Off-skates and on.

Man, I am loving this summer holiday. OK, so I'm not loving the weather (coldest, wettest summer I've experienced in year and that includes the motherland!), but I'm loving having a lot of time to myself to set my own agenda and do my own thing.

Omar says go work out. Then watch The Wire.

OK, so my own thing seems to consist of watching The Wire for hours on end, checking the internet and drinking lots of black coffee, but there's also hours upon hours to EXERCISE.

It's so awesome, I don't know where to begin. I've discovered that my sense of guilt at letting a day pass when I don't get out the house to do something energetic to be overwhelming, so I've been able to fit at least an hour's worth of exercise in every day since NYE, usually double that.

Today was especially notable for being my first skate of the year, the first time I've (mostly) run any kind of fitness class, and I made a bit of a breakthrough with my triathlon training. so worth noting I reckon.

I woke up with no firm plan beyond this evenings "Off-skates funtime" event I'd planned. I figured a chance to get fit with some other skaters before the season starts would be fun for everyone and a good way to connect with new people. Having a few (many) hours in hand, I decided to go get my skate on. Oh, and there's a pool next to the only rink that's open? Better do some swimming too then...

The skates needed changing back to indoor wheels (weather's too crap, and there's a bootcamp this weekend), and because I couldn't resist I dicked around with the cushions and trucks as well.

Not pictured: trying not to drown

Swim went great, I'm really trying to focus on my freestyle speed and technique which is rusty as all hell after years of neglect. Today was interval training, 50m freestyle as hard as I could go, then 50m of slow breaststroke, times 6. Today's breakthrough was I can now stroke for 4 reps before needing to come up for air, and I can go pretty damn fast! Felt absolutely destroyed afterwards, the hardest part of doing interval training in this scenario is not drowning when you start getting out of breath and involuntarily gasping. Learning some breathing discipline as I go, hopefully this'll reap rewards come March.

After a coffee and half a One Square Meal (food of champions), it was onwards to the skate rink next door. There's something wonderful about an empty rink, it speaks of opportunities to go really, really fast. So I did.

Nice to know I can still smash out a decent time for the 25 laps (4:23 on my first go). The floor was GROSS (my wheels are filthy) and slippery as all hell but I can still do all the basics that I'll be helping teach this year which is pretty important.

After an hour tearing it up on the track, it was home for a small foods and then a quick run to the park for off-skates. I now know that I can carry a conversation for over 2km with someone on skates (admittedly someone who wasn't skating very hard!).

The off-skates session was fun and very informal. We did a run/power walk to warm up, then a load of core and abs exercises, some more cardio, and finished with a few yoga stretches which seemed to leave everyone in good nick. I'm quite proud of myself for suggesting, organising and running a fitness-based activity that people actually turned up to and seemed to enjoy. It says something about my fitness confidence (is that a thing?) so I'm now feeling happy and utterly knackered. Tomorrow should really be a bike ride and another run, two weeks of school holiday left and I intend on using up every square inch of them...

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

This is embarrassing...

...I'm too busy doing derby and derby-related stuff to find time to write it all up at the moment. Bout last weekend, Rocky Mountain Rollergirls bootcamp this weekend, NZRDT training next weekend, travel team/ league training Sundays and Wednesdays (three and a half hours a throw, folks), endurance training Mondays, bout on the 18th, committee stuff, and that's before real life and work....

This > real life

Yeah, sorry. Will write something sensible soon, promise. In the meantime, my photographer friend James Yang came to the bout against Alpha Beta Slammers and took some fantastic shots of the bout. Check them out here and here, and to whet your appetite there's a pic below of Mascara kicking some ass. While you're on facebook, like Mascara Massacre's fanpage! And then like Pirate City Rollers too, and our other teams (Dead Wreckoning and Alpha Beta Slammers)

Tinkerbash and Irn Bruja (yay me!) blocking in Mia Vendetta

I'm so sore from various trainings, shoulder checks and spending 8 hours today on skates (not to mention the HIDEOUS black bruise on my tailbone from a hard fall on Wednesday) that I can't actually lie down comfortably, apart from on my stomach (and who does that?).

I hit the metaphorical wall this afternoon though. Too hard a week (stupid real life), too many hurt bits (stupid tailbone) and too tired (stupid finding  hour training days a test of endurance) meant it became a battle of wills between derby me and real life me to stick it out to the end of the training. I did though, and I'm glad I did.

Made the gym twice this week to do my weights programme and upped a lot of my working weights (despite tailbone and the BRUISE OF DOOM), and have started running again to up my cardio fitness. Eating sensibly and probably not losing any weight, but that's OK. Can fit into a size M set of Derby Skinz without needing an assistant or a shoehorn, managing to eat better without losing control of it, and generally doing OK on that front.

Right, it's half nine. I'm up in ten hours so I can drive to the north shore and do ten hours of skate training with Frida Beater and Assault'n Pepa from RMRG, and then I shall pass out...until Monday. And work. And more training. Argh.



I love it really.