Holiday

This one is mid week but I'll take a day off
where ever it's put.
My plans to lay out on the patio for a few
relaxing hours and get a tan have gone out
the window, it's over cast and looks to stay
that way.
Perhaps I'll work in the flower beds a bit
and do some weeding..and do laundry, and clean
the house.
Life is 99% maintenance someone once said..
:O
Anyway, practice kicked butt last night!
Mine along with a few others.
Actually, there were only a few others there.
The seven or eight that showed up made a small
group compared to the pace lines of 20+ that
came to be the norm just a month or so past.
Summer has that effect on people.
Folks want to be outdoors not in.
We joked about it.
This is the longest I've skated indoors, I'm
always outta the rink by March, but then I've
never made the commitment to go to Nationals
before.
For inline speed skaters the season for
training never ends. There is no "down time".
Your either training for indoor or outdoor
racing.
It's a year round sport.
Last night, after the first drill ended, a
sprint build up, I was so beat I could only
stare off into nothingness as I sat down and
took a drink of Gatorade and ate a banana.
I'd only missed 1 sprint lap out of the drill
and that was due to inattention, and other
than having to take my recovery laps on the
inside track towards the end, I'd finished it.
Something that would never have happened last
year.
Once, I had to remind myself that those ahead
of me are 30+ years younger than I am and not
to take not being able to keep up as a failure.
I have to do the best I can and take it where
it leads me and not make comparisons.
When we were called back to the floor for
relays I was too pooped to pop and just didn't
have the juice in me to make any decent effort.
Passing drill was next and then we did a few
starts, with me alone on a line, and everyone
else one line behind me.
This I'd been worried about, worried I'd freeze.
It's Nationals that's spooking me..
So when I didn't freeze, or jump, or move between
"set" and "GO!", I was relieved and able to
breathe a sigh of relief.
No one ran over me, I didn't cause anyone to
crash, and I even rubbed arms a time or two and
it didn't spook me.
Can't believe the big show is right around the
corner, and that I'm going..
Nationals.
Eleven days till my first race.