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

Vanha tunkka

Mun päässä on joku ikävä vanha tunkka. Aluksi mulla oli aamulla ihan mieletön perjantaivilli, päässä soi hakunamatata ja ajatukset oli niin kuin Fok Itin Säihkyturvalla. Nyt on tunkkasta ja toivotonta. Lumikaan ei enää ole valkoista vaan harmaan ruskeaa. Se johtuu varmaan noista loisteputkista. Muina päivinä oon voinut sammuttaa valot ja hengailla luonnonvalossa. Tänään on ollut synkempää, joten loisteputket ovat huutaneet koko päivän. Niistä varmaan sitten huoneen lämpötila nousee, joka aiheuttaa sitten tunkkaistumista. Nyt oikeestaan kun tätä kirjoittaessani koin tämän valaistumisen ja avasin ikkunan, niin suloinen perjantaivilli tekee taas hiipivästi paluutaan!

Palatakseni edelliseen aiheeseen, siis siihen missä viittasin mm. Klonkun "What did you say" -pätkään, voidaan todeta et mimmit teki sen. Haastattelu pulkassa ja me päähenkilöitä dokkarissa. Kävin sen kirjoituksen jälkeen heittämässä yhden 10 kilsan lenkin, joka meni hyvin. Tuntivauhti läheni 10 km / h. Se on kuitenkin tosi vaihtelevaa, sillä esimerkiksi eilisen 7 km:n tuntivauhti oli rauhallisempi, 9,3 km / h. Voin kuitenkin uskoa, että ehdin näillä pohjilla treenaamaan itseni puolimaraton-kuntoon 5.5. mennessä.

Huomenna juostaan kimuleiden kanssa pitkin Porvoota ja kuvausryhmä yrittää tietty pysyä perässä. Testasin sen lenkin eilen ja osittain olen huolissani, koska se on paikoin aika liukas. Uskon silti täysin, et me vedetään se! Intervallina, juostaan ja kävellään, sillä saa sit niitä liukkaita kohtia mentyä helpommin. Tarjolla olis vähän vanhaa kaupunkia, joenvartta ja jopa merinäköalaa. Odotan jo innolla! Ja kauhulla. Mut enemmän innolla.

Eilen meinas palaa käpy kun en meinannut päästä pois työpaikalta. Portti ei auennut mun lätkällä, näytti vaan punaista valoa. Sitkee tyyppi. Kiersin sit toista kautta - ja kas. Työkaveri tuli ohi autolla ja heitti mut keskustaan. Hyvää karmaa, sitä tekee mieli laittaa kiertoonkin. Keskiviikkona messujen jälkeen käytiin yhden tavarantoimittajan kanssa kahvilla. Se oli hyvä tyyppi, siitä sai jotain positiivista energiaa. Oon tulostanut mun työhuoneen seinälle Kauppalehden Option jutun motivaatiosta. Aina kun vilkaisen sitä, niin jaksan taas keskittyä päämäärään. Ei ne oo ne pienet jutut aina niitä mistä kannattaa taistella ja kuluttaa energiaa. Pitää muistaa alitajuntaisesti tiedostaa unelmansa, sit sitä tekee työtä niiden eteen lähes huomaamattaan. Yksi sellainen tavoite olisikin juuri olla sellainen tyyppi, josta saa positiivista energiaa. Antaa sen kutkutella siellä, all good things will come if you decide so. Sieltä piäkaupungista lähtiessäni keskiviikkona törmäsin myös mahtavaan bussikuskiin. Olin hyökkäämässä ekaan Porvooseen lähtevään bussiin, jonka näin. Bussikuski sitten päämääräni kuultuaan katsoi minua silmiin ja kysyi, että miltä tuntuisi päästä 20 minuuttia aiemmin Porvooseen. Ensin kelasin, että mitä ihmettä se höpisee. Sit aattelin, et hei, tietysti haluan päästä kotiin viemään Arnoldsin tuliaiset nopeammin. Se ohjasi mut sitten viereiseen moottoritievuoroon. Eipä siinä sen kummempaa, mutta tyyppi siinä hetken juteltuamme kertoi, että usein tämän ehdotuksen tehtyään ihmiset loukkaantuu. Vastaa, että mitäs siinä kyselet, ota lippurahat ja ole hiljaa. Siinä saa positiivinen tyyppi paljon negaa ylleen, mut silti jaksaa uudelleen ja uudelleen. Kyl siitä bussikuskista tuli mulle idoli.

