What Not to Wear

I don't have cable right now, and I miss this show a lot.

However, regular trips to the LAFitness on City Ave keep me in full supply of the best part of the show, the clips of horrible and/or horribly fitting clothes. Now, I understand...its a gym...you're (theoretically) working out, sweaty, and not in your finest. I am not a matching-outfits-at-the-gym type, and don't expect anyone else to be. That being said, let's discuss some of this past week's finest:

• The shorts over leggings look. I generally disapprove of leggings, except for running outside and yoga, but I know they're in style so I try to give this a bye. And I know people with hip anxiety sometimes do this for coverage. However, there's nothing stylish or concealing about wearing gray soffee shorts that fit you more like Brazilian cut panties than shorts over black leggings. Sadly, the girl who wears this to the gym also likes...
• Showing off the belly button. As is likely to be agreed by anyone who has ever worked an event at the Tweeter Center, any shirt through which a casual observer can clearly see your belly button (especially if there's no piercing to draw attention to it) is way too tight. Which brings me to...
• Spandex. Just because it can stretch enough to fit you does not mean you should wear it. This is even more important for non-spandex materials.
• The short short. On males. New Years Resolution time draws a lot of people to the gym who haven't worked out since college. If you attended college in 1983, it is best to invest in new shorts, even if the old ones still fit. This will prevent people from thinking - even for a split second - that you borrowed your 16 year old daughter's cheerleading shorts.

Peacocks in the city

There's a peacock that lives on the west side of the Schuylkill River. I think it a female, since its not too brightly colored. I've seen it a few times, and every time I wonder how it got there. Did it escape from the zoo? I don't think they can fly (though Wikipedia oddly doesn't mention it). I'm starting to wonder if it was placed there in an effort to reguvinate the wildlife of Fairmount Park. It does have an ankle bracelet. Sounds like an obvious plan to me...use your limited park maintenance budget to bring in a fancy bird or two to break the monoteny of all the geese!!

Other sightings in the park:
~ Guy on bike with gun. While stopping at a water fountain during my short jog last night, I noticed two guys on bikes riding into the parking lot. They looked average enough, like Joe 20-Somethings Who Played High School Football and now are a little chubby and leisurely biking the city in their Random College Sports Team tees for exercise. Then one wiped his face on his shirt, exposing his gun. After mildly panicing for about 20 seconds, I also realized they both had on headsets and radios, and that there's a police substation in the side of the boathouse I was in front of. OK, so glad they're patrolling the park, but shouldn't bike cops look a little...fitter?

~ Woman jogging in a bikini top. Spandex shorts, fuel belt (how people run with these I have no idea), Ipod, and string bikini top...Granted, she wasn't well endowed, but I'm not either and I don't think a triangle top with a tie in the back and at the neck offers sufficient support. Then again, the only fat on my body was what's in said top, maybe I'd feel differently. Or maybe not.

Commentary

I have yet to figure out why some males (I say males because I've never seen a female to do) think it is OK to make random comments/yells/give advice to total strangers. Some gems from various dates as of late:

From a car on Kelly Drive:
Run Faster Fatass

Guy on stoop on the walk home from Kelly Drive (different day):
You don't need to sweat so much, you look fine as it is in those pants!

On the walk home from Kelly Drive (different day):
Random Guy 1 at Gas Station: I need to run too. Will you take me on your trail?
Random Guy 2 (noting 1 was ignored): Hey, I don't think she knows what you mean by trail.
Random Guy 1: I want to go on the trail, come on, take me on your sweet ass trail!

Balding guy in convertible as I walked to work:
Nice ass!
(side note, I thought, somehow, he said nice bag and was being sarcastic about my lovely canvas shoulder sack filled with shoes, a sweater, lunch etc., until he turned the corner and waved to me and I realized the sad truth.)

And my favorite...
Random Middle Aged Jogger passing me on the Off part of a HIIT series:
You know, you could run for longer if you slowed down.

the crackberry

I cut class for the first time in grad school today. I just couldn't go. My prof wasn't there anyway, and was sending a PhD student as a guest speaker. I'm sure he was good, but I couldn't do it. I went to the gym instead (this was way more appealing, and will also allow me to go home after class at 9, instead of rolling in at 11 pm all gross and still unshowered). I'm not going to revert to my undergrad days and make a habit of this, but man it felt good.

Karma did nab me a smidge and I had to run with a flimsy hairtie and floppy hair. Granted, I did pack my bag this morning instead of last night, but I bet its somehow divine punishment anyway. I have NO IDEA how people run -- or do anything hot -- with their hair down. The one piece I couldn't get to stay back was driving me batty, not to mention the parts sticking to my neck. Yuck. Gross.

Anyway....while I was on the treadmill (I cannot wait for warmer weather/later sunshine) I noticed the girl next to me had a blackberry....sitting on the ledge (like where one would put an ipod or similar)...and she had an ipod too, so it wasn't some new fangled musical one or something. Now the kicker...she kept checking it!! What the HELL is so important it can't wait 30 or 40 minutes till you're off the treadmill? She looked young, maybe 19, but even if she's somehow way older, what can't wait? I don't ever want to be that tied to my email. Ever. (I check it like 34242 times a day as it is....)

insanity in the snow

I thought I was a little ridiculous this morning since, rather than waiting for the weather to pass, I left my apartment at 7:40 this morning to make it to the gym more or less in time for work (under the assumption that everyone would be a little late anyway). Then I saw a guy out running.

