Elennare Prepares for Battle

[Elennare]

Edit: now with theme!

 

Last challenge went ok.  Still got room for improvement, but, as always, I identified some changes I can make to help me succeed.  I am still super tired from the weekend travel, so I'm really not in a creative mood right now, and thus will be adding my fancy theme later.  I had an awesome trip, though.  My league came in 4th in the adults and 3rd in the juniors!  Given our lack of practice space AND not having a track available to practice on, I think we did really well!  Watching the teams that came in first and second, I could see that we have the raw materials to do that, just not the ability to execute on it right now.  Once we have our track back, I think we'll be right up there with them.  Anyone got an empty warehouse in the Seattle area?

 

Building on last challenge...

Elennare prepares for battle!

Or, the one where I become a roller girl for realz!  Like the awesome Wrath and Demi, pictured above.

 

I have a bout on June 17th.  My very first bout, in fact.  Sure, I've scrimmaged before, but not on the banked track.  And, it's always different when you're playing for real.  So, my theme this challenge, such as it is, is going to be roller derby!  Mostly getting inspiration from the awesome ladies I skate with.  And yes, these are all pictures of my league.  Some of them are kind of old, but they are awesome pictures, so whatever.  On to my goals!

 

Sleep!  I needs it.  Sleeping on the track is unacceptable, right Wolfie?

Doing better, but still got work to do.  In bed by 9:30 on non-derby nights, as soon as possible on derby nights.

 

Practice! So I can be super awesome like our junior skaters, the Peeps.  Seriously.  Do not underestimate junior derby girls.  They are tiny, but they will mess you up.  The bout where we lost, and took 3rd in the tournament was the best bout of the whole weekend.  Better than the adults, in fact!

This went really well last challenge.  Going to up my goal to 7 practices over the course of the challenge.  This number might change in June, because I think there are extra practices scheduled before the bout so we can get on the track before the game, but I haven't seen them posted yet.  I should probably check the calendar...  The idea is a goal of one less practice than is offered over the challenge period.  Edit:  I checked the calendar.  I have 12 possible practices/scrimmages/bouts over the course of the challenge, assuming I don't get invited to any team practices.  So, the goal is 11!

 

 

Workout!  I need to step up my fitness game.  That was one of the big things I learned from watching Battle on the Bank.  Also, some of the falls that happen on the bank are a bit gnarlier than the flat. For example:

(she's not jumping, she's falling.  Probably because Cattie knocked her out of the way.)

I need to improve my flexibility to help not get hurt when I fall (not if, it will happen, and probably lots because I am not used to the track).  Goals: lift weights at least once a week, go running at least once a week, work on flexibility.  Might be yoga, but I'm also seriously considering picking up Focused Flexibility from GMB.  Anyone have any experience with that program?

 

Move! 

Hey look, I'm in this one!  Smack is about to pass me, because she moves more than I do.

The work exercise challenge is still going on.  It ends on June 25th, so just a couple days longer than the NF challenge.  Goal: maintain 13k+/day steps average.  This includes exercise converted to steps.  Trying to get 9k/day from walking turned out to be a bit much, but I think I can hit 8k.  That is a bonus goal, though.  As long as I maintain the average, I'm on track (it's currently a tad over 16k.  I've been slacking a bit. )

 

Handy dandy progress tracker:

Sleep! 0/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 0/11 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 0/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along again.

[Evicious]

I dunno how roller derby...ers... train, but I know that horseback riders, gymnasts, and martial artists all actively train how to take a hard fall. Maybe you could borrow some techniques from those disciplines to help you out on the bank encounters?

[Sloth the Enduring]

 

@Elastigirl did Focused Flexibility. She spoke highly of it.

 

Tumbling practice is great idea if you're not already doing it. I did it when I was a poorly skilled bike racer and it greatly increased the survivability of the crashes.

[Elastigirl]

I really enjoy Focused Flexibility. You can use it several ways. There are set routines you can pick for different things, shoulder work, hips, general flexibility. Or you can test yourself and see what areas need work and do those. The videos are really well done and easy to understand.  I also like the method of combining static and moving stretching.

[Elennare]

Hrm...apparently it won't let me post when I use the multi-quote feature.  Let's try this...

