Lubricant - a triathlete's best friend.
FRIDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2008
One of the pitfalls of endurance sport is the chafing. If you have ever hung around the finishing chute of Marathon you’ll know what I mean. Some poor guys complete the 42.2k run looking like they have stopped at the ‘nipple tweaking station’ en route! Their finish photo usually depicts a wincing and sorry looking fella, in a shirt streaked with blood! The problem lies in the fact they neglected to protect their nipples with a big dollop of Vaseline or anti chaff cream. The result of which is friction from their shirt buffing a couple of layers of skin right off their nipples! Eheww! It sounds terrible eh? My husband has suffered from nipple chafing and post race he has had to resort to slapping on a couple of plasters on each nipple – X marks the spot(s)!
I can actually relate well to the soreness associated with chafing of rather delicate areas of skin. In my first Ironman, when I went to change from my bike gear to my run gear, I realised I had completely forgotten to pack my run shorts! You aren’t allowed outside help during the race, so what you pack is what you get, and I had to resort to running the Marathon in my bike shorts. It was ok at the time but post race, when I showered, I realised that I had chafed off a chamois imprint around my bum, which was a perfect saddle shape! (For non bikers, the chamois bit is the padding inside which is supposed to stop the chaffing!) As you may or may not want to imagine, there followed some rather delicate application of creams, lotions and potions!
To date I have had a chafed bum (as above). I have had loads of chafed, black toe nails – the last one was post Auckland Marathon last year (they are rather satisfying – not too much pain and great when you finally pull them off!) I have had chafed armpits from a running top, a chafed neck from my wet suit, a chafed chest from my costume and triathlon top, a chafed ankle from my bike shoes, and possibly the worst is chafed inner thighs. To be an Ironman requires dedication and lubrication. Running hard in a race is nothing like running in training, and if you neglect to lubricate, you pay!.................And ok, I’ll also admit to chafed nipples!
One of the pitfalls of endurance sport is the chafing. If you have ever hung around the finishing chute of Marathon you’ll know what I mean. Some poor guys complete the 42.2k run looking like they have stopped at the ‘nipple tweaking station’ en route! Their finish photo usually depicts a wincing and sorry looking fella, in a shirt streaked with blood! The problem lies in the fact they neglected to protect their nipples with a big dollop of Vaseline or anti chaff cream. The result of which is friction from their shirt buffing a couple of layers of skin right off their nipples! Eheww! It sounds terrible eh? My husband has suffered from nipple chafing and post race he has had to resort to slapping on a couple of plasters on each nipple – X marks the spot(s)!
I can actually relate well to the soreness associated with chafing of rather delicate areas of skin. In my first Ironman, when I went to change from my bike gear to my run gear, I realised I had completely forgotten to pack my run shorts! You aren’t allowed outside help during the race, so what you pack is what you get, and I had to resort to running the Marathon in my bike shorts. It was ok at the time but post race, when I showered, I realised that I had chafed off a chamois imprint around my bum, which was a perfect saddle shape! (For non bikers, the chamois bit is the padding inside which is supposed to stop the chaffing!) As you may or may not want to imagine, there followed some rather delicate application of creams, lotions and potions!
To date I have had a chafed bum (as above). I have had loads of chafed, black toe nails – the last one was post Auckland Marathon last year (they are rather satisfying – not too much pain and great when you finally pull them off!) I have had chafed armpits from a running top, a chafed neck from my wet suit, a chafed chest from my costume and triathlon top, a chafed ankle from my bike shoes, and possibly the worst is chafed inner thighs. To be an Ironman requires dedication and lubrication. Running hard in a race is nothing like running in training, and if you neglect to lubricate, you pay!.................And ok, I’ll also admit to chafed nipples!