Editions of Me

If you just want to see my  notes  (very brief, scribbled from memory) from the three classes I took at Rollercon, click here . If you want my recap full of crazy shenanigans and gushing over roller derby and "What does it all mean??" sort of stuff, keep reading :) If I had to choose a theme for my Rollercon experience this year, it would have to be "little things yield big results." (And I did not choose this just because I watched Francey Pants skate for the first time ever and was BLOWN AWAY.) A couple months ago, after a home bout, I had an email conversation with my Psychopathogens teammate, Fibonacci Sequins (who also happens to be the wife of our head coach), and something she said really stuck with me: We're getting beyond the point where [Carl] can coach us to keep making significant improvements.  We all have our fundamentals down pat.  We have all internalized the strategy and are executing it well.  What it comes down to right now is repet...

*dies* I frickin' saw this bout IN PERSON and nearly peed myself in excitement. GOD, I love Rollercon. 

I have to say, I don't know where to begin with this blog post, because leading up to it, this last bout has kind of been on the backburner for me. It's like, while I couldn't avoid being painfully aware that this day was coming - the final showdown! -  at the same time, I had run two huge races in basically the span of a week, and then a few days ago, I woke up with a severe cold that is only just starting to go away today . And then literally the night before the bout, Jolie came down with a fever, so needless to say, my mind has been engaged elsewhere for the last couple of weeks. But as they say, the show must go on! With so much on the line, I wouldn't dare let down my team. Not only was this a winner-take-all championship bout, but our two teams were also playing for a good cause. The winning team would have proceeds donated to the charity of their choice - we chose Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. I personally voted for PP when the Psychos were trying ...

Can I get an "OH YEAH"? OH YEAH!! I signed up for the Jungle Run solely because it's exactly on the trail where I normally run on Sundays, and figured I might as well just run a little extra (I was actually scheduled for 8 miles today) and get some bling and aid stations out of it. It was just supposed to be a one-off "fun run" (I put that in quotes because only someone like me would consider 13 miles a fun run, right?). And then I ended up PR-ing!!! 3:06:11 - TWENTY MINUTES faster than my previous PR (Tinkerbell in January). Almost a full hour faster than my NWM time from October. And I don't feel too beat up. My feet have been feeling blistery since last week's Dirty Dozen, but I feel great otherwise. I have to chalk this up to my better diet and just being more active in general - previously, even when I've tried to WALK a half-marathon (not even running a little bit), my body would start giving up around mile 8, and my legs would st...

The Dirty Dozen and Half-Dozen endurance challenge is basically a race where you run as much as you can in either 12 or 6 hours (respectively). The course is set up as a 5k loop, and you run as many loops as you feel like. You don't have to run the full time if you don't want to - lots of people stopped to eat, change gear, hydrate, or even sleep. DD also includes two 10ks and 2 5ks, one of each during the last one to two hours of the 6-hour challenge and the 12-hour challenge. Both endurance runs start at 7am, and last their respective amounts of time; the first 10k and 5k begin at 11am and noon; the second 10k and 5k begin at 5pm and 6pm. The story is that I originally signed up for the first 10k, then decided I wanted to do the 6-hour challenge instead. However, I then decided that since I'd already paid the fee for the 10k, I might as well run that one too and get my shirt/medal for it, since I would still be running during the hours of 11am-1pm anyway.  So that...