 

@EviciousUsually we say "roller girl" or sometimes "derby girl," but there's probably another term as well, because men's derby is a thing.

 

@Evicious and @Sloth the Enduring, I do know how to fall, thanks to my time as a semi-professional stuntman.  Unfortunately, the techniques that work for those disciplines don't really work in derby for several reasons.  First is the fact that you have skates on your feet, which makes rolling safely a fair bit harder.  Then, when you do fall, it's either in the middle of the pack or a bit in front of the pack.  There are people all around, or about to be all around, you when you go down.  Rolling in that is going to result in crashing into other people, and will be particularly dangerous for them because now there are skates flying at their faces.  And then, when you do hit someone else, you will get a low block penalty called and have to sit out the next jam!

 

The fear of flying off the track and landing on my head is really one of those nonsensical lizard brain fears, which was diminished somewhat by watching the best players in the country fail to hit anyone even close to hard enough to make something like that happen.  The rest will go away once I do it a few times.  What I'm actually most concerned about is something like falling into the infield but having one of my feet stay on the track, resulting in some sort of crazy, pretzel, splits position.  It's the inch and a half to two inch elevation of the track resulting in oversplits that doesn't happen on the flat that scares me.  Which is why I really want to work on my flexibility.

 

@Elastigirl Thanks!  I appreciate the info.  Did you get the basic version, or the fancy one with the follow-along videos?  I will admit the one with the videos is probably out of my price range, so if it really needs those to be effective I'll probably skip it.

[Elastigirl]

Congrats on being 4th in the league!

 

I bought it before they had the follow along videos. When you buy a program, any upgrades they do are included. I really enjoyed it and found it easy to use even before the follow along videos. If you are working on a specific area, they have a list of exercises and demo videos to go along with it. So it is super easy.  The follow along  cuts out the step of you having to look at the list to see which exercise is next. I do use the follow along videos, they are a nice bonus, but not necessary to the program.

[Evicious]

Wow, you're a stuntman!?!?! That's awesome!!!  What kind of stunts do you do/have you done?

 

[Elennare]

1 hour ago, Evicious said:

Wow, you're a stuntman!?!?! That's awesome!!!  What kind of stunts do you do/have you done?

 

 

Not currently, but when I was in college I was.   The group I was part of did primarily sword fighting, but we also did pretty much everything not involving vehicles (though we had at least one person qualified for that).  So, I have experience with a bunch of different types of swords/medieval weapons, hand-to-hand fighting (brawling and marital arts style), falls and rolls, high falls, hand guns, jerk harness, and fire breathing.  I was also the tech director for the group, so I was in charge of our lighting, sound, fog machines, and pyrotechnics.  We did a fair bit of producing our own shows (at Ren Faires and the like), but we also did instructive demonstrations at schools, provided stuntmen for various local-ish theater groups, and trained actors in the techniques (I've personally worked with a couple high schools and two professional opera theaters).    I think that covers everything?

[Sloth the Enduring]

Ouch, I hadn't even considered skates to face. New plan, don't fall

[Elennare]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

New plan, don't fall

That is always the plan!   But, unfortunately, no plan survives contact with the enemy.

[Elennare]

Hey lookie!  I have a theme and pictures now!

[Elennare]

So the other day I came across an article talking histamine intolerance.  While reading it, it occurred to me that I have a significant number of the symptoms listed for it.  I tried to ask the doctor about some of the newer ones I'd been experiencing (thought maybe low thyroid), so she did the thyroid test for me and it came back normal.  But, histamine intolerance would explain a lot of the stuff I've got going on, as well as why no anti-histamine has ever been able to do much for my (supposed?) allergies, or why I can have small amounts of dairy and be ok (as long as I don't have too many small amounts in a given period - then I have issues). 

 

So, I think I'm going to give the elimination diet for that a shot.  Not going to start before Sunday, though, because I need some time to figure out how I'm going to make it work.  Especially since a significant amount of what I currently eat is on the "no" lists.  But, if it helps, it would be worth it.  And if it doesn't help, no real loss (except maybe for some weight?).

[Elennare]

Been playing around with avoiding foods on the no list for histamine intolerance, and it might not be as bad as I initially thought. Going to give it a try. Starting tomorrow.

