The answer? Pretty good I reckon. We were consigned to the outside of the track for one of the exercises but apart from that myself and the other untested skaters made a decent fist of holding our own. OK, so we've been training since the middle of January and a lot of the league skaters hadn't strapped on their skates since last year, but it was still quite heartening to know we were doing alright on the most basic bits.
The real victory though, and the bit that had me unable to sleep last night was, of course, the 25 laps. The brief was just to do it, not to time it, to allow the league women to get up to speed on it before their skills test in a few weeks' time. Me being me, and with skills just days away, I decided to see how I could do when faced with a tough audience and a better skating surface (the Monday practices happen at a different rink). Timer on phone activated and safely secreted, and off I went.
I now have it on good authority that I look very focused doing time trials. Or like The Terminator, depending on how lyrical the person is feeling. I knew I'd done pretty well, I overtook a couple of people and was of the first to complete the set, but my time totally blew me away. 4:13.
FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTEEN SECONDS!
It was very hard not to do a little victory dance in the middle of the track. Fourteen seconds tweaked off my previous personal best? Seventeen seconds under my skills test goal? Yeah, I was pretty goddamn chuffed with that. just got to do it again on Thursday and Sunday and I'm sorted. Next goal? Join the 4-minute club, obviously.
I'm now hugely confident about the skills test. I passed a practice written test cold the other day, and all the niggles and worries I had leaving the weekend's trainings have been replaced with a gritted-teeth determination to ace Sunday. Seven months of training and it all happens on Sunday. Wowza.
In an attempt to think about something that doesn't involve eight wheels and mini-shorts, I hit upon a strange realisation the other day. I was weightlifting at the gym, doing squats with a 40kg weight on my shoulders. I was mid-set when I realised the following:
1. That's the weight of a small person
2. I've lost that amount of weight since 2007
3. It's quite heavy, and therefore shouldn't really be held mid-squat whilst I realise some things
Like this person.
When I finally stopped pratting around and racked the weight, I could appreciate the craziness of this a bit more. OK, so 40kg is not the size of an average person, sure. But still, a whole adult being! That I was carrying around as excess! It's weirdly impressive, given how hard it is to work out with that weight on my shoulders, to think that a few years ago I was carrying around all the time. Every single second, I was giving a small woman a piggyback. No wonder I was knackered all the damn time! (actually, I'm tired now, just for different and way better reasons). No wonder my knees hurt and that I felt out of breath from doing nothing much. When I try to picture that amount of food, and how much I must have eaten to get there.... man. Truly, I have no words.
I found my old blog from back then, which I was writing to keep track of my progress (familiar much?). It was quite hard to read in places, and really quite positive in others. It was written back when I was tipping the scales at 120-odd kilograms, and was on a very low-calorie diet program (about 400-500 a day. You read that right). It's so weird, the writing style is stupidly similar as you'd imagine, but the circumstances are so different. I want to leave a comment from the future and say
"Hey! It's me from the year 2011! This'll amaze you, but you'll last only three weeks on the Starvation Diet from Hell and still get where you want to go! you get fitter and happier and more confident than you ever imagined! You play a TEAM SPORT for heaven's sake! You enjoy going to the gym every day! You use a lot of exclamation marks because THINGS ARE REALLY GOOD OVER HERE! Good luck, and don't give up hope. Sincerely, me. X"
I won't post the link up, it's not massively exciting if you're anyone but me, but a couple of really minor points stick out to me when reading it that I think are hilarious. The clothes I wanted to fit into when I was fat are, well, not hideous but certainly nothing like what I'd wear now I'm the dress size I was always aiming to be. with one exception....
07 February 2007- ...Have been focusing on the big boots and kilt combo I'll wear when I get down to a size 12...
Suddenly, I feel the need to hit trademe. For 23 year old me's sake, a kilt should really be part of my wardrobe...
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