Like Riding a Bicycle?

There's an old saying - "it's like riding a bicycle". Once you've learned how to ride a bike, you never forget and no matter how much time goes by, you can pick it up again very quickly. Well... I'm not so sure about the applicability of that maxim to other things. Like skating. On ice.

We have a community skating rink, an outdoor one. Actually two outdoor rinks. The one has hockey nets and boards with chain link "glass". Next to it, is a patch of ice, the same size, but without any boards. I've been thinking for a while that I could get a pair of skates and get some exercise that way. Well, the other day I went and bought a pair of skates and the next morning I drove to the rink, strapped on the skates and toddled my way to the ice sheet.

Did I mention that it's been 30 years since I strapped on a pair of skates? Thirty years is an awfully long time in the world of skating. And it's not quite like riding a bicycle! I windmilled my arms a fair bit and did very gentle corners. I didn't fall down. But some little kids were skating circles around me. I skated for about 20 minutes before my shins told me that enough-was-enough! I didn't know that there were so many muscles in the shins. All of them are now complaining at me. Sigh... I'll be going skating again tomorrow and my hope is that it's going to get easier and my "skating-legs" will come back. It'd be nice to be able to skate around corners rather than just gliding on wobbly legs.

Sometimes, it's good to tackle something, even if we're not much good at it. It might take a bit of practice, like meditation... but as they say, practice makes perfect. So we'll see what happens as I put this into practice!