Tag: Nike

Nike Vapor Windrunner Women’s Running Jacket

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I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be wearing pastel. Nike said they were sending me their Nike Element Shield Max Jacket which comes in silver, so it was a bit of a surprise to open the package and find a mint green jacket (which was the Nike Vapor Windrunner Women’s Running Jacket that they’d sent by mistake). I’m really not a pastel person. But no one was looking, so I put it on and oh, actually, it looked great. It fits perfectly and is light and comfortable. It kept me warm and dry before the Great South Run, it keeps me warm and dry when I walk to the gym, it keeps me warm and dry when I cycle to and back from the station and the hood even stayed up on my pea-head when I cycled back one evening through the rain. Oh yes, I’m a fan of this jacket.

It’s definitely mint green though

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nike-vapor-windrunner-backand not yellow like it looks on their website (the website says it’s yellow, so either they do have a yellow one or they get yellow and green mixed up).

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Nike-Vapor-Windrunner-Womens-Running-Jacket-back

What you can’t see from the photos on the Nike website is the hand warmers in the sleeves.

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The only thing missing is an inside pocket. I do like an inside pocket. It does have two zipped side pockets though, one of them includes another pocket for your MP3 player and a little hole to thread your headphones through.

If you need a running jacket, I’d definitely put this on your list for Santa.

The Athletic Aubergine

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Winter is approaching, there’s snow upon the ground… Well, there isn’t, but I thought I’d buy myself some winter running kit and burst into a bit of Human League at the same time.

Zalando is a site I’d used before and knew that they sold reasonable kit at reasonable prices. A purple pair of running tights caught my eye and I thought to myself, am I brave enough to run in purple running tights? and thought yes – I am! and put them in the basket.

Continuing on the bright and bold theme, I then ordered a purple long-sleeved Nike running top and a dark pink short-sleeved Nike t-shirt and some pink Puma socks.

Because I’d used Zalando before, the website already had my address details and so checking out by PayPal was easy. Delivery was free with an expected delivery date of 3-5 days. I’d ordered on the Monday and my gear was delivered on the following Monday. According to the tracking thing, they’d tried to deliver it on Saturday but no-one was in – they didn’t leave a card though, so no idea if they did try to deliver or not.

Today I wanted to go for a run in my new running gear. Could I be brave enough to go out in such bright clothes and look like a running aubergine or would I wimp out and put some black clothes on?

I was brave.

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(Excuse the unmade bed – the cat was on the bed and I didn’t want to disturb her.)

The tights were comfortable but needed to be higher on the waist. I like my running tights to hold my belly in and these were too low and I was worried that I’d be flashing my bum. The t-shirt was great, it’s long enough and stayed in place throughout the run.

I also wore my new Saucony Progrid Ride 5 shoes that I was given on Friday at a Sportshoes.com running event (that was fab and that I’ll blog about later. In the meantime, you can read Lesley’s account on her blog).

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I wore the Saucony shoes on Saturday’s run and the first mile was great, faster than I’ve run for months. Shame I walked the other three miles though. Today’s run was comfortable and I think I may even prefer these shoes to my beloved Asics.

New shoes, and they’re pink, too

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My current running shoes – a pair of Brooks and a pair of Asics – have been giving me a blister for a while now and although they haven’t done a huge amount of mileage, they have been through a lot of mud and water and I decided that was the reason they’ve been hurting me and so I decided I needed new shoes.

Shaun also wanted to get new shoes and so, when I said that Sweatshop in Maidstone was open until 8pm, we went there yesterday evening when he got back from work.

We stood around looking gormless for a while until a young pretty girl came over and asked if we needed help and so I said I’d like some new shoes please and I told her about my Brooks and my Asics (I was wearing the Brooks as they were slightly cleaner than my Asics) and said I didn’t really want Brooks again as I only got them because the shop didn’t have any Asics and she said she’d get me some Asics to try on.

Shaun said he fancied a change from Asics and so she said she’d bring him some Nikes and she came back with a box of Asics for me and I opened the box, hoping they weren’t blue as I don’t like blue and, hooray, they were a nice pinky-purpley-cerise colour

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and Shaun opened his box and took out THE MOST DISGUSTING SHOES IN THE WORLD EVER

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(they don’t look too bad in the photo but believe me, these were the ugliest shoes I’ve ever seen) and I start to laugh and feel smug as I have pretty shoes that, as well as being pretty, are as comfy as fuck, and Shaun asks the girl if she has any nicer looking shoes and she says she’ll get some Adidas for him to try but he tries the Nikes on anyway and the girl gets him to run on the treadmill and says he has a beautiful gait… but… but I can’t remember what the but was for and she said a load of other technical stuff which I’m sure Shaun will blog about and then I got on the treadmill and she said that I run with a nice neutral gait but that I have big hips and… and I can’t remember what the and was for but she said I should practice walking straight and I’m wondering if I should punch her for saying I’m wonky with a big bum but I decide not to punch her in case I get thrown out of the shop and I don’t want to get thrown out as I want to buy the nice comfy pretty Asics and then Shaun tries on the Adidas and gets on the treadmill again and he decides to buy the Adidas and while I’m waiting for him a load of people turn up for the running club they have there and on the board it says that Monday nights are for run/walk beginners but the people who have turned up don’t look like noobs as they’re all wearing proper technical vests and short shorts and proper shoes and noobs wear cotton t-shirts and tracksuits and shoes that cost £10 from the cheapy shoe shop and wear two bras at once instead of a proper sports bra, don’t they, or is that just me?

Anyway, after we’ve both finished on the treadmill and getting lots of good advice from the sales assistant, we go to pay for our new shoes and she says mine are £60, which is less than I’ve ever paid for proper running shoes. Bargain.

And so I took them out for a three mile run this morning and they were bouncy and cushiony and comfy and didn’t give me a blister. Hurrah.

Stats
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 35:21
Pace: 11:47
Calories: 315
Pairs of nice new pinky-purpley-cerise Asics: 1
Ugly pairs of Nike shoes that stayed in the shop: 1
Sales assistants telling me I’m wonky and have a big bum: 1
Noobs at the running club: 0
Blisters: 0