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Thursday, August 6, 2009

SKIPPING: IT AIN'T LIKE RIDING A BIKE

"If you've lost your enthusiasm, there's no better place to find it than on a skipping excursion. And, you might just find your lost youth as well!" ~Jessi Lane Adams



THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2009
Today was a run day. Nothing long, just an hour of drills: a couple of miles for warm up then some wind sprints, then some stretching, then more sprints then some 100 yarders going from slow to as fast as I could go.

Now, watching me sprint could be compared to watching a turtle sprint: To the turtle he's really moving along, but to the spectator, that old turtle is moseying the same as usual. So if you saw me out running today, yes, I was sprinting!

But before the sprinting came a few laps of high-knee skipping drills. Skipping drills? That's what was on the schedule. I thought, "no problemo, I used to skip all the time when I was a kid." Skipping is supposed to be good for you. Good cardio work, good warm up and few other things I can't remember right now.

So off I went. I ran a few hundred yards then tried to go into a high-knee skip. Uh, nothing! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't skip. I couldn't even remember what to do to begin to skip. I tried lifting one leg high while jumping with the other leg - no, that's just a jump.

OK, I tried jumping with one leg and dragging the other leg. I don't know what that was but it wasn't skipping. I tried taking bigger strides but that was just something other than skipping. So after making it around a whole lap and no skipping I was getting pretty frustrated. I've seen other runners and triathletes skipping and it didn't look difficult. I mean kids do for goodness sake.

Off I went again. Determined to skip this lap. I tried a short jump but still no skip. Then I tried hopping on one leg. Hey! that was almost a skip. I tried it again- a double hop and a step. Hey, that's it. I skipped. Woo Hoo! So there I was happily skipping along -- manstyle of course. I'm sure anyone who witnessed my whole trial and error skipping excursion was getting a fairly good laugh, but hey, isn't that what skipping is all about?

One thing I learned today though: Skipping ain't like riding a bike!

2 comments:

Debbie said...

Seriouly,
you couldn't skip? I wish I was watching your whole episode on "you tube" right now. So Heres the thing, after reading your story, I could just feel the skips in me wanting to come out. So even though I can't step on my ankle yet, I was thinking I should give this skipping thing a try and put my brother to shame. So, with Ben by side, I gallently took off. Ok, I said, I took off, wait, what is wrong here, my legs and feet don't seem to be bouncing like I remember they should when you skip.Well so much for putting you to shame. I have a really sore foot, but even so, I can't, sadly, remember how to skip either. But I enjoyed the memories and your story. Good luck with training!!

Karen said...

Hmmmm... I wonder if I can remember how to skip.

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