Wednesday, February 27, 2013

When last we left things...

...it was over a week ago.  I didn't go to Sunday practice, but not because I'm lazy or anything like that - I was out of town.  I didn't go to last night's practice, because Maverick had a band concert.

I *did* go to practice on Monday, but it was kind of annoying because when we divided up for skills and scrimmage, the teams were a bit lopsided.  I would yell out things, but I'd yell them out a second too late and by the time I got what I wanted to say out, it was too late and the other team had accomplished what they wanted to accomplish.  Sigh argh.

Anyway, the sneakers work pretty well, for the little bit of jogging we did on Monday.  (Mondays we spend 10 minutes tops on our off-skates warmup; on Tuesdays we spend 10 minutes just jogging.  Then comes 20 minutes of vomit-inducing interval stuff.)

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

ok, let's see what's happening

we had our closed-door bout on Saturday, against Syracuse.  They have a practice space that is deep in the bowels of one of the shopping malls there, and it's kind dark and chilly (at least until you get warmed up) and if you open the door leading to it at the wrong moment one of the outer pack referees might get a door to the face.  BUT IT'S THEIR PRACTICE SPACE AND THEIRS ALONE, so I'm jealous.

Anyway, we won by some totally insane amount (checking Facebook......253-48).  Afterwards we found out that their B team really only has six members, so the rest of their roster was made up of A team and Fresh Meat skaters (apparently one jammer said to our jammer at the line "I've never done this before - even in practice!")

Sigh.  I was talking to one of our referees afterwards, and he said something I've been thinking for a while - that unlike a lot of leagues, our B team has a pretty high skill level.  3/4 of our team has played for more than two years (more than half have played 3+ years), and to put us up against a bunch of "THIS IS MY FIRST BOUT" skaters is....well, it gets annoying, to be honest. 

I finally bit the bullet and got a new pair of sneakers.  My old pair were about five years old and I think they contributed to my knee issue the last time I went jogging.  I went to this local store that does personal fittings and threw myself at their mercy, and they gave me (well, not gave me, but provided me with and then I purchased) a pair of Nike Air Pegasus 29's.  We'll see how well they work out the next time I skate, which isn't going to be until Monday at the earliest.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

JAMES BROWN IS DEAD

so I pulled some muscle or other in my back on Thursday (between my shoulder blades) and it was really acting up last night.  I sat out most of the second half of practice, trying to get it to relax.  'Twas annoying.

I don't have practice tonight, because the coaches and captains decided that the Tuesday practice before a bout is only for rostered skaters.  So no puking for me tonight!  I'll have to figure out something to do instead. 

Monday, February 11, 2013

time should probably find a new schtick

so I WENT TO SUNDAY PRACTICE, Y'ALL.  AND IT WAS MISERABLE.  It wasn't run by Anton, it was run by Captainness Flashback, and we had to do stuff like "do ten situps, then run over to the other side of the track and back. If you finish before a minute is up, you can rest.  Then do it four more times.  Then replace the situps with 5 pushups, do that five times, then do five burpees, do that five times."    MISERY AND LOATHING.

"Jog around the rink and then do squats and star jumps and box squats and other stuff THAT I HATE DOING ZOMFG."  I DON'T JOG.  JOGGING IS NOT NECESSARILY GOOD FOR YOU, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE THE KNEES OF A 95 YEAR OLD THAT ARE ESSENTIALLY POWDER.

I think the Powers That Be are questioning the whole Sunday practice thing, though.   I was asked by the A team coach yesterday while getting my headshot done what I think of the whole thing (I think my answer was "I hate it but it's not because of anything other than my inherent laziness").

ANYWAY.

Friday, February 8, 2013

time needs to start doing more planks

so if I had to describe my derby ability, I would say I'm a decent player with occasional flashes of brilliance. 

last night's flashes was the fact that I booty-blocked the jammer out of bounds and held her behind me for a good few seconds (on a power jam).  So that was a "yay me" moment.

during the warmup, at one point we had to grapevine around the track on our toe stops.  I did it fairly slowly, and then thought "let's see if I can do this faster" and pretty much FLEW around the track.  A few people were like "Damn, Queenie, that was awesome!"

I'll take it. 

Last night we were also talking about kids and Valentine's Day and marriage and whatnot, and a few of my teammates were completely FLABBERGASTED that I'm 39.  They thought I was 31, 32.  I'll take that as well.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

time realizes it shouldn't stay up so late at night

0 for 3.  Sigh.  I WILL BEAT YOU, A TEAM WARMUP!

Other than that, it went okay.  I did a little bit better at one-on-one positional blocking, and we worked on some strategies for when the other team is on a power jam.  (at one point I just flung myself at the entering jammer, and knocked her down and out, but I also went down myself).  Another time I sort of took control of my team's blockers, saying "OKAY SOMEONE DO A BRIDGE NOW" while the jammer was pushing against my chest.  (I got a compliment from Captainness Awesome on that one.)

Then there was one point where I was jamming and just kept. getting.  knocked.  down.  My team's blockers were supposed to kind of guide me through the pack, and one of them yelled out "Queenie!" after I'd gotten knocked down for the eleventy billionth time, and I just lost my temper and screamed "WHAT?!?!?!?!?! [read: I AM DOWN HERE ON THE FLOOR FOR THE ELEVENTY BILLIONTH TIME WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT, GODDAMMIT WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING ME BETTER]"

I really don't lose my temper that much (probably why I aced the interview section of the tryouts)

Roy and I have decided to resurrect the clothes hanger recumbent bike from the attic.  (I KNOW!) Our coach wants us to do at least one session of interval training a week outside of practice, and since I HATE HATE HATE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE jogging, I think cycling is the way to go for now.

I've given it a little bit of thought, and what I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate the most about jogging is the monotonous BORINGNESS of it all.  I'm running on a skating rink, I'm running outside, blah blah blah this is dull when is something exciting going to happen?!  One of my leaguemates said she goes trail running, which might be enough of a perk (I could mix it up with Orienteering, which I did when I was younger and loved.  I really want to do the Run For Your Lives race in August because it looks totally AWESOME.)

Monday, February 4, 2013

time realizes it's February already, freaks out

So our first bout of the travel season is coming up!  We're having a closed scrimmage in Syracuse on the 16th.  Lookin' forward to it.

Guess what?  I didn't go to practice on Sunday.  SHOCKER, I KNOW.  Sigh.  If it were up to me (and, well, it's not), I would change the theme of Sunday practices from "workout" to "something more productive."  The Sunday practices are never really very well attended (about 11 people at yesterday's) and I think if it wasn't UGH DEATH PACES attendance might be higher.  But like I said, it's not up to me.

Yesterday afternoon the Head Ref had a rules reading meeting at his house - just reading through the rule book and answering questions and whatnot.  I Skyped in and am glad I did.