So, What Happened to the Skating?

As you might have noticed, posts about skating have been mighty scarce here lately.  In fact, it looks like my last post about skating was June 8.

Not to worry.  I still love skating, and I still am skating.  Or, I was until last Tuesday anyway. Up until then I was completing my three oval workouts per week and they were going well--I was getting low, the technique was feeling good, the lap times were great.  Then, last Tuesday--in the middle of a fairly epic endurance workout involving 16 one Kilometer (2.5 laps) repeats, with 1.5 laps rest in between-- my right Achilles tendon started hurting.  I had had trouble with my left Achilles earlier in the season, but it's fine now; I guess it's the right one's turn now.  By 12 sets it hurt enough that I figured it was prudent to cut the workout short, which was a shame because my lap times were fantastic and I was pretty excited about it (44-45 second laps, versus last year's 49-52's for the same workout).

I tried skating at the races Wednesday night, even bringing my trail skates, which contact my leg further up my Achilles so I thought they might not hurt.  No dice; the Achilles was still extremely crabby, especially on corners.  So I didn't race, and I haven't skated since. We're heading to the cabin tomorrow for the family work weekend, so I don't plan to skate again until next Tuesday.  That will be two full weeks off, which should be plenty of time for the Achilles to heal.  And when I skate again I'll try using my old skates, which I've been able to use without pain before when my Achilles were acting up.  I injured my right Achilles back in 2008 and it took almost a year to heal completely, and I'm not interested in having that happen again--so I'm being pretty cautious.

Even once I start skating again, though, I'm sure the blog will be a bit CrossFit-heavy this summer.  Summer is off season "base" work for skating, which is necessary and fun but, let's face it, not as exciting as preparing for a competition--especially a big competition in a sport that's new to you, in which you've never attended an on-site competition, and in which there are about 100 different skills to work on.  So for the balance of the summer, I expect The Long Track Life to look more like The WOD Life.  And despite the fact that, as I type, my forearms are so sore and tired that I really don't want to move them and my legs are still so sore, post-pistol, that going downstairs requires some serious thought and effort--I couldn't be happier.