The incredible invisible freshie.

"Where have you been?" you may ask. The answer to that well-deserved question is, "not skating". At least with the league. There comes a time in some derby girls' lives when their real life must temporarily push away their derby life. Unfortunately, I have been experiencing one of those times.

Between the tailbone injury, the leg injury, and a hellish situation at my real-life job, it has been a good two months since I've had a proper practice with the league. I was attending practices during my injured periods, just not skating, but since mid-August I have been working too much to be able to make weekday practices.

I've been trying to skate when I can - typically at lunch or at the end of the "standard" work day. It outdoor skating, which I have to say I'm not a huge fan of, so skating at Roller Kingdom on Saturday on the silky smooth surface was lovely. I know. I used the words "silky smooth surface" and "Roller Kingdom" in the same sentence but after the parking lot at work, I meant it.


I have been trying to stay involved on the weekends - those two precious days that I have deemed "mine" and which I refuse to let work defile as it has the rest of the week. You don't need to know what I do for work. It it will suffice to say that due to several unforeseen circumstances, most outside of my control, I spend a lot of time doing it as of late.

I miss derby. I miss the feeling that I'm doing something completely badass, even though I know that my skills are far from it. I am petrified that when we move to tryouts next season that I am going to fail and be exiled from this amazing group of women who I adore. The day of the meeting at work when I knew that the next few months would be hell, I spent my lunch in Mr. Carnate's car crying in the Wal-Mart parking lot about how work was going to temporarily force me to stop derby.

After a couple of productive weeks recently (and an article about Life/Work balance sent by Mr. Carnate) I decided that for one day a week (for now) my company can make do without me. It will do me (or my company) absolutely no good if I finish these projects, only to be a completely useless mass of gibbering human. One night a week of getting my ass handed to me for three hours will hopefully recharge me for the week to come. I just want to feel like I'm DOING something!

So this Thursday I am going to practice. From what I hear I am going to be in rough shape on Friday morning - must remember to strechhhhh afterward!

On the food front, Weight Watchers has been going quite well, considering my activity level has been low. I've lost 12 pounds in the last 6 weeks, although some of that may have been muscle mass from being derby-less. That's 12 less pounds to lug around the track for 25 in 5. That's 12 less pounds to land on my ass practicing transitions. That's 12 less pounds to haul up off the ground after being taken out in spectacular fashion during a drill.

I've lost 12 of these!

I have miles to go - in order to become a WW lifetime member I have to eventually make a goal weight of less that 169 pounds. I haven't been that weight since I was 19 and fresh out of basic training. I don't know if that's attainable now in my early 30's. I sure as heck am going to try. 85 pounds to go... the average weight of an 11-year old girl.

I Heart Food

My post this morning is going to be a little bit about Helen and a little bit about the person behind Helen.

I love food. I love the taste of a juicy medium-rare steak (apologies to the veggies I just grossed out). I love loaded baked potatoes. I love lasagna. I love bacon. I love ice cream sundaes. Food just tastes so freaking nice I can't stand it sometimes. This is at least a part of the reason I am the size I am today. (Note: I do eat a variety of foods, these are just some of the "bad" foods that I *love* the taste of)

In an attempt to reconcile my love of food with my desire to be able to haul my butt around the track fast enough to pass my 25 in 5 sometime this century, among a few other personal reasons, I decided to join Weight Watchers last week.

I really think I am ready at this point to make my eating habits a "lifestyle change" as all the people who know about such things say it should be. One of the things that I have learned very quickly in the last 7 days has been that the alternative choices I've been making to try to be healthier aren't, in fact, all that much healthier after all.

For those who don't know, the Weight Watchers system assigns all foods a point value based on calories, total fat, and dietary fiber. A 200 calorie food with 8 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber is going to "cost" more points than a 200 calorie food with 2 grams of fat and 4 grams of fiber. Each person in the program is assigned a points limit based on current weight, gender, activity level, and age. At the moment, I can have 32 points each day.

One might think, as I did, that they are being "good" by having a Chicken Caesar Wrap at D'Angelo's versus, say, an equivalent size BLT. Said chicken caesar wrap will put you out 20 points. That's right, boys and girls, 2/3 of your daily points allowance for one "healthy" wrap. Let's look at this example for a moment. Sure, it's got lettuce (0 points veggie, yay!), and chicken (lean protein, yay!), but it also has creamy caesar dressing (fatty), parmesan cheese (fatty), and a wrap (fatty). I have learned quickly to not be fooled by a food item's "healthy" appearance.

I could give any number of examples of places where, in the last 8 months since I started roller derby, I've tried to make the "healthy" choice where that choice really wasn't any good at all. Here I am wondering why I'm sweating my ass off for two hours at practice twice a week and going to an open skate on my own and NOT losing weight.

The answer to my question has johnny rocketed me in the sternum and hip checked me off into a far corner of the rink in the last week. What I'm trying to do now is reconcile my love for "bad" foods with my desire to be successful in the program. My first experiment starts today.

Mr. Carnate (who is also doing the program) and I have done really well this week. I found a way to make spaghetti and meatballs for 11 points (whole wheat pasta and ground turkey meatballs), and I made a chicken chow mein recipe packed with veggies and yum for only 5 points! We are treating ourselves to "bad" food tonight. I am planning to have one of my vices... a loaded baked potato (SO GOOD!) which will hit me 13 points all on its own. The point is, I have to plan for it. I'm being extra careful with my points today and munching on lots of veggies (cucumber slices on a hot day anyone?) which have 0 points. I can't do this every day but the beauty of the WW program is that it doesn't say, "you can't have this food because it's bad," it says, "Have the foods that you enjoy but in moderation and if they have heavy points, plan for it."

The first true test will be this weekend's away bout in Vermont. I'm staying in a hotel, dangerously close to the Ben & Jerry's and Cabot Cheese factories, and going to after parties where large quantities of food and alcohol will undoubtedly be consumed. Will I have the will power to say NO to that plate of bacon ranch fries or that giant glass of fruity carb-laden alcoholic yumminess? If I breakdown and partake, will I be honest enough to tally up what my indulgence has cost me in progress? We shall see.

Derrière Defense

I certainly have plenty of natural padding in the buttockular region but apparently not quite enough (see the last two posts). This week I managed to find some crash pads that should fit and I went ahead and got them.

SS Trixie has told me and many others that wearing butt pads of any type is like wearing confidence. I'm sincerely hoping that is the case as I seem to have lost some of mine after my fall a couple of weeks ago.

I went to open skate tonight and could definitely tell that I was being more tentative than usual, even in a recreational skating setting. If I fall again on it in the near future I could do some serious damage that no doctor can really do anything about beyond saying, "Here's a donut pillow. Have a nice day." I don't want that to happen... I still have my goal of passing my twos before the beginning of the 2011 season!

In other news, I'm playing the Seabrook Meltdowns mascot, "Atomic Betty" next weekend at Roller Consolation. I am SO EXCITED. I'm going to roast in my outfit but it's definitely going to be worth it. To top it off, the Meltdowns have invited me to their team dinner on Tuesday! I know I belong to the league as a whole but being in the unteamed purgatory can sometimes feel... lonely (even though there are 10 other people like me out there). It's nice to feel like I'm a part of something more than that, even though it's only for one day :-)

Failbone

As I mentioned in my last post I managed to fall HARD on my tail bone in a spectacular fashion nearly two weeks ago at practice. The truth is, it doesn't feel any better today than it did the day after the fall which makes me sad. I know there's nothing that can really be done for it beyond taking it easy.

It's amazing how many activities in life use that lovely little piece of bone we call the coccyx. I've skated recreationally twice since then but hard skating and deep crossovers are quite painful. I am missing practice on Sunday for a family function (Sister Carnate is in from St. Louis) so here's hoping it starts to heal up for league practice on Tuesday.

One bad fall in 7 months of derby isn't a bad track record though... I generally end up landing on one butt cheek or fall forward (as I should be) and don't have any issues.

Summer Doldrums

I haven't written for a while... it looks like the other derby blogs I follow are equally slow this time of year. It sort of feels like nothing has been happening, but at the same time I've been busy out of my head with derby stuff. I recently took on some additional responsibility in the league and had to step back from coordinating stats to make room in my brain.

