Still not dead... mostly

So it has been literally a month since my last post. While I was off skates for over 2 weeks of that time, obviously skating and derby have been happening. This will be a LONG post, working my way towards the present. As I have no way of knowing who, if anyone, is reading this I'm choosing to not feel too bad.

6/22-7/10:
No practice, or I was out of town (Denver, then SLC). I think I managed to get in an open skate once or twice at most. No serious working out, but I did get paid in food in Denver, so I got to exercise my table muscles and put on 5-7lbs... Damn it. Killa'Volt is still off skates with a possible knee injury, summer in Portland means that people are busy and we cancel the 7/4 practice as well.

7/11:
First practice back. Just Kill Nye, Next of Ken, and myself. The Whip/CDW/Anarchy (all three personalities in the same space!?!) is attending a surprise Tool concert with Demon for his birthday, awesome party follows that evening. Really awesome. El Guapo pops in briefly but is injured and will be out till the end of July.

Scrappy go Lucky & ITSO EZ are guest coaching us. We work on plow stops, which to date remain something that happens to other people. Some agility work with cones follow, being the most oafish and least experienced skater present I am bringing up the rear on these drills. Lots of good one-on-one instruction, both Scrappy & EZ are patient teachers with lots of good observations and assistance.

7/12:
Monday practice. Since RCR is taking July off (except travel teams, they need to stay sharp) we (PMRD) are able to snag a couple extra 1-hour practices. Joy! And by Joy I mean Anarchy has us (the 5 on skates: Demon, Kill, Next, Bubba, and myself) doing 3 vs 1+1 baby whale/momma whale drills. All sorts of fun and didn't get old over the 45 or so minutes we were doing them, constantly rotating positions after each drill. For only a 1-hour practice, I am tired and nearly puke. Apparently I can get out of shape MUCH faster than I can get in shape.

7/14:
Another 1-hour practice. Several of us decided to warm up by going to the open skate preceding practice (9pm practice, 7pm open skate across the parking lot...) so we could hit the track running... or whatever. Next, Kill, Bubba, Free Will & myself all hit up Oaks, but Free Will couldn't stay for practice afterwards. Unlike Monday's practice, which in retrospect seemed easier, Anarchy said she had missed us and proceeded to put us through the paces something fierce! Agility drills, endurance drills, floggings, and then more drills. Probably one of the longest hours in my life, but a much needed workout none the less.

Anarchy informed Captain Obvious and I that we had sprawls in our future if either of us splayed out like spiders when we fell, which until that point was my signature move. Also, I received a strongly worded letter from my legs the next morning threatening outright mutiny if I did that to them again... which I didn't intend to repeat until Sunday or so I thought.

7/16:
Open skate at Oaks. Nothing spectacular except...
MY HUGE GODDAMN FALL DURING PACE SKATE! Fuck.
If I had to pick a least favorite moment to fall it would be during pace skate. This particular moment combines the two least likable ingredients for a fall: speed and everyone watching. I wish I could claim someone cut me off or some sort of a mechanical skate failure but I can't. My left foot simply decided that it hated my right foot and it was time to take that other bastard out. Fortunately, the sound of 50+ Boys & Girls Club kids watching from the outside of the track made it all worth while... that and the ugly bruise it left on my lower right gut. Fortunately, I had my wrists & knee pads. Unfortunately, I also managed to lose a couple postage-stamp sized chunks of forearm and elbow because I wasn't wearing my elbow pads...

After my demonstration in how to properly clean the recently resealed/resurfaced/extra grippy floor, it was a regular open skate again. I tottered a bit, shaken by the fall, but got back into the routine of left turns at an extra medium pace.

7/18:
Practice, with people... Had a moderate turnout for practice, people were still busy with family/vacation/etc. Speed Dealer from Lane County Concussion surprised us, but we were happy to have him there. Unfortunately, he broke the kingpin on one of his skates (apparently this was the 4th or so time this had happened to him) and was out for part of the practice until he was able to have it replaced at the Oaks Park skate shop. Killa'Volt was back on wheels, wisely taking it easy after the MRI/x-ray/Dr indicated that he had a strained ACL. He avoided the drills, but was eager to get back in the mix once he is at 100%.

Anarchy flailed us through various pace-line skating drills and an assortment of other masochistic exercises involving us sweating and learning what despair tastes like. We discussed offensive versus defensive pack work, particularly when the jammers approach and how to react depending on a number of factors. During this drill I realized that derby seems to be about paying attention. Not just paying attention to the jammers, but to their position & status, to the refs, to your coaches, to your teammates, to the opposing blockers, to the penalty benches, and any number of other factors which come and go during a jam. So to that end I am buying some glue-on decorative eyes for the back and sides of my helmet cause I seem to be lacking in my field of vision.

Speed Dealer returned from the skate shop ready to go and we did some scrimmage jams. I was teamed with Speed Dealer and Kill Nye while Bubba Fett, Carpe Demon, and Next of Ken (NoK) made up the opposing side while Free Will changed between teams a couple times. Having previously seen Speed Dealer in action, I kinda knew what to expect and had told my teammates that he was likely the best skater for LCC, but seeing it live was an eye opener. His speed and maneuverability make him a seriously impressive positional blocker, and while I would have liked to have gotten the chance to go head to head, it was nice having him on my team. Demon played solid the whole time, regularly moving me out of his way, though I did manage to push him out a couple times trying to draw a cut penalty. Bubba and I took turns pounding the shit out of each other, he seems to subscribe to the school of cement for breakfast and bricks for dinner cause every time he hit me it felt like I was running into a friggin' wall. Despite his increasingly solid presence, I still managed to mix it up a bit during the jams. NoK and Kill Nye were well rounded both jamming and blocking, and continue to be excellent jacks-of-all-trades during practice. For my own part I managed to play as a decent (by my lowly standards) blocker, but simply lack the speed to excel as a jammer. Still, I managed not to puke at practice despite my stomach's threats, but seriously considered it a possibility during a couple points, so the day was a success.

