Derby Name Registered!

No practice this week, but i do have some news! I have registered my Derby Name officially! Bonebreaker Barbie #NCC-1701. WEWT! it feels more real now that i have a real name registered and i am soooo excited! it also motivates me to get my butt in better shape and get on skates as often as i can. it;s almsot 3:30 in the afternoon, andi have yet to work out,and that is juut not acceptable anymore. i needto become more disciplined and start kicking my own butt before i am ready to kick anyone else's. this afternoon i am going to push my body really hard, and i know i'll be sore tomorrow, but i am gonna get up and do it again and again until my day off on sunday. no more time to play games. also, i am going to try to go skating tomorrow(wed) sat afternoon, and Sunday night.i am excited to try out my new ankle braces! hopefully they will be a huge help! ok. time to get my HRM on and get goin!

Pre-Bout practice.

I didn't feel good. Part of me did not want to go to practice, but all of me knew i needed to. i needed the workout. i needed to see the girls. i needed to- well- PRACTICE! i think the part that wanted to stay home was the part controlled by my pride. i am progressing slowly- much more slowly than i'd like. this is mostly due to my weak ankles and the fact that they make me feel less sure on my feet. i know i need to be patient with myself and just practice and exercise and do my strengthening ankle therapy, but i've never liked having to be patient and wait for results. Anyway, i went. when i got to the rink, i immediately dug into the gear bag to get pads that at least matched somewhat and a helmet that fit. Jessica joined me and right as we were set to begin putting the gear on, Adam called all the Fresh Meat out onto the track. We were going to be laying down rope over the painted track and taping it down with duct tape in order to more clearly define it for the scrimage/practice bout. That;s right. Our Travel team has it's first bout of the year this sunday in Fayetteville, NC! The taping took us about 45 minutes while the other girls warmed up and did some drills. Afte the taping was done, we geared up and practiced for just a little bit. Adam worked with me one on one a bit, skating close to me so i could start to feel how it was to be in the pack while the other 3 freshies practiced stuff i am not quite ready for. (i think they were skating really close and slowing and speeding as a little pack.) i was getting really frustrated by my ankles, but Adam said "all in due time" about 20 times. HeeHee. i love the patience and low pressure atmosphere they have towward us in Fresh Meat, and also the way the same leaders can be so tough on the girls who are already on the team. After some balance work (we walked one foot in front of the other down a line) we un-geared and became officials in the practice bout. My job, along with Jessie (not Jessica) was to listen for and keep track of fouls by the girls playing. it was a great way to learn more about the sport, since we will apparently be performing these roles and others at our first home bout of hte year on march 9th!
It was a different kind of practice, but exactly whati needed, and i am sooooo very glad i went! Now to figure out the logistics of going to the league potluck tomorrow night...

Wednesday afternoon thoughts...

Did not got to practice last night. had a migraine and was just on the verge of tears. Going tonight though! I chose a Derby name today. Bonebreaker Barbie. hoping it goes through smoothly! also have decided to skate at least 3-4 days a week. There are open skates all over the city and i am just gonna hit as many as i can! Scott is being super awesome about it all and really supporting me! i appreciate it so very much!

Saturday Open Skate...

We jsut got home from 2 hours at an open skate at a nearby rink. i knew as soon as i saw the epoxy floor i wasn't going to like this rink as much as the others. It is a lot smaller and the epoxy has a lot of nicks and grooves. my ankles took a lil bit to warm up as usual, and that was okay. once they did, i really felt good skating. EXCEPT---there were too many people!!! With the size of the rink, for me to get any real speed without getting bumped or bumping someone was next to impossible. i skated about half the songs, but i was getting pretty frustrated. there was a awesome girls fast skate where the rink was totally uncrowded and i got to really stretch my legs. W00T! i did have a good time and hopefully i can get out to skate a lot more and find rinks and times that are not so crowded. :-)

Frustration Embodied

That was me last night. First, I got to the rink just late enough that all the matching gear was gone. This was partly a good thing, I suppose, because it showed that there was plenty of Fresh Meat- 12 girls to be exact!, But for me it kinda sucked. I ended up with too small elbow pads and only one wrist guard. this was unnacceptable. I started skating to warm up anyway, and did so for about 20 minutes. Ii was slightly less sure on my feet than I had been a week before- owing I suppose to the fact that I'd not skated since then. My left ankle was also significantly weaker than my right. After that 20 minutes or so of skating, we had a meeting about voting on bylaw changes, which I sat in on even though I am technically not a member yet, because it is going to be my league and I wanted to see how the process works- good or bad. When it came time to vote, I excused myself to skate some more. I wonder how the rest of the evening would have gone differently if I'd just sat there... When I got up to skate, I made it around the rink a couple times very smoothly, and I felt like I was starting to warm up really well. Then, on the second curve of my third lap, I guess I placed my foot wrong, because that weaker left ankle just decided to twist. UGH! More than pain or discomfort, I felt frustration, because I knew I was done skating, if only for the evening. I skated the rest of the lap slowly, but knew I had to get off the skates. I really wanted to cry. I had been waiting all week to skate, having missed Sunday and Tuesday's practices due to being sick and visiting family. I watched the Fresh Meat train, and while it was fun to see how some of the other girls are progressing, I really wanted to be out there with them! I do have to note here that Jessica and Joanna are doing AWESOME! My ankle feels better this morning, and I have a printed illustrated ankle strengthening program that I found online (thanks to my wonderful husband for printing it out and bring it home!) to hopefully help strengthen these ankles. Also, I plan on picking up a couple braces for them too. Scott and I are going skating on Saturday for a few hours, Which I am really looking forward to, and then a 2 hour practice on Sunday. Hopefully that gets me back into the swing!

