Spend more than 30 seconds around parents of hockey players (and figure skaters, for that matter) and pretty soon you'll hear horror stories about morning ice. Bleary-eyed families up at the asscrack of dawn and stumbling into cold ice rinks to work on wrist shots and toe loops. Sometimes I think skating families are solely responsible for driving the success of the insulated coffee mug industry.
There's definitely a different feel at early morning practice. People straggle in late. Players take longer getting their equipment on. (There's a volunteer coach who reminds me of Santa...big, jovial, fun-loving guy. Even he was barking at his son, "Get your skates on!") The locker rooms are colder and even the snack bar (read: source of coffee) isn't open yet.
But I actually like early morning practice. The kids get freshly zammed ice that hasn't been torn up by a previous hockey group or those pesky ice dancers. There's absolutely no traffic to fight on the way to rink. And sometimes...you get to see a beautiful sunrise.
I may or may not have unexpectedly dozed off on the couch before dinner.
I agree! I love skating in the early morning! Getting to do cool tricks on great ice before the world is awake is awesome. And the lack of traffic is a huge bonus especially in this area. I don't like the actual getting up part so much, or scraping ice off my car at 4:30am... but overall it's so worth it.
ReplyDeleteAaaah yes...fresh ice, no traffic, morning workout...what a great way to start a day. Although I find when I get up that early, I end up craving lunch food early in the day. You know, who doesn't want a turkey sandwich at 8:30 a.m.?
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