Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

My first mistake was to buy my tennis shoes online. I guess I really had to because all the Lady Footlockers in the city closed down and the regular Footlockers didn’t carry my shoes. I thought it would be great. All I needed to do was to buy the exact same model of my beloved shoes directly from the manufacturer. It worked. They came in the mail and fit like a dream. I’m on my third mail-ordered pair.

Of course, with the shoes came the advertisements for the fancy exercise clothes. You know the really cute outfits where the tops match the stripes on the bottoms. The pants are made of some really cool fabric that magically cools down the athlete in the summer and keeps her warm in the winter. Oh, and by the way, the shorts cost twenty bucks apiece. Are they worth it?

• ACE – Low-Tech Togs Keep Exercisers Cool

This article from the American Council on Exercise leaves the answer open. While they don’t technically reduce skin temperature, they do allow sweat to evaporate quicker than cotton. I have a couple of tops that are made out of that space age fabric and the only thing that I’ve noticed is that they feel lighter and silkier than the cotton tank tops I usually run in. Mostly, I just like them because the tops match the color of the stripe on the side of the pants.