Over here at The Dashboard, we’re eagerly waiting to hear about Grim’s tryout (spoiler: she did well). Until then, I’ll tell you about my recent derby vacation:
One week. No skates. … Sounds like torture.
Since Feb. 2, 2011, I’ve taken these “breaks” from skating:
-10-day trip to Europe (no skates)
-31-day trip around the United States (skated about once per week, rink and derby)
-Six-day trip to Maui (skated one practice, skated one bout)
-Last week (no skates)
Not skating while in Europe was torture. Same with the U.S. road trip, but I did get to guest skate along the way. The hard part about that trip was knowing I was losing fitness, but was about to have a transfer into Rose City tryout — which would demand all the fitness I had. I went to Maui for derby, so, that was painless.
This year, my home team took a break after early June and won’t be back until fall. Travel team announced a break for last week.
Initially, I was upset and wanted to (defiantly) skate through it. This was quickly overshadowed by the joy of extra hours with my SO, a weekend camping and not rushing from work to the convenience store (for a Powerbar) to practice three days a week.
Lesson: It was nice. It was really nice. I could take another week.
And I went back to practice last night ready (well, mostly ready. I was late because traffic was terrible coming back from the ocean), refreshed and not any worse for it. Probably better, as we all need to rest our bodies sometimes.
Here is what my schedule is when home teams (HT) and travel team (TT) are both on:
SUN — (TT) 1 hour off-skates + 1 hour endurance skate + 1 hour drills
MON — (HT) 1 hour off-skates
TUE — (HT) 1 hour strategy talk + 2 hours drills
WED — (HT/TT) 1 hour scrimmage with HT + 1 hour scrimmage with TT
THU — (TT) 1 hour off-skates + 2 hours drills
FRI — Free*.
SAT — Free. (Optional league scrimmage)
= 12 mandatory hours.
Yeah, a break every now and then is necessary.
To be honest, with such a rigorous load I was losing a little steam in the last few weeks. It’s summer and I’ve been working really hard for months (you saw that schedule, right?). Now I feel rejuvenated and ready to put my body and mind back to work and prepare for some pretty exciting bouts. Wise move coaches, wise move.
The travel team I’m on will play Windy City, Kansas City and Rat City in August. Super pumped.
*Some weeks I’m expected to fit another hour of off-skates in there for home team =13 total/week.
The Dashboard 