Mile Diary #1 – Not enough lycra

Warning: This article contains references to, and discussion of, the term “chafe”. Those under 18 and/or of a weak constitution are advised to seek advice before reading

Why does this always happen?

I’m late. Cycling through rain back from Guildford. On the train back from London. Discussing the terms of another voluntary position (are any of them not?). The excuses change but the result doesn’t.

I’m late.

Falling out of the car / off my bike, I jog through the car park and past the trees burdened with the weight of Autumn, and onto the track. He’s standing there in what I must say is a rather nice pair of lycra trousers. Nike, I think.

“How many sets of lycra do you have?”, I ask.

He gives me a blank look. The kind you’d probably expect from someone you just asked how many sets of lycra they have. But in this case it’s the opposite.

“Er, I dunno. A lot.”

I liked this guy.

I remember defending my interest in cycling at university with the caveat that “I would never wear lycra”. Times change. I’m a fan. I have a drawer dedicated to stretchy clothes suitable for excercise.

Chafe’s no laughing matter.

During one particularly memorable run in which I neglected to don appropriate clothing, I disappeared into the bushes about 2 hours in and had to remove the offending under-garment so as to make it home without the aid Ibuprofen and liberal applications of Vaseline (neither of which, I hasten to add, I had on my person). I also once had to walk the last hour of a race, in the dark, in November, because my team mate was struggling with more rubbing than Aladdin’s lamp.

Chafe’s no laughing matter.

What with regular cycling, runs, hockey matches, hockey training and now, track sessions, I simply don’t have enough lycra. Or, at least, not enough clean lycra.

“Right, we’re doing four three-hundreds”, he says.

That’s four lots of 300-metre shuttles with a 3-minute rest in between each.

“Doesn’t sound too bad”, I reply.

175 metres later, I change my mind.

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I am currently training to run a mile as fast as I can. This is my diary and it originally appeared at What’s Your Challenge?

• Personal Best: 6 minutes 5 seconds
• Latest Time: Unknown (forgot to put stopwatch on)