Training Log Archive: Anna

Home teams bout! That means instead of playing all together, our league divides into two teams and plays each other.

We started down two players, so we only had 2 blocking lines, so whenever we weren't playing, we were about to go in next. Then two jammers had asthma issues, and one blocker severely sprained her ankle (I found out later that it had been an ongoing issue, and she was being stubborn and playing on it. Also it hadn't been taped, probably bc she didn't want to ask anyone for help and then have them tell her not to play. Also a lot of skaters in our league have never played team sports before and so don't know basic things like when you should tape things and what to google to figure out how to do the tape job. Sucks that it was so avoidable. Someone posted on the board that severe sprains can have longer recovery times than just breaks, so she could be out for awhile.)

Anyway, much more playing time than a lot of scrimmages bc of the empty bench! I was a blocker most of the time bc my sesamoid thing (and probably also my plantar fasciitis) hurt when I run/push on my toe stops, which is pretty much unavoidable if you're jamming. And I got my first MVP Blocker award!!! I had a few big hits:

1) Nasty was trying to run our jammer back (skating non-derby direction), and if they're doing that, basically everything's a legal target zone to hit them, and if there's any contact that affects gameplay at all, they get a penalty ("directional"). So she was skating at a pretty good speed to run her back and I shoulder checked her in the sternum and popped her up so she got knocked off her skates. And then she had to go to the box on top of it! The opposing coach actually cheered for me bc it was such a big hit and it's a good thing to do to keep opposing players from running your jammer back. She thinks her rib might be broken, but it's also a thing that you're not supposed to feel bad if you hurt someone from a 100% legal hit. (Also I didn't feel bad bc at the end of an earlier jam I'd told her to watch her directional bc we collided as she was getting ready to run a jammer back. Wasn't paying enough attention to hit her that time though.)

2) I was trying to get ahead of the opposing team's best jammer as she was just making out of the pack, and she went to go hit me (kind of unnecessarily bc she could've just skated away), and I counterblocked and made us both fall down and her lose like 5 seconds and be more tired. Wasn't quick enough (and also just so shocked I managed to knock Nana down), but if I'd been thinking better I could've gotten upright and back in bounds ahead of her and run her back so the pack could swallow her back up. Will keep in mind for next time.

3) I was coming back in from the box as a jammer and was pretty even with the in-bounds jammer coming around the track, and she went to hit me but I got lower than her and popped up and knocked her off her skates.

Multiple other people told me I hit them hard that I didn't remember hitting! I was also told I did a good job staying in front of the jammer with my butt and staying in front of her when she tried to go around. Should still focus on keeping together in a wall and re-grouping after the jammer gets through our we're playing offense or we slow her down and want to re-form around her.

Thoughts on NAOC and the end of roller derby season in a couple weeks:

- It was awesome that my feet behaved so well for 5 straight days of orienteering, with a much higher volume than I've been doing (since I've basically been doing 0 running for the past few months)! Buttttt it was a risky move, and after our last derby game of the season (Sept 8), I want to take some time to make sure they're all the way better and do a proper build-up to an appropriate recreational-running volume (20 mi/wk?). Everything's more fun when I can run whenever I feel like it, and I think that especially now that I'm doing another sport, it'll take consistency/planning to keep myself uninjured. (Sigh.)

- Derby's also been way less fun after several injuries have prevented me from skating outside of practice, mostly my sesamoid problem keeping me from practicing toe stop work and things that use my edges a lot (so basically like 80% of the things I'd want to practice). First step was graduating from my rookie skates, which will be great once I'm more used to them. Can already tell there's less pressure on my sesamoid, now just have to get used to the fit/break them in. Next goal is to get to where I can do Power Skate (hour-long skate endurance workout) on Tuesdays in addition to 2 official practices, and goal after that is to get to the point where I can add a *short* (30ish min) mid-week skating workout where I'm consistently practicing some of the basics but not over-doing it. May have to build up to what the eventual "short" workout ends up being.

- Orienteering at NAOC was fun, and less of a bummer afterwards than Anza-Borrego since I didn't end up injured this time! So I'm more motivated to keep an eye out for events, especially since roller derby's about to become less busy. As weird as it sounds, I'm more attracted to events like NAOC than local events, because I know there will be super high quality maps and terrain, and that I'll be able to see people I haven't seen in awhile! (The technical terrain was especially fun at NAOC bc it made it challenging even though I'm pretty slow right now ;)) But local events could be a great opportunity for bringing friends to try orienteering--my new grad buddy randomly knew of the local event this past weekend and knew all about what orienteering was, and I have another friend who's a heavyweight boxer and had no idea what it was but is super competitive and wants to use his active rest day to go try to run around really fast around an orienteering course. Also my grad buddy from my first year has gone to an urban park O' meet with me before and could maybe be convinced to go again! (Sadly, it turns out that all my derby friends skate because they hate running.)

- Other important training thing I need to fit in is the knee PT stuff I'm doing now (different than the stuff I was doing for my patellofemoral syndrome). I think it's like 20 min 3x wk, and some of it can be done while I'm waiting for the bus after practice.