 

Currently debating if I want to use the rest of my morning to work on the house, or go get my nails done. I'm leaning towards nails, because that's easier to do and not feel guilty about when Husband and the boys are at gymnastics. I can clean the house when I have helpers. Now if only the little red dots from epilating would hurry up and go away so the lady doesn't think I have measles or something (but only on one leg, because the battery died ).

[Elennare]

Days one and two update:

Sleep! 2/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/11 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 0/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

Well, I've been getting to bed as soon as I can after practice, but that's been pretty late so far.  Really need to make this a priority the rest of the week, because right now I'm trying to replace sleep with coffee with only moderate success.

 

No, that's not a typo on the number of practices.  I had two on Sunday.  And scrimmage last night.  I am dead.  But it was a pretty good scrimmage, all things considered.

 

Haven't scheduled my workout for the week, but it'll happen.  And well on top of my steps average for the week!  Went on a nice 2.5 mile or so hike yesterday afternoon on top of all the skating.  So much skating over the weekend, too.  Friday we all went to open skate (lasted about 20 minutes before Little One decided he liked the idea of skating much more than the reality),  Edit:  that replacing sleep with coffee thing I mentioned?  Yeah, totally forgot half my thought here.  The rest of it:  Saturday I went to the skate park with Little Bug (which also resulted in about 20 minutes of skating, before he decided his butt was too sore from falling down.  On the up side, after watching me do it and helping him the first time, he just dove in to trying to skate down a ramp on his own!).  Two practices and a scrimmage between Sunday and Monday, and tonight I go coach/ref Little Bug's last bout (assuming he goes.  He threw up last night, and is apparently still not feeling all better yet.  But he really wants to go, so we'll see what happens).

 

I did decide to go get my nails done on Saturday.  The dishes did not get done.  I do not regret my decision.

[Elennare]

Despite my best intentions, I am apparently not going to be able to update every day.  Oh well.

 

Day 3 and 4 status report:

Sleep! 2/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/11 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 0/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

-Got to bed about a half hour late both days.  Not good, but not too bad, either. 

-No more practices scheduled for this week.  I got invited to practice with one of the teams on Saturday, but it's right at the same time we're going to be celebrating Little Bug's birthday, so won't be going to that.

-Need to schedule my workout this week.  Hopefully Friday.  But, ugh.  I am still super tired, and it's shark week.  But I need to lift, so I'll make it happen.

-Still on track with my steps!

 

[Elennare]

Week one update:

Sleep! 3/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/9 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 1/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

Got to bed on time one more night this week. Within half an hour most of the other nights, so not too bad.

 

Practice is on track, though we just had the last scrimmage before the bout canceled, which sucks. And, I also can't go to scrimmage this coming Monday, because I have parent orientation for Little Bug's kindergarten. So, my goal has gone down by 2.

 

My workout did not happen this week, because both boys were sick on Friday, so I ended up staying home and spent most of the day with little boy curled up on my lap.

 

Doing good on my step average so far, though I didn't manage to go running yet.

[Elennare]

Week 2 day 1 update:

Sleep! 3/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/9 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 1/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

Caught whatever the boys had.  Thankfully, it seems to be limited to some mild belly issues, rather than the full-blown throw-up and diarrhea the boys had.  Didn't go to practice last night, though.  Which means I'll need to step it up this week if I want to maintain my steps average, because I can't go to scrimmage tonight.  Unless something happens, I'm going to go to the flat track (*shudder*) open scrimmage tomorrow so I can at least get some time on skates in this week.  I think I'll have some time in between work and orientation, so I'm planning to go running.  I also picked up Focused Flexibility.  Looking forward to getting started with that this week, too.

 

In other news, I took my measurements this weekend.  According to my bathroom scale, my body fat has gone down a couple of points compared to the start of the year.  Every single other measurement has gone up, though.  I'm not sure if that's because I've been building some additional muscle without really losing fat, or if I'm just slowly getting fatter.  I think I've been seeing a tad more definition lately, but I might just be fooling myself because I don't want to admit otherwise.  I really should take pictures and put them side by side with the ones from the start of the year...

 

I have also realized that as much as I'd like to try the low-histamine diet, I do not have my sh*t together enough right now for that to be feasible.  I do think I'm going to take a shot at eating paleo again, though.  Because something's gotta change.

