It seems that as my training scheduled has gradually increased over the past 18 months, my lifestyle and also my wardrobe has had to adapt to accommodate it, and I’m not just talking about padded shorts and cycling jerseys.
As I was getting ready the other morning, something occurred to me, where did all of my nice pants go?? It was one of those rare days, that are few and far between. I wasn’t searching for my Lycra friendly, no pant line, anti chaff, seamless underwear or ‘rubber thong’ as they are affectionally called in my house.
I was looking for something a little bit more attractive, a bit more fashion than function, but I was struggling. The closest thing I could find was a pair of French knickers with slightly frayed elastic which showed a striking resemblance to hair, not quite the look I was going for. My knickers from M&S with teddy bears on were a close second! What had happened to my knicker drawer!! Something that was once full of lacy, frilly and dare I say ‘sexy’ items was now overflowing with functional ‘sports pants’. It was at this point that it dawned on me, these days my idea of ‘sexy underwear’ was a brightly coloured sports bra to go with my black rubber thong!
The benefits of sport and exercise are widely publicised, but what about the things we don’t tell you. As athletes we are guilty of being all too keen to show off our training stats, how many miles we do, race bling etc, but what about our dirty little athlete secrets that we keep to ourselves, the things we don’t advertise, our frayed French knickers and rubber thongs!!! Oh the shame!
With that in mind I have decided to lift the lid on athlete life and share my confessions.