Friday, where do you go?

Rain, grey sky, unsuccessful try for a new apple pie recipe (I should have known better - there was way too little of butter and sugar on the recipe, yak). Doesn't feel like Friday. Anyway, I'll make a plan towards this lousy mood right now. It will contain some sports, sweet desserts, baking and going back to the carefree honeymoon in Europe. Also I need vitamins, so lots of fruits and things that are good for me to eat. Everything made by myself is OK but no candy, it makes me smile for 3 minutes and afterwards it feels like selling my soul. I've tried it many times this week and it hasn't helped. So I'll take the way of feeling good inside and hoping it will show on my moods too.

About in half an hour I'll pack my bag and head home. Change my clothes and go to the gym. I'll do some medium workout in indoor cycling and then RVP. I don't want to grind away too much in IC, it's supposed to be a warm-up for the muscle toning - and more importantly I don't want a feel of not coping. I need feelings of success! I'll go home and if I feel like it I'll prepare some fresh apple pie to serve for my dad, his lady friend and my brother. Then we'll drink coffee and watch the rest of our honeymoon pictures together. I will relax and get back to the feelings of freedom the trip gave us. Later I will bake for tomorrow, we have a birthday brunch to attend to! Such a nice idea to have a brunch on birthday, I'm so excited to go there for hours - to eat, catch up and enjoy. Then I might fell asleep on the couch and move to bed during the night. Yes.

Reschedule me

This week has been all about running to places and feeling really stressed out. The bad news are that it hasn't been really that busy week, just a couple of longer days. So why am I so exhausted? Every little thing irritates me, someone smacking while eating, radio connection braking up, someone talking to me when I'm trying to concentrate on something and the most me myself for being on this lousy mood. At the moment I partly blame the business school evaluation meeting on Monday. The training is either accepted or failed. I blame autumn too, it doesn't matter I've tried to convince myself that I like autumn. Well maybe I don't at the moment. I don't like cold and wet mornings.

I want to change into pyjamas and do nothing. It annoys me I can't do it whenever I want to. I have nothing but fun and such nice things to do and I feel fed up. Meditation this way please! Tonight I'll meditate. Yes. That'll get my shit together.

My make-up for the PRD photo shoot

An apple a day...

My boss brought me a basket full of apples from his trees. The basket is on my table and the scent of fresh apples is delicious. I can't wait to get home to make some apple pies. One for work, some into the freezer for sad and cold days when I need loads of sugar to cheer me up. Addiction? Yes. Always remember to make enough dough so I can have some of it too.

I have missed BODYPUMP so much. I missed out only for one week and felt empty. I was so energetic in the lesson yesterday that I even surprised myself. I did every rep super clean and did all the reps to the end, even push-ups which usually kill me in the end of the hour. Also I felt how my thighs have actually gotten bigger from my week 1. Oh dear it's week 4 already! Well it was about time then. I always gain some weight when I get into my workout routine but it's mostly just muscles toning, not the apple pie. Well the more hips to check with, the better!

Today we are having off skates practice where we do checks. (EDIT 26.9.2012) So this is where I left yesterday. I had such a busy day, not one of those usual busy days, but those that require a glass of wine in the evening. I made plenty of apple pies, baked cookies with Musta Hurma #27 and hurried off to practice. It must be the cold autumn digging into me 'cause I feel ill tempered quite often. Blanket in the bed is calling for me to cuddle up under it. It's amazing how fast I learn to be dissatisfied - only just on Friday I was happier than ever about everything and now I'm again griping.

Practice was good though! As always it made me feel better. We did different checks and it was nice to notice how much we've actually improved from our previous off skates checks practice. Still a lot to do for me though, it really got clear I need to be careful when checking shorter girls. A couple of times I hit someones jaw or couldn't even reach the thigh 'cause the girl was two heads shorter than I am. And as I try going super low I still haven't learned the right way to do it. Sometimes average size would be easier, but nevertheless I'm gonna find my own nieche! Hopefully I'll then surprise everyone, mmm, another dream to caress.

We skated to improve our stamina and boy did I feel my thighs. Yes, thank you, I already knew you guys exist. Also many of us felt our backs aching which probably means we did something wrong and I have no idea what it was. Or was it just the different drill? It was tough for sure, really a good workout. I went home, drank the glass of wine I needed, some cola too and fell to laziness on the couch.

Then I dreamed about zombies all night and it was horrible. I tried to erase the dream by waking up but it came back every time. I decided to hate zombies for the rest of the day and comfort myself with apple pie. 

Apples turned into apple pie pieces

Nice party though

Last week went almost like planned... I hurried to the Girya on Monday, practiced the Brawlers RVP both on Monday and Tuesday, did the moves again on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday went like planned. Normally I go stretching on Saturday but now I did it on Friday. Unfortunately I couldn't skate at the practice yesterday. Yes, I was having a day after from the crayfish party - it's no myth that it involves quite a lot of shots! And all the different kinds too. I went anyway, we had an hour of open skate for people still wanting to join our fresh meat training period. I helped two guys with the gear and I was actually in a great mood - too bad I couldn't skate! Then after the open skates our girls started scrimmage and I held the penalty box. It was a good experience! As a skater there's also things we should know.

Eat me!

