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dragonlady7So I am sleepy now, really really sleepy. I think I need to sleep. Yes. Smart.
But I am trying, trying I tell you, to wait up until this load of laundry is done so I can chuck it into the dryer and put the next load in to soak overnight. (Whites. Never are white. I want them to be. I refuse to use bleach. I like to dry them in the sun but the weather is not cooperating. So instead I marinate them in Oxy-Clean and Tide overnight. Usually works fairly well, unlike bleach which usually yellows whites.)
Yawn.
Woke up around 8:15 this morning, and was puttering, answering nature's call, checking email. Got an email from the roller derby girls' Yahoo mailing list. Roller derby? Sunday morning? Shit! Practice is at 8:30! Fuck!
Made it to practice by 8:40. Am a champion.
I am getting much better. I can actually skate. Go me!
We did a lot of skating, which I should mention is harder than it looks. It seems effortless, to just breeze along on wheels, but damn it takes a lot of work. Phew. Even though it's cold here now, and wasn't too warm in that building (was probably 68), I sweated like a pig all morning.
We did a pace drill, which consisted of the thirty-or-so of us (I know! Wow) getting into a single-file line and skating along arms' length from the person in front of us. This was hard, and was made harder by the drills we did: first, the person at the back of the line had to skate to the inside of the line, while it was in motion, and catch up to become the leader. We did that until everyone had gone. Then we did the other way: The person at the front of the line had to put on speed and skate to catch up to the end of the line, while the rest of us maintained speed.
I learned I can skate faster than I thought when there's nobody crowding me and I have a goal.
I also learned that when I drag my toe stop to lose speed, I also tend to throw myself out of alignment, and I either waver wildly or stumble. This is terrifying when in a tightly-packed line, with an insecure girl in front of me and an impatient but unskilled girl behind me. So I accidentally perfected a technique which doubtless will prove itself entirely useless in bout situations: by grinding my elbow pad into the carpeted wall, I could slow myself down more subtly without endangering my orientation or traction.
I really need to learn how to control my speed out on the open rink. But meanwhile, I was rather amused by the elbow pad trick.
Another concern is that despite being ambidextrous, I am very strongly right-footed. I can only stop with my right toe stop; for a quick start, I must dig in with my right toe stop. One major bit of progress I have made is that I can now, on the straightaway, push off with both feet alternately. But on corners I remain insecure: I cannot cross over well. I can lift my right foot and place it in front of my left, and push off with it, but it is difficult for me to lift my left foot from the floor in its turn. The easiest way for me to turn corners is by doing that motion where you wave both feet in and then out, which is the way most people skate backwards. The problem with that is, of course, that it means you can only maintain speed, rather than building momentum.
Oh well. Last month I was afraid of skating too fast, and I would have to constantly think about my feet. I also couldn't really pick either foot up and set it down. So that's progress.
Another drill they did, but it was nearly 10:30 and I had to go so I'd have time to shower before work, was that they set up cones and had to weave between them, turning gently by twisting their hips. I wanted to do that one, but again: 10:30-10:45 to get home, 10:45-11:00 to shower and wash hair, 11:00-11:15 to find, make, and eat breakfast, 11:15-11:20 to put clothes on, 11:20-12:0 to get to work, negotiate employee parking shuttle, and clock in. Not a whole lot of time in there to stay late at practice twisting between cones. Sigh.
As it turns out breakfast took me twenty minutes to find, make, and eat, but all was well because I gave Z the car and he went grocery shopping and made with the awesome.*
I should post a photo of myself in all my gear. But I do not have one.
Then came home, showered, changed, ate a truly massive bowl of oatmeal (I was STARVING and there was nothing else in the house-- Mmm, colon health), and dashed to work.
It was like a reunion-- me and the two girls I worked with on Sundays all winter were reunited. It was fun. Also, ridiculously dead-- my first credit card transaction of the day came five hours into my shift. Wow, man. So we ate junk food, told ridiculous stories, made ludicrously not-work-safe conversation, and everyone but me went home early. (boo! oh well.)
I was posting because there was something about today I wanted to remember, but I can't now recall.
What is most odd is the fact that the most sore muscles on my body are.... my forearms. What? Why!?!??
OK, my ass hurts too. Just a little bit. And ok, my back hurts so bad I was crawling rather than walking and stooping to pick up laundry. But. Mostly, my forearms are bothering me. Which is weird.
* Z making with the awesome (footnote from inside cut): when Z brought me home from work, waiting at home was beer and cheese soup, a goblet of Ommegang's Three Philosophers Belgian ale, and a loaf of French bread sliced with Gruyere on top to bake in the toaster oven.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I keep him.
