Busy Bee!

Okay, so I am so immersed in derby that I've neglected my blog!

The news - I did not make Lightning Broads :( and am instead am listed as a Storm Chaser (i.e. Fresh Meat). I did find out that the girl who scored lower than I did but still made LB had a bit of a mistake on her scoresheet, listing her as having been on our "B" team last season (which she wasn't). Anyway, I'm disappointed, but am going to work harder to make it in March!

On the "work harder" front, in December I had the 7th highest ranking attendance (7 out of 36 isn't bad!) at 13 points (hours). Considering we didn't start practicing again until December 13th I'm really proud of myself! (I would have made 16 except I stayed home with my boyfriend's daughter for the last day she was in Oklahoma.)

This month I'm 3 for 3! Even though Monday practices don't count toward our attendance requirements (because they are new recruit nights), I definitely need the practice and was even sore after Monday.

Sunday there were only 5 of our girls there; two other newbies (Zooey & Mary), a returning girl (Balthazar) a visiting skater from Florida, one of our coaches (Anomellie) & Banana, a transfer skater who was a newbie trainer before joining our team. It was actually a very enlightening practice - I learned what really is derby stance, practiced plow stops, and we did a neat 3 woman waterfall exercise with both a jammer and a jammer with an assisting blocker. Our coaches really are wonderful for giving us the opportunity to practice every day of the week. I know it's frustrating when there are so few attendees.

Monday was newbie practice! I was elected to serve as one of three skater representatives (created this year to help solve problems amongst our team-mates) and so I was able to email the new girls and really try to make them feel welcome. Even though it was new recruit night we still had a helluva workout! Dodging newbies in itself can be trying when the track is full, but we did a lot of lunges, butt-kicks, high knees in addition to the falling and stopping they were learning.

Tuesday I was sore but made myself attend practice. Brian had us do lunges, butt-kicks and high knees as well as the crazy ab+arm workout. Then pace line that I dropped out of quickly (my toes felt really weird! and I couldn't make my legs do what I wanted them to), then a pyramid partner lap thing. I partnered with Jo, a gal who went through basic training with another team but then found out she was pregnant and had to quit. This exercise is where she does 1 lap, I do 1 lap, she does 2 laps, I do 2 laps all the way to 10 and THEN all the way back down to one. We were the last to finish, but by God we finished!!! When we were "resting" (i.e. the non-skating partner) Brian had us doing oddball calistenics. As if laps weren't enough! Next up was a 3-wide paceline, where we lined up on the track 3 wide and had to weave WITH our line through the other lines. Sweeny had to whip me when I was on the outside, I'm slow! Then scrimmaging, practicing partners. It was fun and I'm glad I stuck it out no matter how much I wanted to quit (and believe me, I did).

Today is a day of rest. WHEW! I am NOT attending off-skates workout!