Merry Christmas, Times Two

I got two of my Christmas presents early this year.

The first one came yesterday: my last-ever skate at the RollerDome.  The dome will be torn down soon to make way for the new football stadium, so I wanted one last inline there for nostalgia's sake.  So last night, despite having done a squat-heavy CrossFit workout in the morning (that is quite different, by the way, from a "heavy squat" workout; I don't think doing squats with the 15-pound bar--no weights--counts as "heavy"), I decided to go to the Dome for my last hurrah.  And then Sprinter Boy emailed me a workout and Mel said she'd be there later in the evening, and suddenly my token "final Dome skate" turned into three hours of fun.

The RollerDome on a rainy spring day last year.

Several people have told me, recently, that I should focus more on technique this year, and I agree; so when Sprinter Boy explained that his "sets of three laps at negative splits" workout was to be completed as low as possible, with the best technique I was capable of, I was on board.  What I didn't realize was that I had just signed myself up for over 10 kilometers of super-low skating.  On legs that had just finished a squat workout four hours earlier.

Surprisingly, it was a blast. See? (no we were not skating "super-low" at this point).

I asked Sprinter Boy to take a picture because I'd forgotten my camera.  Shh, don't tell the Skate Police that he's using his cell phone while skating...

After four fun sets, Sprinter Boy asked a seemingly random question: "How many Christmas cookies do you plan to eat?"

I was pretty sure I knew where he was going with this as I answered "well, if you add how many I plan to eat to how many I've already eaten, I'd say it's somewhere in the range of a Metric Crap-Ton."

My suspicion about the reason for the question was confirmed when he answered "then we better do two more sets."

So we did, for a total of 6 sets, or the equivalent of 27 laps on the oval, as low as possible.  The middle sets of laps were enhanced by the person-in-charge-of-Dome-music switching from "pop" to what can only be described as "metal Christmas carols."  Personally, I thought the half-hour of "carols" made the evening. That, and the guy skating who was wrapped in tinsel like a Christmas tree.

Then Sprinter and Mrs. Sprinter left, and I wandered around for a bit waiting for Mel.  When she and Inliner Boy arrived, I joined them for four laps or so, then wandered off on my own when I realized that I couldn't keep up any more.  At one point, as I cruised along, my current favorite "play it on the iPod right before you get to the oval" song came on (OK, if you must know, it's "Timber" by Pitbull and Ke$ha.  Don't judge me.)  After all those slow laps I just had to do one fast, and it felt awesome, especially the one corner where, for a change, there was no one I had to dodge.  And since I had forgotten my stopwatch and so didn't time the lap, I'm quite convinced that it was blazingly fast.  After the fast lap I cruised along slowly again, remembering all the fun times at the Dome--the inline marathons, the workouts with sister Energizer Bunny, the winter when my thyroid first started tanking and I simply could not complete endurance workouts outdoors and Coach TieGuy and I came to the Dome every Monday night for some epic sets of laps.  Although the Dome was not a major part of my life the way it was for many inliners, I had a lot of fun there and I'll miss it.  So I felt that last night was a good ending.

Then, this morning, I got my second present.  

It looked like this:

Yes, after yesterday's "two a day" I decided to go to CrossFit today.  And I'm so glad I did--it was one of the funnest workouts I've done there.  And it took me 56 minutes to complete, so I had plenty of time to savor the enjoyment. Again, the music was a big part of the fun--nothing like doing Burpees to a backdrop of Heavy Metal "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  (We also got to enjoy Springsteen's classic "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" and Wham!'s "Last Christmas," the latter of which caused simultaneous groans of dismay from pretty much every male in the gym.)  Despite the workout being particularly long and difficult, I enjoyed every minute of it and often found myself grinning like an idiot at my fellow sweat-dripping CrossFitters as we went from exercise to exercise.  One of the best Christmas Eve mornings I've had in a long time!

So after yesterday's skate and today's CrossFit, I really don't need anything else for Christmas.

Oh, I do know one other thing I'll be getting, though.

A nice whole-body case of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.