Last night...

...was hell.

It was extended prep practice. I knew breaking in my new skates last night was gonna be rough. And I was not disappointed. My feet alternated between being asleep/numb, tingling, and extreme pain. The callus on the ball of my right foot quickly developed into a sore spot, making every crossover a challenge.

The first part of practice wasn't too bad. It was just with continued pressure that my feet started living a nightmare.

K. Rye served as assistant trainer to us while Drew worked with the grannies and almost-grannies.

We did 25 in 5 as a pack, which I've never done before, but I've read about. Our time was 7:23, so there's something. We lost the pack on the last few laps, but by that time, there were only 5 of us still in the pack. I spent several laps up front until I fell. But I tucked and fell small and allowed the pack to pass around and over me, then got up and caught back with them before they'd even made the next turn. I think my recovery was complimented, which made me proud.

We did some stepping drills. Grapevine and step-together-step (what would be a side-shuffle, or chasse as I know them, sans skates), which I did ok with. I have a lot of trouble crossing my skate behind, but I noticed a lot of people did. However I did NOT focus on my feet the whole time.

We did a paired paceline where we weaved with a partner. My partner was my mentor, Hellin. We did really well. Our weaving was good, I could've probably been closer to her, but I was getting used to the skates, so I was wary. I took Stacey out because Hellin and I didn't warn her we were trading sides.

We stickyskated around the outside of the track both derby and non-derby directions. I can stickyskate now, so that's a plus.

Oh, we did these fun drills (actually toward the beginning, but I forgot) where we t-stopped on 1 whistle, and plowed on 2. Then Drew added in transitioning to backwards skating on 3 whistles. I am not bad at backwards skating so this was nice to work on. I tried stickyskating and sort of a backwards stride. However I did take a knee hard. Right after a plow stop, I went down. Hard. Slam. I may have twisted my knee a little, it was giving me some trouble and I took a second to come to the inside of the track and inspect it. Drew came over and asked what was up, I explained, she asked if the pad moved, I said no. She said, "Well be sure to ice it tonight." (I did, jsyk.)

Then we started talking about who was staying, initially it was just gonna be 3 of us, but 3 more newbies volunteered to stay. So we had a total of 6. Fister, K. Rye, Rosie, and Drew worked with us. We did weaving in a paceline. A fast paceline. I was terrified that I was going to run out of water. (I didn't, thank god.)

We paired up and did hitting, which was really my first time doing any hitting. Jill was my partner and we both got some good hits in. I got a good one on her that knocked me down. We did some lateral movement, then some booty blocking. Then we got the pro-tips on how to booty block. About sticking your butt out side-to-side. And it clicked. We were much better after that. My giant fuzzy butt was all Jill could think about. I need to get my stance wider, but that will come with more trust in my skates. My lateral movement was not strong because my feet were causing me so much pain, but I did a lot with my butt.

We also did a paceline where the grannies came through and hit us. I am fairly decent at absorbing impact it would seem. And mostly I didn't go out of bounds. I was really scared for Fister's hits, but they were not as bad as I'd expected. Drew knocked herself down hitting me.

There were times during practice (especially the extended part) where I thought I was gonna cry, but I just fought through it. I did not cry. I also thought about giving up, sitting out...but I also did not. I kept going. And I pushed myself.

Our final drill was hip whips through a paceline. I had to use the restroom and Fister first asked me, "You're not gonna bust your ass on the stairs." I assured her I wouldn't and I kept my promise. And I came back and whipped through the line. I pulled somebody down (Stacey). But hip whips are a strength for me. I've got to remember to not do one to the inside of turns because then I wind up skipping the next person because I am flung. But I really pull with hip whips. And though I was stumbly last night, I tried not to hold on to anyone too long. I did catch myself bent over, but I tried to let go, regain composure and posture and then take the whip.

Anyway, my feet were killing me by the end. But miraculously, no blisters. Which, is cray-cray because I remember skating rinks, getting hella blisters with rentals. I'm sure there's more pain to come, but I got my skates good and hot and am hopefully on my way to breaking them in.