Things That Are Awesome

I was not in the mood for training tonight. Due to casts, cancellations and other failings it had been a couple of weeks since I'd completed a training, especially a scrimmage training. A wonderful friend baking me a cake for my birthday (thanks Tai!) and an apparent inability to get my arse out of bed and to the gym in the last week meant that I was feeling, shall we say, gross and lazy, and I was not in the mood to work out AT ALL. The weather was mince, and due to a failure to finish off the repairs to my car earlier (you need BOTH wipers going, right?) I was a bit late actually getting to practice.

However, then it all came right.

We started off with some straight-up, no messing, all-out endurance training. 5 minutes clockwise as hard as you can. 2 minutes recovery. 5 minutes hard out counter-clockwise, 2 minutes recovery. Repeat the entire thing. I confess to feeling a bit nervous. If I'm honest, I have not been keeping up with my fitness as much as I should have the last few weeks or so, I feel like I've lost momentum for various reasons (some legitimate, some total bullsh*t) and I was wondering just how I'd be doing in that last 5 minutes. So, I decided that today was a day for all-out knackering myself and tha tI'd count the number of laps of the track I did in the FINAL five minutes, just as a guide. I figured that if I got more than 20 I'd be acceptable.

I got 28. WOOOOOOO!!!!

This is great news. It's been a LONG time since I did a lap/time check (if you recall, I was obsessed at the start of the year before skills test, if only because I had a lot of rink time to myself and it was an excellent yardstick for fitness and form) and it was really good to know that I've still got it, especially when I was sharing the rink with the rest of the league AND had done three sets of them already. I feel like I've been given an incentive to get my ass to the gym tomorrow, very gratifying.

Scrimmage itself was outstanding tonight. It was REALLY hard, the other teams were not messing around tonight (not that they ever do, but we took a pounding), but it was so good, so intense, that I'm sitting at home wanting to do it all over again. I played blocker 3 and played jam after jam and was useful out on the track I think. Some nice positional blocking, and even tried some hits that actually achieved something (and lots that didn't). As a team we are gelling nicely, finding our roles and learning how to operate as a unit. Just under four weeks to go until our first bout as a team (and my first bout full stop) and I think we're going to do pretty well if we keep at it.

I have finally taken some April update pictures, but they're post-scrimmage, the light wasn't good and it crapped out on batteries so they are NOT GOOD. No matter though.

I'm not seeing much of a change from March, though the weight is holding steady at 79kg (weighing myself every payday, so that if it goes up at least I'm not skint and suffering). Going to get to the gym every day this week, and every day BEFORE work after next weekend when the hell of an 11-week term begins. Derby preserve us!