Monday
practicing for the off skate 45
Girya 30

Tuesday
practicing for the off skate 30 
PRD off skate practice 45
PRD on skate practice 60

Wednesday
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

Thursday
squats x 65

Friday
RVP 30
stretching 30

Saturday
jogging 30
RVP 30
Stretching 30

Sunday
sit-ups x 50
PRD on skate practice 2 hours
squats x 150

We had quite few people doing the scrimmage and just talked at the car if Sunday is the best day for it. There's at least one girl who can never attend on Sundays and often the teams are really small and we have no benchwarmers. It can take the fun part away from the game completely and sometimes it's just fine: we need to learn to cope with that kind of situations too. But we also need the amount of fun to keep us motivated! I already know I'm going to miss out on two Sundays in the near future, one for the birthday of Lupus and another because of work. Well missing out on a couple is not bad, that's just life. But having so little participants is a bummer.

What about this week? Once again I've got couple of days that have open schedules. We are having a PRD photo shoot on Wednesday and it can take 4-7 hours so I can only plan on skating in between photo shoots and doing some squats on my breaks. I'm having another photo shoot on Thursday that's probably taking only two hours or so and I'm planning on going jogging either out or on a treadmill. If I have time I'll also do sit-ups and buttocks in addition to squats. On Friday I'll go to RVP and if I feel like it also to indoor cycling as well. It's only 30 minutes so it would be a nice warm-up for RVP. Now I'm about to break my routine on Saturday and I'll only go jogging 'cause I've got an early birthday to attend to and don't wanna miss a second! On Sunday I want to do some RVP because I missed out on Saturday and of course attend to our on skate practice.

Monday
BODYPUMP 60

Tuesday
PRD off skate practice 60
PRD on skate practice 60

Wednesday
PRD promo photo shooting all night long
(some skating allowed in between your own photo shoots)
squats 2 x 65

Thursday
jogging 30
squats 2 x 65

Friday
RVP

Saturday
jogging 30

Sunday
RVP at home
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

Crayfish party!

Get up in the morning

I'm drinking wine and preparing myself for a party. We are going to a crayfish party at my friends parents and it's also gonna be the first time I eat crayfish. It's gonna be so much fun, some friends, food and one of the most awesome parents I know.

I woke up as early as I did yesterday because I fell asleep so early yesterday. And even though I'm no early bird I still like to have a long morning so I can do all the chores I don't have time to do during the week. There's also some workouts to do on Saturday mornings if you remember already my Saturday routine. I went to jog on a treadmill. I thought about jogging out but then time was running out so I had my 30 minutes run on a treadmill before RVP. It was actually pretty good because it was super easy to have 2 minutes intervals. Why two minutes? Anyone remember how long does a jam last on its maximum length? Well two minutes! And it was cool to notice that my running skills haven't got lost during my summer vacation break. I can still do jogging at a good pace. It was also wonderful to go work my thighs, abs and buttock when I was already well warmed up. I skipped the stretching though because I still had some proofreading to do at home before the party. But no panic! I still stretched the muscles I used :).

Now our cat is sleeping on my dear ones lap while he's working on a picture. It's a nice easygoing afternoon before a party. I have no idea how to eat crayfish or if I even like them but all that is going to clear up today.

Power play day

All this energy from just having a day that I can honestly schedule myself! I've done loads. Work too and in a more inspired mood. I woke up later than usually, oh dear, I slept till 7.30 am. I made a big half a liter mug of coffee and drank it while I started on the presentation. Like I said to my boss I need to impress with the presentation because my actual cases aren't that strong. Then he asked me if it means I'm going shopping for clothes. Hahaha, what an awesome idea! Well I've got a nice presentation going on, long live remote work.

I took a brake at nine and went to RVP to work with my thighs, abs and buttocks. I also attended stretching class, it did good for my back that has been aching for a couple of days now. Darn it felt evil in my muscles right in the morning, oh it was lovely. Then again I changed back to my pyjamas and continued with the presentation. My precious Vincent took advantage of me being at home and he fell a sleep on my lap. The only moments a demonic cat can look cute and fluffy. After some hours I started baking mushroom baguettes which turned out to be a real treat with the actual meal: mushroom sauce with smashed potatoes. Life has been so sweet today I could cry from all the happy feelings. There's no surprise this thought came after talking about food, I'm a food lover. And talk about sweet, we even had dessert: a cream doughnut and a vanilla bun. And more coffee.

My next step was finally putting some real clothes on at 1.30 pm. I went to the flea market with my dear Musta Hurma #27. Sadly I couldn't find anything to wear on a particular photo shoot, but it's still always nice to get time to check out all the funny things people sell second hand. Like a pair of slippers stolen from the hotel. Then came Kewtrikaze with two longboards... I had my helmet, my knee pads and bracers so I was ready to hop on it! Almost. Soon we were off to the streets of Porvoo, one smooth cruiser and another quite hazardous cruiser. It was so cool, just to strike yourself to speed and roll. It was also so much easier to steer a longboard compared to normal skateboard. I didn't feel like a complete loser but really enjoyed it, felt the breeze and even took two downhills on my first time on a longboard. Now I need to have one to myself.

I came back home, ate a little (the baguette is super yummy) and worked a little more. Now I'm writing this feeling full of life and wanting to get back to school so I can have these super cool days more often. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT! It's freaking FRIDAY! It means I still have two days to myself. It means I'm now off to see the sea in Emäsalo with the person my heart mostly belongs to. Still, there's lot to share in my heart, so here's a little piece of it to ya'll:

Shortys day offs!

