I knew exactly where I was headed with them. There is a paved bike trail that leads out of my town and connects to the next town and far beyond. I have run and biked it many times before and know that it's a pretty smooth and even place to be, which is always nice on roller blades, so I figured it was perfect for my first ride. See, the funny thing about my brain, though, is that it helped come up with this concept of location, but drew a blank as to how to get me there (even though I have walked/biked/run there multiple times). Because of that, I followed where my legs took me, which is another very common walk for me to take. However, not a good idea today.
The route that I should have taken, and did on the way back, would have had me cut around the main part of town through a residential area that has a very low grade progression of a hill. The route I actually took was one that leads up to one of the tallest points in Hirschau and then quickly leads straight down a relatively short but steeply graded hill and into the heart of the Altstadt (city center). Uphill, I didn't think about this as a problem. Then, I hit the apex. As I quickly gained speed, I realized that my little bitty stopper on the back of my right heel wasn't going to cut it. About 2 seconds later, I also realized that at the bottom of the hill is a 3-way intersection, albeit small, with a blind curve. About a nano second after that, I was made conscious of a large metal pole that I was about to pass (I was in no danger of hitting it). My swift instincts told me that pole was going to be the way that I avoided a potential catastrophe.
At that moment, my right heel went back as hard as I could get it to so that I could slow down in the upcoming 7-10 feet that I had in front of me, I reached my arms out, instinctively locked my shoulders in place, and grabbed hold of the pole while going roughly 25 km/hr (15 mph). And with about 5 feet to spare in front of me before hitting the intersection, I stopped. Fast. And hard. Proudly, I did not fall at any point, although there were about three or four women who saw this whole 10 second occurrence and had looks of serious concern when I finally regained control. I looked over at them, smiled, put my hand up to say I was ok, turned toward the road, and let out a long and loud, "Wooooo!" as a sound of relief as I rolled away. Then I looked down at my arm and thought two things: 1. I'm going to have a serious bruise on my bicep in the next few days and 2. who knew that should stability would be such a valuable strength while rollerblading? I'm pretty sure that had I not developed a very good postural habit of setting my shoulders down and back where they're supposed to be, the impact of that hit would have surely dislocated my shoulder.
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| My left arm that saved my life. It will probably be pretty colors in the next couple of days... |
After a quick recovery, I made my way through the Altstadt and finally weaved my way down towards the bike path. During this time, I learned something new. Ladies, if you want to attract a man, apparently all you have to do is start rollerblading. In the 45 min or so that I was outside, I got countless head turns from men driving by, including one guy in a Mustang who was so flashy that he even revved his unnecessarily loud engine for me, and two different semi truck honks. See, just be a little unique and you'll get all the boys! Man, clearly if I'm still single by the time summer ends, I've failed miserably. They all just seemed like such classy guys to choose from. *note sarcasm*
Eventually, I really started to get the hang of it again and felt like I was back in high school. Only my body still realizes that that specific memory was over 15 years ago and is no longer my reality. The truth is I am a bit tired and sore, but what ultimately made my decision to turn around and come home was not overall muscle fatigue, or fired up glutes, or even the little low back ache that I had going on. No, it was my shins. I don't remember feeling my shins burn like that when I was 14. Logically, it makes sense. My foot is locked in a boot holding me at 90 degrees, so every time I go to pick up my foot, it has nowhere to go. Basically, I'm given resisted dorsiflexion in each foot (bringing my foot up) alternating with every other step. If you have shin splints, consider taking up this activity to help strengthen those muscles ;)
But, I'll tell you one thing. Not only will I have a man by the end of the summer by rollerblading, but I will have the sexiest shins in the state of Bavaria. Just you wait and see.
A little while and a much smarter route later, I made it home, never once hitting the ground. I really started getting my "sea legs" back and minimizing the leaning back "woah" moments of balance loss. My body is tired, but not overly so. Ask me tomorrow afternoon how getting out of bed in the morning was, and I'm pretty sure that I'll remind you that I'm not 14 anymore. Regardless, you'd better believe that I'll be doing it again!
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