For many years, I’ve been feeling that if I could get back on skates, I could strengthen and heal up. I have several conditions that make this difficult, not the least of which is a mitochondrial (familial) condition that causes muscle weakness, and persistent obesity. I’m slowly losing weight, year by year, due to dietary changes (the opposite of what a nutritionist advises… I just eat whatever my body wants. As long as it is not an addictive substance – no, sugar and salt are NEVER addictive because they are REQUIRED for essential metabolic function – this works. I believe the taste buds were divinely designed to tell me what my body needs. So I listen, and I eat what tastes good, and DON’T eat what does not taste good. It has been working slowly. That is the only way it CAN work.

Anyway, back to the skates…

I took my grandson to the rink. There are no less than THREE skating rinks, all within 15 minutes of our house. The first one we tried was flooded from a leaky roof and storms the night before. The second one was in business. He skated for a session, and that tired him out some. It fired me with longings to be flying again.

I used to skate. I used to be GOOD. Not GREAT, but GOOD. I could skate forward and backward. I could step over on the corners, going forward, and I could step under going backward. I could stop in reverse by tipping up onto the toe stops. I could do that sideways thing on the corners like the cool girls do. I could almost do a three turn. If I’d skated for another few months, I’d have had it down. I could jump. Just a little. I could fly off the rink floor onto the carpet and not stagger at all. I took lessons for a while, and learned some dance steps. I was as comfortable on wheels as in shoes. And I loved to fly.

I don’t think I was exactly graceful. But I wasn’t awkward either.

I had my own skates. I studied it out, saved up, and then balanced what I WANTED, with what I could afford. Lined boot. Could not afford the lightweight flat chassis, I had to compromise for a ridged (rink style) jump reinforcement, but this skate also had a jump bar added for additional sturdiness. A good skate, cost $125, which my daughter eventually bought for $50, and sold (with worn out wheels and toe stop), to a skate shop for $150 with the case, about 20 years ago.  My brother bought the lightweight plate (flat, no ridge), with a jump bar, same boot in men’s black. He paid $200 for his… I could not afford $200, I was only 15 when I bought them. I did all the stuff – skate covers, sparkly laces, a silver skate case. But no glo sticks. NO glo sticks.

So I knew how to buy skates… if I ever did again. I only knew that I NEEDED to skate again. And that if I did, I’d want to buy skates.

The Saturday after I took my grandson skating, I persuaded Kevin to go. I could not skate, I need to gain a little more strength in my legs first. But I’ve gone from having to ride the cart in the stores every time (over the last year, due to a hip injury), to walking about half the time, so I know I am making progress, and can make more.

I talked to one of the rink employees about buying skates, and where one does that here – this rink does not have a pro shop. I didn’t feel good about their suggestions, I had already looked online and was not happy with the options. Then another employee tells me ther are skates in the back – used ones – that he might be able to sell me. I nibble.

He takes me to the back, and disappears. Brings out a 9 1/2, and a 10 (men’s… they are all men’s now, and Kevin and I wear the same size now, my feet are no longer wider than his). Just a bit too tight on the smaller pair. But the 10 fits me perfectly. I ask the guy to get another pair. He does. He has to put the wheels back onto them – and says he needs to find wheels and good bearings. I never thought about bearings before. He cleans the wheels on both pair, and they have decent laces and very worn toe stops which are still usable… just.

Now, these are just used rental rink skates. Tan LEATHER boots, lined with black polyester mesh, brown layered soles, shoe size stamped into the heel, ORANGE wheels and toe stop (my LEAST favorite color other than Black), and a BROAD and HEAVY jump ridge (SureGrip X L). But they are skates. And they are not in bad condition, the boots are only lightly worn. This is the old style – the rink now uses a gray boot.

But they are very durable. That’s a thing about rink skates – they are made to take a beating.

They charge us TWENTY FIVE BUCKS for each of the two pair we decide to buy. I figured $50 at least. I feel like I won the lottery. These will do fine until we can get something better, I think.

We take them home, and I look for something better. It will be $300-500 just to get something COMPARABLE to those rink skates! And then they will be TOO NARROW for me, even if I buy men’s skates. We can’t even FIND leather uppers for less than $400, and lined boots are never lined with leather anymore.

I bought my old skates for $125 in about 1978. You can’t get those skates at any price anymore. Everything is lower quality.

The rink skates have aluminum alloy chassis, and stainless is FAR better, but they are a broad, reinforced jump ridge, and I CAN add jump bars, I think. I’m a heavy girl, and the extra sturdiness is kinda needed, I feel.

I do the research, and then suddenly, I know. These aren’t temporary. They are IT. I CAN’T get anything better.

So we decide to INVEST in these old skates. We do a bunch of things:

1. Kevin uses Leather Lube on his. It actually plumps the leather a bit, and makes them look almost new.
2. I order shoelaces. Teal for me, Navy for him.
3. I order wheels. White speed wheels for him, red and black swirled basic wheels for me.
4. I order toe stops. He gets the red and black ones that come with my wheels, and I get blue sparkly ones to go with my colorful outfit.
5. I use Sharpies to create a feathered multi-color pattern on my boots. VERY colorful, in all my favorite colors.
6. I color the soles dark brown instead of the layered tan and brown.
7. I use brown Sharpie to fill in the size markings on the heels of both our skates.
8. I order a tool set for each of us. They are not expensive.
9. I order skate cases. Only ONE company makes the old classic skate cases, all the other skate cases are for in-lines, or kiddie skates.
10. We rip out the old felt liners in the boots, and buy some cushy new insoles and put them in.
11. We buy two small cosmetic cases for the tools. Clear zipper cases at Wal-Mart. Clear for Kevin, Pink for me, they are the only two colors they have.

