Tempo shmempo-let's talk about running clothes.

I didn't want to go for my tempo run today.  Nope nope nope.  It wasn't my best run.  It wasn't my fastest run.  I considered quitting...oh...about 3 bajillion times in the first 2 miles.  I was going to stop early and head back to the house because a voice (not the crazy one) in my head told me I was still kind of tired from my speed work on Tuesday.

That voice, by the way, is a big fat liar.  My legs were fine.  And so was my foot--not a whimper out of it during the entire run.

Good thing I listened to a smaller voice, a voice that said, "Just keep going.  Don't worry about the pace on your watch.  Listen to your body and find your own comfortably hard pace.  And then finish all 6 miles of this tempo, you complete and total wimp."  (I said it was a small voice, not a nice voice.)

Finish all 6 miles I did.  It was slower than last week's tempo, but I don't care. I didn't want to do this run, but do it I did.  And I did all of it.  Today's hurdle was mental, not physical, and that's the lesson from today's run.  Oh, and also that if you eat complete and total crap for 5 days while you're in Alabama (I'm talking to YOU, Cracker Barrel in Columbia, Tennessee and Denny's Classic Diner in Tuscola, Illinois), you run like crap as well.

But you know what was the best about this run?  That I did it in a t-shirt and shorts!  Spring is finally here, dammit!

On my way back from Alabama up I-57, I stopped at a ginormous outlet mall in Tuscola, IL.  In this outlet mall there is a Nike store and an Under Armour store.

I was in female running nerd heaven.

The shorts you see in the picture are from the Nike store.  They were having a crazy good sale, and I got those shorts, a hoodie, plus what you see pictured below all for 100 smackers:

The jacket was what I was most excited about--it is a $100 jacket normally, and I snagged it for 40 bucks.  I don't care if I won't get a ton of use out of it right now, because when I need it in the fall, it will have enough freaking pockets in it to carry all my running stuff. (It has two inside pockets plus the two outside ones.)  That's one of my biggest complaints about women's running jackets.  I have news for you, jacket-makers: women need just as many pockets as the men.  We go on long runs, too, and must carry fuel.  We're not concerned with watching our girlish figures in the middle of a 20 mile run; we just want to SURVIVE and to do that we need to CARRY LOTS OF FOOD.  Or I do, anyway.

The t-shirts they had on sale 2 for $20, and the running capris were a steal at $18.00.  I had to get some new t-shirts and capris because the ones I have now I've had for a few years, and they're getting pretty rank-smelling in the first mile of a run.  I love how that stinky smell just insinuates itself into all of your running clothes after a while.  Not really.  

You just know it's time for new running clothes when your husband, who normally would not be able to smell smoke if the house were burning down around him, starts telling you how much you smell when you come back from a run.

After scoring those finds at the Nike store, I traipsed over to the UA store, where I picked up these little treasures:

That's my work bag in the upper left.  Sorry.

The sweatshirt was on sale for $25-you can't beat that for a UA sweatshirt.  The t-shirts were 2 for $25, and I had to have the blue one as soon as I saw it--I'm thinking it is going to be the one I wear for my first marathon.  Well, I'll have to have a mirror rigged up to see what it says, though, because that's the back of the t-shirt.

As you can see, this runner chick likes to shop.  I may not be fast, but I like to look good doing it.  Well, at least be comfortable doing it, anyway.  And that will be the goal for tomorrow's long run.  The training schedule calls for 18 miles, but I am going for 20 because the next weekend I have a race...and then my taper begins!  That marathon is so close I can smell it.  Well, if I'm not wearing my old running clothes, that is.  Then all I smell is my own stink.