Our home season will soon be drawing to a close since after the beginning of September, several inches of ice will cover our bouting venue track. Skate Free or Die will still be busy bees as they work to become eligible for WFTDA ranking in the coming months.

I will be busy busting my butt to pass level twos before January. Most of the April class has leveled up and been teamed already so there aren't many left in that weird la la land that is Level 1's.

I fell HARD on my tailbone at Tuesday's practice. I went to open skate on Friday to test it out and I could skate but it was definitely sore and it was uncomfortable to get low and hold it.

I feel obligated to make up for my lack of skating skills with off-skates work for committees. I also do it because I adore the league and want to see it be wildly successful. This weekend, though, I think I overdid it.

With the exception of a couple of hours to watch Max Payne with Mr. Carnate I spent the ENTIRE weekend working on derby stuff. I had an inkling that I'd gone too far last night when I saw the look on Mr. Carnate's face as I was answering derby emails on my phone while he was trying to sleep. I didn't mean to continue today but it just sort of happened. I get "in the zone" on projects sometime and need to see them through immediately so I have closure. It got to be 3pm and I realized that I'd spent the better part of two days working and then realized that I needed to start thinking about practice.

I thought about having to tell Mr. Carnate, "Bye sweetie, I'm going to practice" after essentially ignoring him the entire weekend. While I love roller derby, he deserves better than that. I made the (tough) decision to skip practice to spend time with him. I know I won't get better if I'm not skating but sometimes real life and marriages need to take the driver's seat.

I hope to have more interesting news to report soon (although I did earn my first two derby bruises from Slick Tracy and Moxie Moonwalk!). I have added contact information to my profile if anyone would like to reach my outside the comments section. :-)

Swoop, swoop-eh-doop...

I made it out to open skate again last night (which worked out well since practice this evening was cancelled). I really wanted to work on transitions but I chickened out since I was the only derby person there (until Tank showed up later) and didn't want to be falling constantly all by myself.

I decided that I wanted to work on swoops... that graceful, lunging move that gets you from inside to outside or outside to inside lickety-split. I watch people like Roxie and PutUNya do them and they are so smooth and graceful with it. The look effortless while I mostly still feel like it's a weird contortion to turn that sharply. If I'm going to be a good blocker, I need to learn to be more mobile on the track I think swoops are a big part of that.

As I learned the last time we did a drill on these, turning your hips is the key. My hips, being cranky and arthritic, don't like to turn fluidly on my own. I probably looked ridiculous doing it but I found that moving my arms in the direction I want to turn, dancer-style, seemed to help. I still find swooping left easier than swooping right but by the end of my 2-hour session I was feeling ok with them.

I think this week is a blocking week which I am GREATLY looking forward to. League practice is Thursday and I'm hoping to show up early to work on transitions by myself off to the side before practice starts. I know that the endurance will come (crossovers do feel nearly second nature now) but there's a big ol' wall up between me and those turning toe stops that will allow me to scrimmage, hopefully by the end of the year!

Wiff TAH-DAH!

This is just to short post to say just how proud I am of my league, New Hampshire Roller Derby. Today we graduated from the WFTDA Apprentice Program and became a full member of the association.

This is the culmination of almost exactly three years of work on the part of many many women. This is a very exciting time for us and while I had very little part in the work that was done, and I'm not a "full" scrimmaging skater yet I can't say enough how happy this makes me.

CONGRATS NHRD! You earned it! :-D

See the full press release from WFTDA HERE.

Crashing Teen Night

It's amazing how well a mass of half-dressed teenagers can put things in perspective for you. My very first derby experience was on a teen night. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the throngs of kids speeding around me. I felt so slow and clumsy.

Tonight felt completely different. While I didn't exactly dance through the crowds I definitely weaved my way in and out of groups of girls texting-whilst-skating and boys punching each other in the shoulders. I used my fairly newfound dodging skills to avoid crushing some girls who appeared suddenly in front of me from nowhere. I wasn't the fastest but I certainly wasn't the slowest. I didn't have the grace of many of the skaters on the league but I didn't feel clumsy.

I plied the three other people in the rink who were over the age of 30 with season schedule cards and even participated in the ladies speed skate (which consisted of a handful of us sprinting and a bunch of girls moseying along). It was interesting to get a sense of how much has changed since my first time out on my own skates at recruitment night :-)

Focus on the positive

I've decided that too many of my blog posts sound like rants. Talking about how my hip hurts, or how I'm not losing any weight doesn't make it get any better. I'm going to try to avoid dwelling on the things that went wrong during a practice (see previous post) and try to focus on what went well during practice instead. This means that some nights I may have a short post but we'll see how things go...

Tonight's practice was at JFK. It felt like my first time there in ages. The floor was ridiculous. It's highly polished concrete that, during the off-season, becomes a hockey rink. It's usually pretty slick but my 88A Radar Flat Outs are generally OK. Tonight was crazy.... I felt like I was sliding even on the straightaways! There must be a way to use the slide to some sort of advantage, like in rally car driving!

We did a double pyramid drill tonight that I did probably 90% of. The 10% I was out was not due to a physical issue directly, rather it was a "wardrobe malfunction". I laced my skates too tight and was having foot issues so I quickly took them off, stretched my feet out, and got back on the track. We went up to five laps and back down, doing calisthenics in the middle in between; then switched directions and went up to five and back down again. Considering I completed my first ever pyramid just last week I am pleased that I did as much of this one as I did.

We also did a weaving pace line drill. It's interesting that pace lines use to be the bane of my existence. I couldn't do them to save my life. Now I don't even really think about them. Granted, I put myself in the slow line but with the other vets in that line I don't know that there's any shame in that. I was at the front of the line which meant that I did my weaves last. I made it through the whole line, trying to be a good communicator (thank you Gladiator mouth guard!), and still had enough juice to do my weaves too.

The last thing that I don't think I did great as compared to the rest of the league but it was personal improvement for me was moving from side to side across the track using "mini-crossovers". We did a brief drill where we had to skate the length of the straightaway moving quickly from inside to outside. I want to work on that more next time I'm at Roller Kingdom on a more stable surface - I hope it's agility week next week - my fave!

June is full of promotional events and I'll be spending all day Saturday hanging out at the Gilford liquor store with Maully O and Miss Chiff - hopefully I'll be able to glean some good derby pointers from them while I'm there!

If it's not one thing...

Last night was a rough practice for me. Even though I was there for all four hours and on skates for most of the non-scrimmage time it felt like it was a couple of steps backward for me.

My first issue last night was that I didn't properly hydrate before practice. This should have been the first thing on my mind with all the hot, humid weather we've been having. I was ok when I started skating but by the end of a 16-minute push/pull drill I was feeling dizzy and shaky. I tried to do a couple more drills but was getting so dizzy that I needed to sit down and drink water.

While the dizziness started to go away as I drank my brain switched focus to the other major issue I had list night - my arthritic hips. They really haven't been an issue thus far, other than on the odd occasion, but I think that the hot, humid summer weather is making them flare up. After practice last Tuesday I could barely hobble around the office at work.

I acquired this lovely ailment during my time in the Army National Guard. I developed a major stress-fracture on the right side of my pelvis which wasn't diagnosed or treated until I had been doing hard labor on it for six-week it had progressed to the point that I could no longer stand up (fortunately during the last week of basic training).

After three months of recovery time I was allowed to finish training but the months of compensating for the pain/injury caused issues in my left hip. From that point on, any time I ran, did lots of walking, or other hihg-impact activities I get a lot of hip pain and it's worse if it's humid.

Was back when the arthritis and bursitis was first diagnosed I was given some samples of the anti-inflammatory Bextra, which has since been pulled off the market. I could take it on an as-needed basis and it worked beautifully. I think it's time to get myself back to the doctor to have it checked out again.

Everything in derby uses your hips and while I don't want to do permanent damage to myself I am not willing to give up on this crazy sport. I just need to find a way to manage the inflammation when it gets bad (which is not all the time).

I guess I just feel like if it's not one thing it's another at this point. I had a lot of back pain early on (which has greatly improved). Then I had the whole arch pain/skate issue (which has now been resolved). Now it's my hips. While I am confident that this is all manageable, I'm just frustrated that there are more hurdles to jump in my derby progression.

Lots of people offered encouragement last night which helped get me through some tough spots. Thanks to some ibuprofen from Slam I think my hips are much less sore than they otherwise would have been.

