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!