My new sports bra

Sorry to my SIL!!! I keep forgetting to post this, and I promised her on Saturday that I would!

After much research and consideration I finally laid out the money for a new sports bra. I ended up with a Moving Comfort Juno this time. Last time I purchased one it was a Moving Comfort Fiona and while I like that one quite a bit, I like to change things up from time to time.

Since I'm a woman with an ample chest (normally a 38D) and I do not like to have any bounce at all while I run,  I'm always looking for good sports bras that do the job without costing as much as the national debt. And while the Juno has a fairly high MSRP ($52), I was able to find it on Amazon for significantly less, especially in some of the less popular colors. I ordered what was called "Seaglass" (see picture). It was supposed to be an aqua-green color. Alas, it veers more to the green than the aqua. Oh well, it goes under my tech shirt, so it's not that big of deal.

The reviews for the Juno are pretty good. Most people on several different sites like the bra and highly recommend it for larger breasted women (C Cup +). The common complaints I read were that many people found the bra to run a bit small and that it could be a bit tricky to put on or take off since it is a hybrid sports bra (a racer-back bra with a series of hooks as well). I wasn't worried about the hybrid part of the equation since I've had similar bras in the past and have learned to get past that problem by hooking the bra where I want it in advance and then just pulling it on over my head like a traditional racer-back bra. The too small issue was another issue altogether, so I went onto the Moving Comfort website and filled in the measurements to get their sizing recommendation... they said I should wear a 40D. Okay... so I was willing to take their suggestion and order that size.

I busted (no pun intended!) out the new bra during Monday's long run. Maybe not the smartest decision as you never know what kinds of issues you might encounter but I decided to risk it anyway. I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

My first impression of the bra when I tried it on Sunday night (well before my run on Monday morning) was that I was a little concerned it might be too big after all. I like my sports bras to have serious compression to keep everything rigidly in place. I don't give a flying leap about the possibility of uni-boob issues that many women complain of as long as there is ZERO bounce (who cares what it looks like??? I'm out there to run, not to worry about some fashion statement!). I adjusted the straps which helped my initial impression of it being too big and then after feeling a like an idiot with a few minutes of jumping up and down in my bedroom in the new bra, I decided to take it out for a spin on Monday.

The bra is a serious bra. It is lined with a fabric that is pretty heavy duty tech/silver infused. It forms the padded cups (such as they are) as well as provides an anti-microbial surface and additional moisture wicking. This is significantly different than my MC Fiona bra front, which basically consists of several layers of the tech fabric. As I mentioned above, the back is a t-back style with 3 hook/eye closures for an adjustable fit. The straps are hook/loop (aka Velcro) adjustable, similar to the Fiona. I love this kind of adjustments for shoulder straps, otherwise, I usually find myself so frustrated after a few times of adjusting traditional "slider" style straps that I actually end up sewing them in place!

When I started out running on Monday, I could feel just a little bit of jiggle at the very top of the bra. It is a v-neck shape, so it cuts just a little lower than I'm used to and while this wasn't really a bounce per se, it was a bit distracting initially. However, I must say within the first five minutes of my run, I completely forgot about the jiggle and didn't notice anything like that for the rest of the 2½ hours I was out. As for actual bounce, it was fine. I had adjusted the bra straps, as I mentioned and that seemed to do the trick. There was no bounce that I could notice and it was overall a pretty comfortable bra for me.

The only issues I had were two very small rub spots that didn't show up until well over an hour into my run. The first one was where the adjustment hooks are in the back. It seems like the fabric where the hooks/eyes are was fuse-finished, creating slightly hard (stiff) edges which started to dig in to my back over time. I'm hoping that with a few washings or at the worst, maybe a little trimming of the hard edges, this will resolve itself. The only other rubbing issue I had was with one of the shoulder straps. The placement of it once I adjusted it caused the tip of it to rest right on my collar bone. Once again, this issue didn't show up until well into my run, but I'm going to have to re-adjust the bra strap before my next run because a raw spot on my collar bone isn't pleasant.

Still, I have to admit that after a 2½ hour/13 mile run, the fact that I had only two very small raw spots from a brand new bra, was very impressive. I've had much worse chaffing from bras that were well broken in. So I think that is a testament to it.

One other note of caution before you run out and buy this bra for yourself is that it is a t-back style bra, therefore the shoulder straps sit much higher up on your shoulders, toward your neck, than a traditional bra would. This could become an issue for people who don't like bras that fit like this or don't want to feel the pressure of the support this close to their necks. I noticed it, but it didn't really bug me (aside from the already mentioned raw spot on my collar bone).

Well, my initial impression of the Juno would be a 4, possibly 4½ stars out of 5. I will try to check in again in a few weeks to let you know how we're getting on and to see if my review has changed any in that time.

Today's Modified (Long) Run
There's a half marathon coming up on Sunday, so I started tapering a bit today...
10.65 Miles
2:00:10
5.32 mph
11:17 pace