Getting the shakes.

Jealous to no end...

It's been a while since I've strapped on my skates. I'm dying to get back on the ice. The months been tight though, and I haven't been willing to make it more so by throwing down a 10 spot for an hour and a half in the rinks. I keep hoping and praying for some seriously frozen weather to no avail too. There is a bit of freeze going on right now, but will it last long enough? The forecast is doubtful on the front!

This is not to say I've been sitting around not working toward my ultimate goal of league play in the summer. My wife and I are regularly hitting the gym in our apartment complex and making good with what little equipment there is available, or even functional. I'm on a bit of a cardio kick as of late and have been trying to re-gear my efforts into strength training after 15 minutes of hard cardio, be it running on the tread or stepping it out on the elliptical. Being able to use the bike on site would be great, if only it wasn't inop. With some core workouts gleaned from one of my best friends, who just so happens to be a Drill Sergeant at the moment, we make the best of the time and equipment and the results have been promising so far.

The workouts are great, but they're not enough...I need to get my stick on the ice and compete for the puck. I expect I'll try and get out to Rockville by the end of this week to get some stick and ice time though. If only that canal would harden up again...

Firefighters Eat Gooooooood.

That's me. This was last January, when we were still living in Texas. I was a good 2 years out of the Army at this point and working for the Killeen Fire Department. It was a great job, some really great people, and some really great food. The pace wasn't terrible, with only a few fires every month and while the EMS was a bit more busy, you didn't expect to do much in the way of heavy lifting during your shifts on the ambulance. Did I mention the food was amazing?

In the end it was the food that got me hovering over 200 pounds of not muscle. While on shift, if you could, you rested as often as possible and for as long as possible. You never knew when the next big call was coming in and didn't want to be burnt out by the time you got to the scene. The thinking obviously flawed, but man, it sure was nice to sleep while you're at work!

Quickly, I fell into a work out slump. With the longest I was able to keep my active streaks going being two weeks at a time, followed by another month or two activity drought. Soon enough I was feeling gross and fat and tired.

Throw a good helping of school in there, I found myself clamoring for some sort of workable routine. Unfortunately it never manifested.

The first time I hit 205 I could hardly believe it. I was always hovering at 175-180 when I was in the Army. Working out every single morning will help keep you in shape, even if the workouts aren't exactly amazing. But back then I had all the energy in the world, could go for as long as I needed to push myself and hardly felt any of it an hour later. That day I looked down to see the scale tipping into unexplored territory, I didn't have any of that.

So what changed my outlook? Hockey!

During the post season last year, my friend PJ, who I'd played so many games of street hockey with as a kid, told me about this team I should check out, the Capitals, particularly a player named Ovechkin. I had been out of the sport for a long time at this point, with no appreciable knowledge of the NHL. I decided to check out the playoff games and suckered my wife into watching with me. We were instantly hooked. The team was dynamic, fast, hard hitting, and the goals were oh so pretty. We even took time out of our vacation to South Padre to watch the last of the Caps playoff run. While Game 7 was a bust, it was the start of a reawakened love for a game that has always been in my heart.

When we moved to Maryland, Hockey was high on the priority list. October 11th the Caps played the Islanders and I got my first taste of a live NHL game. We went home and set about finding the next game we could make that night.

I soon decided to take up the sport again after those first few games. I felt like such a kid the first time I stepped out on the ice this winter. It's an amazing feeling to awaken that preteen joy in yourself after so many years. A good amount of public skates later I was fitted for skates and my wife was keen to pick them up as a Christmas gift.

I've watched what I eat a little, hit the gym a lot, and put the skates to good use when I could. More of the later two keeps me happier than the first of course! With all of that, after only about 3 months, and I'm walking around at 191. And it feels good.

What does this game cost anyways?

When you're trying to break into a sport like hockey, you become uniquely aware of the up front costs involved. There are obvious purchases that will make your wallet whimper as you dole out hundreds for a single piece of equipment, but then there are hidden costs that you likely didn't even know you needed or had even thought about when you decided you would pour your free time into the game.

