Tales of a 40-Year-Old Derby Girl

Rollercon 2011

2011-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

I have such a love-hate relationship with Rollercon. There was a lot more love than hate this year, though. Overall, everything was much better organized this year. There was a lot less waiting in line for classes -- in fact, the only time I had to wait in line was when they had run out of tickets but still had some spaces in the class I wanted, and even that was only for 45 minutes. Otherwise, it was show up early, get a ticket, and then go have fun until class time. Great job, Rollercon!

We got into Vegas three hours later than we expected to, because our flight was delayed. Baggage claim at the Las Vegas airport took more than an hour (WTF, Vegas?) so by the time we got to the Riviera, it was about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. We went to the pub for drinks (for some reason, the Riviera has a British pub) and then to bed.

Tuesday was an easy day -- grocery shopping, early bird registration, and lounging by the pool.

Wednesday was the first day of Rollercon. I got downstairs at 9 a.m. and went to line up for my first class. I was there for maybe a couple of minutes when Rex Havoc (awesome ECRG blocker and Rollercon volunteer) walked up and handed me a ticket, and said I didn't have to wait in line. Since I remembered what last year was like (long lines, and then maybe you got your class and maybe you didn't), I was pretty gobsmacked.

First class was "Feet Don't Fail Me Now," taught by Jack Hammer (coach of the Lake Tahoe derby league). It was *great* -- it was the most active class I took all week, and I got to do a lot of cool footwork stuff.

In the afternoon, I skated in my first challenge bout: Robot Chicken vs. Family Guy. I was on Robot Chicken. We were probably going to lose, judging by the score and by the fact that the Family Guy team just had better teamwork than we did; but then the floor started falling apart and the refs called the bout after about 15 minutes (of a 30-minute bout). The floor was sheets of plywood laid on top of carpet, with Skate Court (interlocking plastic flooring designed for skating) laid on top of that. The plywood sheets started drifting apart, and it was definitely not safe to skate on.

After that, I got in line for my second class of the day: Blocking Combinations with Iron Maiven (of the L.A. Derby Dolls; she was portrayed by Eve Bell in the movie "Whip It," and she also had a small role as one of the Manson Sisters). She was really cool and definitely knows her stuff. This class was a little less intense than the other one, but I still learned a lot. There were a lot of STDD and Cherry City girls in the class, which was cool. Edie Disorder said my booty blocking isn't as bad as I think it is. Yay!

Thursday ... God, what the hell did I do on Thursday? I had my second challenge bout, Medium Rare vs. Leafy Greens. I was on Medium Rare; we lost, and again, I think it was due to superior teamwork by the Greens. The bout was in the morning. I tried to take a class, Ninja Blocking, in the afternoon, but my back was hurting and skating was making it worse. D'oh. I did sit and take notes on the rest of the class, though. Thursday night we walked to the Bellagio and saw the fountain. It was pretty cool. The Strip was just as grody as last year, though it's pretty good for people-watching.

Friday, I was feeling overwhelmed by the social aspects of Rollercon (people everywhere) and I wanted to get away from the Riviera (which is kind of a low-end casino and was starting to depress me a bit) and the Strip. My friend Rayda came and picked me up, and we wandered around some non-Strip Vegas. The highlight, other than meeting Rayda in person and hanging out with her, was this little frozen custard stand called Luv It that is apparently a Vegas institution. The almond chip ice cream was *fantastic*. Next year I am dragging everyone there at least once.

Friday night was the Black and Blue Ball, which is not my kind of party (my kind of party involves a small group of friends, board games, pizza and a bottle of wine). It was hot as hell, and outdoors by the pool, and hella crowded once it got going. I didn't last too long. Everyone (including the Rollercon website) says you have to wear black or blue, but I don't think anyone actually gave a shit, and I know at least one person who wore tan. (shrug)

Saturday morning was my final challenge bout: Green Horns vs. Fresh Meat. There were four Sick Town girls on my team (Green Horns): me, Flash, Tuna and F.U. Bones was our coach. Early on, we were down by maybe 20 points, but after that we started doing a lot better, shutting down their jammers and getting ours through, and we ended up winning by something like 15-20 points (I don't remember the exact score). Bones said we did a good job of listening to her and doing what she told us to do, which is awesome. There was one jam where all four Sick Town girls went out as blockers, with a girl from another league as jammer. We rocked it! It was really cool being out there with my teammates.

Saturday was also my final class: Baby Got Back, with Quadzilla. For the non-derby people reading this, Quadzilla is a rock star of the derby world. In his words, he has been skating since he was an embryo, and it shows. He's just freaking effortless (well, I mean, he obviously makes a lot of effort. He *looks* effortless). I saw him in a challenge bout, and he was jamming, and two of his blockers were in the box. The two blockers he had, weren't all that effective. Didn't matter. Quadzilla just cut through the pack like a hot knife through butter.

The class was booty blocking, and using your butt and back to block. That's awesome, because those are skills I definitely need to work on. We did some cool drills, a lot of which I actually remember.

Saturday night was the Bay Area Derby vs. Mile High Club bout, which we watched from a skybox. That was kind of cool, though thanks to the position of the boxes and of the track, we couldn't see the near apex at all so we kind of missed a lot of the bout. But what the hell. I was surprised that Bay Area (a nationally-ranked team) didn't have better teamwork than they did. (Mind you, they could totally wipe the floor with me.) After that was the derby wedding, which is kind of silly but fun. Boxxx and Bones got married, and all of us Dis-Orderlies (me, Tuna, Flash, D Train and Chelle) wore our jerseys and booty shorts and were their bridesmaids.

And then Sunday morning we caught a shuttle at 5:20 a.m., flew out at 8 a.m., and were home by 11:30 a.m. I'm glad I went to Rollercon, but I'm also glad to have it in my rear-view mirror. I'll probably go next year.

That wasn't so bad ...

2011-07-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the big scary team tryouts evaluation that had me all chaotic and twirly all week. And it ... wasn't that awful, really. I hope I can take a lesson from that, and not freak completely out next time.

I don't know how I did -- I don't know when they will send out scores, but I can't imagine it would be this soon. I know I didn't totally tank it. In the speed trials, I was the slowest -- but not by a ridiculous margin. I was pretty close behind the next fastest girl. I got through the weaving pace line, I managed to keep up with the two-lap-lead pace line for more skaters than I usually do, and when I fell on my ass -- hard -- during a hitting drill, after taking a moment to get my breath back I rejoined the drill. So that's all good. Not good enough to be put on the SMASH Unit, but (in my opinion) good enough to show that I deserved to pass minimum skills.

I had some duh moments too, like when I was in a three-person blocking drill with Pus as jammer, and I was totally in Pus' way, and I *GOT OUT OF HER WAY*. Why? Why did I do that? Honestly, I think I know. But it's no less dumb. I was on the line (which, if you are on the inside line as a blocker, you are not supposed to give that line up for ANYTHING). I thought I was keeping my co-blockers from hitting Pus out, and if I got out of their way, they could hit her out. (I was not managing to hit her out obviously. This is NOT a criticism of anyone else, OK?) So I politely step out of the way, and Pus zips past me on the inside line, and my co-blockers somehow manage not to smack me upside the head for being a dumbass.

Lesson: never, never, never give up the damn line. And if you are in the jammer's way, STAY IN HER WAY!

OK, but there was something awesome too. We were doing jumping and cone weaving. The cones were set at the edges of the track. I did fine weaving them, though now I need to work on being able to do it faster. I did fine on the one-footed jump (I think) -- probably not pretty, but I jumped it. There were there obstacles set up to jump two-footed over: Pwny's gear bag (which is probably about 10 inches high and 10 inches wide, maybe 2 feet long), two 6-inch plastic cones, and a low plastic cone (maybe 2 inches tall, tops).

I went through several times and jumped -- credibly -- over the low cone. Shankee was doing the same thing. Finally, we were in line, and we looked at each other and I said, "We can jump that gear bag." And Shankee said, "I know. Let's do it." The next time through, we both jumped over the gear bag. It probably wasn't pretty -- I know mine wasn't. Pus said I didn't completely clear the bag. The second time I jumped it, I did, though I still didn't keep my feet together as I went over. So, I'm sure I didn't get the full three points for that one, but I jumped the fucking bag!

Overall, I feel like I worked my ass off, I did some things well and I showed that I need to work on other things, I certainly did not qualify for SMASH, but I did show that I deserve to be where I am. So, I feel good.

More testing? Whimper.

2011-07-13T23:19:00.000-07:00

I don't get test anxiety, at least not for school-type tests. Math tests, SATs, essay tests ... I'm fine with all of that stuff.

Roller derby tests, on the other hand, freak me right out. I'm not a natural athlete; I've never tried out for a team. I guess the closest thing (that I've done before) to minimum skills testing, or the team tryouts that popped up this week, would be theater auditions. And those always freaked me out too.

I think what really gets to me is the idea that I'm going to be judged on a snapshot of performance. That, and I simply don't have the kind of confidence in my physical skills that I have in my mental ability. I know I'm smart. But in derby, I feel like a special ed kid.

Anyway, tonight at scrimmage Brick was taking notes on how we all did. She was looking for offensive and defensive blocks, communication, and I don't know what all else (she said, but I don't remember). All I can say is that I skated my ass off tonight, and I did my best. I tried really hard to listen and to pay attention to what was going on around me. I did get in some good defensive blocks, but (and here's what freaks me out about this) who can say if anyone was watching when I did them.

Ugh. I need to just put this out of my mind. It's not like I'm trying to get put on the A team (the SMASH Unit). I'm not at that level. I know it, and so does everyone else. I just want to be a Dis-Orderly.

There's more testing on Saturday. I'll be glad when it's done. I don't mean to be negative. This stuff just stresses me out.

FIRST BOUT!

2011-07-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

I need to update this blog more often!

Anyway, y'all, last night was the Sick Town Dis-Orderlies' debut bout, against the Sis-Q Rollerz (from Medford, OR). I have to give a shout out to the Sis-Q girls -- they did great, they had wonderful attitudes, and it was a blast playing them.

I went into the bout thinking I was probably not going to get much playing time. I was determined to have a good attitude no matter what, because I just do *not* want to be that girl who sits around with a face like a smacked ass when she doesn't get what she wants, ya know?

I was nervous all day. Hanging out with my teammates helped, but I was still pretty wound up. The first few jams, I didn't skate. I peeked at the lineup sheet and saw that I was supposed to go in for the fourth jam. OK, if I got to skate every fourth jam, that would've been more than I had hoped for -- that would be great!

Well, when it was time for me to go in, I didn't get to go, because one of our blockers was in the penalty box (when that happens, you skate short a blocker until she comes out of the box). D'oh. Brick (bench coach) told CosMo (lineup caller) to work me into the next one. Cool.

Whoops. CosMo thought Brick meant Shankee, so she worked Shankee into the next lineup instead of me. D'oh! At that point, I was glad I had resolved to have a good attitude no matter what. I didn't get frustrated; I figured it would all work out.

Maybe good attitude was good karma, because by then, it was clear that we were doing really well (the score was pretty lopsided in our favor, throughout. The Sis-Q girls are excellent skaters and hitters, but they are a new team and they aren't quite there yet with the strategy and teamwork. Neither am I, so please, don't anyone think I am dissing them.) So anyway, from that point on, I was in practically every other jam. I have no idea how many jams I skated -- but it was a lot.

Another good attitude step for me: I got a major for low block, and I went to the box politely. I didn't even give the refs a dirty look. :-)

Anyway ... I skated my ass off and did some reasonably good blocking. And then we got to the second-to-last jam. Bones said if there was another jam, I should be the jammer. I said, "OK." I thought, "Holy shit, really?"

There was another jam. Eep. I went in as jammer, against Blitz, a very fast girl from Sis-Q (who also happens to be more than 20 years younger than I!). I had great blockers; I'm not sure who they were so I won't say any names, but they did a great job of shutting down the other jammer and helping me slip through the pack like buttah. I got lead jammer!! I made my scoring pass, got four points, and then called that mother OFF, because great blockers or no, Blitz was way faster than I. So ... I sort of ended the bout!

When I came off the track, my teammates surrounded me in a sort of group hug. It was ... I don't know how to describe it. It was amazing. I don't want to get all vaggy, but I seriously love these ladies.

Skating in a bout is something I seriously thought I was never going to get to do. Roller derby, and specifically Sick Town, has been so wonderful for me. I'm doing stuff I never would have thought I could do. I'm part of a freaking TEAM.

I *love* my team.

Awesome scrimmage!

2011-05-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

Scrimmage nights make me pretty nervous. Last night was no exception: at the start, I was wondering if I could do it.

We only had 12 girls at practice, four B team and the rest SMASH. Cruel Anne announced that the goal of the scrimmage was to get the B team girls up to speed, because the next bout (July 9, OMG!) is a B-team bout.

The scrimmage? Was awesome. I am not saying I didn't make mistakes. There were definitely jams (especially early on) where I was fairly useless.

But let's not focus on that. There were actually more jams where I was an effective blocker. Several times I hit jammers out (and I'm talking Nick and Cruel Anne, who are both pretty damn good jammers). My best moment, though, was when I was blocking, and I saw my jammer coming, and I saw two opposing blockers on the inside line. I hit those two blockers to the inside, clearing the way for my jammer (Kant, I think) to run past on the outside. I really felt like I was playing derby then. It was wonderful. It's not rocket science -- more like Derby 101. But it's finally clicking.

I got a lot of nice comments from the SMASH girls last night, which was really awesome. I also got some good critical feedback: Jala says I'm having trouble making the transition from offense to defense (in derby, blockers play both offense and defense simultaneously). That is something I need to work on, and will ask trainers for advice on how to do it.

Last night, for the first time, I felt like I may actually be ready to bout when July 9 rolls around. Woot!

Practice last night

2011-05-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of the tougher endurance practices in a while.

One cool thing was that we skated 10 minutes of laps, and Bones was skating a 12-seconds-per-lap pace (and timing it) -- so if you kept up with Bones you knew you did at least 50 laps. (The standard for min skills is 25 laps in 5 minutes; so, 50 laps in 10 minutes.)

I started out behind Bones, and passed her (which I don't count as anything). Then I lapped her, which should have put me one lap ahead of her, total; and from there, I stayed at least 1/4 lap ahead for the rest of the time.

So, I think I did 51 laps in 10 minutes, which I feel pretty good about. I know for absolutely sure I did at least 50, but I'm pretty sure lapping the pace person means I did 51.

During the league meeting, Brick announced that there are going to be tryouts for the A team and the B team, "soon." I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm a little nervous about it. I don't know ... I mean, I know I'm not bout-ready now. I guess as long as I'm considered good enough to keep training and scrimmaging at the B-team level, that is enough to let me keep working toward being bout-ready. (I would hate to be dropped back down to intermediate; I don't think that's going to happen, but I'm just not really sure what any of this means at this point.)

I'll probably feel better when I know what these tryouts will entail. And really, it doesn't matter that much right now: I think the training committee and I would agree that I'm not ready to skate in a bout right now. (My first opportunity to do so isn't until July anyway -- I'm signed up for a couple of newbie challenge bouts at Rollercon. I'll be ready by then.)

It's getting better all the time ...

2011-05-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday's practice was much better. I started with the combined intermediate/B-team practice at 11 (got there early though), then the combined B-team/A-team practice at noon. In that one, I did better than I have so far, though still not as well as I need to. I couldn't keep up with the pace line in the regular direction, but when we switched to clockwise, I was able to keep up! So that was awesome. Couldn't quite pull off weaving forward, though I was able to keep up with the weaving pace line. I was able to do the backwards weave, though, and that's something I'm not usually so good at.

Usually they dismiss the B team skaters at 1, and the last hour is A team only. On Saturday, 1 p.m. came and went, and they hadn't sent us home, so I asked a trainer if she thought I could just stay and keep skating, and she said yes, so that's what I did. And I did OK: not perfect, but OK! I'm still having a little trouble with the way we're doing our defensive walls these days (I don't know how much of this is strategy that needs to be kept private, so I'm not going to give details here). It's not really difficult, but there is some timing to it that I am learning slowly. I don't know why I am so slow to learn physical stuff, when mental stuff comes easily to me. But I guess I would rather it be that way, than the other way around.

Anyway, I stayed for the first 40 minutes of the A-team practice, and then they dismissed the B-girls. So, I had nearly 3 hours of derby practice on Saturday -- and my energy level was pretty good for all of it. Yay!!

Last Night's Scrimmage

2011-04-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

So, last night, I made mistakes. Let's just get that out there right now: I made mistakes. I'm not going to talk about them here, but I want anyone reading this to know that I don't think I was Beyonslay last night, or anything.

Here's what went well.

I had energy, for the first time in a couple of weeks!

I did my best to stay with the pack, with my team, and to make contact, even if the contact wasn't entirely effective yet.

The penalties I got (well, two of them; I'm not sure what was up with the third, a major for cutting the track, when I think it should've been a minor) were errors of aggressiveness. One was blocking when I was out of play. But: I was just going after the jammer and getting in her way. OK, I should've stopped. But still. Errors of aggressiveness are so much better than just standing there with my finger up my nose.

My other penalty was for blocking out of bounds. Now that one ... oh man. I hit the jammer. I hit her *out*. If I could've stopped and not followed her out, it would have been beautiful. But once again: error of aggressiveness. So much better than if I had just stood there and watched her go by me.

There were also times when I was a real pain in the ass to opposing skaters (or at least, I felt like I was). There were times when Cruel Anne yelled at me to hit someone, and I did! Now I need to work on making my hits effective, in action (they are often effective enough when we're just doing a pace line or some other drill).

Honestly, there really were glimmers of hope last night. So, that's awesome.

As a wise friend of mine suggested, I am going to try to learn from the mistakes and let them go ... and focus on the victories.

Derby Stress

2011-04-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

I'm having a hard time these days.

Passing minimum skills was awesome. And I *did* pass: I can do all of the minimum skills (though my crossover and my booty blocking are borderline).

Now I am in the bout pool (technically I am on the B team ... it's not like they are going to put me on the roster for an A-team bout). And I've gone from being a pretty good intermediate to being the worst in the bout pool.

I can't keep up with the pace lines. (The minimum skill is 25 laps in 5 minutes; but the pace lines are often quite a bit faster than that.) In scrimmages, I get confused and have a hard time focusing. My teammates are literally yelling at me to hit someone. I know they are right, but often I just can't quite pull it off. I don't know if it is a lack of speed or a lack of brains. Or both.

Here's the thing: I am the slowest girl in the bout pool, hands down. And I have to get faster. It's not going to happen instantaneously. Jesus isn't going to come down with his magic wand and make me fast. I have to find ways to work at it. (I have some ideas on that subject.)

A lot of times, I know where I need to be; I just can't get there fast enough. By the time I get there, the opportunity has passed. I guess it's good that I know what to do (sometimes).

I don't want to be the load. I want to be useful. That's all: just useful. I don't need to be a superstar. Just not a burden.

Derby baby!

2011-04-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here's my little niece Rosalie, who just turned two, wearing the "My Auntie does derby" t-shirt I gave her.

Bones is back!

2011-04-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

Stitches-N-Bones, jammer par excellence and trainer par malevolence (just kidding!), was out with a concussion for about a month. Last night was her first night back in quite a while. She freaking *tortured* us!

So there's this drill we call "shopping carts," where we get into groups of 2, 3, 4, 5 (usually not more than that), and one skater either pushes or pulls the rest (who are in a single-file line). The people being pushed or pulled are supposed to get as low as they can.

Last night we did a new drill Bones dreamed up in her evil, brilliant mind. Here's how it worked:

We got in groups of 3 or 4. Each person pulled for one minute, then rotated to the back. This went on for 12 minutes. Then we stopped and switched directions, and did the whole thing again, for another 12 minutes.

After that we got a two-minute break to stretch our backs, drink water, etc. Then we did 12 minutes of pushing in the regular direction, followed by 12 minutes of pushing in the opposite direction.

Yep, 48 minutes of shopping carts. Chelle, Sugar and I were a group at the start, because Bones wanted us to have to work harder (in a group of three, everyone pulls/pushes four times, instead of just three). All three of us stuck with it for the entire drill -- we didn't stop at all. I was pretty proud of us for that.

For the second hour, we did pace lines and mostly worked on hitting. That was fun, though when we worked on timing of hits, it was tricky. I got praise from Bones for my regular hits (not the timed ones, where I had some trouble). Praise from Bones is always awesome.

At the end we flashdanced. What I love about flashdancing is that it feels so *very* good when we stop. :-) (Flashdancing: for five minutes we constantly step, one skate then the other, so there are only four wheels on the floor at a time. We're supposed to do this fast. When Bones blows the whistle, we touch the floor with our hands, jump, and go right back to flashdancing. We do this for five minutes. It hurts, a lot. But it feels so good to get through it!

I'm pretty sore today. It's a good thing.

Scrimmaging, skating, improving ...

2011-03-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Since I passed minimum skills, I have been to ... let's see ... six practices so far. So, it would be fair to say I am skating my ass off. :-)

Last Wednesday was my first scrimmage as a bout pool member. It was fun, and hard. We didn't have a whole lot of girls, so everyone got to skate in a lot of jams. I didn't feel nearly as lost as I did in my very first scrimmage, but I was still a bit scattered. And of course, people were expecting a lot more of me than they were in that first scrimmage (when I was still just an intermediate).

I still don't feel like I have a very strong understanding of strategy. Let's just say I have a *lot* to learn. Fortunately, three of the SMASH (A-team) skaters (Pus, Kant and Pwny) have been doing regular strategy practices aimed at newer bout pool skaters (they call it PuKanY practice, so if I refer to that, that will be what I'm talking about). I went on Sunday, and it was awesome. I think I know more about strategy now ... I just need to work on having the fast-twitch speed to be able to put it into action. Because, knowing where you should be is great ... but being fast enough to get there is better.

Anyway, at the scrimmage ... one jam, while I was out as jammer, I just couldn't get anywhere. Everywhere I went, Pus (who was blocking for the other team) was there. To kill me. :-) Seriously, that girl was on me like white on rice. I'm not sure I ever cleared the pack. It was frustrating as hell, and there were times I didn't want to get back up after she knocked me down (I did, though). I need to learn to do what she was doing.

My goal for this week's scrimmage (which is tomorrow) is to be more aware. I want to try to always know where the jammers are. (There was one time last week when I just totally let the other team's jammer past me, and I could *easily* have blocked her if I had been *aware* of her. Dammit!)

It's hard when you're tired, and you have ADD. But I have to do it or I will be of very little use as a blocker. Getting distracted by shiny things is not an option.

I hope some more girls test up soon. It would be awesome to have a bigger B team. :-)

Wait, what? I passed?

2011-03-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

This may be a long one. I'll wait while you go get a drink and use the bathroom.

OK, ready?

