Interesting day; good/bad ....

[Brandy]

OK after having been through several months of recovery from an eye operation and a sprained ankle I decided I need some outdoor air and hike to see how I feel.

I have been going to the gym to exercise the bits that I could but it's very hard to build stamina in a gym besides gym's get boring.

What makes this story interesting for this group for the last 6-8 months I have been going to the gym wearing my RunningSkirt (runningskirt.com) with or without compression pantyhose. So was there any OMG!! the roof is falling comments/stares, well I guess there were some stares and I assume most of those were the pantyhose as I wore black or dark navy. And the roof of the gym never fell in and not a comment from anyone.

So this morning I had to find out how well I felt as it was suppose to be warm, hiking shoes, T-shirt, RunningSkirt, water bottle, phone, etc. I get to the park where I'm going to hike the park has at least a dozen trails from flat to ~900ft of climbing and about 12 miles in length there are 25 miles of trails in this park. I was going for a modest 5-6 mile trail with only about 150ft climb.

I park the car and as I start walking I'm watching the electric model airplanes dog fighting overhead, ... well you can guess what happens next I trip and fall. Getting up my left knee is cut up and bleeding. This was painful both physical and emotional, there were several offers of assistance from other hikers. As I start to make my way back to car I stop at a horse watering trough and wash the blood off my knee. When I finished I noticed the knee looks disgusting but it did not hurt, and my ankle was sore but did not hurt so I restarted my hike.

Here is the interesting bit several people seeing the knee asked if I was OK, yes just looks bad. When I started the up hill shaded portion I took off the T-shirt as I was hot, so I'm wearing hiking boots and a RunningSkirt. It was impossible to miss the RunningSkirt and as I rested at the turns going up and down several people seeing the knee stopped to talk to me about the knee it got pretty gruesome looking between wash downs.

On the way back I found the outcrop of rock on the trail I tripped over.

Bottom line no one ever asked about or commented on the skirt even when it could not be missed. May people were kind and helpful. I've been sitting this afternoon and evening with ice on my ankle, since this is a re-injury hopping recovery will not take to long.

Other than the above mentioned injuries the hike was pretty good and I actually feel pretty good. I was really pleased with the RunningSkirt performance as a hiking garment and highly recommend it. Does not move or chafe, the brief is a mesh that breathes and most important things that need support are.

--Brandy

[Milfmog]

Sounds like a win with the choice of clothing Brandy. Pity about the fall, hope you recover from the injuries quickly.

Have fun,


Ian.

[Kirbstone]

Now if there were model airplanes cavorting round it must have been a lovely fine day & it's easy to get distracted by them. Our last fine day here, according to living memory was sometime during 1976, I believe.

However, my sterling advice is to do your sport sitting down as I do and the only place you can fall then is into the water, which, while it mightn't graze your knee could well drown you!
....and then we'd be out of Brandy, perish the thought!

T.

[pleated]

Now if there were model airplanes cavorting round it must have been a lovely fine day & it's easy to get distracted by them. Our last fine day here, according to living memory was sometime during 1976, I believe.
T.

1976? Yes 1976 was quite "tropical" here, but we did have a mini "heatwave" last week - the temperature even reached 25 degrees Celsius OK you lot stop rolling around on the floor laughing.
In this country there are mornings when it is best to not look out the window. That can lead to depression.
Even had to put the heat on for a while this morning.

[Brandy]

Hi,

I think I was living in Harrogate N. Yorkshire when that happened. This was during the period of early satellite weather and Michael Fische weather forcast was a framed satellite photo of the entire island without a single cloud and said "tomorrow will be the same" that was the total forecast.

Yes yesterday was as nice as could be asked for, no clouds, light winds, temp in the low 80's night time temp drops to mid 50's perfect Mediterranean type climate. Perfect hiking, flying weather, bad sailing weather.

The knee is cleaned up and bandaged it does not hurt, the ankle well it's sore this morning.

--Brandy

[crfriend]

The knee is cleaned up and bandaged it does not hurt, the ankle well it's sore this morning.

I am glad to hear that you're not badly wounded and that you're on the mend.

Having damaged my knees more times than I can remember when I was younger, more careless, and less coordinated (yeah, right) they can look like raw hamburger one week and be perfectly fine the next.

In any event, it's good to read you again!

[Brandy]

My public service announcement to promote leg health.

OK, more on the aches and pains. Often these days I wear compression pantyhose and again I found out why after cleaning up and redressing the knee I needed to hold the dressing in place what better bandage than PH. With in a few minutes of getting them on 95% of the dull leg ache left over from yesterday went away.

So since you already wear a skirt do not feel bashful about wearing PH if needed.

--Brandy

[skirted_in_SF]

Brandy, I noticed you are almost local to me. What park were you hiking in?

[SkirtRevolution]

Glad to here you are ok. Skirts have and are becoming popular for men that hike or run. Some men wear kilts of some sort and some men even venture out into skirts. I think when doing running or hiking there is a lot more acceptace for guys with skirts as people are there to be comfortable more than just look good. I run in a few types of skirts but am not usually noticed so get no comments.

[Brandy]

Brandy, I noticed you are almost local to me. What park were you hiking in?

Rancho San Antonio Open space preserve.
http://www.openspace.org/preserves/pr_r ... ntonio.asp

If you are in SF this is Mid-Peninsula near Cupertino/Mountain View.

--Brandy

[the_scott_meister]

For us from Phoenix to hike (and survive) we need to drive 2 hours to the high country where they've got something other than sand and cacti. But it's quite worth it to take the family on a Saturday outing. They kids love it and my wife likes the quiet. I have only gotten a few comments, like "Nice kilt.", that sort of thing, but generally nobody else seems to care that I'm wearing a kilt or skirt. I think that we tend to put it all in our minds that people care more about things than they do, and we get concerned about what they think when they don't really think anything at all. It's hard not to, though.

[skirted_in_SF]

Brandy, I noticed you are almost local to me. What park were you hiking in?

Rancho San Antonio Open space preserve.
http://www.openspace.org/preserves/pr_r ... ntonio.asp

If you are in SF this is Mid-Peninsula near Cupertino/Mountain View.

--Brandy

If you poke about in the pics and looks section here you will find a posting I made about a hike I took in the Long Ridge OSP a year ago last August. Skirts are great garments for walks in the warm woods.

[Brandy]

For those who have a membership at Facebook go to "running skirts" page and scroll down their gallery. They seem to be doing an OK side business selling running skirts to men.

Scroll down to "Indie 5k 2011 The Running Event" gallery this event seems to be at least 1/4 men in running skirts.

--Brandy