Short Track is back… for now.
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007After a three week break, it’s back to short track practice tonight. Normally, we have ice scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday nights during the season. The last two years we’ve had limit skating to Thursday nights in December and January, because the crooks that run Center Ice keep raising the ice fees. With a somewhat static membership we can’t afford to skate twice a week without asking skaters to pay a considerable amount more than what they already pay. When you factor in the cost of skates, gear, race registrations and other costs that pop up - it’s not the cheapest sport to participate in (especially for families with growing kids… that need new boots/blades every other season).
Anyway, this week we are skating on Wednesday night, as the rink was gracious enough to sell our usual Thursday night time to a hockey team. Regardless of the fact that we’ve skated there for a number of years (I’ve been skating in Glen Ellyn for four seasons now), Center Ice somehow managed to sell our ice time so a hockey tournament can have the rink. I understand that running a tournament can be demanding, and scheduling can be a pain when you have teams coming in from different areas… but what about the people that skate at your rink for years, and years? Where’s the loyalty? Heck, they didn’t even cut us a price break on the ice time! As treasurer of our club I feel like writing out the check for this month’s ice time, less a small “convenience” fee!
Either way, it’ll be good to get back out there. Tonight’s practice is going to focus on pivots through the turn, then we’ll be doing a relay workout that’s designed to work our anaerobic threshold (AnT) system. I used to hate relays, as like most of short track it’s a crowded mess… but lately they’ve been a lot of fun - even if I did realign my spine last month after wiping out when trying to avoid one of the little guys that was a little shaky.
