Thursday, September 04, 2008

Exercise is bad for my health...

It’s almost two months since I ran (jogged) the race for life with my friends and in that time they’ve been getting on with the running thing while I’ve found almost any excuse to avoid it. Outdoor skating was a great alternative for a couple of sessions, but doing crossovers round a massive circle is uber-easy compared to pushing yourself along at speed…without wheels.

This Tuesday I decided I was going to suck it up and get back into running, partly because the others were whining at me, but mostly because I’m turning into Jabba the Hutt. I’ve been neglecting exercise in favour of sitting on my rapidly growing ass and eating “healthy” things like carrot cake and biscuits dunked in tea (so all the calories have been washed away), and the consequence is a constricted feeling when dressed, and a disconcerting wobbly feeling when I’m un-dressed. Not good.

I resolved not to make with the excuses anymore (even though I almost cried off Tuesday because of the rain…) and I’m getting back into the whole exercise thing. I was shocked at myself when we started because I was expecting to be out of breath and ready to give up after a few hundred metres, but I felt surprisingly good! Ouija said she’s the same after a break from running, but that if we asked her to run again Thursday she’d probably not be able to move. I can’t believe how right she was! I felt fresh and capable on Tuesday, but for the past two days I’ve felt like a pinata AFTER the party.

Despite my feeling good, this only lasted for one lap and I got my usual neck pain. I have no idea why my neck gets tense while I’m running…I feel like Deirdre Barlow looks. As we reached our start point I was hoping the others would want to flake out too but they swept me along for another lap. I suddenly felt like I was made of lead and my legs just wouldn’t propell me any more and I slowed to a walk (bad!), but when I realised that my speedwalking (ha ha) wasn’t quite keeping up with the others I broke back into a jog. There’s nothing like missing out on gossip as an incentive to stay with the pack!

I slowed down again when we got to the halfway point, but I felt terrible letting them run on without me so I caught up again and promised myself I’d stay with them to the end of the lap at least. They all carried on for another lap while I walked and stretched to cool down. I obviously didn’t cool down enough though! I’ve not hurt this much after a workout for ages – possibly because I’ve not really pushed myself in weeks – but it feels good to know that I’ve worked hard.

I think the most unfortunate aspect of my pain is that it’s mostly in my thighs…so skating is going to be fun later! Our Thursday night practices are for more advanced drills, so getting low is important and the drills can take their toll on your thighs at the best of times. I can forsee two hours of pain and whining like a bitch to whoever’s leading practice. I’m kind of hoping it’s me (even though I’ve lead the last two weekend practices and therefore not taken part in much) but I know that’s completely the wrong attitude to take because I’m just being lazy.

The week before last I concentrated on endurance drills and doing pacelines skating clockwise to get everyone used to lateral movement in that direction. When I started skating in January of 2006 I’d never really skated before and I found clockwise a lot easier than the normal skating direction…crossovers in particular. I could do them with no problem when I was turning right, but I didn’t trust my left leg enough to lift my right leg over when I was trying to do them for roller derby purposes. With 18 months of practice I’ve trained myself out of this habit and now I find skating clockwise weird and unnatural. I figure that no matter how good I am going left, I’ll never be a good skater until I can skate well in all directions, so it’s important to me to practice it until it comes to me as naturally as our normal skating direction.

We did an excellent drill where skaters line up according to their ability, slowest at the front, and each takes it in turn to sprint 5 (or however many you like) laps before falling out and letting the skater behind them take the lead. It’s great because everyone can join in and the more skaters there are, the harder the fitter skaters have to work! The first time I tried it a fortnight ago the first ten skaters did 4 laps and the advanced skaters were meant to do 8 laps each. There were so many people involved that I think Hustle’her must have done about 80 laps, and she was still raring to do more…that’s the kind of fitness I need to achieve! The week just gone a lot of newer skaters were off practicing basic skills with Ouija and Gun Beryl so the line was a lot shorter but Hustle’her still managed to get in 60 laps and I’m sure she could have carried on.

I also got everyone to spend a LOT of time doing crossovers, first in our normal skating direction, with people of all abilities trying to perfect their technique. The beginners were getting used to the weight exchange and the footwork involved, and those who could do crossovers were getting used to doing them the whole way round the track. With so many people skating it was quite problematic for the advanced girls to get the use of the whole track at times, but it was great dodging practice too and I learned to crossover left and right to step around ‘obstacles’ so to speak. It was great!

We spent even more time focusing on crossovers going clockwise, with everyone focusing on leaning to the right (difficult!…for me anyway) and getting their left leg to cross over their right. I know I’m going to need to keep practicing, but I can do it with little difficulty now, which is a big step for me. Everyone else did really well too, but I don’t think many people find it as much of a problem as I do. I feel really unbalanced because I find skating left so easy and skating right so difficult, and I really want to work on it to make myself feel more capable, and above all, symmetrical!

Hits have also been a big thing over the past few weeks too, and not just in my practices. A few weeks ago Ouija and Hustle’her had us working on timing drills, where skaters have to catch up to a moving opponant and knock her out. We spent ages on this, and by the time we moved onto a quick game of Queen of the Rink I felt much more confident in my hits, and I really wanted to do my best and knock people down. It’s not that I don’t usually want to do it, I just never really feel like I can, and I have little faith in my hits or my ability to stay up. At that week’s advanced practice we did another Queen of the Rink type game and I managed to knock down three of my opponants in a row, which came with it’s usual mixture of joy and guilt. I’m definitely getting better, but my booty checks need a lot of work. I’ve got no hips and a terrible sense of balance when attempting to throw my non-hips around, so I tend to rely on fierce shoulder and body blocks to take people out, but they’re not always effective.

I’m looking forward to tonight’s practice (well, not the thigh pain) and I’ll hopefully come back with some wonderful tales of how I sent even more girls flying, but it’s more likely I’ll be in so much pain I won’t be able to drive home and I’ll have to live at the leisure centre! I jest of course, I’d probably get a taxi home.

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