Y'All Make My Butt Hurt

OK, not all of you. Just Amber and my Crazy Cousin.

And they make my butt hurt in a GOOD way. Here's how:

In a brief water-fountain-fly-by conversation with Amber the other day, I learned that she was still training for her upcoming 5K in this unbearable heat. She said she just waits until about 8 p.m. and then it's "not so bad."

And I told you yesterday about my Crazy Cousin's current bike riding and walking obsession ... how she just can't sit still.

Those two things planted themselves in my head and last night I decided that I should go for an extra walk once the sun began to set. After all, the Dirty Girl 5K is quickly approaching and I should log some actual outdoor miles to get in the swing of things, right?

So I put on my butt sculpting tennis shoes and a headband and hit the road.

I did about three miles, and neither the heat nor the bugs were too bad. If I had to guess, I was doing about a 4.3 mph pace on the winding, rolling road in front of my house.

The most surprising thing? Walking downhill. I felt like a marionette ... like my legs were connected with strings and didn't bend or move like they should. I think I'm so accustomed to walking at my steady uphill pitch that my body was all discombobulated on the downside of every hump. It was actually funny as I tried to put one foot in front of the other and land properly.

The other discovery? Those butt sculpting shoes, whose claims I thought were kind of bogus, might actually work. My gluteus is SORE today. It's probably a combination of the shoes and the hills.

And, like I said, I'm blaming Amber and Crazy Cousin.

I'm hoping to pay it forward, too, and now make YOUR butt hurt. Have fun!