Minimum skills assessment was Saturday. Before the test, we had an intermediate practice, where we worked on the things that were going to be on the test. I did pretty well on everything until we got to positional blocking (which we STDDs call "booty blocking," because that's what it is -- blocking someone with footwork and getting your booty on her).

I was paired with another intermediate skater, and I was having trouble even blocking her. So what chance did I have to block bout pool skaters, which is what I knew I was going to have to do on the actual test? I went to Brick, and although I didn't intend to (I never intend to), I started crying a bit while talking to her. I asked her if it would be rude of me to leave after practice, and not stay for the test.

Brick told me I could do what I wanted. (That sounds like she was cold about it, and she was not. She just kind of let me know that "rude" wasn't really an issue, and that I should do what I wanted to do.)

I went outside and cried a little more. And came back in and finished the drill, and cried some more. So, anyone who says there's no crying in roller derby has never met me. I don't do it on purpose. I just am so emotionally invested in this ... and it comes out as tears.

Anyway, St. Nick (who has really kind of been like a big sis to me ever since I started) helped me calm down. I decided to stay for the test, because if I didn't, I'd always wonder what would've happened. Also, I really love all the girls I was testing with, and I wanted to support them.

The test went well. I felt pretty good about the way I did all of the skills -- I even felt like I had probably done a passable crossover. Then we got to the booty blocking. I didn't do too well my first attempt. They sent me out a second time, and I did better. I was hopeful.

At the end, Bones pulled a few of us aside to re-do certain skills (stuff they knew we could do, but we hadn't quite nailed during the test). She asked me to re-do my one-footed jumps. I really got my hopes up at that point, because if that was all I had failed? I was golden. I re-did the jumps. No problem.

And then. They called several of us over to re-do booty blocking. Shit.

I went out to block Adrienne (Natural DisASSter). I tripped her. I may have fallen. I definitely did worse than my second attempt during the test. Dammit. That was it, I thought.

On Sunday, Brick emailed out the results. She sent a general note saying she was doing it, and that she couldn't do it all in one sitting, so we should not freak out if other people got their results and we didn't have ours yet. Fair enough.

The results started trickling in, and girls were posting on Facebook. I didn't have an email from Brick. An hour or so went by after the last girl had posted "I passed!" No email for me. Shit. Brick must be taking a dinner break after sending out the positives, and later I was going to get a "sorry, you didn't pass." I just knew it.

Dinner (nachos) and trying to concentrate on "The Amazing Race." I set my phone to make a sound when I got email, so I wouldn't be constantly looking at it.

About halfway through the show, the phone beeped. I picked it up. Email from Brick. OK, here we go, I thought. At least I knew I had passed the crossover, so there was that ...

I open the email. And the first thing I read is, "On behalf of the entire training committee, congratulations on passing your minimum skills."

I ... passed? Really? I had to read that sentence at least three or four more times. I passed!!!! By a pretty narrow margin, and I have a lot of work to do, but I passed!!!

So ... I'm in the bout pool now! Holy crap!!!

On Monday morning, when I woke up, I had a moment where I thought, "Did that really happen?" And it did! (I often dream about derby and dreaming that I passed min skills has happened before. Of course I wake up and know it was just a dream. I'm not crazy. Well, not that crazy.)

Last night was my first practice as a bout pool member. I'm pretty sure I'm the slowest in the bout pool. But I didn't make an ass of myself, so yay.

Tomorrow night is my first official scrimmage. Yikes! And, yay!!

Hey, to everyone who encouraged me and listened to me whine and cheered me on: thanks.

Poor neglected blog

2011-03-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

Minimum skills was today. I almost went home after our practice (which was right before), but I'm glad I didn't. I'm embarrassed that I cried about it, but I'm glad I stayed. (I was hella frustrated about booty blocking.)

This was the easiest min skills yet. I think that's a good sign that I'm getting more proficient. I don't think I passed, but I think I got closer than the last time. I asked my evaluator (Brick, head of training) if I passed the crossover, and she said I did. That's *huge*. I failed on that last time.

I'm 99.9% sure I failed on booty blocking. My best time booty blocking was my second time during the assessment itself. They called several of us out to do it again, after the assessment was over (which was kind of them -- they sure didn't have to give us that second chance). I did it the worst out of my three total attempts, at that point. I actually TRIPPED the girl I was blocking. I was mortified. (She was fine, thank goodness.)

So. If my attempt #2 was not good enough to pass, and clearly it wasn't, then I can't have passed.

But if I passed the crossover -- and if Brick says I did, then I probably did -- that's an enormous moral victory. And if (I haven't heard officially yet) I passed everything but booty blocking, that means I just need to learn to booty block and I will pass.

So, really, I feel pretty OK about today.

I had told my lil sis, who was also taking the test today, that I would get tattooed with her if I passed. I had been hoping the universe would call my bluff on that one. (It would have been my first ever tattoo.) Oh well, I guess if I have not passed, I don't have to get tattooed. :-)

Getting closer ... maybe ...

2011-02-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

Last night's practice was interesting. It was a really good practice, but my performance in it was mixed.

We skated a lot of laps. At the end, we did "however many laps you can get" in 10 minutes. I got 52, which is *awesome*. The standard for minimum skills is 25 in 5 minutes; in the first 5 minutes, I got 27. And then I maintained my pace for 10 minutes. It's really great to know I can do that.

The floor was pretty slick for some reason. It wasn't wet. I don't know what the heck was up with it. I think part of it may be that my beloved yellow Fugitive Mids are getting worn out (I have skated on them a LOT) and are not grippy anymore. I felt like I was fighting slippage as I skated, and I'm sure that didn't help my speed.

We also did some really great booty-blocking exercises. My results on that were mixed ... when I was paired with someone at my level, I could generally block them. When I was with someone from the bout pool, unless they dumbed it down a bit for me, I was just not fast enough. :-( It isn't a matter of skating fast; it's a matter of thinking fast and making fast lateral movements.

Then we did the same thing in two-blocker teams. Again, I had trouble with most of the jammers ... by the time I figured out what to do, they were already past me. Sigh. I think at all-intermediate practice (this was a mixed practice, so it was practice for the bout pool girls too), we will be able to take it down a few notches, get an understanding of the movement, and then ramp up the difficulty. I think that will really help me.

The bottom line is, I will never pass minimum skills if I can't booty block. And if I never pass minimum skills ... well, really, I don't even want to finish that sentence. It's just too icky to even think about.

Awesome practice!

2011-02-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

Last night's practice kind of rocked. :-)

After warmup and stretching, we did minute time trials. That may sound easy, but I assure you, its' totally not. Here's how it works:

We divide into two groups. Each person counts laps for someone in the other group. I was paired with an awesome new girl named Michelle.

Group 1 goes out and skates for one minute, and the group 1 skaters' partners count laps. Then Group 2 skates for one minute while group 1 counts laps. Repeat for 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes.

When we started, I was thinking, "OK, I may not be able to do 25 laps in 5 minutes, because that will be at the end of a whole lot of laps." I was trying to be OK with that possibility.

It turned out I didn't need to, because I managed to do 5 laps a minute through the entire thing (actually there was one time where I got an extra lap ... I think it was on the three-minute interval? And on the 5-minute interval I finished just *barely* short of 26 laps). So that is 15 minutes of 12-second laps ... broken up into intervals. I'm sure Bones and Kant and Pus could skate 12-second laps for 15 minutes in a row, but it's not something I feel ready to try right now. :-)

My partner, Michelle, got four laps a minute all through. I was so proud of her! She should easily be able to get five (which is what we need for minimum skills) once she learns to do a crossover. Go Michelle!

We also did Satan's Mattress, which is sort of like suicides. And a *huge* pace line where we were holding hands with the girls in front of and behind us, and the girl in front is pulling everyone. Meanwhile, the girl at the back weaves through to the front, staying low enough to go under everyone's hands. The weaving part is really fun. The pulling part is *hard*. I wasn't really skating at all, more trying to run on my skates. And we all felt like Stretch Armstrong at the end (you know, that doll with the really stretchy arms? Shut up, I'm old. :-)

So here's something crazy. On Weight Watchers (which I started yesterday), you can earn food points by exercising. According to the Weight Watchers site, two hours of roller skating (and that's just skating, not derby practice, which is way more intense than just skating) is worth TWENTY NINE points. That's my entire one-day points allowance.

Last night I gave myself credit for 90 minutes of skating, because realistically, I wasn't skating the whole entire time I was at practice. That's still 22 points. And I'll earn another 22 each on Thursday and Saturday. And that's not even counting my gym class.

Other times when I've done Weight Watchers, it was really hard to earn activity points. Now, it's pretty damn easy. :-) Thanks, roller derby!

Progress, and stuff

2011-01-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

Today at practice, we worked on booty blocking, and I honestly think that if minimum skills were today, I would pass the booty blocking. I've gotten much more hoppy -- my lateral movement has improved a lot -- and I'm more comfortable getting my butt on the jammer. So that's really exciting!

Unfortunately, the crossover continues to vex me. (I love that word, "vex.") I just don't know why I can't get the push with the inside leg. I am doing much better at not making a big useless step over with the outside leg, so that's a good thing. But I know I'm not getting power from the inside leg.

On Monday, we did 25 laps in 5 minutes, in the opposite (clockwise) direction. I did 27 laps. There have been times when we've done 25 in 5 in the regular direction and I've made 27 laps too, recently. So, speed is really not a problem (at least, not on the CDC floor). I wish the crossover weren't such a huge make-or-break deal. But I know I'll be better able to keep up with the bout pool girls when I can get some power from my crossovers.

Today was beginner-intermediate practice. I am more than happy to skate with the beginners. I love seeing new girls get into derby. But I miss hitting. I wish I could just get the damn crossover, so I could start going to bout pool practice. I'd probably still go to the beginner practices too ... I miss the days when I was able to go to four practices a week.

Anyway, we did 25 laps as a pack, and I don't know what the time was, but I know it was more than 5 minutes. Still, it was cool being able to help the newer girls stay with the pack. Plus, I love pack skating. At the end of practice, we did 25 in 5 as a pack ... that was tough. At first, when we were really trying to keep everyone together, we were doing like 16-second laps ... and that's more like 25 laps in 6:40 (approximately). At that point, I sort of stopped trying to keep the pack together and just went for it. I don't know if that was a cool thing to do -- it was probably pretty selfish. But man, that 25 in 5 is such a big deal to me. I just had to make it.

I did. :-) Which is pretty cool, since I was starting at a deficit. A few of the other girls made it too (yay!), and several more came really close (good job!). A few had to drop out, which I feel bad about. But hey, ladies: you will get there. You should've seen me in my first few months.

Overall, it's been a week of great practices. (I went on Thursday night even though it was the night before my first Math 111 midterm. Oh, and I aced the midterm. So, yay!)

Skate World (i.e., "Lord of the Flies" on wheels)

2010-12-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

Last week I had a stretch of 8 days in a row of skating. Yay! Still much work to be done on my crossover and booty blocking, sadly. Bruiser has been a big help, as has Ringer.

One of the days, we skated at Skate World in Springfield. It's a fine rink -- good floor, they serve Diet Coke at the snack bar. Unfortunately, the staff are all teenagers, and if the place has any rules, they sure don't seem to enforce them.

The day that we were there, a young woman (probably a teenager; she's too tall to be a kid) who is an excellent skater but kind of a jerk was making a game of skating a lap and deliberately falling right by the DJ booth. I could tell she's a regular, both because I've seen her there many times, and because the staff all seemed to know her. I guess that explains why she was able to LIE ON HER BACK, on the rink, TEXTING. She was mostly out of traffic, but not entirely (as I said, she's a very tall girl).

At that point, I was already sick of the total lack of rules at Skate World. I skated over to the DJ booth and asked the employee (who was *totally* looking right at the girl -- and I waited a few laps to make sure they weren't going to do something about her), "Are you seriously OK with her lying on the floor TEXTING?"

He muttered, "I can tell her to stop."

I said, in kind of a "mom" voice, "Does this place have ANY rules?"

His answer, "A few."

I gave him what I hope was a withering look, like, "How about enforcing them, then, idiot?" (I did *not* say that). They did make the girl get up, at least, and she didn't do anything else like that for the rest of that day.

Other stuff that went on there, that I completely disapprove of: a guy skating around carrying a toddler. And not just skating the kid off the rink, which would still be a bad idea, but skating around with the kid in his arms. That's really unsafe.

Oh, and then there are the kids who fall, are not injured at all, and still take several of my laps to get up -- because they are screwing around. All I can say about that is that if someone rolls over their fingers, it will be their own fault.

I'm not asking for a dictatorship. I don't need it to be like Oaks Park, where *I* have been told to slow down (I'm not that freaking fast). But even if you're pretty laissez-faire, it seems like a no-brainer to draw the line at LYING ON THE RINK FLOOR. Sheesh.

Wet Floor = Bad Juju

2010-12-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

On Monday night, the floor at the CDC was wet. It was like 55 degrees outside, and rainy, and there was just a lot of condensation on the floor. It was nasty. It wasn't like standing water that you could see and avoid. It was more like random slick spots where your wheels went sliding out from under you.

Pus and Kant led practice. In an effort to (mostly) avoid the wet areas, we were skating in an area about the size of my basement (well, if there were no furniture and you knocked down the interior walls). It was crazy. That's not in *any* way a diss on the twins. They made it work, admirably. But holy shitballs, I really hope we don't have to do it like that again.

I'd so much rather it were colder, and drier. It's much easier to put on more layers than it is to skate on a wet floor.

Feeling a Little Better

2010-12-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

I think I'm starting to feel better about the fact that I didn't pass minimum skills. I think I'm ready to focus on the positive: I'm closer than ever (if you don't count April, which I am increasingly convinced as a fluke. Because seriously, I am a *much* better skater now than I was then.)

And it's Christmas break, and Charlie and I were already planning on doing a lot of rink skating during break. So, I will work work work on my crossover during those rink skates. (Any STDDs who want to join us, let me know!)

One thing that someone suggested to me on the Rollergirls Yahoo group was to find a mentor in my league. I would really like to do that. It's tough, though, because right now we are between seasons (and coming into the holidays), so a lot of the bout pool girls are not making such great attendance. (They're not required to right now. I'm not criticizing.)

So, hey, any bout pool girl reading this who thinks, "Ya know, I'd love to be Dixie's mentor," please let me know. :-)

Another really positive thing: on Saturday, when I was just devastated that I had not passed, I still never once said, "I'm done." Because I'm not done. And I will not be done, not until I die or break a hip or turn 80 or whatever. The fact that I have never even considered giving up (at least, not since the very beginning) says a lot.

I will pass minimum skills. And when I do, I *will* get a pair of shorts with the words "Fucking FINALLY" printed on the butt. :-)

Not a Great Day

2010-12-11T23:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't pass minimum skills. The three other skaters who seemed most likely to pass, did. There were several who didn't pass, so at least I'm not the only one this time. (I never wish for anyone else not to pass, but it sucks being the only one who doesn't.)

So, congratulations, Andi, Adrienne and Van Slam! You guys are awesome, and I'm truly happy for you.

Brick told me the things I failed on:

- Booty Blocking (no surprise there)
- Crossover (again, not a big surprise. She did say it's almost there, which was nice to hear.)
- Staying in derby form. Goddamnit. That one is a failure of concentration, because I *know* how to be in derby form.

Brick, bless her, also said that everything is looking better (hearing that really made me feel better), and that now it's time to work on agility and quick feet.

I couldn't agree more. If I can just get the stupid crossover (which I really have improved on a lot in the last few weeks) and the goddamn booty blocking (Brick says she has some ideas to help me with that), I may even be ready to re-test in a few weeks. We'll see. I am going to try to keep the lines of communication between me and Brick as open as she's willing for them to be (in other words, I don't want to be a pain in her butt), and check in with her in a few weeks and see how these skills are looking.

What I'm not doing, not ever: giving up.

Shrug

2010-12-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I won't know for sure whether I passed or not for a few days. The training committee has to meet and discuss. I'm sure if I do pass, it will be by a pretty narrow margin. I got paired with a very fast jammer for the booty blocking and it was all I could do to stay in front of her. Dude, I totally understand that booty blocking is a vital skill. I just wish I could have a slower jammer for the test, and then work my ass off at it after passing. Which, really, I'm going to do either way, pass or fail.

I'm also not sure they were happy with my hits, though I know I made my partner stumble a few times and I thought I was doing reasonably well. Not fabulously, not the hardest I've ever hit, but not terribly.

And then there's the crossover, which, who knows.

Anyway, at least I know I didn't hinder other skaters in the weaving paceline, I didn't have trouble adjusting my pace in the paceline (i.e., I didn't crash into anyone or have to go out of the line to avoid crashing), the jumps were no big deal whatsoever, and it's getting to the point where 25 laps in 5 minutes is not such a huge deal either. I'm pretty sure I did well on all the stops and falls ... pretty much all the individual stuff, actually, except maybe the crossover.

Sigh.

Like the man said, the waiting is the hardest part. Well, that and the booty blocking.

Minimum Skills is Tomorrow

2010-12-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

So, I have to re-pass minimum skills. The assessment is tomorrow. There are a couple of girls in the intermediate group with me who I think will probably pass. I really, really don't want to get left behind again. I'm happy for my friends when they move up -- I really am! But it sucks not to get to move up too. And I'm so ready to skate with the bout pool, I think.

I don't think I was really ready in April when I passed minimum skills for the first time. But I'm a much stronger skater now than I was then. I mean, I'm nowhere near the level of the travel team girls, like Kant or Brick or Bones. But check this out:

- It has been *forever* since I've had to drop out of a drill. I mean, like, since before Rollercon. I just don't drop out anymore.

- On Saturday at practice, we skated for 5 minutes and counted laps, and I was able to do 27. Last night, we did it again, and I *fell* once, and still managed 26 laps. (We also did it in the reverse direction, and I was able to do 25.)

- That broom head that gave me so much trouble at my first minimum skills? I own that bitch now. Last night I just jumped it, twice, no big deal.

- I'm getting pretty good at pace lines. I used to hate them (because I was never fast enough to keep up). Now, I kind of love them.

The only things that are still giving me trouble are the booty blocking and the crossover. I think I'll be able to do well enough on the crossover, if I concentrate on staying low and leaning toward the inside.

Booty blocking is just really hard. I hope I can do it well enough to pass. I know I will not be doing it at the level that Brick does it, at this point. But if I can just do it *just* well enough ... it's a very important skill, I know. Whether I pass or not, it's something I will be working on A LOT in the next few weeks.

The nice thing for me is that if I don't pass now, since I passed before I have the option of asking for a re-test in a few weeks, if I'm pretty sure I'm ready to pass then. So at least, if I fail on just the booty blocking, I can work my ass off at that for a few weeks and then re-test in early January, instead of waiting until February (which is when the next full minimum skills test is likely to be).

Because the thing is ... there's more reason than ever to want to pass the damn test. Sick Town is going to have a B team this season!!!!! And if I can pass minimum skills, and start training with the bout pool, I think I have a pretty good chance of being good enough to be put on the roster for a B team bout.

I. Want. This. So. Bad!

I'm not as nervous as I was the first time I took minimum skills. I know what to expect, and I have a pretty good handle on what I'm good at and what I'm not as good at.

But oh man, it would be awesome to pass tomorrow ...

It's Been a While ...

2010-11-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

I keep thinking about posting, and not doing it. D'oh!

The big news is that Sick Town got the CDC (our warehouse practice space) back! I'm sure we will be booted out again come grass seed season (which this year happened in June), but I hope that until then we will have our very own practice space. It's cold as hell, it has no plumbing, but it's home!

The great thing about the CDC is that the floor is nice and grippy, so I can wear my hard wheels and skate fast. Last night we did time trials, and going the regular direction (which is counterclockwise), I was either right on or just slightly below pace. I made 5.5 laps in one minute, 10.5 in two minutes, and 14.75 in three minutes. On the three-minute skate, I got stuck behind a slower skater for a bit; I'm *not* blaming, but if I can avoid that, I should easily be able to shave off that last 15 seconds. (The standard is 5 laps a minute -- for minimum skills we have to do 25 laps in 5 minutes.)

We did this as a pyramid, and on the way down, we skated clockwise. I had no trouble at all making my laps skating clockwise, even though I was pretty tired by that point. I've said it before, but ... if only derby were done clockwise!! My crossover is *so* much better on that side. Oh well.

We're going to have a minimum skills assessment in the first or second week of December. I'm hoping for second -- more time to get ready. I think I will be able to pass most of the things I failed on last time. The only things I'm really worried about are booty blocking and the crossover. I'm nervous about the test, of course. It's funny -- I never got test anxiety in school. I wasn't even nervous about the SAT. But derby testing stresses me right out. I guess I have more confidence in my brain than in my body. :-)

Since it's been a year, roughly, since I started, I'm going to post later today about my progress and thoughts.

Scrimmage, baby!

2010-10-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday was another open, black-and-white scrimmage at Rose City. It was a real mixed bag for me. I'll tell the bad parts first, and then the good stuff.

- I drew a penalty for low blocking (we are not allowed to trip other players or to hit them below the knees) when I got knocked down and two or three other girls fell on me. Charlie called a low blocking major on me when I was still lying on the floor trying to figure out what had happened. I got mad (which is not cool). I got up and said, right to him and loud enough to be heard by anyone, "Bullshit!" Charlie then, quite rightly, added an additional one-minute penalty for misconduct.

It's totally unacceptable to swear at a referee like that. And the thing is, if it had been *any* other ref who had made the initial call on me, I might not have liked it, but I would have gone to the box without making any rude remarks, and then asked my teammates about the call later. That's what I should have done. When Charlie is refereeing, I need to be unimpeachable: I mean, if I commit fouls, I commit fouls (it's not like I do it on purpose). But deliberate, under-my-control stuff like mouthing off to the ref? No. Not cool, and I need to never do it again.

So, lesson learned.

I also spent a minute in the penalty box later on because I forgot to put my mouth guard in. D'oh! Well, that one just falls under "shit happens." The funny part is that if I had just quietly put it in, it's possible the refs wouldn't even have noticed. But I said, "Oh my god, mouth guard!" Yeah, no mistaking that. Oh well. :-)

The good and neutral stuff:

In my first jam, I was pivot, and my team were all newer girls -- fresh meat or rec skaters. I was actually doing a pretty good job as pivot at first and deploying some strategy, like when our jammer went to the box, I was getting my girls to speed up and try to make the pack go fast so it would be harder for the opposing jammer to score points.

Unfortunately, the other team at that point was all experienced girls (including one lady named Mercy who moved from Hawaii to Portland *to play for Rose City*). I was skating at the front of the pack, looking back (which is basically what I was supposed to be doing), and Mercy swooped in and laid my ass OUT with a sternum block (which is particularly impressive if you know that Mercy is like 6 feet tall and I'm 5'2" -- so for her to get low enough to legally sternum block me, she had to be *crazy* low).

