Short Track!

Sort of.  (Don't get too excited, Sharon!)

One of our local ice rinks has a good deal on Wednesdays--for 5 bucks, you can skate for 90 minutes, and if you show up with speedskates they'll give you a rink all to yourself.

The catch?  The 90 minutes are between 5:30 and 7:00 a.m.

Clearly this is not an option for me during the school year; even if I could do it logistically (which I can't; I need to be at work by 7:00, and the rink is over 30 minutes from my house), I can't imagine trying to complete a full day's work after having gotten up at 4:30 and skated (I know, I know, figure skaters and hockey players do it all the time.  And that's one of the things I like about speedskating.)  But during the summer, I sometimes try to make it to the "early bird" skate.  Last year, I think I just went once or twice to break in my new long-track boots, having lent my short track blades to Sprinter Boy--who was likely to put them to much better and more frequent use than I would.  This summer, though, I've got my blades back, some of the other Masters long-trackers are short-tracking regularly at the early bird sessions, and so I thought I'd re-assemble my short track skates and give it a whirl.

The re-assembly proved to be somewhat of a challenge, since I couldn't find the bolts that hold the frame to the boot.  When I did find some bolts, in a baggie with a Sharpie scrawl that seemed to indicate that they would be the ones for fastening Bont Pyro skates to short track blades, the bolts were much too long.  I finally managed to scrounge some bolts and washers from the Hubster's rally-car stash (gosh, hope he doesn't need them during his race this weekend!), stuck the blades back on the boots, and figured I was ready to go.

The alarm, at 4:50 a.m., launched me out of bed and into a frenzy of clothes-gear-and-food assembly.  I was planning to go to the Oval for an inline workout immediately after the short track, and thus needed what we sometimes refer to as the Ba Ba Blacksheep package--yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full (OK, actually we only use that to refer to those occasional walks when Keira-the-poo-machine is unusually prolific and the doggy poo bag supply gets a workout).

Traffic, as you might expect at 5:20 on a Wednesday morning, was light, the McDonald's bacon-egg-and-cheese biscuit was fresh and tasty (be quiet, I had two workouts coming up), and soon I was lacing up my skates and preparing to shove off onto the empty rink.

Here's the only photographic evidence of my departure from long track:

See?  Those are my legs, and those are my skates (they even have my name on them!).  Proof positive that I did, indeed, brave the short track ice.

Anyway, my first step onto the ice was anticlimactic and almost disastrous, as my slipping and lurching stopped just short of a crash.  I was pretty sure that one of three things was wrong: a) I had set the blades at the wrong angle; b) I hadn't sharpened my skates properly; or c) I had completely forgotten how to skate.  Since there wasn't much I could do about b or c, I decided to address a.  This required removing my skates again, and looking at the blades to see if I could figure out which way to move them. I eventually decided that the front of both blades needed to move in the only direction that they were currently, due to the interference with the head of the fastening bolt, prohibited from moving.  So I removed the washer that I'd put between the bolt head and the frames--the Hubster has frequently emphasized the importance of washers--and then moved the blades a bit and re-tightened.

Out on the ice again, things still weren't smooth, but I felt comfortable enough to skate.  Since the rink has no pads (organized short track practices always include nice thick padding along the boards, for those of us who lose our footing), I was very cautious.  Soon, though, I was having fun--doing gliding drills, skating one corner and then coasting a lap until I slowed enough to feel comfortable skating again, and doing some crossover drills in the faceoff circles.  When you're the only one on the ice, short track can be fun!

After the short track, I headed to the oval for an endurance workout--the oval and the rink are fairly close together, so it just made sense.   Mel and another young long tracker were also there, so I had the unusual fun of doing an inline workout with (or, more accurately, behind) two other long track skaters.  The workout itself--another German Endurance--was lackluster, to the point that I'm getting my thyroid levels checked tomorrow, but it was great to have other "ice people" out there!

Finally, at 10:30, I headed home.  Thus, I spent the first 6 hours of my day on skating...what better way is there to start a Wednesday?

Oh, and because we just got back from my parents' place, here are a couple gratuitous Min Pin pics...

I can't seem to get Belle oriented properly, but she's cute no matter which way she's pointing!