Dates for your wolf diary: Tues 12 Nov, Sun 17 Nov and Sat 7 December

Morning all,

OK, so next official wolf run is Sat 7 December. Likely to be Hollingbourne: 7-8 miles on the north downs and then lunch at the Dirty Habit (I swear this is actually the pub's name, not what I want it to be called).

But, as there's no official November run (a few of us are off to run the Helvellyn trail race instead), here's a couple of things we could do to entertain ourselves in the meantime...

Tues 12 November: street orienteering in Clerkenwell. OK, so Clerkenwell is renowned neither for mud nor wolves, but I can assure you that chasing down weird landmarks and getting lost in EC1 is Definitely Our Kind of Thing. Details here. It's run by the fantastic South London Orienteers, who also organise the Box Hill fell race. £1 if you're a member, £2 otherwise. You let them know you're going via Facebook so they can print off enough maps

Sun 17 November: Herbert's Hole Challenge. 10k trail race, starts in Chesham (it's on the tube, you know). Details on how to enter here.

That's all for now. I'm off to do an interval run in Victoria Park (desperately trying to maintain some fitness for Helvellyn), and I might manage 7 miles off road tomorrow to test out a new (and sort of needed) pair of Innov8s.

Introducing the Mae West of sports bras

Panache's latest sports bra promises 83% less bounce. Red Wolf road tests it to see if it delivers.

Breasts and running: a tricky combination

For any runner who is a B-cup or higher, it is a universal truth that a good bra and good running shoes are her two most important pieces of equipment. As a recreational runner with a 36C bust, I know too well the detrimental effect of bounce. So the arrival of a sports bra promising an 83% bounce reduction demands careful examination.

Running, at its purest, can be transcendent. Once the initial blood sugar burn subsides, and the body has warmed itself, the natural movement of your own continuous stride beneath you creates a calmness that can lead to maximum bliss. But running demands total physical lockdown - no headphone cord flying about, no loose rucksack knocking against the small of the back, no waist band slipping down to the hips.

Breasts moving about, even slightly, are even more problematic. They are a feature of a woman's body singularly poorly suited to the activity of running. A good sports bra recognises this, and works to overcome it. For this reason, the sports bra is one of the most difficult pieces of technical equipment to get right.

Bra science: encapsulation v compression

If we suppose for a moment that Shock Absorber is designing sports bras at the Sigourney Weaver end of the scale, then Panache has designed what may be described as the Mae West of sports bras. This bra has glam, and delivers the all important bounce reduction. The informative, technically detailed fold-out brochure that accompanies it states that the Panache bra is engineered to control and support breasts, not to compress them. In the parlance of bra science, this approach is known as "encapsulation".

This bra aims to provide anatomically moulded support that embraces and holds the breast in place, while minimising movement in any direction. This is rather different to the blunt effort of a maximum support crop top, which basically squashes the breast tissue against your chest. Its wide shoulder straps are padded to disperse pressure, and the underband sits directly under the breastbone, leaving no space between where the bottom of the breast rests and the top of the band. The cut is high at the sides and top, giving a sleek, overall feminine shape that shows no cleavage.

Good wicking action from the microfibre materials means that there is no rubbing or conflict with bare skin, though I have yet to test the Panache over a longer distance.

Rear closure prevents "jujitsu bra"

Another major benefit of this bra is the ease with which a woman can get in and out of it. This is a serious design challenge. For anyone who has ever tried to slip a racer back crop top on after a swim, then you will have experienced how a bra, with no apparent motive, can suddenly jujitsu you into an underarm lock from which there is no hope of escape. If a bra pulls this maneouvre on you, you have experienced the fashion equivalent of a suicide mission. 


Panache has thought of this. A rear eye hook closure allows you to slip the bra comfortably on and off dry or wet skin, without struggle. It also carries a discreet eye closure hook that allows it to be worn racer back style if desired. But the build renders this largely surplus to requirements.

Price

At £35, Panache is well priced for what is a highly engineered, solidly designed product.

Stockists

Sweatshop, John Lewis, figleaves.com, lessbounce.com - and many others

www.panache-lingerie.com/gb/sports/DesignFeatures.aspx