Six Laps

I have a LONG way to go before I am able to scrimmage. At practice today we started a tri-weekly tracking project. During endurance weeks we do lots of 2 minute sprints. We are now self-tracking how many laps we do in those two minutes. The laps are recorded for us to check against during the next endurance week.

I did six laps in two minutes.

Six.

In order to scrimmage I need to be able to do 25 laps in five minutes. I know I am badly out of shape and I know I need to lose a large quantity of weight. Correcting both of those things will go a long way to helping me haul my ass around the track faster, but I need to do better now.

The way I calculate it, I need to be able to do at least 11-12 laps in two minutes to make the 25 in 5. Inevitably I will slow down as the five minutes progress.It will be interesting to see if the new skates make any difference. I should have them by then. I can't wait to see what if feels like to skate in boots that actually fit!

Hello Visitors!

Ok... so I always post these blog entries on my Facebook and Twitter but I get visitors from states and countries I don't know people from.

To the visitors (not the scary, secret lizard kind) I'm interested in how you stumbled across my little blog. If you're a repeat offender what keeps you coming back? How are you connected to the wonderful world of roller derby, if at all?

Thank you for reading. I'm not trying to be nosy, I'm just intensely curious how people end up tripping across the blog.

<3 Helen

How awesome is Riedell?

After another frustrating, painful practice last night I came home and made a post on my Facebook page.

"I think it's time to visit a foot doctor. New skates are still 2-4 weeks away unless I can sweet talk someone at Riedell to make them faster! Foot pain is changing now. It started as a cramp but now it's starting to become sharp under my arch and just north of my toes if I flex my foot. Happens off skates too and I haven't been able to stretch it out. :-S"

The "Riedell" bit was tagged because I'm "friends" with their company's Facebook page. This morning, a couple hours after I got to work I received a direct message from someone by the name of Zach who worked for Riedell. He had been checking their account and saw that I had tagged them in a post.

He sent me a very nice note explaining that they have hit a busy patch and that any boots that are out of stock will have a lead time of about 4-5 weeks to get produced. Obviously my sweet talking failed but he did offer to check on my order if I gave him some details and see where it was at in production.

I sent him the basics on my order and thanked him profusely for his excellent customer service. A few hours later I got a message back that my custom boots (in two different sizes) are in the finishing department having the outsoles attached and that they would be finished in roughly 7-10 days. Tack on a few more for shipping and he estimates that they'll arrive in Nashua the week of April 14th.

Working in distribution myself I know there is likely a little flexibility in those dates but I'm still SUPER excited! You don't get that level of customer service most places these days so major props to Zach and the rest of the gang at Riedell for going the extra mile!

Going to do some super stretching tonight. Everything from my knees down feels really really unpleasantly tight. In fact, I am going to be good and go get on the bike for 30 minutes. The elliptiwotsit (as Mr. Carnate dubbed it a couple of years ago) is currently blocked in by four winter tires and the stock exhaust for his car. Sigh.


Even though I didn't have a very good practice last night I was very glad to see my NHRD sisters. I missed everyone loads while I was away!

Home again, home again...

It feels like ages since I’ve seen the lovely ladies of NHRD. It’s only been two weeks but it’s been an eventful two weeks and feels like a lot longer.

I received a text from my dad a couple of hours before heading to the airport last week to go to Philadelphia. “Grammie is not doing well. Go visit tonight if you can.” Unfortunately this was not an option. My paternal grandmother had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure late last fall and was given six weeks back then. Being the fighter she is she had managed to last six months.

I crossed my fingers and hoped she had enough fight left until I got back from Philly on Friday. I kept my phone with me during the entire trade show (which would have been much more effectively navigated on skates, by the way). I flew home late Friday night and went to visit when I got up the next morning.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and my grammie had been moved to the living room so she could enjoy the weather as much as possible. She was sleeping when I got there but my aunt woke her up to give her some more pain medication. She said in a hoarse, groggy voice, “Boy, I feel drunk!” It was one of the handful of cases where I got to see grammie being grammie for the last time.

