Thursday, March 31, 2011

Agility 5

One minute each in counterskate direction, then one minute each in skatewise direction:

* swizzle

For swizzles, you push your toes out and then pull them back in drawing an hourglass figure with your feet. Ideally you will want to accomplish this by applying foot and ankle pressure to your inside edges; but for starters, you can apply this pressure by pushing down with your body (bend your knees) when your toes go out and pulling up your body (straighten your knees) when your toes come in.

* slalom

For slaloms, you point your toes to the right and then to the left drawing an S figure with your feet. As with swizzles, you will ideally accomplish this by applying foot and ankle pressure to the edges that are on the inside of the curve; but for starters, you can apply this pressure by pushing down with your body (bend your knees) with more weight on your right side when you enter the right curve and pulling up your body (straighten your knees) when you exit the curve, then pushing down with your body (bend your knees) with more weight on your left side when you enter the left curve and pulling up your body (straighten your knees) when you exit the curve.

* shuffle

This is a series of lateral steps across the width of the track. Remember that you spring with one leg and fly with the other leg, and you fly with the leg that's on the side that you're stepping to. So when you're going left, you spring with the right and fly with the left. When you're going right, you spring with the left and fly with the right.

Also remember to apply pressure outward, across your wheels, and not forward. This will have a braking action that will keep you from rolling forward, allowing you to move as laterally as possible. If you have ten foot lines taped on your track, try to shuffle straight across the lines. You may not be able to do this, and will likely travel at some diagonal. The more you control your roll, the shallower this diagonal will get until you are able to shuffle horizontally across the track.

* plow stop

Plow stops are sort of like hard swizzles. But instead of pushing your toes out, you apply pressure, as above, outward and across your wheels. If you apply it evenly across both feet, you have a two foot plow stop. I find it easier to put my weight on my left foot/leg/hip and push my right foot out; it takes enough weight off my right foot so that I can actually push it across the floor as a brake.

* hockey stop

Hockey stops are like hard slaloms. I like to skate up to the corners of the ten foot lines and slalom sharply back into the track. Do everything that you do for slaloms, but as sharply as possible: point your toes sharply out and then in, put your weight on edges on the inside of the curve. Which means that you are actually leaning slightly—it may feel dangerously— back. You will know that you're getting close when your wheels make that errt! braking sound.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Buyer's Guide to Wrist and Elbow Gaskets

wrist and arm gaskets

Stop the presses, Sunshine N Painbows gave me a tip about these industrial gloves and sleeves that are great for wearing as gaskets under your wrist guards and elbow pads. I've always worn cotton socks with the toes cut off under my elbow pads, and nothing on my hands. Which has meant that my wrist guards stink. These lightweight open fingertip gloves, though, feel like nothing and do a fine job soaking up sweat. Tami and I split a box of fifty gloves. Not that I need twenty-five pairs of gloves, they're washable even. I also got ten pairs of the sleeves just to, um, match. I figure that's two weeks' worth of practices.

I also really, really, want a pair of those accordian dry box sleeves. Just in case I want to dress up as a robot!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Thirteen Sweaters

thirteen sweaters

I will never make it as a fashion blogger, or really any kind of consumer blogger, because I could never provide that steady stream of stuff that, I take it, isn't even meant all to be acquired, but just desired. I don't even want the mental clutter. Because I need that space to think about whether or not there's an appreciable difference between mental and physical clutter. If all physical objects exist as mental forms, then physical clutter simultaneously exists in the mind? It's the mental aspect of physical clutter that concerns me. Roughly I think that your possessions should not exceed the capacity of your mind to catalog them, you should be able to comprehend what you own. And it's so incredibly much easier to pare down your possessions than to expand your mind.

So I weeded out some more of my sweaters, and these are the thirteen sweaters that I'm wearing with the four miniskirts that I wear to work. Thirteen seems like a ton of sweaters to me, and I don't think I have a lot of sweaters. I wonder how many sweaters people who have a lot of sweaters have.

I have four more black sweaters that I couldn't toss: an angora V neck pullover that I got from the free pile at the space, I think it was Wreck's, it's super soft and warm; the mohair cardigan that my mom knitted for herself in the fifties, I would wear this as my summer office cardigan except it has a hole in the sleeve, but obviously it's a keeper and I still wear it out; a cotton cardigan that I did wear as last summer's office cardigan, I sort of hate it so maybe I'll get another, but just in case I don't; and a cotton crew neck pullover that I knitted when I was in college, actually an amazing piece of knitwear, but too big because I wore everything too big back then, and not my style anymore, but it took the better part of a year to knit...

Monday, March 28, 2011

Practice/Recovery/Sleep

So during the three week flu and post-flu break that I took, I lived the life that I realized is lived by most? Or perhaps that I imagine is lived by most, but nobody really lives like that?

Let me tell you about my entire adult life. Sleep, work, play, and trying to make art. As concise as that is, that's really one piece too much. Because of not being able to make art for a living, and not being able to not make art. Okay but, how about trying to make kids or indeed actually making them. A lot of people do that, along with sleep and work and play. And sometimes, also making art. So perhaps we're in the same boat, or we're similarly in a boat that's supposed to hold three and we've brought on four or five.

See in the last three weeks, I only had three. I worked and went to practice. I watched television, read books, and did a little bit of laundry. I slept. It was so sane and normal.

