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!