A busy week of skating...

So I haven't posteed for a little while, and I'm going to pretend that's because I wanted to write a bumper post, summarising the skating activities of this week. Because that's what you're getting now.

First of all, last week I asked for anyone from Bel's group to comment explaining what they had been doing at practice. Kitten Squeal went one better, and started her own blog, which you can find here, and also in the links sidebar, er... over there ->

Secondly, I promised you Mr X Stitch's photos from the practice he photographed for us. Rather than posting them all here, which will take up far too much space, I will point you to this gallery on our Facebook fan page, of which I know you are all already fans. Right? Good. Since this is my blog, I must point you to my flexibility in photo 2, and my arm whip to Dutch in photo 36. Please also ignore my "concentration face" in photo 40.


This Wednesday, a few of us joined Bedfordshire Roller Girls for their practice. Having not eaten much that day, I took part until I started seeing stars, then sat out for a bit before joining back in. Stupid mistake that will not be made again. The floor at Bedford is much more grippy that what we Cows are used to, and the skiting-in-treacle senseation really made things tough. So much respect for the leg muscles of the BRG girls, and those Cows that managed to keep it up for the entire 2-hour practice. Seriously, kudos.

Incidentally, the surface at BRG compounded a problem that Bibi and I have been having, which is characterised by sharp pain from the outside of the ankle running up the outside of the leg. A couple of people have suggested shin splints, although a bit of research suggests this is usually on the inside of the shin, rather than the outside. Any suggestions on a postcard plese (or in the comments, whatever you prefer).

Anyway, back to Bedford. We were lucky enough to get some coaching from Rainy City ref, Karl Lager-filled, who taught us some excellent whips and moves, including The Waitress and The Rocket. Some of these were beyond my skill level, but all of them were fun to have a go at.

After completely wearing myself out on Wednesday, I found myself laid up in bed for 2 days, presumably with whatever had afflicted Cer' during Wednesday's practice, along with a sore neck. Which sucked, and by Friday night I was concerned that I wouldn't be up to skating for the whole hour and a half. However, thanks to some accidental osteopathy from Cer' (she landed on my head and cracked my neck) I felt much better and really felt like I got a lot out of the blocking activities that Bel' organised for us. Definitely need to be pushing myself for top group now though - I think my general fitness level is letting me down, along with my lack of confidence in t-stops. More practice!


New skills executed successfully this week (if not mastered):

- T-stops - FINALLY! After weeks of watching my feet thinking "What am I doing wrong?", it turns out the thing I was doing wrong was... watching my feet. Just need to be able to use them at speed now

- Plough stops - realised I was putting my feet too far apart. With legs this short, plough stops are easier when I'm not halfway into the splits

- That 180 degree turn thing (derby stop without the stopper stop - not quite there yet) managed to get them going in both directions at Sunday's disco, thanks to Bibi and Sandra.

- JUMPING! in the final minutes of the disco yesterday, I managed to jump over a row of cones. Not the little 1-2 skips I had done before, but actual, both-feet-leaping-and-landing-at-the-same-time-jumping. ACE.


Things I can tick off last week's to-do list:

- "Get a new mouthguard that doesn't make me want to hurl" DONE. Got an OPRO Bronze mouthguard in white. It's really good, if anyone needs a recommendation, and you can get them online for about £3 inc. postage.

- "Get a practice session in between Sunday's roller disco and Friday's training" DONE. BRG.

- "Learn how to actually stop on a surface other than my kitchen tiles, or no-one will believe me." DONE.

To add:

- Learn to stop reliably, at speed.


Other exciting MK Cows news this week:

- COW SOCKS ARE HERE!

- Nef, Red and Betty were on the radio!

- Dutch is putting together a fanzine! (Any ideas for articles in the comments please!)


Right, that's quite enough for now. If you made it this far, well done. Don't think this entry was particularly entertaining, so I will try harder next time. Promise.

C.F.

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