And that's when I hit the floor and three girls piled up on me, and I went to the box. So, I had felt really good about what I was doing until that happened ... here I was, being all strategic and feeling like an effective pivot for the first time ever. Oh well, the fact that I went to the penalty box doesn't mean I wasn't doing some good strategic stuff (or at least, trying to) before it happened.

Other good stuff:

- When my friend Tyger Bomb (a RCR freshie who I'm sure will be drafted to a team soon) hit me, I counterblocked her! Tyger hits really hard, so that was a victory for me. :-)

- Bones said I was having no trouble keeping up with the packs. Typically, that is a problem for me -- I'm always one of the slower skaters on the track, it seems. But lately I am doing better on speed, and that's a wonderful thing: if I'm not having to bust ass just to go fast enough, I can focus on my form more.

Oh, and bummer news: Wetback is leaving Sick Town after this Saturday's bout. I guess she got tired of driving down from Portland (can't think why, ha ha) ... it's too bad, because she's an awesome player and coach, and I'll miss seeing her every week.

Minimum Skills

2010-09-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

In case anyone wonders, here's what I didn't pass on the last minimum skills:

25 laps in 5 minutes. I did 21. I think I'm skating faster now, though.
Stride - pushes need to be out to the side, not straight behind you. I'm annoyed at myself for failing this one, because I totally know it.
Posture - Need to bend at the knees (approx. 90 degrees) and waist, and keep weight balanced over feet, especially during crossovers. Another one that I absolutely knew better than.
Pacing - Need to be able to speed up/slow down without causing hiccups in the line, without hindering other skaters. Yeah, I need to work on this one.
Weaving paceline - tripped other skaters while weaving; need to be able to maneuver through line without touching other skaters, while using good strides and posture; careful of large strides (i.e. kicking other skaters) and swinging arms (i.e. elbows). Still another thing I can totally do, but effed up on that test.
Crossovers - Must bring outside leg completely over the inside leg, not just in front of; bending more at the knees will help. I also wasn't getting any push from my inside leg.
Booty blocking - Very little contact; out of sync with the jammer's rhythm. This continues to bedevil me.
Hitting - Passed taking the hits, but giving hits must be a transfer of energy, not just contact. I think this was the biggest surprise, because I thought I had hit pretty hard. I guess not. I'm working on it now.

(I should mention: many of these critiques are copied and pasted from the email Bones sent me telling me what I didn't pass.)

Fortunately, a lot of those are things that if I concentrate on them, I can absolutely do right now. And my speed and endurance are continuing to improve (and will only get better once I go back to my body conditioning class at school next week). The crossovers and booty blocking will probably take the most work.

The good news: I totally passed the jumps, on my first try. They were no big deal. Which was a very big deal. :-)

Monday practice, and Skatemberfest

2010-09-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Monday night's practice was really interesting. We were at Benton County, with the reasonable concrete floor and small space. We started out with 40 laps as a pack, and I was able to stay at the front of the pack for the entire 40 without any assists. That was pretty cool. I was fairly wiped out when we finished, but still.

Later on in the practice, we did pyramid sprints. Here's the interesting part. I was in the slower group, and on the way up (1 lap, 2 laps, up to 7) I was the slowest in my group. We were skating counterclockwise, which is the normal direction for derby. On the way down, we switched to clockwise, and after the first set, I was the fastest of my group. I'm sure part of that is because the other girls were uncomfortable with skating clockwise, because all three of them are generally faster than I. But I was doing real crossovers -- pushing off with my inside leg and everything. I felt like I was practically horizontal on the turns (I'm sure I wasn't, but I'm sure I was a lot lower than usual). It was pretty amazing.

If only derby were done clockwise ...

But this definitely means I'm capable of it. I need to work on my left leg's flexibility and strength (because, see, when you're skating counterclockwise, your left leg is your inside leg and it's the one I'm having trouble pushing with). But if I can do it on one side, I can do it on the other. Or, I will be able to.

Our Skatemberfest bout was Saturday. That was one long-ass day for me. I got to the venue at 7 a.m., and except for a couple of hours, I was there until the end of the bout (which was about 9:30 p.m.) It was fun, though. Putting on a bout is such a team effort -- everyone pitches in to make it happen. Sick Town won, which was really exciting for me (it was the first time I've been at a bout where Sick Town has won, though I've seen some *amazing* play from my team).

Oh, and I got to skate in the rules demo at the beginning. Belle and I were the jammers. It was *so* fun. In all the pictures, we're smiling and laughing and just having a great time. You can tell how happy we are to be doing derby. If you look at the pictures of the team girls in the actual bout, you'll see a lot of that too -- the faces are almost always either determined and fierce, or grinning like Cheshire cats. I love it!

The bout, by the way, sold out!

Oh, and a big thank you to Atomic City for coming down from the tri-cities (eastern Washington) to bout us. At bouts, I always clap really loudly for the visiting team, because really ... we're all volunteers. We're all doing this for fun. It's cool of them to drive however many hours to come and play with us.

Anyway. Practice tonight! I'll most likely be with the beginners again, but that's OK. It's not like I've been demoted to beginner -- not at all. And it *is* a wonderful chance for me to work on my fundamentals. Truthfully, it'll probably get me ready to re-pass minimum skills much more than scrimmaging would (even though scrimmaging is awesome).

Outdoor Skating -- Woohoo!

2010-09-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today, I skated outdoors with Belle and D-Train. Originally we were planning to just do the Willamette Park circuit a few times ... but then D got the idea to go out towards Philomath instead. It's more fun, and also we realized that we had enough people for it to count as a practice if we skated for two hours.

So we skated from Willamette Park to the bike path, and on the bike path out to like 63rd Street or so. We made it up the first hill. I have no doubt that if it had just been Belle and D, they would have gone all the way to Philomath. I felt like I was at about half of my endurance after getting up that hill, though, so we turned around. (They were both very sweet about it.)

When we go down a big hill on skates, we call it "bombing" the hill. Or at least, that's one way of going down. Bombing is when you just get low and enjoy the ride. (That's as opposed to snowplowing to control your speed, or going down backwards on your toe stops to *really* control your speed.)

I bombed the hill. And Oh. My. God ... it was such an awesome feeling. It was amazing. I wasn't scared at all, even though I was not doing anything to control my speed. It felt like flying. I'll bet we looked pretty cool, too -- three rollergirls zooming down a hill.

When we got back, we realized we needed to skate another 10 minutes or it wouldn't be two hours and wouldn't count as a practice (that matters more for D and Belle than it does for me, since I'm not scrimmage-eligible anyway, but at that point I felt like I'd come this far, I wanted it to count as a practice). So we ended up doing the Willamette circuit at the end. I was pretty tired by the time we started that. I figured it was a good idea to push myself past the point of "tired."

What a *great* way to start the day! I'm so glad I pushed myself. This today was definitely the farthest I have skated outdoors. Just the Willamette Park to 61st Street part was about 14 miles round trip, I think. (Google Maps seems to think so anyway.) And then the Willamette Park part probably added another two. So, yay us!

Bleah.

2010-08-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I've mentioned Sick Town's rule that if you miss three weeks of practice, you have to re-pass minimum skills. I missed enough when I had pneumonia that I needed to re-pass. And then we all took a break for three weeks in July, so we all had to re-pass.

Tonight we had an all-league (well, except for the beginners) minimum skills assessment. I can't say for sure, but I *might* have passed if I had been able to skate 25 laps in 5 minutes. I skated 21 laps in 5 minutes. Not even close.

I used to be able to skate 25 in 5, when we were at the CDC (our warehouse). That was on better skating surfaces -- first grippy concrete, and then sport court. The surface at the fairgrounds sucks: slippery waxed concrete. I use my grippiest wheels on it, but of course they are also my slowest wheels. Using faster wheels isn't really an option. I am going to have to improve my speed on that floor, with those wheels.

We did the minimum skills assessment after scrimmaging (and I did a lot better than last week, so yay). But I'm not going to blame that for my inability to skate 25 in 5. Everyone else did it, and they all scrimmaged too.

I have to give myself a little credit, though: the 25 laps in 5 minutes was pretty early in the assessment, and I still put 100% effort into all of the remaining drills even though I knew I had not passed. I don't know if I passed everything, but I felt pretty good about everything. I even did the jump (and I'm fairly sure I passed that, at least). I did better on the booty-blocking, but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't pass that part.

I feel pretty crappy tonight, but it's not like I fucked it up completely. I can get faster.

Practice tonight

2010-08-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today, Charlie and I had to put our 15-year-old Corgi girl, Scout, to sleep. It had been a long time coming, but this weekend she declined sharply. This morning, we knew it was time.

I never considered not going to derby practice tonight, though -- at least not seriously. A good, hard workout sounded like a great idea to me. If I'm working my ass off to keep up with people who are in much better shape than I, I don't have time to feel sad.

Fortunately, tonight was endurance practice, run by Bones -- so a good, hard workout was exactly what we got. She used a practice that Suzy Hotrod (rock star jammer with the Gotham City derby team) taught at Rollercon. Oof. It was brutal, especially outdoors in 90-degree heat. I drank at least three liters of water (I finished off my big pink bottle halfway through, refilled it, and finished that off too).

I didn't have to drop out of anything (though I did wimp out of a follow-the-leader activity we did during a water break ... that was weeny of me, though there were lots of rocks and crap). But all of the drills? I kept up. Boosh!

I can't wait to see what fresh hell Bones has for us next Monday. ;-)

Scrimmage, bitches!

2010-08-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the Rose City Rollers (Portland's nationally-ranked derby team) held an open black-and-white scrimmage. It was $5, and open to any derby girl as long as she had WFTDA or USARS insurance. (So, basically, any girl who has been with a league long enough to have bought the insurance. I think probably everyone had passed minimum skills, but it wasn't a requirement.)

Since Sick Town has lost its warehouse, we've been scrambling for practice locations. So of course we jumped on the chance to go up and scrimmage at Rose City's hangar. I think there were nine of us who went.

At first, there were just enough girls on the white team and the black team (all of us Sick Town girls were on white) that we only had to play every other jam. Later, as more girls showed up, it got to the point where you'd get to play every third jam.

I got to skate with a lot of awesome girls, both from my league and from others (mostly RCR freshies, but there were some RCR team girls too, and a fair number of Cherry City (Salem) girls, Emerald City (Eugene) girls, and even a few from out of state.

I was able to keep up with the pack almost all the time!! It was harder when I fell and had to catch up, but even then, I managed. One *really* awesome thing was when the other team tried to trap me (this is a well-known derby strategy, to trap one opposing player so that your blockers and the trapped girl become the pack ... if the other opposing blockers are more than 20 feet ahead, they are then out of play and can't block your jammer). Well, they NEVER managed to trap me! I'm getting pretty good at spotting the holes and getting away ... which is good, because even though my speed is improving and will continue to improve, I'll never be the fastest girl on the track.

I think I'm having more of those wonderful moments where I feel like I know what I'm doing -- moments where I block someone effectively, escape a trap, hit someone out of bounds. I had a lot of those during the scrimmage on Saturday. (In the interest of honesty, I must also admit that I had a few boneheaded moments -- especially the one where I got up from having been knocked down, and tripped on my own skate and went down again. D'oh!)

Anyway, GOD that was fun. It was hot -- I think it got up to at least 97 on Saturday, and the hangar where Rose City practices and bouts is not air-conditioned (other than that, though, it's pretty awesome). But when I was skating, I didn't notice the heat. It was just fun.

Motha Frickin Sick Town!

2010-08-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Last night was my first Sick Town practice after the break. It felt *so* good to be back. Even better, I was able to keep up with just about everything. We ran through all of the skills in the minimum skills assessment, and the only things I didn't do at least somewhat successfully (no one was actually evaluating us) were the two-footed jump over an object (I jumped next to it), the booty blocking (but Bruiser gave me some tips and toward the end I think I really got it) and the 25 laps in 5 minutes. More on that one: I managed 24.5 laps. This was on the evil, slippery Linn County Fairgrounds floor, in my slowest wheels (Sure Grip Sugars, which are *awesome* on that surface -- there was no slip at all. I just need to get my speed up now). So I'm really considering 24.5 laps in 5 minutes a win. That's "shave off a little time and you've got it." Honestly, there were times I was coasting around the curves instead of doing crossovers, for some reason. Just changing that would probably fix the whole thing.

After we finished the skills, we did some scrimmage-y drills, and it was great. I didn't do fabulously well, but there were moments when I was effective at helping my jammer through the pack. That was cool. I didn't have much, if any, trouble keeping up with the pack (though I must admit that the pack was on the slow side). I'm having a little trouble understanding Sick Town's new wall-making strategy. Last night was the first time I had skated that way, and I don't think I "get it" yet. I hope we will get to do more scrimmage-type drills at practice, because honestly, they are a good way to work endurance and they are a lot more fun than skating laps. And the more I learn about strategy and how to be an effective blocker, the better prepared I will be when I am finally scrimmage-eligible.

One awesome thing: before Sick Town's break, I had been having a lot of fear while skating. I don't really know why. Part of it could have been that I was in the midst of changing antidepressants. I'm sure the fact that we had just lost our practice space and were skating on a lot of different surfaces didn't help either. But whatever the reason, I had become a big fraidy-cat on skates.

I think I have shaken that off. All of the solo outdoor skating I did during the break seems to have helped. When you're on your own, you kind of just have to push past the fear, or go home. Crossing streets and getting past scary obstacles like railroad tracks and these weird bumpy mats they have at the crosswalks in Corvallis probably helped too (it can't have hurt my agility, either).

Now I just have to work on control, speed and endurance ... and oh yeah, I have to repass minimum skills. Then I can scrimmage. Easy peasy, right? Right.

On the Way Home

2010-08-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in the Las Vegas airport, which has free wifi. Hallelujah!

Here's my final thought on the overcrowding at Rollercon: the organizers knew the event was going to be at the Las Vegas Sports Center. They knew they would only have two tracks, and they knew the building wasn't that big. In short, they knew how many people they could accommodate, and they chose to sell about twice that many tickets.

Next year they either need to find a bigger venue, or limit the number of tickets sold (fat fucking chance).

Since I feel like I've done a lot of (justified) bitching about Rollercon, here are some good things about it:

- Hanging out with my Sick Town girls was fun.
- The open scrimmages were awesome, and I held my own in them, which is really awesome. (And I made Bones proud of me, which is *incredibly* awesome.)
- The two classes I managed to get into were good. I could have gotten into more if I hadn't let myself get so frustrated with the crowded conditions, but oh well.
- I met a lot of really cool derby people.
- I didn't get sunburned, by some miracle (more than once, I walked around in the scorching Vegas sun without wearing sunscreen).
- I never got a hangover (it's called moderation, darlings ... and it's a good thing).
- Thanks to all the walking I did, even though I didn't skate nearly as much as I thought I would, I got a TON of exercise.

I don't think Rollercon was a waste of my time and money, but I won't be back unless they do something about the overcrowding. Bigger venue, or a cap on ticket sales; but *something*.

And now, I just want to get home. I'm so, so, so tired!

A Pretty Good Day

2010-07-31T02:16:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good day today. I was frustrated with the lines at Rollercon, so I took the day off and hung out with Claudia and her friend Sarah. We wandered around Vegas, went into the pawn shop from "Pawn Star" (which was not that exciting), swam at the Tropicana's pool and played midway games at Circus Circus. I did a LOT of walking today. My feet were already hurting by the time I went to the open scrimmage. But I don't get a lot of chances to scrimmage, so I didn't want to miss it. Besides, the open scrimmage started at 9 p.m., and that is the same time that the Black and Blue Ball started, so we figured (correctly) that the scrimmage would be more sparsely attended than usual. (There were still probably 50 people on each team.)

All seven Sick Town girls were there (and that is 1/3 of our league ... percentage-wise, we *must* be in the running for the league with the most of its members attending Rollercon). There were some other Oregon people too -- Earl Slick (ECRG ref and also a member of the Eugene men's derby team, the Concussion) and Sirius Smack (ECRG player), at least. I skated in four jams, and it was *awesome*. I was nervous about scrimmaging with men, but it turned out to be just fine. When I lined up for each jam, I told the opposing players that I'm pretty new and asked them not to kill me. They still hit me, which is good. But they didn't lay me out.

I got a "good hustle" from Sirius after we skated a jam as blocking partners. That was nice. After the scrimmage, Bones told me and Thrilla that we were both awesome in the scrimmage, and that she thinks when we skate with Sick Town we tend to be more passive, because we know our more experienced teammates will do what needs to be done. In an open scrimmage where you don't know the other people, you kind of have to do it yourself.

Making Bones proud of me? That's just an amazing feeling.

My legs are *so* sore. When I got up a little while ago to go to the bathroom, I was moving like an old person. I may be in pain tomorrow, but that scrimmage tonight was *totally* worth it.

One More Rollercon Post

2010-07-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

On the first day, there was an open scrimmage at noon. In an open scrimmage, you wear a black or white shirt with your number on it, and you get in the black or white line. For each jam, the first four people from the blocker line and the next person in the jammer line go in.

There were a lot of people; I only got to skate in two jams. But it was fun. Unfortunately, there were not enough referees, so we didn't have outside pack refs. That means a lot of fouls got missed, including the moment when a girl from the white team totally elbowed me in the back (I wonder if that would be called as an elbow foul or a back-blocking foul).

Anyway, the really cool thing about the open scrimmage was that I went in with the same three blockers both times, and we worked as a team really well. In the first jam, we trapped a blocker from the white team with us -- meaning that we were the pack, and that the white blockers who were up bothering our jammer were out of play and had to back off. It was so cool! I learned that in Sick Town practice and then I got to do it.

And then in the second jam, my blocking partner and I worked together to form a wall and keep the white jammer back. OK, y'all, this is really basic stuff. But that's the level I'm at right now: the fact that I was able to use my head and block effectively instead of skating willy-nilly and desperately trying to keep up with the pack ... it's a victory. Kind of a big one. (I have had no trouble keeping up in anything I've done here ... that's been awesome.)

I have heard that the open scrimmages at night have gotten pretty rough; and they don't start until 9 p.m. I don't know if I will skate in any more, but that first one was pretty great.

Hanging with the Brat Pack

2010-07-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, I was bench captain for one of the challenge bouts at Rollercon (these are 30-minute bouts with preset teams that were organized in advance -- though there have been a lot of substitutions of players when people who were expected didn't show up). My bout was the Brat Pack (my team) vs. the Chocolate Chip Rookies.

My job was supposed to be to manage the lineups, but we didn't really have set lineups; people just came off the track and got back in line, and we had a few girls jamming. I did take responsibility for making sure we had a jammer and a pivot for every jam, and for encouraging girls to go in and jam if they wanted to try it -- this was not a win-at-all-costs situation. (We did win, though, which was cool! I honestly think we had the better team -- we had some good teamwork and we played much cleaner. They spent a lot more time in the penalty box than we did.)

If I am ever actually going to be a bench captain, like for Sick Town, I will probably have to get control of my mouth. There were times when the other team fouled my players and I was yelling, "Low blocking! She low blocked her!!" Maybe a bench captain shouldn't do that ... I'm not sure. (The girl did totally, egregiously low block my player. I mean, it was blatant.

Anyway, it was cool that my team won, and it was really cool to see them working together. It was fun. Ironically, the reason I didn't skate in this challenge bout was that I felt I wasn't up to the level of the other ladies (some of them have already bouted) ... but there were girls on both teams who are not as strong skaters as I. If I had had my gear there, I could have skated. Oh well. :-)

Greetings from the Sauna!

2010-07-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Las Vegas. I have been here since Tuesday, but the Tropicana doesn't have free wi-fi, and schlepping my laptop the five or six blocks to the McDonald's on the strip is enough of a hassle that I have only done it twice. That's where I am now, enjoying the air conditioning and the Diet Coke.

I'll be honest: Rollercon kind of bites. Hanging with my derby girls is fun (and Boxxx finally got into town early this morning, so it's about to get even more fun). I'm not as much of a party-er as, well, pretty much everyone else, but I'm trying not to be a stick in the mud. Last night we went to the Hooters pool (the Tropicana's pool closes at 7 p.m., which is LAME), then to the Riedell (skate manufacturer) party, and then I was ready to call it a night ... so I skipped the Vagine Regime's Pants Off Dance Off party.

The problem is that everything is so fricking crowded. There are like 1700 people attending Rollercon. We have to be butting up against the maximum occupancy number for the Las Vegas Sports Center. It's crowded and hot and sweaty.

Rollercon has pretty much completely outgrown the Sports Center. There is only room for two tracks (and these are not full-size tracks either). So at any given time there are two skate classes going on, and they are supposed to be capped at 80 skaters (which is still too many for the space, in my opinion).

Yesterday we lined up at NOON to get tickets for the 4 p.m. skate classes. They gave out the tickets at 2 p.m. They only gave out 75 tickets (we got some; we were maybe 30th in line). But then when the class (Blocking Jammers Hate, taught by Suzy Hotrod -- more on that in a minute) started, there were at least 150 people on the track. It would not surprise me at all if it was more like 200. There were a few drills that we were all able to do, but not nearly all of them. A lot of it was Suzy teaching something, and then telling us to practice it at home. It's not her fault; there was simply no way for everyone to do everything.

Theoretically, the Sports Center is air-conditioned. That doesn't mean it was at all comfortable.

I'm pretty irritated (and I'm not the only one) about the training situation here. Seriously, they need to find a place to hold Rollercon that can accommodate all these people. I don't know if I would go again, anyway, but if it's in Vegas I will certainly not be back.

OK, Suzy Hotrod. I think she is my new girly-crush. :-) She's an amazing skater, and a really good teacher. She's funny and no-nonsense and awesome. We learned some cool new drills. I suppose the biggest thing I learned -- and this is pretty basic -- is "back, back, back, up." She had us call that out as we skated in two GINORMOUS packs. So basically, you're looking back over your shoulder for three beats, then ahead for one. Repeat. The reason that's cool is that usually when I am blocking I'm not sure where to look, and I'm trying to look behind me and still skate and it's just awkward as hell. Having a rhythm for it will help me.

At one point Suzy used me and another girl to demonstrate breaking up a wall (we were the wall). We were both in our best derby stances, nice and low, and Suzy said, "Be honest, would you really be that low in a practice?" We laughed and gave her a bit better opportunity to break through us, and she said, "Thanks for being the teacher's pets though." I'm not doing it justice -- it was really adorable. And Suzy, I'll be your teacher's pet anytime. :-)

With the lines and the crowds and all, I honestly don't know if I will get into another training session. I'm taking today off -- I'm going to hang out with Claudia a little later. (I woke up way earlier than I needed to.) Tomorrow there are no skating sessions I'm interested in; I will try to get into one on Sunday.

