Granny Practice

Just remember that I forgot to blog about Monday's Granny Practice. Well, to sum it up, it KICKED my ass. It was super intense.

The first drill was something that should be simple, weaving through a paceline. We had 2 parallel pacelines and you had to stay with your partner around the track. The partners at the back weaved up and when they got to the front, they raced the 2 people at the front of the line around the back. Then the people who were just at the front weaved through. Except for the the first partners, everybody raced, weaved, then raced again. This was the fastest paceline I've ever been a part of. After I raced, I tried like hell to maintain my place, but I couldn't. I was struggling and falling back. Rox kept giving me little pushes to help me, but I was panting. I went to the middle when I just felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my brain. I grabbed some water and took a few deep breaths and right when I thought about going back to the paceline, I felt dizzy and lightheaded. No bueno. I sat out the rest of the drill.

Then we did something where we paired up and knocked our partners out of bounds, then cut across the track to maximize the inconvenience for the out of bounds skater. It wound up in a lot of backwards skating, which just confused me.

We did a relay where we skated to the first cone, did a single knee, 180 degree turn, skated back, turned around, skated to the next cone, did a plow stop, skated back, skated to the far cone, did a tomahawk stop (or a double knee fall) and skated all the way back. Meanwhile, the rest of our team was squatting. I can do a power stop, I have done them, but I was unable to. I think I fell or otherwise screwed up both times. I need to work on my transitions to backwards skating at speed. Usually, I just fall.

Anyway, my skating was totally off after Sunday's suckage. I think I've lost all confidence in my skating ability. This does not bode well for my chances of passing my assessments this go-round. But I guess I need to work the nerves out. So, if I do manage to pass, congrats to me. But if I don't, that too is fine. I'll be all that much more prepared next time.

Also, my left ear is waterlogged and I've lost most of my hearing in it which, if it doesn't clear up by tomorrow, is SERIOUSLY going to complicate things.

I'm shaken, but I still know why I want to do this, so I consider that a success.