My aunt asked her if she could see any angels yet. She opened one eye to look over and pointed at me and smiled a weak smile. She had lived a good, long life – it’s in the Giarizzo blood. She was 94 and her mother (my great-grammie) was 96.

I have her as big a hug as I dared in her fragile state when I left. I knew it would be the last time I did. I flew to Appleton, WI for work very early the next morning. No sooner did I land in WI and settle into my hotel room than I got a text from my dad, “Grammie just passed away :’-(“ Less than 24 hours after I saw her. I made it just in time.

I still went to skate with the Paper Valley Roller Girls that night to help take my mind off it. I knew it was coming and I knew that she wasn’t in pain anymore but it doesn’t really make it any less sad. I didn’t really think about it too much until just now as I type this, teary-eyed, as I wait for my connecting flight in Detroit.

The funeral is tomorrow morning – about nine hours after I get home. I’m looking forward to finding a sense of normalcy again; Seeing Mr. Carnate, working at MY desk, and of course, NHRD derby. Hopefully only a few more weeks until my skates come in!

I’m sorry for this diversion from mostly derby stuff… I just wanted to get this strange but fortunate sequence of events out of my system. We now return you to your regularly scheduled freshie story program.

Stranger in a strange land

Tonight I attended a practice with Appleton, Wisconsin's Paper Valley Roller Girls. Before practice I went to an open skate at Skater's Edge. It was substantially less busy than Roller Kingdom typically is. They have a nice, polished wood floor and I envied the fact that their derby track is permanent - tape that has been lacquered over!


PVRG is a WFTDA-AL which practices three times a week for two hours each. The league is comprised of A-Level and B-Level travel teams. They do most of their stretching while skating, versus NHRD which does most of its stretching in the middle. They have a head coach and, tonight, had another coach/manager off skates.

It was a small crew of about 12 skaters and two refs (the league has about 35 active skaters) so they had loads of space on the track for drills. Some of the drills that I remember include:

• Paceline weaving drill but the person in front drops back and weaves their way backward through the pack.
• Plow stop partner drill where the "blocker" was to literally sit on the jammer and come to a full plow stop
• Line hopping drill where they skated on the outside line of the track, hopping from foot to foot
• Jumping drill where objects of different heights were placed around the track and skaters jumped the biggest one the felt comfortable with
• "Awareness" drill where league packs up and the coach skates behind them holding up X number of fingers. The whole league has to look and call out how many fingers. Coach holds his hand in a different place each time.
• Group drill with four members. Two defensive blockers, one offensive blocker and a jammer. Defensive blockers go first and offensive blocker and jammer follow. Version #1 - OB sweeps DB to the outside to allow J to get through. Version #2 - same deal but DB get swept to the outside.
• Relay Race. Four groups, one in each corner. Each team member skates two laps and then hands off to the next skater.

They only scrimmage one night a week and they don't do stats for their scrimmages because I don't think they have enough leftover people. Everyone was very nice and friendly. They are expected to graduate from the apprentice program in June, just like us (SO EXCITING!) 
 
In other news, they had really good prices on wheels and bearings at the skate shop so I picked up a set of Radar Pures and Bones Redz for outdoor wheels. Also, the article that I wrote for the Greater NH Sports paper finally got published! It's cool to see my name and work in print! 

Potentially practicing with the Fox Cityz Foxz tomorrow night, then back to PVRG on Tuesday with an adult open skate on Wednesday night. Busy bee!

33 hours

I have arrived back home safe and sound from Philly... for 33 hours. I leave early Sunday morning for my company's corporate headquarters in Appleton, WI. I came home to be greeted by a very happy Mr. Carnate AND my new Rector Fat Boy knee pads!

I have 24" legs just above my knee and have had a HORRIBLE time finding kneepads that fit. While the XL fatboys are snug, they are completely adjustable with butterfly closure and extra secure velcro straps. What's even better is that they are ambidextrous so I don't have to worry about putting them on the wrong leg.

Off to bed now. Visiting my grandmother tomorrow, trying to keep it together, and preparing for trip #2. Back in the land of NHRD on Friday.

