Can I Get a Woo Hoo?

Actually, if you were anywhere near the Twin Cities yesterday morning around 11:30, you might have heard my "woo hoo."  Yes, that's right--I had a good workout, a 10 on the 1-10 scale; I think it was the first workout over a "5" since the season started.

My sister Energizer Bunny and her friend Cop Lady wanted to do a long trail skate at one of our favorite parks yesterday, in preparation for the upcoming North Shore Inline Marathon.  I'm toying with the idea of doing the race, so I figured it might be wise to do a faster trail skate (most of my off-oval skates are "recovery" skates, so slow paced) to see whether a marathon in 4 weeks would be prudent.

EB and Cop Lady were planning a 100-minute skate, which would likely be 4 laps of the hilly 10K trail.  I figured that if I could keep up with them for one of the laps--drafting all the way, of course--I'd be happy.

And...I did it.  I skated the lap faster than I have in the past 5 or 6 years, and it felt good.  Hard, but good--I never had the urge to say "I just can't keep this up," I never struggled to stay in their draft, I never came close to getting dropped (OK, they're both older than I am--both over 50, in fact--but those chicks are in shape.  Nothing like a couple of fit, lean, muscular 50-plus ladies to make this 48-year-old feel slow and squishy!).

Anyway, it was a blast.  I think it was the first real "skating hard and loving it" moment of the spring/summer season, and I enjoyed every minute of it (23 minutes and 35 seconds of it, to be exact).  When we completed the first loop, though, I yelled to the other two that I was dropping off for a slower lap--the first one was a blast, but I wasn't dumb enough to think that I had two of those in me!  So I skated a second lap on my own, at a nice "recovery pace" of 29 minutes, reveling in the delight of a good skate and enjoying the new songs on my iPod.  In fact, I was so happy with the way the skate had gone that I was practically dancing down the trail.  Except I don't dance, and with my coordination, attempting to boogie on skates would have been flirting with disaster.  Still, I defy anyone to skate with Maroon 5's "One More Night" blasting in their ears and not put at least a little extra bob into each stride...

So it was a fantastic day, and clearly a "just right" on the thyroid med scale.

I think that deserves a "Woo Hoo."

(And now, I'm going to go and sign up for the North Shore Inline Marathon!)