Experiment results: not good

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:04:38 GMT

This morning velithya and I went rollerskating (me)/blading (her).

It didn't go entirely well. There's a muscle in the ankle somewhere that's vital to making the push motion for skating that doesn't appear to be working, but which doesn't show up for walking.

I haven't skated in about fifteen years, but I did it really, really a lot as a child, from a really quite early age, and my right leg picked it up again pretty much immediately.

However, every third step, precisely, I staggered, because my left leg just couldn't get it, at all, and then I fell over.

I was wearing kneepads and wristguards. Falling didn't *hurt* at all. But I nonetheless found myself shocky as all hell - hyperventilating, momentarily fainting a few times, struggling to stay upright at all.

It occurred to me, this evening, that it's pretty much the first time I've genuinely fallen since I broke my ankle. What with the moving super-carefully while my leg was broken, then moving slowly and carefully as I regained the capacity to walk, and so on, I just haven't done anything physically adventurous enough to result in falling in a heap in the last year.

Apparently, my PTSD tendencies are not okay with the concept of "falling over" at the moment.

Anyway, velithya and I declared that a test run, and now we've formed a plan to get me skating fit by something like the end of the year.

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Skaaaaaates!

Sun, 20 May 2012 06:51:25 GMT

This morning, I bought a pair of roller skates! My first pair of new skates since my eleventh birthday, if I remember rightly - when I grew out of them and went to replace them, I got rollerblades, which, frankly, I regret to this day. I was never as comfortable in them, the buckles never seem to make them as secure on feet, etc - I prefer skates. (But skates were hard to find, for a while, because suddenly it was all about rollerblades.)

But this morning, in conversation, velithya discovered I love rollerskating (and the idea of doing it again makes my face light up with joy and delight), and I discovered that velithya really likes rollerblading and has been wanting someone to do it with.

So we went and I bought a pair of skates. Also kneepads and wristguards, because I'm unbelievably out of practice, and I'm also 31, and on the hefty side, and so I'm less likely to bounce back from falling over as readily as I did when I was a child regardless - and I already have a slightly dodgy knee from past injury aggravated by getting wrenched around and then strained with heavy casts when I broke my leg.

Add to that: When I did a little run on the skates to see if they fit nicely and so on, I felt really, really nervous and unsteady. Partly that's being so out of practice, and partly I was terrified of falling and landing on my knees, because it would hurt like crazy. Kneepads will let me overcome that fear.

I got proper boot skates. These days it seems you can get below-the-ankle ones, basically sneakers with wheels, but I'm not willing to risk skating without ankle support. Bending and rotating my ankle can be painful - twisting it would be agony. Definitely boots.

Five or so minutes on skates had my ankle muscles aching, but pretty much in the good way. This should be a good way to build up my strength and fitness again. And it just felt so good to be on skates again.

The guy where we bought them recommended I take lessons. I felt super-weird about it. Rollerskating lessons are some of my earliest memories, and I loved them, but now the idea gives me this kind of offended pride feeling. Like rollerskating lessons are beneath me, I've been rollerskating as long as I've been walking I mean how dare you, and yet... probably actually a good idea.

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Moments of Permanence

Experiment results: not good

Skaaaaaates!