Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (and mend?)

A lot has been going on in my life over the past day or so which has involved some heartache, some screaming and some tears to be shed. It has also seen me developing and penting things up to take out on the track, this may or may not be a good thing but to quote the fab lady who inspired my name "I'm not stupid. I know exactly what's going on, and I'm not fighting it. If I have to go through this, I will glean from it any small benefit I can receive. I will not fight this. Bring it on. Bring on the cure. Bring on the fucking happy. I'm committed."

It has also seen me taking stock of other areas where I am going wrong, no point just having the positive mental attitude if your body can't back it up, right? All mouth and no trousers is not the way I intend to play, so I went to investigate Derbalife. Having heard so many good things about it and talking to Krissy Krash and Red N Roll I decided it was for me and under Reds guidance now have a plan. I am also intending to become a Derbalife UK coach as I know I'm not the only one in the same dietary boat.

I received my order this morning and can't wait to get started! Wish me luck!

TTFN

Emilie

xx

Derby fueled weekend

Morning! Lots to catch up on today so here we go! Friday we had an impromptu training session to make up for Monday's cancellation. After a few adjustments I'd made to my skates in the daytime to counter the numb toe thing I'd had going on I was looking forward to testing them out (I'd also discovered that not only had the plastic lacing grommets broken at the top but that they were eating through the boot - noooo!) and as I'd been having some pain in my heel too I'd fitted some memory foam insoles. So on arriving at the hall, I collected the NSO manuals that Amanita Massacre had kindly printed for me ready to get people rolling on that. Skates and pads on, lets see if the adjustments worked.......3 laps and out went the insoles! The only difference they made was to make my feet go dead quicker! Another couple of laps without them and there was a bit of an improvement, no dead toes, feet a little uncomfortable but bearable. Did some warm ups and as I was the only B* member there I went to work on my stops and cross overs so I wouldn't be in the way of the rest of the girls. TBH after an hour I admitted defeat, my heel felt like I'd stomped on a plug so I figured it'd be a good time to get the manuals in order ready for the next day (still keeping the skates on while sat, I figured it might help).

Saturday, new frame of mind, 'party feet' gel cushions and a 4 hour training session! After fun and games getting to the hall (damn you Heineken Cup!) I realized that 1, I'd forgotten to bring my lunch with me (doofus!) and 2, today was going to be interesting as CRoC's Cardiff Roll Crew had their first (albeit closed) bout against Tiger Bay Brawlers B Team. I sat and sorted out the gel cushions into the heels of my skates, keeping fingers crossed, and signed off all the disclaimers that needed doing then kitted up. Noticed an immediate difference with the gel cushions! Happy feet :D Got my warm up laps done and we were split off into our own groups again to work on skills. One footed skating up first, a bit wobbly as my new lacing system is a bit looser, I got just over half the straight done but I'll get back to my usual in a week or so (PMA). From there to t-stops, practicing the 'zombie walk' not sure if it helps me so am going to keep working on it in the house, I'm more annoyed with myself for getting it one week and not the next - work that one out! After that, the B*'s were split in to and put in opposite corners outside the track to work on lateral movements and turns - laterals to the left are much easier! As for turns, I'm slowly getting them too, I've gone from 'eh whaaa' to continually turning on the spot to get the move down, now just to add in some forward momentum!

TBH the time seemed to fly, after we' d eaten and chatted about strengths/weaknesses/team stuff for the bout there was less than an hour left so the B* group took NSO roles while the rest went in for scrims - fun fun fun!

I loved having the 4 hour session, hopefully it'll be a regular thing! As for the afternoon, I was off to watch the Bristol Harbor Harlots home teams play some exhibition derby! But that's for the next blog ;)

Thanks for reading

xx

mix it up, change it about, its all good

Heya, how ya doing? Its been a funny old week here with me playing mother hen and changes afoot with team training, I won't go into it as it'd take up a huge blog post and its all water under the bridge now. Instead I'll treat you to more of my waffling, you'd like that wouldn't you ;)

So, this week saw me finally fiddling about with bits on my skates other than my wheels (I know, shock huh!) On seeking advice I bought some Sure Grip Super cushions in Red (hardest) as I'm not exactly the most svelte of ladies and am still a bit unstable on my skates. Everglides were their usual fantastic selves and I had them the morning after ordering so got to work fitting them that night. My ladybrother Jinx said it would only take me 5 mins and gave me a video to watch so I thought hey no problem! HAH!!! 40 minutes because the back ones on 1 skate didn't want to play ball, I even managed to throw a hissy fit on my skate tool and have a domestic with my OH after simply asking him to put the nut on so it had some grip while I pushed down on the cushions, he reckoned it couldn't be done and gave up, eventually they were on, I won and was looking forward to seeing if they made a difference the next day.

