Tales From my Youth - Roller Hell.

I was in two minds as to whether to post this here or to put it in my Roller Derby blog, but chose here because it is about the past, not the present.

Today I went to a skating/fitness class. Yes, you did read it right. A COMBINED roller skating and fitness training class. You can read about it on the other blog. And it brought back a lot of long dormant memories from my skating obsessive youth.

Forgive me if I am repeating myself here, for I am not sure what details I have mentioned in passing posts.

I worked at the local skating rink between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. During these years I  also played roller hockey, trained in speed skating and dabbled in derby. Figure skating only lasted a couple of months before I was kicked out for participating in the aforementioned more uncouth elements of roller skating (stupid old bag).

Today, with its fitness increments, brought back recollections of the intense training our teams underwent for roller hockey (and speed training - small town, most of us did both and so the training sessions sort of meshed into an all encompassing class).

The blurry images from my past yielded up some long-forgotten roller hell times. We were made to skate on the spot, top speed for fifteen minutes. For the hockey training we skated full speed with our sticks above our head for twenty minutes (oh lordy, my poor arms). One hundred sit ups with knees bent, sticks again held over head. Full push ups, elbow to knee twists, leg lifts.  ALL WITH SKATES ON! Heavy, cumbersome, skates that started to feel like massive blocks of concrete by the end of the training. I still can remember the sweat running off my face in streams, and I was a fit size eight in those days. Wet patches covered the rink, causing us to dodge and weave to avoid slipping and sliding. And yes, this was usually all in the one two hour training meet.

No wonder I was fit. No wonder I could skate the arse off anyone. No wonder I feel so bloody old and decrepit now!

Tonight I sit, rubbing my painful calves, massaging Voltaren into the swollen gammy knee, stretching out my upper thighs and lower back to try and ease the aching stiffness. I wish I was 17 again...