Day 11 Open skate and Greenlake

Today had a lot of challenges and a lot of accomplishments.

We started out at the open skate with the kids. My friend was meeting me there, giving up a practice for her to help me skate.

This is one of the things I think is so important to the survival of a small sport, the camaraderie and teamwork. I still suck at skating, but she was happy to help me and help me wrangle my two children with my husband. The fact that she is a preschool teacher probably helped, with me and the kids.

Anyways we showed up, chatted and had some food. Greasy and yummy, but at some point we will probably stop eating at the rink. I think right now we are still surprised we're out doing stuff so we treat ourselves.

Next we geared up to skate, and I didn't have my knee pads. Nancy was adamant about my knee pads. So was I. Another thing I like about derby. It's mostly women. Women aren't as likely to do the "skate without them bro" line. Which is stupid and irresponsible. So I drove home and got them. I live about 10 min away so no big deal.

I get back and David has been dealing with two kids, no skating and the noise of like 200 other kids. It was Sunday so the madness was at a fever pitch.

So finally I gear up and skate. Nancy stops me every few laps and instructs me to try a new move.

First was the hardest, skating while squatting. Well sort of, I bent my knees and went as low as I could, but wow am I ever a freaking weakling.

So after a few laps, and I was squatting for like 5 seconds and then standing up for 30, not impressive, we switched to constant stepping. Which again I was a sucky weenie.

Then we did sticky skates. I was not so bad.

We did maybe 10-15 laps and my thighs hurt so freakin bad. I can't believe she does this several times a week. Well I can believe it, but I foresee several months of significant pain. But I'm into it.

Then we called it quits. David did a few more laps and had reached his noise threshold.

So all in all it was pretty chill. But that was just the beginning.

David graciously stayed home with the kids and Nancy and I headed for Greenlake.

We pulled up and the fear didn't hit me yet. I had planned all along to practice trail skating at a small park near my house. It was short and sweet and with few people. I thought I would break in my fear before showing it so blatantly to a peer. But I didn't and here we were.

We got out and walked in our socks to the trail. It was downhill from us, I still braked poorly and the grass was a muddy mess. Ok.

Then the reality hit me. We were there on the trail. People walking by. No fences, no smooth pavement, hills that could have been mountains for all I knew. Greenlake the last great paved frontier.

I stood up and I didn't like it. There was a slight slope and a few smooshy pine bits. I instantly had fear, fairly major fear.

We were ready and there we went. I rolled like 30 feet, tripped on a stick, pulled the bad quad muscle I pulled before and went down. I didn't actually fall, but my confidence did. I had reached the point of fear, that if I had been alone, would have sent me back to the car.

But I wasn't alone and I was with an amazingly patient and kind roller buddy. This makes the world of difference. We limp skated to a flat off track area and stretched. All the while I was trying to figure out how to say I needed to weenie and call it quits for the day.

I am often surprised when I meet people who don't show disappointment or annoyance when with beginners. Encouraging a newbie while caring for their fragile ego, but also getting them to try harder is a difficult and a tedious process. I worked as a manager for many years and teaching without embarrassing or admonishing is hard.

So I said I wanted to weenie like 6 times. There was never a "no" or even negative reaction. Just a lets go a few more minutes and if it's not better we can go back.

I said that we weren't supposed to skate the wrong direction on the trail. Her response was "If anyone complains I will tell them you pulled a muscle and they can deal." Having someone stick up for you're weenie-ing is really nice.

So we went farther. And farther. And farther.

We went the whole way. It hurt. It was hard. I was a little scared. But once I got going it really wasn't that bad. The terrible fear I had backed off as my leg performed mostly as required.

Nancy called out directives and tips from time to time. Down hill bend your knees and ride through it. Bumpy spots, bend your knees and ride through it. That was the answer for a lot of stuff.

We worked on gliding, weight on one foot and the rear foot raised. Using the back foot to push off to get full use of the leg muscles. I'm not there yet, but she skated ahead and behind. Sounded the warning for stray dogs and upcoming hills or sticks.

Everyone should have a skating buddy who is so patient. Fortunately she had been there just a few short months ago, so she knew what was up.

So we got all the way around. It was cool in the sense that I am probably a better skater, I got a good workout and I got a much needed confidence boost. I think it will be much better next time. I think by the fifth time it might even be enjoyable.

Getting by in the beginning is definitely a lot about the people you train with. They have to push you a little, but without freaking you out. Tomorrow is my first full practice. I think I'm going to like derby.

Day 10 roller rink!

Well we went to our first roller rink.

There were small children to dodge. My own children to chase. Oh and skating.

I haven't skated on a smooth surface yet other than my hallway. The rink is a lot smoother.

David took Koz around for a while and I watched Meza in the video game area. Once Koz was ready for a break David took over watching both and I headed out for the floor.

I strapped on my skates and knee pads, I'm seriously not taking chances. And a little nervous and wobbly, I headed out to the floor.

It had a progression. I was not comfortable and was once again regressed. But the improvement happened faster this time. It's like I relearn to skate each time I try but the learning curve speeds up to only a few laps before I hit a new skill level.

I started focusing on slaloming. This I think is going to be the key to my smooth transition in the basic skating movement.

I also did more cut turns where you lean on one leg with the other out at the side to turn.

It's all starting to work better. I actually skated until my muscles were tired. How cool is that?