It's ridiculous: I'm at goddamn Rollercon, and I have geared up TWICE. That's it. I miss Sick Town. Brick is planning a practice for Saturday morning and honestly I would rather go to it than to another Rollercon event. Is that crazy?

This post is getting away from me, so I'm going to stop, and tell you all about the challenge bout I bench coached in another post.

Rollercon, Day One

2010-07-28T00:57:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to type this on my phone, because the wifi here at the Tropicana costs $12.99 a day. They can eat a pile of dicks if they think I am paying that.

I don't think Vegas is a place I would choose to go if it were not for some event. It's like a pizza: hot and cheesy. I don't mind cheesy ... sometimes I even like it. But Vegas is so very, very touristy.

No skating today. We checked in for Rollercon, then hit the pool (which, lamely, closes at 7 p.m.) and then the bars. Coyote Ugly was fun for a whilre (but very, very noisy). That ended up being the only place we drank, which is just as well. We do want to skate tomorrow, not stay at the hotel with hangovers.

Tomorrow Rollercon starts for real.

More Outdoor Skating!

2010-07-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Today I skated the Corvallis-Philomath bike path again. I started downtown, by the post office, and made it all the way to Country Club Road (so, about a total of six or seven miles, round trip). It really is a great path for skating. I'm getting more confident about the street crossings, too; I just step past the yellow bumpy mats instead of getting freaked out by them.

The really big hills start after 53rd Street, I think. I must have been just about there. Next time, maybe I will keep going at least through the first hill. It would be really cool if, by the end of the summer, I could make it all the way to Philomath and back. Should be do-able, I think.

I met two girls who were skating on inline skates, and I told them about Sick Town and encouraged them to come to our next practice. I hope they'll come check it out, because they were very nice and they were both pretty good skaters. I don't think switching from inline to quad should be too difficult. (I find quad skates much easier to skate in, myself.)

I should really go do some laundry, so I will have clothing to take to Rollercon. :-)

Don't Drink and Blog

2010-07-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, do as I say, not as I do, because I am sipping a white sangria as I write this.

I skated at Willamette Park today. I only managed two laps, but that's still a lot of skating. I'm not sure exactly how long the main path is, but it feels pretty long. I wanted to quit after the first lap (low-energy day, I guess), but I didn't. So there's that, at least.

Tonight was the bout committee meeting for Sick Town's next two home bouts (which are in September and October). I volunteered to be door manager, which should be a job I can handle. I was very careful *not* to volunteer to be bout coordinator. Been there, done that (although when I did it, it was at the theater and it was called "director").

Wow, in less than a week I will be at Rollercon!! Holy shitballs. I will have my laptop, so y'all can expect some exciting (and, I hope, non-whiny) updates from the 'con.

Tomorrow night, Sick Town is skating at the Corvallis Knights game! Woot!

Scrimmaging

2010-07-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

I've probably mentioned this already, but the Sick Town training committee has decided that just passing minimum skills and passing the written rules test no longer automatically means that you are eligible to scrimmage. Now, the training committee decides when you can scrimmage.

I'd guess a lot of that is about safety (though some of it may be endurance and speed too -- being able to skate 25 laps in 5 minutes doesn't necessarily mean you can maintain that pace for more than 5 minutes, for example). So although initially when they announced this change, I was like, "Oh crap, another hoop to jump through," I'm cool with it now. Honestly, if the committee doesn't think I'm ready to scrimmage, I trust their judgment.

The good news is that I told Bones (head of training) that my goal is to be scrimmage-eligible by the end of the year, and she thinks that's totally attainable. Yay! We're going to talk at Rollercon (I suggested drinks and knitting :-) ... but her vote of confidence makes me feel a lot better.

Meanwhile, I'll still go to the scrimmage part of the Wednesday practices. I want to learn to referee too -- NOT instead of playing, but as something else I can do. It was fun tracking penalties at the junior derby tournament, but refereeing would have been more fun. :-) So until I'm eligible to scrimmage, I can help ref the scrimmages and then join in the practice afterward. (I think the non-team practices will be separate now ... )

I think I'm getting past some of my skating fear: hallelujah! All the outdoor skating I've been doing helps.

OK, time to go finish dyeing my hair (Sick Town blue! For reals! Well, just the bangs, but still. :-)

Arm Workout

2010-07-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

Today Brick got a call from the people who took over the warehouse from us -- they needed us to move our sport court out of there ASAP. So that's how I spent this evening -- moving (I'm guessing) 8000 square feet's worth of plastic flooring.

Because I was doing it with Sick Town girls, it was actually fun. I hadn't seen any of them in a couple of weeks, since we haven't had practice. That's hard, being away from practice and from friends you're used to seeing three or four times a week.

So now, our sport court is stored at JalaPainYo's house, and the rest of our stuff is farmed out in various garages in Corvallis and Albany. In August, we'll start practicing again, probably at the Linn County Fairgrounds. It'll be good to get back! I have a lot to work on; I would like to be scrimmage-eligible before the end of the year (I think that is a very realistic goal). Rollercon will be good, and then the body conditioning and pilates classes I'm taking in the fall should help a lot too.

This will be a derby-full week: Wednesday we have the bout committee meeting (volunteers are very much invited), Thursday we are the guests of honor at the Corvallis Knights baseball game, and this weekend Sick Town has a camping trip planned. Should be fun!!!

Eat, Sleep, Skate

2010-07-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

So far, I'm doing really well with my goal to skate almost every day during Sick Town's break. Friday, I skated on a bike path that runs from 35th to 53rd Streets through some OSU farmland (it's the one with the covered bridge). It's a nice, wide asphalt path. There's a fair amount of debris, but it's pretty good for skating. I did two "laps" (35th to 53rd and back), which works out to about eight miles. Not too bad. There's a pretty good hill at the 53rd Street end -- steep enough to hurt going up, and to be fun coming down, but not steep enough to be at all scary.

Saturday, Charlie and I were NSOs (non-skating officials) for a junior derby tournament in Eugene. Some of those girls (whose ages I would guess range from 12 to 18) are *amazing* skaters. I didn't know what to expect going into it; I had never seen junior derby before. It's the same as adult derby, except that the girls are younger. They use the same rules as we do (WFTDA rules) and it's just as much a full-contact sport.

Since it was a double-elimination tournament, every team got to skate at least two 30-minute bouts. Charlie and I were supposed to work all 10 bouts, but Stat Brat (ECRG's awesome NSO and, I assume, statistician) took over for me for one so I could have a break. If she hadn't spelled me for a bout, I would have been on my feet pretty much non-stop from 11 until 6:30. That's what Charlie did. It was exhausting. Fun, but exhausting. The refs and other NSOs we worked with were awesome. And there were Voodoo Doughnuts in the refs' room. I had two and then made myself switch to granola bars and trail mix when I wanted a snack. :-)

Today, Charlie and I went and skated on the Periwinkle bike path here in Albany. It's not a great skating path -- it's concrete, and in some spots it's in pretty poor condition. It's also not a very long path, and there's one point where you have to cross the street and if you're coming from the west, you can't see the road (thanks to the vegetation) and it's a fairly sharp little hill leading down to the street. Yikes!

So, I don't know if I will skate there again. It's probably worth the drive to Corvallis to skate at Willamette Park or the OSU path instead.

I'm certainly not getting as much of a workout as I get at derby practice, but at least when I go to Rollercon (in just over a week, holy shitballs!), I won't have been off my skates for two weeks.

More skating!

2010-07-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I skated outside on my own. That's a first. Fortunately, it went well (I had my phone, too, so if I had hurt myself I could have called someone). My original plan was to skate on the path along the riverside in downtown Corvallis, but that path is not so great for skating. It is concrete, with grooves every six feet or so (which I didn't like but wasn't awful), and some areas with multiple grooves about six inches apart (these sucked). Also, there are areas that are brick, and that is not fun to skate on.

Fortunately, that path merges with the asphalt bike path that runs from Corvallis to Philomath (come on, guys, isn't it about time the path was extended to Albany?) I decided to try it instead. I had not skated on it since about 1997 (when I tried it on Rollerblades and ended up in tears because I just couldn't handle it). Sick Town uses it for advanced-level outdoor skating, but I figured I could just try it and if it was too tough for me I could turn around. (Besides, I know that path well enough to know that the really tough hills are farther out than I was likely to go, out toward Philomath.)

I skated as far as 26th Street and back, twice. It was a good workout, but nothing I couldn't handle. I bombed the hills, no problem. (Well, I did snowplow some to control my speed.) There was a lot of debris on the path, but that was easier than the grooves in the concrete.

Today, Charlie and I went up to Oaks Park for their evening open skate. It was fun (still hot, but not as bad as Saturday). The music wasn't what I would have chosen -- mostly 1980s R&B (I think). I didn't recognize that many songs.

One cool thing is that there were a lot of derby people. If there had been someone from Emerald City (Eugene), then every league from the Oregon I-5 corridor would have been represented. G.I. Jess was there from Southern Oregon (nice girl; she started about when I did. I hope next time we meet it will be in a bout!); a girl whose name I've forgotten was there from Cherry City (though she has moved to Portland and is thinking about trying out for Rose City's fresh meat). There were some RCR hopefuls (good luck ladies!) and several guys from the Portland Men's Derby team. I chatted with a couple of them. They're nice guys. I still don't fully get the point of men's derby (but that is just because I really love women's sports. I don't 100% get the point of men's *basketball*. :-)

What's really neat is that they tried to recruit Charlie! He has come a long way as a skater. We stopped by their practice (in Rose City's practice space, a hangar on the Oaks Park property) after we were done skating. Charlie's not interested in joining (which is fine with me!), but it was cool to see someone else being tormented with falling drills and shopping carts. :-)

Rose City has an awesome practice space, BTW. I'm jealous.

Tomorrow I will probably give my legs a break, but Friday I'm going to skate outside again.

Outdoor Skate

2010-07-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I got up early (well, early for me, especially in summer) and skated with Belle at Willamette Park. It was fun! I think I've mentioned before what a sweetie Belle is -- she's just awesome to hang out with. We did three "laps" (out to the first hill, because I wasn't up for trying hills today, and back); it was a good workout, though not as taxing as a derby practice.

It's nice and cool today, overcast and about 75 degrees (I guess). Great skating weather!

Oh, and it seems that every time I go to Corvallis, I see something cool. Last practice, on my way home I saw a guy riding a unicycle and juggling three basketballs. Today, when we were in one of the woodsy areas along the path, a COYOTE ran out about 15 feet ahead of us and bounded across the path and into the woods on the other side. A fricking coyote!!

We also saw a bunch of adorable little yellow finches, and two (separate) Corgis.

So, I had a really fun time. Thanks Belle!!

Skating at Oaks Park

2010-07-11T11:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Charlie and I went to the afternoon open skate at Oaks Park. I've mentioned Oaks before, so let me just quickly say: it's a great rink. Wonderful, huge hardwood floor, very grippy. I wore my fastest wheels (my Cannibals, with the 91 durometer and very little grip).

The skating was awesome. It had been long enough since we skated at Oaks that the last time, I was barely able to skate all the way through one or two songs. I was still having shin pain, plus my endurance just generally sucked.

Well, the shin pain is pretty much gone (!!) and has been for a while, and although my endurance still sucks compared to most of the other girls in the league, it is much, much better than it was. We were there for two and a half hours, and I skated the entire time, except the two times we took breaks to get something to drink (this was absolutely necessary).

Turns out, the Oaks Park rink does not have air conditioning. It wasn't awful, but it was definitely not comfortably cool. If we hadn't stopped to drink, we would have been dehydrated (before our second break, I kept one-more-songing myself, and I was starting to feel dehydrated by the time I stopped). We brought clothes to change into, because we were planning to go to the movies after skating ... and when I took my skating clothes off they were soaking wet. Not dripping, at least; but definitely saturated.

The rink was moderately crowded, but I'm past being freaked out by that. It was fun skating around people. I was one of the fastest skaters there (and let me tell you, being the fastest skater is not a common experience for me!). I wasn't asshole-fast, just Dixie-fast. So, a moderate derby pace.

I tried some new things too. I concentrated on skating low, and sometimes especially low -- there's a drill we've been doing at practice lately where we rest our elbows on our knees and someone pushes us around (for two minutes at a time, which is excruciating!). I tried skating like that. It's different ... I'm not sure I found the right balance, but I could do it. I even tried shooting the duck (crouching low and putting one leg out in front, straight) and cutting side-to-side while doing that. And on the curves, I tried holding the inner line and sticking my booty out over the line without putting my skates over it. Roller derby: the sport where a big booty can be a real advantage!

During the reverse skate, I made myself do crossovers ... and I think I FINALLY got the push thing! See, when I do a crossover in the regular direction, I'm now getting enough of a crossover that I'm not losing all my momentum by coasting around the turns. But I'm not pushing off with my back foot to get *power* out of the crossover. Well, in the reverse direction, I can do that now. Or at least I did yesterday.

Now if I could just figure out how to do it with my left leg ...

Update!

2010-07-08T22:53:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been three weeks since I posted. Sorry, internet!! I will try to do better.

I am still working on getting my mojo (i.e., endurance and speed) back. I have had some great practices, and then there have been some where I had to drop out of a lot of drills and felt crappy about it. Fortunately, tonight was a good one (though it was hard -- really hard).

Sick Town has lost its practice space -- the warehouse we called the CDC. We lost it just after the rookie rumble scrimmage with the Rose City girls -- which I was allowed to skate in at the last minute, thanks to Sick Town not having enough skaters. That was a *lot* of fun. I had some moments where I felt like a useful blocker, too. Not all the time, but enough glimmers to give me hope. (There was one jam in particular where I was stuck at the back of the pack when the Rose City jammer was coming up. I kept hitting her out of bounds, repeatedly. For a little while, I was a huge pain in that jammer's ass. That was awesome!)

Anyway, we have been nomads since the last week of June. That has meant a lot of practices at the Linn County Fairgrounds (which has a nice big room with a concrete floor; unfortunately, that floor is waxed and polished to a pretty shine, which means it is slick as hell and not that great to skate on). We've also had several outdoor practices, at various basketball courts and school play yards in the area.

I'm not complaining. Brick and the rest of the trainers have done a fantastic job of finding us places to practice. But the constant switching of skating surfaces means that I have to re-adjust every practice, and I'm experiencing a lot of fear while skating. (Some of that may also be because I am in the throes of changing anti-depressants.) I really just have to get over it and trust my skills. I wonder how much better a skater I could be if I could just get rid of the fear. I think it would be a leap, for me, skill-wise.

Tonight we skated at the Benton County Fairgrounds, which is right near Bald Hill (a park? with lovely wide asphalt bike trails). It was 95 degrees out, and we started with an outdoor skate up the first real hill of the path. It is a gradual slope, but a very noticeable one; I would guess it's maybe 30 degrees (but I didn't have a giant protractor with me, so I could be wrong).

Skating up it the first time was really tough. Bones said skating uphill is a great way to practice the proper derby stride (which is to skate with your legs pushing straight out to the side, not back). I made it, though I was the last one to get to the top. We talked for a bit about how to skate down (bend your knees, weight on your heels, stagger your feet, keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, if you have to ditch into the grass just fall, don't try to stay up), and then it was time to do it. Bones and Toxic (the two team members who were skating with us -- well, Toxic isn't a team member now because she was out for a long time with an injury, but she is certainly as knowledgeable as a team member) went first. I told Belle and Shelley that I'd better not go last, or I was afraid I wouldn't go at all. So I went next.

Holy shit, y'all, that was scary. I was snowplowing with my feet to try to control my speed, but at some point I realized that I wasn't really making much difference that way so I just let go and went fast. Really fast. It would have been fun if I hadn't been so scared! I rolled almost all the way back to the start of the trail (which was a little ways; I don't know how far).

We talked a bit and then we went back up to do it again. If going up the hill the first time was tough, going up the second time was a bastard. I stopped halfway through (hmm, I was able to stop on a hill without rolling back -- that's kinda cool) and seriously considered giving up. I kept going, and somehow I got to the top of the hill. (It's Bones, y'all. I really should hire her to be my personal motivator for everything.)

Bones and I talked about how I didn't need to be scared, and that I have the skill to handle skating down that hill. She went down last, and I was next to last, so Bones was right behind me going down the hill, and kind of coached me through it. That was helpful. I was much more confident the second time, and had more fun.

The original plan was to do the hill 3 or 4 times, but by the time we finished the second time it was 7:30 and time to go do the indoor part of our practice. I'll admit I was relieved not to have to climb that hill a third time. :-)

It was hotter inside than out. The Benton County Fairgrounds' buildings are not air conditioned. (The floor there is awesome for skating though. Much grippier concrete than at the LinnCo fairgrounds.) My big accomplishments for the second half of the practice were (a) that I didn't have to drop out of any drills, and (b) that I got through it even though it was hotter than ass in there.

Oh, and Bones said I had really good form on my T-stops. That was cool. :-)

So now, Sick Town is taking a break for the rest of July. I am going to do my best to still skate at least three times a week during the break. Saturday, Charlie and I are going to Oaks Park (wonderful, huge rink); Monday, Belle and I are going to skate at Willamette Park early, before it gets hot.

I'm now wearing jeans three sizes smaller than when I started derby, by the way. How awesome is that?

Derby Horoscope Nails It

2010-06-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

I don't really believe in horoscopes, but mine from the new issue of "Five on Five" (WFTDA's official derby magazine) is spot on:

Scorpio: Practice, practice, practice! You have been feeling tired and out of sync on the track, but getting back to basics will bring back the confidence you have been lacking. Your level of play will be elevated once you tackle this mental block.

I *have* been feeling tired and out of sync on the track. My endurance is in the toilet, I pulled a groin muscle falling at practice on Monday, and the last couple of practices were just miserable for me. And of course there's last Saturday's setback, which doesn't help a bit.

I think I just need to focus on the basics -- stance, stride, stopping (let's see if I can get a few more S-words in here). OK, so I didn't re-pass minimum skills -- yet. BFD. It's not like that was the one thing keeping me from being put on the team. I'm a ways away from being good enough for that yet ... so there's no reason for me not to just focus on improving my skills, and stop comparing myself to others. As long as I'm doing *my* best, and pushing myself, it will be good enough.

A minor setback

2010-06-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well, today I tried to do my re-test on minimum skills. It's a little more involved than I had expected -- it's not just the individual stuff, but the pair and pack stuff too. Also, some of the individual stuff is not required (stops and falls, mainly).

I had some trouble with the jump but managed to do it. I need to make myself jump every time I put on skates. I also had to re-do receiving push assists -- the first time, I was too straight up and down. That annoys the hell out of me (at myself), because I *know* better than that.

But the thing that I just *could not* pull off, and that kept me from passing today, was positional blocking (aka booty blocking). I just couldn't get in front of Brick or Bones (they both tried it with me. They definitely did everything they could to give me a chance to get it right). And when I was in front of them I couldn't stop fast enough. Or didn't, really. I mean, I know how to stop.

I think part of it is that my endurance is suffering. Three weeks away from practice, plus pneumonia, will really mess up your endurance. So that is one thing I will keep working at. The other thing is just the footwork. Oh, and apparently I'm still flailing my arms around too much, which, dammit! Another thing I totally know better than to do, but I'm still doing it.

Well, I'm not going to beat myself up (any further). The good news is that there was a lot of stuff that was just no problem for me at all. I can try again next Saturday; between now and then, I can work on footwork and positional blocking, and make myself jump at every practice. I. Will. Get. There.

Meanwhile, this doesn't take away the fact that I have passed minimum skills. (I'm having a bit of cognitive dissonance on that subject ...) This is just something I have to do before I'm eligible to scrimmage. And I will.

Monday night practice

2010-06-08T16:27:00.001-07:00

Last night was ... interesting. Let's say interesting. :-)

Bones ran the practice, which means it was a killer. I love Bones, but I'm half-convinced she is trying to kill me. :-) Just kidding -- hard workouts are awesome, especially when you're finished and you can say, "Wow, I did all of that!"

I couldn't 100% keep up with everything, but I never dropped out. There was a drill where we were skating in a pace line and the front two girls would sprint and lap the pace line (and then lap it twice, then three times, then twice, then once). The theme of last night was "pyramids." Well, my sprinting last night sucked ass (I'm just never going to be the fastest girl in the league, plus my endurance is down thanks to the pneumonia and the resulting lack of exercise). So I never did manage to lap the pace line more than once, but I kept up with the pace line the entire time, so that's something.

I also had no trouble keeping up with the pack during the 30 laps in 6 minutes, so that was awesome. I even helped a new girl, Kimberly, who was having trouble. Later on, I was in a group with Kimberly (who is tall, slim and athletic) and Bones (small but tough as nails) for shopping carts. That's where everyone gets in a single-file line, in derby position, hands on the hips of the girl in front of you, and the person in back pushes everyone. Bones and Kimberly together probably weigh ... gosh, I don't know, but less than 250 pounds, for sure. It should not have been difficult for me to push them. At least, not as difficult as it was. I was *dying*. And then when I was pulling them ... oh sweet Jebus, I wanted to fall down.

I got through it, which, yay me.

Later, during our league meeting, Brick was giving a rundown on how a skate works, what you can adjust and how, etc. Kimberly handed Brick one of her skates to demonstrate on. I picked up the other one, and when I pick up a skate, the first thing I do is give the wheels a spin. I don't know why, but I do. Even before Brick said anything, I told Kimberly, "Oh, honey, your wheels are too tight." They wouldn't spin; I could barely get them to turn. I don't know who sold her those skates, but they really should have loosened the nuts for her. (Brick did.)

We were all amazed and impressed that Kimberly managed to keep up with the pack (with help but still!!!) and the rest of the drills, when her wheels were so tight. Basically, she was driving with the parking brake on.

That explains why it was so hard to push and pull her, and it also explains why I was able to outpace her in most of the drills. *That* won't be happening again anytime soon. Kim is going to *love* her skates next time she tries them, I'll bet!

Unfortunately, Brick had some bad news for us at the meeting. During practice, the owner of the warehouse where we practice came by to talk to her. He had found a renter who wanted to use the building as a warehouse. The thing about that is that it's usually done on a month-to-month basis: a grass-seed company might rent the warehouse for a few months, for example. But whereas we're paying $800 a month, the warehouse renter will pay quite a lot more than that (I don't know exactly how much). So our deal with the owner was always that if they found a regular renter, we had to be out in seven days.

So, we have to be out in seven days. That means we have to tear up our sport court, and move it, and find someplace to store all of our stuff: sport court, chairs, skates, pads, other equipment, etc. More importantly, though, it means we have to find a new place to practice, and the sooner the better. We can probably go back to the Linn County Fairgrounds, which is not ideal (the polished concrete floor is very slick) but is OK. But that -- in my opinion, and I do not in any way speak for the league -- is just a stopgap. We need our own space, so we can have a full practice schedule. I guess I got spoiled in the seven months practicing in the warehouse. I mean, it wasn't perfect by any means: no heat, no insulation, no plumbing, and God only knows how hot it would have gotten in the summer. But it was *ours*. We paid our $800 and we could have practices every single day if we wanted. Sigh.

