tights or shorts?

"Tights or shorts ~ ?

I have been training for the Marathon in Rome,
Which is this Sunday, and for the entire winter,
I trained in tights,
As it was so damn cold.

Now the blooms begins ~
Spring has arrived,
And I ran this morning in shorts.

Now I am concerned tights will be too warm,
And shorts will likely chaf."
~ E Backroads

"Because my strong ~ willed flight may dare to snare
The next ascendant on my stair,
I dare not whisper loudly here,
For fear,
An interloper near ...

But Tights,
My Word for you."
~ Twittering

Quoted message said:

hi all...i have been training for the Marathon in Rome which is this
Sunday. The entire winter, i trained in tights, as it was so damn cold.
Of course, 5 days to the marathon, the blooms begins, the spring has
arrived, and i had to do my run this a.m. in shorts. Now i am concerned
that tights will be too warm for the big day, and with shorts (and not
training in shorts) i will likely chaf. In italy, things like BodyGlide
are not an option, and i don't like slippery stuff between my legs
(stop! you dirty minds!). Anyway, in order to retain my psychology from
the last 3 months, would i be crazy to still run this thing in tights
if we are at sunny and 60degrees (17 C)? I am not sure what is
worse...overheating or chafing (which i guess is really burning, so
maybe that answers my question!). I once read you should never change
things on race day if it wasn't already done in training.

any thoughts about this would be great.

Naked

"YMRASU ~ Yes
My Retarded Ass Signed Up!"
~ William Berger,
Our www.WNYC.org Host This Evening ~ !

E Backroads said:

Now i am concerned that tights will be too warm for the big day,
and with shorts (and not training in shorts) i will likely chaf.
In italy, things like BodyGlide are not an option, and i don't like
slippery stuff between my legs ... sunny and 60degrees (17 C)...

Preamble: don't listen to me, for nobody in this group better represents
utter marathon disaster than I.

With that out of the way:

If your goal is to make it to the finish line in as little discomfort as
possible at whatever pace, the tights might be reasonably OK.

If you intend to give it your all and run this thing as fast as you possibly
can, or even within a few notches thereof, and it really is 60F and sunny,
my vote is you'll be miserable in the tights and ought to do whatever it
takes to get as nearly naked as you can. Without a week or two of
acclimating to this kind of warmth I reckon you'll find the heat pretty
oppressive.

I'm not sure what your objection to "slippery stuff" is, but it's got to be
a pretty damn powerful aversion if it trumps the desire to avoid chafing in
a 42km race. If you can overcome this phobia, I bet you can find a few ml
of olive oil somewhere in the vicinity of Rome. I've come to prefer this
over Bodyglide for the, uh, shorts region anyhow, after trying it on the
recommendation of Phil in ths group.

Yeah, there's that bit about something new on race day. But you *have* worn
running shorts before at some point, right? And the weather is going to be
"something new"...

CP ~
You sound Puckish.

Puckish, or
RU a Pudendum or Puddle Jumper ~ ?
Or RU just feeling a tad pugnacious,
If puissant, your puffery ~ ?
Or puckering for a kiss ...

Why don't you wear something like short tights (e.g. bike shorts). Or
you could wear those bottoms like you see in the triathalon quite a bit
(somewhat like speedos). I haven't ever worn long tights but I know
that I wouldn't want to wear them for a warm long run.

James

Find some clothes you ran in last summer season.
I wouldnt try new clothing at this late date, because
you dont know if there will chaffing after three hours
of sweating and rubbing.

Twittering One said:

CP ~
You sound Puckish.

That's funny; I feel a lot more like a pungent pupivorous punkabilly
pugilist.

But you may be right. Like Descartes sez I shouldn't trust my own senses,
lest they really be the projections of some evil demon, or like maybe I'm
really just a brain in a jar and nobody's had the decency to let me in on
that joke, or something.

What sayest thee, Twitty? Tights? Or shorts? Or is it "thou"?

Quoted message said:

hi all...i have been training for the Marathon in Rome which is this
Sunday. The entire winter, i trained in tights, as it was so damn cold.
Of course, 5 days to the marathon, the blooms begins, the spring has
arrived, and i had to do my run this a.m. in shorts. Now i am concerned
that tights will be too warm for the big day, and with shorts (and not
training in shorts) i will likely chaf. In italy, things like BodyGlide
are not an option, and i don't like slippery stuff between my legs
(stop! you dirty minds!). Anyway, in order to retain my psychology from
the last 3 months, would i be crazy to still run this thing in tights
if we are at sunny and 60degrees (17 C)?

It would depend a lot on what your comfort range is in your tights.
Since I usually run predominantly in running pants (far more experience
in Alaska winter than summer), I'm always slow to switch to shorts in
the spring. BUT those first couple warm days in the spring with the sun
baking the black pants (didn't realize it was that warm), can be
*really* uncomfortable to the point I've unzipped the legs and rolled
them up like 3/4 length pants - even for short runs. A few hours would
be intolerable. (I don't have chafing problems, but suspect, that would
be even more intolerable.) I have lighter weight pants now that I use
for the couple days of transition or summer runs that start warm and go
into mountains. I also have some longer compression shorts that I wear
under other shorts to add a little warmth on the not-quite-shorts but
not-long-pants days. (someone else mentioned this) But that doesn't help
you at this point.