[Elennare]

Update from yesterday:

Sleep! 3/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/9 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 1/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

Well, I did not go running.  By the time work was done, I was tired enough and my stomach was feeling off enough that I was afraid I'd get changed and just start and then end up having to sprint to the bathroom (not the kind of running I want to do!), with the end result of I'd gone through all the trouble of changing only to end up wasting all the running time.  I did go walk, though, so not a complete waste of time.  I also didn't want to push it and then feel worse today, either, because I want to go to the open scrimmage tonight.

 

Got to bed late, too, because when I got home from new parent orientation, I realized I was out of clean work clothes, so I had to do laundry.

 

Orientation was a deluge of info, and now I'm a bit worried about finances, because there's a bunch of fundraiser/donation stuff that seems to have to happen fairly soon in the school year. :/

 

On the plus side, I have now walked enough to have locked in the $75 prize, my average is 15539, and I am 168596 steps away from the $100 prize with just under 3 weeks to go (works out to I need 8430 steps/day the rest of the challenge - current average I'll hit it in 10 days.  I have a LOT of skating coming up next week, so I expect I'll hit the goal by the end of next week at the very latest.).

[Elastigirl]

Been a while since I stopped by. Congrats on the steps and prize money!  What are you going to get? Hope you get over the bug quickly.

Loved the skating picture!

[Elennare]

12 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Been a while since I stopped by. Congrats on the steps and prize money!  What are you going to get? Hope you get over the bug quickly.

Loved the skating picture!

Thanks! I have no idea what I'm going to use the prize for yet. It comes in the form of an Amazon gift card, so I got lots of options.

 

Sleep! 3/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/9 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 1/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

(no idea why it loses the bold font when I paste from my phone)

 

I did not go to scrimmage last night, because my stomach once again decided exercise was a bad idea. Blarg. Probably a good thing, though, because it turned out I needed to do pretty much all the packing for Little Bug, and we got to bed late enough as it was. Probably would have ended up being something like 2am if I had gone to scrimmage. I did get a fair amount of steps yesterday at least.

 

I think my stomach is mostly better? We'll see how it goes today.

[Elennare]

Still sick. Blarg. That is it for this drive-by update.

[Elastigirl]

2 hours ago, Elennare said:

Still sick. Blarg. That is it for this drive-by update.

Blech. Feel better soon.

[Elennare]

This thread has become lacking in derby pictures.

 

There, that's better.

 

My stomach continues to be not happy, but I think, maybe, it's getting better?

 

Did not get to bed on time last night, again.  But I got other stuff I had to do done, so that was good.  One of the skaters held a gear clinic last night and then we went to open skate to see what we thought of the tweaks we had made.  It also doubled as a street team event (promoting the bout).  Attending at least one is mandatory, and this was the most convenient/best schedule fit, so I stayed up late to get it done.  I also let one of the new skaters on the league borrow my good wheels, so I ended up using my kinda crappy ones with the junk bearings.  Which was fine, because I wasn't doing anything other than tooling around the rink for fun.  And talking to random people.  That, plus kinda talking to other parents at orientation on Monday, plus the 2 hour or so birthday party I took the boys to on Sunday has used up my allotment of socializing with people I don't already know well.  I don't know what I'm going to do this weekend, but hiding in the corner with a book sounds pretty good.  At least I got a bunch of steps for the skating.

[Elennare]

Week two wrap up!

Sleep! 4/28 days to bed on time

Practice! 3/9 practices attended

Workout! 0/4 weeks goal met

Move! 2/4 weeks 13k+ average maintained

 

Sleep needs a lot of work.  At least I'm going to go to bed on time tonight.  Practice is on track.  Workouts got derailed by being sick.  Definitely feeling better today, though still not 100%.  And now I've either got my allergies going nuts or I'm getting a cold.   My steps average is on track still.

 

Spent today reclaiming the kitchen and the living room.  We're almost caught up from the great septic tank debacle, finally.  We ran out of steam before we got all the way there.

 

Also, holy crap.  My bout is in a week.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  I'm gonna die.  Both because I'm not very good on the track yet (Wednesday, or whenever our first practice after Tuesday is, will be my second time skating on it), and because tomorrow starts the equivalent of hell week.  Somehow, I will do this.  Right?