So long office. I'm leaving early today to catch up with some dear friends in Helsinki. Tomorrow I'll sleep long because I can work in my pyjamas, I'm having a remote work day. I really need to brush up my business school material and make a presentation of it too. The evaluation is only a week away, so it's now or never. I've tried to start it at the office and failed day after day. Now I'm gonna do it! In my pyjamas! Having coffee the whole day, not only on my breaks! Oh dear it really is like getting back to school- it sounds like my regular day at University of Applied Sciences. And... it's awesome!

We had a great on skates practice yesterday, although I was a bit tired. Love it love it love it. Could have been skating all night long. Laughing and fooling around. I wish we could have night school but night derby school, overnight camping at some place where we could skate and hang out.

I also have a proposition to make to our team. I'd love if sometimes at the practice we could take pairs and watch how our pair works trough the practice. Then at the end of the practice we could give out what was good and what could be done better. Or other feedback, just anything! I would so much appreciate some feedback.

Thighs, abs and buttocks Brawlers style!

We warmed up by bearing a hag, taking girls up to our back and running like that. Probably not the most effective way, but it was so much fun. We even made the real position happen, not only piggybacking. I'm proud of them for making it happen. Just a wonderful feeling seeing all of us making it happen together, just a simple thing like this. I've never been the one looking outside and thinking how to handle our brawling brawlers. It's certainly a womans work!

We got on our mats and before every section I showed the moves we were about to do. I think it worked like a dream. Everyone was up for it and even though I was nervous about forgetting something it went well. I even managed to speak trough motions even though at some point it was only wheezing that got out. Some of those muffins would like a private re-run and I'm more than up for it! We can even upgrade the program and have a little tighter practice now that the moves are familiar.

All excited to test the program on brawlers!

On Tuesdays we get to skate in the bigger space and it's a dream every time. The strikes you can take with your skates are longer and you can actually practice to do the whole track with for example 6 strikes. It was a nice drill to skate and do muscle toning in between for 15 minutes. It's so awesome to skate there, so precious moments. We also fooled around together, played in a tiddlywink position for a moment, made a train, laughed, relaxed. It rained when cykkelklubben left for home after practice but we didn't care. This was again a bad day that turned good after PRD practices.

PRD off skate practice 18.9.2012

It's our turn to lead the off skates practice today. We want to warm up with something funny, in other words: Akankanto, bearing a hag! We are all different sizes, so we will pair one tall and one short girl and the taller one bears the shorter one. Shorter ones can then try this out with each others, but I'm not making anyone carry my length, someone might brake her back doing it.

How does one succeed in getting to that position? That's something the pair can decide. It's gonna be more and more essential to make common decisions for the best of everyone in the team. We really had trouble visualizing this yesterday and decided we could also do it in old fashion way, piggybacking. Who ever wants to try this tonight, go for it! You both need to be okay with it. It can also depend on the body sizes of the pair. It actually does not look as hard in the picture, but how about going there?

After we have borne some hags we're getting down to the ground, hopefully a dry one. At least the forecast tells it's gonna be sunny all day. I've collected some easy moves from classes I've attended to, so we are getting into our muscle toning. Thighs, abs and buttocks are hopefully burning after it. We tested it yesterday and it's quite important to show the moves before starting, so that everyone can then concentrate in making them.

Waiting forward to this!

Week 3 - multitasking

What's up for week three? Well at least I can't go to BODYPUMP on Monday because we have Pomega meeting (Leo Club Porvoo) and I'd be late for it. It's also held at our place so I need to make coffee and so on, so I can't make it! I'm super sorry about it because all the other times during this week it's overlapping with our practices. BOO! But today I'm gonna rehearse our off skate practice for tomorrow and if we get through our Pomega meeting  nicely I'll run for the kettlebell class.

Monday
practicing for the off skate 45
Girya 30

Tuesday
PRD off skate practice 45
PRD on skate practice 60

Wednesday
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

Thursday
squats x 65

Friday
RVP 30

Saturday
jogging 30
RVP 30
Stretching 30

Sunday
sit-ups x 50
PRD on skate practice 2 hours 

This is a sketch for this weeks workouts, I've got quite a lot going on with open schedules. But I'll make reviews during the week and a summary on Sunday. I don't know how my calendar fills up to the top every week. I've got something going on every evening and I work on weekdays from 8 am to 4 pm. My next free Saturday is 8 weeks from here. We have practices every Sunday in the middle of the day and usually I've got some extra stuff to do on Sundays. My mom tried to talk me into a choir too and I actually thought it for a moment! Excuse me, in what time of the day would I do any singing? But it would be great to overcome the fear of singing in public too. I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING! SAY NO! I long for a week on the sofa. But you know what happens if I have couple of hours free? I start cleaning, doing laundry, organizing my stuff, planning. And what happens if I get that one free week? I'll go travelling or plan something for every day. What's wrong with ya Shorty! It would be easier not to struggle but to admit I love my filled to the top calendar, my busy schedules, my lack of time. It makes me cherish every moment I have with my loved ones, roller derby, gym, my pomega club, everything. So, as I will never perfectly learn how to be a master of my time, I should just confess I love it this way.

Weekend Munchies!

I've been busy again on the weekend. Some workouts on Friday, proofreading trough a text of my friend, workouts on Saturday as well, some reading again and spending the day at my aunts. Saturday was a relaxing day, we had tender pork, salad, apple pie with ice cream and vanilla sauce, mixed berry pie, sausages, cheeses, grapes... And of course some good deal of sauna and walking in the garden. We were happily tipsy when we ended up home.

Okay, let's face it, I'm tired as hell, so let's get this over with. How did the week with increased workouts go?