Leaving on a jet plane

Indeed... I will not be back at an NHRD practice for two whole weeks. I am traveling for work over the next week and a half. I'm heading to Philly for a couple of days for a trade show this week. I'm home for a day to do laundry and sleep in and then early Sunday morning I'm off to my company's headquarters in Appleton, WI.

While I will be far too busy in Philly to get any skating in, I have made contact with both WFTDA-AL leagues in the Appleton area and am hoping to practice with both during my five days in Wisconsin. The Fox Cityz Foxz and the Paper Valley Roller Girls have both seemed very nice thus far.

I will be bringing my skates and basic gear so I can at least skate at the two open skates that are around. I plan to take lots of notes on what other WFTDA-AL leagues do for training, PR, etc... since we're in NH and they're in WI it's not like I'm engaging in espionage or anything. They will both be a different WFDTA region when we all graduate from the apprentice program.

In other news... the skates were ordered today (4-6 weeks) and my kneepads should be arriving tomorrow. Yippee!

The league found out the results of the votes on team names at the league meeting last night. The B-Team is now the Queen City Cherry Bombs and the home teams are the Granite Skate Troopers and the Seabrook Meltdowns.

We've announced a public contest to design the three team logos. Each winner will receive a pair of 2010 season tickets. I'll update this post with a link to the press release once it's posted on the NHRD website. This is open to artists anywhere (we could probably arrange a different prize if season tickets aren't geographically possible).

Also... don't forget to get your tickets for the home opener double header with NHRD's Skate Free or Die! All-Stars versus the Garden State Rollergirls' Ironbound Maidens and our Queen City Cherry Bombs versus Central Mass Roller Derby! Tickets can be purchased online for $8 or at the door for $10. Don't wait! We're expecting to sell this one out!

I'll try to sneak on here during my travels and give people the scoop on my interleague adventures. Until then, see you in derby land!

New kneepads!

I have been on the hunt for knee pads that would fit my "big girl" legs since at least January. I bought Protec Streets because they were cheap. They never fit particularly well but the more I wore them the worse the fit got. Because I can't close the bottom strap around my calf they constantly slide down. The top strap constantly rolls and cuts off circulation to the back of my legs.

I have tried on XL 187's, Triple 8's, and even some custom knee pads which I was | | this close to ordering. I had heard that Rector Fat Boys were great for larger girls but I'd never had the opportunity to try them on. One of the soon-to-be freshies had some that I tried on at open skate tonight and they FIT!

I got home from open skate and immediately ordered some. They will likely arrive while I'm traveling for work but I can't wait to try them out when I get back! :-D

A big commitment...

Back in October when I first purchased my gear, I didn't want to get the bottom of the barrel gear but I didn't want to drop $500 either. I was only about 99% sure this was something I would want to do. At this point I am at 110%. Even if I reach the point where I can't bout I can see myself reffing and/or volunteering for a long time to come.

That being said, I spent half of Thursday's practice in near-tears because I was just so frustrated with my feet. Up until that point I had never felt like maybe I just wasn't cut out for this. I didn't like feeling that way. Not one bit.

My friend Lara, who will be joining with the next freshie class, was going to the Bruised Boutique to pick out her gear. I decided to meet her there and start down the path to getting new skates.

After measuring my feet it appears that I am wearings skates that are a size and a half too big for my feet! My right foot measured a size 6.5 and my left foot measured a sized 7.5. The problem is that I'm wearing size 8 skates now!!

Other weird foot things... the backs of my ankles don't have as much of a dip in them as "normal" heels do which is why the stock skates I was trying on felt like they were smooshing my Achilles tendon. My right arch is noticeably higher than my left arch.

This all led me to decide to go whole-hog and buy a set of custom made skates from Riedell. I'm going with the 265 (left image) boot which has a lot of built in support, and is a lot thinner than the boot on the Vixens (top image) that I currently use. The size change alone was amazing when I tried on the stock boots.

Because the size change is so dramatic I won't be able to use my PowerDyne Triton plates. If I'm going to do this I may as go all the way so I upgraded to PowerDyne DynaPro plates. Apparently they're slightly lighter than the Tritons and I'll be able to push my toe stops in a bit more.

