week 3: and so it begins...

this week was....weird. a lot of highs and lows for me personally. i went to monday practice with lower back pain that had gradually gotten worse throughout the day, which i was blaming on PMS even though back pain is never a symptom of mine. so i just popped some ibuprofen and headed to practice even though i felt like ass.

we did a quick off skates warmup that included skipping and jogging and some stretching, and then we put our skates on. i knew right away that something just wasnt right. my feet felt like they weighed about a hundred pounds each and the knee falls we did which are normally easy for me (although quite tiring, dont get me wrong), were suddenly REALLY difficult. we did some running on our toe stops which is very useful for a quick start. i need a lot of work on that because i am a super slow starter. i was a slow starter when i ran the sprint in high school too, so i was excited that we had that opportunity. but i could barely even stay balanced on my skates!!...and that's when i realized i couldnt feel my leg.

i sat down and squeezed my left buttcheek and upper thigh and couldnt feel it, and although i may have looked chill about it on the outside, on the inside i was FREAKING OUT. numbness is a very scary feeling! then i wanted to cry, not because of the pain, but because i was worried i would have to miss practice! then i felt outright angry. i took my skates off and watched the rest of practice. at least i had managed to get an hour of skating in, and even just watching can still be helpful.

i was feeling very upset about my injured back on tuesday, but then when i got home from work i had some very exciting news waiting for me on our league's forum: romo said that all of the girls who skated in practice on monday were cleared to skate in the st. patrick's day parade! OMG! i had already volunteered and had figured i'd be walking, since the general rule is that you must be scrimmage eligible to appear on skates at any ARRG event (we are still quite a ways away from scrimmage eligibility). but i guess romo was so pleased with our overall progress that she gave us the go-ahead! so next weekend i will be making my big "rollergirl" debut ON SKATES for the very first time. i couldn't even tell you how excited i am for all of st. louis to see me skating around :)

the girl in the front is doing great derby stance!

i went to a chiropractor for the very first time the next day, and went again today. i went to practice straight after my chiro session! the doctor said it was okay though, so i went ahead and did it. i could feel the back pain starting to flare up but i know its because im not skating in the proper stance. derby girls have to "skate low" so they have a lower center of gravity and are harder to knock over. what i have been doing is bending at the waist, which was putting a lot of stress on my lower back. what i need to be doing instead is bend at the knees. its REALLY hard, especially since i am so tall, and it makes my quads burn like hell, but they are a lot more capable of handling stress than my poor back, so i guess i am now forced to use proper derby stance! i took a little break, stretched it out, and re-entered the track with improved posture and i could notice the difference almost immediately.

the rest of practice was good. there was a crazy endurance drill where you skate two laps fast, and then one lap squatting, and then one lap doing alternating knee falls. we did that whole sequence ten times....woooo, did my legs hurt after that one! we also did some light beginner blocking exercises by skating along the wall and purposely bumping ourselves into it...i was glad i had my butt pads on because otherwise i would have some mighty fine bruises tomorrow! we also worked on our turnaround toe stops and 180 degree falls. now i am ready to take my weekend to rest and enjoy mardi gras with my friends!

coming up next week: our first REAL blocking exercises. i get to HIT PEOPLE!!