Monday, April 5, 2010

With great gear comes great responsibility...

So, today my mom and I set sail on a 3 hour drive to drop me back off in Austin. And since I'm a retail merchandising (cough shopping cough) major, and she's the mother of a retail merchandising major, we had to stop in the outlet malls along our way there.

Why is this relevant?

Cause I got mad fitness equipment man!

We first stopped off in the Nike outlet store, because I'd been convinced to try out the Nike+ Sportband. I'm really excited to run with it, hopefully going to bust it out Wednesday. Meanwhile, it's going to get charged and sit all spiffy on my wrist tomorrow. Cause it's a watch too! Watch.

Second, I grabbed a sweet jump rope also from Nike. It's an adjustable speed rope, and I'll write more about it later. Let's just say, it's part 3 of my plan. Not a watch.

Then I went on an epic quest to find the perfect running shirt. Why epic? Let's take it back a bit, and you'll see.
I live in Texas. Texas is HOT. Now, my part of Texas, the Austin variety, was pretty cool this winter. We actually had snow! I'd never seen snow before!

Miracle.

So I got to run in my favorite outfit ever for the first couple of weeks of C25K. That would be Nike running shorts, sports bra (NOT NIKE!!!!), and Nike running jacket I scored for $20 a year ago at the Nike outlet. It's comfy, cozy, and jackets give lots of support to girls. However, during my last run I realized this outfit was no longer practical. Its getting too hot to run in long sleeves, and I can't run late at night when it is cool enough, its too dangerous downtown. So I go to look for some running shirts. I prefer my running shirts to be loose fitting and long. Not too picky of criteria, yes? Apparently not. Neither Reebox, Adidas, or New Balance had anything that wasn't skin tight or racer back. I don't run for practice in racer backs on principle, in the Texas sun you get burned like crazy and I have tendency to forget sunscreen. I finally caved and went into Under Armor which I cheat on Nike with, but its kind of a pricey. Scored the perfect shirt for $20. Not too bad. Not as good as B.Jones, but we can't all be Goodwill gurus.

But the biggest, best part of this new equipment spree was what my dad surprised me with when I got home from Austin this weekend.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a NEW HEAVY BAG.
I wish I had a picture of the old one.
It was red, leather softened with age, and literally had duck tape wrapped around the middle to keep it together from 2 separate times where it was split it half by back kicks, first time by my 9 blackbelt holding godfather, and the 2nd time by me. I loved that ol' bag, and I'm glad it was passed on to a young martial artist in the neighborhood. But as sad as I was initially to see my bad was gone...um, hello? That new bag is amazing!

All in all, excited to use my new gear as soon as possible!

1 comment:

  1. Yay Emmz!! I am curious to see how my training holds up in the Texas heat . . .I was in Dallas, Houston & Galveston for several weeks last year during July & August - - HOLY CRAP MARIE!!! Brutal . . .and I was lugging 312 lbs around at that time with no exercise - - -when I would go up to inspect a roof - -all of the folks, predominately Mexican, would get the biggest laugh . . . and I easily recognized "gordo", "Santa Claus" & "Ho, Ho, Ho" among their conversation . . . will be fun running this year - -I'll be in Florida at the end of the month for a week - and will train while there also - - every post of yours I read and you are talking about martial arts - -nudges me that much closer to getting my kids involved in the sport - - - I can speak on both mine and Dave's behalf that we are both psyched to have met you . . . .and kudos on scoring the great gear . . .I think I am going to break down and buy myself something nice when I reach my "weight" goal - -which I am ahead of schedule for it to be in December of this year - - one of those fancy Nike running thngawhatsits like you got - - - love the blog - - I'm going to start letting my 12 year old daughter read some of your posts - -she is incredibly athletic but equally unmotivated (Her name is Keelin - -she's on my blog) text, text, text . . . .I think if I let her look at some of your stuff - -you may relate to her (even unintentionally) in a way I can't . . . thanks Emmz

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