Roller Derby Practice Was Awesome!

Before I begin, I'd like to report that I do think the soft bushings were contributing to my recent endurance problems. The firmer bushings seem to help. This is great news!  I didn't just suddenly take a turn for the worse.  I overextended my ability to adjust to new equipment.  My feet cramp a bit more with the firmer bushings and I'm less maneuverable but I no longer feel like I'm going to die after two laps.  I guess my ankles just aren't up to the task right now.

Now, on to tonight's practice -- why is tonight so awesome?

It starts when I arrive and head to the restroom for my pre-practice pee. (With no air conditioning in a tiny bathroom wearing spandex, you'd better pee before you start sweating and you can't wriggle into/out of your clothes anymore.)  One of the girls is in there, at the sink. I turn to go wait my turn when she says, "oh, you can go on in. I was just trying to pop this zit."

I love these girls! They sweat and stink and have gross pads.  They drop their mouthguards on the floor and stick them in their helmets.  They are not afraid to get dirty, bruised and scabby.  They're real.

We do the warm-up.  It is the dreaded one where we sprint, then stop, then 'quick feet' back and forth.  This time we aren't doing it in lines of four, however, which helps me a lot because I can go a bit more at my own pace.  We start skating, and I'm going as fast as I can and I'm keeping up really well and am excited, then Val blows the whistle and yells, "Sprint!"  Oops.  I thought we were already sprinting.  Apparently the other girls were just skating at a regular pace.  At the whistle, everyone takes off.  I keep skating my version of a sprint as I get lapped.  At the next whistle, I stop and do the quick feet, which always causes cramps.  I ignore the cramps and keep going.  Another whistle, another sprint.  Another whistle, more quick feet.  I get through all of the stuff we're doing to the left.  Then we turn the opposite direction to repeat the drill to the right.  Skating to the right throws me completely off.  It's so odd. When we go that direction around the track, I'm back to feeling like I've never skated before.  This is probably why it's important to run some drills both directions.  In any case, at this point I'm so slow and awkward that I feel like I'm in everyone's way.  I stop to stretch and take a drink, then do laps on the outside of the track.  When they get to the quick feet part, I hop back on the track to join in.  I then skate around the outside of the track again.  In this way, I manage to technically make it all the way through warm up without collapsing or quitting.

The best part is after warm up.  We come to the center to stretch, and Val suggests we introduce ourselves because there are a few new faces.  At this point, I have selected a derby name and told it to my team, but I don't use it because I'm not a skills-passed-ed member of the team.  I'm not 'official.'  When my turn for introductions comes, I introduce myself as Ramona.  Val looks at me and says, "No, you have a name."  Marnie says, "We don't know Ramona."  For the first time, I introduce myself using my skater name.  Kaos. I feel a bit weepy about this.

To top it off, there is a special guest this evening.  In the interest of keeping this blog semi-anonymous, I won't say who she is or where she is from.  I will say that she is a member of an extremely elite derby league.  I will also say that she has been an amazing source of help and support to me.  I emailed their league a while back with questions about derby tracks.  She responded.  Since then, I've come to her for advice and skating tips, and also for support during these recent dark days.  She has been amazing, and I'm so pleased to see her here.  (Her family lives in our area so she was in for a visit.)  When I realize she is here, I decide I have to introduce myself.  Before I can do that, however, she comes up to me!  She recognizes my name and knows who I am and wants to meet me.  It it great to get to speak with her in person.

The rest of practice goes well.  Honestly, I'm quite lazy.  I chat with one girl about her classes.  I spend some time with two girls looking at the x-ray pictures of the pins in their broken ankles.  I do, however, work on my weaving, which is not suffering quite so much from the harder bushings as I thought it would.  I work on plow stops, at which I am still heinous and really need to put some time in to improve them.  I work some on booty blocking (yay) during which I almost had a tragedy.  Trying to block another girl, I slip and fall -- on my butt.  It's okay though.  I fell on my side, not my tailbone.  The girl I was blocking said, "Oh, shit.  Did you pick a cheek?  Is your tailbone ok?"  I tell her yes I sacrificed my left buttcheek and am fine.  That kind of puts a damper on booty blocking for the rest of the day, though.

Next practice I will not be lazy.  I've taken enough time to myself to rediscover the fun in practice.  I've taken enough time to let my tailbone heal.  It will kill me tonight and tomorrow but I'll live.  The summer heat has broken, so I do not have to worry so much about vomiting.  It's time to go back to the old mantra:  "Your legs don't hurt that bad.  You CAN breathe.  Keep going."