Here I am!

BOUT WEEK WAHOO

So hey, there's a bout on Saturday! Yay! I've missed it so. It's going to be bizarre not having to be SO INVOLVED IN THE WHOLE PROCESS THINGER, not having to be in charge of the money and all that. (I have volunteered to work the box office for the first part, though.)

We got our headshots taken on Saturday. I've picked the one I'm going to use in the programs and the website, although many people have told me there's another one they like as well. As soon as I can get a dedicated link to the picture (right now I can only link to the whole gallery) I will post it.

I replaced my bearings and put the new laces on my skates yesterday, though I managed to lace my right skate too tight and it was really making my toes hurt. (Plus, the laces are waxed because they're hockey laces and they don't want to move, so I have to sit there and finagle my foot around and it's a pain.)

Yesterday was Coach Apolo Anton OhHELLno practice, as per usual. It's not really as horrific as once it was, though by the end I am still turning 30 second planks into more like 20 second planks with a lot of breaks in the middle. Oh well.

tonight

we're doing our team photo, so I'll have to bring Maverick along. Maybe he can be our mascot or something. :)

Saturday we're doing headshots. I have misplaced the crown I've worn the past two years, so I bought a new one for this year.

IT'S PURPLE AND SPARKLY AND WONDERFUL.

My skatelace broke on Monday. It'd been threatening to do it for a while. I bummed a lace off a teammate for the night, and bought a new set last night. They're hockey laces, though, and are a foot longer than what I had before (84" as opposed to 72"). We'll see how they work.

update

Sunday practice was canceled because it was really really cold out and there was big bad snow threatening.

Last night's practice went really well (at least for me). At one point we were practicing "getting a goat" (if, say, the white team wants to slooooow the pack down, because the black jammer's in the box and they want the white jammer to score as many points as possible, you gang up on the slowest black player and glob up around her, slow slow slow, so that you are the pack and you are really slow), and, as per usual, I ended up being the goat. I got sent out of bounds and the chick who got me out of bounds started skating backwards, to force me further and further back behind the pack. So finally, I skated really fast out of bounds backwards until I was behind her, did a quick 180 and was able to blast right past her back with my other teammates. (This got noticed by Coach Ref, yay!)

On the other hand, our end drill sucked. It's called Ten Down and it goes like this. All the laps are fast pack/sprint speed:

10 laps, 10 pushups

8 laps, 8 bicycle crunches

6 laps, 6 cherry picker side planks on each side(basically you do a side plank, then bring your top arm and curl it around into the triangle of space created by the floor and your body)

4 laps, 4 dolphin plank evil pushup things (basically you do a plank with your butt in the air, then bring your torso forward over your arms. or something like that)

2 laps, 2 evil knee touch things (on elbows and knees, bring your knee up to your elbow)

1 lap, 1 thirty-second plank.

I am *always* the last one to finish. It SUCKS. I'm halfway tempted to cheat on my laps just so I'm not last. But I won't, so I don't. MUST SKATE FASTER. Or something.

Plus, one of my skate laces broke last night, so I have to find new ones.

fa la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Last night was league scrimmage. I brought Maverick (he had his DS and was basically invisible the entire time), so I was able to stay for 1.5 hours of the 2.5 hour practice. I know I won't get an attendance point for it, but I'll make my attendance anyway with Sunday/Monday practices.

So we scrimmaged, and it was good, but at one point I managed to go from "skating in a pack in a normal way" to "run into a brick wall, chest-first" in about 0.1 seconds. I have *no* idea who or what hit me. It was the first time I've ever not immediately popped up from a fall. I sat there for a second, going "WTF was that?" before I was able to get up. Fortunately, the jam ended shortly after that. People came up to me afterwards and said "I'm surprised you were able to get up after that."

My mouthguard sucks. I can't talk clearly with it in. (Which is annoying, 'cause I had my dentist make it for me special.)

I did try the greek yogurt + ranch dip powder thing. It was good, except I put too much powder in, and while I previously thought it would be impossible to have too much ranch, it is.

(Edited to add that I just checked the attendance spreadsheet and I did get a full attendance point for last night. Yay!)

wheeeee

So Sunday was the Fresh Meat scrimmage.  A bunch of vets came and helped out in various positions, including jamming.  I swore a bit while doing this (mostly of the "SOMEONE FROM MY TEAM NEEDS TO GET THE FUCK UP HERE AND BREAK THIS WALL" variety, nothing personal).

Yesterday was team practice, which was good.  Apparently I was part of some amazing blocking during this one drill, but I have no idea what I did.  Heh.

and in other news

...I exercised a bit last night, but not as much as if I had been able to go to practice. :(  It's haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard.

