Charlie Brown On Skates

Been awhile since I posted and a lot has happened. First, we had our first outdoor practices last weekend on Saturday and Sunday. I had been looking forward to that day for 6 months, it’s been a long winter. It was great to see some faces I hadn’t seen in a long time. We had great weather and just skating with the team outdoors again was awesome.

I also got the results of my MRI, and discussed it with the doctor. As I have mentioned, I’ve been dealing with a lot of back pain while skating. Well, it turns out I have no less than 3 bulging discs and 2 herniated discs. I had a feeling the news wasn’t going to be good, but I didn’t quite expect that many issues.

So practice kind of lost its luster a bit due to the pain and the news. Sunday I only skated a half hour, then did some of my exercises and stretching. In talking it over with my doctor, we’ve decided to give this 6 months - the outdoor season - to see if therapy and exercises can improve my condition. I’ll be doing all I can to use my legs and abdominals as much as possible while skating.

I’m also in the process of looking for a new job, which has been going slow. And truth be told, the last couple weeks I’ve been kind of feeling sorry for myself a bit, and getting back into old bad habits of eating and skipping workouts - so that is going to stop immediately.

Tomorrow I’ll be getting back into my morning training routine in addition to doing my back exercises. I’ll be working on training myself to skate in the best way possible for my back. It’s the only shot I have if I want to stay in this sport, which I have really grown to love. It’s something I feel like I can actually be pretty good at, if given the chance.

If at the end of the season things are not better, the doc has advised taking 6 months off (essentially taking off the winter) and then see what happens. Today I feel about average, but I know I’m not doing all I can to make things better, and I don’t want to have to look back and say I didn’t do everything I could to stay in this sport.

Time to set the alarm and get some sleep! Looks like a rainy week too, so there won’t be much skating for awhile anyway, so it’s time to get some good workouts down, and we’ll see if things improve.

Yesterday I finally took my two girls and my wife out on their inline skates I got them for Christmas. We watched an Eddy Matzger video (the Disney series one) first, and we talked about some basics, then we went out. For my girls (8 and 10) it was their first time ever, and they were terrified! It was all I could do to tear them off me.

Of course, once I got them off me, they did okay. In fact, they didn’t want to go home! We took it easy on a nice smooth basketball court. They were just finally getting the idea of how to push to the side at the end. For my wife, it was her first time on inline skates in 20 years. She did pretty good, and she really enjoyed it.

I just kind of skated in circles around them and called out “hips down!” about a million times. I did skate once around the block (into the dang wind) just for kicks. It was a good time.

As far as my skating, I’m still trying to kick a cold, and I’m getting an MRI on my back this week. But outdoor practice starts in one week and I can’t wait.

I’ve been fiddling with a comic strip for awhile, and I’ve decided to go ahead and put it online.

Enjoy!

Well, it’s time to take a serious look at what races I can attend this year. I’ve already attended Squiggy to kick off the season, and got off to a good start. Here’s my “wish list” for attending races this year. In other words, if I could get to every race I’d like to barring conflicting schedules, money issues and Lord willing, health, these are the races I’m considering or  attending:

• 3rd Annual Wolverine Inline Marathon, Belle Isle, MI - Saturday, May 24 - I’ve never done this one and it’s supposed to be a fun race.
• The Great Race 10k and Half Marathon Elkhart, IN - Monday, May 26 (Memorial Day) - Close to home, depends on family plans.
• Road America 20K and 13K, Elkhart Lakes, WI - June 7 - Run by our team. It’s unlikely I’ll do this race due to my back, with the steep (and I mean STEEP) hill in this race. If I don’t race it though, I’ll go and volunteer and help run it.
• Baxter Inline Marathon, Brainerd, MN - June 14
• Big Granite Marathon, Ashland, WI - June 28 - These next two are back to back and both in WI. I don’t know if I can afford to go to both, be away from the family all weekend (unless they come along) and most importantly - skate a marathon on back to back days. We’ll see.
• Badger Games Inline Marathon, Portage, WI - June 29
• Chicagoland Inline Marathon, Hoffman Estates, IL - July 26 - This is our race and will be one of the highlights of the year.
• Saint Paul Inline Marathon, Saint Paul, MN - August 3 - Looking forward to getting back here where I skated my first marathon - maybe it won’t be raining this year.
• Hayward Inline Marathon, Hayward, WI - August 9
• Northshore Inline Marathon, Duluth, MN - September 13 - Of course one of the big highlights of the year, can’t miss this one.

That’s 10 potential races, I’d sure like to make 7-8 of them at least, which would give me 8-9 marathons for this year. As I stated in an earlier post, my goal is to skate a sub 1:30 marathon this year. I surprised myself at Squiggy by being 3:36 off that mark in the first race of the season, so it should be doable. A lot is going to depend on getting my back relieved of some pain.

I’m thinking I’ll do Belle Isle for starters since it is the next race coming up, still 11 whole weeks away. That leaves a good chunk of time to get in some good training.