This will all pinch my wallet but I have made the commitment to stick with this derby thing until I medically can't and when I medically can't I'll STILL be involved. I need to be prepared that I will still experience some level of pain in the new skates but I am hoping that it won't be nearly so bad. I should find out how much the damage will be and how long they'll take to arrive on Monday. Can't wait!

Recruitment Night!

NHRD had an AMAZING recruitment night tonight at Roller Kingdom.We had seventeen potential freshies show up and I personally know of two who were not present. That makes 19 if everyone joins. That's almost a full 20-person roster team! :-D

Not only did we have 17 newbies, we have more than 67% of the league skaters showed up! It was so awesome to see so many derby people together in public representing the league.

I got warm fuzzies thinking about how excited all the new people must be - I know I was when I started! I can't wait for April 5th... it's going to be such a great, energetic, shiny, happy-vibe practice! I have no idea where we're going to PUT everyone!

I also had the opportunity to try on a couple of different people's skates. I tried May's Hellcats and Bettie's 122's. I definitely like the all-leather boot. It feels so much less bulky than my Vixens! I'm going to try to get down to the Bruised Boutique shop this week and try on some skates. I'll shell out the extra money to get boots in different sizes if I have to.

Skate considerations from one freshie to another...

So... I am in no way an expert in skates but there are a few things I wish I had considered when I was buying my skates. I was so excited to be buying my derby gear that I tried on one skate and bought it. I wish I'd taken a little bit more time and tried some additional boots on.

Leather vs. Synthetic. My current skates (Riedell Vixens) were manufactured in China using synthetic material. They were on the cheaper end (under $200) and have a considerable amount of padding. After trying on thinner, all-leather skates I am in love. It felt so nice to not have the extra bulk around my feet.

Foot shape. I have skinny feet - I always have. In my rush to buy skates I didn't stop to think how my foot feels when it's sloshing around inside the boot. Skates come in men's sizes only at this point and men's feet are shaped differently than women's feet. I should have gotten a boot with a narrower heel to account for my skinny feet. Think about the shape of your foot and get a boot that works for your foot shape.

Plate material. This was sort of a no-brainer for me, given the size girl that I am. Plates are commonly made out of nylon and aluminum. If you're little, you should have no issues with a much lighter nylon plate. If you're big, or tall you will need to get an aluminum plate as soon as you start hopping/jumping (it happens sooner than you'd think!).

The moral of the story is, don't rush into buying your first skates unless you're not 100% sure you want to go all the way with derby. If you're just testing the waters then go ahead and get a cheap skate with the understanding that you'll probably end up buying a nicer pair once you're hooked and have gotten used to the derby style of skating.

A pint down...

I gave blood for the very first time today and it didn't involve a skate to the face or a toothpick-sized splinter. Today NHRD sponsored a blood drive with the American Red Cross of Manchester, NH.

I had tried to give blood once before while I was in the Army but was turned away because they couldn't find a suitable vein. They may have been onto something because it took my 19 minutes to fill my little bag of blood (the ARC worker said that it normally takes 7-12 minutes).

I had done my homework in advance. I popped multi-vitamins, ate lots of spinach and red meat (I know, twist my arm, right?) and tried to drink lots of water. I passed all the screening questions, though I was nervous that they would chuck me out because Mr. Carnate is from the other side of the pond.

They sat me down in a lovely lawn chair where I proceeded to relax while two technicians poked around both of my arms. In the end, it took a very patient tech to hold the needle at a precise angle to get things to flow at a reasonable speed.

It was so great to see how all the women of NHRD came out for this. Although our goal had been 50 units, we racked up a total of 37 units and a couple of platelet donors. 12 of the 37 units came from NHRD skaters; many of whom, like me, were giving for the first time. I blame the absolutely GORGEOUS weather on the lack of donors.

After I had donated and recovered, Hearty and I took our bout date banner (which is ten kinds of awesome) down to the corner of Bridge and Mammoth in Manchester to wave at cars and try to attract some attention. Heart had brought her gear so she suited up. I think her hot pink helmet helped us get noticed.

