Thursday and Monday updates

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about last Thursday - it was pretty intense! We're doing a lot of pack work, which makes me very happy, as most of my problems now seem to have a lot to do with skating around others. The main drill of the night was the continuous block - everyone on (a larger version) of the track, with 6 girls jamming at a time, all positional blocking. It was an asskicker, and despite my initial misgivings, I even grabbed a helment cover and had a complete ball slipping by people as they were distracted. What a blast; I hope we do that drill again this Thursday.

Monday night this week was more pack skating (this time with balloons that we had to protect, which made for a laugh when they got away from us). Then, some whip drills and then endurance and time trials. I was shaking in my boots the entire night as I'd taken my inner soles out of my skates to go for a walk with my dog, Sasha, and I'd never put them back in - so I put an extra pair of socks on and skated on the bottom of my skates. Not comfortable, but I still managed to make my 5 laps in 1 minute, and I made 24 in 5, which I hadn't expected to do since I wasn't trying to skate fast. I have now earnt myself another little foot creature - this time a callous on my pushing foot, to keep my blisters company. Neat!

I have also come to the sad conclusion that the Carreras do not make my feet happy. Consequently, they're going to have their old Probe plates remounted (after we experiment with changing the cushions to fix them). My lovely derby wife Rebelicious has recently started her own derby/skate business, and has started to get in stock, including some Roll-Line plates and Labeda boots.

Now, I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about the Variants, as I wasn't sure how much of a weight difference there would be between those and my single action XK-4's. I went over to Rebel's place to have a lookie, picked up one of the plates and immediately started gibbering. There was a noticeable difference between the two, and I didn't even have my plates on hand for comparison. The Variants went to the top of my shopping list.

Next, the Labeda boots came in. Size 8. Rebel was told that they run half a size bigger than the Riedell boots. We decide that I need to try them anyway. She surprises me last Thursday night at training by having them in the boot of her car. I very carefully prop myself up against the car, and slip my foot into the boot. Cinderella's stupid little slippers don't fit her as well as these boots fit my long, warped surfboard feet. I am in love.

Consequently, being that on top of that I'll need 7mm bearings instead of the 8mm I've got - I have a slightly pricey shopping list, and a zebra that I can rent out for special occasions.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?