Tending the Goalie

My son received the team summer workout the other day. Four days a week of exercises plus conditioning for 12 weeks, designed to build a better, stronger, faster hockey player.

My husband and I have decided to join in the fun and do the workouts ourselves. Maybe we can build a better, stronger, faster mom and dad. It certainly doesn’t feel that way after day 1 – a bunch of jump squats, push ups, chin ups, and planks have me walking around like an old lady today. I blame it on the burpees myself – not an activity I often engage in and one that hurts. If you don’t know what they are, here is a good description:

                     Burpees – throw yourself face down the floor and jump back up! Repeat until you throw up.

Day 2 includes a bunch of exercises that I’ll have to look up to know what to do (cat/camel? quadruped leg raises?). But no burpees. My body appreciates that.

If I keep this up all summer, I expect that I will be in great shape for the hockey season.

from 24.media.tumblr.com

Now, if I could only skate…

… since I last posted on this blog. I started this blog to write about almost anything, but my “theme” is about life as a hockey family and as the mom of a hockey goalie. To be frank, this past year I just have not felt like writing about hockey.

This past season was traumatic. Without reliving details, I can say that cheering on a team that loses all the time (not having a “losing season”,  which some would say if the team’s record was less than .500. but seriously losing almost every single game) is not fun. And yes, that is an understatement. In the team’s defense, they were playing up an age level and their competition was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. So losing a bunch was not unexpected.

What was unexpected was a series of serious and sad events that resulted in a coaching change mid season. I am not going to discuss it here – for my own sanity and to allow the team to have privacy. I don’t want the blog to turn into a trashy tabloid, after all. Suffice to say, things just unraveled from there and it was difficult to watch.

So why do I mention it at all? I suppose I need to excuse myself for not writing anything for a year. I thought about it a million times but I just couldn’t do it. I have dozens of ideas jumping around my head, but the thought of opening up the site and looking at what was there stopped me. I ventured on today and made a few edits to some other pages, as a way to dip my toe in the water. And that little bit allowed me to hit “new post” and start writing.

I’m feeling good as I sit here and write. And I am feeling much more hopeful about the upcoming year. The dark cloud has lifted and I am looking forward to the new team and new season. I have a feeling that I’ll come up with a few things to write about this year.

Stay tuned…