A bit of progress...

Today started the fourth week of derby practices. That means we've cycled back around to endurance training. On endurance weeks we spend the first 30 minutes or so of practice doing plyometrics - squats, lunges, mountain climbers, iron mikes, and all sorts of other hellish things that one day won't be quite so hellish.

We did a loooooong drill called "The Black Widow". If it sounds ominous, that's because it is. 30 minutes (apparently it's *supposed* to be 45) of non-stop skating. Things get mixed up - sprints, figure eights, sticky skates, squats,knee-touches - but you're going for 30 minutes. Correction: you *try* to go for 30 minutes.

I made the mistake of putting my Dr. Scholls arch support doohickeys back in my skates thinking they'd help my feet. They didn't. In fact, they made them cramp up faster than ever before. After only a few minutes of skating I had to stop, pull them out, and flex my feet until the cramps went away. The damage had been don't though as my feet were mostly cramped all night. I'm sitting here sipping chocolate milk and writing this and they're still somewhat cramped!

I ended up having to stop a few times during the drill. The good news is that it wasn't because of my back *small victory*. The bad news is that I had to stop. My goal for the next endurance week (three weeks from now) that I won't have to stop during the drill. I tried to concentrate on skating low but keeping my torso more upright to ease the back cramps I've been having. It seemed to work, although the three advil I took an hour before practice may have contributed as well.

The back thing I know will be ongoing until I get into better shape. My immediate stumbling block appears to be transitions. I can skate forward and I can sort of skate backward, but moving between the two is eluding me. I seem to be able to do them while standing still but as soon as I try them while rolling I just end up stopping myself. I guess I have my work in open skates cut out for me for a while!