WTB endurance plx

Tonight's practice kicked my butt. It was one of those soaked-braids kind of practices. Even now taking a deep breath feels... weird. It was endurance night - practice focus is harder to keep track of now that we're moving around so much.

It probably didn't look like much to the casual observer but I'm pretty proud of myself tonight. It wasn't pretty but I did every drill for the entire duration and skated on the actual track the entire time. I thought I was going to die at some points, but I did it - including the pyramid drill which I've never completed before. I thought I did ok with replacement blocking with Hollywood, Vinnie, and Vixen.

Although it was a positive night for me, it became even more apparent that I have no endurance.  I don't always have the ability to get out and skate in the evenings so I'm trying to decide whether using an elliptical machine (lovingly referred to as the "elliptiwotsit" by Mr. Carnate) or my recumbent bike will have a greater effect.

The one thing that wasn't so good tonight that I may go see a doctor about again was my hip. Between walking in the parade on Monday and the big change in humidity today my left hip was killing me from the time I woke up this morning. Tylenol arthritis didn't even touch it. It made maintaining a low derby position challenging.

We also did a suicide drill where we sprint and do baseball slides at each end for two minutes. Hauling my fat arse up off the ground was very difficult by the end. I don't know if there is any way to strengthen those "getting up" muscles besides practicing getting up but I'm going to look into it. Dropping 75 pounds wouldn't hurt either. ;-)

I put my tuners back on for Roller Kingdom and SNHU this weekend... I notice the difference between those and my flat outs a lot more now than I did when I first switched over. I felt much faster tonight as compared to using my flat outs. I need all the help I can get!

Bleeding for derby, but not on the track!

Has it really been 57 days since our last blood drive? Time flies when you're playing derby, I guess!

Today I donated my A+ lifejuice with NHRD to benefit the American Red Cross. Or at least I tried to. After my 19 minute bleed the first time, I was determined to come in juiced up on iron and so well hydrated that I could float my way to Manchester. I just barely made the cut on Iron, despite gorging myself on red meat throughout the week. I drank a liter of water the morning of the donation (granted after two "pineapple bombs" at karaoke the night before).

I came in with my shiny new donor card and did my best. Unfortunately, after about 5 minutes, my best just wasn't good enough and they had to end my donation early with a partially full bag. I hope they can do something useful with it at least!

The league had set a goal of 25 units before this drive. I am pleased to say that my the time Dirty Kat Box and I left around 12:45 that we had helped collect 43+ units of blood! I add the plus because they were still accepting people, even though the drive officially ended at noon. Way to go NHRD!

I'm feeling a bit derby deprived as it will have been a week on Tuesday since my last official practice. I'm going to try to get to Roby tomorrow evening after the sun sets for a bit of action and I'll be skating in the parade in Manchester on Monday (although I'm a little nervous about that - nothing like doing a face plant in front of parade crowds!)

I have a lot to learn!

This isn't a rant, by any means. I had a pretty darn good practice tonight - my first full practice after being cleared for contact. I have to say it was a little weird not raising my hand when the trainer asked who wasn't cleared for contact. It became extra apparent to me tonight just how much I still have to learn.

I hung in there with almost every drill for the whole time (had a lace issue during one, and a back cramp during another). We were doing some long endurance drills so I'm pretty pleased with that, based on prior performance.

I need to stop psyching myself out over transitions. Methinks the tennis court across the street and I have some hot dates coming up.
I need to be more laterally agile when booty blocking. I have a big butt and can get my feet wide but that does me no good if I can't move side to side to stay in front of a jammer or another blocker
I need to get faster. I feel like a turtle compared to everyone else.
I need to learn to run on my toestops, or otherwise get better starts.
I need to strengthen my core and ensure I have good form so I can minimize back cramping.

There's a lot more that I need to learn but those five things really jumped out at me over practice tonight. My booty blocking was fail tonight but I was able to land a solid-feeling shoulder hit. Yay for baby steps!

NHRD knows how to party!

We had our second home bout last night at the JFK Coliseum in Manchester. Skate Free or Die! faced off against the Western Mass Destruction of Pioneer Valley Roller Derby. It was a hard-fought game on both sides but, in the end, PVRD came out on top 134-46.

Attendance was really light which I attribute to a couple of things. 1) I think we had a LOT of fans come up from CMRD for the April bout which really swelled our numbers and 2) It was a gorgeous day and a lot of people probably said, "meh... I think I'll grill tonight rather than go see roller derby." I went to a Boston Derby Dames game last weekend and there were people tailgating outside. If it's legal, we should totally get that tradition started here!

One of the things that's tough to communicate to the audience sometimes is that this season we are playing teams of a much higher caliber than previous seasons. After a 5-4 season last year the league has decided to step up their game and play some more experienced leagues, or play the A-Team rather than the B-Team of some leagues. The result is that we might not win as many games but we learn a LOT in the process, and isn't that what it's all about?

I know that I'm the type of person that learns or experiments with things based on watching other people do them. For example, I was watching Empress work with No Name Erica during the transitions drill on Thursday. Doing things slo-mo, Empress dragged her dominant foot a bit and then quickly turned toward that foot. My right foot is my dominant foot. I balance on my left and tend to T, and toe-stop with my right. While attempting transitions I've been trying to do everything backward (balancing on my right and turning onto my left). I'm eager to try the other way... maybe something will click! I'm hoping that I'll be able to use the "watch and learn" method with other things, too!

After the bout and break-down I went to hang out in the locker room with everyone. I skipped this last time and felt like I kind of missed out on things. I had a hard lemonade and enjoyed schmoozing with people. We all started to head to Spare Time for the after-party. There were actually seats available when I got there!

The evening was filled with music, food, drinks, good friends, and much shenanigans. Without calling too many people out some memorable moments included PutUNya putting ice cubes down everyone's shirts, Hearty and Empress moshing, Maully O dancing with, well, everyone, me NOT spilling ranch on the server, singing along to everything with Scurrie, Indigo, and Moxie, and generally having a fantastic time with everyone. :-D

I can't wait to do it all over again next month!

W00T!

The following w00t was delayed due to unscheduled late-night celebration. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Last night I passed my Level 1 assessment. W00t.

It was unexpected, so much so that when Bettie came over to No Name Erica and I, I thought we were in trouble for something (Bettie has a good poker face). Allow me to recap the back story...

Two and a half weeks ago we had our assessments (second time around for me). I passed everything EXCEPT crossovers. The feedback I received was that they're there, but I get fatigued quickly (which is true), and when I'm fatigued my cross-overs get clunky (not cool). So Erica and I were told that we were "mere practices away".

Cool. Because there wasn't really anything we could do in the freshie corral that would help us, Bettie and Empress allowed us to participate in light contact (booty blocking, leaning, etc) drills.

Last night I was warming up on the track (actually inside the rope!) and I was doing crossovers and not even thinking about it. They felt good. Stable. Effortless. The very first drill we did after warm ups was a transitioning drill which always makes me feel completely inept because, at the moment, I can't do them. Period. I paired up with Indigo (another freshie) and we tried to stay off to the side and work on them while standing in place. I think I've figured out part of my problem (I'm turning the wrong way) and plan to test my theory on the apartment complex tennis court on Sunday.

We did some drills working on lateral movement. I know I need to work on my agility. I think that as my endurance improves that the agility will partially come along with it. We did a basic drill where we had to move quickly to the inside and outside of the track using a single, quick crossover.

The next drill was kind of cool... we grouped up in fives - one jammer and four blockers. Only one blocker was active, the other three were zombie opposing blockers. The active blocker had to push her way through the zombie blockers to hit the jammer coming up on the outside. The jammer would then drop back and come up on the inside and the blocker would have to push through the zombie pack again. I got Grace with a shoulder check that pushed her out of bounds (and unfortunately me as well). I joke with her for the rest of the evening that she was my "first".

Later we did a booty blocking drill in groups of three - two blockers and a jammer - which was a basic, get around the pair of blockers drill. We're so big that we had to divide in half to fit everyone on the track. I was in the first group to skate and I went with Bash and Ethel. I accidentally clocked Bash in the face with a flying elbow :-(

After we finished it was our turn to go to the middle for workout-type stuff. I knew I had worked hard tonight because my pigtails were drenched. I have sooooo much to learn yet on the contact side but I felt like it was a pretty good night. As we were getting up, Bettied came over and crooked her finger at Erica and I (this is where I thought we were in trouble). When we skated over a big smile spread across her face and she said. "Congratulations, you have passed your level ones!".