Day 9 resting

No practice today. The weather was crap, I am still sick and I need a little break.

At least no practice on skates.

I practiced the online quiz for a while. I'm consistently at 100% for section 1 and 2. Now I'm working on section 3.

Tomorrow we're all going to the Skate and Bowl for a lesson and free skate. And then again on Sunday.

I'm a little nervous but I know that each day I go, the better I get.

Day 8 indoor practice with Koz

After a bit of icing, resting and stretching the leg is sore but doing fine.

It may sound weenie-ish to make a big deal out of a little pulled muscle, but I'm an old lady. I may only be 35 but in terms of my out of shape body I may as well be 85.

I have had two babies in the past 3.5 years and little physical activity in between.

I think one reason I'm doing this blog is just so I can reassure other ladies that being a sedentary, uncoordinated super chunk is just a momentary hindrance in the pursuit of the derby world.

In a month or two, when the muscles remember what it is like to move, I'll probably be back to a 30 year old. But until then I will be a baby and take it slow. Again the beauty of ref/nso training. Not so intensive, not so difficult.

So Koz got his skates. It is awesome!

He loves them and instantly wanted to strap them on. Of course he rolled around on the carpet and then hung onto me or dad while in the hall.

He's not even 4 so he's got a little longer learning curve than me, but that's even cooler. By the time he's 5 he's going to rock. By then Meza should be able to use his skates and start the process.

The coolest thing about having kids is indoctrinating them into your hobbies. They are generally pretty agreeable. I totally have my sights on Meza doing roller derby. Oh yeah.

But back to training.

More one legged balancing. Maybe the slightest improved.
More turns. No real improvement.
Backwards skating. Maybe a little regressed.

But whatever. Half of the importance of practice at this point is just reassuring myself that I won't die and that I really can keep trying.

I keep thinking about this weekend. Rollerskating indoors, on a smooth floor. With other people. Well, I've still got three days.

Oh and I've been taking the online test for the WFTDA rules. When I take the whole test I've been scoring in the low eighties and slowly improving.

Now I'm doing each section one or two at a time. I have the first two sections at 99-100%

Of course those are the easy sections, and they are only on paper. But, every little bit counts.

Day 8 first injury

Well it's not a big deal. Just a little pulled quad muscle. But it is kind of annoying.

I usually do a little skating in the house before I go outside so I effectively warm up. Today I decided to go straight to the court and skate. Bad idea. Well it would have been ok if I had warmed up.

I didn't and when I started to stand up I felt a little pop and stinging feeling in my right quad. It's not terrible. I stopped and stretched for a minute and was able to skate.

But I was a little stiff and tentative on my leg. I tried stepping over a crack and it definitely hurt. So I practiced figure eights for a few minutes. As I warmed up my leg felt a little better.

But I don't want an annoying injury four days before my first practice so I called it quits pretty quickly.

I came home, looked up quad injuries and am now rest my leg and icing it. I plan on stretching today and doing some warm ups. Then I'm going to practice indoor skills like balancing on one foot, turns and other low key stuff.

On a brighter note my son's skates came in the mail today. And my husband ordered skates. One reason I am so excited about skating is that we're going to do it as a family.

David of course can skate, he's mister coordinated. But he hasn't done it in ages. And K is super excited. He's convinced he already knows how to skate. He's been watching a lot of Transformers lately and one of their new characters rolls on wheels like skates.

Day 7 indoor for sure

Yeah didn't make it outside. The weather cleared up but having two small children who successfully made me crazy today were a huge deterrent.

Right now I am very concerned with getting in a large amount of constant practice. By doing this daily I can get to an average skill level. This may not seem much, but I just need to be able to skate, not skate well, just skate. Once I have the basics the rest can come slower.

So balancing on one foot is really hard. And doing a forward to reverse turn is hard just because my feet don't like to turn that way. But I did jump, standing still. Totally anticlimactic. Jumping while moving should prove to be difficult.

But I think the most important thing is just hanging out on skates. I feel so much more comfortable now.

And I have been doing some reading about indoor versus outdoor skates. I have decided for now to stay with my outdoor wheels.

My goal is to be a skating ref so super speedy isn't really an issue. And I've come to the conclusion that I don't think I will pursue ever being a player. I have crap knees and I don't want to deal with the injuries.

I just want to participate in practices and help out at bouts. I want to volunteer to set up and sell tickets. Help the ladies with costuming. Be super good at reffing. Get some exercise.

I think the coolest thing about this league is their attitude towards refs and nso's. They call us all refs, we are allowed to participate in as many practices as we want, but are only required to participate in a few.

I like the freedom to be as hardcore as I want without having to commit to much when my kids get sick or I start going to school again.

This is going to be good.

Oh did I mention my first official practice is on Monday? I'm hoping I don't pee my pants.

Day 7 indoor?

Well it is Seattle, or a close approximation. So the weather is overcast, chilly and a bit wet.

I could take a day off. But I don't think so. I think today is all about balancing practice in the hallway.

My goals are to roll on one foot both directions. The hall is only about 30 feet long, so it's not much of a fete, but it's what I got.

Also I want to work on open third position to get ready for tight turning stops.

And of course there is always the hustle. What is this hustle you say? You know like in the 70's. Or maybe more like the electric slide. Either way, getting used to stepping without losing my balance.

Oh and I want to start jumping. Just little jumps, but it's time to start.