Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Butt Pad Wars

Over the last two years I have added various accouterments to my skating arsenal. First it was hard guards and soaker guards for my blades both of which are absolute necessities. Then came a wheelie bag, although I didn't succumb to the allure of the Zuca bag. After I purchased new boots I had to get ankle gellies since the new boots rubbed my ankles raw. I also got a plastic spin trainer. Then after a few nasty spills while learning to jump I purchased crash pads. These are asymmetric kidney bean shaped pads that slide between the underwear and skating tights. I'm not totally fond of the gellies and the butt pads. They make me sweat horribly. I end up with soaking wet ankles and butt even if I didn't sweep the ice with my ass. I've only fallen on my crash pads once but my fall was so cushy I decided that it was worth the aggravation to wear them regularly for jump practice.

Since I started off ice training at the gym I have started to loose weight. Due to laundry issues I wore my black leggings rather than my standard skating tights for practice. I changed at work since I was driving straight to the rink afterwards. I dressed in the ladies room and went back to my desk to tape my knees, put on my gellies and insert my butt pads. I picked up my clothes bag and my wheelie bag containing my skates and started the ten minute walk to my car (I'm not kidding. I work in a huge complex.). As I got to the end of hallway one my left pad started to creep out of place. By the end of hallway two both pads had wandered away from my outer thighs around to my backside. By the start of the parking lot the two pads were having fistie cuffs over who got to cover my ass. I was so glad I was wearing a big baggy winter coat so no one could see the two huge lumps moving independently around my backside. It must have looked like I had some sort of alien invasion in my underwear.

Apparently I've lost enough weight that the leggings are now loose enough they can't hold the pads in place any more. Some day I might be skinny enough to fit into the pants that have built in pads but for now I am going to have to stick to wearing skating tights for jump training. They are still tight enough that the pads can't become free range chickens on me.

For those who were wondering I ended up taking the left one out completely for practice but there is no way I'm jumping without my right pad in (this is the side I always fall on). I just had to rearrange it a couple of times while I was on the ice. At least at the rink they understand why I keep putting my hand down my pants ;-)

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