I, of course, released a "squee" and gave her a big icky workout hug. Then Erica and I gave each other a hug. Then I skated over to Empress and said, "I would give you a hug but I'm icky" and she said, "oh please, like I'm not" and gave me a hug. :-D I'm smiling as I type this remembering the feeling.

To some people, level 1's are not a big deal - they're easy. To me they were not. It took me four months and fifteen days to pass. I have gone from a completely non-athletic couch potato who hadn't skates since age 8 or so to being cleared for contact. To quote Mr. Vice President, "This is a big %(&$ing deal!".

I need to keep in mind that I have now gone from being a big fish in a small pond to being a teeny tiny fish in a big pond and I have a LOT to learn. I have been pushed out of the nest for my own good and am now forced to fly on my own.

I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some of the goals I've mentioned throughout this blog that I've now achieved:
1) Skate through an entire practice without dropping out of a drill.
2) Force myself to skate on the track, even though I am slow.
3) Skate over the damn rope.
4) Stretch more - this one is debatable. I did really well for a while but lately I haven't been doing my extra stretching.
5) Good form - this one is also debatable. I'm doing better than I was but I'm still getting back cramping when doing longer drills that require low derby stance.

New goals
1) Work on transitions whenever there is down time and on my own.
2) Force myself to do crossovers every single lap of a sprint, even if I'm not going that fast.
3) Skate for five minutes straight regardless of laps (I'll have to time myself).
4) Be eligible for teaming by the beginning of next season.

I think my biggest hurdles as I look ahead to level 2's will be transitions/turning toe stops and the endurance component. Everything else I am confident that I will pick up during the coming months.

Thank you for sticking with me on this one. Thank you to everyone who has given me advice or encouragement along the way. I know this is just the first stop on a long road trip but I really wanted to thank the people who helped me get this far in the first place. Sometimes it felt like I would never make it.

Even though I am technically no longer considered a freshie now, let the journey continue! :-D

Level 1/2?

Last night, I got my first taste on contact... sort of. The contact portion of the league was doing a drill where you form a pace line and everyone is given a "secret number". The person closest to the back of the line with #1 is the jammer and the other person with the #1 further up the pace line had to block them when they came by.

Initially FM Erica and I were over in the freshie corral but Bettie was watching the drill and said that the two of us should be out there - so out there we went! I happened to be jammer #1 and earned myself a minor back block when Osteo came out and booty-blocked me. I didn't fall, and I didn't turn it into a major by pushing her over so not bad for my first encounter with contact!

A bit later when it was Osteo's turn to jam and I had to block I definitely whiffed it. I saw her coming up on the far outside and tried to swoop out to catch her but my timing was way off and I went behind her... I think it'll take some work to get the timing thing down. I hung with the pace line again for about 98% of it... the other 2% I spent on the side stretching a mega side cramp.

Maully O came up to me at the beginning of practice and said that she wanted to work with me on booty blocking and Slam said she put a booty blocking drill on the lineup for Sunday "in my honor"... I must have done something right on Monday!

I know I'm getting a little bit stronger, and a little bit faster, with a little more endurance but impatient me is taking over again and I just want to be better now! I know that endurance is not something that you just wake up one day and have - it builds up over time. Hopefully my 25 in 5 endurance will be built up by the time I master my turning toe stops which are the only two things I'm really concerned about for level twos when that day comes.

I just need to keep pushing the crossovers at every practice. If I am sore and stiff, like I am today, then I know that I pushed it. If I wake up the next morning from a practice and feel fine then that tells me I should have worked harder!

Last night I started to conquer a woosy JFK fear I've had of skating over the track rope. It seems like it would trip me and I would fall on my face. Some people roll over it and others step over it so I guessed it was a comfort thing. During the speed skating drill I made myself skate over it and didn't fall so I was quite pleased with that.

Helen 1, Pace Line 0

Ok... so I have to give the pace line credit for previously kicking my ass, and things certainly weren't perfect this time but I'm going to take it for the personal victory that it is. Tonight I stuck with a pace line for the entire drill.

Those who have been following this journey for a while know that pace lines are (one of) my nemesis. Between back pain from bad form and a weak core to the agonizing arch pain I used to get with my old skates, pace lines did me in completely.

1) I was slow. I didn't really have sticky skating DOWN yet and too-tight trucks made things more difficult than they should have been. While I wasn't exactly Zippy McSpeederson tonight I feel like I had the technique down. With looser trucks I was able to get at lot more of the "slalom" action that Irate always describes. It also makes pushing around corners easier.

2) I was too bent over. I still struggle with this and experienced a bit of back pain tonight but Slam's reminder of "if your back hurts you're doing it wrong" helped me remember to sit into it more. Sitting into it fatigues those same hip-area muscles that give me trouble on crossovers but hey, if they're getting fatigued then I am using them and they are getting stronger!

The drill in question was the "endless jammer" drill which is where the league splits in half and one half packs up and the other half forms a paceline. The first person in the pace line skates ahead and pushes through the pack like a jammer would then ends up at the back of the pace line. Rinse. Repeat. I nearly hung the whole time in the pack but had to drop out at the end for water (I've got this nasty cough thing going on).

The only drill I had trouble with tonight was the transitions drill - on the whistle, transition. This was a challenge because I can't do transitions to save my life. Hollywood offered to work with me on them if we can find some time outside of our work schedules which is cool.

We did a lot of work tonight on form for speed - between Trixie's hints and what I have gleaned so far from my national-champion speed skating uncle I at least mentally grasped what was going on. Fix the fatigue, fix a lot of things. We did the cross-over component drill (push with one leg only, then the other).

We also did a non-contact version of Lion and Gazelle which was PFA - Pretty Freaking Awesome. I thought I was going to get eaten immediately and I didn't! The first time I went I was a gazelle. The whistle blew and I just took off. I tried to get speed-skater low on the straightaways and build up as much speed as I could and squeak around the turns. No one caught me and I think I surprised some people (including myself) which was cool. The next time I went out I was a lion and was able to catch the gazelles fine (they were instructed to stack packed up).

I got my first taste of positional blocking and I want more. I need to get those crossovers nailed so I can play with the big girls! I had loosened my trucks another half turn at open skate which was great for agility moves but I decided that I felt way too unstable during crossovers and balancing so I dialed them back a quarter turn and they felt much better. Maybe I'll do them back a quarter again in a couple of weeks.

Soooo... all in all an awesome, but tiring practice tonight. A little less coughing and a little more breathing would be good for Thursday! Thursday's goal - skate on the track. No skating on the outside for me. If anyone sees me skating on the outside, please yell at me unless it looks like I am under great duress. Thank you to Slam I Am for an awesome practice while SFOD was away playing with the Nuts.

Close but no cigar

Apparently fairgrounds in the 19th century would give out cigars as prizes for winning a game. If you came close but didn't quite win, no cigar for you! Think Soup Nazi but about 100 years earlier. That sums up my evening well.

I got to Roby around 6ish and put my gear on slowly. It is a skating rink in the winter and a fairly smooth cement surface once the ice melts. It had mostly dried out after yesterday's monsoon. It was a crazy crazy day and I was mentally out of it tonight.

I skated around a few laps and did some scissors and figure eights. The surface was smoother than I was expecting but it still gave a lot of resistance to stops and slides. I think I'll be coming here often this summer.

Empress and Bettie showed up just before 6:30 and got everything ready for the level ones. We had some warm up and stretching time and Empress did some really nice visualization stuff. Unfortunately whatever I gained from my visualization I shattered by making the doom noise to myself when they said we'd be doing crossovers first.

I think it was tough for me, knowing that was the one thing I needed to work on. Granted, I'm glad we did it at the beginning rather than the end because by the end of the night I was pooped. I guess it was good to get that out of the way. It made everything else way stress free.

Empress and Bettie both told me during the drill that I was close. After we did the balance drill (which I did a million times better than last time) Empress said that it was a technical issue and not a balance issue.

We did all the rest of the level one stuff... sticky skates, slides, stops, stepping. Neisha left some of her butt on the Roby Park surface during baseball slides - ouch! It took some time to get accustomed to not sliding so much but I think everything generally went well.

