Blog or Get Off the Pot!

Damn, y'all. I can't believe it's been 2.5 years since I posted. Is anyone still reading this?

So much has happened since the last time I posted on my blog. I successfully campaigned to bring back Sick Town's B team, the Dis-Orderlies. We were a team for about a year and a half, and then in fall, 2014, Sick Town debuted its three home teams (of which the DOs was one). Unfortunately, we also lost our practice space in 2014. We lost a bunch of skaters for various reasons. We didn't have practices at all in December, January or February.

Fast forward to today: our advanced skater pool has shrunk to the point that everyone who passes minimum skills is on the travel team. I'm on the WFTDA charter, which is not something I ever expected to happen again. Last week, I passed all of the (new) WFTDA minimum skills, except for the 27 laps in 5 minutes.

I was able to stay in for the first 5 or 6 laps, and then I started thinking about how my legs were burning. Literally, as soon as I started thinking about that, I started slowing down, and dropped out. Lame!

This week, I tried a multi-pronged strategy. I listened to music on my iPod (for me, the two songs were "Here it Goes Again" by OK Go, and "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus). I skated right behind Bones, and I had Boxxx skate right behind me and cheer me on/be ready to yell at me not to quit.

I was never tempted to quit. I had the music distracting me from my legs. I also thought, "You have to want this more than you want your legs not to burn." (I was never in actual PAIN. I wouldn't push through injury.) After we were done, Bones told me that I had actually done 27.5 laps in 5 minutes!!

My personal best is 28 laps in 5 minutes, but lately, 27 has been a real struggle. I think today proved that it was largely mental (also, my crossover and form are not that great, and believe me when I say those will be things I will be working on now).

So, if anyone reading this is struggling with 27 in 5, see if your trainers will let you listen to headphones while you skate. Having a good pump-up song going can really, really help.

And now ... I'm on the freaking travel team! I'm a Sick Town All-Star! Holy crap.

My goals for my next year of derby: work on form. Work on that crossover. And also, learn to do a backward crossover. I would like to still be travel team material when we get our numbers back up.