High Performance Fabrics

Here is the story of how I finally got good exercise clothes... For the last couple of years I have made a habit of going for a run during my lunch break. "Run" is a fairly charitable word for what I do. My slow trudge is an attempt to remain in shape in my old age. There is a shower in the men's bathroom at work and a small bank of lockers. A few months ago I found one of the lockers empty and with a key in the lock. I soon adopted it as my own and this saved me from hauling all of my stuff back and forth from my office to the bathroom. Earlier this week I discovered that the key was not in any of the places I keep it. (There are only two places, so this was not an involved search) I either keep the key in my desk or, if I accidentally bring the key home, I place it on my key chain so I will have it the next day. I had been running in cotton sweat pants and sweatshirt or sometimes a pair of cheap lined nylon running pants. They got wet and heavy in the rain, or I froze my n--- off when it was really cold--plus, they were ill-fitting and uncomfortable. I did not have a desire to wear such poor athletic-wear. It was just that whenever I went to general purpose clothes stores, all that was available was crap. I knew that good stuff could be found at a specialty store, but what I had was okay and I was too busy to waste half of a precious weekend afternoon out buying clothes. Of course, since I could not run without running clothes and mine were behind locked door...I spent my lunch hour visiting the nearby EMS store. I purchased two pairs of athletic pants: one heavy weight and one lighter, and a matching sweatshirt. They are thin, super soft and stretchy and best of all, they fit really well! The next day I looked forward to my run even more than usual. I normally look forward to it more as a break from work than for the pure joy of moving my body outside: When I was on the cross country team in high school, I enjoyed the act of running itself: I had lots of energy and my joints didn't ache, plus I was pretty fast. In this case, I was looking forward to trying out my new stuff. I was just as slow & achy as usual. No problem. I have long become accustomed to fancy gear refusing--against all expectation--to turn me into Superman. On this foggy cold (45F) day, I was gloriously comfortable and warm--but not too warm. My God! It was actually a PLEASURE to run! I should loose my key more often.