After the assessment finished, Empress pulled myself, Chuck, and Erica aside. We were the borderline people for, you guessed it, crossovers! She took some time watching and skating with each of us. Chuck ended up passing (yay Chuck!).

Empress and Bettie talked to each of us afterward and they hit the nail on the head with me. My issue is not balance, it's fatigue. My legs, especially my left one, are not quite strong enough yet to be able to sustain massive amounts of cross-overs. What that means is I can do them, but I get tired quickly. When I get tired I get clunky. When I'm clunky I'm vulnerable to hits. Totally understandable.

They said, and I asked if I could quote them, that the two of us "are mere practices away" from passing. That really gives me a renewed send of hope and drive for the next couple of weeks. I want this so badly. I want to progress so that family and friends can come and watch me. It feels like reaching for the finish line in slow-mo.

We've also been cleared to skate with the league unless they're doing crazy hardcore hitting. With leaning or booty blocking we can participate which is really cool. Until we officially pass, if the rest of the freshies are doing stops and slides we'll be out with the league. Scary but very cool and it sort of gives a fresh level of personal responsibility for our success. As Bettie and Vicious said earlier today, once you pass, that's it - you're out of the nest and we need to be even more responsible for our own success and/or failure.

So a big giant huge congrats to everyone who passed. Hopefully I'll be joining you shortly. To those who didn't, fuggeddaboudit! Well, don't really forget, but you know what I mean. The feedback that we're all provided gives us things to focus on in the coming weeks and months.

As Empress likes to remind me, on my very first practice I couldn't get up off the floor, even with Bettie and Hazel's help (thanks to some of those hardcore plyometrics). To put that in perspective, Bettie said that I did my single knee slide recovery in two seconds - the level two standard. If you'd have told me on day one that I'd do that five months later I don't know if I'd have believed you. I know that even when I do pass that I have a lot of challenges ahead of me for level twos- chiefly, transitions/turning-toe stops and the 25 in 5. Doing transitions is something that I can drive my butt to Roby for and practice all on my own.

Thank you to all of the training staff and especially to Bettie and Empress for making assessments a really positive and encouraging environment. I know what I need to do and am ready to seriously push it. I'll be rockin' the ankle weights at work tomorrow!

Even the best laid plans...

Soooo... the Roby Park thing isn't going to happen tonight thanks to the lovely, yet unpredictable mother nature. We had quite the storm come through earlier this evening which turned Roby Park into Roby Pool. Instead of skating, the three of us freshies (Me, Slashya, and Kristin) met Bettie, Dee, and Sloppy Jones at Chili's for dinner and chit chat.

It was a nice chance to bond with people off skates. I allowed myself to admit out loud that it's ok to say "no" to derby sometimes. Poor Mr. Carnate was all excited when it rained and said, "This means you're not going out tonight right?". When I told him about the alternate dinner plans he got the sad puppy face and said "oh... ok.... :-("

I need to remember that sometimes it IS ok to say "no" to derby. After an all-derby week last week and another one shaping up this week I need not only some family time, but some "me" time as well. I took next week off from work and I'm going to be home by myself all day everyday. It's going to be awesome. It will be time to catch up on a lot of the non-derby life stuff that has fallen by the wayside since this amazing sport took over my life in January.

Assessments are tomorrow at 6:30. All I can do, knowing that I've never skated on this surface, is push to do my best. If I don't make it again then so be it. Bettie made a good point tonight that once we pass, that's it. We're on our own - not that she doesn't still love us - but that we need to take it upon ourselves to work on the things we need to work on for level twos. Even if I don't get there this time, I think it will be soonish. I can feel it getting closer.

Less than Three the Freshie Mama

It occurred to me tonight that NHRD's freshie mama and freshie coaching staff don't always get the love and attention they deserve. Bettie Off Dead is a bouting-retired skater who spends 100% of her time with us freshies training us to be the best level ones we can be. We also <3 Vicious but as an active member of Skate Free or Die!, she needs to have her own practice time too!

Bettie and Vicious train all of us, from the freshies who can barely stand up in their skates to the freshies who could probably pass level twos if they were given right away. They are super patient and if explaining things one way doesn't work, they turn things around and explain them differently.

While they get to give people the good news that freshies have passed their level ones, they also have to give some freshies the bad news that there are a few things that we still need to work on. Excuse the double negative but we don't not pass because they don't like us, rather, they like us so much that they don't want us to get our sternums mashed in until we're stable enough to take the hit. Sometimes that can fall out of focus. Assessments are there to keep us and the skaters around us safe!

The most awesome thing about Bettie and Vicious is that they never give up on people. After telling me (after I asked) on Thursday that I probably won't pass she says to me tonight at Recruitment Night that if there's the opportunity at practice tomorrow she wants to watch me zip around the outside of the track to work on my crossovers during hitting drills that I can't participate in anyway. She also offered to possibly come down from Manchester to practice with me at Roby on Tuesday night.

She's still gunning for me to pass on Wednesday. <3 Bettie. She made the little invisible wings attached to my heart flutter with hope tonight.

If you are an NHRD freshie and you are reading this, post it to your status (JK... I hate those things on Facebook). But seriously, if you are a current, former, or future NHRD freshie and <3 Bettie and Vicious too, please post some love here for them to read. :-)

A Tolstoy Novel

First, since there is certainly no excuse for not writing for 8 days, allow me to at least offer an explanation. Anyone who has participated in a roller derby bout as either a skater or a volunteer can attest to the amount of work that goes into preparations and the running of the actual day.

After the bout last Saturday I was pretty darn derby'ed out. No bones about it. The week following said bout was a derby filled week of practices, meetings, and post-bout cleanup. Already being derby'ed out, after more derby I didn't particularly feel like coming home and writing about derby. Anyhoo... I get the feeling that I am about to test the character limits of Blogger posts. I'll try to break this down a bit.

The Bout.
We all showed up at Manchester's JFK Coliseum around 12:30 on Saturday for team and league photos. We discovered that it takes a pretty wide shot to get 70+ skaters in it. Huge thanks to sports photographer Rick Lopez for covering the bout!

Before I joined NHRD I never had the chance to see one of their bouts. By the time KrushHer's poster for the last bout of 2009 registered in my brain, the date had already passed. I had no idea what to expect beyond a scrimmage on crack. I was coordinating stats for the evening - I usually arrange all the stats for scrimmages during practice so it made sense to do it for the bout as well.

For those who don't personally know me, I am an organizational nut. You'd never know from looking at my messy desk but when I work on a project I need to know exactly what is happening when, who is responsible for it, and ensure that I've got all my paperwork ready. I woke myself up out of a dead sleep the night before the bout because I realized that I had forgotten to make extra copies of the rosters. It is good to remember, for future reference, that printing 12+ sheets of paper at 2am does NOT wake Mr. Carnate up.

As soon as we finished the league and team photos I set about getting everything arranged for the "Stats Sexies" as they have been dubbed in our league. Clipboards, pencils, stats sheets, rosters, instructions where to bring everything at half time. I think it all went pretty well. I did position tracking so I didn't really get to flat out watch the game - this will come into play again later this post.

The Cherry Bombs played first in a 30 minute bout against CMRD's Petticoat Punishers. The final score was 17-40 CMRD. While we lost, we did much better than was had versus the same team in a scrimmage a few weeks earlier. Victory comes in all shapes and sizes.

Skate Free or Die! played in the headline bout against The Ironbound Maidens of the Garden State Rollergirls. We play and beat their B-Team, the Brick City Bruisers, twice last year so the league decided to take their game up another notch and play GSR's A-Team this year. They were definitely the A-Team bringing a lot of heavy hitters to the track. Doing position tracking I could hear the coaches saying, "their putting all their strength in the back!" and I could definitely see that. I am in absolute awe of the jamming skills of the SFOD jammers - May, Bandit, Chicana, Rosie, and Bam Bam, but they were pretty much shut down by the walls GSR was putting up.

A lot of people think that jammers make the game which isn't 100% true. I've heard it said by people in derby that whoever controls the pack controls the jam. I think this is closer to the truth. We have amazing jammers but because GSR had such tight control of the pack they had a hard time getting through to score. I know that I am definitely not jammer material so I only hope that someday I can learn to block as well as our top blockers and learn to work together with my future team as well as GSR did to form those impenetrable walls.

