Rollerblading Realizations

Maybe I SHOULD have...

1. Gone rollerblading once around the block after I dusted off the old blades after a year, just to get back into the swing of things.
2. WALKED along the Jordan River trail instead of rollerbladed behind the stroller
3. Worn more than just a dinky thin Aeropostale sweatshirt
4. Worn gloves for my poor frigid hands gripping the stroller handle
5. Been able to tell that I would be going AGAINST the wind on the way back. For some reason, I couldn't tell, and I thought I was going against it at first, so that when I turned around the return trip would be a "breeeeze". Not so.
6. Taken a pile of kleenex or toilet paper, or at least a napkin or ANYthing paper! My nose was so full I had to blow my nose on my shirt. Gross, I know. But I do not have good experiences with snot rockets, so I knew that was out of the question.
7. Foregone the rollerblading excursion when I got out of the car and felt the wind whipping through my ponytail, with a windchill of about 35.
8. Just sat down on the trail and waited for someone to pick us up, after they had a good laugh at me. My lungs were on fire, my nose was clogged, my thighs burned, I was barely making headway into that ferocious freezing wind, and I couldn't even make small talk with little Cami who was just sitting there troopin along. She must have thought I was such a dork. :)

Usually I love rollerblading. My sister, Bree and I fell in love with the "sport", if you will, about 7 years ago when we went rollerblading on a double date at BYU. We rented blades from campus, took off on the Provo river trail, and were petrified. Brakes meant nothing to us, because we didn't know how to use them. Small, slanted hills were treacherous and we would just roll off onto the grass to the side. But we had ourselves a fun time, and decided to buy ourselves some snazzy rollerblades of our own. After that, we went religiously around the streets of Provo. Now, I know what you're thinking. That we're total nerds. But back then it was semi cool, and it's a small college town where anything is possible. :)

I used to LOVE going on the Provo River trail with my music and just feeling free, and by then I could go super fast and conquer any hill or rut in the road. It was invigorating. But over the years, I kind of hung up my skates and have gotten them out every now and then. Jake and I took Cambria in her stroller in Provo last year, but he was the one to push her, so I had it easy.

But today, I did not. It was pretty miserable, and it only lasted like 45 minutes. I know, call me a whimp if you will. But rollerblading is twice as difficult when you don't have your arms free to swing back and forth to propel you. But since it is April 2, a day that should be adorned with warm weather and daffodils and sunshine, I thought it would be lovely to take Cami on the trail for a little jaunt. Big mistake. It also raises a red flag that my lungs were burning after approximately 2 minutes.

In conjunction with my last post about food, I also need to confess that I'm not an exerciser! And that's bad! We have a treadmill in the basement, but it's broken. We have barbells in the basement, also, but honestly, I've never touched them (and neither has Jake). I don't have a gym membership, nor do I think we'll be forking out any money for one. I thought I would give aerobics at home a try, and here's a story...

I got some DVD's from the library the other week and popped one in on a promising afternoon. I was learning how to do the grapevine and the cha cha, and got to the move where you kick your leg back behind you. Well, up to that point I'd been so good about watching where Cambria was so that I wouldn't step on her or anything. But when I kicked back, my heel made contact with my poor baby's head! I looked back in horror, and I had kicked her in the mouth and she looked at me, with hurt in her eyes and a tiny dot of blood on her lip, and started bawling. I felt SOOOOO bad. What kind of mom does that. Luckily, she forgave me after 2 minutes and all was well, but that was the end of the aerobics videos. I know...do them while she's napping, you say. But no, that won't happen. So to make a long story short, I will continue my walks with Cami outside and consider that good enough exercise. Maybe I'll try rollerblading again when this Utah weather decides to cooperate and act like April. And maybe one day I'll even break out those running shoes and work up a good sweat and train to run a 5K again.

Maybe.