Things start coming in, and meanwhile I was coloring my skates. When I finished, Kevin lubed them for me. It darkened the colors some, but they are brightening up again as the oil absorbs and evaporates.

We put the wheels on, we put the toe stops on,  We lace up the boots, and they look really good. His are simple looking. Mine look like a rainbow threw up on them, but they are colorful and not actually tacking looking. They aren’t rink skates anymore!

The skate cases never come in. The shipper tells us they delivered them to a dock in a town we do not live in. We get a refund, and I have to go looking for some other kind of skate case.

I find all kinds of padded duffles that will do, but they are TOO MUCH. I finally find a luggage set at Fingerhut, on clearance, and it has a padded duffle that will hold them, I think.

Still trying to figure out what to do for Kevin to haul his skates in.

We go to a Cabela’s Loyalty Night, and the door giveaway is a Bass Pro small wide duffle. Kevin and I each get one. While he’s at work a few days later, I put his skates in his duffle. They fit perfectly, with only a little wiggling to get the last wheel in. He comes home and tells me he was gonna use that for a second range bag. I’m a good wife… I give him mine for that (I didn’t ABSOLUTELY NEED that camo bag anyway). His skates have a home, and it didn’t cost us a thing.

My bag arrives, and it does fit the skates. It is a little long, but it works well, and has pockets in the inside on the ends for the tools and a pair of thin socks (I wear sandals all summer).

So Kevin is in for $115 for his entire setup. Mine runs $150, because I had to get a case.

So the real question is, can I skate?

Well, the first question was, could I get up off the floor if I fell. So I tried. I could, but not IN the skates. I’d have to take them off. It was hard, due to weak muscles in my legs, but I did it.

Then I decided to try to see if I could do it a different way. Dang, I wish I hadn’t done that. It damaged the ligaments in my knee. Normally a LONG heal. By that night my knee was swelling, and I could not sleep well because it was so painful. Next day I decide to try comfrey (yes, I am well aware of the risks, but it has risks because it WORKS… it is used ONLY for acute conditions, not chronic). This is my first experience with comfrey. To my absolute shock, my knee is feeling better within 8 hours of taking it. By the following morning I am no longer limping and the swelling is down, and by that evening I can’t tell that I’ve injured it! I don’t know how it did it, I only know IT DID.

My knee is not painful now, but it is still fragile, I have to be very careful. If it hurts, I use comfrey again, and the pain fades out within the day.

Two weeks later, I put the skates on at home. I have a plan. The wheels on my skates do not spin freely… they are slowed a bit, so it is less slippery. My plan is to get my feet back at home, with restricted wheels, and then try that at the rink… ONLY around the edges that have a rail (so I can hold on if needed, and so I can pull myself up if I fall).

There are THREE problems here:

1. I know from prior experience, skating with my kids, that if it has been a long time since you skated, you WOBBLE. You FORGET how to move and balance to skate smoothly, and it is easy to fall if you are not careful. Takes 4-8 laps to remember how to skate.
2. The muscles that support skating posture and movement are GONE.  You can get back forward motion fairly rapidly, but it takes much longer to get back the advanced skills. Not just because of REMEMBERING, but because of STRENGTH in places you don’t normally need strength.
3. Kamikazes. Those little plowing children with no sense of self-preservation, and no sense of avoidance of other skaters. They take out pros all the time. I am at particular risk. I can’t control THEM, I can only try to avoid them.

I wear the skates in the house, and I go from the center to one end, and then back and to the other end, then back to my starting point – I have to hang onto something on the slick linoleum, but not on the carpet. I don’t feel stressed (it isn’t much, I know). But I stop. I do NOT want to re-injure my hip, I do not want to stress my knee, and I don’t want to have sore muscles in my legs, it could be more damaging than it seems, due to my condition.

I know when I’m done that I can do this, as long as I do not rush it, and as long as I don’t stress anything. I know if I just DO this (and I can’t do it daily yet), that I’ll get there. Wheels on my feet signal my body that something needs strengthening.

I try again after some days. This time I make it one and a half times around the house (I stopped when I felt like I would tire if I finished the lap), and I don’t have to hang on all the time. I am still just walk and rolling, instead of getting some inertia after each push, but I’m not slipping or spazzing because I’m losing my balance. It is ever so slow to make progress, but progress I AM making.

I’m happy with the skates. They FIT, and I can adjust them for my needs.

The only MAJOR disappointment has been that one truck bolt is STUCK. And the bolt head is stripping just enough we probably won’t be able to get it off to put the jump bars on.

Sigh. Just have to be one of the ordinary people, I guess, and keep losing weight. I know I CAN keep losing weight. Not sure I can EVER be one of the ordinary people though…

UPDATE: One of the guys at the rink got the bolt out. It was damaged in the middle, very hard to remove. He replaced it with a new bolt and checked all the rest. Need to work on the jump bars a little to get them to fit right, but we’ll get that too.