First Stick and Puck

i. am. exhausted.

Honestly, I haven't been this tired since I walked 26.2 miles in 7.5 hours last October. And let me tell you, this was a helluva a lot more fun. And no blisters!

I was so nervous all morning. Just beside myself with nerves. I couldn't tell you why, other than just fear of the unknown. But I cranked up my hockey tunes on the drive out to the rink and was feeling far less nerve-wracked by the time I got there.

We were the only women, so we had our own locker room, which was nice. And I was there early enough to put my gear on wrong (twice) and not have to rush to fix it. :)

Anyway, we hit the ice and the guys took up about 2/3 of the rink with a pick-up game and we hung to the other end and worked on puck handling (which I suck desperately at at the moment) and passing (which I was decent enough at that I actually really surprised Coach Stalin).

She was also very complimentary of my stronger, more confident skating in my gear. But seriously, if this $400 exoskeleton doesn't make me confident, nothing ever will. I honestly feel like I could play goal in this stuff. It's fucking HOT, but it's protective!

Anyway, I had to take two rest breaks in the hour-long stick and puck session. I was absolutely dripping with sweat (literally within 5 minutes, I had sweat dripping out of my helmet off my face). I wrung a stream of sweat out of my ponytail when we finished. Woof. Next time I'll take a much larger bottle of water with a bit of Gatorade powder mixed in.

As fun as it was, I can't even tell you how happy I was to see the Zamboni door open. :)

Then we took a nice long break. Coach got back in her normal clothes and I stripped the upper body pads and helmet, which was a massive relief. Food didn't sound good (typical for me after I've been exerting myself), so I just sucked down a bottle of Gatorade while Coach ate a little lunch. Then we got back on the ice for the last 45 minutes or so of the public skate so I could work just on skating in my gear. It actually wasn't too bad, even with my huge pants and shin guards. Though we worked on crossovers a bit and I was very nearly in tears, I was so frustrated. But it got better by the end.

And then, mercifully, they kicked us off the ice again and I was able to get back into flip flops and comfy pants. Yay!

So, that's how the day went. What was really interesting to me is how the skating aspect of things just vanished when I was having to concentrate on moving the puck around. There were moments where I forgot I was on skates, which was kind of surreal, but really pretty pleasant. I've spent so much time focusing on the skating, it was really nice to let that go and focus on something else entirely.

Looks like we're going to hit another stick and puck on Sunday morning, and then the skating clinic is before the game Sunday night. Which is a little awkward because I just don't see how I can possibly do all three things when today's activities so thoroughly exhausted me, but I think they're going to be at least in partial gear (bottoms) for the clinic.

Kinda embarrassing to admit that I just don't have the stamina to actually play the game, but I just don't see how I can do it and have any brain left for the game. I'd rather play my first game a little fresher in the head and body.

Oh well, it will get sorted out. Meanwhile, the damn laundry needs to finish because I'm desperate to go to bed!!!