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July 22, 2005
Wardrobe Malfunction in Bizarro World
As Bridget so eloquently spoke about on her blog yesterday, there are a lot of terrible bizarre things happening in the world right now (or maybe the tragedy of these things is that they happen with enough frequency or are foreseeable enough that they don't really seem bizarre to us). The species of bizarre human behavior I stumbled upon this evening was, fortunately, not of that ilk.
When I arrived at the track where I've been doing my workouts, there were about 15 people sitting in lawn chairs lined up along one side of the track, facing the infield. This wouldn't have seemed strange had there been something, anything, happening on the track. But there wasn't a soul on either the track or the infield. Nor was there any sign that anything had been taking place there. So, I assumed that something was going to be taking place either on the track or the infield in the immediate future.
Not particularly troubled by my audience, I started my intervals (6x1200 w/4 mins. jog recovery). Then, at some point between my second and third interval, they all just got up and left, leaving me to puzzle over the purpose of their presence for the third interval, and to be relieved that they had absented themselves when, during the fourth interval, my shorts started sliding down. This tends to happen with my favorite style of adidas shorts when they get rain- or sweat-soaked. Further complicating the problem, the string in the waistband is a loop, which means that you don't lose one end of it into the band in the wash, but also means that it's difficult (if not impossible) to tie it effectively. In fact, I've never been able to tie it tightly enough to prevent the shorts from falling down when they've decided that's what they want to do. The best method I've discovered for keeping the shorts up when they're soaked is to fold over the waistband. Unfortunately, this shortens the shorts enough that my rear ends up hanging out the bottom of them.
So, I mooned the empty track for 2 more 1200s, then took the show on the road, so to speak, running along the lake and then home for my cool-down.
I didn't time the intervals, just the recovery. I decided that if I wasn't hitting my splits, I didn't want to know about it. I certainly don't think I could have put any more effort in (I was having trouble maintaining forward momentum on the cool-down), so I think it was a good workout. Unfortunately, I was so flattened that I was semi-catatonic at dinner with my mom and Granddad, making me perhaps not the world's liveliest dinner companion. I will have to make it up to them tomorrow.
Ok, I'll end here. I'm looking forward to a solid 9 hrs. of sleep tonight. Bed is calling.
Posted by alweiss at July 22, 2005 10:09 PM
Comments
Your entry had me cracking up! I still don't get the lawn chair episode . . . so weird. I have to be up at 5:30 to help set up for our rock n sole trail race tomorrow morning at Palos. Otherwise, I would totally join you for a long run!!! I think I am going to skip my long run tomorrow - maybe I can slip in a long run on Monday before work. How long are you going? Be sure to take lots of h20 and gatorade :)
Posted by: bridget at July 23, 2005 06:45 PM
The lawn chair thing is so strange! What style of adidas shorts do you wear that fall down? I've only had that problem with my shorts that have started to dry-rot.
Blondie
Posted by: Blondie at July 25, 2005 08:05 PM
I wear the super-short 3/4 split ones with the stripes. For some reason the elastic in the waistband isn't very firm, and I get them a size too big, which probably exacerbates the problem. They're fine, though, so long as they aren't waterlogged.
Posted by: alweiss at July 26, 2005 02:37 PM
I think that going up a size probably does make it worse. I thought that might be the style you wear. They are SO short!!! I won't wear some of mine like that since they are so short on me (I look naked!).
Blondie
Posted by: Blondie at July 26, 2005 08:27 PM
Oh -- you must be one of those Goddesses of the tall and long-legged variety. When I wear the longer shorts that seem to be popular at the moment (judging by the unavailability of shorter shorts) I look like a pair of feet attached to a torso. Kinda low on the intimidation front.
Posted by: alweiss at July 26, 2005 09:07 PM