Another thought, can you cut (or roll them up) a pair of tights so
they're short, but fit like your tights. Might need to hem or duct tape
the bottoms, but be wary of introducing chafing points. That might give
you a reasonable compromise.

I am not sure what is

Quoted message said:

worse...overheating or chafing (which i guess is really burning, so
maybe that answers my question!).

That's a decision you'll have to make, but I would think some type of
lubricant might help, as others have suggested.

Quoted message said:

I once read you should never change
things on race day if it wasn't already done in training.

Very true. However, if you *know* what you've done doesn't work for
conditions, then you might have to try something new - but based on
previous experience. You have run in shorts previously, but sounds like
maybe you haven't resolved the chafing problem yet?

FWIW, my very first race was a winter triathlon at +1F/-17C. What I had
finally gotten to work in training (15 to 20F/-10 to -7C vicinity) was
totally inadequate for the temperatures the day before (-17F/-25C -
substantial change in a few hours). In total panic, I found some gear
the day before, did some quick tests for obvious adjustments, and was so
glad to see +1F/-17C without wind on race day. Gear worked well. Without
the race-day changes, I would have had frost-bite for sure. As it turns
out, the overbooties that I got for my feet for the bike leg worked so
well, that I use them to this day for snowshoe running - with some
modifications, duct-tape patches, etc. (I really need to find another
pair.) And many others like the solution also.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people"
-Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

thanks all...olive oil...sounds like a "palatable" solution. Sounds
like it should be shorts....

rick++ said:

Find some clothes you ran in last summer season.
I wouldnt try new clothing at this late date, because
you dont know if there will chaffing after three hours
of sweating and rubbing.

I like the chaffing when it's on my ass, and where my testes used to
be (before the surgery).

rick++

"Charlie Pendejo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Twittering One said:

CP ~
You sound Puckish.

That's funny; I feel a lot more like a pungent pupivorous punkabilly
pugilist.

But you may be right. Like Descartes sez I shouldn't trust my own
senses, lest they really be the projections of some evil demon, or
like maybe I'm really just a brain in a jar and nobody's had the
decency to let me in on that joke, or something.

Kant recants categorically and Socrates eats hemlock!

Quoted message said:

What sayest thee, Twitty? Tights? Or shorts? Or is it "thou"?

Compromise, spandex shorts like bikers use. Chaffing gone and yet
shorts.

-DF

What sayest thee, Twitty? Tights? Or shorts?
Or is it "thou"?
~ CP

Thou.

"Although, yes, once a very nice gunniea pig
Named Sport hung out
With me, his mother, her name, Gertrude."
~ Twittering

"I feel a lot more like a pungent pupivorous
Punkabilly pugilist."
~ CP

"Perhaps you may benefit from the Tincture
Of the Puccoon, if Puce
Your favorite color, or Puccini,
An operatic composer of your cocoon."
~ Folly

"Chandler started playing the piano day and night ~ driving me crazy.
'Canadian Sunset' over and over and over again! One night I rubbed
cigarette ashes all over myself for camoflage, crawled into the dayroom
recon style, and snapped off the little felt hammers inside the piano.

Shoulda seen the look on Chandler's face when he sat down to play. This
was not insane behavior. I knew I was not really insane. I was just a
garden-variety epileptic temporarily off my game. Thown a little by the
war.

I laughed and said to Chandler, 'Hey man, what's the sound of one hand
clapping?'"
~ Thom Jones,

Quoted message said:

From "The Pugilist at Rest"

"Of Avian Worlds Beyond, however, I am found
To often Parse by a Latin Wand ~

Puccoon ~ An American plant of the borage
Or poppy family, such as gromwell
Or bloodroot whose roots yield a reddish dye.

Latin ~ Lithospermum canescens
Sanguinaria Canadensis."
~ Folly

"Or as The Highly Celebrated Infamous Ms.
Candida Donadio, for whom I respectfully toiled
As Office Assistant, in her Chelsea Literary
Agency once said to me ~

'Twittering, I think we'll sign up that Mr.
Thom Jones. I like that Pugilist story. O, if you please,
Please file away Gravity's Rainbow's most
Recent correspondence. Mr.

Thomas Pynchon's scribbling, O, so out of school ~ !
Now, if you please ... On to more
Serious matters ~ What's for lunch ~ ?'

To which I replied to Ms.
Donadio. Anything you wish ~ !"
~ Twittering

"Heck, yeah ~ !"
~ Neil

"The sort of boxing Theogenes practices was not like modern-day boxing
with those kindergarten Queensberry Rules. The two contestants were not
permitted the freedom of a ring. Instead, they were strapped to flat
stones, facing each other nose-to-nose.

When the signal was given, they would begin hammering each other with
fists encases in heavy leather thongs. It was a fight to the death.
Fourteen hundred twenty-five times Theogenes was strapped to the stone
and fourteen hundred and twenty-five times he emerged a victor.

Perhaps it is Theogenes who is depicted in the famous Roman statue of
'The Pugilist at Rest.'

'Sitting alone on the bottom of the ocean I've witnessed the holy
presence of God.'

'You mean God like Jehovah?'

He says, 'No, I mean God like physics.'"
~ Thom Jones,

Quoted message said:

From "The Pugilist at Rest"