It's the most wonderful time of the year
I believe November is my favorite month. I love winter, and I think I love this month because winter feels so...incipient. So full of promise and brimming with potential brisk, clear days; and frosty nights; and (with luck) a snowstorm or two.
By February, I'm usually disappointed at the mid-Atlantic's lack of snow, and by March even I am depressed by the string of unrelievedly wet, brown days. But for the next three months I'll be full of joy.
Today I observed the burgeoning winter season and my day off (thank you, veterans) by going ice skating. I should admit up front that I am not a good skater. I learned when I was in college, because it would fulfill my physical education requirement and because I could borrow skates from a hockey-playing friend. And I thought I'd be able to apply some of the abilities I'd learned from a lifetime of skiing. (I have strong abductors.) So I did learn, and I do like it, but I've never been able to become "good."
On the ice today I was seriously weak. I had no stamina; 20 minutes did me in. Although it was 20 minutes of steady laps at a fairly good pace.
I banged my knee up into pretty shades of purple by falling onto it twice. (I have to remember to fall onto the parts with natural padding, not on the bony bits.)
I couldn't manage to do anything other than proceed forward on ice skates. I used to have passable basic skills: backward skating and crossovers were required to get the phys ed credit in college. (I learned to go backwards, though very slowly, and I developed solid crossovers to the left, at least -- but the teacher generously overlooked the pathetic crossovers on my right side.)
But I'm an optimist. I bought a 10-session pass for the season. So I have to go back. A lot. It will add some nice variety to my regular rowing-machine-and-weight-circuit workouts.
By February, I'm usually disappointed at the mid-Atlantic's lack of snow, and by March even I am depressed by the string of unrelievedly wet, brown days. But for the next three months I'll be full of joy.
Today I observed the burgeoning winter season and my day off (thank you, veterans) by going ice skating. I should admit up front that I am not a good skater. I learned when I was in college, because it would fulfill my physical education requirement and because I could borrow skates from a hockey-playing friend. And I thought I'd be able to apply some of the abilities I'd learned from a lifetime of skiing. (I have strong abductors.) So I did learn, and I do like it, but I've never been able to become "good."
On the ice today I was seriously weak. I had no stamina; 20 minutes did me in. Although it was 20 minutes of steady laps at a fairly good pace.
I banged my knee up into pretty shades of purple by falling onto it twice. (I have to remember to fall onto the parts with natural padding, not on the bony bits.)
I couldn't manage to do anything other than proceed forward on ice skates. I used to have passable basic skills: backward skating and crossovers were required to get the phys ed credit in college. (I learned to go backwards, though very slowly, and I developed solid crossovers to the left, at least -- but the teacher generously overlooked the pathetic crossovers on my right side.)
But I'm an optimist. I bought a 10-session pass for the season. So I have to go back. A lot. It will add some nice variety to my regular rowing-machine-and-weight-circuit workouts.