Wednesday 10 October 2012

Derby Round Up - Scrims

Ugh, last night......

I'd been feeling a little light headed yesterday before scrims, but it passed, and it was scrims. I got there, I kitted up, I warmed up, I felt fine. Then I went on for my first jam. Legs went to jelly. It was  not a great jam....not at all, my legs just wouldn't do what I wanted them to do. I came off and they started shaking, like little spasms, it was horrible. After sitting out a few more jams, my legs started to get that horrible tingly feeling they get when they feel restless. I stayed off until the second half, watching each of my team mates coming back for a drink, tired, and I felt completely useless and guilty...so I decided to try my luck in the second half. Oh boy....went on, legs went to jelly again, I got pushed by a team mate to chase after someone, which made me fall, so I fell small, only to get kicked in the head. I stood up and my whole body was shaking. Not good. So that was pretty much my scrims over. Never have I wanted so much to curl up and cry at training. I was worried about my legs, but more concerned that I'd let my team mates down. It was a really horrible feeling. The only up side was all the hugs I got after. FVRGers rock <3.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Ramble - BOOTCAMP!!



The awesomeness that was the ARRG Bootcamp finally arrived on Saturday!

Got picked up by the lovely Monkey Wench with Camelon Diaz in tow, nice and early at 7:45am, which was actually a lie in for me after being on earlies all week. Not that I got much sleep between the night before's try outs and being excited about the boot camp! :D

We got there in time for registration for the first class. Every person I knew there went to the off skates training session first whilst I headed off to the skate maintenance class. I learned so much! How to clean my bearings properly (which I don't think my mum appreciated, coming home to the pungent smell of white spirit....), how to cheaply upgrade my skates by changing the cushions (my R3's of course come with the hardest ones, nice to know there's a reason I find one foot glides on corners difficult!) and that I should probably look at getting new wheel nuts. Very educational!

Then it was on to the skating! Once we got put into our two groups, it was clear to see I was in the bottom group. I think this was decided based on our answers to how comfortable we were at transitions and backward skating, both of which I'd improved on by the time bootcamp came around, lol. Nonetheless, the drills were fun. We had a leaping dusty bluebells one which I particularly loved! Didn't love the one where we had to skate towards the pace line though....that was a little scary.
We moved on to the second skating session, and this is when tragedy struck. A girl landed awkwardly after a fall and broke her ankle. Pretty scary stuff. We took an early lunch.

After lunch, we headed into a session with Alma Geddon (<3) about training schedules. Pretty safe to say that FVRG have some impressive drills :D After discussing training sessions and drills and trying to fit them into a time frame, I'm more in awe of the girls from Sports and Training than ever. Very much appreciate their time and effort to come up with our training programmes.

Then it was back to skating. We didn't have much time left, but we ended the session practising walls. Fucking noodle, I hate you, lol.

Last but not least, scrims!! Omg, this was such much fun! I found my pivot voice! And everything seemed to click into place, better than it ever has. I was so much more aware of my tactics, and beading, and bridging, and closing that damn door! My positional blocking was good, and I even knocked a few people over, although I really need to stay on my feet after hitting someone....lol. All in all, I must have done good as I got a wee award at the end! :D




Monday 8 October 2012

Monday Makes

So......last week did not go as planned. There was no soup :( There was no crochet :( Between having to take my car into the garage twice last week, overtime, skating....I need to start planning my time more effectively....

So, this week, I will be trying to start the granny square, and also make that dang soup, probably on Saturday as I have a free day! I also have this adorable cross stitch to make for my mum's xmas :)


Sunday 7 October 2012

Positive Pictures

Only a few this week - to make me smile, laugh, be able to take on Monday!!





Saturday 6 October 2012

Derby Round Up

Try outs were last night.....

After the first lot of skills, I wasn't feeling too confident. Every time I did a transition, somebody seemed to be right behind me, ready to knock me down. And my right footed glides just completely failed me, which I don't understand - I've been practising one footed jumps on Thursdays and my right foot is my strongest. Happy with my backwards skating though - nobody overtook me at least.

