RSN Ski Racing Tip of the Day - Beware of Your Underwear!

A recent teamtoday article mentioned a skier washing his clothes while
travelling away from home. This reminded me of a lesson I learned a
year ago. It was a lesson so very painful ... that I would hope that
no one else would ever has to go through this!

It was a lesson, brought about by a clean pair of underwear! ... about
skin allergies to certain laundry detergents.

Here's the story:

Like most heterosexual males ... I never paid much attention to laundry
detergents. So last fall I was in Costco, I knew my wife and I needed
some laundry detergent, so I said "Hey - this looks like a killer
deal!" And I bought a big box of detergent I had never used before.

Clothes were washed in the detergent ... in paticular, cotton briefs
that I would be wearing to an intense ski bounding workout. Little did
I know upon completion of the workout, my midsection was being scalded
by a chemical bath that I was intensely allegic to.

The next four days were excruciating hell. Every nook and cranny of my
mod-section was on fire. No sleep. No work. No training. Just
writhing in hellish pain. And my skin wouldn't be the same for another
6 months. Afterwards I told my sister about this. She nonchalantly
said: "Oh yeah - that has happened to everyone in our family - we're
all allergic to that powdered detergent. Ha! Ha!" I wish I had known
ahead of time!


So here's the lesson to be learned:

Don't switch laundry detergents. Or ... use non-allergenic detergents.
And if you go on an extended ski-travel trip, bring detergent from
home.

Imagine switching detergents at home, packing up clean u-trou,
traveling to a race or race series, doing a warm-up ski the day before
a big race with new skivies on ... and THEN finding out you are
allergic to the new detergent. You can't sleep, you're in constant
pain ... you have ruined your race performance.

Ah yes, R.S.N ... where else can you find such helpful "news that you
can use!"

TK