. I could live with that, I thought (though I do have huge doubts.)

They also have a new member signup deal where your first outfit is $25. The catch is you have 48 hours from signing up to redeem that deal. So only sign up for their service if you want to buy immediately. I'd signed up a few months ago for their service (not the VIP membership), so I couldn't get the $25 deal. And I didn't really want any outfits. (I have a ton of workout clothes). I just wanted the capris (cute capris that aren't black are hard to find.)

For my first time ordering, I got 20% off the capris. It took a while to get a shipping confirmation, but after that they came in shortly. And they were the wrong size. I'me between a small and an extra-small in workout pants. I opted for the xs, because that's what they said a size 4 was. I'm a 4. I couldn't even fit my thigh in those pants.

I exchanged them. And exchanges are easy enough. You exchange them online. And when you put the return pair in the mail, they'll send out the new pair. (During this time, I was worried that they would sell out of the smalls.) Finally, my capris came in the mail. The smalls fit. They seemed to be a good quality. The exchange was free and I was happy about that.

First capri I ordered from Fabletics.

The next month, I wanted a pair of printed capris and it took forever to find an outfit I liked. (The site sells workout wear in terms on outfits. See image at top.)I like the bottoms and the tops, but never in the combinations they pick out. And when an outfit is $50 and the pants are $40 it makes sense to go ahead and buy the outfit. I found two outfits with the tops and bottoms I liked—and when I went to order that night, a lot of the styles that were there that morning were already sold out. I picked an outfit, added a top in the sale section and they offered me another top for $10 so I added that for my August outfit.

The outfit came in the mail. The capris (now that I know what size I am) are adorable and I wore them right away. The sale top was a lot cheaper than it looked online, but was okay. The top that came with the outfit and the $10 add-on tops were extremely cheap. I took one look at them and knew they were going back. They were also huge. I went ahead and ordered a small—after having to order up in the capris, but the small was way too big.

This top was cheaper than it looked, but for $20 it was okay.
TjMaxx has the same kind of stuff for the same price, and you can try their clothes on.

This top runs big, is super cheap and I had to call to return it.

I tried to send these tops back online, like I did last month. Only I couldn't. It said I had to call their 800 number and talk to someone weekdays between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. It was 8:50 p.m. when they sent me this message so I called them the next day. I was only hold for about 4 minutes before getting a girl who called herself O'Hara (what Indian girl calls themself O'Hara? And clearly she was at an overseas call center. Very thick accent.) It took five minutes for her to understand that I wanted to exchange two tops for a pair of capris. And then she returned one top for the capris and gave me a refund for the other top. It took her a while to figure out that I wanted the RIO RUN CAPRI IN BLUE LAVA. I said that like 10 times. Why I had to talk to her to do this, I don't know. It was annoying. I'd rather do this online. But no language barrier.

But a least she let me return the items. I was worried, I was going to have to dispute the charge on my credit card and/or cancel my Fab membership. I was fully prepared for this conversation.

Then, the return label she promised me took forever to get to me. I expected it to be in my inbox when I hung up the phone—that's the speed of email. But after our 9:30 a.m. conversation I got the return label at 6 p.m. After the post office closed. So much for having that taken care of that day.

Verdict: Would I recommend this service? Maybe.

I HATE that you have to buy in outfits. I never like two of the pieces that come together. I like some of the tops and some of the bottoms, but not in the combinations they choose. I just have a lot of workout tanks and don't need their tanks.

Their tops are EXTREMELY CHEAP. I might never buy another tank from them again. I like dry-fit performance tanks—not cheap see-through cotton.

That said, they do have a good variety of workout wear, that other ladies at the gym probably won't be wearing.

Sizing: I think their pants run small and their tops run big.

Annoyances: Their wish list feature currently isn't working. Their search is also not user-friendly. You can search by products by name (desio, flourish, but can't search for "blue tank" or "pink lava capri".

VIP membership. I'm very way of this. I don't mind checking in on the first of the month. That's easy enough to remember, but I worry it will be a pain in the ass to cancel in a few months when I'm tired of this service (when my husband yells at me for having too many workout clothes. It's probably deserved. It's an addiction.)

Workout Wear Wednesday: New Crazy Pants

I've gotten bored with black capri's, my gym uniform. So I've been on a hunt for super crazy pants to work out in. The really colorful ones can be hard to come by. Either they're super pricey or not in my size (apparently I am not the only one whose tired of black.)

I've gotten four pairs, which is more than I need.

The first two were purple Puma print capri's from 6pm.com. One's a small and one's an extra-small. I figured only one would fit and I'd send back what didn't fit, but they both fit and I liked them.

The lighter pair is a tad bit see through, so I'll just wear a long shirt or maybe shorts underneath, but both are super fun.

I ordered these capri's from Fabletics. I'm worried about signing up for their service, but I had to have these pants.

They came in a look fabulous. The fabric is thick and all-around they seem like high quality pants. They're a tiny bit tight in the thighs, but I suppose they fit (they are compression pants. I haven't worn them to work out in, but we'll see.

I thought I was done with crazy pants, but I found these Reebok color blast capri's on the clearance rack at Dick's Sporting goods for $19.99.

All of these pants are super fun. I like clothes that make me smile when I put them on. I can't wait to wear these. I might wear the Reebok pants to TRX tomorrow.