It was still sleeting a bit.
There's 3 inches of snow covered with a layer of ice on the ground.
Philadelphia appearently doesn't believe in snowplows.
I fell (and am admitting it) walking to campus wearing my snowboots.

How the HELL was he running?

I thought the people who've been out running the last couple of weeks were a little crazy. I admire their dedication -- and cold tolerance -- but I'll stay partial to the treadmill when conditions call for any gear commonly associated with snowsports. This guy though, running on ice with winddriven sleet pelting your face...that's not dedication, that's insanity...

with the money that will be spent on this

You could feed the homeless of at least one city for what I'm sure consumers will blow on this one....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17120663/

"...a sweat-free four-minute workout that will give you the same results as a grueling 90-minute session at the local gym."
"four minutes aboard her company’s machine is equivalent to 45 minutes of resistance training, 30 minutes of running and 20 minutes of stretching."

sorry folks, nothing is equivilent to 30 min of running but 30 min of running (not that there's not similar cardio that is, well, similar)....and how the hell do you speed up stretching?

sigh.

So many better things those marketing dollars could be spent on.

good and bad ideas

Across the weekend

Friday
good idea:
making cupcakes
bad idea:
making cupcakes on an empty stomach

Saturday
good idea:
going to the most productive (yet still enjoyable) practice you've attended in years
bad idea:
having a small breakfast and not bringing a post-practice snack, so that by the time you've arrived home to work on school stuff, despite the fact its Saturday afternoon (sigh), you are literally nauseous from hunger.

Sunday
good idea:
doing your long run in the evening so you can be productive (eg. read for class x2, draft a paper, and attend a comps meeting, and go grocery shopping and make dinner for mon/tues) during the day
bad idea:
eating a cupcake and cookie during the meeting which is conveniently scheduled over dinnertime, then running 10 miles on a 1 pm lunch and said dessert items. (lack of nutrients + high fat content = unhappy tummy)

I rock

For the second time in as many weeks, I've given myself a (very mild) black eye.

Last week, I held (something close to) crow pose for about 15 seconds and was busy congradulating myself when suddenly, plop, my face was on my mat. I really don't remember falling. I do remember landing though, because I hit my nose square on. It was sore for days. My eyes tend to be puffy anyway, especially if I haven't gotten my beauty rest, so I didn't notice the mild brusing -- on both sides -- till a classmate asked me what happenned the next day.

And this morning, as I was reaching for my water bottle, the bar on the Smith machine decided to pop out right in front of me and smack me in the face. These things have minds of their own, I swear. So I have a little abrasion under one eye and its a little swollen. Nothing serious, although I did warn my mom so she doesn't freak out when I see her Saturday like she did last year when I turned up to Easter (or sometime around then, I forget) with a legit, although not overly swollen, black eye.

I'm amazing.

I am SOOOOO excited

I just ran downstairs to tell a coworker about this and I think she thought for a second I had a serious emergency.

I found this today---

www.mapmyrun.com

Its AWESOME. A new google-earth integration. You can put on the hybrid map and trace out a trail in a park or similar point by point. Much cooler than the clip-on-free-from-the-health-insurance-vendor pedometer (that I'm not sure is so accurate anyway). Of course, this will be much more useful when I make it off the treadmill and outside again, but that will require some nicer/warmer weather and longer lasting sunshine!

Oh. Seriously, nothing can be more exciting today.

i'm a youngin!

So according to realage.com, I'm not quite fully legal...

Calendar Age 25.4
Difference -5.1
My RealAge 20.3

I think this is terrific. That's a full 20% off! The test gave me recommendations for better health, like flossing more and cutting down on the red meat I have a couple of times a week, but I'm not too concerned. Wearing my seatbelt and exercising regularly keep my age down way more than flossing would!

Speaking of exercise, I ran a 5 mi race (43:07) this weekend at a better pace than my last 5k in March (27:45)...guess all those intervals on the treadmill are paying off! I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with running.....I don't like it much in general, but where else are you just competing with yourself (seeing my blazing speed, its not like I'm an Olympic contender)? I'm still patting myself on the back a little bit about this little victory : )

A Good American

So I was skimming the blogs today and ran into the Death Predictor on two sites. Fun right? Here's my prediction:

Emily: At age 80, you will die lonely and alone from morbid obesity

My friends get things like "At age 89, you will die fighting the Interplanetary War on Terrorism on Phobos, a moon of Mars." I get a completely feasible one. Fabulous.

My first reaction? "That's ironic". Ironic in that I am a little (ok, maybe more than a little)paranoid about my weight. I'm not a little petite thing. I never will be and never (except maybe one unfortunate year in HS) have been. However, I'm also not morbidly obese, but do harbor a definate fear of becoming so. Genetics (aka multiple morbidly obese relatives) and a serious chocolate chip cookie fixation are working against me, and despite a general awareness and efforts at maintaining regular workouts, I am really a bit worried I'll wake up one day and be startled to realize I'm wearing panties from that store on Rt17 for women who've outgrown Lane Bryant.

It also makes me sad that even at (almost) 25 I still have some of the teenage weight paranoia. Maybe it never really goes away. I'm a lot bigger than I was in High School but I'm also fitter and faster (despite an additional 25lbs or so) and happier in general. Counting calories constantly really puts a damper on things that should be enjoyable, like birthdays (aka cake and ice cream, also known in my current life as 3pm).

On a side note, I'm not sure I've ever seen a morbidly obese 80 year old. Maybe they've all lost mobility and do just sit at home all day, unlike the morbidly obese middle aged that trek out for shopping and similar.