Too Nice for Working Out?

I really didn't think I would get a chance to post again this week.  Pretty much the only reason I am able is because Keira work Soren up this morning at the crack of dawn because she is excited about her Christmas party at school today.  I put Soren back to bed in my room, thus I can't go back to sleep or really get myself ready yet for another few minutes.  I am seriously bummed that of all days I need to run outside to make things a lot easier, it is pouring.  Not just raining, but sideways wind howling pouring.  It is not that cold, which is nice, but I am just not sure if I want to bundle Soren up to take him out and deal with pushing a huge sail through it.  It has 3 hours to stop, so that is good.  The bad thing is that I have Keira's party, so I need to go to that instead of the gym.  I have a sitter lined up, and she needs to be somewhere by 11, which means that techically, I should be able to make it to the gym by 11, thus leaving me with 1 hour left to work out.  However, I won't have time to get cleaned up, and I will already be all cleaned up when I get there.  Grr. 

This leads nicely to a post I remembered reading a while back about having workout clothes that are too nice to wear to work out.  When I first read it, I was like, whatever, they are workout clothes.  They are supposed to get gross and stinky, not be super cute.   I just grab whatever is most comfortable for the conditions out of my workout drawer and try to match colors and go with it.  I do have some fleeces that I try to wear once as a shirt and then next to workout so I can maximize use and minimize washings, but otherwise, I didn't think much of it until yesterday.  Yesterday was unusually warm, and I went to my closet and selected a Mountain Hardwear running shirt as my shirt to wear.  Hmm, it was HANGING IN MY CLOSET.  Not in my workout drawer.  I have never worked out in it ever.  It is just to wear as a shirt.  Then I looked around a bit more.  I have another mountain hardwear "butter hoodie" that is also JUST FOR WEARING.  In fact, I have this one on my Christmas list, and I know I am getting it because I tried it on in my house after Ryan bought it to make sure it fit.

I am getting it from REI,  (where the picture is from) and it has actually gone on sale.  It might be cheaper than what we paid, I need to check to see if we need to reorder it actually for a savings.  However, the shipping and returning part might get tricky since it is so close to Christmas.  We can do returns in person at the store, but I don't want to have to return the old one before the new one comes. 

I actually have no intention of working out in this hoodie at all.  It is way too cute, and expensive!  I think this is why I should not get into wearing Lucy or Lullemon stuff.  I bet I would buy it to just look cute and not even work out in it.  I have an awesome smartwool ski sweater, and I hardly ever ski in it because it is dry clean only, and who wants to sweat in something you have to dry clean!  I did try hand washing it in our machine, which is allowable on the directions, and it fell apart, so I am on my second one and don't want to risk it, as dry cleaning was also an option on the care label.  It is actually awesome for skiing, but I use it more for light ski days where I will spend a lot of time in the lodge with the kids.  I am sure it helps that I have more than enough technical running clothing that I have gotten for free over the years from races and sponsors, and that the stuff doesn't really wear out.  I also have a race uniform, which means I don't need to have cute racing outfits.  I have raced in my current butter hoodie, which is dark green, in a St Patty's day race before.  I needed something green, and it was a great shirt to run in, just way too cute.

So, do you have any running/workout clothes that is NEVER for running or working out?  I totally thought I didn't, until I stepped out of my running drawer, and looked through my casual clothes.  It is full of them.  It sort of doesn't count that my climbing clothes is dual purpose.  I DO use it for climbing, I just haven't in a really REALLY long time, but I do have a ton of Prana climbing clothing too, as well as stuff that was bought to be wicking for backpacking, but that I now just wear since I don't have the opportunity to backpack anymore.  I may wear some of that for running now and then, but I don't really need to either, which all my race shirt freebies.