How I became a Cheetah

I've been working on a piece about proper fit with our running clothes. It started with a visit to a local shop where I tried on a number of running pants and a jacket. Much to my dismay, I looked horrid in most of the pieces. I can attribute this to my unusually large weight gain over the Christmas holidays that's taking awhile to work off. For me, my problem spots are the top of my thighs and tummy.

Some all-too-familiar thoughts came to me as I stood there looking at the spandex disaster staring back at me in the change room mirror. I've heard them so many times before, "it doesn't matter how you look - these pants are for running."

That phrase has been on my mind all week as I've been researching proper fit for my body type. As part of my research, I went through photos of me from the past six years of running, canoeing and climbing mountains. For some outfits I actually thought "geez, I really wish this was never caught on film." But should I really have avoided spaghetti straps with my big shoulders and arms? Should I have not worn a light grey spandex short that showcased every bump in my pear-shaped figure with an equally unflattering top? Why does it matter and why am I way more excited these days to sport a cute running dress, skirt or flowery patterned top with dark pants?

The Confidence Continuum






From one perspective, it doesn't matter because just doing sports is a confidence builder in itself. I'm referring to inner confidence - that "umph" that shines through when someone knows exactly who they are and what they're doing. It's the person we all want to be around because they have a certain buzz about them - their own energy.

Running can definitely help boost our confidence. Think about how wonderful it feels finishing a race or a hill workout. We can feel on top of the world. If we think of confidence as ranging from weak to strong along a continuum, then sports can help move us further along that continuum.

But what if we have a bad run? What if we only run once a week? What if we run only in summers and do nothing all winter long? What if our physical pursuits turn us into a spoil sport when we don't win? What if our diet is atrocious in spite of all the exercise? What if we plain lose motivation to keep running? Or...what if we suffer plain jane with bouts of poor confidence?

Although sport is great for helping us to build real self-confidence, it's not infallible for exactly the reasons I identify above. To complicate matters, we need clothes to run in and clothes also fall on a continuum that affects our self confidence.

The Clothing Continuum






If we look at the clothing continuum from a running perspective, on the very far left we have folks that choose clothes just to cover their bodies while they run. Fit and feeling good in these clothes are irrelevant for the wearer. Fine and dandy, but consider this scenario:

I know that for most of my running life (some thirty years), I would always run at night. Why? Because I never really viewed myself as "a runner." Running was always training for other sports. That said, I preferred to go out at night when I knew there was little chance of being recognized as I huffed and puffed away in a big old t-shirt and un-matching shorts. I'm not alone in the "closet runner" syndrome. Not only was this reported in a recent interview with the owner of the Running Room franchise but it's quite the phenomenon among middle age women that are new to running (or working out in general) and are carrying extra weight, self-conscious about their aging bodies and/or have never done sports before! And it's probably not limited to middle aged women either.

In this scenario, fitting clothing to your body type is important to keep the workout momentum going. No use derailing your workout that is meant to build self confidence with clothes that work against your self confidence.



Let's consider now someone that sits somewhere along the middle of the continuum. This probably represents the bulk of female runners today. Compared to our everyday clothing needs, we probably only buy a few pieces of performance wear for running every year. Coupled with the problem of limited selection in mainstream stores, most wardrobes represent a mish-mash of performance tops and bottoms. We'd most likely find that most women are wearing running wear fitted to their bodies, but lacking in style. The latter is also a problem inherent to women in general. With the growing presence of small companies at expos that offer unique and stylish performance pieces, this is changing. This doesn't mean selection leads to style, but it certainly makes it easier.

This still doesn't mean that we choose pieces that are best for our body types. I'm going back to the questions I posed at the start of this article - should I ever have worn god-awful too-short and too-revealing, light grey spandex shorts? In looking back at photos I see they were definitely a bad choice for my body type. But in the midst of my activity, it mattered little. I was probably sitting somewhere in the middle of that confidence/clothing continuum. Today, I definitely am moving towards the far right of this line. This is an area of complete self-expression.

My choices in running clothing are funkier, hipper and they definitely represent more of my somewhat rebellious personality (for a fourty-something year old!). Part of this is finding funkier options out there (skirts, dresses, patterns). Part of this is learning what suits my body best in everyday wear (pear shape that morphs into something more athletic in the height of summer). But really, it has so much to do with moving along the continuum of confidence in life and the artist in me bursting out. As I've chatted about in earlier posts, when I run, I feel incredibly free. When I run trails - especially gnarly, hilly, even mountainous trails, I'm in my element. I feel my inner cheetah taking over and feel like I'm making my stamp on my territory. As running ultra distances has reinforced in my mind, it's not about the win, it's about the second to second experience that running delivers for me. It's about feeling alive and loving running. And dammit, there are companies that make running clothes that represent my cheetah nature so I'm going to dawn my cheetah-esque skin when I'm out there!

My permanent cheetah attire: