Week 6 Super Sucko

Today I pushed my comfort level. The day was lovely and I wanted to get some skating in before practice. So I called up Bricks and off we went.

Greenlake is a strange phenomena for me. Technically it is not a difficult path. There are no major hills. The surface is relatively well kept. Even the people are not half as bad as Bricks says they are. But Greenlake is terrifying.

I skated one lap before. It sucked, but it shouldn't be harder this time. I should be able to do one full lap, maybe even two. But somehow it didn't work out that way.

So Greenlake kicked my ass and sent me packing. We skated one lap, which is shorter than you think, once you finish it. I bitched and moaned but I skated it. The second lap was where it all went wrong. I'm not even totally sure what my problem was. I couldn't skate. I freaked out the whole first lap, no gliding, and freaked out even harder the second.

I thought that with my improved skating skills Greenlake would not be the monster it initially was. I was quite wrong. I didn't complete the last lap. Yeah, for reals. I got about 2/3 back to the car and had to take off my skates, sit on my butt and wait for Bricks to pick me up.

This was not a good start to my day.

So after my full on weenie, and may I say that Bricks was so incredibly great during my entire weenie process. New people need to have a Brick on hand because I don't know how I would deal with the shame if I was with someone else.

We headed back to my house to get a quick snack and try skating the trail by my house. Well we didn't make it there. Practice was at 5pm and my pain, soreness, and humiliation was enough to keep me home until practice time.

On to practice and it was canceled. Bummer. But we weren't giving up on skating. I really wanted to skate the trail by my house. I felt like some good practice on concrete might help my nerves issues at Greenlake.

It didn't quite work out that way. What is it about open concrete that is so terrifying? The track was terrible. There were so many lumps that I actually couldn't even stride. We made it one lap and decided to move onto familiar territory.

The tennis courts! It wasn't Bricks ideal location, but it was really great for me and Megan came with after practice. Thankfully she is as inexperienced and out of shape as I am. It can be a little demoralizing practicing with such awesome skaters. In a few months, I may be an awesome skater. But until then, it's nice to have company on my level.

So Bricks gave us some pointers and exercises to do. There is such a difference in trying to practice on familiar ground. Sometimes I need to push my comfort level, well I need to push it all the time. But too much push and I'm not learning anything. I'm just trying to get through it.

Next time at Greenlake we have agreed that we will skate 2 laps. I will make it through and I will be ok. I need to do this a lot more. The more I skate outside the better I will get. But I have to get past the terror. I can't say there was any improvement, but I have a clear goal now.

Thank you Brick. There is no way I could have done it without you!