How to wash your pads

Ok. The basics to having unstinky gear.

This is a post I wrote a while ago when I started, full of ideas and research. Down below is what my routine has evolved into after a year and a half of trial and error.

EVERY DAY

1) Go home after practice and pull everything out of your bag.

2) Lay everything out in a place that has good air circulation. Ideally, a covered porch or in front of the dehumidifier in the basement. Others will hook things around their shower curtain rod (or hang them from their ceiling tiles) with the fan running. Make sure the sweaty sides are exposed.

Extra tips:

- Spray with something alcoholic (really cheap vodka) or an enzyme spray (Nature's Miracle, Funk Out something or other) to kill bacteria and decompose biological warfare components.

- Some people on Etsy also make satchels filled with super absorbant polymers and baking soda that you can toss in your bag for the ride home. They aren't a solution, just a small help.

- I have also seen a "pad tree" made with perforated PVC tubes on ropes that you can put your pads on and hang somewhere to help aerate them. You keep it in your gym bag and put your crap on it as you take it off, then just pull it out and hang it up when you get home.

- Gaskets can stand up nicely around old bottles so you don't have one side covered by the other.

- Nevereverevereverever spray with Febreze, perfume, or anything else with a lot of added odor or I will hunt you down and kick you in the jimmies.

EVERY COUPLE OF WEEKS

1) Make sure all of your pads are turned inside out, with the velcros well attached. This includes removable helmet paddings.

2) Toss in a washing machine with 1/2 cup chlorine bleach, and run with enough cold/warm water to cover them. I don't use soap because I don't want to have to get all the soap off. Leftover bleach will just evaporate.

3) Lay out to dry like you do every night.

Tips: I don't use hot water nor the dryer because heat will help the padding decompose faster.

Some people also put everything inside a garment bag or old pillow case to keep velcros from coming undone and snagging.

ONCE A YEAR

1) buy new shit! I'm supposedly on a rotating schedule where I'll replace one piece of gear every two months so I don't get hit with sticker shock.

BIG NO-NO'S

1) Never leave your gear in your plastic gym bag! Shit will get moldy, you will get an infection, and people will hate you and your stench.

2) Never leave your gear in your car! The extreme heat will again decompose your pads, but more importantly will warp your skates.

3) I told you already, scents. Skating in a pace line behind someone with funk is bad. Skating behind someone with funk AND horribly strong perfume (which some of us are allergic to!) will lead me to violence.

ERRATA

1) "flipping your pads inside out" does not mean digging out the padding. It means leaving the side that goes against your skin as exposed as possible. Not all pads are reversible (my 187 elbows and some slip on wrists aren't), so meh. You do what you can with what you've got.

2) Shells don't need to come off. I actually have never personally seen pads with removable shells, so I don't know how detrimental this is to the integrity of the pad.

3) "Covering the velcro" doesn't mean using tape. Just make sure every strap is well matched up with its other half, so that the snaggy plastic side has as little exposure as possible

Bearings pt. 2

Ok, I know not everybody has access to industrial solvents (like I did in my first post). Luckily, all of this can be done at home with stuff purchased at a supermarket.

1) Wipe down excess dirt with a rag.

2) Take off plastic guards. Unfortunately, metal crimped bearings cannot be opened.

3) Wash!

The easiest thing to use is Dawn or any other degreasing soap. Hold the center of the bearing and spin the outer ring while submerged in a container of very soapy water, then do the same under the tap running warm water. This can also be done with Goo Gone or other orange oil based degreasers. Just make sure you remove all residue.

4) Rinse.

If water isn't cutting it, use acetone or some other solvent that will evaporate clean.

5) Dry.

While you can just leave them drip drying on a towel, it is in your best interest to dry them as fast and efficiently as possible. One option is to put said towel with bearings in a toster oven or dehydrator. Another is to hold them from the center (like when washing) and spin them by blowing with compressed air, or with a blowdryer set on cool.

6) Oil.

Ok, this isn't completely necessary. There are people that skate on "dry" bearings. This keeps crap from getting caught in them and gunking up. Most people, though, oil them. While you can get Speed Cream for about $10/oz, you can also get food grade mineral oil at the pharmacie for a couple of bucks the quart. Will you ever go through the whole quart? Most probably not, but you can probably share it with your whole team for the next five years.

