Dixie Smash!! (into walls...)

Thank goodness for helmets! I spun out crossing through a corner last night and bounced my head off a wall. Other than a mild headache I was fine and I doubt my helmet sustained enough damage to warrant replacing, but I'll check it out. Otherwise practice was good. Scrimmages(which I seem to have lost my focus at), slaloms, and the Wall of Pain were the standouts last night.

I rally think we need more people to be familiar with the rules of derby, as we have a LOT of penalties during scrimmages. Back blocking and track cutting are the two that I see most commonly and I know that my worst offense is definitely back blocking. Jenga and I were on opposing teams and she knows that I can be a problem for jammers so she would engage me and keep me busy with her rather than watching for the jammers. A good strategy that blasted me every time. Suck for me, good for her, and it made me glad that we play for the same team.

The single slalom line was a slalom drill and quite typical. Once again I pushed my way around the track and through the line with as much speed, maneuverability, and skills as I could muster and the improvement shows, albeit slowly.

Wall of Pain. I HATE this drill. Running pyramids in school was miserable and skating them in derby isn't any better. This would be the drill where I spun out of a corner and bashed myself into the wall. I saw it coming and flung myself to my knees and backwards so I didn't collide face first and merely took the hit then sat there giggling and flashing a thumbs up sign to let the girls know that I was actually OK. I have a feeling that the fall was more spectacular to watch than I think it was, but I'm not sure really. However, after this drill was over (and I did all but the laps where I fell) I was chatting with another teammate who had been skating in my group and she said that I was really getting faster. Apparently, her training method involves pushing herself to stick with someone who is faster than she is and every lap we skated she was right with me. I kept trying to pass her and was getting frustrated that I couldn't seem to do so, but when she told me how hard she had worked to keep up with me I felt a bit better. I think some of my inability to keep up with and pass other skaters is that I have a tendency to run wide and loose in the corners as opposed to tight and narrow. If anyone has good advice about tightening up crossovers I want to hear it!

And this was practice last night. Looking forward to the next one! DL<3!!

Need my fix!

So, I'm waiting impatiently for practice night to get here again. I did get a bit of skating in Sunday AM before work though and it was good. Sandwiched Aeon Fox between myself and another skater and since she can be so hard to hit I was definitely impressed with our teamwork.

Our testing is coming up in March and the only thing that leaves me really nervous is the 25/5. I haven't successfully done it and hate to fail. It gives me the anxieties. We have a joint practice with the Enchanted Mountain Roller Girls on the 5th of Feb. but unfortunately I didn't have enough notice to arrange my work schedule around it. I might still see if I can work a later shift though because I really want to be at this practice to meet some of the EMRG since I haven't gotten to do so yet. And on the 26th of Feb. we will be scrimmaging with them in Olean, NY. Looking forward to that.

But now I've gotten myself all nervous and wound up about testing, even though I know that I'm getting better every week. I think I'm going to go make hubby a lunch before he has to leave for work (He needs a derby name!) and then once he leaves I'm going to clean and exercise for a while. I'm still not great at exercising every day or every other day like I should be, but if I can sneak in a bit more here and there it's more than I was doing and it all helps in the long run. DL<3


Dixie von D.

Committees and meetings and derby, oh my!

I just wanna start this off by saying that last night's practice was full of awesome and win. And not just because I was chosen head of our inter-league relations (by default, but don't tell anyone LOL). We had some good strength training for our warm-up followed by a faster paced practice with fewer breaks and I feel like we got WAY more done than we have in the past. I couldn't keep my head wrapped around our scrimmage teams though and kept letting the wrong jammer just blow by me...no doing that in bouts! Bad! Anyway...advice about handling committee stuff would be good.

And we did a slalom drill last night that normally I hate and for some reason have problems doing, but a while back I started being able to keep up for the entire drill and last night I took off at a sprint and cleared the line faster than I have before. Fast enough that people noticed and commented on it so I know I'm getting better still. Soooo..yeah...my cat just woke up my hubby and the spazzy cat made me lose my train of thought....

Our newbies are getting better and better, I'm seeing people really start to find their niche in certain positions (mine is being a blocker), and we're getting more organized and unified as a team. Our shirts should be in soon and I will need to get my name and number tended to. Doing some looking to see what will work best to keep it on there. But my busy day ahead is calling my name so off I go. Not that I want to do anything. My muscles aren't used to the extra training at practice and they are telling me about it, but i LOVE the feeling!!! DL<3!


DIxie von D.

