Skating! And Coaching!

After a lot of thinking and deliberating, I decided to ignore the advice of a medical professional and try out my skates at one of the fresh meat training sessions. After my successes on the bike, on foot and in the pool my leg felt pretty good and I figured the worst thing that would happen would be it would hurt too much and I'd have to take them off. As I'd lent them to someone to try out I had to wait for them to turn up at the rink. By the time they arrived I'd worked myself up into a little ball of nerves and stress. What if it hurt? What if I freaked out? What if someone hit me? When they finally arrived I had an overpowering urge to go and be by myself. I'm aware of the whole "get straight back on the horse" cliche that gets trotted out in times like this, but this was harder than other times I've hurt myself and just carried on. People kept talking to me (sorry if you were one of them) but I was pretty unresponsive and monosyllabic, being focused on Not Fucking This Up.

Hitting the rink was great though. It hurt a bit initially as my ankle settled into a new sensation, but after five minutes I had carefully set caution to the wind and did some fast laps. I may even have whooped in sheer exhilaration of being back on the track. There's something special about the feeling of going fast and low on skates that I've never felt on any other kind of transport, either self-powered or mechanical. You almost feel like you're flying at low altitude, no uncomfortable saddle, no cage around you, nothing beneath you but eight tiny wheels and the floor zipping past. The feeling of relief that I could still do it like I'd never been away was tremendous. 

There's a couple of things I can't do, knee falls are hard because of the flex required in the dropped ankle (found that out the hard way) and jumping is going to take some time, but it will happen. 

Just to make the weekend's derby-related happiness complete, yesterday I took my first-ever fresh meat coaching session on my own. When I signed up to take it I wasn't sure if I'd even be on skates, but I managed to go the whole two hours (ish) without pain or other incident. It was so much fun! I focused mainly on endurance training and taking the time to watch and feedback on each skater's stance and stride. There were TWENTY people who were happy to turn up to a Saturday afternoon session (so inspiring!) and everyone dug in and worked hard. I was so proud of all of them, especially when we did 25 laps. Quite a few got PBs and a couple got below the magical 5 minute mark. Given the amount of work they had done that day it was quite an achievement. 

What a Derby Cake of Win looks like
(from Charm City Rollergirls)

The final cherry on the derby Cake Of Win was at the end of the coaching session. As I'd lent my helmet to another skater, I hand't been on the track much (but had been on my skates the entire time, skating round the middle like a ref so certainly doing SOME exercise). By the time the freshies had finished their laps, I was aching to get out there and try it myself. Could I do it in under five minutes? Hell, could I do it AT ALL? As everyone else was stretching I threw caution to the wind and asked one to hold a stopwatch and the other to do some counting, and off I went. 

I'd told the class about muscle memory and the almost automatic stride you can have when you've practiced enough. Even after nearly three months, that stride was still there, in my bones, my muscles, my body. I barely felt the laps pass. My time was 4 minutes and 23 seconds, the second fastest time I've done at Papatoetoe. 

During this whole boring, painful saga I've changed my mind a few times on derby and my future in it. Not long ago I was convinced my skating days were over. Too many injuries, too much hard work, too much commitment. Now? I'm feeling way more positive about the whole thing. I'm thinking of my goals for next year, how much time I feel I can really commit to the sport, what I want out of it. But yeah, I think I'm staying with derby for now