body drama

Some days, life decides to take a metaphorical dump on your head. Yesterday was one of those days.

Horrible cramps

Nosebleed

Coughing so hard that it made me puke

Smashed up elbow (apparently elbow pads are not that useful)

Charlie horse

and a tiny bit of whiplash

FUN FUN FUN.

But despite all these things, practice last night was pretty kick-ass. I toughed it out and only stopped for a 23 second puke break and 2 or 3 minutes of elbow icing (during which time I actually continued skating, but with an ice pack). And it felt pretty damn good (not the puking and the icing, but everything else.)

Tonight, I take on Sexpos practice. And I intend to leave my body drama at home.

women athletes...

Sometimes, being a female athlete in the world of contact sports causes complications. Unplanned pregnancy for one.

I found out last night that I am officially NOT preggers. And the derby girl in me jumped with joy. Now, I totally love children and intend to have a flock of my very own at some point. But last derby season (which was my first derby season), I basically missed out on EVERYTHING because of my concussion. And now that I'm back in shape and ready to take the derby world by storm, the idea of having to sit on the sidelines for another extended period of time was rather soul-crushing. So, when my aunt Flo came to visit last night, I welcomed her with open arms (and maybe a little happy dance.)

My team has a sidelined pregnant player pretty much every season. This season, its not me. This season, I will skate hard, hit harder, and think fast. And I will not get injured.

LESS THAN A MONTH UNTIL BEAST!!!!!!

derby knowledge bomb!

Last Sunday, my derby team La Racaille, trekked down to Vermont for the afternoon/evening to drop a derby knowledge bomb on the Green Mountain Derby Dames (and then scrimmage with them a wee bit.) Usually, our 2 travel teams (the New Skids on the Block and the Sexpos) do all the derby roadtrips, but this was a home team bonding experience. As the destination was only 2 hrs away, almost the entire team was able to make the trip.

We basically showed the GMDD girls how we run our regular Sunday Racaille practices. I'd describe to you in detail what we showed them, but I don't think the team would appreciate me divulging our team secrets to the entire internet. So i'll just say that we showed them our stuff and they seemed to get a lot out of it.

Now, the important part (on a personal level) was the scrimmaging. There are a few noteworthy things I noticed about my own performance in the scrimmaging against GMDD. The first was that, although i was on the track every 2nd jam, I did not get over-exhausted at any point. And that is a huge accomplishment because I was definately pushing myself, so not running out of breath means that my endurance has greatly improved recently. BIG FUCKIN DEAL!!!

The second thing worth mentioning is that I found myself working really well with my line. My mind often switches to automatic when I'm on the track, so I've been putting a lot of effort into being aware on the track and working with my teammates and communicating. In that scrimmage, it was noticeable that my efforts have not been in vain. There's still work to do, there always is, but I like feeling that improvement has occurred.

And the third thing is that a teammate gave me some constructive criticism that felt a lot more like a veiled compliment than anything else. There are some people whose advice comes rarely and usually when they see something good going down and they can imagine it being even better. Such was the case. I felt like I was seen as a valid member of the team (as opposed to the recovering injured girl).

Only 1 month until Beast of the East!!!

Also, i'll be playing a game with the Sexpos in Michigan in 2 weekends. SUPER EXCITING!

derby positivity covered in chocolate fondue!

This week, for the first time ever, I referred to myself in conversation with a friend as being a better player now than i was pre-concussion. The words just came out of my mouth without much thought, but afterwards I realized that they were true. I'm really feeling solid. The new skates do wonders for my skating power. And I'm finally getting used to them... they have however started to rip up my heals a little bit. They're all raw now. I keep joking about how I should build up calluses by playing guitar with my heels. Thus my feet would become invincible to new skates and I'd have this really random talent of playing foot guitar.

I haven't been sleeping well lately and have thus gone to practices sleepy and worn out. Were I still in my recovery phase, I would have totally blown those practices, but as it is, I was still able to get ton of valuable insight out of those practices and hone my skills.

I've been thinking about going back to Wednesday Sexpos practices, but I keep having important things to do on Wednesday and with my new job its almost impossible for me to make in on time to the early practices. And since I can't really afford to take any time off work to travel, its not really worth wearing myself out to get back on a travel team just yet. I imagine that as the season approaches, I'll be more inclined to take advantage of the extra practice time.

In the meantime, I'm trying to take on many casual non-derby sports activities, like jogging, rowing and street hockey... maybe even some all night dance partying.