Morsiusjuoksu

Joulukuussa keksin, että vuoden 2012 naisten kymppiin haluan mukaan paljon murmeleita! Muistellen viime vuoden naisten kymppiä ajattelin, että se on hauskempi juosta porukassa. Lisäksi mulla on ystäviä, jotka ovat innostuneet juoksusta ja tämähän olisi sitten mainio tilaisuus saada uudetkin tyypit innostumaan! Niinpä perustin faceen kutsun Morsiusjuoksuun. Odotin yhteisestä juoksustamme innoissani jo tällä idealla. Sattuikin kuitenkin muutaman mutkan kautta niin, että ilmoitin porukkamme Ylen naisten kympistä kertovaan dokumenttiin päähenkilöiksi. Juuri kun ajattelin tilaisuuden menneen ohi, sainkin kuvausryhmältä sähköpostia yksinkertaiseen sävyyn, kiinnostus oli herännyt meidän porukkaamme kohtaan. Siis come again - what did you say? Nyt meillä on haastattelu bookattu! Niin absurdia ja niin hauskaa! Tänään selviää mitä tapahtuu 27.5!


Viime vuoden maaliskuussa, melkein vuosi sitten, kirjoitin:
"Jokohan mainitsin joskus, että ilmottauduin naisten kymppiin? No ilmottauduin joskus helmikuussa. Siihenkin on enää alle kaksi kuukautta. Kunto on ihan jees, mutta kestävyys pitkissä matkoissa tai kovassa juoksuvauhdissa ihan hakusessa. Kymppikilsaa en ole vetänyt vielä tänä keväänä ollenkaan, vain lyhyitä 3-6 km lenkkejä tai 3 kilometrin nopeusjuoksua. Lupuksen kanssa lenkillä juoksuvauhti on 9 km / h ja sitä tahtia jaksan sen kolme kilsaa hädin tuskin! Voi kun ei ole aiemmin tajunnut kiristää tahtia... Nyt ei tosin yksinkään lenkkeillessä osaa mennä tuota 9 km / h hiljempaakaan, vaikka ennen menin aina leppoisaa 7 km / h, joka todennäköisesti olisi siinä kymmenen kilsan lenkissä parempi tahti. Kyllä sitä vielä alle kahdessa kuukaudessa ehkä saa itsestään kympin irti.. heh heh!"


Uskomatonta miten paljon sitä on vuodessa kehittynyt! En voisi kuvitellakaan enää juoksevani 7 km/h, jopa viime syksynä juoksemani ensimmäisen 21 kilsan lenkin keskivauhti oli 7,5 km/h ja senkin juoksin todella varovaisesti ja peläten etten jaksa. Lopulta virtaa olisi löytynyt vielä kymmeneen lisäkilometriin ja siinä mielessä vauhti oli ollut hyvä. Tänä talvena olen treenaillut myös juoksumatolla, joten taukoa juoksemisesta ei ole ollut lähes lainkaan. Tammikuun alussa taisi muutama viikko olla, joina en juossut ollenkaan. Muuten olen juossut matolla 4-7 kilsan lenkkejä ja yhden kympinkin. Naisten kymppi ei siis ole huolenaiheena, sehän on hauskanpitoa täynnä ihanien tyttöjen kanssa! On kyllä silti mahtavaa huomata miten kehitystä tapahtuu kuin huomaamatta, toivon kanssajuoksijoidenkin pitävän pintansa, sillä parissa kuukaudessakin voi saada paljon aikaan. Jos miettii, että viime kevään naistenkympissä juoksin kympin yli tunnissa ja syksyllä jaksoin jo juosta 21 km, niin sitähän pystyy melkein mihin tahansa!


Olen ilmottautunut myös HCR-puolimaratonille, joka juostaan 5.5. - siis ennen naisten kymppiä. Toistaiseksi olen aika luottavainen, että jaksan juosta sen, vaikka edellisestä noin pitkästä lenkistä on jo aikaa. En myöskään ole vetänyt nyt alkuvuonna yhtäkään kymppiä pidempää lenkkiä. Kestävyyttä pitäisi siis treenata, puolimaratonille on enää 8 viikkoa, kääk! Näillä puheilla povaan sunnuntaiksi aurinkoista ilmaa, että voisi käydä heittämässä yhden 13-15 kilometrin lenkin ulkona. Siinä matolla ei jaksa niin pitkään paikoillaan polkea.

Vaikka en yleensä ajattele kovin kollektivistisesti, niin eilinen naistenpäivä ja tän päivän haastattelu meidän loistavan porukan kanssa ovat kyllä saaneet ryhmähengen nousemaan. Se, että tiedät mihin itse pystyt, on mahtavaa, mutta entä se mitä voimme yhdessä ryhmänä saavuttaa? Esimerkiksi ketä olisi kiinnostanut, jos olisin ilmoittautunut ylen dokumenttiin päähenkilöksi yksin, kertonut juoksevani tulevien kesähäiden kunniaksi. No eipä varmaan ketään. Nyt kun meitä on dynaaminen ja ihanan sekalainen sakki, niin herätämme varmasti huomiota, puhumattakaan siitä kuinka hauskaa meillä tulee olemaan yhdessä! Piis out - ja kyllä, olisin voinut jättää vähemmälle sen vaahterasiirapin eilisten lettujen päällä. Tai sen kinuskileivoksen aamulla väliin. Mut jos tykkää olla sweet, niin hei, me ollaan sitä mitä me syödään!