I'm Back!

I'm back in Santa Barbara after an unplanned trip to Washington to spend time with family.  As I blogged before, I brought my skate bag and outdoor wheels with me and did my thing in an empty parking lot more days than not. One one occasion, I had both parents join me to see what I was up to.  Here are some photos from that.

Yesterday was my first day back to my routine and I wasn't feeling very chipper.  The week had been emotionally exhausting for me and my head wasn't quite on straight.  I muddled through my workday and didn't feel like my usual self.  I haven't been sleeping and I think that added to it.  I was also really REALLY stressed about getting back on the track for my first practice in what feels like a really long time.  In reality I think it was just two weeks, but a lot can happen in two weeks.  I somehow imagined that I would come back and all the other girls would have mastered all the skills that I was flailing at on my own.

Skating practice on my own is nothing like doing it with the group.  I try to push myself, but when the muscles start burning, I usually decide "that's enough for now."  With the Betties, my muscles are burning and the whistle is still blowing, and I keep going. 

Anyhow, despite feeling disoriented, distant, and doubtful, I went to practice.  IT.  WAS.  AWESOME.

Now I can't say that I came back being an awesome skater, but I found some confidence.  I fell a few times while warming up and the falls were nice and fluffy--no pain.  That kind of fall is good, because it reminds me that falling isn't quite as scary as I remember.  I practiced my stops and discovered that I can do a T-stop!  The stops are really hard to practice on asphalt with outdoor wheels, so I felt like a loser when I was trying to do them in my favorite parking lot, but back on the track, I could do it!  I'm still working on the plow stops, but I think I understand the mechanics of it now and just have to get my body to do it.

I practiced skating with a pack, weaving in and out of teammates (something that I was sure I wasn't ready to do yet), and speed.  I surprised myself by having the balls to try things that seemed way beyond my skill level, and actually being able to do it!  Not well, of course, but doing it well will come later.  I think that's what I was missing while I was gone--the ability to push past my comfort zone.

I left the track feeling alive and giddy.  Sweaty too, but mostly giddy.

I'll leave you with an old photo of me, I must have been about ten years old here, skating on the street in front of our house.

My first (minor) ouch!

Yesterday I hit up the Ventura skating rink for some extra practice. I went by myself which was intimidating, but I did it anyhow. I skated for close to an hour, practicing cross over steps (which I've only observed but hadn't learned yet) and weaving in and out of little kids flying in every direction. As (un)luck should have it, the night I went was also the night that an elementary school was doing some kind of fundraiser there, so it was packed. Oh well, at least I got some skating time in. I feel like I'm getting more comfortable on wheels and maybe even a bit faster, too.

Tonight was day three of boot camp. I was determined to skate harder than this past Saturday. I skated my butt off on Saturday, mind you, but managed not to fall down, even once. My thoughts today were that I needed to push myself to the point of falling. If I wasn't risking a fall, I wasn't trying the moves hard enough.

Tonight, I managed to fall down several times. I was reminded how easy it is to fall on my knee pads, and that it doesn't hurt. I love my knee pads! I got more confident. I was practicing a move intended for very coordinated people called the "drunken sailor" when I fell in a not so pretty way. The fall itself didn't hurt me, but my already cramping muscles were unhappy about it, and I immediately got a cramp in my calf. When I stood up, I realized my quad muscles were also pissed off. I tried some light stretching and tried to skate it off, but one of the Betties noticed I was struggling with the cross overs (oddly enough, the move I'd been practicing the night before). When I told her I was having some muscle pain, she recommended that I sit out the rest of practice and ice it.

No biggie really. This, I'm sure, is the first of many. I hate feeling like I'm wimping out, but I also know better than to keep pushing myself through an injury (running injuries taught me that lesson. Twice). The part that pisses me off the most is just that I now have to rest. I had big plans tomorrow to go for a run or possibly try out my shiny new outdoor wheels (they are so pretty!), and then to go to a personal training session. The derby girls recommended that I ice and rest for 48 hours. Boo! But I will because it's easier to get better now than to get better after I hurt myself worse. I'm going to call my trainer tomorrow to see if he thinks it would be better to cancel my session or if we can work around a pulled muscle.

The part that I'm proud of is that two years ago, I would have loved an excuse to rest. Now being active is fun for me and much of my free time is scheduled around fitness activities I can do. I've come a long way.

Betty Boot Camp - Day 1

I can barely sit on my chair as I write this.  I can also barely stand up.  I'm sore, and I know tomorrow will be a new version of sore.

On Saturday, my husband and I went to the last bout of the season.  It was awesome!  The place was packed, my team was down for the first half, and then brought an amazing comeback!  My husband lost his voice from cheering so loud.  I brought my camera and had fun shooting, but realized later when looking through my photos that shooting moving targets in low light...well as fun as it was, not many of my photos were in focus.

Tonight was my very first practice on skates.  I've been skating around my house, a couple of times at a rink, and once on a bike path for 15 minutes before I realized that the longer I skated, the further I would have to skate to return to my car.  And I really was determined not to break anything before my first practice.  I wanted to learn to fall first.

And fall I did.  Quite a few times on purpose, a few times less purposefully.

We started out with butt cheek falls.  Twenty falls on each cheek for a total of 40 falls.  It's not so bad when you land on the squishy part of the butt, but I took two falls on the less squishy part.  At least it was once on each side, so I'm balanced.

Then we moved to single knee falls.  Think lunges.  On wheels.  This was the part where I went from thinking "I'm a badass in the most awesome shape of my life" to "uh oh."  I seriously need to work on strengthening my thighs, particularly my quads.  I'll get right on that, when I can walk again.

Then double knee falls.  It's more of a slide, like a rock star would do while playing a mean riff on the guitar.  I could do those alright.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I switched out my wheels.  I had been using "multipurpose" wheels that supposedly can be used both on the track as well as outside.  I learned that they are less than mediocre for both situations, so I borrowed some wheels from a girl who is off her skates for a while due to injury.  Yikes!  Real wheels are much slicker than what I was using, and I "practiced" a few more butt cheek falls.

Then we did some core strengthening exercises.  This is where I thought I'd shine.  I've been doing Pilates on a somewhat regular basis.  I was proud of my core strength.  Until I tried doing the same move with skates on my feet.  Skates are heavy!  And suddenly I was less proud of my core strength.  I'll be working on that too, just not tonight.

Overall, I'm happy with practice.  I survived without breaking anything.  I'd had a little fantasy about going out there and nailing all the moves on the first try, but that would have been too easy.  When that fantasy bubble burst, I created a new fantasy.  Now my fantasy is that I'm the girl who tries SO HARD that no matter how much I screw up, I still impress with my determination. 

The extra bonus of it all is that for two hours, I wasn't anxious.  I've been so anxious lately about work, personal life, pretty much everything, that my entire everything feels tense.  Tonight, I was completely focused on falling and not falling, and while I was on the track, didn't think once about my stress off the track.