Let me preface this post by this announcement:
I am a huge wimp.
I am aware of this fact, in fact if anything I am now a bit more brutally aware of this fact than I was previously. There are three things that have brought my wimptitude to my attention.
One of which is the recent bit of cold and wet that Seattle has dropped upon us here, another is the fact that it is increasingly difficult for me to wake up in the morning (despite the fact that I’m going to bed at the same time and getting the same amount of sleep) just because the sun doesn’t rise until I’m well on my way to work. But the third? The third is something I’ve brought up recently. Roller Derby.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that roller derby is hard. After all, it’s a competitive sport where people balance on small little wheels while moving constantly at high speeds and trying to avoid getting hit by other competitors. It requires a mix of endurance, speed, balance, and a brassness of the balls that doesn’t usually occur in nature.
Now, people who know me probably do not mark me as the most graceful of their acquaintances. They also probably know that I tend to throw myself excitedly into new things without any regard to their difficulty. This makes for interesting times.
Like this, but without the friendly cushion of ice.
Knowing that I need practice and that I’m out of shape I decided to drop in on the Fitness Skate. It was closer than Lynnwood, was organized by league members, and promised me a good workout. What I didn’t think about was just how much of a workout I was in for.
The group was small, only about 7 or 8 of us, and I quickly realized that I was a little out of my league. Every single person there was more experienced than I was, and considering that I recognized at least one league jammer most were quite a bit more experienced. And here I was with barely one PFM under my belt and an inability to do simple drills like skating backwards. I kind of wanted to leave, but I was damned if I was going to drop out before I even started.
I didn’t die… that’s the good news. But I embarrassed myself a little. We ended up on our skates for most of an hour and 45 minutes, doing a variety of drills. Now, I don’t look grossly overweight, but I am definitely not in shape. I soon found myself lagging behind laboring to keep up.
And as I got more overheated I found myself losing my ability to skate. I couldn’t cross over, I couldn’t bend my knees enough, I whirlwinded my arms back and forth as I tried to keep my balance. I reverted back to the wall method of stopping (keep going until you hit something that stops you)and did my best not to run into the other skaters.
But sometime between me taking a breather on the side and running into my walls I realized something: these people are really really nice. Here I was slowing down their practice, getting in their way and almost causing accidents, but they never once complained. If anything they were a lot nicer than they had to be and offered me help and suggestions.
So although I left practice with almost every one of my muscles screaming and the knowledge that my skating has a looonnnnnggg way to go I can still say that the practice was definitely a positive experience.
Although I think I’ll stick to just PFM for a bit longer.