But I am trying, trying I tell you, to wait up until this load of laundry is done so I can chuck it into the dryer and put the next load in to soak overnight. (Whites. Never are white. I want them to be. I refuse to use bleach. I like to dry them in the sun but the weather is not cooperating. So instead I marinate them in Oxy-Clean and Tide overnight. Usually works fairly well, unlike bleach which usually yellows whites.)
Yawn.
Woke up around 8:15 this morning, and was puttering, answering nature's call, checking email. Got an email from the roller derby girls' Yahoo mailing list. Roller derby? Sunday morning? Shit! Practice is at 8:30! Fuck!
Made it to practice by 8:40. Am a champion.
I am getting much better. I can actually skate. Go me!
We did a lot of skating, which I should mention is harder than it looks. It seems effortless, to just breeze along on wheels, but damn it takes a lot of work. Phew. Even though it's cold here now, and wasn't too warm in that building (was probably 68), I sweated like a pig all morning.
We did a pace drill, which consisted of the thirty-or-so of us (I know! Wow) getting into a single-file line and skating along arms' length from the person in front of us. This was hard, and was made harder by the drills we did: first, the person at the back of the line had to skate to the inside of the line, while it was in motion, and catch up to become the leader. We did that until everyone had gone. Then we did the other way: The person at the front of the line had to put on speed and skate to catch up to the end of the line, while the rest of us maintained speed.
I learned I can skate faster than I thought when there's nobody crowding me and I have a goal.
I also learned that when I drag my toe stop to lose speed, I also tend to throw myself out of alignment, and I either waver wildly or stumble. This is terrifying when in a tightly-packed line, with an insecure girl in front of me and an impatient but unskilled girl behind me. So I accidentally perfected a technique which doubtless will prove itself entirely useless in bout situations: by grinding my elbow pad into the carpeted wall, I could slow myself down more subtly without endangering my orientation or traction.
I really need to learn how to control my speed out on the open rink. But meanwhile, I was rather amused by the elbow pad trick.
Another concern is that despite being ambidextrous, I am very strongly right-footed. I can only stop with my right toe stop; for a quick start, I must dig in with my right toe stop. One major bit of progress I have made is that I can now, on the straightaway, push off with both feet alternately. But on corners I remain insecure: I cannot cross over well. I can lift my right foot and place it in front of my left, and push off with it, but it is difficult for me to lift my left foot from the floor in its turn. The easiest way for me to turn corners is by doing that motion where you wave both feet in and then out, which is the way most people skate backwards. The problem with that is, of course, that it means you can only maintain speed, rather than building momentum.
Oh well. Last month I was afraid of skating too fast, and I would have to constantly think about my feet. I also couldn't really pick either foot up and set it down. So that's progress.
Another drill they did, but it was nearly 10:30 and I had to go so I'd have time to shower before work, was that they set up cones and had to weave between them, turning gently by twisting their hips. I wanted to do that one, but again: 10:30-10:45 to get home, 10:45-11:00 to shower and wash hair, 11:00-11:15 to find, make, and eat breakfast, 11:15-11:20 to put clothes on, 11:20-12:0 to get to work, negotiate employee parking shuttle, and clock in. Not a whole lot of time in there to stay late at practice twisting between cones. Sigh.
As it turns out breakfast took me twenty minutes to find, make, and eat, but all was well because I gave Z the car and he went grocery shopping and made with the awesome.*
I should post a photo of myself in all my gear. But I do not have one.
Then came home, showered, changed, ate a truly massive bowl of oatmeal (I was STARVING and there was nothing else in the house-- Mmm, colon health), and dashed to work.
It was like a reunion-- me and the two girls I worked with on Sundays all winter were reunited. It was fun. Also, ridiculously dead-- my first credit card transaction of the day came five hours into my shift. Wow, man. So we ate junk food, told ridiculous stories, made ludicrously not-work-safe conversation, and everyone but me went home early. (boo! oh well.)
I was posting because there was something about today I wanted to remember, but I can't now recall.
What is most odd is the fact that the most sore muscles on my body are.... my forearms. What? Why!?!??
OK, my ass hurts too. Just a little bit. And ok, my back hurts so bad I was crawling rather than walking and stooping to pick up laundry. But. Mostly, my forearms are bothering me. Which is weird.
* Z making with the awesome (footnote from inside cut): when Z brought me home from work, waiting at home was beer and cheese soup, a goblet of Ommegang's Three Philosophers Belgian ale, and a loaf of French bread sliced with Gruyere on top to bake in the toaster oven.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I keep him.
