At home with Mary Earps
Sound advice. What do you have on in the background while you’re training solo?
I like a bit of noise – even if I’m just doing some housework I’ll stream some music or a documentary in the background, or Friends or something like that. I normally eye up any documentary to do with football, although I’ve not sat down to properly watch any TV yet. When it’s a proper series that I’m watching for the first time, I need to concentrate and be engrossed in it. I’m watching nothing like that at the minute, though – I might just have to wait for Peaky Blinders to come back. That’s the one for me.
What phone apps have you found yourself using more than usual in recent weeks?
I have apps that monitor my training, intensity of sessions and heart rate… all that type of thing. I also measure my sleep – how long, and how deep I’ve slept. I’m a bit geeky with stuff like that, and I used them previously anyhow. The club helps with all of that, but I like to do it as well, and it helps me stay on top of my training load. After a hard session I like to see it on the screen; that gives you an extra buzz. Apart from that, the apps I’ve been using most are for tracking deliveries!
Well, deliveries are very important right now…
They are, and getting any sort of food delivery within a couple of weeks can be a challenge. I’ve been going to the shops as infrequently as possible, and taking necessary precautions when I do. My mum’s a hairdresser so has latex gloves for when she does bleaching and stuff like that. Before all this started I went home for my birthday, and Mum did my highlights. She gave me loads of latex gloves so the purple shampoo I’m using doesn’t stain my skin, and they’ve come in really handy to wear to the supermarket. I do my best to go early or late to avoid people – the shelves can be emptier but it’s safer that way. I’m like a kid at Christmas when any delivery arrives – I’m easily pleased!
Talking of food, what have you been cooking up?
I wouldn’t take any advice from me in the kitchen! For dinners I’m quite boring. I’ll have vegetables with some rice – healthy but very plain. My brother’s the chef. If I was back home now he’d be cooking up everything. He’s been making stuff to drop off at my gran’s – lasagne, stuff like that. I’m more of a breakfast person – I’d back myself to cook pretty much any type of egg combination you’d like. My favourite thing to make is chorizo and scrambled eggs – chorizo, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, chilli and a couple of scrambled eggs – or omelettes, poached eggs, fried eggs, sunny side up, whatever you like! But in terms of dinners I wish my brother lived closer so he could drop stuff off. He made an aubergine curry the other week, which was amazing.
There’s nothing wrong with an omelette for dinner…
There you go, I was just about to say, ‘why can’t you have breakfast for dinner?’ There are no rules on that.