I know it will work out. I hope it does, because honestly, derby is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. And I don't want to do it anywhere else. I'm a Sick Town girl, dammit!

I'm Back!

2010-06-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

I took most of the month of May off from derby, and I *hated* it. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am usually pretty fanatical about going to practice. Conventional Sick Town wisdom is that two practices a week will maintain your skills, but if you want to improve, you should go to three or four. I took that advice to heart, and I believe that is why I passed minimum skills as quickly as I did (and sooner than anyone expected me to).

I had pneumonia, though, and even if I had felt up to skating, it would have been extremely selfish to go to practice and spread my germs to the rest of the league. So I stayed home.

I finally went back to practice on May 26. The good news is that I went to the rink the Saturday before that (RIP, Lebanon Sk8 Center), and *finally* got the goddamn crossover down!! My crossover is not perfect -- Brick says I am straightening my back leg too soon/too much, and I need to work on that. But it is a real crossover, at last!!

I've been able to keep up at the practices I've been to since I went back. We've started doing 30 laps in six minutes at the start of every practice (that's 12-second laps, the same pace as the 25 laps in five minutes that is required for minimum skills). We do it as a pack, which I *vastly* prefer to doing it as a pace line ... but so far, I haven't needed any help! No whips, no self-assists, no pushes, nothing!! I can't even tell y'all how good that feels.

I borrowed Claudia's (Lux's ... it's really hard to get used to calling the girls who were beginners with me by their derby names, but I will!) yellow Fugitive Mids wheels again. I had tried them on the concrete floor and found that they slowed me down -- they were too grippy on that surface, I guess. On the sport court, they are *awesome*. They are narrower than my other wheels, which means (I guess?) that they are better for side-to-side footwork. They are a 93 durometer (hardness), which means they're fast; and they are nice and grippy, which means they don't slide out from under me on the turns. Love!! I bought my own set yesterday. Any derby girl reading this, if you skate on sport court, you should try these wheels.

Hmm, what else? Oh!! This is cool -- I passed the written test, which is part of minimum skills. I only missed two -- you can miss six and still pass. Yay!!

One frustrating thing: apparently it's a Sick Town rule that if you miss three weeks of practice, you have to re-take the individual parts of the minimum skills assessment before you are eligible to scrimmage. Bones assured me that it's no big deal, and that it takes about five minutes (when she first said it, I was envisioning having to go through the entire min skills assessment in July, and the thought of that made my heart sink). I think I'm pretty much ready to do that. The only thing I'm nervous about at all is the jump, but if I did it in April I should be able to do it now.

Last night Sick Town had a bout against the Church of Sk8in (which is one of the Emerald City Roller Girls teams). It was *awesome.* The Sick Town girls skated fabulously, and showed some really nice teamwork. The score was close all along, and at the end of the bout it was TIED, so they had to go into overtime. Here's how overtime works: it's a two-minute jam, with no lead jammer (the lead jammer can call off the jam at any time; if there's no lead jammer, the jam goes the full two minutes). The jammers start scoring on their first pass through the pack (normally it's on the second).

The final score -- I don't remember the specific numbers, but the Church won by two points. I'd have loved it even more if Sick Town had won by two points, but it was just a great, exciting bout. I was so proud of my team!!

The second bout of the evening, Andromedolls vs. Flat Track Furies, was much less fun. I think the Dolls won by 150 points. It's just not as entertaining when the score's not close. I'm not -- not in any way -- suggesting that the scores should be manipulated to maximize the entertainment value. Roller derby is a legitimate sport and bullshit like that would severely damage its legitimacy. But when you're playing another team from your own league, and you have an insurmountable lead, maybe you could start sending out blockers to jam (for example). That has the added benefit of being fun for the blockers. :-)

Eh, I'm not criticizing the Dolls. I think they're an awesome team -- in fact, I'm wearing an Andromedolls t-shirt as I write this.

My goals for this week:
- Make it to four practices (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday)
- Re-take whatever part of minimum skills I have to re-take to be scrimmage-eligible (because attendance-wise, I will be eligible next week!)
- Keep working on the crossover
- Be able to keep up in all the drills
- Keep working on stopping (as a blocker, I need to be able to stop on a dime, and I'm not there yet)

One last thing. On Thursday night we had a rink skate at the CDC (we always do that for the practice before a bout). It was fun -- just Brick, and a bunch of newer girls and a couple of refs (Bambi and Isaac -- aka Charlie). At one point I was sprinting to catch Thrilla (Tami -- one of the girls who started with me, and the only one of us who has been drafted to the team so far), and I hit *something* and went flying into a faceplant (I almost pulled off a four-point fall, but not quite). Charlie called it a six-point, because ... wait for it ... I landed on my boobs, arms and knees. OMG, it hurt. My arms and chest are still sore. The annoying thing is that I have my first derby bruise, and I can't post a picture of it (because it's on my boob). D'oh!!

Feeling Better

2010-05-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

I'm going to make a confession: I did *not* want to go to derby practice today. Last night was rough -- I couldn't keep up with the pace line, I fell and was afraid I'd busted my bad ankle (it turned out that it was OK), basically I felt totally useless.

Today, I really didn't want to go. But I knew that this was one of those situations where the thing that you don't want to do is exactly the thing that you must do. So I went. And it. Was. Awesome.

First, there was a new girl, and Boxxx left me to help her gear up. Helping out new skaters is something I really like to do, so that put me in a good mood to start with. And then, the team had a guest trainer (Rex Havoc, from Emerald City Roller Girls -- very nice lady, and one hell of a skater), and I was watching on the sidelines while they did drills ... and Brick came over and explained what was going on, which I really appreciated. And then ... oh, this is silly, but when they did the team cheer at the end, they called me over to be included in it. What can I say, small stuff like that can really make a difference.

Oh, but it gets better. :-)

I was the only newly-advanced girl at practice, which meant that I got Bones all to myself. All of our trainers are awesome, but there's something about Bones ... she can really motivate me. Maybe it's because she was my very first trainer, at my first practice. I don't know. Anyway, after stretching, she said we were going to do 25 laps in 5 minutes. Verbally, I said, "OK." Mentally, I said, "Oh shit."

Yes, I have done 25 laps in 5 minutes before, or else I would not have passed min skills. But I had never done it on the sport court before.

Well, friends, I skated 25 laps in 5 minutes today. On the motherfricking sport court. Booooooooya!!

After that, we did 24 minutes of opportunity (sprint a minute, do a drill for a minute, repeat). God, that hurt. And then we did a lot of stuff focused on crossovers, which continue to be difficult for me -- but the stuff we did today really helped. Thanks Bonesy!!!

Ooh, and then we did shopping carts (pushing Bones around the track is so easy compared to pushing two or three girls), and then we did off-skates conditioning, which was tough but felt really good too. I'm getting better at wall sits -- they don't even start to hurt really until about the 40 second mark.

I have a lot of work to do, but I left practice today feeling like I will be able to do it. That is the best thing that's happened to me all week.

Oh, and I never, ever want to go a week without skating again. It's amazing how much endurance you can lose in a short time. I was already fanatical about attending practice, but now I'm going to be downright fundamentalist about it. :-)

This too shall pass.

2010-04-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last night was rough. I'm not going to lie. I keep this blog positive -- this is not a place to say ugly things about other people (and honestly I don't have anything ugly to say about anyone anyway!). But I'm going to be honest about myself, warts and all.

First, I'm still struggling with the sport court, though I think I am starting to get used to it. The new wheels I bought seem to help. I've lost some speed (they are grippier wheels, which means slower -- I've gone from a 93 durometer (the hardness of the wheels -- higher number equals harder wheel) to an 88, which is what many of the girls use on the sport court. Anyway, I have to work harder to go the same speed I was going on the 93s, *but* I'm more confident because my wheels aren't sliding around.

Last night was the first time I had skated in a WEEK. That wasn't my choice -- I would *never* choose to miss a week of practices. But there was pudding wrestling on Friday, and then Saturday and Monday I was sick. I had, at least, gone to class and done cardio on Friday and Wednesday, but still. Ugh. Couch potato week.

I never, ever want to take a week off from skating again. I had been getting to the point where my shins didn't hurt much even when I very first skated. Well, last night, those mofos *hurt*, and between that and the fact that I was struggling for speed *and* the fact that I was probably not completely over being sick ... I had to drop out of the pace lines. I couldn't even sustain skating around the inside track. It *sucked*.

They are cracking down on the requirements for scrimmaging -- you have to have passed minimim skills (check), you have to have passed the written rules test (not yet), and you have to have been to two practices a week since passing minimum skills (nope -- it hasn't been two weeks yet). So I didn't get to scrimmage, but honestly, that's fine. At this point in my progress, after not skating for a week, I probably *shouldn't* scrimmage.

So I was an inside pack ref instead, skating around the inside of the track and calling penalties. It was very, very educational. Any derby girl reading this, if you think the referees' job is easy, you should try refereeing at a scrimmage or two. First, skating around the inside of the track is not that easy. Keeping up with the pack wouldn't have been hard, except that there were three or four other people also skating that narrow little lane, plus skaters sometimes getting pushed to the inside, and it just gets very crowded. And then you have to watch for rules violations (mostly elbowing, back-blocking and cutting the track), and make snap judgments on whether it was a minor or major violation ... It's hard. I already had respect for the referees, but being on that side of the line has given me a new understanding.

So anyway ... after the scrimmage, the team had a long talk that Tami and I were not included in ... so we were over with the refs. And then at one point they called Tami over. Except the acoustics in that place are terrible, so I thought they were calling us both over, and I went too. I thought they were just calling us over like, "OK, time to get on with practice."

Yeah, no. They were inviting Tami to join the travel team. So I stood there like a dork for a few seconds, and then skated back over to the refs. It was pretty embarrassing. At least, thank goodness, I didn't say anything -- because it would be just like me to open my big dumb mouth and say something dumb in a situation like that. So, points to me: what I should have said was nothing, and what I said was nothing.

Hey, I am really happy for Tami. And it's not like we were both in competition for a spot on the team and it went to her. I'm *not* ready, and I know that. I knew other girls who passed minimum skills with me would get put on the team sooner than I would (if I am at all). I just didn't think it would happen so soon. But it is what it is, and it just means I have to work harder and get myself scrimmage-eligible, and then hopefully bout-ready.

Mostly, though, I was just really embarrassed. Wetback (love her, though I'm still not 100% comfortable calling her that) came out and talked with me, and that was cool because for one thing I needed to talk, and for another, at least one person knew I was just embarrassed, not mad that I wasn't put on the team. Hell, as I write this now I know I'm making too big a deal of the embarrassment. It was just a rough damn night.

Anyway, after I talked with Wetback, I went back in and joined the drill that was going on, and got through it and kept up with the pack (with assists, but that's OK). I finished the practice, when what I wanted to do most in the world was go home. I'm going to give myself some credit for that. Staying and finishing the practice was absolutely the right thing to do, but it was also hard. And I did it. So, good on me.

On Tuesday, I had a one-on-one coaching session with Wetback, which was awesome. She helped me set some goals (I will post them in a separate post). Even though last night kind of sucked, I am still totally committed to working toward my goals. I don't know if I will ever be on the travel team -- that is not in my control. But I *will* be a good enough skater to be on the team.

One more thing. I weigh myself on Thursday mornings. I wasn't enthusiastic about that this morning -- I had skated *once* since my last weigh-in, and had only worked out twice, and hadn't been all that careful about what I had eaten. But I made myself do it. I figured, if I had just maintained, I would be happy. And if I had gained, well, that would fit the theme of the week: suckiness.

I lost a pound.

Boo-ya!

So here's the plan. I'm going to shake last night off, hope I didn't behave like an a-hole at practice (I'm pretty sure I didn't), and get to work on my goals. And never, ever miss practice again!!!

Me as Jammer

2010-04-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of me from last night's scrimmage, playing jammer.

Last night was mixed, for sure. At the beginning of practice, the team did a 27-laps-in-5-minutes pace line, and I couldn't keep up, so I dropped out and skated around the outside of the track. That was the wrong thing to do, I guess. Next time I can't keep up with a pace line, I will skate around the inside of the track instead. That way I'm still more engaged with the drill, and I can re-join if I manage to get up to speed.

I know 27 laps in 5 minutes isn't that much faster than 25 laps in 5 minutes. I know I have to be able to skate at that pace if I want to skate in bouts. (Obviously, there's not much that I want more!)

For some girls, passing minimum skills probably means they are pretty much ready to bout. It doesn't mean that for me. I don't think many people really expected me to pass. That's OK, I didn't either. I knew it was going to be a near thing either way. What that means is that it may take me longer to get up to the level I need to be at for bouting (which is above the level I needed to be at to pass min skills). I hope the trainers will be able to be patient, as long as I'm giving 100%.

A month ago I couldn't do 25 laps in 5 minutes, and now I can. That's something, right? I think it is. I think it means that if I keep pushing, and keep going to four practices a week plus doing cardio outside of practice, I will get to where I need to be.

OK, some good things:

- Last night we newly-advanced girls got to scrimmage (we had thought we weren't going to). It was fun, though of course I did a few dumb things. I need to find a way to be fearless on the track. I need to find a way to think, "OK, Kant is going to hit me. Fuck it, I'm going to hit her back," instead of "Oh shit, Kant is going to hit me!!! Run away!!!!!"

Wait, I was going to say something good. :-)

OK, last night during the scrimmage, in the last jam, I was the jammer for my team. They sent out all of us new girls, plus a couple of OGs to fill out the teams. I managed to get through the pack three times!! That means I would have scored ... well, I don't know, possibly as many as 12 points for my team, I think. That's pretty damn cool.

- I lost two pounds last week. I have been losing weight thanks to derby, but I didn't really start tracking my weight until a few weeks ago.

- I'm not giving up. Not by a long shot.

Welcome to the Big League

2010-04-20T08:55:00.001-07:00

I knew that passing minimum skills was just the start of a lot of hard work and training. But knowing that in my mind and knowing in my legs, ass, and the rest of my body were two different things.

Last night's practice was tough. It was my first time on the sport court (a plastic flooring surface that can be put down and removed). The sport court is slicker than the concrete we usually skate on (though not as much so as I was afraid). It is definitely going to take some getting used to.

The harder thing, though, was keeping up. I trained and worked *hard* to be able to skate 12-second laps (and to sustain that pace for at least five minutes at a time). But the trainers *warned* us that the pace the travel team goes for is more like 9 or 10 seconds. Still, hearing that and trying to skate it? Two different things.

But hey, a month ago I couldn't skate a 12-second lap, or at least I couldn't skate 25 of them in a row. I'll get there! That's what all this cardio I'm doing outside of practice is for.

And no one is pulling the hits anymore. The travel team girls have started hitting us at 100%. I took a lot of hard hits last night. The first one to knock me down was Boxxx, with a shoulder hit. Maybe I wasn't low enough, because I wouldn't have thought a shoulder hit should take me down like that. Hurt like hell, absolutely ... but knock me down? I don't know. Boxxx is a powerful hitter, for sure. But I probably also was not low enough.

I don't want to imply that Boxxx was the only one to knock me down last night -- far from it. :-)

We did a lot of scrimmage-y drills, which is awesome: we worked on breaking up walls, pushing our blocker partner into the jammer, and other stuff like that. Boxxx did something really awesome on one repetition of one of the drills when she was paired up with me and Emily (Belle Tolls ... gotta remember to call her by her derby name now that she has one). Belle and I both just passed min skills. We were blocking, and Boxxx was the jammer getting past us. Rather than just zip past us, which we all know Boxxx could totally have done, she worked at our level and helped us learn how to do the exercise. Thank you Boxxx!!!! (It's not that the other girls weren't doing that too ... but Boxxx was especially awesome.)

I spent a lot of last night feeling like a total idiot. A *slow* idiot. I have so much to learn. I'll get there, right?

Minimum Skills

2010-04-18T00:31:00.001-07:00

As I said earlier, I passed. This is a huge, ginormous big deal. I really didn't think I was going to pass. In fact, as of January or February, if you had asked me, I would have said it would probably take me at least until the end of 2010 to pass minimum skills.

Today's min skills assessment (let's abbreviate it to MSA from now on), for me, was a story of pluck, determination, and crying like a little bitch. I cried when I thought I was not going to pass. I sobbed when I passed. The tears flowed. Sigh. Well, if I ever get to be a trainer, I hope I will be as nice and understanding as Bones, Cruel Anne and Boxxx were today when some intermediate girl cries on my shoulder.

Anyway.

The things I thought were going to trip me up were skating 25 laps in 5 minutes, doing a crossover (this is the most efficient way to maintain speed while going around the curves at the ends of the track; you cross your outside leg over the inside leg, and push off toward the outside with the inside leg), and the two-footed jump over a three-inch-tall object.

What *did* trip me up was receiving a push assist, zigzagging from one side of the track to the other, and the motherfricking jump.

The push was pure dumbness on my part. My legs were too straight, and I wobbled when my partner pushed me. That's very unsafe: if someone is giving you a strong push from behind (on your behind), you need to be in the proper position (knees bent, butt out) or you could fall and get hurt.

The zigzagging was another silly mistake: I was skating too fast, and that meant I wasn't getting enough zigs and zags in. I needed three per straightaway and two per curve, and I wasn't getting them.

But the 25 laps in 5 minutes? I was able to do it, just fine. They let me stay to the inside of the track rather than be in the pace line, and I was able to keep up with (and even pass part of) the line. That was *awesome*.

As for the crossover ... I have been doing derby for six months now. I have lost count of the number of people who have tried to teach me to do a crossover (and given me excellent advice on it). Somehow, it just finally clicked today -- RIGHT when I needed it to. Bones said she had never seen me do a crossover before today. I think that's because I really hadn't done one. When we were starting to do crossovers for evaluation, she said "Exaggerate them." Somehow, exaggerating the movement with my outside (right) foot just made the movement of the inside (left) foot click into place for me. I did it!!! (Now I have to practice it *a lot*, because -- surprise, surprise -- it works the muscles in a new way.)

When Bones told me I passed the crossover part, I was absolutely thrilled.

Unfortunately, though, by that point I had already failed the two-footed jump. We were jumping over the head of a push-broom. We had to skate up to it and jump with both feet, landing with both feet at the same time on the other side of it. We had to clear it completely. Until today, the only object I had managed to jump over, two-footed, was a child's toy baseball bat -- probably 1" off the ground.

I knew it was possible that I would be able to do the jump. It's one of those things that you can go from "I can't" to "Holy shit, I did it" pretty quickly. But the fact that I had never done it yet was pretty scary.

We each got two tries. The first try, I cleared it but my feet didn't land at the same time. The second try, I didn't clear it (I grazed it, enough to knock it out of position but fortunately not enough to cause me to wipe out). After everyone had jumped, Bones let me try one more time. This time, I cleared it and then fell on my ass.

I felt pretty miserable after that, but I had already decided that even if I knew for sure I had failed, I would finish the MSA as strongly as I could. I may cry in front of these girls, but I will *not* give up.

We got through the rest of the MSA (and I did everything else successfully!). Afterward, the trainers came to each of us individually and offered us the chance to try again on the skills we had not passed. I think if someone had not passed a *lot* of skills, they would probably just be told they had not passed the MSA. I don't know what the cutoff is; I just know that it's at least 3.

I re-did the "receiving a push" test. No problem, once I remembered to stay in proper derby form. I re-did the zig-zagging and made it. And then there was the jump.

Bones went off to watch someone else re-do some skills, and left me alone with the broom head. I must have tried 7 or 8 times to jump that damned thing, and each time I ended up doing a one-foot jump (in other words, my feet did not hit the other side at the same time). Not good enough, at all.

The other intermediate girls who had finished testing were watching me and shouting encouragement. I don't know what clicked in my brain, but I jumped -- and cleared it, and my skates landed at the same time. The girls cheered. I screamed, "I did it!" And then I looked over at the trainers and realized not one of them had been looking. Not. One.

I skated over to Cruel Anne, and at this point I was crying. I said, "I did it, but no one was watching." God bless Cruel Anne. She said, "So do it again!"

I did. I did!!! That time Bonesy was watching. She said I had to do it one more time, because it's important that we be able to repeat the skills. Perfectly reasonable. And if I did it twice, I should be able to do it three times.

I was. I did it!!!!!!

And with that, I passed minimum skills. And ... yes ... burst into tears. Of course.

The awesome thing is that all seven of us intermediate girls who were taking the MSA passed. (So did the two travel team members who were doing their annual re-certification, but that was kind of a foregone conclusion.)

I was really lucky to have such a great group of intermediates to train with. We've motivated each other, encouraged each other, and really bonded as a group. It's been great, and now we all get to move up to advanced together. Yay, us!!!

I am also so thankful to the travel team girls for all of the encouragement they have given me, and to the fabulous trainers for never giving up on me.

This is just the beginning of a lot of hard work. I'm excited as hell to get started!

OMFG!!!

2010-04-17T16:37:00.001-07:00

I passed!!!!!!

I will write much more on this later, but right now I need to get ready to go to Eugene for a bout (no, I'm not playing ... that will still take some time). WOOOHOOOOOOO!

Roller derby saved my soul

2010-04-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

Minimum skills assessment is tomorrow. In a little over 26 hours, I will be tested on the skills I have learned since I started derby back in October. I don't know if I will pass: if I do, it will be a near thing. If I don't, I'm very confident that I will pass in July.

In the last few weeks, I've massively improved my speed and endurance. It's not what I'd call *easy*, but I can totally do 5 laps in a minute now. And all I have to do to make 25 laps in 5 minutes is sustain that pace for 5 minutes. I'm either there, or almost there. Today in body conditioning class, as a warmup I got on an elliptical machine and did 5 minutes at my personal maximum -- working as hard as I possibly could. Again, I can't say it was *easy* (if it had been, it wouldn't have been my max!), but I was able to do it. (And then I did another 40 minutes on cardio, which meant maintining a heart rate of about 140.)

Anyway. So the speed and endurance are coming, and if I keep working as hard as I am at practice and in my class, it's safe to assume I'll get better.

I would say it's possible that I will make 25 laps in 5 minutes tomorrow. If not, I'll come pretty close. Even if it's the very first thing, and I don't make it (which means I will not pass min skills), I am going to go through the entire skills assessment (of course).