And so to Saturday training, as I said there were a few changes about to be put in place, I was a little nervous about what was going to happen to be totally honest but it was a really positive session. We were told exactly how training was going to work from now on and what was expected of us both on skates and fitness wise and I went off with my group to work on stuff I need for min skills. T-stops I am still struggling with but then that's just because I need to practice them, so turns were thrown in too! Why learn one skill when you can learn two lol. Again its going to take practice but I feel I've got the basics to get cracking on it! Little bits of awesome remember :) We all came together then to practice working on our sweeps and crossovers and this is where I got cross with myself, after the entire team practiced pushing then sweeping we were set off in our own little groups to see how people were picking it up. Ok I still get the occasional wobble when going quicker than I'm used to but its all good. What I was annoyed with myself about was not taking the opportunity to go around my team mate, it was there but my brain kept saying 'in a minute' then before I knew it we were done, grrrrr silly girl, stop thinking start doing! Anyways I'm not going to dwell on the negative, I did well with other things in that session and although last nights practice was called off at the last minute thanks to not being told about the hall being set up for exams, I'm going to be practicing all I can at home!

As for the cushions, tbh I didn't notice a difference which was disappointing - actually no, I got worse at my plow stops! I had to tighten the back truck up slightly to fix that but there's not much room for manoeuvre with the trucks as they are :s Am also looking at how my skates are laced up because for the first time since I was out of the Reidells I got totally numb feet!! Apart from that, all is good - am talking with the gym this week on mixing up my training programme and looking at my nutrition once I've got something that's playing on my mind a bit sorted but I'm getting there slowly :)

For now, much derby love

Emilie

xxx

Egg-citing!

We'd had a bit of time off due to Easter so it was good to be back on my wheels today. I'd not been slacking though, promise! I have been going to the gym and doing my She'za exercises (she's trying to kill me, I'm sure of it!) and sorting NSO stuffs so I can get my geek fix lol.

I had a complete tard moment this morning and not only forgot my water bottles but also my shiny new Prodent Tech mouth guard - stupidity at its finest eh! Luckily I still had my old mouth guard in my case, phew! So, skates on, pads on (maybe should have brought the bigger helmet to go over the braids but c'est la vie) and off to warm up and stretch. A few stopping drills to start off with an I scoot into the middle to have a quick recap on t-stops. I did hear Jen call out I was to be brave today and not sit things out so I quickly got back onto the track. We started out with a weaving through the pace line drill, fairly slow as we were a proper mixed ability group today. I was glad it was slowish as I'd not run this drill before so was a bit nervous going into it. I watched some of the other girls get down the line as quickly as they could, its all about lateral movement and I know I can do that so with a bit of PMA I was off. I got through it ok and learned that my left lateral is stronger than going to the right and that I need to work on controlling my speed, other than that I was pleased for a first go. To mix it up a bit it was then decided we'd have a double pace line and run the same thing again but going through in twos with your partner - slightly more tricky but again I think I got the hang of it :) A quick water break and discussion on whats happening with the actual A & B teams (members etc) and we were told we'd be focusing more on plays and things we need to learn a bit more which is all good. We'd been wondering what was happening with the teams as its all been a bit hush hush while people were being watched and plans were being made but it was all announced this morning and it seems there were a few surprises, again all good. I am very happy to have been marked up as a B* (B team but not ready for bouting yet as has a few things to work on first), this has given me something to push and work harder for.

Anyways I digress, so drills. Upon having 'cascading/waterfalling' explained to us there were a couple of blank looks, myself included. So 'the vets' (as I'm going to refer to them from now on, they're not exactly veteran skaters but they're a damn sight better than most of us so its sticking) put it into action and asked us to split into groups of 4 to have a go. As we were down on numbers we had 2 groups of 4 and 2 of 3. It was a heck of a lot easier than it sounded, ker-ching, another mini achievement. From there we went on to mini scrim split into team red and blue. We got to practice the different positions with it being explained to us what each position should be doing and why - uber helpful!! It was nice to get more involved with the mini scrims too instead of hanging back, I still need to work on my cardio fitness, I know that and its not going to come overnight but I was keeping up as best I could and doing the best job I could, which included me remembering to whack on the plow stop to avoid back blocking :D

All in all a very positive session, I've got to figure out why my foot went totally dead on me (first time its happened in the GT-50s), maybe the knee pads were too tight, who knows? Also going to look at maybe getting some smaller but nicely padded knee pads, recommendations welcome!

TTFN and thanks for reading

xx