Words With Friends?

Nope...give me "Dryland with Friends" any day!

Today was day two of the "workouts that precede the real workouts so I can still walk the day after the first real workout."  And I have to say--it was a blast.

It shouldn't have been, really.  My back is super sore from either the short track or the dryland that I did on Wednesday (so much for the "ease into it so I don't get sore" plan!).  Dryland is never all that fun even without anything being sore, and in addition to the pain, it was a cold, sometimes rainy morning.  But, as I say--it was a blast, because I had people to do it with.

Mel, Sprinter Boy, Inliner Boy, RollerDome Girl, and New Girl (who had never done dryland before) joined me at the oval for the workout, and their presence made the whole workout as fun as dryskating and one-legged squats and ab exercises could possibly be. High points included me realizing, after doing 10 V-ups, that I had just completed more core work than I did during the entire last season; and Inliner responding to my statement that I needed to do a recovery workout tomorrow with an honestly-puzzled "recover from what?"  (While the workout was, although abbreviated, truly a workout for me, I think it was more of a warmup for the young and insanely fit Inliner and Mel.)

Last year dryland barely happened and when it did, it was a chore.  In the years when I had Coach TieGuy at my dryland workouts, critiquing and improving my technique and telling me when to stop and start exercises, dryland was OK; not as fun as skating, but not horrible.  Every year that I've done it alone it's gotten worse, though, to the point of being something I dreaded and, as often as not, avoided.  So I'm really excited that this year I have people to do the workouts with and to have fun with.

So far, the new season is looking really good.