Greek yogurt + ranch dressing powder sounds amazing, I will need to check it out ASAP.

I managed to weasel my way out of Apolo Anton OhHELLno's Sunday workout - our freshmeat are scrimmaging in anticipation of their draft, so I'm helping them out with that.  I AM SO SNEAKY HEEHEE. 

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

We're a WFTDA Apprentice league!!!! YAY ROC CITY!

so!

last night, on a non-practice day, I actually exercised.

To quote Craig Ferguson, I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ended up doing day two of the Roller Derby Workout stuff from the Facebook group (20 squats/60 second plank/20 lunges right leg/20 lunges left leg/60 second plank/20 pushups/30 second plank).  You're supposed to go through that five times, but I only got through it twice, and some of my 60 second planks were more like 45 second planks with a few collapses in the middle, BUT I DID THEM.  AND THEN I DID A BUNCH OF WII FIT STUFF, AND NOT JUST THE BALANCE GAMES.  I HULA-HOOPED FOR SIX MINUTES, DAMMIT, AMONGST OTHER THINGS.


So, there's that.


I've also switched to a smaller travel coffee mug so I only bring one cup's worth to work instead of two.  And if I have not sung the praises of Greek yogurt in a while, allow me to do it here.  OMFG GREEK YOGURT IS THE BEST, SRSLY.  IT TASTES JUST LIKE SOUR CREAM AND IS NO FAT AND HAS ELEVENTY BILLION GRAMS OF PROTEIN.  Like, wow.  It's a miracle food.

okay!

so last night's practice went much better.  We went around while stretching and told our goals for the upcoming season. Mine were:

1. Actually exercise on non-practice days; and
2. Not be such a negative, pessimistic person.

The captains and other people seemed to appreciate everyone's honesty in their goals, so I feel better about that.  Beyond that practice went really well; I realized that I can still do pushups, even if my chest doesn't touch the ground (and my knees are bent).  We worked on strategy and some new techniques.

So today, I have been told, is a rest day (wahoo) and then tomorrow we're supposed to do half an hour of stuff pretty hard.  Or something. :)

Oh, yesterday I also found out some super duper hyper yay fantastic news that I can't share yet. But it's most cool.  So that put me in a good mood as well.

Oh, and my brand-new kneepad broke last night.  One of the rivets ripped out of the fabric.  I've put an e-mail in to the guy who makes them, we'll see what he says.

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

Yesterday was the first Apolo Anton OhHELLno practice of the season.  I really hate and despise these practices because they're long and tiring and annoying and SUCK.  I DON'T LIKE DOING BURPEES.

I know I've said many times before that I don't like gradual changes in things; I don't notice them, so it's like, what's the point?  I also don't like accomplishing something and then being told "nope, not good enough."  My response is not "Oh, I guess that means I have to try harder!"  My response is "can't win; don't try."  Like, remember how excited I got when I could actually do pushups, only to learn that it's not a pushup if your chest doesn't touch the ground?  Or how I worked out really hard, like 3x a week only to not make the travel team last season?  Can't win, don't try.

I'm a very negative person, this I've learned.

oh, I just realized

I never said how my wheel combo decision went.  Black Stalkers and white Vanish worked beautifully.

first practice of the new year!

and I am soooo incredibly out of shape it isn't funny.  But so are a lot of other people, for which I am grateful.

I had a few people come up to me and ask administrative stuff ("is the practice on Thursday going to be a league meeting or scrimmage?") and I was like DON'T ASK ME BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE I AM NOT ON THE BOARD THIS SEASON YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (well, I didn't say the "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY" part).

happy 2011!

So I am SO COMPLETELY READY to play some roller derby, people!  (Well, maybe not SO COMPLETELY, as I still have not cleaned my bearings*.)   Our first team practice is tonight, YAAAAAAY, and I am going to be turning all the treasurer stuff to the new treasurer, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY, and just have some fun this year, because I am tired of life sucking.

One of my teammates got married on Saturday so a bunch of us were at the wedding and it was sooooooo much fun, although my legs hurt from dancing.  oops :)

*Somewhere in the last year or so I apparently became the league's bearing cleaning expert.  No idea how that happened.  But, if anyone reading this wants to learn how to turn one's bearings from FEELTHY FEELTHY bearings into SPARKLINGLY KLEEN bearings, these are what I use as my instructions.  And, if you accidentally break apart the bearing so that all the little balls fly all over the place, this video will show you how to put them together. And, if you're cleaning them outside on the steps of your house, and the little balls go flying everywhere in the crawlspace under your steps, they *are* magnetic, so you can tape a magnet to a knitting needle and dig around in the crawlspace trying to collect them.  Not that I've ever had to do that or anything.