Monday
BODYPUMP 60

Tuesday
PRD agility practice 60
PRD on skate practice 60

Wednesday
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

Thursday
Korsetti (core) 30 
Golf 45
squats x 65

Friday
RVP 30

Saturday
squats x 65 
RVP 30
Stretching 30

Sunday
sit-ups x 50
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

It went so well! Next week I want to go jogging too. And on Tuesday we are leading the off skates so I'll tell you what we have planned and how it went. Now I'm gonna munch more and shut up. Arrivederci!

Patience, Shorty

I will get there, I know I will. It just wont happen overnight, or in a week or even in a month. A year could be more like it. It's certain that I'm doing alright, learning and getting better every once in a while but the days I can't get enough out of me are disasters. I still have major balance problems like stumbling on my own feet or getting trough a pack and then immediately falling, instantly falling when being checked. I have gotten better especially in maintaining my balance when being checked but I still feel like an easy target. There's lots of surface to check me on 'cause of the 180 cm I'm holding. There just needs to be a way of me dealing with it, after all I'm not the only tall person playing roller derby! And now that we talk about checking there's another issue I have to deal with. About 50% of my checks succeed in a way I'm satisfied with. What about the other 50%? Yet again some balance problems, just missing it or otherwise stumbling. That it something that just needs more practice.

I also lack power. Or a way of using it, I'm quite certain there is lots of power in me I just don't know how to control. It's hard to be so aware of these things and know there should be improvement but the improvement just keeps waiting for itself. I know I'm the only person who can make it happen but it's not just a snap of your fingers and BAM you're a great player. I have to keep repeating to myself that this is something I've never done before. I can't expect to immediately suck in the skills but to work hard to learn.

Good news about the attendance percentages. The old percentages were reset and started over from 1st of September. That puts me in 4/5 so 80%. That is exactly the future limit for scrimmages, so I just need to keep it up. Yesterday we had a two hour skate practice and I was not near as tired I was afraid to be. After all it was the 5th workout day in a row. I have the core exercise on the menu today but... I might end up in a golf range with a golf club. Wait - what? Yes, another long time project I've been wanting to start. Golf. Yes, really. That has to do quite much with the business I'm working in, it's almost like a rule that salesmen in this refrigeration business do golf. And if I want to climb the ladder it is certainly an advantage to know how to play. Also I find it educating because you need loads of patience and concentration which would be great to better. The fun part hasn't really opened to me yet since I've only tried once on a brown, meaning we had to carry this small green mat everywhere we went and swing the ball on top of it. Anyway, going to the range would mean 65 squats and some sit-ups too.

Sorry for all the I:s today, me me me that's what it's all about. ¿No? Damn it if I'm not a dangerous player in a year from starting! We'll see what's become of Shorty in April next year.

Clicking, not clicking?

We had a combination of off skates and on skates practice yesterday. On both we trained our agility skills. It was such a great practice, I felt exhausted and my soles really hurt, but there was a moment of clicking that made me smile wide - and still does.

I learned to work with my hands while skating.

Yes, just a simple thing like that! Skating has never been easy for me. I have no earlier experience of skating in any form. Before the holidays I finally understood I need to turn my upper body towards the center of the track, especially when going trough the curves. Slowly I somehow naturally took my hands with me doing that. Yesterday when we were doing a drill of sprinting and doing other drills in between it just hit me. One moment I realized my hands were moving strongly and I was kind of a pushing more speed with them. When I realized that I made the move more controlled and powerful. I felt like flying. Skating did not feel uncomfortable anymore. It felt like magic and I love it. Can't wait to get back on the track today!

That's the lightning in my head. I'm too happy to write anymore and it's practice time in an hour. So we'll see you guys tomorrow - unless I brainstorm today as well and am too happy to write again! Like that's gonna happen, krää!

Off Skates practicing

Hooray for BODYPUMP! The program changed yesterday and as always the first hour of new program I couldn't quite keep up. The theme of this program is burning calories. The week before I felt really powerful despite the long break so I added small weights to the back part. Which was such a bad idea! After doing the lift ups it was a hell to do triceps. But like always it felt good afterwards. Some good news coming up, my muscles are not even close to the soreness I had last Tuesday. Especially my thighs are quite alright and I did super clean squats, really to the perfect angle. That is some killer result from only one week. Maybe next week I can lift up a little for the squats and see if I can still go low enough. And drop the back weights back to 10 kg. That's a maybe, this week is going to have more exercise than last week so I'm still trying to feel the optimum amount.

Here's our practice place after the Open Skate on Sunday. Such a dreamy view and it was still light at 5 pm. Soon it's gonna change into a darker view.

It's time for a key points review, yeah! This time I'll take a look at it from off skates point of view. Now that we've got on skates practices three times a week I won't have so much time to do off skates workouts, but there are few I don't want to miss out on.

1. Agility & explosive power
So how to improve this off skates? We had a great agility session with the team USA coaches. We did small jumps for about 45 seconds, a time that was good to start with. The point was to jump over a line with your both feet jumping and landing at the same time back and forth and not to jump on the line, but precisely on the two imaginary boxes that the line separated. Soon I noticed that my upper body did not move that much and the more I tightened my core (abs, back and sides) the easier it was to make the little jumps precise. Well of course it was not perfect and I've only practiced it a couple of times after the boot camp but it's something that can be quite easily improved. What's the use of this? It makes your calves, thighs and core work out at the same time. You learn to control your upper body when your feet are on the move which improves your balance. And what was the point of gravitation for women? (Everyone lift you hand! You know the answer!) Hips. What are our hips doing in this drill? Enabling a small movement from side to side. We do not work with the sides of our body that often but in roller derby you need to be able to jump in different directions and from different positions. You are unconsciously just jumping from one situation to another. Or at least you should be able to. That is really tiring if you don't have the strength to do it.

