Fashionable Fitness

I think an extraordinary amount about what to wear while working out. It's part of what motivates me to get out there, along with all my gadgets. But at the same time, I'm all hyper about not owning too many clothes.  Back in late 2012, I re-did my closet and decided I could only own clothes that fit in my room - no spilling out over the whole house.  I'm at capacity again, and need to decide how to proceed.

When I look back at how I've spent money on clothes in the past year or so, it is almost entirely on workout / casual clothes.  There is some overlap between pure gym clothes and casual hang-out-and-do-chores clothes, especially in the tops. Plus, I generally sleep in sweats and a tee, so shopping at the casual / gym places works for me on many levels.

I've gotten by without buying any work clothes for a couple of reasons. One is that my weight has never been more stable in my adult life.  My weight continues to bounce within a ten-pound range, for what is coming up on four whole years now. And within the last 15 or so years, I've been around this weight range before. So I was able to harvest some good quality classic clothes from my big closet archeology - ten or more years old and they fit and weren't worn out - because I forgot about them when they no longer fit.  For the past summer, my go-to work outfits were dresses (or skirts and tees) and bare legs (we nominally have an all-summer casual dress code which allows a lot of wiggle room, but even in important meetings women have bare legs in DC in summer).

My weight in perspective: since 1988!

I have a closet full of tailored slacks, 15+ pairs, only one pair bought in the last year. They are navy, black, and grey, with one pair of brown.  I have about 10 silk (read dry clean only) knit tops, and an equal number of washable cotton ones, that need upgrading, but I'll probably do that on-line. This is more than I need to own in total, but I want to be ruthless about getting rid of the less-than-perfect ones.

I have bought several pairs of shoes, both casual and for work. I haven't worn heels since and never ever will again since I didn't wear them to meet the President (it was Clinton-that's how long it's been!)  I got a catalogue in the mail from an English company, Hotter, and found cool shoes that are wide enough for my bunions. I've added four pairs to my closet, and I'm out of room.  I'm getting rid of those I don't like, but again there are more that I like and that fit than I seem to wear in regular rotation. How many of those should I hang onto?

So the only "shopping" I do is for casual clothes.Shoes are clearly a fitness tool, and since I'm running and walking I think having a couple of pairs in rotation is good. My Very Hungry Labrador regularly prunes my sock collection, despite all my precautions, so I keep getting more of those.  But I can easily do laundry once a week, and so how many clothes do I need to own?  Not so many.  But I consider it money well spent if the buzz of excitement for dressing in new clothes is some of what pushes me to get moving. And I'm being ruthless about either returning clothes or donating them if they are not perfect for me.

Here are my go-to places for casual and work-out clothes - almost all the shopping I do is on-line, except where noted.

Athleta.  Hands down my favorite, but pricy. Serious workout clothes, and yoga clothes, and fashion.  I've bought dresses and sweaters from them as well as workout clothes. My biggest complaint is they don't have a lot of petites, which I need for full length bottoms - since I'm the ultimate pear shaped woman, needing Large on bottom but Medium on top.
City Sports. They are in my neighborhood, across the street from Whole Foods and almost next door to my new gym. I most often buy bottoms on-line (to find L Petite), but stop in for sales on tops, socks and shoes. This is where I got my running shorts from, in an on-line sale I got lucky.
Title Nine. Serious athletic clothes and fun dresses and tops. Love love love their catalogue, but disappointed that often when I go to order, they don't have my size.  They also have bra-whisperers, and an associated line of fashionable bras called Bounce. Since the pear-shaped thing means bras are not a big issue for me, I've always resented spending real money on them, but those of you more endowed might enjoy what they have.
Fabletics.  This is brand new to me.  I got a blind junk email from them, and whimiscally clicked through, and actually bought.  They are on-line only, and push to sign up to a SUBSCRIPTION FOR OUTFITS - very very nicely priced, but you have to actively opt out if you don't want to buy on a monthly basis. Knowing my history with these kinds of things, I'll have to close my account soon, but I bought their intro offer - complete 3-piece outfit for $29 - and am wearing it now. It fits well with Large and Medium bottom and top, respectively, for me. They seem to carry extensive sizing, and I liked the idea of a coordinated outfit. After one more outfit, though, I think I'll probably declare my workout clothes storage full and just stop.  I notice they fit well, and feel comfortable, but they are not as "technical" as the clothes from City Sports or Athleta or Title Nine.  I mean not necessarily miracle wicking fabrics or reflective.
REI. Long established camping equipment store, also has store brand and other brand outdoor and workout clothes. I love REI - I went there once for a spork for my boy's extensive camping trip the next day, and walked out with $250 total in purchases. Their store brand clothes is not always of the quality of other brands, but I shop the sales there and recently did well on yoga clothes seasonal closeout. I only do in person shopping there because I want to examine the quality. I often buy purses and back packs there.
LL Bean.  Of course. They always have petites and I buy most of my weekend long pants there. And fleece. I have a couple drawers full of LL Bean fleece.

