Jacket: SportHill Symmetry II

It’s cold out here. In fact, as I sit at my computer, gazing past my computer screen to the “artic tundra” outside the house, it registers as 24 degrees on the thermometer we’ve stuck outside my office window for exactly this purpose.

Twenty-four frickin degrees.

I was not anticipating this when I first strapped on my Merrell barefoot running gloves and took my first run in many years down the dirt road a few months ago. Way back then, running in eighty degree heat seemed comfortable and a lark. Now, temps are falling in the frozen zone and the road still calls.

Until recently, I’ve been ignoring the falling temperatures. Chilly fifty degree runs called for a ratty sweatshirt over my t-shirt. Of course, me being me, I didn’t want to wear my nicer sweatshirts while running and get them all sweaty. Generally I looked like a female version of Rocky hitting the local roads, pulling the hood on if it began to rain.

Since running is one of my prime times to defrag, I haven’t been generally concerned with appearance or the way in which one’s clothing affects one’s performance. I’d simply throw on something ratty, hit the roads and let my brain wander.

All that changed as the mercury dropped. My feet got cold and wet, my hands got cold, my head got cold and my trunk…well, it was cold too.

Something needed to change if I was going to continue running into the winter. I researched local health clubs for the bare minimum buy-ins. Since I’m not one to generally take exercise classes, or care if I have exercise partners, I only wanted to find someplace where I could wear my ratties and hit the treadmills for ever longer runs. While there are a few good options locally, the local roads still call, which means I actually have to outfit myself to use them.

As I’m not one to take any new endeavor lightly, I began to ask other more experienced runners what they use, what brands they were wearing, and why they liked them. The gathered information led me to purchase a few items, but I have to admit that the stuff is so darn cute it seems too cute for me to wear on the road. I’ve resisted wearing them down by wearing them out. Instead, I’ve been using them around the house and to exergame.

My reading of Runners World cover to cover began to yield other information as well. I am a target marketer’s dream. Being an early forties married mommy female, who has come to running later in life, I’m looking for their pitches to try out new items. Which brings me to SportHill.

I’d seen the SportHill ads in Runners World and ripped them out to research more online. The more I read, the more excited I got. Wow, a company that makes exactly the items I’m looking for! They can save me from frostbite and hypothermia! Fabulous!

Had to try at least one item, but which one first? I settled on the Symmetry II jacket,  as it claims to keep one warm down to 0 degrees, looks awesome, comfortable and has a fleece lined collar. Hmm…So I got it after much hemming and hawing.

It couldn’t have come sooner, as the 35-45 degree weather had kept me exergaming and homebound for a few days straight. The jacket was so cute and comfy inside that I wore it around the house feeling my mood elevate with it on. My daughter loved it too, and begged it off me and then wore it around the house the rest of the day.

The next day, it was 39 degrees out, and I was ready to go go go. I layered one t-shirt with one long sleeved t-shirt, and then put the jacket on over the two. Everything else remained the same. I must admit that when I first started the run, I was a bit frightened. I’m quite sensitive to the cold, and was fearful that I was doing something dangerous to myself.

It was chilly out, don’t get me wrong. But after the first few yards, something amazing began to happen: I warmed up. Not just my muscles in the running, my trunk became nice and toasty. This jacket was making me feel like it was fifty-five or so outside and I relaxed into the run.

The run was in fact so nice and toasty that the next time I ran, I only wore a short sleeved t-shirt under the jacket. The same effect happened. Amazing.

While SportHill is kind of on the expensive side (for me), I look forward to trying out more of their cold weather items and discussing here through the winter.

Have you tried SportHill? If so, what are your thoughts? What should I try next?

Toddler Style

I know; it’s been a while, blog peeps. I really don’t have much of an excuse. Basically, even after Irene hit, we’d mostly recovered, and I got back to working out, I still couldn’t bring myself to write any blog posts. Perhaps our bridge still being out has something to do with it. We do have a temporary foot bridge, but not a bridge we, or an oil truck, can drive over. Mind you, our biggest issue with this is heat and hot water. Basically, once we draw down all of the heat and hot water supplied by the oil presently in our tank, we’re out of both indefinitely until the new bridge is in and an oil truck can restock us. But to get back to the blog post at hand…

Over the last couple of days, a friend and I have been talking about discussing style and “prettiness” with our daughters. We’ve actually also been talking about how to discuss praise on action and in general as well, but for purposes of this blog post, I’m only discussing the style discussion presently.

Over the last year, a couple of articles have come out claiming that we, societally, must not praise our daughters’ looks, outfit coordination, etc. The articles aver that saying something as toxic as “you look pretty” can ruin a girl’s ability to attain any level of success in her future life. A number of folks I know have essentially said “hell yeah” in posting the article on Facebook and Twitter. I tend to disagree.

I’ve only begun thinking about the prettiness debate recently. As a mother of a toddler who likes to play dress up, and who thinks certain outfits and hair styles are prettier than others, I’ve hit the moral dilemma head on. Is it morally correct to buoy her emerging style by agreeing that something is pretty? Or is it possible that by doing so, I am relegating her to menial jobs, or lack thereof, for her entire life?

Okay, perhaps I’m over thinking this. It is a possibility. But if not, then it’s something that needs to be settled for my household. And I cannot believe that empowering her emerging sense of style can be anything other than positive and enriching for her.

I’m not saying that we should raise our daughters to be vain or in pageants. Rather, I’m simply saying that should be okay to embrace and extol a child’s femininity. A girl can play with trucks if she wants to, and she should also be allowed to play with dolls. As she finds her voice, it should be okay to tell her she looks pretty, even if it’s only to you.

I’m also not saying that she should solely be praised for her looks, so that she learns that she’ll be judged mostly for her looks throughout her life. Rather, I’m saying that it should be okay to praise her style right along with her deeds, manners and everything else she does, says and is. Women’s  empowerment does not have to be forcing success through one’s perception of a male molded world. Rather, one could argue that true women’s empowerment emboldens all of the pieces that make up that woman – including her personal style.

Oxyclean Boil Bomb is Da Bomb

I finally tried the Oxyclean boil bomb (ok, that's my title) today and boy did it work wonders!

What is the Oxyclean boil bomb? It’s basically using a deep cleaner to extra super duper deep clean clothing items without harming them. I call it a bomb, because it's bombing and (hopefully) destroying tough stains. An acquaintance had discussed this deep cleaning action in her blog, and I’d been excitedly waiting for an opportunity to use it.

Dear Child had a couple of items of clothing that had stains that refused to come out and as I was tossing them into the garbage, I caught myself and realized (yay!) I finally had great items to experiment on.

Here are the basic instructions:

Fill a big pot full of water on the stove. Add 1/4-1/2 cup Oxyclean. Slowly bring to a boil. Make sure the room is well ventilated. Lower heat to low simmer. Add clothing with stains that haven't come out no matter what, or that have been stained for years, but you can't bring yourself to throw out. Low simmer, or cover and turn heat off, for one hour. Stains should be all gone.

After doing this, I rinsed the items in cold water to set and stop the cleaning action, and then ran the clothing through a regular laundry cycle.

The items that I used now look better than new, as they're even brighter and spiffier.

Let me know how it works for you!