The agility session had various versions of the jump. One was to jump in four boxes, numbering the boxes from 1-4 and then changing the order how to jump. We are having a similar drill today on our off skate practice so I can tell you more about it tomorrow with a fresh touch.

I want to praise BODYPUMP for helping with the explosive power. Doing squats with weights and especially the jumps we've had in the old and this new program are very useful. Jumping as high as you can and dropping your knees to the angle of 90 degrees and jumping again from there does good for the muscles we need moving fast on the track. I want to be able to jump around the track too if needed. I've already noticed that if you have a certain hole where you want to squeeze in between before it gets closed, sometimes the fastest way is to leap instead of skating. Maybe it's just my long legs but the better I get at it the longer leaps I will be able to do with this pair of spaghetti.

2. Skating stance
Squats, more squats and keeping a good posture. Only last week my dear Lupus told me that my squats look good because of my good posture. How awesome is that? Feedback without even asking it. I think a lot of things when I do squats. First of all I take a deep breath and fix my position: a light bending of the knees, tighten my abs, squeeze my buttocks together and turn my shoulders back and down to a relaxed open position. All that ensure that I have a straight back, can breathe well and then I'm ready for some pain. All this goes quite effortless when I'm feeling energetic and am on a good mood. We also have a good mirror in our bathroom that enables me to spy on my position and the angle I am when heading down.

But(tocks) when it comes to balancing I am often shaking and losing my balance and with weights it takes more concentration to have your weight on both feet and doing the movement equally with both thighs. This is good too. You will get off balance with your skates on and need to get the balance back. Learning how to deal with that is really good. I have already learned something about the muscles that make a balance and abs are one of them. I try not to use my hands when balancing but of course sometimes I need to. Looking at your feet does not help. Concentrate on something on a wall on the same level as your eyes and stick to it. Tighten up your abs and straighten your back and get to it. Usually it works and even if it doesn't you'll get better at it by trying.

3. Courage
Try new stuff, explore the possibilities of different off skates workouts! That is what I want to do with courage off skates. The first thing I want to add to this list is getting back on the pole. Pole dancing gives courage and self-confidence. Spinning yourself upside down and holding yourself there is a Courage Therapy and I need it. Letting your hands go and making your thighs do all the work or hanging from your hands exercising your abs makes you feel like a partial superwoman. I'm lucky have my teammate El El Cool Jessie with me on this so we can have a laugh while getting on the superwoman mood.

4. Endurance
Since we are having skating practices three times a week this is the part I will lack the most considering off skates. After 3-5 weeks I am hopefully able to do more off skates practices as I get in better shape and this is the part I will add to. As long as it's possible I will do jogging outside, then switch to a treadmill or indoor cycling. The minimum exercise is to last 30 minutes and a good one would be 45-60 minutes. I will no longer do my 15 kilometers and up runs simply because I have no time for those anymore. If I'm fit enough in the spring I will try to do one longer run which I like to dedicate to the becoming of the light season. Everyone's invited! You never know, maybe we'll take part in Naisten Kymppi again, the Finnish 10 kilometer run meant only for women.

5. Communication
Sometimes I have a bad day or a moment and might say something I regret. A new rule is not to only regret but to talk about it, say I'm sorry aloud and not only think about it. "Maybe she didn't notice" or "She might not get hurt from a small thing like that" are not to be in my thoughts anymore. I'm not a superwoman so there are bound to be frogs from my mouth, but I don't want to leave them running around.

The same goes the other way. If I feel bad something someone said to me I will rather talk about it than to just bitch it up in my mind. So what if someone thinks I'm making it too much of an issue, at least I feel fine and hopefully the other person notices I just care and want us to be close. There are misunderstandings, different tones of voice, different ways of saying things. Everyone's different, so they also communicate differently. We've only just began to get to know each other so there's no knowing the ways this group will work before we try it out.

A little drums for me! I'm now in charge of PRD public relations! Mostly communicating with the newspapers now but maybe more on the future. Our chairwoman is still having the most communications to herself because she's the closest to a superwoman I know in that kind of thing!


CLOSE YOUR EYES AND IMAGINE A COOL PICTURE HERE THEN CLOSE YOUR COMPUTER AND GO AGILITY TRAINING WITH ME!

Week 2 - get used to it!

Week 1 was quite chill. I only attended to one on skate practice and the Open Skate on Sunday which was not supposed to include much skating, just the show we put up in the beginning. After an hour everyone had got on the wheels for a try so we decided to scrimmage the last hour or some. It went so well! And the day was so much fun I could have exploded. Well actually I think I might have exploded a couple of times for example when I fell TWO times WITHOUT skates in the practice hall. All in all the day was awesome! I had slept for four hours but still managed to post shortly on this blog, go shopping for tights (which I didn't find - instead I bought a hoodie and over knee socks), ate some lunch with my teammate Little Miss Gunfire who has been a dear friend for nine years now, had a great time at the Open Skate and went to sauna with Brawlers. I love Sundays like that. Brawlers rock!