Sustainable Training

For the third time this year, I didn't run in a 5K I had signed up for. This one was the best excuse yet - only a week since The Attack of the Killer Tree - but it's way too much a pattern. I wasn't supposed to run after the concussion, and I considered going and walking. But wouldn't you know it - it was a themed run - Flee the British - and the setup included Dolly Madison in costume leading off with the portrait of George Washington under her arm, and followed by British soldiers in costumes with muskets and bayonets. The last thing I was up for was being last in the pack - a very real possibility - and the onlookers all cheering on the redcoats behind me.

(Aside: I am bemused at how we are celebrating one of the most humiliating defeats in U.S. history - the capture by the enemy of our national capital in 1814 with all kinds of amusing "run away! run away!" festivals.)

I bailed on one race earlier because I signed up in expectation of friends also going and they didn't. I bailed on another because it was the day before a 25-hour plane trip and I was afraid I would push myself in the run and hurt the knees, which would then freeze up during the interminable time sitting still in steerage.

So I actually have run in two 5Ks this year - one in May and one in July. My time in July was better than the first one - hooray.  I'm signed up for two more in October - the Dead Man's run in the Historic Congressional Cemetery at the beginning of the month and a huge running festival in Baltimore in the middle of the month, with my friend I was with for the Annapolis race.

When I split my head open, I was actually on my way back from a run with the dog. I had been pretty good at doing run/walks with the dog 2-3 times a week, and longer walks on other days. But it was very unstructured with no accountability, and no sense that I was getting better or progressing in any way.  So after bailing on fleeing the British, I decided to get a more structured, and hopefully sustainable, training plan. Using my Runkeeper app on the iphone, I picked a plan labelled "Beginner's 5K - to finish" and jumped into the third week of the workouts. This was so I would be done with the plan by the time of the next race on October 4. It certainly builds slowly, and actually, even at week 3, took me back a couple of notches from what I had been doing on my own. It involves just three runs a week, with the midweek runs as timed intervals and the weekend runs longer distance-based intervals.  From the beginning, I've been tacking on a little bit extra - one or two extra intervals, but at the timing they suggest.

I have got the dog more in tune with running.  Since there is nothing my Very Hungry Labrador likes more than food, I'm using food to encourage him to keep up and match my pace.  I think perhaps switching back to the relatively short intervals is also good for him. So I no longer feel like I'm engaged in dog abuse.

I also did some runs in running shorts. I bought the longest ones I could find, but they are much shorter than I would normally allow myself to be seen in. I'm more comfortable with the tight but longer running pants. The shorts are good when it's steamy, though I feel like I have to change right afterwards. But paying attention to wearing clothes I like is part of my motivation.

Now my problem is the shortening of days.  It is pitch dark when I roll out of bed. Some days it's hot and steamy, other days its frosty, but it is always dark.  This past week, I changed up my routine. I had been going first down to the stream valley park by my house and doing a mile or so up or down stream, then returning through the neighborhood. This week first I went through the neighborhood, and came back as sunrise was approaching and the trail by the stream was less dark.  I think I may need to switch in a week or so to treadmill running inside, which does nothing for the dog who will still need to be walked.  Or else find a way to switch my schedule to either go to work later, or to run in the evening (I can't imagine running at lunch - no time to change, run, shower, and change back - that would be 90 minutes at least, lunch is more often around 30-45 minutes for me.)  My neighborhood is built on a steep hillside with most of the roads going up and down hill - not good running turf though great walking exercise - and so running out of my neighborhood to somewhere else... not a lot of good choices there either. I'll figure it out, though, and having the specific structure of specific workouts to do on specific days for my chosen training plan is good discipline.

So I'm hanging in there, and looking forward to running for the next twenty years at least. Sustainably. I can't capture here today all the other things I've thought of for blog posts - eating, wardrobe management, etc., but nothing else earthshattering is going on. School has begun, and my girl is settling in. We're establishing new routines, and it is working out fine.  Big boy has his own apartment finally, and middle boy is happy in in his school. Mother is hanging in there.

So that's it for today - the basement and the dump beckon me!