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By kilax, November 3, 2014 6:19 am

It all started when I had to go to DC for work at the end of September. I was looking through my closet the weekend before the trip, and while I had almost everything I needed for the trip (save a new pair of flats and gray pants that fit), I realized that I’d had most of the “work” clothes in my closet for years and years. They hadn’t been updated in forever. 

This makes sense. I work from home a lot, and typically wear jeans and a t-shirt or sweater. Why invest the money in new work clothes?

But glancing through old photos, and posts on the blog made me also realize I’ve been wearing a lot of the same “street” clothes for two, five, seven… nine plus years! 

Of course, it’s great to buy things that stay in style and you can wear that long (solid color sweaters, classic cut dresses, whatever), but some things just needed to go. T-shirts that I loved the print on, but were a bit smelly and stained in the pits. Things that faded. Shoes that were cheap to start with and nicked up. 

So back to DC. I ended up going shopping the weekend before my trip and picked up a few pairs of pants, a few dresses, and a few new tops (okay, and a few “summery” items in the hope I can use them in warm weather next year!). I ended up wearing a new pair of pants, a new top and an old blazer the first day of the DC trip, and a old pair of paints, top and blazer the second day. And I was happy to use old and new. 

But the seed was planted. Ha ha!

Since then, I have gone shopping three times, which is A LOT for me. Once on my own during my lunch break at work, and twice with my snister when she was visiting. 

Part of me feels funny about it, because, like I said, I don’t dress up that often, and also… I don’t care a lot about what I wear. Or my appearance. 

But! Part of me does like dressing up for work, and sometimes looking cuter when I leave the house. 

So it’s been fun. But it still makes me feel weird to have new things hanging in my closet. 

The good thing is that it forced me to get rid of that old stuff to make room!

Are you like me, and more likely to update a few things in your closet at once? Or do you do it more frequently?

Of course, I didn’t even mention work out clothes. Ha ha. Those get updated a lot more frequently. It is crazy tights season – gotta watch out for new fun prints!!!

Comments (16)

By kilax, November 2, 2014 3:31 pm

Highlight of the Week: Fitting in some weekday runs despite a loco 4+ hour (total for the day) commute!

Monday | October 27, 2014: teaching strength class
Strength: body bars, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired/meh
Tuesday | October 28, 2014: 8 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 64°/60°, Time: 1:18:29, Pace: 9:48 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, annoyed with the wind
Wednesday | October 29, 2014: 8.5 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 46°/45°, Time: 1:24:29, Pace: 9:56 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, still annoyed by the wind
Thursday | October 30, 2014: 10.1 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 34°/34°, Time: 1:39:09, Pace: 9:49 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, happy it wasn’t windy, ha ha
Friday | October 31, 2014: teaching strength class + 4 m run
Strength: body bars, Difficulty: easy, Felt: peppy
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 37°/36°, Time: 37:45, Pace: 9:25, Difficulty: easy, Felt: energetic (somehow not annoyed by 25mph winds
Saturday | November 1, 2014: 21.6 m run (w/Bobbi for second quarter)
Loc: DPRT, Temp: 35°/39°, Time: 3:43:58, Pace: 10:22 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, tired for the last few miles
Sunday | November 2, 2014: 3.3 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 29°/33°, Time: 31:55, Pace: 9:41 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent

Notes:

• Woo hoo! October was my first (and maybe only) 200 mile month of the year! One more high mileage month before the marathon in December!
• During my runs in the dark this week I was thinking how good it is for me to run without daylight… because I don’t stop as much as I do when it’s light out, to take photos! Ha ha. Although, I did stop at the house for water, and one time, ended up petting Data for a few minutes. Oops. (Data is so cute – whenever I run before work he watches out the door for me the entire time – ha ha, just kidding – I know he’s watching wildlife and blowing leaves)
• Speaking of stopping for water, it’s getting to be that (colder) time of year where I can be lazy about carrying water. In the summer, I’ll carry my handheld for a three miler! In the fall/winter, I won’t take it until I am doing six or more. How do your water carrying habits change between the hot and cold months?
• I have been remembering my electrolyte tabs for my long runs! And now it’s the Vaseline for my nose I am forgetting (I need it in the winter – my nose gets chapped)! I should just put it by the tabs, ha ha. 
• There was a skunk sighting this week. Sigh. 
• On Friday we had 25 mph winds with 50 mph gusts, so I did something I haven’t for almost two years – wore headphones for my run (to block out the wind)! The headphones succeeded in making me feel more annoyed with them than the wind (they are bluetooth and I had to carry my phone for the songs to not cut out – my vest pocket/bra wouldn’t work). But once I got them to work the beats gave me a speed boost. Maybe I’ll wear them for my next 5K!
• I got sick to my stomach twice during my long run this week, I think, because of a Clif Gel I took. It’s one with 100 mg of caffeine, which gives me a huge energy boost, but bothers my stomach. Gah. I wish the flavors with OMG ALL THE CAFFEINE didn’t have to be chocolate-y or coffee-y!
• I stood up for quite a few hours after my long run, working on my computer. I think being on my feet really helped my recovery!
• So many bullets this week! AHHHHH!!! Last one, I promise. For my past two long runs (and several random runs) I’ve turned my Garmin to a screen that only shows overall moving time, rather than showing that plus distance and pace. This allows me to focus on running naturally, rather than worrying about pace. A lot of people talk about running “naked” (sans electronic devices like this) for the same reason, but I still like having the data for later. Do you ever run with a GPS watch but ignore the stats during the run?

Link to Training Week 262

Comments (22)

By kilax, November 1, 2014 3:53 pm

Ha ha, are you wondering what that title is in regard to?

During my work week I discovered one of the contractors assigned to the project ran the Chicago Marathon this year. Naturally, running and exercise related conversation ensued. Which I enjoyed, but felt bad about during and after – I didn’t intend to dominate a group conversation with a topic only a couple of people could participate in.

So later I apologized to my coworker about it, and she said, well, what the title says – “Well, I would rather talk about it than do it!”

Which of course, was a funny way to respond and it made me laugh. But then I got to thinking about the comments the other people listening to the running-talk were adding, and it was all comments about why they can’t exercise, or why they don’t, or how lame it is. 

Sigh.

I am unfortunately used to these kind of responses when people find out I am vegan. The most common responses are why people don’t do it, or how they never could. Or how good meat tastes.

It gets old, ha ha. 

Do you have any interests or hobbies that gets a response like this?

But back to exercise. What’s with the exercise-shaming? In a society where more and more people are reported obese each year, why are people making fun of those who take the time to work out?

Really, why, when people share a passion or hobby, do people come back with things that are wrong about it, or why it would never interest them?

I’ve written about this before. And I will say the same – when someone tells me about an interest of theirs that I don’t share, I ask questions. I try to learn about it. 

Anyways.

The funny thing is, while I talk about exercise a lot on here, I don’t, much at all, at work. I don’t tell my coworkers about upcoming races, or the classes I teach (save for my fave coworker that I can talk to).

So it is exciting when I find someone I can talk to it about! I mean, just like you get excited when you find anyone who shares a similar interest. And yes, I have more interests than running! 

Dressed as Chewie for Star Wars Day. 

The good thing about spending so much time with people though, is that you find out a lot of things about them, so while my coworker doesn’t have any interest in exercise, I found out she is a huge Star Wars fan and likes heavy metal. So those are things we can talk about, amicably.