PT. Things I can remember are:

- side walking w the purple band around ankles, keeping knees from caving to center
- lunges onto half bosu ball, same deal
- 3 x 10 step-downs from 10-inch step (higher than last time), each leg
- walking lunges with twist-y thing with 8 lb medicine ball raising and holding out in front when I twist, down and back once (maybe 10-15m?). Point was to keep knee from caving to the center at the part where I twist my torso.
- Y things on the balance disc thing (disc is less stable than the squishy thing I used last time!). Forget how many
- Romanian deadlifts, 20 lbs, forget how many
- kettlebell squats, forget how many and what weight
- side walking out w purple band around ankles, also with the resistance handle puller thing

I thinnnnk that's it! He said movement patterns are getting better :)

First contact practice since hurting my knee, and it felt completely fine!!!! Gonna call it cured, but I'll still limit how many games/scrimmages I do back-to-back for awhile. Back-to-back contact things is potentially a contributing factor to it being hurt.

Tonight was good bc we did drills and worked up to contact, then practiced walls and stuff! Bc of the sesamoid problem I didn't jam so much, even though it was an option--feels so good after being off skates for a week that I don't wanna ruin it now by overusing my toe stop running!!! Only 1 more home teams game (scrimmage) and one more actual game in the season, so it's the home stretch.

Did most of my stretches while waiting for the bus--like half of a day's at-home PT knocked out, and it isn't even an at-home PT day! Other note is the fancy new Trimtex warmups are now justified bc they're packable enough to fit in my work backpack and they keep me warm and able to stretch at the bus stop :) They also unzip and can go on and off over my shoes!!! Been mostly wearing tights for my warm layers recently, and I've missed the convenience of warmups!

NAOC sprint! This was super fun and the first sprint I've done in not-sure-how-long, but a long time! Solid in the urban part at the beginning (minus hesitation trying to see where the controls were on the map, what order, etc.), then saw an easy section and decided it was a good time to read ahead, and reeeeeeeally didn't pay attention to what I was doing and completely lost contact. Like the most out of touch I've been w the map the entire event, and I didn't recover nearly as well as I did in the forest races. I'll be curious to see what winsplits/attackpoint think it cost me, but I'd guess like a minute or 1:30. Other than that, there were some small bobbles and hesitation but mostly under control.

Legs didn't feel so exhausted today, mostly just couldn't move any faster! Not sure I've done anything tempo effort in a year or two, at least not running, and might be fun to do a few at some point once I'm sure my feet are fixed :)

HPP fundraiser! Accidentally got 2 extra controls bc we could skip 3 controls inside the box, but most of the controls were inside the box, and things were super hard to keep track of. Woops! Was a fun time, and I successfully finished my 5th race here without getting injured! Gonna back off the anti-inflammatories when I get back and make sure the foot still feels good, but the mossy ground and not skating for a week seems to have at least maintained the status quo :)

NAOC Sprint - C-5a - Splits

Relay! Legs are very tired, but still no injuries :) Plan was to be extra careful of control codes and be as clean as possible so our team could be under the time limit and pick up the 4th place points.

Runner's course, lots of trails. Clean-ish, but made one parallel error towards the beginning where I went up a green-slash reentrant instead of a white reentrant, and I'd guess that cost me a couple minutes. Was another long-ish leg in a flat section, and was off a bit but was quick to find my catching feature. Butttttt even "small" mistakes in the forest cost so much time bc of the pillow-y moss and all the deadfall. Legs had no gas on the trails, but still faster than going through the forest most of the time! I think it was a solid effort for where I'm at :)

I was first leg, then Kelsey had a clean run and Angelica had a great run and we got the points!

C • Woooo! 2

warmup

Relay - Senior Women Leg 1 - Splits

Warmup. Plantar fascia tape job and sesamoid pad are working very well! And knee/hamstring felt better on the warmup than yesterday, so everything seems to be working properly :)

NAOC middle. Actual time was 1:04-something. Beat some people I thought I wouldn't, but waiting for splits to come up to see how much time I lost (messy enough I can't remember all of them). Several mistakes/bad route choices/hesitations, but never let them blow up out of control, and never got frustrated. Also didn't let other people distract me. Terrain was beautiful, and vegetation was good practice navigating with lower visibility than normal!

Excited to get a chance to run the relay tomorrow (first leg), and plan is to check all my control codes and not get distracted by other people.

Just learned about a thing called 2d rerun and made one! Good, bc apparently I can't use Quickroute on a mac :/

NAOC Middle & WRE - C-10 - Splits

Will add more info later! Notes for now: I did F21S, 6k, 11 controls, lots of variety in leg length. Way outside my fitness level right now, especially with all the deadfall/blueberries! But no injuries, at least none that have started complaining yet :) I think I took about 1:13-something, and about halfway through I started to realize I wasn't going to be able to power through the blueberry the whole way. Plan was to conserve energy during the less runnable parts and make minimal mistakes. Made a couple mistakes and relocated quickly, but the common theme was that my bearings weren't very accurate in the flat areas. I'd anticipated that with all the deadfall/pine-y stuff but wasn't able to prevent bobbles. Tomorrow looks like it'll have a lot more contour detail, so plan is to stay in contact!

C • Good to hear... 2

Not sure actual time, but this is approximately right (started watch a bit early, ended a bit late).

NAOC Long & WRE - C-8b - Splits

Event: NAOC 2018
 

Model event today! 20ish minutes, will log later. Haven't forgotten how to orienteer, and tape job seemed to work for heel! (Also took anti-inflammatories after, which could have helped, but no pain during the course.) Other foot (ball of foot) didn't hurt while in the woods. Some slight discomfort while walking around after, but not much. Shoes were inov8 mudclaws + old blue orthotics, and seemed to work pretty well.