My venture began with a few public skates using rentals at a few local rinks. At around $12 a skate, I quickly realized where much of my 'spare' income was going to sink itself. This is one of the few sports you need a special place to play the game in it's natural element. Ice is hard to come by in many places, let alone ice that you're willing to skate on. While yes, you can indeed just play it on the street with a ball, it's a different experience entirely to play out your NHL fantasies on solid sheet of the slippery hard stuff. Should you want to spend a lot of time out on the rink, you're going to rack up a lot of cost quickly. Pick up and Stick time will likely run you $10 or more per session, soaking up $520 a year from your pocket should you only go once a week!

To skate in rentals is an effort in masochism should you try and endure it more than once. Your going to want your own set of skates, and you will pay out your nose to get a good pair that will make your time on the ice a bit more comfortable. You could buy those bargain bin throwaways of course, and your feet will pay. Your feet are your livelihood in nearly all things, so expect to pay upwards of $600 for the top of the line. If you're like me, you want a middle ground of cost/effectiveness where you're getting the most for your buck. Picking out a set of Bauer Vapor X40's, I made sure my wife knew what I wanted when Christmas came around. $350 or so later, I'm skating in comfort.

Sticks run the full gamut of price ranges from the super cheap to the super expensive, and again, you get what you pay for. But for starters, wood sticks are enough to get you going, and there are actually a good amount of options should you do some searching. Expect to drop around $35-50 for a quality wooden stick. Composites are the hotness when it comes to transferring power from your hands to the puck, and that power transfer comes with a price. With some of the most expensive going for nearly $250 a piece and the cheaper side going from $70-100 it's going to be up to you to determine how much your shot is worth to you. Expect to see this n00b sitting toward the lower end of this spectrum for some time to come, unless another gift giving season comes around!

Gloves, Helmets, Shoulders, pants, shins, elbows, jock shorts, and a face mask. Did you consider how much all of this stuff was going to run you when you decided to start playing this game? I don't think I gave it much serious consideration. With all of these things, your running the price tag up anywhere from $25 to $100+ per piece of protective equipment! How much is your personal protection worth to you? How good is your insurance? After working out middle ground equipment using an online shopping cart, I found myself breaking the $400 mark rather quickly. Can I play yet?

Even with all of this out of the way, there are still more expenses to consider! Jerseys, hockey socks, under gear moisture wicking garments, suspenders, mouth piece, tape, and skate sharpening are yet more pieces of the personal hockey expense! Once sorted, you're finally ready to take to the ice fully prepared for a full contact game of hockey.

With any luck, I'll have figured out much of my own hockey budget by the summer. Without it, I'll be slowly gathering equipment bit by bit for the next year and a half! Is the cost worth it? Ask me in a year! I can tell you now though, I'm near certain of my answer already.

Leafs at Caps Birthday Game

Wifey took me out for a game last night and it was, as usual, a blast. Here are the pics from the night.

Wifey Pre-gaming

I would kill to skate that ice just once.

Mr. USA got the call for the game. Was nice to see him rocking some red.

First Puck Drop.

Capstronaut was in attendance.

Ovi waiting for the play to develop.

We saw this an awful lot last night. Goals are good.

Someone say fight?

Theo gets a solid win.

After hours fun on a Metro bus. What was Metro thinking shutting down part of the red line DIRECTLY after a game!?

We eventually made it home, nearly an hour and a half later than we had expected to when leaving the house. A fantastic night on the whole though, thanks to everyone that makes the experience what it is. I have such an amazing time at the games from start to finish. Next year, we're doing Season Tickets for sure.

A Birthday and a Game

In about 2 hours I'll be on the Metro headed into town decked out in red. Section 100, here I come. A hell of a way to celebrate a birthday!

Go Caps!

My first game, to the roots of it all.

Waking up this morning, I had figured on another boring day of class work when I arose from bed late. I slowly made my way out to the living room, flipped on the television and changed the channel to NHL Network to see the game highlights. I went about my morning web check making my way to On Frozen Blog after a bit. Immediately, I knew where I was going for the day. The canal had frozen over just outside of DC! 'Pond Hockey' was on!


I had to stop off and give my wife some lunch, but once I was done there, I hit the loop, jumped off at Cabin John and parked along the side of the road with everyone else who was coming out for the day. After grabbing my stick, skates and puck, the smile didn't leave my face the rest of the day.