Open Skate went really well, our show scrimmage was nice and clean and we were excited to be watched at. After the show I had the privilege to lend my gear and assist a girl from Askola. She was so cool with the gear on and I loved her hair too. She was super nice too, would love to have a piece of her in our team. Having lived in Askola for 16 years I'm always happy to run into people from there. I think I like countrymen better than e.g. people from big cities. They are more down to earth and easier to talk to. Not that I want to make a rule of that, no way! I also find people from Porvoo very lovable as well as dudes from Kymenlaakso, where I've have my roots from fathers side of the family. I just love the nasty humor they've got there. I've been so full of good energy and feelings of happiness the whole weekend. It still seems to continue today, which is good 'cause my Monday shirt is smelly after the scrimmage yesterday. You do know the Monday shirt? As in Säihkyturpa shirt? What? It has this great picture of a unicorn on it. I have to add that the unicorn shoots rainbows from the horn to make every Monday a little happier.

After the Open Skate we went to enjoy some sauna that Seurahovi kindly kept warm for us. We took a deep breathe and some loud laughing which was exactly what we needed to do together. Sometimes it gets too game oriented that we forgot how to be a team and get to know each other. Many of us just met when we started practicing and all of us want to know each other better. Had a great time!

It is the beginning of week 2 and how does it look like? Well, more like what it's gonna be during this autumn and winter. There's three on skate practices and one off skate practice hour so total 6 hours of practicing with P-Town Brawlers. On week one I had total of ~6 hours practice, off and on skates. This week already has 8 hours in total, so ~33% increase compared to last week! Lets see how it's gonna work for me. First of all I am a bit worried I might feel tired and fed up during the week. Week 1 went really well and on Sunday I still had the energy to scrimmage. My soles are sore from the scrimmage so my little muscles were working yesterday. That's really good.

Monday
BODYPUMP 60

Tuesday
PRD agility practice 60
PRD on skate practice 60

Wednesday
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

Thursday
Korsetti (core) 30

Friday
RVP 30

Saturday
squats x 65
Stretching 30

Sunday
PRD on skate practice 2 hours

Open Skate today!

Yes yes! Today is THE Day! We are hopefully getting some people joining our fresh meat training program! So cool to see people interested in roller derby. This afternoon is all about fun, we are having a team sauna after the open skates. My last time in sauna was in Porto, Portugal, and the sign there said "No throwing water on the rocks". Excuse me, isn't that the idea of sauna? So today we'll be having some real sauna and good company.

Yes, I skipped yesterday on my blog, but I had a great workout. First of all I couldn't do the girya (kettlebell) on Friday because my hand was still sore from hitting the stall bars in our practice space. I went to RVP though and had a great workout for my thighs, abs and buttocks. In the evening I did the agility workout I was supposed to do on Saturday. Our kitchen has the best big flagstones to jump with. On Saturday I went jogging with Lupus and afterwards decided to go to RVP again. Well done! I felt goodie good. Today is my day off (just a little scrimmage for a show and squats) and I am mentally preparing myself for the tougher week. 

This is how it really went compared to the plan. 

Monday

BODYPUMP 60

Tuesday
squats x 50

Wednesday
on skate practice 2 hours

Thursday
squats x 50

Friday
RVP 30
Girya 30 Agility 15

Saturday
interval jogging 30 min + agility 15 min
RVP 30

stretching 30

Sunday
squats x 50
scrimmage ~50

EDIT 10.9.2012

Just added the scrimmaging we did yesterday at the Open Skate! More to come about the day! Whooop!

Friday - how do you do?

Friday never fails to lift my smile to the top. This one is especially good because I had a day off from workouts yesterday, I had only the 50 squats to do I promised on every day off. So yesterday I did those with weights! I had 17 kilos in the bar so I even have a slight feeling today in my thighs. Not comparable with the sore feelings after Mondays bodypump though, that is only possible after it. I also did plank, normal sit-ups and a bit buttocks as well, preparing myself for the RVP today.

All this planning and putting it into action makes me feel really good. I post my blog to facebook every time I make an update and it seems not to bring up any particular interest but really: why should it. Now that I'm trying to make my updates every day I notice I keep my promises really well. I feel like I owe it to myself to succeed in this. So being active on the blog also means being active on my workouts, hooray for that! I'll try keeping up with it even on the weekends. I have Björk in my head with All Is Full Of Love and finally a weekend I don't need to run trough! Today there's no program in addition to the time I spend at the gym after work. Well yeah, I'm also going to the jeweler's to pick up wedding gift candlesticks that were there for carvings. And I'll drop my watch there for a new battery, one necklace to be repaired and my engagement ring to have it made smaller. After all that I'm gonna relax and take my other half from the hand.

COMMUNICATION!

It is so easy to do your best when you're in great spirits. How about those days when you're tired from work or some other shit that just poured on you?

You know what I mean? Track full of girls having a moody day? That's me alright. Sometimes I'm in the best of spirits and the other I'm swearing or about to cry. Getting on and finding your own phoenix-methods are essential, this is not playing around but seriously playing and giving it all. That is where the great feelings come from, getting over your difficulties and turning the bad day into victorious battle.

We had a two hour on skate practice yesterday at our new practice place. It's a bit bigger than the old one but still not big enough to have a full track and protective space between the track and the wall. That equals a lot of falling when we scrimmage. Anyway, the floor was much better than in the old space and skating sure felt good. We put together a small show for our Open Skate on Sunday. There will be a slow jam to show how to score points and then actual scrimmage for a couple of jams. It's gonna be fun!

