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beige_alertI know a lot of people really love the in-between seasons, spring and fall. I've never much liked them. Summer has long long long days and warmth and lots of fun summertime activities. Winter is cold and dark and features snow and ice upon which you can ski or skate, and there is a notable lack of mosquitoes. Spring is dead and brown and wet and muddy and cold and wet. Fall is wet and cold and dark and covered with slippery dangerous dead leaves. We're very near the point where there is no time at all to go and stop anywhere on the way home from work without ending up traveling in the dark, and I'm waking up in total darkness.
This year I've got new speed skates (Bont Jet boots and Maple Blizzard blades), and the (indoor) long-track season has already started at the Pettit National Ice Center here in Milwaukee. I'm seeing my speed skating friends out on the ice again, and I'm getting back in the swing of our crazy sport. Early fall is looking like a lot more fun this year. I have lots of fun in the summer but aside from the organized multi-thousand-runner race I was in, mostly it's fairly solitary activity. You wave to people. Very rarely have some sort of chat. The Pettit center, whether running or skating, is a much more social experience, and I like it a lot. I'd sort of forgotten how much I like it. It's now my third year speed skating, and I'm getting to know a lot of the skaters. It's also fun to now go from being the crazy exercise guy (running 14km to work!) to being the slow guy who obviously hasn't been working out very hard. My tribe of crazy people, they is here! And they are crazy. One young woman I could just manage to keep up with last year has been working very hard over the summer and now maybe I can stay with her for a lap if she doesn't go too fast, but not longer than that! On the other hand, I've been cycling and running all summer and I really do feel strong, and now that I have my own skates (with my own blades that I obsessively sharpen) I can focus on improving and not on getting adapted to different skates. Even just today I feel like I'm really getting a better position and, though it sounds minor, better arm swing motion, which is really making a difference. (Seriously! Swinging your arms right is important on ice! As far as I can tell, everything is important.)
This year I've got new speed skates (Bont Jet boots and Maple Blizzard blades), and the (indoor) long-track season has already started at the Pettit National Ice Center here in Milwaukee. I'm seeing my speed skating friends out on the ice again, and I'm getting back in the swing of our crazy sport. Early fall is looking like a lot more fun this year. I have lots of fun in the summer but aside from the organized multi-thousand-runner race I was in, mostly it's fairly solitary activity. You wave to people. Very rarely have some sort of chat. The Pettit center, whether running or skating, is a much more social experience, and I like it a lot. I'd sort of forgotten how much I like it. It's now my third year speed skating, and I'm getting to know a lot of the skaters. It's also fun to now go from being the crazy exercise guy (running 14km to work!) to being the slow guy who obviously hasn't been working out very hard. My tribe of crazy people, they is here! And they are crazy. One young woman I could just manage to keep up with last year has been working very hard over the summer and now maybe I can stay with her for a lap if she doesn't go too fast, but not longer than that! On the other hand, I've been cycling and running all summer and I really do feel strong, and now that I have my own skates (with my own blades that I obsessively sharpen) I can focus on improving and not on getting adapted to different skates. Even just today I feel like I'm really getting a better position and, though it sounds minor, better arm swing motion, which is really making a difference. (Seriously! Swinging your arms right is important on ice! As far as I can tell, everything is important.)
