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.

Queen of the practice!

This morning, i went to derby practice on 4 hours of sleep with just a giant pile of enthusiasm and adrenaline. And i was on fire. Today, I felt more like the pre-concussion Hellcatraz than ever before. And with the lack of ankle pain due to my new skates, as well as my constantly improving fitness level (which is still not all that fit), soon enough I'll be better than ever. Hellcatraz is making a comeback.

I felt so good about myself at the end of practice that I declared myself world champion of this morning's practice. Wrath Poutine even apologized for forgetting my medal at home.

Really, I was on the ball. FUckin' shit up like nobody's business. In the last scrimmage line of the day, I even jammed and kicked some serious ass. When there's really just 1 blocker on me, I just hit them back harder than they hit me and then pick up the pace. Luckily my team was doing a good enough job of interfering with the opposing team's blockers, so they never got a chance to catch me behind a wall of anything.

Ah, good times.

This the self-declared Queen of practice signing off.

meow

I missed a couple practices last week because some adorably little strep throat infected children decided to shove their sticky fingers in my face. Now, when i go a little while without practicing, I always forget about that wonderful post-practice high. I write about it all the time, but there's really no way to capture the emotion and inject in directly to my blood stream when i get the derby blues (or any other kind of blues for that matter.)

Today, I was crazily lethargic. And the thought of doing anything other than curling up in a ball under a pile of blankets and sleeping the rest of my life away was quite intolerable. However, I was determined to put that aside for derby practice. I put my depression in my back pocket, got my skates on and hoped that my lethargy wouldn't find a way out of my back pocket and pull a sneak attack on me mid-practice.

But once the ball got rolling, all my worries went away. And after the initial shock of being back on skates post-sickness, my body didn't even complain more than with a slight short-lived muscle ache or 2.

And now, in the midst of this lovely post-derby high, I can't help but wish that derby practices took place early every morning before work. I'd be nice & chipper all day long and probably would no longer require anti-depressants. However, i cannot imagine any of the derby girls wanting to get up at 5am to practice. Maybe one day... when roller derby becomes an olympic sport... a girl can dream.

welcome back zest for life

Anti-depressants, new skates, emotional support from friends and family, positive experiences at derby practice. All these things have really helped me find my footing in life and in the derby world over the past few weeks. Like any time of great change, my head often felt like it was going to explode. But the storm seems to have passed, for now. My new skates were just what the doctor ordered.

I'm even excited for the team bonding that'll be happening this weekend. I feel closer to my team than i had in a long while. And this really helps when overcoming the derby blues.

Bye-bye derby blues.

Less than 3 months until Beast of the East 2010. So excited!