We had lots of people waving back, honking, and smiling at us. After an hour or so I could tell when people were mouthing the words, "roller derby". I can only hope that some of those smiles, honks, and waves translate into warm backsides in the stands at JFK in April!

Tomorrow night is recruitment night. In contrast to how terrified I was for my first recruitment night, I am SO EXCITED about this one! It sounds like we'll have a ton of league members there to greet the 16 - yes that's S-I-X-T-E-E-N - potential freshies. My class had 10 and everyone thought THAT was huge!

I think the injection of fresh blood into the league will have a huge effect. I remember how energized everyone seemed when my class started, granted it was also the beginning of our first season affiliated with WFTDA as an Apprentice League!

It sounds like the Charities committee has some more blood drives lined up. I'm looking forward to donating again unless the techs run screaming from me! :-P

Pep talk

I needed one last night, big time. The last couple of practices have been hard on me, psychologically. My arch pain has been taking a toll on my ability to complete drills lately and I was sort of feeling like I'm never going to be able to move forward and that everyone thinks less of me because I keep having to drop out of drills.

We started off doing a pace line drill (which always kicks my butt anyway). We had to line up and then the first person in line sprints around the track to catch up to the back of the line. It will suffice to say that I am definitely NOT jammer material at this point in time. I was trying out an ankle bootie that wasn't working well with the new Superfeet insoles that Trixie was having me try.

Bettie sat down with me after another pace line drill (pushing and pulling) when my feet were SCREAMING and offered to take a look at them. She has some experience working in an industry that used to do custom orthotics. The verdict was that I have wonky feet (shocking, I know). The foot exercises that people have been given me won't fully help because it sounds like my feet are crooked.

I had an encouraging chat with Bettie after she finished squeezing my smelly feet. As I mentioned above, I have been really frustrated the past couple of practices. I know I am making progress, but I feel like my feet are holding me back from making further progress at the moment. Betty said that I need to have patience because I need to let my body catch up with the rest of me in terms of muscle strength and endurance.

Empress told me a few weeks ago when I was having major back issues that the hill I have to climb is probably a little bit longer and a little bit steeper than the hill that the other freshies were climbing so it will seem like I'm going slower, but really I just have a longer way to go.

When I started eight weeks ago, the thought that I would ever be able to skate around even a single cone on one foot seemed preposterous, yet I did it last week. I didn't think I was going the be able to push a line of four ladies around the track once but I did it yesterday (granted, I needed to take my skates off after but I still did it).

I was worried about the "football drill" that PutUNya had us do while Bettie and Woody laid the track because I have such a hard time getting up off the ground, but I did it, albeit slower than everyone else. I was on the floor and had to stand up at least 10 different times but I did it. I couldn't push myself off the floor at my first practice.

I feel like I slow everyone down. I feel bad for whichever line I'm in during relays because I'm slow and make us lose. I feel guilty being the last one to make it across the track during stepping drills because everyone is waiting for me so they can work on what THEY need to do.

I need to get over it. That's going to be hard for me.

I know I won't have a good practice every time, I just don't like having several bad practices in a row. Yesterday actually turned out OK as we got to work on some freshie stuff in the corral while everyone else did contact drills.

I think I'd like the opportunity to work on some stuff in a smaller group without the pressure of knowing you're in the "slow group" on the track - something like pack skating with the five of us non-contact people in the corral with speeding up and slowing down. There are few other things that are components of larger drills that I wish we n00bs could do mini drills with.

Thank you to everyone who has given me feed back or advice so far for my feet. I'm doing combinations of all of these in an attempt to get to the bottom of this foot thing. Part of it is strength and I'm just going to need to tough that out but another part is variable.

In other news, it sounds like I'll be skating with the Fox Cityz Foxes WTFDA-AL when I'm in Wisconsin in a few weeks. They know I am non-contact so it'll be interesting to see what other groups are like.

Blood drive Saturday and then a very exciting recruitment night on Sunday - we may have up to 14 new people in the next freshie class in April! :-D