...BUT I WANNA SKATE!!!!

not going to practice this morning. want to, but just can't. i am still sick and cannot breathe thru my nose at all now, and my chest is still pretty congested. also, we got home at 4 am from a friend's house. DRAT. i really wanted to skate today. oh well... Super Bowl Sunday and all...

It was the BEST of practices, It was the WORST of practices...

Last night was my second practice with RCR, and it was awesome! I did not perform the way I wanted to, but there was SO much improvement over Sunday, I really amazed myself! My ankles were a little sore from Wednesday night's skating, but after I skated a bit they warmed up just fine. The real problem was that I am sick. I have a pretty tough chest cold. The constant congestion makes breathing tough, and since my body is fightin it hard, I am coughing up a good amount of mucous. YUM. So, keeping that (and the general cloud that can come over one when one has a fever) in mind, the following was a fun and great practice for me. We did about 45 minutes of just plain conditioning at the start. Lunges from one end of the rink to the other, push ups on the wall, dips off the bench, squat jumps (starting at a set of 10, then holding for 10 seconds, then working down to 1 and holding for one second. WHEW!), a few great stretches, some pilates leg exercises, tons of ab work. I wasn't sucessful with all of it, but had a great time anyway. I partnered up with another new gal, Jessica, who is sweet and funny- we laughed our way through it all. Then came time to gear up. took a little longer to find gear this time because I was not the only Fresh Meat. finding gear for 5 girls is significantly tougher than finding it for only one! Then, Genius that I am, I put on my skates before my kneepads. The kneepads have a sleeve that goes around your leg and is then secured by tightly wrapping the elastic. So... I had to take off the skates that i had just meticulously tightened, (I cannot WAIT to buy my own skates- the rental ones suck.) put on the knee pads, then the skates all over again. Finally, after elbows and wrists were padded and guarded, I was ready to put on my helmet and go! Oh, but WAIT! Someone had totally messed up the straps on the helmet! GREAT! Warm-up laps are almsot over by this point, and I am not even geared up. I got the helmet fixed, and skated down to the opposite end of the rink to join Fresh Meat Training already in progress, carefully avoiding speed drills going on. This I could do, I thought, as I joined the other girls in small laps in skater position (crouched down low to protect the back). Unfortunately, my ankles did not want me to do it for long... I had to take way more breaks than I wanted to because of the ankles and the congestion, but Adam (A-DAMN REF) was patient and just encouraged me to do what i could. Then we moved on to T-stops, something I was just not getting (I plan to practice it a bunch on Sunday). Then Orangyna came over and took over for Adam, and we got into knee drops. This was the same fall I learned on Sunday, but it finally clicked for me. It took a little while before I'd just let that knee drop, and even longer before I was doing it smoothly and without trying to catch myself on the floor with my hands, but I got it. Some of the other girls who were not quite as new moved on to double knee drops and touch and go's. Hmm.. maybe in ano0ther week or two. We then attempted crossovers, which really unnerved me. I am finally comfortable with skating with both feet, and you want me to lift one up and cross it in front of me?I did try the required once, and almost fell. then Alisha (Demalisha Durga) came over, held my hand and helped me practice lifting my foot for a second at a time as I skated the lap. that was good, and she said a great first step in learning to cross over. Once I get it, she said, I'll be able to speed up much more comfortably. By this point, I really could not breathe, so I sat out while they practiced skating close in a pack. Then I got up and practiced my skater position a little more, and we all went to watch the girls scrimage. I tell you, some of those gals are just great! Raven Darkhold, my closest friend thus far is just the best Jammer of all Ive seen. I got my new skater package- with rules and forms and stuff- which I have yet to look at, and then we came home. My bed was so comfy and inviting!!! OH- almost forgot! For all you blood and guts enthusiasts, I did sustain my first (VERY minor) injury. During one of my knee dorps, I caught myself with my hand at the wrong angle and hurt my hand a little. Hurt pretty bad last night, but much better this morning- only a slight ache. :-)