Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 YEAR IN REVIEW

So the year started awesomely, what with being placed on the official WFTDA roster for our league's charter team, and then pretty much went downhill what with my knee and all that.

However, I was able to go to a trampoline place yesterday and not have any issues whatsoever, so yay to my surgery.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Indeed with the holidays and the whatnot

so I skated on the new wheels last Saturday.  Just throw a wildly-patterned shirt on me, give me a British accent and an affinity for cars, and start calling me James May because those wheels have turned me into CAPTAIN SLOW. 

I also had to push harder to maintain speed, which didn't make my knee very happy.

So, I think I will use them during practices as sort of a training wheel so that when I go to actually play I will be the TOUGHEST SKATER OF THEM ALLLLLLL or something like that.  I am not looking forward to trying to put my bearings back into the Diamonds though.

So, my knee.  My lovely, lovely, die in a fire knee.  I didn't drive at all on Tuesday or Wednesday and I think that helped.  I can do the exercises I've been given with no problem. (I finally got the proper spelling of the jump starting thing on my knee - it's called iontophoresis.)  Every once in a while it gives off little HI I'M HERE TO RUIN YOUR DAY vibes, but knock on wood it hasn't been horrible lately.  We shall see.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

it's beginning to look a lot like I'll be skating again soon!

so, knock on really heavy wood, my knee has been doing quite well since Monday.  I tend to do more driving at the start of the week (what with the bowling stuff) and before, my knee would be achy and whatnot at the end of the day, but it's been good so far.

I think I'm gonna go skating again on Saturday to try out my new wheels, which means I have to remove the wheels currently on my skates, and clean my bearings 'cause they're FEEEEEELTHY.  Which means I have to find my bearing press.  It's in the house somewhere, I hope.  I do have to admit I look forward to it not taking 45 minutes to install the bearings in my new wheels (the one negative I have about my Diamonds).


Monday, December 16, 2013

wheeeeee.....?

So this past Saturday was the league championship bout.  My team lost. :(  Oh well, I suppose it's only fair to share the wealth, 'cause we'd won it the last two years.

I bought a new set of wheels this weekend - I'd been intrigued by them all season and had a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket.  I present - Adonis 92a's:

(the white wheels are my Radar Diamonds).




As you can see, they're a bit wider (36mm vs. 31mm) have a waaaaay smaller diameter (50mm v. 62mm).  (They're also lighter - one Diamond with bearings is about 4 ounces, one Adonis with bearings is a hair under 3 ounces.)   From what I have read, they're great for lateral movement and quick acceleration, but maintaining speed isn't as easy.    Maybe I'll go to open skate again on Saturday and try 'em out.

My knee, knock on wood, has been doing okay.  It was bugging me a bit after the bout (but I'd done mad mad walking - almost 20,000 steps per my pedometer).  Yesterday I went with Maverick to Five Below, and he was trying to make a shot with a basketball into the garbage can-type container they keep 'em in.  He missed, I jogged after it to get it before it hit anyone/anything, lost my footing.  Derby instinct kicked in, and I went down, knees first, onto the polished concrete floor. 

With no pads, of course.

 I was not happy.

Fortunately, the only damage seems to be some nice bruises.  My PT guy said it was good that I didn't try to twist my knee as I went down, 'cause that would've been really bad.




Tuesday, December 10, 2013

sigh

the clutch on my car is very heavy and it aggravates my knee.

**sigh**

Monday, December 9, 2013

so!

Maverick and I went skating on Saturday.  I didn't do anything crazy - fast laps, slow laps, crossovers and a little bit of lateral movement (Maverick would cut in front of me and I'd need to dodge him).  We went for about an hour and a half and my knee ached a little, but it was definitely manageable. 

Had my PT session this morning; the PT guy hooked me up to this machine that forces inflammatory medicine deep into my knee.  It looks like my knee was attached to jumper cables.

"Okay, now.....gun it!"
According to the rules and regulations of the league, I can practice with the B travel team for 30 days before I have to do my travel team tryout.  So, hopefully at the first practice of the season (1/9), I'll be ready to go!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

so

since I can't play derby right now, I'm going to live vicariously through my son and his bowling career.

The team is made up of seven boys, but only five bowl at a time during a match.   They bowl two games;the winning team of each game gets two points, and then whichever team had the highest pin count for the day also gets two points (so the most you can get is 6).

It's scratch bowling, so there's no handicap given.

You can substitute bowlers in between games.  What the coach has been doing is putting the kids with the top five averages in for the first game, and then pulling the lowest-scoring kid and subbing someone in for the second game.  This is how Maverick ended up bowling second for the first three matches this year, and then first for the match yesterday (he got a 162 and was the low man on the totem pole, and the kid who replaced him bowled even worse, but WHATEVER).

A lot of parents show up for the matches, and I've definitely heard some "hey, that little guy is pretty good!" whenever he gets a strike.  :) 

Yesterday they played the toughest team in their division, and while they lost the first game, they were going to win the second game and possibly take the highest pin count points also.  One of the other team's bowlers missed a shot, and I pumped my fist and said "YES!" and then immediately realized you don't do that in high school sporting events and immediately started cowering and apologizing.  The other parents who heard were fortunately on our side and laughed.  One said "well, it's what we were all thinking." 

I blame derby. :)

The last two weeks have been insane, what with Maverick bowling 4 days a week right after school (M-W for the school and then a fun league he does on Fridays) so I only now got my first PT session scheduled.  It's for Monday at 7:00am, ugh, but the PT place is literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) around the corner from my house so it won't be as bad.  Right now my knee is okay most of the time, though yesterday it was bugging me when I had to use the clutch in my car.

Because of that, I keep thinking "It probably wouldn't hurt too much if I skated, just a little bit."  I need to not think that, I need to let everything get back to 100%.  Right?

Monday, December 2, 2013

I WANNA SKATE I MISS SKATING WAAAAAAH

Not even necessarily derby-related....I just want to put my skates on.  Even if it's at an open skate with lots of little kids around.