Week 7 - preparing to play

MONDAY! My last week was quite a quiet week, only three posts. Well don't give up your hopes yet, I had a good week practicing. My buttocks still give me some trouble but only from time to time. I'm still not ready to level up my workouts but this weeks I want to reflect my objectives once again. I've made quite good progress despite the setbacks. My skills will be finally put to a test when I'm participating in a mixed scrimmage in three weeks, my first scrimmage ever. Of course we've done some scrimmage-like drills and practiced it in a couple of boot camps too, but first one to have full amount of referees, NSOs and a huge oversize roster. It's oversized because there's so much rookies wanting to participate and who could suppress an enthusiasm like that. Reflection is needed so I can still work with my weak parts.

Here's my workouts last week:

Monday

hip exercise 15

BODYPUMP 60

Tuesday

PRD off skate practice 60 - injury talk, stretching tips

PRD on skate practice 60

Wednesday

hip exercise 15

PRD on skate practice ~2 hours

Thursday

hip exercise 15

running 40

Friday

stretching 30

long walk, 2½ hours

hip exercise 15

checking minimum skills

skating a little

Saturday

stretching 30

hip exercise 15

Sunday

PRD on skate practice FTP 2 hours

PRD on skate practice 2 hours

hip exercise 15

Really, look at that! I did over all expectations, time for a small applause. There's still a lot I haven't been able to do lately for instance agility and more muscle toning workouts. Agility I could probably do already but I'm still afraid to attend RVP classes. So I went running because on Tuesday we changed the off skate practice for some serious talk about our injuries, how we are coping with them and what we could do to prevent them. It was a precious hour but the little jog we did before it left me hungry for more. I remembered again why I love running so much, the feeling of freedom is amazing. Think about being a jammer and being jammed in the pack, frustrated and tired. Then think of putting your sneakers on and from that moment on the whole city is open for you! There's no track, no cutting, no one trying to stop you. I more and more enjoy dancing when running and jumping around, suddenly hopping away from the path to the forest, falling down in the dark and laughing at it, getting back up to get soaking wet from the rain. Autumn runs are the best. 

I also did loads of stretching, had a long walk and attended FTP practices on Sunday, so it was four hours of rolling yesterday. It was cool to see how the guys at FTP have developed already and there were some good drills I needed to practice too. For example I finally think I got the T-stop right. We also did swooping and crossovers which can be never practiced too much. I also enjoy the long lessons of skating, two hours is nice, but four hours is just heaven, it feels like you've grown into your skates.

I've got a pair of Riedell skates, model Vixen. I chose Vixen 'cause the shoe part is of leather and they were reasonable priced. Leather forms up to fit your feet after about one month. I've upgraded the wheels to Atom Juke 93A, slimmer and harder than the original wheels. Before the scrimmage I also need to upgrade my cushions to soft, the original are really hard and give me no flexibility. I'll also purchase extra bearings and spacers to protect the bearings. 

Vixen with original wheels