The rest of the practice time we dedicated to scrimmage. We are still to learn how to do it in that small space where the walls corner us and hip checks blow us to the wall or to the evil stall bars. Our hands get stuck in the bars and our bodies smash into the walls. But there will be solutions! It was quite educating trying not to do checks towards the outside boundaries, it was kind of a mind game trying to focus on many things at the same time and remember not to have anyone checked to the wall. Of course we still did it and people got hurt. Nothing serious though but enough to remember to be cautious.

Yesterday reminded me how important communication is. Whether you get hurt or you just want to have a great team play you need to be able to communicate. Also after a scrimmage where many get hurt it's just to make sure everyone's okay, especially those who you yourself might have hurt. The ways of communication are still a mystery to me but it's the first step to open your mouth about the state of play. Where's our jammer? Where's the opposing jammer? Who needs to be blocked? Simple talk is effective.

As it comes to that, I'm gonna keep this post simple as well and dig in deeper as I get more and more into this. It's the first week and I'm excited! So far so good!

On Skates practicing

Good day fellow marmots! Oh, marmots always make me smile and feel good. You can't but love them really! We were so close to seeing one really near when visiting the Swiss alps but we only had a quick glimpse of it. Look at them!

Okay, so now that I have softened you up with some baby animals we can go to the subject, wohoo! You might have noticed that I'm a bit confusing today. Just tired after a lousy sleep, so no jeering at my spelling mistakes or bad word order or absolutely anything! Naah, whatta heck, go ahead and jeer, I can take it!

On Skate training

Our team P-Town Brawlers has decided to have a record of our practice attendance. That enables us to calculate the percentage of attendance and there will be a limit you have to be above to participate in scrimmages. Mine isn't doing that well at the moment, I missed quite a few when we were 5 weeks on our honeymoon. I'm not sure of the numbers at the moment but something like 68%. I will update it as I get to know the new one which will be hopefully well over 70%. My objective is at least 90% and I'll try climbing up there during this autumn. There will be a freshmeat training period so I can get my numbers up by participating on those practices as well. 

We have three on skates practice times per week now in autumn 2012 and at least two per week in spring 2013. That amount should guarantee that I will be more confident on skates. I am already quite comfortable on skates but I still need to focus more on agility and skating technique. I want to be almost an circus animal doing impressive tricks on skates. That will come in handy when playing. Here are my objectives once again but from On Skates point of view.

1.Agility & explosive power

Skipping, leaping, jumping, turning in speed, jumping in speed, running toe stops, rolling with one skate, rolling with fore/back wheels, zigzag trough the track, being active! How to improve these skills on track? I'm not planning the practices but that does not mean I cant do agility training as well. There's always short timeouts and sometimes part of the practice is dedicated for players to improve their own weaknesses. 

Explosive power can be trained when scrimmaging too. That is supposed to be the most active drill there is! You should be really tired and worn out after scrimmage, you should give it all.

2. Skating stance

We have many fabulous drills for improving the stance. What we need more is feedback. If the coaches or your partner does not give you individual feedback, you need to ask for it. Ask ask ask. That way they also notice that you're really interested too and want to improve. So you have passed your minimum skills? That does most certainly not mean you're in the perfect stance all the time. I went trough minimum skills skating test only a week before the team USA boot camp. They had lots of great hints and practically twisted me in the position by hand. It also takes time to feel comfortable in the stance.

3. Courage

Every once in a while there should be a chance to try out the craziest tricks. I don't need to learn them on the first time or the second but I need to try. Also many drills are easier and more useful if you do it in a good momentum. There's no standing around in roller derby. I might be afraid of falling or making a fool of myself by not getting it straight away but refusing to try properly is not worth it. Besides those girls are my team mates, they should know my weaknesses. And I love laughing with them, it doesn't matter what the reason.

4. Endurance

I can skate the track quite easily 27,5 rounds in five minutes. That is the result I got in minimum skills. Of course I was tired after all the testing and had a five week break on me. But there are girls that skated 30 in our team and some in Helsinki skate 33. If I want to be a competent player I need to be fast too. Skating techniques in for example cross overs are to come handy in this. I also need item 3 considering skating. I need courage to skate fast. It needs to be natural for me. For I am primarily training to be a great blocker but jammer skills are still needed.

Tonight I'll try out my attitude in on skates practices and hopefully I have great news and mood tomorrow! I'll get back at you then. After that I'll take a little time to look at my off skates training as well.

Week 1 - planning and striving

This week is for planning the next four months program and making out how to implement it. This is also the time to get even more inspired and for that I am going to need all the support I can get! I have a feeling I will be able to have results but of course one is always optimistic in the beginning. There will be ups and downs and I need to prepare myself for that.

In this post I'll go through what workouts I have planned for this week. So can I start by working out six days of the week? No. I've had a wedding and a holiday so I can't just jump into the same routine or amount of exercise. Besides, this will be different from my earlier routine and my body needs time to adjust to it. Four months is a short time so I need to squeeze this adjusting period but have some day offs instead. This week will also give me a chance to try out my starting point.