Skating and Ranting

I hit up a Saturday practice since things got canceled due to weather last Wednesday and it was a really good practice. We're going to be seriously steppin' up to the plate with a tighter schedule, less water breaks, and more added fitness that will help with core and overall strength. We started on Saturday to see how it would work with a small bunch of us and I'm glad I was there for it so I'll know what's going on. Also, the extra moves on top of my working out at home (which is more half-hearted than it should be) has left me with that slightly sore feeling the next day that I love. Had an issue with losing a wheel off my skates because the axle nut covers prevented me from tightening the nuts down properly. I think if I wanted to fight with taking the covers off every time I cleaned bearings and changed wheels it would be OK, but they are annoying to get off and I feel like the potential of losing a wheel is enough of a hazard to prevent me from using them again. So I had to deal with that before I could do any serious skating on my new Atom Poisons. Once I got settled and rolling I was really liking them. Wednesday will be my second time on them and I will be getting a better feel for them and my looser trucks. Looking forward to derby more than usual this week because I've been very depressed for a couple days and I'm torn between keeping all my ear piercings and dealing with the difficulty that will arise when I job hunt or just taking most of them out. Most likely I will end up removing them as needed for a job, but I think what really upsets me is the lack of acceptance in the workplace and the fact that I can't get several of the piercings I want because either my job or the important people in my life have issues with them. It makes me sad and angry and depressed. And I'm PMSing...I want some chocolate cake please. And then an extra hard workout to burn it all off. DL<3

Dixie von D.

stupid snow

I spent ALL day Wednesday working on the bylaws, code of conduct, and my letter of intent. Right after I finished I get a text informing me that practice had been canceled due to the weather. Boy, was I ticked! I fumed and grumped and pouted about not getting to skate. Then I pulled my skates out and did some maintenance. Cap-style toe guards, bearings cleaned, new gumball toe stops dyed purple, and new atom poison wheels also dyed purple. Thinking about hitting up the Sat. AM practice tomorrow since I don't work til later in the day and trying everything out. But right now, work is calling my name...off I go to make money and support my derby habit!! DL<3!

Dixie von D.

Nerves and Writer's block

Trying to write a letter of intent to become the head of inter-league relations committee. It's making me wanna puke cause I don't think I'm good enough to be in charge. I'm having serious writer's block over it. Not sure what skills I can actually bring to this one, but I gotta try and write the letter. Even if I don't get voted committee head I gotta try. Cause otherwise I will have failed. Wish the scaredy-cat, anxiety ridden derby girl luck! And send advice!!!!!

Dixie von D.

typical night

So practice tonight was pretty average. Still getting better and better sometime one lap at a time sometimes by a grand slam. We've been choosing committee heads and as no one has really stepped up for Inter-league Relations I will be submitting my letter of intent for that @ the meeting next week. We didn't set the cones up this week, which I think kind of sucks because that is a really good way to get used to skating on a derby track. It is something we should begin doing every week as far as I am concerned. Also, need to start and finish bylaws and a code of conduct by next Wednesday for our meeting if at all possible so gonna be busy, busy with that. I STILL cannot get the hang of transition from forward to backwards and when I try I invariably fall. I have no idea why this is such a hang up for me, but it drives me crazy. Watching other skaters, watching videos, doing it standing still...nothing has seemed to help me get the hang of the motion. Grrrr. But as things tonight were nice and ordinary and a good workout and I am tired, I'm gonna call it a night and go shower off my derby stank. DL<3 ya'll!!

Dixie von D.

Late post...again

I started out posting within a day of practice generally and would have a ton of thins to share or ramble on about. Now it seems that my posting comes further and further behind each week. I know the holidays have affected this and am hoping to get back into the swing of things a bit better here soon.

Although hunting for a car might be a bit time consuming.

The above statement is why you shouldn't hit a deer on your way to roller derby practice. I'm fine, although I was a bit sore and did take it easy at practice which means that I felt like I accomplished pretty much nothing. Also as I was rather shaken from hitting the deer practice was a bit of a blur. I do know that my falls are one thing I won't be worried about @ mins any longer as I find that I'm starting to focus on getting right back up quickly. The next part will be taking my hands out of the equation entirely, even if I do think not using your hands is silly. LOL At any rate I wasn't feeling my fire like normal because of soreness and shakiness after hitting a rather ENORMOUS doe at high speeds in my little car. It's probably going to be totaled, but we've made it clear to the insurance people that we would rather they fix it so we shall see. Meantime I'm trying to be all smart and am looking for a car in a price range that I can afford...which honestly isn't much considering my lack of savings and low value on my car due to it's age and mileage. *shrug* Here's hoping my new year only improves! DL<3!

Dixie von D.