Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Doing ok.

Practice was fun tonight, and there were some very silly moments that were especially excellent. I like it when coaches joke around, or when I can get in a conversation about farts with Ms. Dash, or when Speedy Dan reacts well to me giving him the finger during a tough drill.

However, I’m psyched about the three newly-teamed skaters. Congrats Xena, Pitts, and Bully! Three down, three to go.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

In the spirit of my last post...

That last post really made me feel great. I’m going to do it again.

Tonight I went to visit the Skate Free or Die girls for their Thursday night practice, and I felt great about the following things, again, in reverse order:

1. I gave a few good whips.
2. I managed to stay on my feet when I suddenly found myself skating one-legged after dodging a fallen skater. I also didn’t smack Doom in the face when I had to use my right arm for balance.
3. I finally really get the art of looking over only one shoulder when booty blocking. The idea that "when you can’t see her, you know to move that way" never clicked before and I tended to rely more on really good guesses.
4. When I did fall down, I landed immediately on both knees, rockstar style. I had no idea I was even doing it, but my body just took over. Hooray for muscle memory!!!

Oh, and I suppose I could add doing this practice after Speedy Dan, which was pretty exhausting. Here’s to my quads for refusing to give up.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

20... lower... faster.... 19... lower... faster...

In an effort to stop being such a mopey-pants, I’m going to list some things that I did during practice that I’m proud of:

1. After not being able to figure out how to do the "crack on thigh with whip" drill for a few weeks, I have a fairly passable one for the first time ever. Yay!

2. I made it through three rounds of Speedy Dan "20 laps super-fast OMGOMOMG FASTER!!!" training without passing out, vomiting, or stabbing him in both eyes.*

3. I managed a few bursts of speed at times when I was so tired I thought I was going to die (or at least crap my pants a little).

These are in order from smallest to largest victory. 3 is a huge deal for me, and I can go to bed feeling really good about myself. Even though my poor coccyx was on FIRE through the whole thing I didn’t stop, and I even skated harder than I thought I could when I felt my absolute worst.

Even though I’m in pain, I feel good inside. That’s the best feeling ever.

* Don’t get me wrong. I love the guy when I’m not skating in his drills, and after his drills I’m grateful for the training. During the drills though, I want to stab him and stab him and stab him forever.