My two biggest stumbling blocks right now are crossovers (which I think I'm now starting to understand ... I will just have to spend the next however many practices training my legs to do it) and jumping over a 3-inch-tall object. On the jump, my barrier is plain, simple, and frustrating as hell: fear. I can jump high enough to clear a three-inch-tall object. I've done it. But I'm afraid. It's scary. So I need to work on that too, a lot. I'm going to try to do it tomorrow. I just have to get past the fear, and it could happen tomorrow. If not, then not.

Whatever happens tomorrow, I will be at practice on Monday, ready to work my ass off. Because really, whether I pass or not, I will have a lot of work to do. Passing minimum skills is the *start* of a whole lot of training, not the end. And if I don't pass, then I will want to put on the afterburners and train my ASS off for July (my next chance at min skills).

Last summer, I directed a play ("The Cover of Life") that was about women and their dreams. Not the kind of dreams you have when you're asleep, but your dreams for your future. At the time, I thought, "What is my dream?" and I didn't really have one. I was doing fine: I had a husband who loved me and whom I loved (and still do!), a job I liked, and good friends and family. But I didn't really have a *dream*.

I've found one now, and it's roller derby.

So, yeah, if I don't pass min skills tomorrow, that will kind of suck, but in the long run it won't matter. I *will* pass.

Getting Nervous ...

2010-04-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Minimum skills assessment is this Saturday. I’m starting to think there’s at least a glimmer of hope that I will pass. In the last week or so, I have seen a big improvement in my speed and endurance (I mean, of course it didn’t happen in the last week … ). I think if I don’t pass, it will at least not be by a huge margin. If I can just manage the jump, do a good enough crossover, and skate 25 laps in 5 minutes … I pretty much have everything else.

Tonight at practice we did 25 laps in 5 minutes as a pace line. I was feeling like I would be able to keep up, but then during the first or second lap I hit a slick spot on our track and my skate slid out, and down I went. I’m not proud of this, but I was so frustrated that I went to the wall and had a bit of a cry, for about 30 seconds. Then I decided to shake it off and at least skate around the inner track and try not to let the pace line lap me.

Well, to my vast surprise I found that I was catching up to them, and keeping up. So I rejoined the pace line (for the last three minutes), and I finished the drill. I asked Bruiser if it would be OK if I skated around the inside of the track on min skills. I know I can do 25 laps in 5 minutes if I can do that, instead of the way the pace line does it (where they go out to the outside sometimes). I said I assumed that would not be good enough, and … yeah, I started crying again. Bruiser was really sweet about it, and she also said that sticking to the inside track would be OK!!

So, like I said, a glimmer of hope. Either I will pass minimum skills on Saturday (and that would be AMAZING), or I will pass in July (which will be my next chance to take it). There is one more practice before Saturday. One more chance to figure out the crossover, and get past my fear on the jump (because that’s all it is. I can jump high enough to clear the obstacle. I have done it).

On Saturday from 2-4 (Pacific time), if you think of it, send me good derby vibes!

Awesome practice!

2010-04-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last night's practice was *fantastic*.

Last Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, I didn't have to "sit out" of any of the drills. (I put "sit out" in quotes, because what that means to me is skating as fast as I can around the outside of the track. There's no sitting involved.) Last night, during one of the pace lines I took about a one-minute break to stretch my legs, but then I joined right back in. So I'm on a pretty good streak.

Cruel Anne was our trainer last night. She's awesome. She's a super-nice lady, really friendly and encouraging, but she can also hit like a freaking freight train. She worked us really hard. Here are some highlights:

- We did a 10-minute pack drill, basically seeing how many laps we could get in 10 minutes. It was the "no derby girl left behind" thing again. For the first four minutes, I didn't get any help. I didn't need it. I just stuck to the inner track line, and skated (I wasn't even pushing my speed that hard, honestly -- I was definitely going fast, but I wasn't sprinting). I skated 20 laps in 4:08. I need 25 laps in 5:00. At that point, I took a bit of help, but I didn't start really taking assists (whips and self-assists) from the other girls until we had passed the 5 minute mark. I got through the 10-minute drill just fine, though I definitely needed water at the end.

OK, so 20 laps in 4:08 is not 25 laps in 5:00. But it's REALLY close. 20 laps in 4:00 would be right on pace. And *I* was setting that pace, folks.

I don't know if I will pass minimum skills on Saturday; I don't know if I will be able to do 25 laps in 5 minutes (especially since we will be doing it as a pace line, so my strategy of sticking to the inside track line will not be an option). But I *know* I will be able to do it in July, if I keep training at my current rate (and I will).

- We split up into two groups, fast and fastest (because none of us is really slow, at this point -- not even me). The two groups took turns doing pyramid sprints around the track. We did one lap, they did one; we did two, they did two; we continued that up to six, and then worked our way back down to one.

My personal victories for this drill: no one lapped me except Bruiser (the only team member who was skating with the "fast" group), and that was only on the six-lap sprint and only barely. AND ... this is the big one ... on the last two sprints, the two-lap and the one-lap at the end, I wasn't last!! There were people who came in after me. Unfortunately, on the two-lap sprint I got pretty excited about that fact and called out, "I beat Raynee!" Eep. Raynee, if you read this, I'm sorry for crowing about that, and please know, if I get to be as fast as you I will consider it a huge achievement. I think what may have helped me put on some speed at the end is that I worked really hard on getting into good derby form, nice and low.

- Pace lines, with weaving and hitting and weaving in pairs and all sort of difficult stuff. For a while we had two pace lines going, one on the inside track and one on the outside. I was actually wishing my line (the inside one) would speed up!! (A lot of times the pace lines go fast enough that I have to really bust ass to keep up.)

Will I pass minimum skills on Saturday? The three barriers are crossovers, jumping a three-inch-tall object, and skating 25 laps in 5 minutes. Other than that, I can do everything. We'll see. If I had to make a guess, I'd say it will be a near thing either way -- I'll either squeak by and pass, or I will get really close but not quite make it. If it's the latter, I *will* pass in July.

That's still a hell of an improvement from what I was thinking in January -- that it would probably take me a year to pass minimum skills. Honestly, the credit for that goes a lot of places: the trainers, the other intermediate girls, the team, Charlie, and, yeah, me.

Great practice tonight!

2010-04-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a *great* practice. It ended two hours ago and I'm still kind of pumped.

The travel team invited Cherry City (the Salem derby team) to come down and scrimmage, which meant that intermediate girls were not allowed to scrimmage. The OGs didn't want us scrimmaging with Salem girls, because minimum skills assessment is a week and a half away, and it would *suck* for one of us to get injured and not be able to test. It's not that the Salem girls lack control or anything like that. It's just that it would be a lot to ask of them, to remember that they can't hit Dixie, Raynee or Lux at full force. It can be hard for our own teammates to remember (understandably). To ask it of a visitor who doesn't even know us? Too much to ask.

I think it's probably also good for the OGs to scrimmage with just advanced girls. Well, actually, I think either way can be good for them. If they are scrimmaging with me on their team, then helping me keep up (or if I'm jammer, playing offense for me and getting me through the pack) is probably a worthwhile challenge. But on the other hand, when they play with only OGs, they can probably play at a higher level. So it's probably a trade-off, really. And I don't mean to imply that I'm totally useless in a scrimmage; I have moments where I'm actually helpful to my team. :-)

So anyway! I didn't get to scrimmage, and when I realized that earlier today I will admit that it put my mood in the toilet for a little while. But then I talked to Claudia about it and she said she was going to go to practice. That helped a lot. Having someone else to train with is infinitely better than training alone. I printed out my minimum skills spreadsheet and made a list of drills that we could work on. I sort of took charge of the intermediate practice (with a lot of help from Claudia). It was us two, plus Raynee and Teri. We worked pretty hard for an hour and a half, on endurance and skills, and then after the scrimmage the OGs called us over to join their practice. (Claudia had been up for like 22 of the last 24 hours, so she very understandably went home at that point, along with Teri.)

Raynee and I joined the OGs for the rest of the practice, and it was awesome. The best part is that I did not have to drop out of ANYTHING. Not the pace lines, not the "sprint through the two lines of derby girls who are moving in and out like sliding doors" drill, NOTHING. That felt wonderful.

Honestly, I'm probably not going to pass min skills on April 17, unless the Speed Fairy comes down and smacks me with her wand. (Please, Speed Fairy?) But practices like tonight's give me total faith that I *will* pass in July. (I am going to be a huge pest to Bones -- training chairperson -- to have another skills assessment before RollerCon*, if I don't pass this month. There are skating events at RollerCon that I won't be able to participate in if I haven't passed min skills; and it would suck to have to sit on the sidelines while my friends skate in the open scrimmages and stuff.)

I think if I keep training as hard as I am (four derby practices a week plus my body conditioning class), I should definitely be able to pass min skills in July. And that? Will be fucking awesome.

* Rollercon is an international roller derby convention/training camp that is held every year in Las Vegas. Several of us Sick Town girls are going. I'm nervous and excited about it. :-)

Scrimmage, etc.

2010-04-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was the third week in a row that intermediate girls were invited to join in the team’s scrimmage practice. I don’t want to get spoiled; I am positive there will be weeks when the Wednesday practices will be team-only (that is how they are listed on the schedule). But getting to scrimmage with the team is so awesome!!

On Monday night I had my outdoor wheels on my skates (we had had a fundraiser at a bar on Sunday night, and I was skating around there, so I thought my grippiest wheels would be a good choice. But I should’ve taken them off in time for practice on Monday). It was very frustrating, because I am the slowest skater in the intermediate group as it is. I still had some good moments on Monday, especially in a booty-blocking drill we did. I think toward the end I was starting to really get it!

Last night, though, was much better. I had my indoor wheels on, so I got that speed boost. I was able to keep up in the warmup pace line. And in my first time out as jammer during the scrimmage, I got to be LEAD JAMMER!! It was a perfect storm: the opposing jammer got caught in a pileup, my blockers did a great job of helping me through, and if I may brag just a bit, I think I did a pretty good job of taking advantage of their help. OMG, that was amazing.

Other cool moments during scrimmaging: I managed some effective hits; there were a few moments when I was able to slow down and booty block and be a real pain in the butt to the opposing team; and when I got hit, I fell properly and got right back up. In fact, after the lead jammer thing, I think my proudest moment of last night’s scrimmage was when Queen Bee Yotch (that is her derby name; I’m not insulting her!) nailed me with a very well-placed hit … and I took it, got back up, and kept going.

I’m still working on getting to the point where I can think during a scrimmage … but I’ll get there. :-)

Whew!

2010-03-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to four Sick Town practices, plus an outdoor skate. This week I'm shooting for the same.

Monday night was a tough practice. Bones ran it, and she is like a tiny, friendly drill sergeant. She's never mean, but holy crap is she a tough lady! I must have worked different muscles than usual, because my legs were *sore* on Tuesday. I think it might be from all the sprinting we did. Confession time: when the trainer says "sprint," I don't always full-on sprint. It's not that I'm intentionally slacking off; it's just that sometimes when they call for a sprint, I am simply too tired to manage it.

Monday night, I pushed myself, both in the pace lines and in the drills. (I did have to drop out of a couple of pace lines and skate around the outside of the track. Unfortunately, they were hitting pace lines, and hitting is something I need to work on.)

Tonight was scrimmage night, and for the second week in a row the team invited the intermediate girls to join in. Scrimmaging continues to be totally fun and *totally* confusing. I'm trying hard to be useful to my team, but sometimes I just don't know what to do. I did hit some people tonight, and when I was jamming I tried my best to use my blockers' assistance to get through the pack.

The thing is, the girls on the opposing team are not idiots. When they see the weakest member of the team (that would be me) go in as jammer, it's like throwing fresh meat to a pack of hungry lionesses. I kept trying, but I have to hand it to the white team. They *blocked* my ass. For a while there it seemed like I just couldn't stay on the track, no matter what I did.

And then there were the times when I was blocking and the opposing jammer just zipped past me. And I stood there like, "Oh yeah, that's the girl I'm supposed to be stopping. Shit."

It's only my second scrimmage. I *will* figure this out! I did get through the pace lines at the start of practice, which were done with everyone, and at a pretty good pace. So there's that. I kept telling myself, "If you can't get through the pace line, you can't scrimmage."

I feel good about tonight. I tried my best, and I had a couple of moments where I was an effective blocker. Not many, but a couple. Next week (if the team lets us scrimmage next week), I will try to have more.

OMG!!!

2010-03-21T00:22:00.001-07:00

Tonight was the Sick Town league party. It was a lot of fun (well, actually it is still going on, but I am a lame-o and left relatively early. For me, I stayed a long time -- got there at 7, left a little after 11 -- but I was one of the first to leave). I lost count of how many Jell-O shots I had (probably around 10. I would've had more but they really strongly tasted like vodka).

They gave out awards, for things like Best Ass in Spandex, Meanest Rollergirl, Sweetest Rollergirl, etc. A lot of times, the girls I voted for weren't the ones who won, but I still agreed with the choices. For all of the positive things, it was hard to pick just one person. (I didn't vote on Stinkiest Pads, and for Meanest, I picked someone who is not mean, but whose hits are scary.)

There was a surprise award -- the training committee chose the Most Improved Skater. I was listening while they announced it, but I wish I'd listened a little closer to all the nice things they were saying, because ... the award went to me!! They chose me as the most improved skater. That was amazing. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I am still walking on air, and probably will be for a while. Thank you so much, ladies!!

I got a cool award trophy -- an old rink skate that has been painted and decorated with my derby name. It's awesome. I plan to sleep with it tonight. (Maybe not. But it is sitting on my dresser. :-)

I am so happy to be a Sick Town girl!

Booooooosh!

2010-03-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

OMG OMG OMG!!

Last night’s practice was so awesome, y’all. The trainers had decided there weren’t going to be enough team members to have a full-on scrimmage practice, so they invited the intermediate girls to join in, and we scrimmaged!! I guess it was a lighter-contact version. At least, the “don’t be a douchebag” rule was in place … basically that means that the OGs should not hit the NGs at full power. (OG=old girl, NG=new girl).

We started out with pace lines, and since we had a NGs pace line and a OGs pace line, I did pretty well except for the time when I was in front and wasn’t paying enough attention and left my pace line behind a bit. D’oh!

But forget that, whatever, because then … SCRIMMAGING! I asked Brick and Bruiser if they wanted me to go over to the off-track area with the beginners, and they said if I wanted to try scrimmaging I could. (I was worried that I would not be able to keep up.)

So I tried scrimmaging. And while I cannot say that I was an asset to my team (though I hope I was useful once or twice), it was incredibly cool and fun to be thrown in there and try it. It’s so chaotic! Well, not really, but that’s the way it seems at first.

I was able to keep up, by the way. My problem, if I had one, was more being able to pay attention to 8 zillion things at once, and know what was going on at any given time.

I made a couple of effective hits, so that was cool. I committed a couple of fouls, so that wasn’t cool, but I know what I did so I can try not to do it again. (I also do realize that in a contact sport like derby, fouls are going to happen; it’s not like I did anything bad on purpose.)

So when we scrimmage, everyone jams, which is cool. Jamming is fun. Scary, but fun. The first jam that I, er, jammed, I did pretty decently, I think. I got knocked out of bounds by a blocker, but I managed to come back in behind her. I think I even scored some points for my team (we were not keeping score). The times that I was able to get through the pack? So. Effing. Cool.

Oh, and when I got knocked down? I did a rock star fall (double knee). Correctly. Boosh!

I was already in love with derby before last night, y’all … but now, I want to marry it. :-)

One more awesome thing. I was thinking I was going to be sucking air after one jam. Nuh-uh. I was able to skate back-to-back jams, no problem. Probably part of that is because we weren’t going full-out; I know these girls can kick my ass, endurance-wise, because they have done it. Recently. But I would like to think that my endurance has also improved. Hell, I know it has. Three months ago, I couldn’t have done what I did last night.

Woo-hoo!

Recent practices

2010-03-15T23:08:00.000-07:00

Lately practices have been kind of rough for me. I don't know if my endurance has gone down, or if the other intermediate girls' has gone up, or, most likely, the team is intensifying its endurance practices and the other intermediate girls are more able to keep up with that than I.

I feel fairly good about tonight, even though I did not manage to keep up with everything. We started with 25 laps in 5 minutes, as a pace line, and I had to drop out almost immediately. Here's the good part, though. Instead of sitting at the sidelines, I skated around the outside of the track at a pretty good pace (probably not the absolute fastest I can do, but a fast-for-me pace that I was able to sustain for the whole five minuets). If I had to guess, I would say that I probably did about 3/4 as many laps as the rest of the group (maybe) ... allowing for the fact that I was covering more ground, since I was skating outside the track.

We did some hitting pace lines too, and that was rough too. I had to drop out of some of that, but again, I skated at a good pace around the outside. That's good for several reasons. First, when one girl sits out a drill, it makes it easier for others to sit out too. Second, by skating fast around the outside, I kept my heart rate up and improved my endurance. Third, I worked on my crossovers and my derby form.

That's the best part of tonight's practice: except at the very beginning of practice, I don't remember coasting around the curves hardly at all. I can't swear I didn't do it *at all*, but it was rare. Now, I wasn't doing a full crossover, but I was working on it. So that is a good thing.

Oh, and another positive -- maybe a couple -- from tonight. We did a drill where you sprint for half the track, coast in a squat for 1/4, and fall and then crawl for 1/4, then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. I stuck with it for the entire drill. Yay me! (It was about 10 minutes, too -- nothing wimpy.)

The other positive from tonight is that we did a really tough pack drill where we were all skating in a pack (there were only about 11 of us skating), and we all had numbers (either 1 or 2). We skated 2-minute jams, and though Brick says we were not at full pack speed, we were certainly not going slowly either (in my opinion anyway; I'll bet it did seem slow to the OGs). Nick called out different things, like "Ones! Take a knee!" or "Twos! Hit someone!" and so on. I sat out one jam to stretch my legs, which were starting to seize up a bit. But other than that I skated all of the jams, and there were 9 or 10 of them.

Cool stuff from last week:

- I made it to four practices.
- At Saturday's practice we worked on a lot of things that are on the minimum skills assessment, and I was able to do more of them than I thought (though I'm probably not going to pass in April unless I get my endurance and speed way up by then).
- One of the things we worked on was jumping. On Saturday I jumped over a baseball bat!! I had never tried jumping an actual object before; I was jumping next to the object. Well, I decided that the worst that would happen is that I would fall, and as long as I was in proper derby form, that would be OK. As long as you fall forward and correctly, you won't get hurt. But I didn't fall. I jumped that mofo! And then I jumped it again!! And now I'm not scared of jumping.

Oh, one more cool thing from tonight. During one of the hitting pace lines, someone hit me really well and I fell. I took a clean one-knee fall. I mean, it was textbook. That was cool. So, whoever hit me (I don't remember who it was), thanks -- seriously!

Monday Night Practice

2010-03-09T10:23:00.001-08:00

I would have blogged about this last night -- I came home from practice feeling really good, if exhausted. But when I got home I found that Charlie was gone, and so were Moxie and Jack (our 4- and 5-year-old Corgis). It turns out that they had gotten out through an open gate (I don't *think* we left the gate open, but I guess it's possible. Usually we're very careful about that.)

Charlie had already called the Albany police department's non-emergency number and reported them missing; Jack was spotted pretty quickly, trying to get into someone's car a few blocks down our street. Charlie brought him home shortly after I got home, and then we both went out looking for Moxie.

No luck last night. We both got up early this morning to go and search some more. While I was walking around with Jack and a stack of leaflets, Charlie called me on my cell. The police had called him; someone had found a Corgi. We had an address and a phone number, but Charlie got voice mail when he called. So I got in my car and headed over to the address.

When I rang the doorbell, a wonderful lady named Holly answered, followed by a Corgi: a brindled Pembroke. Shit. But close on the heels of that dog was MOXIE!! Which is what I said: "MOXIE!!!!!" It turns out that a bus driver friend of Holly's had spotted Moxie and thought she looked like Holly's dog (she doesn't, but I'm *so* glad the bus driver thought so).

Well, to make this long story short, or at least no longer: all of my dogs are safe at home, and we have a guy coming later today to give us an estimate on fixing the gate.

So, back to derby. Remember derby? This is a blog about derby.

Last night was a good practice. Brick was our trainer. I'm not saying *any* Sick Town trainer is easy, because they are *so* not. But it seems like Brick's practices are especially brutal. If you think I'm complaining about that, I'm really not. When I get through one of Brick's practices, I feel *great* -- like I have really accomplished something. Honestly, I feel that way about all the Sick Town practices.

One cool thing is that last night we did the 40 laps in 8 minutes drill. If you were reading my blog back in January, you'll know that the last time I did that drill, HotBoxxx had to push me just about the entire way.

Well, last night, I skated the entire drill. I did get some push-assists from some of the girls, but no one had to shopping-cart my ass around the track. (I also got some whip-assists, which I continue to love, love, love.) I've also gotten to the point where I'm not embarrassed about needing help (the fact that I need less help than I did a couple of months ago helps). My goal is still to be one of the girls *giving* the assists, instead of *needing* them ... but I'm making progress!

We also did relays and sprints and sprawls and just a whole lot of endurance drills, and then it was on to the hitting pace lines. I got through all of the pace lines (boosh!) and even got some good hits in on the OGs (I tried to hit more gently when I was hitting new girls). I think at one point I hit Pwny well enough that it sent her out of bounds. And ... this is awesome ... I'm doing better at taking hits. I (unintentionally) ran away from Brick when she went to hit me the first time, but after that I made sure not to do that again, and I never once popped up when someone hit me.

One of the neatest things last night, though, was all the encouragement from the other girls. It's a pretty amazing thing to be skating your best and hear your teammates (well, leaguemates; I'm not on the *team* yet) cheering you on.

Love, love, love Sick Town.

Makeup practice with Brick

2010-03-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

I have to give a special shout-out to Brick, who skated her butt off last night at the bout and then came to the CDC at noon today to run a makeup practice for me, Tami and D-Train. It was a great practice -- lots of endurance and conditioning work, and *lots* of work on crossovers. I wouldn't say I have them down, not by a long shot, but I feel like I made good progress today and I know what to work on.

I think part of my problem is that I don't fully trust my left leg -- and when you're doing a crossover skating the normal derby direction (which is counterclockwise), your left leg is pushing behind and outward while your right crosses over it. This is not an excuse -- it's a "here's what I need to work on": I broke my left ankle several years ago, and my left knee has been giving me minor-to-annoying pain ever since I started derby. Well, the left ankle is fine now -- a little stiffer than the other, but totally usable; and the left knee is just twinge-prone, not injured. So these things really are not reasons not to trust my left leg to support me and push off. Now I must convince my lizard brain of that fact.

Whew. I'm *tired* from that practice! Brick worked us hard, which is great. I've gotten a lot stronger since I started derby, and I have a long way to go still.

