Say it Ain't So

One of the most painful parts of training is not my stiff muscles in the morning, it's not my feet cramping in the middle of a swim set, and it's not my aching bottom from hours on the trainer...it's the sores around my torso where my heart rate monitor strap has rubbed my skin raw.

On the bike it's not usually a problem. However, after a nice long run, I am sure to have some fresh spots. I can see the ones on the front and will rub some Vasaline on them first before hopping in the shower. Its the ones on my back, that I don't see, that are the worst. As soon at the hot water hits my back and washes the salty sweat down my back, it feels like someone is burning me with a hot poker!

I'm not the only one with chaffing problems 

When things get really bad, I stop wearing the HR strap until things heal up a bit. I have tried Glide and even Chamois Butter, but nothing seemed to help. The biggest problem is my HR strap sits right underneath my sports bra. Just a slight movement is enough to cause a problem over an hour or two run.

HS and I had even discussed a way to cut the strap and mount it to my sports bra with velcro or something so it would move with the bra and potentially cause less damage. One day I did a Google search to see if anyone had tried anything like that and I discovered that Victoria's Secret had beat me to the idea.

The Victoria's Secret bra, beside being comfy and supportive, had soft, built-in contact points. All I do to use the bra is snap in my Garmin sensor.

VS contact points on the bottom, Garmin plastic (warped)
contacts on top

Just snap and go

After trying out the bra for a week, I decided I needed to have more than one. I went back to the VS website and was horrified at what I found...

NOOOO!

Funny Thing

As I was writing this post, I did a Google search to see if I could find out why Victoria's Secret discontinued this bra. Most of the articles I had previously found (announcing the bra) were written late last year, so it wasn't like it had been on the market a long time. I re-read one of the articles and it noted the creator of the technology and some of the companies using it.

A couple more searches and I found one of the top rated sports bras that now offers a heart rate monitor bra! Yay!!!

#ResultsStartHere