And now we sweat

Practice this morning, earlier than usual to accommodate the double header for the final day of the Hometown Throwdown (Awesome derby weekend with 6 bouts of nationally ranked teams, so we got started at 9am instead of our usual 11am. That 2 hour earlier start time meant I got less sleep the night before, but also meant a 15+ degree cooler hangar to practice in, good trade!

Speed Dealer, Earl Slick, and Macho-Mexican/Han Cholo were up from Lane county concussion and started us out with some endurance work. First up was paceline work, lapping the pack before weaving through. Next we did the elevator doors paceline which has been shamelessly stolen from the B.A.D. girls warm-ups. In this drill, the paceline constantly spreads from the center of the track to the inner/outer boundaries and then back to the center at the whistle while the people in the back shoot ahead 1-3 spots every whistle until they reach the front. It helps teach quick steps, lateral movement, awareness, communication, and some unfortunate fitness as well. Apparently roller derby involves exercise. Unfortunately, it also involved an injury. Killa'volt locked wheels during a split and went down hard on a knee he had been nursing for the last month, resulting in swelling and bruising that undid a lot of patience & time spent healing.

Since LCC can out-pace the majority of our team, they led us through pyramid sprints as an endurance/speed building exercise. A skater starts with 1 lap sprinting, then a lap coasting, then 2 of each and so on up to 5 laps and then working back down to one lap. As much fun as that sounds, again it turned out to be more exercise. I did appreciate the work though and can see places I can improve my speed and form for a more efficient stride and better lap time. In particular, I liked how this drill really helped me get a head start on my sweating for the day, something I was worried might not get going properly today, with a high of only 96 deg...

After the screaming stopped Anarchy counted us off into two teams and were we given the privilege of wearing red and black pennies that were previously used to wrap cadavers that sat in the sun. Seriously, someone needs to wash or burn those things, they are a bigger health risk than smoking or Keith Richards. I was on the red team consisting of myself, Han Cholo, Speed Dealer, Next of Ken, Silent Mob, and El Guapo. Demon, Bubba, Earl Slick, Beeswhacks, Kill Nye, Boof, and later Cupples SK8 made up the black team. Scrimmage was more heavily slanted towards what I am used to compared to the scrimmage last Monday; strong defensive walls, communication, and teamwork. Bubba took a bad fall that hyper-extended an elbow (scary) for our second injury of the day. Jams were moving at a faster pace than previous scrimmages with fewer/shorter breaks in between. I jammed a few times with moderate success, except for one jam where Bubba was invisible only to me and somehow got by without me seeing him, causing no small amount of embarrassment.

Goal for the week: Survive California, cause I'm going camping. Gonna try not to get back-blocked by a pinecone!