It's All About The Clothes and My Friends Are Amazing

Check out my new shirt:

Does my friend, Rebecca, know me or does she really, really know me?!?  The other night we met Rebecca and her husband for dinner and she showed up with this beauty of a running shirt for me. I love my wine. In fact, I could probably write a whole blog about wine. But, that might not be very motivational for people and would probably contain a whole lot more spelling and grammar errors.  

And, a couple of weeks ago, my beautiful friend, Denise,  surprised me out of nowhere, with the awesome bright melon colored Athleta pants I was wearing at Glow Bar.  These pants are quickly becoming my favorite, and not just because the glow so well in black light.

Seriously, how amazing are my friends?!?  They don't just know what I love. They don't just support what I do. They actually spend their money to give me sweet, thoughtful gifts that I can use day in and day out (okay, with wash cycles in between) on the long run. I really have the greatest friends. I would love to share them with you. I know you would love them as much as I do. I can only hope that everyone gets to be surrounded by a group of friends who are as loving, supportive, giving, strong, and caring as mine. I also can only hope that my friends think I am as good to them as they are to me.  For I know I am a better person because they are in my life. And now, a better dressed person too!

Speaking of clothing, since I skipped out on the one month of beautiful and mild Spring weather and have decided to pick back up on the long runs when it's 85 degrees and really humid out, I decided to give running shorts a try. You see, I am a running pants/capris kind of girl. It's been years since I put on actual running shorts. 

They are really cute running shorts (it's hard to take pictures of your shorts as you wear them, so you'll just have to trust me) and I really wanted to love them. But, I think it's going to take some getting used to. While I have to say that I loved the coolness of so little clothing (it really gets hot in Houston), the feeling of all that exposed leg was a little much for me. I try to be confident in who I am and what my body looks like, but I couldn't help but wonder what all that thigh was looking like at the point of highest impact, and to be honest, my hopes weren't high that it looked like this:

Not my legs.

I also didn't realize how much I'd come to love and rely on my compression pants. Compression pants (or socks or armbands - there are all kinds of different compression gear out there) are more than just spandex pants. Compression gear is designed specifically to enhance performance (increased blood flow and oxygenation being their main claim). There are lots of studies out there about whether compression gear really works (best I can tell only very slightly), but it doesn't really matter. I realize now that I like the feel of compression pants and I  more comfortable running when I'm all sucked into them.  But what does that mean? Do I have to sweat it out in pants/capris all summer? Or do I get used to all of that unharnessed leg (sorry neighbors!) and run free in shorts. What about you?  Do you wear running shorts or keep it all covered up?