We kicked it up a notch in the second period - Chicana was on fire and earned MVP for it - but it wasn't enough and the final score was 117-33 GSR. Again, everyone skated their butts off, and victory comes in many forms. We are going to be fully sanctioned in WFTDA soon and frequently playing teams that are much better than us. From a PR/Marketing perspective, we have to figure out how to spin the fact that we had an undefeated home season last year yet we'll likely be losing a higher percentage of bouts this year into a good thing (because it is).

All in all, the bout was an amazing experience. We had over 950 fans in attendance which is a league record. While the JFK holds 1,600 and we didn't fill to capacity, we sold out of physical tickets early on and had to start marking peoples' hands with marker to prove their entry. My Dad and his girlfriend came, along with Mr. Carnate and my BFF but they're not in a rush to come back until I'm skating in bouts myself (no pressure... more on this later). I'm looking forward to helping to promote the 5/22 bout and breaking the 1,000 fan mark!

The Day After.

After spending about 12 hours in derby land and as much as I love derby, by Sunday morning when I woke up I was ready to take a bit of a derby vacation. It turns out that you can still burn out on something that you adore. Unfortunately, there was work to be done and a good chunk of it HAD to be done on the Sunday.

I woke up and went out for breakfast with Mr. Carnate. He had a hard time figuring out what was going on during the bout so I tried to explain it to him a bit better at breakfast. He wasn't particularly interested. When we got home I started the process of scanning all of the stats sheets from the night before to send out to the captains. 

I was asked to write up a bout recap for out 2/20 bout against GMDD and was asked to write one again this time. DNN is very particular about the content and style of writing that they want for submitted recaps. They are a self-professed sports journalism size, though they recognize that nine times out of ten the content the receive is written by someone closely connected to a league. They want their recaps concise, fluff-free, and filled with stats.

While I had all the stats sheets in front of me it so much easier to look at them in summary after they've been entered into the WFTDA stats book, which is really a giant, multi-tab excel spreadsheet. I spent about five hours loading almost all the stats information into the sheets. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming. The people filling out the rest of the stats sheets did an awesome job which made everything straightforward to enter.

After I loaded as much data as I could tolerate I took a break for a bit. I had until midnight to get it to DNN to make their weekend wrap up and I still wanted that derby break. I ended up taking a three hour nap and by the time I woke up it was time for open skate. With assessments coming up I didn't want to miss any skating opportunities so I went. I shouldn't have.

Open skate wasn't bad, but by the time I got home  it was pushing 9:30 and I still had 400 words of recap to write. Allow me to tell you that it's difficult to write a recap of a losing bout for a league which you are a part of. DNN is very strict in what they will and won't print and even if you write stuff like, "Team A gave it their all" they usually cut it. They don't want spin, they want facts. I spun things in our favor as much as I felt I responsibly could from a sports journalism perspective and finished both recaps at 10:45.

I put a shout out for the league looking for someone to proof it before it went in but I didn't get a response until Sin D. emailed me at 12:15. I had submitted it about 20 minutes earlier to meet the DNN deadline without anyone else in roller derby (I had Mr. Carnate look it over) reading it. I wish I hadn't (more on this later).

Monday Practice.

This week was scheduled to be an agility week. We ended up doing a "25 in 5" practice in the opposite direction, which kills me no matter what skates I'm wearing. The other thing about that drill is that I ALWAYS lose count. I think I did 11 laps which means that, even in the correct direction, I have a long way to go. 

My problem is that my leg muscles get so fatigued so quickly. Even going in the correct direction, the top of my left quad near my hip, gets fatigued from frequent crossovers within just a few laps. I guess if it's getting tired that means I'm using it at least. I'm try to reach my right leg across more when I crossover but I feel like I get tangled up in the flab on my inner legs sometimes. I've seriously considered wrapping them in plastic wrap to see if it makes any difference at all. We did some relays which are always fun. I continue to adore my new skates.

Tuesday. Ugh.

I think Tuesday ended up being the low point in my week. My recap went up on DNN that afternoon and got some negative feedback (and, to be fair, some positive as well). I was contacted personally with some pointed feedback about how the recap made our league look to potential leagues who could play us. It was never my intention to make our league look bad - I wasn't upset, I was outright embarrassed because, as I wrote two posts ago, I love NHRD.

In a misguided effort to do the right thing - I'm big on personal responsibility, if I make a mess, I should clean it up - I wrote to DNN and asked them to remove the recap, and to head off any other people who were potentially upset by the choice of words, posted a quick note to the league apologizing and letting them know that I requested that it be removed. I didn't want our league, or the leagues we played, to think I was dissing them.

It turns out that that was an even worse thing to do. My day, from about 1pm on, ended up being a continual downward spiral as the fallout from my unreviewed caption snowballed. We had a PR meeting that night and I knew that the issue would be brought up again. I headed right over to Jillian's after work so I could pre-game it for a little bit. I needed some adult refreshment after the day I'd had. The PR meeting continued the fun and it was productive, yet contentious at the end. 

My day ended with a drive home from Manchester in tears, wondering how much more positively I could have written a sports journalism piece on an ~80 point loss and still had DNN accept it. As it was, they edited out the key piece of information about this being the first time we played GSR's A-Team. PMS + work + recap brouhaha = no good very bad day. I contemplated writing to Trina and telling her that I wouldn't be at practice Thursday. I didn't know how I would react if people came up to me and brought up the recap again and I didn't want to embarrass the league any further.

Wednesday.

Continuing to feel like poop the next morning, I had a note in my inbox from Justice Feelgood Marshall, the managing editor of DNN. He said he'd written articles before that were poorly received by his league so he understood the situation and said that he would remove the recap, although he didn't like to from a journalistic perspective. He reiterated what it was that they were looking for in pieces and said that they were looking forward to my next submission. This made me feel a little bit better.

Later that night, I saw I had a missed call from our PR Director. I was kind of dreading calling her back because I figured that the recap wound would be reopened. Instead I had a really nice 90 minute conversation with her which helped me to better understand the history of PR in the league, and what the proper protocol, if you will, should have been in this situation. I still felt embarrassed about the whole thing but I was no longer afraid to go to practice on Thursday.

Thursday... assessments nearing.

Practice on Thursday was back at the JFK. Fortunately, none of my fears about being accosted over the recap came true although it ended up being a rough night for other reasons. We did the 25 in 5 drill again, this time in the correct direction. As always, I lost count sometime after 12. I was really trying to do crossovers on every single turn. I was doing them but this made my left leg crap out on me pretty quickly.

Bettie skated up next to me as I was rounding a corner doubled over. I swore at myself and said to her, "I'm not going to pass again, am I?" She shook her head - which, clearly, I knew - and said, "They're still not natural. We need to make sure that you don't need to think about them when you're getting hit" or something to that effect. While I know that not passing assessments isn't a mark against me personally, it still stung that I'm going to be spending another three months as "fresh meat".

After everything else this week it was the icing on the cake. I did a few more misty-eyed laps before the drill came to a close and managed to pull it together, at least on the outside, for the rest of practice. I wanted to ask Bettie for a meat sticker to put on my helmet. I didn't feel like I deserved the name if I was such a loser that I couldn't do something that basic. We spend the last portion of drill doing transitions (which I am crap at) and then having open freshie time to work on whatever we needed to for assessments. I couldn't do crossovers in the area, and even if I could my legs were pretty dead at that point. I went through everything else on the assessment and then sat down for some water.

I have nothing against any of the other freshies but it knotted me up inside looking at some of them that I knew would be passing on their first trip through. I envied them because they were able to make measurable progress in the eyes of the league. My family and friends, including my husband don't really want to attend any bouts until I'm skating in them which, at this point, feels like decades away. If it's going to take me six plus months to pass my level ones, how many years will it take for my level twos? I want to share my newfound passion with them but they don't seem particularly interested until it's something they can come and watch and that hurts (yet I sort of understand at the same time). So now the pressure is on. My goal is to be scrimmage eligible at the beginning of next season so there might be a shot of me being teamed sometime in 2011 but I don't know how realistic that goal is.

Sunday - Recruitment Night.

I wasn't going to loosen my trucks this week because I didn't want to still be adjusting to them for assessments. Now that I know I'm not going to pass I'm going to do them another half turn tonight. I can feel the advantage of having looser trucks, I just don't want to do them so fast that I am unstable all the time.

