So, as I have shared in a past post, I am on a quest to open up a whole new world of running fashion with the addition of shorts and skirts to my running repertoire.

Let Me Start From the Beginning

So, when I first started running, I had a whole array of Soffe shorts and the like from my field hockey practice days that became my running wardrobe out of sheer convenience.  I actually hated traditional running shorts at first.  As I started to get more serious though, wicking materials began to replace my chunky cotton garb.  I quickly found that my thighs seemed to chafe at random and learned the hard way that races and shorts didn’t mix well for me.  Great big scabs resulted from the 2010 Disneyland Half Marathon:

A rare sight these days.  I definitely learned that shorts were a bad race day strategy but over time, I started wearing them less and less.  Not wearing shorts probably made my skin even more sensitive to chafing so it got to the point that I would sometimes wear them at the gym but never in Florida’s high humidity outside.  While I have plenty of fun capris, I started to look more and more at the top women at local races and started to get a bit jealous of their very elite looking skimpy shorts. As with most things, you feel the part if you look the part.  Thus, I have been on a quest to overcome these silly limitations.

My Progress

Check this girl out:

That was me at the gym Tuesday night when my speed work at the track was thwarted by lightning in the area that resulted in a mandatory evacuation.  Darn.  However, it was a good excuse to go home, throw on my newly acquired little shorts, and give them a whirl (a thank you to Charles who I coerced into taking this photo when he arrived to get his work out in).

Anyway, so far so good.  I think the answer is to just keep on trying.  I haven’t even needed vaseline, body glide, etc. at this point.  Either my thighs are adapting or I’m just super motivated to make it work.  Either way, I’m pretty pleased.  Hopefully you will see a lot more legs on the blog here before long!

Training Plan Progress

We’re half way through week 2 and things continue to go well.  I have kept up on my mileage and haven’t had to deviate from any of my planned workouts yet.  For my tempo run tonight, I am planning to use the track instead of a traditional running route for the first time ever.  My dad recommended it as a great location to check on your quarter-mile splits to ensure that you are right on tempo.  I am a bit nervous for a couple of reasons a) running at tempo is always a little scary b) I hope there aren’t any organized events at the track tomorrow that would throw me off my plan and c) the track is pretty boring compared with my lovely Celebration routes so I may want to die by the end of lap 16.  I firmly believe though that the things that scare you the most have the greatest potential to help you grow.  So…

here goes nothing.

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What is your favorite workout outfit-type?  Is there anything you absolutely refuse to wear to run?