People were all over the place, playing pickup hockey, skating alone, walking about. Some had their kids, some had their dogs, entire families made their way down as well. I followed a trail down around an old building next to the canal and found a spot to get down to the ice. Changed my shoes for my skates, dropped the puck, and started skating.


Much of the ice was already cleared of snow, so I found a spot I could get a little space and started getting used to puck handling. Have I mentioned I've never played a single game of ice hockey? This was the first time I'd ever handled a puck on ice with a hockey stick.


After a bit an older guy came by around the area I was getting my bearings and started clearing some of the accumulated snow from one side. I asked if he was up for a small scrimmage, and after agreeing to play, he and his two little guys split off to play for either side. We played for a bit before another guy came by asking to join in. Eventually the new comer had to head off, upon which we decided to join together with a group adjacent to us. Throwing our sticks in, a kid from BC went about separating them for for teams. It ended up being 4 on 5, so we on the short end went to dividing up our sections of ice to play. We settled on a rough diamond with someone staying back for goal tending work.

The game went smooth enough, with both sides scoring occasionally, most of us busting our ass a few times, and a few really fun break away goals. I made an effort to play against the best guy on their team, the kid from BC, as often as I could. He wasn't from their hockey team, but he plays intermural up there. It was a great way to test myself and my ability to skate. For my first game, I'd like to think I did alright! There was no count of the goals, I'm really not even certain who 'won' by the time we packed it up. I shook everyone's hands and made my way off, but before I left as asked BC to take a quick pic on my Blackberry for posterity.


If you haven't been down there, or have never played outdoor pickup with some random folks, I highly suggest you do. This is one experience that I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Current Progress

So I can sort of hockey stop to my right side! It's mostly just with one foot though, as when I put my left foot down I tend to lose my footing for some reason. Need to work on that a bit. I've also learned to snow plow with my left foot, which before last skate session, I wasn't able to do anything but move with. I've taken my first few tentative steps to learning to hockey stop to my left side now too. Not made much progress, but I've started to feel it out.

I'd really like to get away from the public skates and start doing the Open Hockey ice/stick time at Rockville Ice Arena, but I need to pick up a helmet and a set of gloves. Another stick would be good too as the one I have is a tad short for skates. The ability to run skate drills without worrying about running into a little kid would be a nice perk. Plus it would seem the open hockey is actually pretty popular. There was a rather large group there the other day for a weekday. Passing and scrimmages would be a constant possibility should I make it out there for them. More gear would ensure less injuries though!

My cardio is up since I started running and skating. Where before I would run at 5.0 on the tread and be hurting, but able to finish the run, I now can run 6.5 without much effort. I'm also down about a pound, but will likely start replacing that fat with heavier muscle as I get more and more into the weight training side. For now though, it's lots of cardio, a bit of weights, and a good amount of core workout.

With my next ice time, I plan to work on more stops, backward skating, and the transitions between all of them. I tried a skating drill I watched Matt Bradley work on one day when he was on the injured list and it's going to be a while before I can pull that off with an serious maneuverablity. Some more padding would make me a lot more inclined to try these transitions a bit more ernestly though!

The road ahead is going to be tiring, especially with school started now. I do however get a lot of energy just from thinking about the sport and can't wait to get on the ice again.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Washington Capitals Practice 12-4-09
Kettler Capitals Iceplex

With my last day before classes start for me, I decided to take a gamble and head down to Arlington and see if the Caps would be practicing today. There was no announcement by their twitter account or an update to Caps Today, their near daily talking points update and injury list, but with a game tomorrow, and knowing the regular practice time, I woke up early and headed out, skates in hand.

I really enjoy getting a chance to watch practices. Part of it is, of course, just being a fan of the team, but then there is the part that is all about gleaning tips and drills from the pros. One of the biggest things I've learned from watching, you can only do so much practicing alone! Much of the drill work revolves around passing drills and zone work, and while you can do the skating for these alone, you just don't get the full effect without all of the puck handling and passing involved in running them.

So what's the moral of the story? Get a team. Practice with your team. And get better on an exponential level compared to trying to do it all alone. Even just the little scrimmages between the forwards and the defensemen are going to be 100% more effective than any single skating drill I could pick up.

I need a team. I can't wait to find one.