SQUISHESTHESIA

Sadly, yes.  My body can't keep up to my brain.  But I guess it's really my brain's fault for even thinking of doing such ridiculous things.

In an effort to do some cross-training for my upcoming 10K run, I strapped on my new inline skates and headed out to the park.  I live within minutes walking distance of a large provincial park.  The only way to get into it is to go down a steep 500m hill, but I like that hill.  It provides a good challenge when you run, bike or inline skate up the thing, and it's great for hill training.

Spring always brings about a lot of family commitments, and that coupled with a bad flare-up of lower back pain, has set my training behind.  I'm only doing this run for fun, not competitively, but still, a person just wants to do well.  I hadn't been ice skating or inline skating in eons, but that factor didn't seem to bother me.  I rode the brake most of the way down the hill (the pathway meanders a bit).  They sure make brakes small these days, as it's only about half the size of the brake on my old pair of inline skates.  Sheesh, don't they know there are wussies out there that like leaving trails of rubber?  Oh well. 

The skate felt pretty good.  It was a warm, sunny day with a slight breeze and I didn't expect much of workout really.  I didn't even bother changing out of my black polo shirt before leaving the house.  Oh, big mistake.  It was hot, and I really was getting a workout there on the pathway.  Why didn't I wear a Dri-fit-T?

The pace of an inline skate is nice -- faster than a run, but slower than a bike ride.  It still enabled me to view the shirtless guys skating by me in the opposite direction.  I decided to forge ahead and try some new pathways, without knowing where they were leading to.   I knew the general area, and it seemed fairly flat, and the few hills that popped up were all downhill... 

Common sense kicked in and told me to turn around after about 30 minutes.  I headed back and tried to gather speed before each ascent.  It wasn't a pretty sight getting up those hills.  I was really wishing I took some ballet as a kid at this point.  There was no grace about me.

As I made my way back to the entrance of the park I could feel some tightness in my quads.  I had a flashback to my highschool years.  I was a 16 year-old in ringette camp, trying to get in shape for the upcoming season.  After my first day of camp I couldn't walk without looking like I had a full suit of armour on.  It took a few minutes just to get out of my chair at school.  That was the first time that I realized groin muscles could be pulled like taffy at a candy factory.

By this time I was drenched with sweat.  Not only did I manage to wear the wrong clothes, but I also wore the wrong sunglasses.  My Burberry shades kept sliding down my nose in a sea of sweat.  I have another pair that I wear running that stay in place.  Oh right, I didn't think I would be sweating, hence the poorly made choices.  I was just about back at that 500m hill now, and already getting an inkling that my groin would be hurting the next day.

I never skated up such a steep hill before.  It really wasn't bad once I developed a stroking technique.  I'm just glad there was no one around to see me (maybe it's not too late for ballet lessons).  It was good cardio, pretty much pain free, and easier than biking up the hill.  I think running is, by far, the easiest method to get up the hill.

The next day I was delighted to discover that my thighs felt great.  The groin, however, did not.  Still, the pain was not the intense fire that I felt long ago at ringette camp.   Maybe the saying no pain no gain is true.  I must be gaining a lot then.  A lot of what I'm not sure yet...