Before I begin a certain someone mentioned that they were surprised how many times I've mentioned them in previous posts so for this post they will be referred to as she-who-must-not-be-named :P Through my own stupidity I had playfully antagonised she-who-must-not-be-named the last few weeks on Facebook about knocking her on her arse when I got up to scrimmaging level and how she wouldn't break me in training. The thing is she's the head trainer so I may have screwed myself up big time with my comments :D
Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium was the place to be on Friday night if you're involved with roller derby as H.A.R.D officially kicked off with a info session and first training session. Silly me thought it would be an info session and just a general skating session, how wrong I was.
There was a pretty big turn out with a mixture of freshies to those who have bouted and everyone else in between. Those who weren't able to skate were treated to a running commentary by Squeaks (who was also the paparazzi for the night), Frazzle and BumbleLing so everyone was involved regardless of whether or not they were skating.
Now this isn't an excuse but I got hit with the cold on Tuesday evening so I wasn't feeling 100%, I'm incredibly unfit, plus this was my first training session since I injured my knee and ankle at derby training. No lie kids I was already sweating by the end of the warm up and thinking to myself I'm in deep shit with the rest of training as it'll only get harder.
As we had all different levels we had the more experienced skaters help the freshies out which was of great help. Everyone then got grouped into their appropriate skill levels but it doesn't mean any one group had it easier than the other, everyone was pushed to their limits. I got the shit's while doing the t-stops as I haven't got it down 100%, I'm so un-co with it. Then the sickness hit, I started feeling like I was going to throw up. I kept a look out for the nearest bins just in case it got to that stage.
Next up was the endurance skating, depending on the whistle you'd go from normal skating to speeding to skating in the opposite direction. It was during this drill that I made a self discovery. There's been times in my life when the going gets tough, I bottle it. It was like a switch got flicked on inside me and I decided there and then that I wasn't going to stop doing this drill until we got the orders from she-who-must-not-be-named. It felt like it was going on forever, I thought I was going to hurl, my left thigh felt like it was on fire and I was massaging it while skating to try and make the pain go away. By that stage my form went right out the window, I wasn't in the correct stance, I felt completely stuffed but I wasn't going to stop moving even if it meant having to crawl around on the track. I know some people might be enthralled by the glamour of roller derby but if you want to get to the highest level, the glamour means nothing. It's doing things like these drills that help get you to the top. The drill eventually finished but we weren't finished...
Next up was an alternative version of the 'Cherry death wall' *cue scary music* It basically involved doing ten push up's or sit up's, getting up and skating to the other end of the court, doing the push up's or sit up's again, skate back and repeat until we were told to stop. Here's a pic of Ness and I during this drill, I was either attempting a sit up or I was dying, or perhaps both
I had a few people asking me during the endurance and death wall drills if I was ok. I can only imagine I probably looked pretty crap :) Eventually it came to a close and started doing the cool down. Once that was over I did my 'lay down Sally' impersonation and just lay on the court with my limbs in various direction waiting for the sickness to pass before I attempted to get back on my feet.
I'm pleased to say we all survived the first training session, it's no surprise we were all sore over the next few days, getting over it just in time for Monday's training session.
On a personal note I got asked by she-who-must-not-be-named if I wanted to help do a write up of Friday night for this week's edition of Rouse Hill Times. I was completely chuffed to have been asked. Both she-who-must-not-be-named and I came up with a final copy and its since been sent to the editor so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out, pretty cool eh?
Have a good week folks and remember if it doesn't hurt you're not skating H.A.R.D enough ;)
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