Tomorrow night, another endurance practice, though hopefully that one will include some blocking drills and other fun stuff too. This week I only got in three practices (and that is if you count our Friday night rink-style skate, which Brick said doesn't count as a practice ... but for my own personal development, I'm going to count it. I got off my ass and skated and sweated.) Next week, I will get four: Monday, Wednesday (skating off to the side at the travel team's practice), Friday, and Saturday. Easy peasy. (Well, *getting* to them will be easy. The practices, I assure you, will not.)

My first Sick Town bout (as an audience member)

2010-03-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

Tonight was my first time seeing the Sick Town ladies in action. I sat in the crash zone (the area just outside the track) with Matt, Bones' very nice boyfriend (and a friend of theirs whose name I have forgotten -- sorry!).

Regardless of the outcome, I just want to say that I am so totally proud of the Sick Town girls. They show grace, class and heart whether they win or lose, and I love that.

A roller derby bout is one of the noisiest things I'd ever voluntarily sit through. I left with a headache that still hasn't really gone away even though I downed three Advils. (The fact that I am all cracked out on Diet Coke probably isn't helping much.)

This was only my second bout; the first one was a Cherry City (Salem) intraleague bout, just before I joined Sick Town. (That was the bout that got me interested in doing derby.) It's much different when you know the people skating. I screamed my fool head off for the Sick Town girls. :-)

It was also a lot different than that first bout, for me, because now I'm starting to understand what's going on. Emphasis on "starting to"; there were still many times when I didn't understand the details of what was going on. (At least I have the basics down, though. :-)

Anyway, it was really cool to see Sick Town in a bout, after skating with them for the last several months. What an awesome group of ladies!

Boom Boom OW!

2010-02-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

I had kind of a rough night at practice last night. First, they changed the schedule: Wednesdays will now be team-only practice, though intermediates can come and use the off-track area to work on skating on our own.

Let me be totally and completely clear: I really do understand why they made this change. Up to now, the only team-only practice was Saturday mornings. They need more time than that where they can just focus on playing, without having to provide trainers for intermediate and beginners. It's totally fair and totally reasonable.

It's just that it's also a change, and change is hard. I was feeling really, really good about my routine (practice Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, rink skate Sunday), and now I have to change it. It's OK.

I asked Brick if I could go to the Friday practices, which are for intermediates. Those practices are explicitly for people who can do a crossover, and I can't, quite (though I'm getting a lot closer; more on that in a minute). She seemed less concerned about my crossover ability than the fact that, apparently, when people hit me I pop up (out of the proper derby position).

Fuck. I do that? Shit. Yes, yes, I do. Anyway, she said I could go to the Friday practices, but that I have to work on staying low.

It was hard hearing that, but I'm glad she was honest. It wouldn't do me any good to be coddled.

So last night at practice, the team scrimmaged, and Bones (have I said how awesome she is? Bones is brilliant) worked with the intermediates and beginners. This was great, because we worked on pretty much two of the main things I needed work on: crossovers, and hitting.

First, crossovers. That actually went pretty well. Bones showed us a way to break it down by skating around and taking the curves with (alternately) one leg extended. It's hard to explain. Next, we sort of alternated those moves. Voila, a crossover! Or at least, the start of one. I'm really getting close to having it.

Second, hitting. First we started by hitting Bones. I did really well with skating up and hitting her; I got several "awesome"s and she said my first hit was the hardest I'd hit her yet. So that was wonderful.

Then we did a drill where we were lined up single file, with about 8 feet between girls, and we took turns skating along the line and hitting each person. My second time through, when I went to hit Emily, I stepped across in front of her, and my skate hit her skate, and apparently I panicked and stood up. HUGE mistake. At that point, my skates went forward and my ass went DOWN. Imagine your legs going out from under you, and going from your ass's normal height straight to the concrete.

It hurt. In fact, the impact to my ass hurt my *head*. As Emily said, it rang my bell. I was embarrassed too, of course. I knew it had only happened because I had been in the wrong position. And I was crying (you know how sometimes you get hit so hard you just can't help it, the tears come out? It was like that. I didn't mean to cry.) Luckily, the derby girls were nice enough not to notice that. I kept thinking, "There's no crying in derby!"

Bones told me I could take as much time as I needed, but I wanted to get up and finish the drill. And I did. Tough or foolhardy, I don't know, but I finished.

After that I actually did better. We did more drills where we were hitting each other, and I focused *hard* on staying in derby position no matter what. I wasn't 100% successful; my impulse really does seem to be to pop up a bit when someone hits me. But I'd say about 75% of the time, I was able to control that and stay low. (Even when I popped up, it wasn't much.)

This is all going to be fine. Next week, I will go to Monday, Wednesday (just for ref training though), Friday (rink-style skate at the CDC) and Saturday. Week after that, I will go to Monday, Friday (by then, if I focus on it, I should be good at staying low when I'm hit), Saturday, and Sunday at the Lebanon rink. And that will be my routine, until I pass minimum skills and get to go to the team practices (it may take me a while, but I think it's reasonable for me to hope that will happen).

All I can say is that today, with the way my lower back feels, it's a damn good thing I don't have to skate until Saturday. If the weather holds out, I'm hot tubbing tonight.

Closer Than I Think?

2010-02-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

Last night at practice, one of the drills we did (one of many -- it was a tough practice!) was minute time trials. Here's how it worked: we counted off into 1s and 2s. The 1s lined up at the pivot line (there are two lines on the track -- the pivot line is where the pack starts from at the beginning of a jam, and the jammer line is 30 feet back from it -- ?? -- and is where the jammers start from), and skated for one minute, with the 2s counting our laps. Emily and I were partners.

I must digress for a moment to say that I just love Emily. She's so positive and nice. We've gotten to be training buddies -- we were in beginners together, and now we're intermediates together. It's really cool to be able to encourage each other.

OK. Anyway -- I made five laps in the first minute trial, which is the minimum for minimum skills. So, I can do better, especially once I figure out how to do a crossover. But on the other hand: I am AT the minimum skill for speed!

Then the 2s skated for a minute while we 1s counted their laps. (Emily did great. She did great on all the trials -- she is going to be a real asset to the team when she passes minimum skills.) Next we skated 2 minutes, then 3, then 4, and finally, FIVE.

Here's the really amazing thing: I did 21.5 laps in five minutes. (Some of the OGs -- that's the girls who are on the team, who have been doing this for much longer than I -- got into the 30s. They are amazing.)

Again, I can do better, once I get the crossover down. BUT: I skated fast and hard for FIVE MINUTES. I didn't give up and I didn't slack off. The requirement for minimum skills is 25 laps in five minutes, and I should be able to push myself and get up to 25, especially when I learn to do a crossover instead of coast on the curves.

I also must mention Kant (one of the OGs). She was a 1. After we were finished skating our five minutes -- and she had done like 34 laps -- she got up and did the five minutes with the 2s, and did another 34 laps. She's awesome!

Today is my first non-skating day since Friday. It'll probably be good to rest my legs a bit, and then tomorrow I will be ready to bust my ass on the track again!

Derby thought

2010-02-20T17:37:00.001-08:00

Do you want to know how much I love derby?

I often have the body awareness of a two-year-old -- I bumble along, bumping into shit and generally not being very careful.

Now, when I'm not skating, I'm much more careful, because it would *suck* to injure myself and be put out of derby, even for a short time.

It's not that I ever *wanted* to hurt myself, of course ... just that it didn't matter so much if I was mostly just playing video games, knitting and sewing (though, OK, an arm injury would've sucked for all those things).

Skating this week

2010-02-20T16:24:00.001-08:00

Today's derby practice makes three for the week, plus a bonus skate at the rink tomorrow (which is a very good thing for all kinds of reasons: cardio, strength, practice skating, plus it's just fun).

Do you have any idea how long it has been since I got this much exercise on a regular basis? I think you'd probably have to go all the way back to when I was doing judo in Tulsa. In other words, 16 years. SIXTEEN.

Hopefully I will now be able to lose all the weight I put on in those 16 years. :-)

I'm also thinking -- don't laugh -- of taking a beginning hip-hop dance class at LBCC this spring. It will fit in my schedule, and the description says it's for all fitness and ability levels. I think it could be fun, and I don't know how much the skills will transfer, but having some dance ability will probably be good for my balance and coordination. (Plus, Sick Town throws parties where there is dancing. Maybe if I knew how to dance a bit, I would feel comfortable joining in.)

And hey, that would be three more workouts per week. Not bad for a former couch potato.

I don't know, y'all ... I don't want to jinx it, but so far, turning 40 has been nothing but good. Look at all the new stuff I'm trying. How *about* that?

Polar Plunge!!

2010-02-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

Today was the Polar Plunge, a fundraiser for the Oregon Special Olympics. Barium, a member of the Sick Town travel team (basically that means they are the girls who play in bouts against other leagues), started a Sick Town team for the plunge, and several of us joined in to raise money and -- eek -- jump into the Willamette River in February.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should add: it's 50 degrees out, right now. I think they said at the event that the water was 42 degrees. That's *plenty* cold, but it's not really the same as jumping into the water on Jan. 1 in Minnesota, for example.

We dressed as derby girls (there are pictures, and I will try to get a copy to post here), complete with black eyes courtesy of Mama Slam (she put purple eye shadow on us). Slamchez, by the way, is amazing. She's shorter than I am (and y'all know, I'm pretty short), and if you're on the derby track you do *not* want to get in her way. That little lady will knock yo ass down!

We didn't win the costume contest; oh well. The guy who won first prize had a wonderful costume. He was done up as a housewife, in a bathrobe, curlers and plush turtle slippers. He had a cigarette dangling from his mouth (unlit), and he was brandishing a toilet brush. I would've given him first prize, too. (Someone took a picture of me with him, but I have no idea how to get a copy, dammit.)

There was a nice lady, probably about my age, taking pictures and asking questions. She seemed pretty fascinated with us. It was funny, at one point she said, "You all seem so *normal*." Crackr was like, "We *are* normal." (Which is funny, because "normal" isn't the word I'd use to describe Crackr. "Awesome," "hilarious," "gorgeous," "brilliant," yes. "Normal"? Maybe not. :-)

But of course, we *are* normal, as normal as anyone is. We have jobs, and kids (some of us), and we're part of the community. If people are surprised to see how normal we are, then it's probably a very good thing that we're getting out and doing stuff like the Polar Plunge. It can't hurt, if people think, "Oh, those Sick Town girls are great. They jumped in the river for Special Olympics!"

And we did, too. Well, it was really more like wading. They had an area roped off, maybe 15-20 feet back from the shore. We all agreed that we would go to the rope. For me (and for Mama Slam, and Crackr most likely), that meant I was in deep enough that I kind of had to swim. When I was coming back, at first I was dog paddling but I wasn't actually getting anywhere ... that was a little scary. But then I got moving and got the hell out of that cold, cold water.

Note to self: next time, bring dry shoes to put on. It was pretty nasty having to put my nice, dry socks into my sodden Nikes. I took them off when I got to the car, and drove home barefoot.

Great job, Sick Town girls! Thank you Barium for making it happen! Our team raised $1470 for the Special Olympics -- yay us! Yay Barium, Crackr, Kant, Mama Slam, Tammy, KicknerAss, DTrain, Shamrock, and the boys who joined us whose names I didn't quite catch! Go Sick Town!

OMG OMG OMG!

2010-02-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

OK, tonight was just effing *awesome*.

After warmups, I was automatically heading over to the beginners' group, but Bruiser (tonight's beginners' trainer) said, "You know how to do waterfall, and that's what we're doing tonight, so go over there" (over there being the track, where the intermediate/advanced group was). So I did. Part of me was sure someone was going to say, "Wait a minute, you should be in with the beginners," but that didn't happen.

So I moved up to intermediate tonight!!! OMFG!!!!!!

Bones was our trainer, and it was a fantastic practice. I worked my *ass* off. Although I didn't skate as fast as the advanced girls (i.e., the travel team -- the ones who play in the bouts), and I still don't really have a crossover, I did everything that everyone else did. I wimped out of absolutely *nothing.* Anyone who has been reading this blog from the beginning will know what a big accomplishment that is.

This is like my fourth straight week of full attendance. I'm going to the beginner/intermediate practice on Saturday afternoon, and may go skating at the rink on Sunday (though if my knees need a day off between Saturday practice and Monday night practice, I will listen to my knees).

I *think* I get to be in the intermediate group now. Of course, when the team is scrimmaging, the girls who haven't passed minimum skills go and join the beginner group; but other than that, I think I get to be with the big kids.

I'm *thrilled*.

It's funny, Kim (one of my friends at work) asked me today if I work out my work frustrations at derby practice (I'm basically a customer service employee, so there's a fair amount of frustration). I said no, that I really don't. The truth is, I think about derby at work, but I don't think about work at derby. :-)

Skating this week

2010-02-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

I have skated a *lot* this week! On top of derby practice on Monday and Wednesday nights, I also went to Sick Town's Friday practice (which was an informal, rink-style skate -- normally, Friday practice is for intermediate and above, and I'm not at that level yet). And then Charlie and I went to the rink today for the Sunday open skate.

At both open skates, I spent almost the entire time (two hours on Friday, three on Sunday) skating, minus short breaks to stretch or use the bathroom, or at Lebanon, breaks for the guys' skate and the kids' speed skate. I *totally* skated in the adult speed skate, though.

This week's accomplishments:

- Hitting practice with Cruel Anne (I think that was Monday?)
- Pack practice with St. Nick. This was new to me. She numbered us off, 1-4 (there were 8 of us). We skated in a pack, and she would call out numbers and falls. For example, "Twos! Single knee!" Both twos had to immediately fall; the other girls had to skate around them, still in a pack, and not fall themselves. The falling girls had to get up quickly and catch up to the pack.

Skating in a pack means that at any given time, you're close enough to touch three different girls. So you can see why being able to get around someone who falls is an important thing.

- Getting closer to having a crossover. Brick worked with me on it on Friday and corrected a bad habit (I was leaning way back to try to get my outside leg over, putting myself badly off balance). Now what I'm doing is sort of a half-crossover, where I get my outside leg in front of my inside leg, but not all the way over it. It's still faster than coasting around the turns. It's not where I need to be, but it's a step in the right direction (sort of literally).

- I also invested in a set of indoor wheels, which are harder and therefore faster than the outdoor/hybrid wheels I was skating on. I really noticed the difference at the Lebanon rink, which has a very grippy wooden floor. I was nervous before my first night skating on the new wheels at the CDC, but I got used to the difference pretty quickly.

On Monday, two of my friends from the beginner group, Claudia and Emily, moved up to intermediate. I was happy for them, and it also lit a fire under my ass. I'm going to try to push myself harder so I can move up soon too. Skating four times this week can't hurt! And starting next week, I'm going to go to three Sick Town practices per week instead of just two (they have a beginner/intermediate practice on Saturday afternoons, and so far it's been poorly attended. There wasn't one this week because of the bout in Southern Oregon, but next week, there will be, and I will be there.)

Oh, and about the Southern Oregon bout? It went great. The Southern Oregon girls were good hosts, and everyone had a great time. I wish I had gone. Next time there's an overnight bout, I probably will go.

Open Skate today

2010-02-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

We went to the open skate at Oaks Park today. I got in a good workout, but holy crap was it ever crowded. There were probably 200 kids there (plus lots of adults). Even on a floor that big, once it gets too crowded, it can be difficult to maintain anything like a good skating pace. Charlie and I tried to do our "jammer practice"* but quickly realized it was just too crowded. And that's saying something, since the whole point of jammer practice is to get past the other skaters.

There were several 12th birthday parties going on at the rink today, and the girls tended to get in groups of four and skate holding hands. It was really too crowded for that, but oh well. There was also a group of little girls who liked to scream. A lot. When children scream while playing (I don't mean just being loud, I mean full on *screaming*), it reminds me why I don't want to be a mother. Because seriously, that shit's annoying.

Sick Town has a beginners' practice with Brick on Saturday afternoons. There won't be one next Saturday, because next Saturday is Sick Town's season opener bout in Medford (kick ass, ladies!!). Starting the following Saturday, I'm going to derby practice on Saturdays. It'll be harder than open skate, but that's probably a good thing at this point. And there shouldn't be any screeching children.

* Jammer practice = when any of three songs comes on (right now, it's "Hey Ya," "Sk8ter Boi" and "Party in the USA"), we start at the same point on the track and I try to lap Charlie.

What I Learned This Week

2010-02-03T23:12:00.001-08:00

This is my second straight week of making it to two practices a week. Yay me! This Saturday Charlie and I have plans with friends, and next Saturday is STDD's bout in Medford (so there will be no Saturday practices); the Saturday after that, I'm going to Saturday practice too.

This was a productive week for me. On Monday I got better at hitting and worked a lot on endurance. Tonight I learned how to give a whip (which is cool), how to jump (scary but cool), how to transition from skating forwards to skating backwards using footwork instead of making a big circle, how to stop by going backwards and going up on my toe stops, and how to block (though I will certainly need a lot more work on that).

I think I will be sore tomorrow. :-) But I feel *great*. I think I'm getting stronger. Tonight when we were squatting (basically, you stop skating and just squat and coast -- it's a real workout for the thighs), it was easier than it has been. Not *easy*, but easier.

God, I love roller derby.

Practice on Wednesday

2010-01-29T17:35:00.001-08:00

I went to practice on Wednesday -- that makes two for the week. Yay me! (This is the minimum required attendance for scrimmage-eligible girls, so I really need to get in the habit of going to at least two practices a week. Plus, the more I practice the faster I will get up to speed, both literally and figuratively.)

On Wednesday night the drills seemed a little -- emphasis on little -- easier. Maybe I'm getting stronger, or maybe the trainer (Brick) really did ease off a bit. Knowing Brick, that doesn't seem all that likely ... :-)

Here's the accomplishment of the night: I can skate backwards! Not really *well*, and I'm still just doing backward sticky feet (that's where all eight wheels are constantly in contact with the floor), but I can do it. And we worked on transitioning from skating forwards to skating backwards, without stopping, and I can do that. It was easy -- which is nice, because not many things in derby are coming easily to me when I first try them.

I wish I were going to have time to go skating this weekend, but I doubt I will unless I want to go alone to the open skate on Sunday (probably not).

Whip it! Whip it good!

2010-01-26T10:28:00.001-08:00

So last night's practice was tough. We started out with a lot of lap skating, and my legs were already complaining. (I tried to keep my mouth from doing the same, though. I try not to bitch about the training activities, though I'm sure my uncertainty shows on my face.)

Next was 40 Laps in 10 Minutes, which is a bit of a misnomer since in fact it's more like "see how many laps we can do in 10 minutes," which last night turned out to be 45. We skated in a pack, all 15 of us (one new girl had to drop out). It was also, as they put it, "No Derby Girl Left Behind." Guess what that means? If someone (me) can't keep up, someone else pushes her.

At first, I really, really didn't want to do that. I was actually about to skate off the track, possibly to go home in shame. I was really embarrassed about the possibility of someone having to push my ass around the track. Fortunately, RiceCrackr (a teeny little lunatic derby girl -- love her!) intercepted me and I admitted I was embarrassed and she set me straight -- everyone needs to be pushed sometimes, and it's OK.

Well, I needed to be pushed a lot. Out of the 45 laps, I'd say maybe I did a total of five under my own power. Maybe. HotBoxxx pushed me a lot, and was really awesome about it, cheering me on and making me feel like I was not just a load. (It may sound like letting someone push you around the track would be easy, but it's not. You have to maintain derby position (knees bent, butt out, shoulders forward, head up) and that's tough; and you have to steer. I'm not in any way saying it wasn't harder for HotBoxxx -- she is *amazing.* But it was a workout for me too. :-)

Here's the coolest thing though. The whip. Before we started, Crackr told me that one way the girls would help me stay near the front of the pack was by giving me whips. I was worried about that: I've seen it, but never tried it myself or been given any instruction on how to do a whip. The first one was *scary*. The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and possibly seventh (I don't remember how many I got) were *cool*.

(A whip is when the skater in front holds out her hand, the skater behind takes it, and the skater in front flings the skater behind forward on the track. It's a great way for the whipped girl to gain speed.)

Thanks to the team, I got through the drill. I was pushed for most of it, but I stayed in the pack and did 45 laps in 10 minutes. (Oh, and skating in the pack was not so scary! I'm getting a lot better with that.)

I think one aspect of team sports really hit home for me last night: I can't do this on my own. I need the team's support. Hopefully, the day will come when I will be the one pushing someone who needs it. Until then, I'm learning to be OK with being pushed.

Making Progress!

2010-01-19T12:03:00.000-08:00

At practice last night, I learned some new stuff, and worked on stuff I had already learned. And I got through the endurance drills, though they were tough. I skated in a pace line with the other beginner girls (a pace line is where you skate in a single-file line, close enough to the person in front of you that you can reach out and touch her; then the person in the back weaves in and out between people until she gets to the front). It's getting easier to do that!

I think my next step is to make myself a chart of all the minimum skills I need to know, so I can check off when I can do them, and when I've really got them down (this was Charlie's idea, and it's a good one).

Last night, although it was *hard*, I never once thought "What the hell am I doing here?" Yay!!

Practice tonight

2010-01-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I had decided not to go to practice. I wasn't on the fence -- I had jumped off into the cow pasture. (To take the metaphor farther, it would be fair to say I was hip-deep in bullshit. :-)

Charlie went all disapproving bunny on me (if you don't know what a disapproving bunny is, you obviously don't read Cute Overload, and that's your own damn fault). And he was right. My reasons for not going were just a lot of whiny bullshit. So I went.

Last Monday I had a fairly crummy night at practice. I was sure no one liked me (I'm not really like that; I'm having some trouble with my medication and that, combined with some emotional stuff, was making life difficult), my legs hurt, whine, whine, whine.

Tonight was pretty much the opposite. One thing that immediately put a smile on my face is that we have a new girl in STDD, Jenna. Jenna is very nice, and she's catching on to skating really well -- I saw improvement just from the start of the open skate tonight to the end of it. But she's definitely a beginner. Which means I'm not the only one!! (I guess I'm not really a beginner, actually. Several of the derby girls were telling me that tonight, that I'm better than I think, and that they have seen a lot of improvement in me. Which is awesome, and made me really happy to hear!! But I still think the chance to do the Derby 101 stuff with Jenna will be really good for me. Those aren't mutually exclusive things -- I've gotten a lot better at skating, and now will be a great time for me to buckle down and really get good at stopping, falling, hitting, footwork, and all the other stuff I need to know.)

I had a great time tonight. I felt much more like part of the group, probably because I didn't sit off to the side with a frown on my face. (Funny how that works!) I skated *way* more than I sat out. I skated the entire song on the reverse skate (that's when you skate around the rink clockwise instead of the usual counterclockwise; it's not skating backwards, which I can't do yet). I even started doing crossovers on the curves on the reverse skate!!