We have at least six or seven freshies already lined up for July. I honestly don't know where we're going to put everyone! Pixie put up the league photo from 2008 and we've grown probably 200% since then. it's pretty amazing to see!

Our next home bout is May 22nd at 6pm at JFK. If you're a local we'd love to see you there to help break the 1,000 fan mark!

I haven't forsaken you!

I promise I'll write tomorrow (Friday)! It has been a very busy, derby-filled week and in between sleeping, eating, real work, and derby work there has been no time to blog. *sad face*

It'll be a bit of a War and Peace post I'm afraid... so much to cover! The bout (amazing!), general derby happenings, and impending assessments (next Wednesday!). Grab a bag of popcorn and get ready to pull up a chair!

<3 Helen

I love NHRD

I just needed to say that. The more I think about it, the more I mean it. If I wasn't already married I would propose to the league.

Not only do I now have a physical outlet and a way to help me get in shape, but I have a mental/emotional outlet too. I love being able to immerse myself eyeball deep in promoting and growing such a wonderful league. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of something this amazing. Regardless of skating ability, I hope to be a part of the league for many many years to come.

Every skater, ref, and volunteer rocks my socks.

That is all. <3

PS: Don't forget to get your tickets for the bout tomorrow. Available online at http://www.nhrollerderby.com (pick up at will call) or at the door. 6pm. Be there or be vaguely square-shaped.

Off-Skates Derby

Most people think that roller derby involves dressing up in tutus or rufflebutts and knocking people around on the track. Not only is that perception inaccurate, it's flat out wrong. Roller derby is a LOT of work and, to quote my favorite movie ever (The Princess Bride), "anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something."

On top of knocking each other around in front of throngs of adoring fans there is a lot of physical preparatory work involved. There's league practices full of plyometrics, agility drills, endurance marathons, and scrimmages. There are also separate team practices to work on more of the same along with team-specific strategy. Skaters also often cross-train during their non-derby time to help get them in tip top derby shape.

As much work as there is on-skates, I think there is even MORE work to be done off-skates. Roller derby is a DIY, skater-run sport. Most of the time there are no owners, no managers, no paid staff to make everything run like clockwork. The skaters, after long days at "real" jobs, work together marvelously to do their derby jobs.

I am heavily involved in the PR/Marketing committee of NHRD. I absolutely love it. I am a marketing manager in my "real" job and I really enjoy being able to apply some of the same principles to derby life. It's my nature to be a bit obsessive so I'm trying to learn everything I can about sports-specific marketing, including buying a couple of books on sports promotion and attracting fans.

The non-skating roller derby work will completely take over your life if you let it/want it to. I probably spend two to three times more hours working on committee things that I actually spend skating in a given week. I WANT to be this involved, though. Some people prefer to do a little bit in a lot of different committees. I like to go head first into just one.

Completely on accident I have also fallen into a fairly substantial role within the stats committee. It started out by just doing stats during a scrimmage. Then, DKB was out for a couple of weeks and I stepped in to coordinate finding people to do stats. Now, I always coordinate scrimmage stats, scan the sheets the next morning and send them out to captains, bench managers, and coaches. I am also coordinating the stats during our home opener (with the help of the lovely and talented Dirty Kat Box).

My first love will always be marketing and PR. Without being too selfish, in addition to just really liking promoting, improving the perception, and increasing awareness of our league, it also looks darn good on a resume. I often find myself wanting to work on derby stuff at my job and I need to resist. Real jobs pay, which is important for maintaining my derby habit!

I would encourage people to consider the amount of work when thinking about joining derby. I'm not trying to discourage anyone, just help them realize that derby is what we make it. Just as we all want to take our skating to the next level, it takes a lot of off-skates work by the wonderful women involved to take the league as a whole to the next level.

<3 NHRD!

It's all in the hips...

I didn't particularly want to go to practice tonight. I was super duper tired and had a frazzley day at work. I just wanted to have a chill night. I did go to practice in the end and I am glad I did. I started out grumpy but ended up feeling pretty darn good, though pooped.

Tonight was a short practice for some reason so we didn't start until 8:15. We did 30 minutes of off-skates plyometrics to get us started. I always find myself in a dilemma with these because if I push myself during plyo, I'm jello for skating. If I take it easy then I'm OK for skating.

I decided to push it and earned myself a very sore bum. As difficult as plyo is for me I really like the way I feel after I do it. I need to make myself do it at home more often!

As predicted, I was jello afterward. We really only worked on one thing for the last half hour of practice - crescents. I had a lot of trouble with these when we first did this drill a few months ago. Now I know that my trucks were far to tight (they still could use some loosening) and I wasn't moving my hips.

Tonight I worked with Trina on these and something clicked. Maybe it was the trucks and maybe it was the fact that Trina said, "You won't turn if you don't move your hips". I turned my hips when I led with one foot and sure enough, I turned!

I still have a long way to go to really feel adept with these but this is the first time in a while that I've actually felt like maybe I do have the stuff to do this derby thing after all! I now have a new thing to work on at open skates so I'm pretty excited.

Lead with the foot.
Stay low.
Twist your hips.

I'm clearly built like a blocker and now I'm starting to grow the seeds of the blocker I may become. Good practice!

Seriously Slick

Dear readers. I promise this post won't talk about skates or foot cramps. Looking at my tag cloud certainly puts in perspective the amount that I've been blogging about that and you are all likely sick to death of it!

The JFK Memorial Coliseum has one seriously slick floor. Before I started derby I'd never been to an NHRD bout. I know that JFK was our home venue but I had never seen it or skated there. Everyone talks about how slick the polished concrete floor is there. They weren't kidding.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of a carpeted "safety area". At first this scared the crap out of me (what do I do when I need to rest for a few seconds because I feel like I'm going to fall down?). By the end of the night, however, I decided that it was a good thing. Being forced to stay upright in a "rolly" environment while resting will only help me work on balance and core strength. The floor was strange to me at first, I figured that at least part of it was the new skates, but by the end of practices I was used to it an I enjoyed the consistency (versus the heaved wooden moguls of Roller Kingdom).

Last night was supposed to be agility but it felt like endurance to me. I know that I am weak and I know I have a looooong way to go before ever being ready to scrimmage. One of the things I have a lot of trouble with currently are knee taps. Thursday night we did, what felt to me like, a half hour of knee taps. I don't have the strength in my legs yet to push myself back up from the ground.

To be fair to myself, I can't even do knee taps OFF skates so that's probably a good place to start. In basic training when someone would get in trouble, one of the Drill Sergeants' favorite things to have us do "Iron Mikes". You start at one end of a hallway. Take a step forward with one foot and then do a deep lunge to the floor. Stand back up and bring your feet together. Step forward with the opposite foot. Rinse. Repeat.

I could do them when I was 20. 10 years and more pounds than the general public needs to know later, not so much. I can't just will myself to do them instantly because that will only frustrate me. What I NEED to do is drop a substantial amount of weight - also something that doesn't happen overnight.

Both Mr. Carnate and I have added the "My Fitness Pal" app to our iPhones and are tracking the food that we eat. It's appalling to find out just how many calories grams of fat and sodium even supposedly "healthy" food has. It's a major relearning process that will take a while.

I'm also trying to do cross-training on non-derby days. I did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike doing intervals on Wednesday. I think I'll try a different program this weekend. It definitely works the derby butt muscles. I need to dig my elliptical out from the debris in the second bedroom so I can do more things that work my quads.

I feel like I'm close to being back where I was on the old skates (sans the foot pain I'm not supposed to be mentioning). Sin D came up to me last night and said that while I wasn't low enough in derby stance that I look more confident on my skates. I don't feel it but if other people see it then I guess that's a good thing!

Per Hazel's recommendation a few posts back I did my trucks a half turn before practice on Thursday and that felt stable so I'm going to do them another half turn at open skate this Sunday. We'll see how it goes!

And now for a skate centerfold shot taken with my new Nikon D70s camera! :-D

A Tentative Hallelujah

As much as I want to shed tears of joy and dance around the parking lot in my hot pink tutu that my skates are amazing I am going to hold back for a few more practices. The preliminary results from practice #1, however, are a tentative "hallelujah". :-)

For the first time in many practices I was not afraid to get out on the tracks as soon as I had my gear on. Lately I've been hesitant to do so because the sooner I started skating, the sooner my arches would feel like they were tightropes being sawed through.