Once attendance jumps back up to normal, we should be able to do 5 vs 5 scrimmages in preparation for setting up a scrimmage with Lane County. Speed Dealer said they were eager to play with us, and I would definitely like to get in some sort of full fledged scrimmage sooner than later.

7/19:
Skating at Oaks Park. Again another open skate which was attended by several members of PMRD, nothing too exciting except...
I fell again. Seriously, WTF!?!

7/20:
Next of Ken, Captain Obvious , and I skated a trail in SW Portland, hoping to find something suitable for a skating event coming up in August. Unfortunately, the trail is going to be partially closed for a sewer line beneath it to be repaired so no luck. Plus the long ass skate uphill returning to the parking lot was a bastard.

Goal for next week: Stop falling at Open Skate and when I inevitably do, fall 'small'

Floorburn FTW!

Went to Open Skate for general skating and working on endurance. Things went well for the most part, got to practice plow stops, some light backwards skating, some of the weakest attempts at a tomahawk this century. I felt good and warmed up and worked on whatever fundamentals occurred to me with my friend and was having a good time getting in a decent workout.

Later in the session (Wednesday afternoons are the best time to go btw, very few people there) people cleared out so I figured it was time to speed things up a bit. I had sprinted a few laps throughout the day whenever I had the room to safely do so, but hadn't done any back-to-back so I decided this was the time. Laps 1 & 2 felt good, crossovers were smooth and I was holding good speed through the turns leading to faster straights every lap. Had lap 3 continued like the first two I would have been content to call it good there, but obviously, it didn't. The second turn a crossover became a cross-up and I stumbled. Having been working on and discussing proper falls recently I had the perfect opportunity to put the theory to the test rather than fight the fall and end up going down like a felled tree. So I took a knee, which, given I was at the apex of the turn and had some serious radial forces going on, went very well. No bruises, and only floorburn on my thumb where it was exposed just past my wristguard. Floorburn so deep I might not have a thumbprint there again...

Good workout though.

Trail skating sucks the big one...

I've been trail skating a couple times this last week just to get in free time on the wheels and it is less than fun. Four miles on the trails feels like more work than 2 hours in the rink. Add in rocks, the threat of falling on asphalt, bicyclists, and people who feel that their dog is an exception to the leash law and you have a fairly stressful workout environment. On the bright side, it is outdoors and a change of scenery from the endless left turn of the rink. I think it will prove to be a valuable endurance building tool and will ultimately make me a better skater, but until then it feels like work. Demon suggested narrower wheels to make it a bit faster and less tedious, but I am tempted to leave the wide ones on for now simply for the resistance and increased workout. Also new wheels costs new money.

On the indoor front...
Went to open skate on Wednesday with a friend and was able to pound out 2.5 hours of skate time with minimal breaks, after having gone outdoors for 45 minutes only 2 hours before that. Afterwards I looked like I had been swimming with my t-shirt on and my crash pads cause some rather strange sweat lines on the shorts, but it was a good workout. Crossovers are becoming silent and natural, and when I find myself with plenty of open lane ahead of me, acceleration and control at speed are significantly improved. If the Wednesday skate trend continues, which it likely will since Wednesdays 3-5:30 are fairly open at Oaks Park, I'll start working on backwards skating and other activities that I just can't do on the trails outside of practice.

Tomorrow, practice. Hopefully some blocking, falls, the ever-popular squats, and maybe some toe-stop sprint-starts. That would be fun...

Second Practice

Second practice this week, only 5 of us skating, but also attended the board meeting to be better informed/involved. Learned a lot about our relationship with RCR and got to voice my opinion (despite it's newness in the group) on open questions of interest and goals.

Today Demon asked if we had any special requests for the day and I wanted to do some basic hit drills. Though before we did that I asked about practicing falls and doing squats since they're generally related. So after squats and falls (which I am happy to say I have gotten MUCH better about getting up into motion using my toe-stop from a knee after a single knee fall) we paired up and did basic contact drills. Since many of us had never put a hit on anyone we started with just making legal contact. Not bad, but doing so with any coordination is harder than it looks for sure. A person on the outside was designated the hitter and their partner, conveniently gliding along in the 'derby' position, the one taking the hit. Once we all had a few runs through barely bumping into each other Demon changed it up so the hitter would continuously push their opposite until they were forced out of bounds to the inside, changing up to do it again in opposite roles on the next straight away.

Taking the hit, no problem, sit there and be a trauma sponge until you're forced across the line. Dealing the hit was a real challenge for me. First, I don't feel terribly confident on my skates in close proximity to others just yet so I was quite cautions about accidentally clipping someone's wheel during the line-up and approach. Second, these were my teammates and that always makes me a bit nervous when potentially causing injury. Long story short, I liked the contact drills, but thought my hits/contact was crap. Perhaps this week along the Springwater trail I'll farm a jogger or two for practice... probably not.

Overall, feeling better about the skating, but really need the weather to clear up so I can add outdoor skating to the weekly routine and start building some endurance to prep for the 2-hour practices we hope to move to. I have a nice section of the trail picked out that is a 6-mile round trip from the apartment which should start to really help build up those oddball skating muscles and give me more general skate time.