A Different Kind of Shaky Arms

I took Monday off from swimming to recover from Sunday's half marathon. I took it off from running too (obviously) and also refrained from cycling.

But I didn't take it off from everything.

Guess what started this week?

Go on - guess!

Fine, I'll give you a hint: what do rocks, brooms and hurry hard! have in common?

That's right - it's curling season folks!

This is the third year that Doug and I curl together on Friday nights. Doug also curls with the boys on Thursday nights. On registration night a few weeks ago I debated signing up for Monday nights as well. After a bit of thought, and some financial assessment, I decided that all of my fitness pursuits were becoming a little too expensive so I stuck to Fridays...and signed up as a spare for Monday nights.

Which means that my name is on a list and, if someone can't make it, they might call me to fill in on their team. Which means I get to curl an extra night most weeks and I get to play on different teams and in different positions so I can, hopefully, get better at the game. Did I mention that being a spare is free?

Brilliant non?

Doug and I were recruited for a team that was missing two members on Monday night. They asked us over a week ago at which point curling the day after a half marathon seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea. The fact that I hadn't have a moment to squeeze in a practice session also seemed like no big deal.

After an early dinner, I donned my yoga pants, grabbed my (not even remotely) sexy shoes and my purple broom and we headed to the curling club for the first time since April.

We met Gene and Lons, our teammates for the evening, and quickly decided that Doug would skip and I would throw second. As soon as I walked out into the cold, crisp air and smelled the fresh ice (yes, it has a smell), I sighed.

It was good to be back.

We played, my body (happily) remembered what to do, I made several good shots (which means the rock ended up where it was supposed to), I made two new friends AND I was recruited to play again for them on November 12th. Woot!

I also discovered that swimming hard three times a week doesn't mean that you develop the arm muscles you need for sweeping hard. In fact, I think swimming made it worse. I was so confident in my upper body strength that I swept like a madwoman. By the end of the fourth end I was starting to feel it in my shoulders. By the end of the game I was having to stretch after each rock just to keep my shoulders happy. When I woke up the next morning, my legs had recovered from the race but my abs and my arms were now sore from the sweeping.

Sigh.

As for diabetes - I guessed and guessed well. I was 7.4 before dinner. We had steak sandwiches and a salad which added up to 25 carbs. I should have taken 3.5 units for a dinner like that. Instead, I took nothing. We curled for two hours and 15 minutes. A 8:15pm we got off the ice and I checked - I was 4.0. I wouldn't want to cut it any closer than that but I'd say it was pretty good after 6 months off.