They rub a bit on my ankle bones - more so on my right foot than my left which causes a little tenderness but that will change as the leather softens up and breaks in. I bought some terrycloth wristbands for my ankles to try to mitigate the pain but they just ended up riding up my legs (as Mr. Carnate predicted).

We did a brief session of "Skater Sister Says" followed by a "Diamond" drill - skating in the most efficient path possible around the track, crossing over the whole time. While I felt like I was getting back to where I was with crossovers on my old skates I had some of the faster skaters flying by me which made my confidence drop through the floor.

Afterward us Level 0's retreated to the freshie corral to work on slides and stops. Work in the freshie corral always involved a lot of standing - especially with 19 of us (16 newbies and 3 holdovers) waiting our turn to go. Toward the end of skating my feet started to get a little tender but it was NOT my arches. It felt more like my heels and the balls of my feet - the same place that gets tender after standing a long time in street shoes.

I ran into a little numbness so I am currently experimenting with lacing pattern #3 (Lace 1-3, Skip 4, 6, and 8, Lace 9-10). I'm also wearing thicker socks at the moment to help stretch things out a bit. I'm having Mr. Carnate help around the house because, while I want to get these broken in, I don't trust myself with a pan of hot sausage from the oven while skating around a teeny tiny kitchen.

First Date

I was nervous, but excited as I drove to south Nashua. I've been waiting for this day for weeks. We met briefly several weeks ago but haven't seen each other since. This has a very good chance of being extremely awesome but could still go horribly wrong after I've invested so much. We met at a shop and I was definitely infatuated... it remains to be seen if it will turn to love. There was the usual awkwardness of a first date but overall it was a pleasant experience. I'll definitely go on a second one!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have met my skates.

The above description may sound a little melodramatic but that was exactly what was going through my head as I pulled into the parking lot of the Bruised Boutique. Anyone who read my Facebook page today knew I was excited but I was more nervous than I was expecting to be. What if they didn't fit? What if I don't end up liking them? It's not like I can sell a pair of skates that are two different sizes!

The good news is that so far they are amazing. I wasn't going to skate tonight but fate tipped in my favor. There was a water main break on the road I have to take to get home so traffic was an absolute nightmare. I picked up my skates, called home and found out the traffic was still bad. Stranded in South Nashua at nearly 7pm. WHat could I do. There is only one thing...

Teen Night. *doom music*

I will refrain from ranting too much about teen night. It will suffice to say that it is essentially a roller skating rink packed full of half-dressed teenagers (parents - do you have any idea what your kids are wearing?) acting quite rudely with the foulest mouths I have ever heard (and after 6 years in the Army that's saying something).

Dee loosed my trucks one turn but after attempting to do some scissors on my first lap it was apparent that they needed more. I did them another half turn and switched over to double lacing (which I now see that I need to adjust as my right big toe is tingly as I sit here in skates). Better but still tight. I'm going to do another half turn before bed tonight, put my toe stops up a bit and then try them out at the substantially less busy adult skate on Sunday. The balance point is different so I was definitely a little wobbly, although I'm sure I will adjust in time.

All in all a great way to end the week - my first date with the skates. They're hotties. :-)

Jabberjaw

I will talk to anyone, anywhere, any time about roller derby. Fortunately I had the chance to do just that at the Nashua Telegraph's Every Woman Expo this evening. Myself, Roxie, StingHer, Tiara, and Hollywood were all there sporting NHRD gear. We had an amazing table with a great photo display, slideshow, posters and cards galore, and merch for sale.

This expo was substantially smaller in size than the Manchester WZID Women's Expo back in February. I would say the attendance was probably proportional, perhaps a bit lighter. Being a weeknight instead of a weekend day probably contributed to that. I really hope we can secure the funds to have a booth at the ZID show next year. It would be worth every penny for the league.

From 5-8pm I got to chat to people about roller derby. Attendees ranged from 16 to 86 - some wanted to skate with us, other wanted to ref and everyone agreed that a derby bout is a great evening out! I talked about what it was like just starting, how things are different than they sued to be in the 1970s, and the state of roller derby in the US today (nearly 400 leagues!).

In short. I talked. A lot. I would do it again as often as I needed to to promote this amazing sport and the way in can empower women and delight fans.

Before I went to the expo I stopped by the Bruised Boutique to get a pink tutu and some socks. I am going to need them for the league photo that we're taking the day of the home opener and I figured I could wear them tonight too. When I walked in, Dee gave me some news...

My skates are coming in tomorrow! My SKATES are coming in tomorrow. My skates are coming in TOMORROW!

SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

*composes self* So, yes. My skates are coming in tomorrow. I am going to pick them up after work tomorrow and probably will not take them off all weekend. I need to read up on heat forming leather boots using a hair dryer. I don't want to break my new playthings!

I am also spending the evening making signs for use at Saturday's season kick off party. A group of us will be parked out on the corner of Main and Canal in Nashua promoting both the league and the party at Penuche's. If you're local we hope to see you there. NHRD will be out from 3 to last call. 50 cents of every PBR purchased will go to benefit the league!

Round 2... ding ding!

Has it been three months already? Apparently so as our next freshie class began their amazing derby adventure last night. I still remember my first day vividly (no, I didn't read my first post to refresh my memory) - being late because I got wrapped up watching Lost; the 45 minutes of off-skates plyo that kicked my butt soundly; falling down and not being able to get up again.

I saw myself in some of those freshies. I saw the frustration at not being "better". I saw the nervousness. I saw the determination. I saw the desire to consume every piece of derby information they could get their minds on. It was awesome and definitely put a lot of things in perspective.

There were four of us skating last night that have not passed our level 1 assessments yet. We were asked to participate with the freshie classes rather than skate with the league. At first it might seem like a step back. Yes, I know how to plow stop, T-stop, knee-slide, etc. It never hurts to practice more in a controlled, observed environment though.

I have to say that skating with the freshies helped put what progress I've made in perspective. Three months is not a long time in the grand scheme of things. Three months ago I was where they are now, only knowing about derby what I'd managed to voraciously read.

I executed my slides (*LOVE* the new kneepads) and toe-stops with ease. Ease that I did not have three months ago. We did a very slow paceline drill. I used sticky skates the entire time. Three months ago I didn't know what sticky skating was. I tried to give encouragement to the girls who were falling. Three months ago I fell and couldn't get off the floor - even with Hazel and Bettie helping.

I heard that our attendance person tracked 70 people for attendance last night. Ho. Lee. Crap. There were 16 new girls last night - enough to make their own team! As was with the case with my class, the infusion of fresh meat (pun intended) really energized everyone from old stinky meat to slightly less than fresh meat. It was wonderful to see!

Going at a slower pace in drills also allowed me to concentrate more on what the heck is going on with my feet. I noticed during the pace line drill that I have to apply quite a bit of force to my skates to get the trucks to turn. Because my skates are so big on my feet my feet were actually pronating in my skates (tipping to the inside) and getting stuck that way.

I tried to shake my foot out while skating so it would shift back into proper position and when I stepped back down my wheels became totally tangled. I took a big header into the middle of the track right on my shoulder. I think I turtled up appropriately but the act of turtling jammed my right shoulder into my jaw making me see stars and giving me a sore neck today.

EDIT Hazel reminded me about a sentence I was going to write and spaced it. I plan to loosen up my trucks another 1/4 turn at open skate this weekend. It'll be an interesting experience getting the new skates adjusted when they arrive! /EDIT

I'm trying not to let the poorly fitting skates be an excuse for crappy performance but I can't WAIT to get my new ones. If the gentleman from Riedell had his lead times straight I'll hopefully be getting a call from Dee at the Bruised Boutique during the latter half of next week. SQUEE!

This Saturday is the NHRD season kick-off party at Penuche's in Nashua. I will be there from at least 3-9, maybe later depending on how I feel. I hope the day is BEAUTIFUL! I'm making a HUGE sign out of some cardboard that Kenya gave me and will be camped out on Main and Canal waving at people in my derby gear.

I hope to see you there and at our home season opener bout on 4/24 at 6pm. It's the Skate Free or Die! All-Stars vs. the Ironbound Maidens of Garden State and the Queen City Cherry Bombs vs. the Petticoat Punishers of Central Mass.