Monday
BODYPUMP 60

Tuesday
squats x 50

Wednesday
on skate practice 2 hours

Thursday
squats x 50

Friday
RVP 30
Girya 30

Saturday
interval jogging 30 min + agility 15 min
stretching 30

Sunday
squats x 50

Yesterday I returned to BODYPUMP class after a 2½ months brake. I started by taking off 1-2 kilos from the weights that I usually have. With squats I took 3,5 kilos off from the weight, now that I'm starting over I want to make some clean squats. I'm pretty sure I used to cheat a little with the 17 kilos I used to have on. Feelings today from the exercise: oh dear it HURTS! My little triceps, pecs, biceps and extensors! My buttocks and thighs are only a little sore. I will list my starting point weights here. These weights are the total kilos I have on, so for example in squats I have 5 kilos in each end. Yes, it would be lovely to have 10 in each!
Squats 10 kg
Pecs 5 kg
Back 10 kg
Extensors 5 kg
Biceps 5 kg
Step squats 10 kg
Triceps 4 / 5 kg

My objective after four months is to at least get back to my earlier weights (marked with bold) and to improve more at least in squats, back and step squats (target marked with italics).
Squats 17 / 20 kg
Pecs 7 kg
Back 12 / 15 kg
Extensors 5 kg
Biceps 5 kg
Step squats 10 / 15 kg
Triceps 4 / 5 kg

Squats and step squats are to improve most! Our thighs are on strain when skating and squats are an easy way of improving the muscles. But why improve back muscles in bodypump? Our core muscles keep us in an upright posture and those are important support muscles to help with a good balance. Not to focus too much working with the back I've listed RVP (reisi, vatsat, pakarat = thighs, abs, buttocks) that has a great part of abs. That is without any weights. In future I will add also korsetti (focusing in core), if it fits in my calendar.

On day offs I will still do 50 squats to make sure my sweet little thighs are keeping up with the progress. I just did 50 in at work, everyone who's with me: no cheating! You can do them in at your work on your brake, I did them in the bathroom. No excuses! Next week I will add some to those day off squats, I'm gonna feel how many after this week. You might have also noticed the girya on Friday. Working with a kettlebell is funfunfun! Kettlebell exercises also include squats in different form. I'll tell you more about it on Friday when I have a fresh view of the class.

Hop on! Do it with me! Share your ideas, your weaknesses, your lack of time and energy, inspiration, anything! We need each other, that's for sure.

Roller Derby - turning a new leaf

What's going on? What is this turning point? I'll tell you what.

Have a look at that column on the right. I've explained shortly my sports history from beginning. One of the most important projects for me in sports has been training for a half marathon in spring 2012. I started training already in 2011 and had a good basis for making trough it. Suddenly only a month before the Helsinki City Run I find myself skating around an oval track smiling and falling, feeling wild and excited. Practice after practice I was getting more into roller derby and my training for the marathon kept going but not as active as it had been. All this led to trembling (but running) trough the 21 kilometers and attending a roller derby boot camp the very next day with some sore pair of legs. Five hours of painful skating has never felt that good! I love it with all the pain it has as well as all the ease it sometimes can have.

Where does all this want and motivation come from? A simple logo will do.

I attended a boot camp on Saturday led by the best roller derby team in the universe (as the commentator pointed out). The amount of awesomeness was unbearable with a poker face. That is probably why our triplet attending to the on skates beginner boot camp were having hours of quite scary bad joking. Which was great of course. The USA team was full of dedicated women with figures of hard steel. The main admiration I had was for their thighs, oh their muscular sculptured thighs! Seeing them play against Team Sweden and Team Finland made me feel so small in knowledge as well as in skills. If I could have even a spoonful of their skills, power and attitude in me, it would grow to be a start for being really good in this crazy sports! In my nightly moods on the way home I declared to myself and to the people in the car that I'll start a 4 months program in having even some of that awesomeness in me.

So fixing my workouts from long distance running and from endurance point of view is going to start now. First of all I'm wondering what do I need to have in my training program? What are the key points to work on? Having a good stamina gives me a huge advantage but the nature of this sport is so very different from any endurance sports: skipping, leaping, turning fast, making everything in haste but still in perfect control. While scrimmaging I always notice to be very out of breathe although I have the stamina for long workouts. The key point to work on my body and mind is explosive power. I need to be able to make everything really fast and controlled. What's more important is I need to have the energy and muscular strength to do it again and again and again.

I'm listing my key points here and print the list so I can have it in my calendar as well. I will go deeper into every key point in new post.
1. Agility & explosive power
2. Skating stance (boring but VITAL!)
3. Courage (what, I don't want to jump and turn around at the same time while skating fast because I'm scared to death I will fall?? I will fall anyway! So I need to get rid of this chicken attitude)
4. Endurance

In the program I will divide the workouts to On Skate and Off Skate workouts. Both are as much needed. As one of the coaches at the boot camp said: if you don't have the muscles off skates, how would you suddenly have them on skates? And it is easier to work out your muscles off skates. Easier and more effective. Once you'll achieve good muscular balance and agility off skates you can finally feel easier doing it all on skates. What a simple but important notice! If only I could remember all the tips they gave us, those goddesses full of information in an understandable form. I am most certainly one of those persons to be allergic to all fancy wording and non-practical stuff. Please show me everything by hand, kick my ass down and my back up, whisper in my ear when I look down instead of keeping an eye in the game and make me understand hip checking by making me laugh how stupid I look like when I try to do it from a meter away from another player. Even the simplest can learn and this is going to be an example how!

What more do I need to be a competent player in Roller Derby? In this blog I will mainly concentrate on working with my body and maybe having some reflections about strategies and tactics as well. I know my weak points when I get tired and the huge holes I have in knowledge of this game. I will work on them too, but a bit silently for a starters. After I learn to comprehend better I can also reflect them more usefully.

So let the battle begin!

A happy boot camper! Photo by my dear teammate JennyFear