7) Replace guards, wipe excess oil, and put them back in your skates.

As standard maintenance between washes, make sure to wipe down your hubs with a cloth or old tooth/paint brush after each use, and add a couple of drops of oil to each bearing every week or so.

[recipe] Low-carb Chocolate Crepe Cake

This is the second recipe I take from I Breathe... I'm Hungry, originally intended as a low carb red velvet cake. Yes, presentation is nice and all, but sometimes you just want to eat your damned cake! So instead of assembling the layers, we just plated them with a dollop of the cream and devoured.

CREPES

6 oz cream cheese (1/3 less fat)

5 eggs

1/4 cup Sugar Free Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

2 TBSP cocoa powder

1 tsp Splenda

1/2 tsp red food coloring (not used)

Blend well and pour onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until dry. Let cool.

CREAM

2 oz cream cheese

10 oz heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla

1 TBSP Splenda

Whip 8 oz of the heavy cream until stiff peaks form, incorporating the splenda and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the cream cheese and remaining cream until smooth, and fold into whipped cream.

Once the crepes are baked, cut into 12 squares (or use a large cup and cut out circles). If you plan on making a cake, alternate crepes with about a TBSP of the cream and make all pretty. If you need your chocolate fix before you stab someone, place a square on your plate with a dollop of cream and eat!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:

Cream Cheese: 560 cals, 16g carb, 48g fat, 16g protein, 16g sugar

Eggs: 350 cals, 25g fat, 30g protein

Hershey's Syrup: 30 cals, 10g carb

Cocoa powder: 25 cals, 6g carb, 1g fat, 2g protein

Cream: 1000 cals, 100g fat

Total Calories: 1965 (328 each)

Carbs: 32g (5g)

Fat: 174g (29g)

Protein: 48g (8g)

Sugar: 16g (3g)

When presenting in not-cake form, it is much easier to cut out a whole bunch of the cream.

CREPES ONLY

Calories: 825 (138)

Carbs: 28g (5g)

Fat: 57g (10g)

Protein: 44g (7g)

Sugar: 12g (2g)

[recipe] Very low carb Buffalo Balls

Meat is good! Spicy meat is better! Spicy meat in convenient balls is best!

I found a wonderful blog called I Breathe... I'm Hungry with several good keto recipes, one of them for Buffalo Balls. This is a very simple concept: you make turkey meatballs and cover them in buffalo sauce, and they are awesome! Her sauce is just butter and Frank's, so of course Dan had to improve on it.

MEATBALLS

1 lb ground turkey

2 oz cream cheese, softened (1/3 less fat)

2 eggs

2 TBSP finely minced celery

3 TBSP crumbled cheese (blue is requested, but I used parmesan)

1/2 tsp black pepper

Mix together, ball up, and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes (15 if you are paranoid with poultry like me). Makes two dozen.

SAUCE

3 oz super sharp cheddar, finely sliced

6 oz cream cheese

1 TBSP butter

3 TBSP minced garlic

1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot

Dip balls or spoon sauce on top, and bake for another 10 minutes.

If you are using the original Frank's + butter sauce, she recommends dipping the balls and letting the sauce caramelize on top. But since this version has so much cheese, it was more like a nice and thick frosting.

NUTRITIONAL INFO

Turkey: 776 cal, 43g fat, 90g protein

Cream Cheese: 448 cal, 32g fat, 16g sugar, 16g protein

Cheddar: 339 cal, 27g fat, 21g protein

Parmesan: 66 cal, 3g fat, 6g protein

Eggs: 140 cal, 10g fat, 2g sugar, 12g protein

Butter: 100 cal, 11g fat

Garlic: 40 cal, 9g carb, 0g sugar, 3g protein

Frank's: salt!

Total: 1909 calories (80 each ball)

126 g fat (5.25 g each)

148 g protein (6.17 g each)

21 g absorbable carbs (0.875 g each)

I probably shouldn't have eaten eight in one breath.

KETO!

Sup! Long time no see. Yes, life has been hectic. I finished several swaps which I might some day get around to blogging about, I transfered leagues, but the most interesting thing is that I have been on a low/no carb diet since last July.

This has made cooking interesting!

We have been experimenting SO MUCH, and some of the tries have been fantastic. Others, not so much... So I'm going to try and log recipes again, especially the good ones ^_^