Please leave feedback via comments or email me! Thanks!
----------------------------
Having finished her stretches, Vanessa grabbed her hair-tie and pulled her long black hair back into a ponytail, and put on her sunglasses. Looking into the mirror, she was happy with the effects of all the running she had been doing lately. Her slim but defined calves drew a nice line from her heels to the bottoms of her pink shorts. They were running shorts so they showed off much of her smooth tan thighs. Her eyes trailed up the full length mirror and now examined her exposed abdomen. She liked what she saw, as just a hint of definition was beginning to peek out from her belly. It wasn't a full six pack, but that was just how she liked it, not too hard, and not too soft. She ran her hands over the skin of her belly and could feel the slight ridges as they were developing. She reminded herself to cut back on her crunches so as keep the feminine look she was going for.
Right above, she looked at her 36C breasts smushed against her chest by the blue and silver sports bra. She had always been happy with the size of her breasts, but she liked them even more as the running had caused them to sag slightly less, making them seem suspended by some invisible bra. From there, she could see her new favorite part of her body, her arms. The skin hugged tightly against her shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Again, they were the perfect size for her, not too big as to make her shoulders seems broader, but clearly defined. Since she started running she had bought numerous tank tops to show off what her girlfriends liked to call "her new guns".
She crossed her arms and rubbed her triceps, warming them up, and enjoying the feel of the skin and musculature. It was smooth and soft, but had a little definition to it. Vanessa had always had a nice body, but running had pushed her body over the top where she now had the kind of body that turned heads. Even her face showed it as the extra weight loss had pulled her face skin taut and highlighted her high cheekbones and her fantastic smile. Giving herself another once over in the mirror, she winked at herself with a self satisfied smile.
As she put in the earbuds to her Ipod, she smiled as she thought about how addictive her new running habit had become. Before she moved to the neighborhood, Vanessa worked out at a gym, doing the elliptical machines or the stairmaster. She rarely ventured onto the treadmill as the thought of any kind of running always reminded when she had thrown up in front of the whole high school PE class after having run two miles. But here she was 16 years later, running a three miles four times a week. As she began her trot onto the sidewalk, she laughed to herself as she remembered how her running addiction began.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About a year ago, Vanessa moved into the new development on the outskirts of town. All of the houses were brand new and after her promotion at work, she decided that she had had enough of the city and was able to put a down payment on what she hoped would be the house she would retire in. At 33, she was proud that she had been able to buy a house without the assistance of a husband, but she hoped that she would someday be able to share all this space with someone. But for right now, she was happy the way things were and she was especially happy to have so much more room than her cramped apartment.
Most of the people who lived in the development were older, usually married and with children. The neighborhood was quiet, had a great views of the mountains, and she wouldn't have to worry about any noisy neighbors. It was pretty much everything she wanted in a home. The only problem was that it was fairly remote from the civilized world. For work it wasn't a problem since she had worked out a telecommuting schedule with her company and would only need to come in three days of the week. Even still, the newness of the development meant that many of the businesses that she was used to having within walking distance were now a twenty five minute drive, including the gym that she belonged to. This was normally not a problem as she would normally go to the gym on days that she did drive into the office plus once more on the weekend to get her 4 workouts a week in.
But one evening, after a particularly trying day at the office, she decided to skip the gym and just headed home. However, when she got home, she began to feel guilty about not working out. She was trying to lose a little weight at the time and she had promised herself to be strict about keeping up with her workout regime. But the thought of having to drive through the traffic again made her wince.
For a few minutes she debated in her head if there was any way she could justify not working out that night. She was just about to let the "Fuck it, I'm going to have a beer and a frozen pizza tonight" side win out over the "Get in the car and drive back to the gym", when she looked up at her television to see news coverage of the upcoming San Diego Marathon. The reporter was interviewing a 64 year old lady who had run 23 marathons in her lifetime and was getting ready to run her 24th. Even though she had the television on mute, she could hear the old lady chiding her, "Come on Vanessa, I'm 64 years old and I work out every day."
The guilt overwhelmed her and she changed into her workout clothes and was looking for her car keys when an idea hit her. Why didn't she just go for a jog? The developer had the foresight to build running trails in the neighborhood with mile markers and everything. She thought briefly of her embarrassing episode in high school, but then she looked at the clock. It was already 6:30. By the time she she drove out to the city, worked out, came home and showered it would probably already be 9PM. She couldn't stand the thought of losing any more of her precious free time. She looked at the TV screen again and felt the words coming from the elderly lady, "Twenty minutes." It was settled, she would see if she could last for twenty minutes and that would be good enough for tonight.