I had requested the song "Hey Ya" by Outkast, which funny enough was a huge hit in 2003 but which I had not heard until 2009 because I am pathetically unhip. Anyway, it's a great song. So obviously when it came on, I had to skate to it. At the end of the song when I got off the floor, I was a bit surprised to realize that I had skated my *ass* off during that one. I could still feel the adrenaline. It was really cool, to find that I had skated hard without even realizing it.

I still can't really keep up with the derby girls, but I try to. And if I keep trying, one of these days I will be able to. As I told HotBoxx tonight, I don't care if it takes me until I am 45 to pass minimum skills (it shouldn't take nearly that long) ... I want to stick with this. I just ... I really love roller derby. And I'll tell ya, for a bunch of bitches who want to knock you over, the girls are super nice. :-)

Skating at the rink today

2010-01-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

We went to the open skate at Lebanon today, along with several Sick Town people (Brick, Nick, Pwny, FaceKontrol, Kayla and Rob). It was going pretty well until about 30 minutes into the skating session, Rob fell. I was on my way around the rink and saw him on the floor and thought, "Oops, Rob fell." When I came around again and he was still down, I thought "Uh-oh," and stopped.

Yeah, turns out he broke his leg. :-( He was trying to stop and his legs didn't cooperate, I guess. He had his 8-year-old son, Grayson, with him, so I stayed with Grayson while the paramedics got Rob ready to go to the hospital, and then I met them there and kept Grayson company in the waiting room until his mom got there. He's a funny little kid; he told me that when a woman has a baby, they cut it out of her stomach. I was like, yeah, sometimes they do that; and then he told me that other times they poop the baby out. Picture me keeping a straight face at that one. :-) I agreed that they kind of poop the baby out ... I certainly wasn't going to explain how it really works to the 8-year-old kid of a friend I don't know very well. :-)

Anyway, Rob's going to be fine, though I'm guessing he will not be skating for at least a couple of months. I hope he'll be back when his leg heals. I got back to the rink with a little less than an hour left in the skate session, so I did a little more skating. I never really got warmed up to the point where the shins weren't bothering me, but that's OK. I'm glad I could help out.

Minimum Derby Skills

2010-01-01T01:58:00.000-08:00

In case anyone wonders what I'm talking about when I mention passing minimum skills, here's the list.

I can do maybe -- MAYBE -- five percent of that stuff now. :-P

At least I don't need to worry about the written part of the test. That'll be easy. It'll be about damn time my big ol' brain came in handy for derby. :-) (Not that derby girls are not smart -- they are! But being smart won't get my ass around the rink 25 times in five minutes.)

Shin pain

2010-01-01T01:54:00.000-08:00

I should point out, it's not like my shins don't hurt at all when I skate; it's just that I find that if I keep skating through it, it gets better. The fact that I'm finding myself *able* to keep skating through it probably means my shin muscles are getting stronger, too. So, yay for that.

Skating news

2010-01-01T01:35:00.000-08:00

I think I may be past the shin pain thing, finally. The last couple of times I have skated -- Wednesday at Skate World in Springfield, and Monday at Lebanon (as Sick Town practice -- the warehouse floor was wet so we couldn't skate there) -- I have pushed through the shin pain and it has gotten better. Maybe coincidentally, maybe not, both times the rinks were crowded as hell, and both times I skated harder than usual. (Monday I'm sure it was because the rest of the derby team was there and I didn't want to look like a weenie.) It's gotten to the point where I no longer remember which songs I skated all the way through, because there are too many of them. (And many in a row too. These last couple of times I have skated way more than I've sat out.)

On Monday night I skated a few laps during the speed skate (at Lebanon, they designate one song a "speed skate" so that the proficient skaters can have a chance to skate without having to dodge little kids and slowpokes). Charlie timed me for a lap, and he said my time was 13 seconds. The rink in Lebanon is about the size of a standard flat-track derby track (I think). To pass minimum skills I have to be able to do 25 laps in 5 minutes. Now, being able to do one lap in 13 seconds is a very different thing than doing 25 laps in 5 minutes ... but it means there's at least hope. :-)

On Wednesday Charlie challenged me to lap him. We started at the same place, and my goal was to get so far ahead that I caught up to him again. I had to work for it -- Charlie's getting much better at skating. But I made it within ... maybe three, maybe four laps. Not too bad, for me.

Monday night in Lebanon, during the girls' skate, a BOY zipped onto the rink (recklessly, I might add) and knocked me down. A fricking boy, during the girls' skate. That pissed me off. If it had been a girl who knocked me down, it wouldn't have annoyed me nearly as much; but the boy shouldn't even have been out there!

I don't think we'll skate in Springfield again unless we're really hard up. The rink is fine; the surface seems to be some sort of painted wood, and it's not as grippy as the floor in Lebanon but it's way better than the sport court or the polished concrete at the fairgrounds (which is the worst surface I've skated on). But the employees are all teenagers, and they do a pretty poor job of policing the rink. There were groups of kids standing in the middle of the rink, not skating (two laps in a row I told them to skate or get off as I went past). There was a woman skating while pushing her baby in a stroller (I was honestly concerned for the baby's safety on that one -- it was a very crowded rink and accidents happen). There were parents walking on the rink holding their little kids' hands while they "skated" (apparently the rink allows this; I assume the stroller thing is allowed too, because the lady was doing it for hours). There was a group of insolent 12-year-old girls running around on the rink in their sneakers. Not Heelys (which are allowed, and which I don't agree with -- Heelys are not skates) ... just sneakers. I pointed this out to a staff member and asked if it was allowed. He said no, and then just looked at me with dead eyes until I walked away. Nothing was done about it. I complained again as I skated past the staff members on the rink, and a few minutes later I saw them talking to the girls ... and then I saw the girls walking around the outer edge of the rink (but still on it). I guess that was the solution. Sheesh.

Oaks Park and Lebanon have rules, and the staff are adults, and shit like that is not allowed. Oaks Park is 70 miles away, whereas Springfield is more like 40, *and* Oaks Park serves nasty Pepsi (while Springfield has Coke), but it's still worth it to go to Oaks. (Of course Lebanon is still the first choice, when it's open.)

They all need to play better music, though.

My Derby Name

2009-12-15T22:45:00.001-08:00

I cannot remember if I have blogged about this yet, but ... last week when talking to my mom, I came up with a great derby name for myself. Mom told me that my SIL Amy (who is really like a sister to me, but I still say SIL because it would be too weird if I called her my sister and then told someone she was married to and had kids with my brother ... we are from Oklahoma, not Arkansas. Kidding! Arkansas is awesome! Don't email me!)

ANYWAY!! Amy had this awesome grandmother, Dixie. Mom told me something about Dixie I had never known -- she was a derby girl back in (I'm guessing) the 50s. How amazing is that? I met Dixie, but at the time I didn't know anything about roller derby. I wish I could talk to her about it now; I'll bet she had some amazing stories. Dixie died not long after my niece Alena was born; Lanie's 7 now. So, too late to talk to Dixie about derby, dammit. (Sorry for the alliteration.)

Dixie's real name was Dixie Cullpepper (I don't know what her derby name was, or if they even had derby names then).

My proposed derby name: Dixie Skullpopper, in tribute to Dixie as well as to Amy, who is one of the most kick-ass women I know. I think I've mentioned this before, but derby names have to be unique -- you can't pick anything too similar to a name someone else has already registered. I searched the registry and no one has anything close to Dixie Skullpopper. So, fingers crossed that no one comes up with it before I pass minimum skills. :-) (It's not likely that anyone will ... but you never know ... and I'd hate to have to cut a bitch.) (Kidding!!! There's no cutting in derby. I'd have to hit the bitch.) (KIDDING!!! I would never hit someone outside of a bout. :-)

Derby practice last night

2009-12-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, after talking with Brick and Vicious, I decided to go to practice last night. They basically both told me that as long as I am doing my best, they are willing to pull me along until I get it. :-) And that's been true -- they were both awesome last night, encouraging me to keep pushing myself. I really don't want to disappoint them.

We started out with skating to warm up, and then we did what Bones calls "20 Minutes of Opportunity," and what I call "20 Minutes of Hell." Here's how it works: you sprint for a minute (meaning you skate around the track as fast as you can), and then you come into the middle and do an exercise for a minute. The first minute of sprinting was easy-ish. The first minute of exercise was tough -- squats. You don't know how long a minute is until you spend it doing something difficult that you can't stop doing until the minute is up. After that, it got tougher. One of the exercises was basically a skater version of jumping jacks. Start standing, go down on knees then on all fours, then get up, and go up on your toe stops with your arms up. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I was sure I couldn't do it but Brick told me to take it slowly (which I really should've thought of myself). I think I only managed three or four repeats, but that's OK.

But here's the good news: there is something in Derby that I am good at (or at least, I have a good foundation for learning how to do it for real). Guess what it is?

Yep, hitting. :-)

Last night we practiced hitting, first with a punching bag that St. Nick (I think; I'm not quite sure about everyone's names yet) held. Skate up, hit the bag (first with your shoulder, then your hip), skate on. I did pretty well, which was ... wonderful. Vicious gave me some pointers on how to use my shortness and chunkiness to basically turn myself into a little cannonball, and then hit up and into the other skater. I think I can do this.

Of course, next we did a pace line where we were supposed to weave in and out of everyone, hitting them as we did so. I hit one girl and *I* fell, and that was pretty much it for me in that exercise. :-) At least I fell more or less correctly.

After that I skated on my own while the team did more pace lines and pack drills and stuff that I'm just not ready for. It was OK; a little lonely, but way better than giving up and going home. I worked on falls a bit, and I think I can just about do the thing where the derby girls do a knee fall without stopping (it basically looks like a skating genuflect, for all you Catholics out there). I've also discovered I can do this thing where I skate along, then do sort of a circle thing and reverse direction to stop. Hard to describe, but I'm getting pretty decent at it.

I still have a ton to learn, and I still wish there were a group of total newbies that I could start with, but as long as the STDD girls don't feel like they are wasting their time working with me, I'll keep going to the Monday practices, and then going to as many open skates as I can manage for the rest of the week.

Open Skates

2009-12-12T16:59:00.001-08:00

True to my word, in the last few days I have been to two open skates. On Friday, Charlie and I went to Oaks Park. That was *awesome*, because there were very few people (it was a school day). I tried out some of my derby moves -- falls, crossovers, duck-walk (that's where you do a sort of on-skates walk to build speed before you start skating), skateboarding (a way of going around turns where your inside foot stays on the floor, and you push off with your outside foot), and most importantly, trying to skate better: bending my knees more and using a more even stroke.

Today we went to Lebanon for the Saturday open skate. It was crazy -- there were three kids' birthday parties, which meant a lot of kids trying to skate and flailing around, and falling, and being generally unpredictable. I was proud of myself, though. There wasn't room to practice falls or anything like that, but I did some good endurance work. I skated all the way through several songs (not in a row, though I did get through "Party in the USA" and "Barbie Girl" in a row). My endurance problem is not a cardio issue; it's mostly because my shin muscles hurt when I skate. But I'm working on it. On the speed skate, I tried going full-out (Charlie kind of challenged me to, really), and I was able to do pretty well for a few laps. Next goal: to go full-out on the speed skate (which is one song -- basically to give the adults a chance to skate without having to contend with kids) and last the whole song.

Wednesday

2009-12-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night was my second practice with Sick Town. The results were mixed, as far as I'm concerned:

Good: I can see that I'm making some progress. At my first practice, getting up from sitting on the floor (in skates) was scary and difficult. Now, I just get up, like it's nothing. I don't even need my hands. I can feel that I'm more comfortable on the skates.

Bad: My endurance is still pretty poor. There's no way I can keep up with the rest of the team. The girls who were new when I first started back in October are just about to move up to intermediate level. I simply cannot keep up with them. Wednesday night was a combined beginner/intermediate/advanced practice, because there were not enough people to make it worth doing separate practices. That was more or less a no-go for me. Vicious, the designated beginner trainer, worked with me separately, and I do *not* want to imply that she was anything less than professional about it. But I did have the sense that it was frustrating to her (after talking with her, I think this was in my head), to be saddled with a noob. She suggested that I keep going to the open skates (at the skating rinks) and said that some of the trainers at STDD were not going to be so keen on working with just one beginner. She said they hold the beginner classes on an as-needed basis. I left with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I could tell that I was improving; but on the other hand, I wasn't improving fast enough.

Insane: The new STDD practice space is an unheated warehouse in Millersburg. Wednesday night it was 20 degrees INSIDE the warehouse. There was a propane space heater that didn't do jack, even when you were right up against it. We wore layers. That was it, as far as protection from the cold. When we took off our knee pads, they *steamed*.

What I've decided: I'm going to go to as many open skates as I can manage, and I have asked Brick (STDD webmaster and my original point of contact) to let me know as soon as they have another crop of newbies, so I can join them. It's just too hard to be the only new person and feel like a big load. I haven't heard back from Brick, but I hope she doesn't think I'm a whiny-ass bitch, and that she understands that this is my way of sticking with it.

Edited to add: I talked to Brick and Vicious, and they were both very kind and encouraging and basically told me that all anyone expects of me is to do *my* best. So I'm going to go to the Monday practices, and still keep going to as many open skates as I can fit in. I *will* be a Derby girl someday, dammit!

Last weekend

2009-12-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was lots of fun. On Friday, Charlie and I went up to Portland to see Storm Large's yearly show, "Storm's Holiday Ordeal." That was beyond awesome. Storm is just fucking amazing.

But what, you ask, does this have to do with Derby?

On our way to Portland, we stopped at Oaks Park (which a few of you may recognize as the place where, several years ago, I threw up on the Round-Up). Oaks Park is a small amusement park, and it also has a really excellent roller skating rink -- one of the few in the U.S. that still has a pipe organ, though when we were there they were just playing pop music CDs. The rink is huge, which is good since it was also very crowded.

I consider crowded open skates good opportunities for me to get used to skating in a pack. Of course, there are differences -- derby girls aren't likely to stop randomly, or sit down in the middle of the rink, or do any of the unpredictable things kids at the roller rink tend to do. On the other hand, the kids at the roller rink aren't deliberately trying to knock me down. So it evens out.

At one point, as I was skating, a little kid was pretty close to me, so I put out my hand just to be ready to catch him if he crashed into me. The next thing I knew, a little boy was holding my hand! He said, "All aboard the Mickey express. That's my name!" and I'll admit it, my Grinchy heart grew three sizes that day. :-) I skated around the rink with Mickey, even taught him a couple of things about bending your knees and leaning forward, and then returned him to his parents. What can I say, I have a weakness for towheaded little boys. Can't think why. :-) (My nephews Liam and Evan are both adorable little blond boys. Well, Liam's 10 and almost as tall as I am ... but Evan's still an adorable little boy.)

It was a very good weekend. And if Storm does her Holiday Ordeal again next year, we're going. That's all there is to it.

So tired!

2009-12-01T21:42:00.001-08:00

Great news: Sick Town now has its own space, a warehouse in Millersburg. I guess it's actually mixed news, because the warehouse has no heat (and in summer, no A/C), and no plumbing. We're getting a porta potty and we've been asked to be kind and poop at home. (Seriously.) :-)

The team owns a "portable" sport court. It's made up of 1-foot squares that snap together; there must be a zillion of those little squares. It took at least three trailer loads to bring all (most?) of the pieces to the warehouse today. I was on the "putting it together" team. From 2:45 until 6:15, I sat down for a total of less than one minute. We got a good amount of work done, especially toward the end when more people came to help. (I'm not complaining -- people have jobs. I totally understand!)

So next time I go to practice with the team, which will be a week from Wednesday (tomorrow is my last Wednesday night working late), it will be at the warehouse, on the sport court (which I'm told is a much better skating surface than the slick-ass concrete at the fairgrounds).

I'm glad I went to help out today; it made me feel much more like part of the group. Also, I'm just glad I was able to contribute. I may not be a great skater yet, but I can schlep plastic squares with the best of 'em.

What I've Been Up To

2009-11-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted. This past Saturday, Charlie and I finally got back to open skate, after missing it two weeks in a row because we were sick. (And no, it wasn't the flu. Just a yucky cold/bronchitis.)

Saturday felt great. I was much more confident on my skates than I've been. A lady at the rink even complimented me -- she said, "You're very good." I was tempted to look behind me to make sure it was me she was talking to. :-)

In December, I plan to start going to team practices again -- probably Wednesdays only to start with, because those Monday endurance practices are really tough. But I need to go to them too, I know.

I still definitely have moments of doubt -- "What the hell was I thinking? I can't do this!" But skating on Saturday made me remember that I really want to do it.

Oh, and there was a wonderfully surreal moment late in the open skate. They played the Village People's "YMCA." That was a staple of the Saturday open skates at Roller City, which I went to as often as I could get my parents to take me. And of course, when the chorus rolls around, everyone does the arm movements for Y, M, C, A.

Well, naturally, when the song came on, I had to skate, and I had to do the arm movements. It was like stepping into the WABAC machine. I was 11 again.

Skating today

2009-10-31T16:19:00.001-07:00

Charlie and I went skating today at the open skate in Lebanon. I'm feeling more in-control on my skates, which is a wonderful thing. I still have to build up some endurance. Cardio stamina is not a problem -- it's my stupid calf muscles that get tired out.

Charlie did a lot better too -- yay! I think he's starting to get comfortable on the skates.

The biggest challenge at open skate continues to be avoiding crashing into the little kids. At least adults generally skate forwards. With little kids, you never know what direction they are going to go. :-)

Dammit!

2009-10-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

I only made it through the first 45 minutes of practice last night. I was OK skating laps, though that polished concrete floor has to be the worst surface I've ever skated on. It's incredibly slick. When I went down on the floor for stretching, I had a sharp pain in my right thigh. Uh-oh. Then when we were doing falling drills -- specifically the one where you go down on one knee -- my right leg was really complaining. I couldn't get up unless I scooted over to the exposed metal bracing along the walls and used my arms to pull myself up.

This was new; this pain wasn't part of the soreness I'd had all week.

The next practice I can go to is an open skate at the roller rink in Lebanon, on Saturday. I'm going. Fortunately, I've been told it has a wonderfully grippy floor, much better for skating than the floors at the fairgrounds. Between now and then, I am going to try to stretch my legs every day and hope this muscle spasm, or whatever it is, goes away.

Skate Names

2009-10-18T18:43:00.001-07:00

In roller derby, most skaters have cool skate names -- if you've seen "Whip It," you're familiar with the concept. Some of the names in the movie include Smashley Simpson, Eva Destruction, Babe Ruthless, and so on. One of my favorite derby names that I've heard is Sandra Day O'Clobber. :-)

Derby names have to be unique -- there's a national registry, and if your desired name is the same as or even too similar to another skater's name, you can't use it.

That's too bad, because my first (and, I still think, best) idea for my own skate name was "Auntie Maim." No dice -- there's already a skater named "Annie Maim" and it's too similar.

Some of the other names Charlie and I thought up -- which are all already taken -- include Sara Whalin', Killary Clinton, Penny Pain and Punky Bruiser.

The names I am now considering, which don't appear to be taken:

- Queen of the Harpies

- Harriet Half-Nelson

I'll probably think of more before the time comes that I actually need one. :-)

Also, if any African-American derby girl out there needs a name, may I suggest "Michelle OSlamma"? It's not taken.

Owwwwww, again

2009-10-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

I tried on my new skates a little while ago. They still feel good. I'm having more trouble with my left foot (which has an ingrown toenail on the big toe) than with my wide-ass right one. That's a good sign -- an ingrown toenail is a *lot* easier to deal with than a bunion.

But then ... I did something stupid. I tried to go up on both toe stops at the same time. Ooooh, bad idea. I fell on my ass -- and tried to break my fall with my hand. I'm fine, luckily. Not gonna try that move again, though. (As far as I know, it's not something you're supposed to do; I don't know why I even did it.)

Practice is tomorrow night. I'm nervous. Two and a half hours is a long time to exercise, even doing something relatively easy (which this is *so* totally not).

Skates

2009-10-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Emerald City Skates and I got myself some good quality skates -- for anyone who cares, they are Riedell Vixens, with Radar hybrid indoor-outdoor wheels. You can see the skates here. The great thing about the skates is that the laces go all the way to the toe, which gives me a lot of control over their width. They felt really good, and I felt much more secure on them than I did on the other skates. That's probably at least partly because I was on a carpeted floor, but still, it's a good sign.

I also invested in some 187 knee pads, which were mad expensive ($58, and that's a discounted price!). But knees are not something to play games with.

Monday's the next practice. I'm excited to try out my new skates!!

Owwwww!

2009-10-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

I don't think my legs have ever been this sore.

My first roller derby practice was two days ago. It was also the first time I'd been on skates in at least three years. The practice was -- to my out-of-shape body and scaredy-cat mind -- brutal. I learned the derby position (knees bent, butt out, elbows in, head up). It was fun when Bones, the tiny little derby chick who taught the beginner class, said to stick your butt out. Easy for you to say, I thought. If my butt were that tiny, I'd walk around sticking it out all day. :-)

Bones was awesome, as were all of the Sick Town Derby Dames. It was a sea of unfamiliar faces, most (but not all!) of which were a good 5-15 years younger than mine. (I checked -- I'm not the oldest. Not that it would matter.)

At first, I was pretty scared on the skates. I brought my own, a pair of four-wheelers (that's the old fashioned kind -- roller derby does not use inline skates) that I picked up for $25 at Wal-Mart several years ago. Apparently I got what I paid for: an hour and a half into the two-and-a-half-hour practice, I had to take off the skates because they were absolutely killing my feet.

Until then, I had been getting more comfortable on my wheels. When I was 11 years old, I was absolutely obsessed with rollerskating. My parents bought me a pair of skates for Christmas, and I was inseparable from them. (The following spring, they upgraded me to a supercool pair of Boston Avenue Street Skates -- with silver sneakers with rainbows, instead of boots -- as a reward for bringing up my grade in religion class from a C to an A. Or maybe it was for improving my behavior grade from "needs improvement" to "satisfactory." I don't remember now.)

Anyway, I skated all the time -- indoors, outdoors, wherever I could. My best friend and I would "practice" falling at the roller rink -- not that we ever fell. I wasn't some brilliant skater; it was just easy.

It's not easy now. Now, my calves are sore, and I forget to bend my knees, and the floor is slippery and I'm afraid I'm going to fall. I have to get past that, because let's face it: if I do roller derby (and I really want to), I'm going to fall.

This weekend, I'm going down to the skate shop in Eugene (run by a derby girl who calls herself Babe Malicious), and get some good skates and good knee pads. I'll be 40 in a month -- I'm not taking chances with my knees. Better to spend $58 (!!) for good-quality pads than god-only-knows-how-much for knee surgery.

Given how fricking sore they are now, I think I can safely say: if I stick with this derby thing, I'm going to have some strong damn legs.