Then it was on to scrims. If I make the team, this will be why. I think I did pretty good. I was more vocal, really working on my pivoting, although I find my pivoting is more confident when I'm in a group of newbies - for some reason, telling the more experienced girls what to do is kinda intimidating, and usually they end up taking over, I lose my pivot voice completely. My positional blocking is coming along, but I've recently taken a different approach to it, seeing it more like basketball and marking a player. And my jamming was pretty good although I need to work on my endurance - power jams are killing me after about the 3rd time around the track. Not that I think I'll jam if I get on the team, but it's always good to be available as a fall back.

We won't find out until next Friday who's on the team, so I'm not going to worry too much about it. And at least it means I can enjoy bootcamp tomorrow! :D

POSITIVES: Better backwards skating, good positional blocking, good jamming.

WORK ON: Right foot glides, endurance.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Derby Round Up

Last night was an.....ok session for me. Lots of recycling and kill boxing. And frustration....

For some reason, I was extra fouly last night. I heard a few of the girls say the same thing, but still, it makes me feel like I'm losing it. After scrims on Friday, I was on a high - I only got sent to the bin twice and got best jammer for my team! :) But last night almost sucked all that away. I'm not usually bad with fouls. My main problem is my forearms and elbows, but lately I've been keeping those minors down. Last night I got a major for clockwise blocking, WTF! I've never got one of those before....I know I probably don't give as much at training as I should - it's not a realistic situation for me, I can't seem to get my brain to register that I need to treat training as I do scrims.

When I was the person on the outside of our wall, and I got to knock the jammer out of bounds, I felt a little better - I was pretty much knocking the jammer out with one hit. The running back to the wall wasn't so great, but I got great advice - positionally block the jammer all the way back to the wall, EXCELLENT! Worked a treat. So at least I can say I learned something, lol.

Our very last drill was....meh. I recycled a little, switching positions to help the wall. But as jammer, I felt useless. It wasn't necessarily a jammer drill, but I like to try and it feels good to break through a strong wall. Not that I think I'll ever be picked to jam in a bout. Which reminds me, try outs are on Friday.....

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Tuesday Ramble

Basically, I couldn't think of anything to write about for a Tuesday, so it's just going to be a good old fashioned ramble about anything and everything!

Firstly, I am slacking on my Photo A Day challenge.....
From August, I still have to do:
22nd - Home
24th - Path
26th - Dream
27th - Tap
30th - Card
31st - Hidden
From September...:
8th - At night
9th - Most weekends
16th - Strange
17th - In my fridge
18th - Price
19th - Underneath
21st - Sometimes
22nd - Up
23rd - Before bedtime
24th - 3 things
26th - Near
28th - A Good Thing
So far for October (only 3 days in mind you, lol), I've managed to do a photo for every day. I need to get my finger out! My "to do" list is growing....

Another thing to add to my "to do" list is scan all the books I've read! Or at least the one's I've read since moving back in with mum and dad. I got this app a few days ago called Goodread - you scan the book you're reading/have read and it adds it to your profile. You can give reviews and see other people's reviews on the books. Sounds fab as I'm slowly running out of books to read. Mainly because I've devoured all the books written by my favourite authors! And the plus side is, if I can't remember some of the books, it's a perfect excuse to re-read them ;)

Today was also a bad day for my poor wee car :( The purple pest failed it's MOT...the guy at the garage (who's done her last 9 MOT's) said I'd be spending more to get her fixed than she's worth. But after much deliberation (and panic, and anger, and tears....), I've decided to take her in on Thursday and get her fixed up - as long as she does me for another year, until I'm a little more financially stable, that's all I need. She's a good wee car and I would have been really sad to scrap her.

Monday 1 October 2012

Monday Makes!

Today was going to be the start of my crocheting! However, between one thing or another, I have yet to actually pick up any wool.....I was hoping to start small, on a granny square pattern that the wifey gave me (the Wiggy wifey, I have two now, haha!) on "About.com Crochet" (How to Crochet a Granny Square). I have soooo many different colours of wool to pick from thanks to me not attempting any of the projects so far from the four "Let's Get Crafting! Knit and Crochet" magazines I have lying around the house....Couldn't decide what colours I wanted my first granny square to be, so I've gone for FVRG colours ;)


I'm also planning on making another batch of the butternut squash and garlic soup I made a few weeks back. This soup turned out so well considering it was my first attempt, and it was so yummy! Hopefully this time, my mum will actually get to try some of it....lol.


I think that's a pretty good aim for the week, considering I have a busy week ahead and I'm not too great with schedules.....my weekly planner has died a little inside, so much to do!