My Ode to The Skapri

As a stay at home mom, my daily wardrobe consists namely of "vintage gray" yoga pants and is ruled by comfort. Last night, I ran to the grocery store in hopes of running into Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear as I roamed the aisles in purple lounge pants, navy rainboots, and a black jacket. I've tried the whole dressy Mama thing but have found that ballet flats just don't cut it when it comes to chasing two busy boys around all day. When it comes to running or working out, my wardrobe consists of gear that works. Bottoms that don't chafe, or ride up, or cause mid-run issues. Tops that wick and are long enough to cover all they should.

For loooooong runs, I love me some compression capris. However, I am not so fond of the post-run errand running in said compression capris as the booty is on full display. Cuteness has never really been a must when considering what to wear for a workout. Function reigning over all else. And then my workout wardrobe changed forever when I discovered the RUNNING SKIRT. Cuteness became a non-forced issue as I threw the skirt on and ran. Only to discover that looking good came with a chafey price. Hello chub rub and thigh wedgey. With the running skirt shelved for shorter runs, the compression capri became my go-to piece of workout gear- as witnessed by wearing them in EVERY.single.race.photo last year. Note to self: first race of 2011, WEAR DIFFERENT BOTTOMS.

And then one day, the clouds opened up, the sun shone down, and the SKAPRI danced upon my computer screen. Skapri. Are they for real? Skapri? I said the name over and over and over. Mostly because it was fun to say. And mostly because I couldn't believe something like this really existed. So naturally, I did what any workoutgearaholic would do. And ordered not one pair, but THREE. Before even giving them a workout test, I wasn't a fan of the Skirtsports skapri. It just didn't fit right and at $$$, these babies had to fit just right. One down, my skapri experience not headed in the right direction. And then these babies showed up on my doorstep:

Run Girl Run

And my workout gear life was revolutionized and changed forever. I am in love. With a pair of workout pants. The capris provide the compression I like. The skirt provides the caboose coverage I like. There is a pocket on the back. I don't think it could get any better. And then these bad boys showed up on my doorstep:
Nike Skapri

Looking at them, there really isn't much difference. But for the cheap old lady that lives within my shopping loving self, these win the prize for fit, price, and cuteness. Compression is a little snugger like my favorite Nike capris mentioned above (the same ones in EVERY.single.race photo on this blog), the skirt is vented on the side and doesn't restrict your movement at all- fully tested and passed as I wore them to a pilates class at the gym, and there is a very handy dandy zipper pocket on the back for Gus, key, etc for those long runs. So, while Stacy and Clinton may no longer find me worthy of What Not to Wear: Workout Edition, I have a loooooooong way to go in the everyday wardrobe department. For now, I will live in and love the skapri.

All I want for Christmas

Just a few things that I want for Christmas:

New shoes and these are the ones I'm currently running in and wouldn't mind either the same pair or if the newer version works, I'll take a pair of those

And a few more pairs of these since the dryer monster ate one of each style I had (so yes, I run with mismatched socks): 

A new one of these (but preferably in a different color than black): 

I love this top (thanks to April for showing it to me):

And because a girl can dream can't she? 

Best laid plans...sort of a vent

Ever have those moments where everything was going just smoothly until BAM! You've hit the biggest pothole known to man and it's thrown you for the biggest loop, you don't know up from down? Well, that's how I've been feeling lately. I took another break from running. Yup, did my usual in letting myself take back seat. I didn't beat myself too much over it because it's that time of year with the holidays and all its craziness. I would do whatever I could squeeze in and try not to complain too much about missing workouts.

I did one workout last week to jumpstart myself and clear my head. I needed to recalibrate my Nike+ and since I got a little irritated at it not calibrating an EASY 1/4 mile walk, I turned it off and just went on my merry way. Two days later, I went for a run. My head was in a bit of a fog and I felt in funk so I just went out with the thought process of 'I don't care about my pace. I don't care about the distance. I *do* care about going for 30 minutes.' And I did. I went out hard. Had my lungs and my legs burning in no time. I even puttered out so I couldn't run up the hill back home, but I didn't care. I got out there and did what I told myself to do. All was good & I felt so much better.

Now this is where my best laid plans get all screwy. Planned a weekend run with my good buddies but other things got in the way (too personal to discuss here). I had planned to go out that day before the rain started and nasty tummy bug hit one of my little guys. No sleep, constantly doing the laundry and a few extra showers to get the funk out were the only things on the agenda. When I finally got some decent sleep that night (or what I thought was decent sleep), I was woken up by my husband in excruciating pain on his way to the ER for another bout of kidney stones. Rescheduled run for Sunday was put off one more day in hopes that the pain meds would keep him comfortable, the little one had kept more food down than in previous hours, and that I could get a little more rest.

Well, today looked to be promising but we spent more than half the day in the ER and the kids are as needy as ever seeing that mommy & daddy haven't been around much in the past 2+ days. I am beyond exhausted. I could've thrown on my running shoes after finally getting the kids to bed an hour after lights were turned out, but instead I use what little energy I have left to jot down my thoughts.

I often wonder when it's times like these where I have started to get myself into a good head space and my body is feeling nothing but greatness, why I can't catch that dang break. Why do I have to be broken down and run (no pun intended) on fumes? I get that in our crazy busy lives of being SAHM or working moms that we need to make time for ourselves, but do I really need an extra double-dose of stress to work around? It's so hard to keep telling myself that 'this, too, shall pass' and to just 'try, try again'. I'm tired. I'm burned out from burned out. And at this point, all I want for Christmas is dang sleep.

Vent over.