So I've been analyzing my life according to this new paradigm, because that's sane and normal. What, I like paradigms. It has, as stated, three parts:

  1. Practice - I would say this is your work, but I'm already using that term in my other paradigm. I won't say it's the old paradigm, because I'm still using it. So I'm calling this practice, like a doctor has a practice. It's what you hang your shingle out to the world that you do. What you do for a living probably goes here. Other things can go here, too. So working goes here, and so does writing and skating for me.
  2. Recovery - This is what you redo that got undone by what you do. It's everything R&R. Watching television and reading books goes here. But also making the bed, doing the dishes, laundry, and grocery go here.
  3. Sleep - Like it or not, sleep is a third of your life. I try not to cheat sleep. I figure it's there for something, so I try to do it as best I can.

It's easy enough to divide up, right? One third practice, one third recovery, one third sleep. There are twenty four hours in a day, divisible by three. I always divide up my time by the week, in six rows. So two rows for practice, two rows for recovery, and two rows for sleep.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
PLAY
League
PLAY
Referee
PLAY
League
PASTIME
 
PLAY
Fury
PLAY
Scrimmage
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

Well, it's handy that I only work two days a week. It's kind of pretty, isn't it? I suppose I could work Tuesdays and Fridays instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays to make it perfectly even, but I think a little syncopation keeps it lively.

I have the most freedom on those four hobby days. After breakfast, I start with whatever needs tidying up; that's recovery. When it all feels tidied, I sit down to write. That's practice, and it has to be limited to that amount of time. Certain things will fit in there, and some things won't. I have to stop trying to fit in the things that won't.

Truthfully, in this paradigm, that Saturday morning slot is perfect for another practice...

Friday, March 25, 2011

Spring Food Plan

I'm leaving this up top, because I don't want to forget:

BEFORE
complex carbs &
light protein

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE
simple carbs
 
WORKOUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
simple carbs &
light protein
AFTER
complex carbs &
light protein
BETWEEN
complex carbs &
heavy protein

Immediately before/after means within 45 minutes, before/after means within 1-3 hours, and between means more than 3 hours before or after workouts.

But this food plan is a little different, because I'm still mostly eating white foods. I've lost my appetite for most of the foods I was eating before the stomach flu. Too bad, I had worked up a few really good recipes for savory oatmeal. I'm not really inclined to be eating whole grains right now. Or vegetables, for that matter. I feel this is what I need, though. I'm letting myself be guided by what seems soothing. I was reading More magazine, which technically is the magazine for women my age, in the waiting room at Myra's office, and there was an article about this anti-inflammatory diet, and lo, it was pretty much my diet. Well, my diet has more carbs. And larger portions, for the love of god.

My diet is, basically:

  • Drink - Water
  • Breakfast - Green Tea with Greek Yogurt and Applesauce
  • Lunch - Rice with Tofu and Veg
  • Snack - Black Tea with Bread and Almond Butter
  • Dinner - Pasta with Veg
  • Workout Drink - CocoOJ2O
  • Post-Workout Snack - Banana Almond Smoothie

I mix the order of these meals a little bit around my workout schedule. But I'm getting most of my protein from the greek yogurt, both the rice and pasta are digestible enough to be pre-workout meals. Also the greek yogurt means that I am officially not veganish until further notice. Not that I was ever vegan by any vegan's definition of vegan. Veganish for me meant that my regular food rotation was vegan, and the rest not regulated. It was just a way to pull my diet more to the vegetable side.

Other variations: I am allowing myself coffee and a blueberry muffin for breakfast at work, as a little bribe to myself to get out of bed. Tuesday dinner the sweetie man cooks, Friday dinner we have Taco Burrito Express, and Saturday lunch I like to go to Feed with the upholdskis, and the occasional pizza finds its way in there.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring Fitness Plan
 home season

Peak/Taper

I say every now and then that I'm tapering my practices, and then I end up with the same number of practices as ever. Or more, because I'm a nutjob like that.

I've been doing five, six practices a week since fall, and I'm stuck on this plateau. Maybe I'm slightly loosening. I think getting my tooth knocked in and then stomach flu did most of that, though. All I'm saying is, I'm giving rest a chance. I know, what if. What if I'm at the bend in the river, like Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen. Then again they gave up and went to sleep, and their boat floated out of the storm on its own.

POPPY YOU STILL HAVE FIVE PRACTICES A WEEK

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
PLAY
League
PLAY
Referee
PLAY
League
PASTIME
 
PLAY
Fury
PLAY
Scrimmage
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

But five practices is less than six!!

And I'm doing Box's kettlebells after Saturday league practice this month, meep. Though I was so sore after kettlebells that I missed Monday jammer practice this week, like so sore that I was seriously thinking every time I had to pee whether I couldn't wait until I could pee more and cut down on trips to the bathroom. And in April and May Jackie's doing Sunday skatefit that I want to do as a breakthrough workout. OKAY BUT I'm only going to do skatefit OR league practice on Sunday or Monday, depending on what works best with my schedule. And I won't have Saturday league practice or Sunday ref practice on bout weekends, so four practices before and after bouts.

I don't know if I mentioned, I teach refs now every week. Which I intermittently have and haven't been counting as a workout, but now I say that it counts. It doesn't count for league attendance, but it counts for my fitness plan. It's actually an important workout for me, it's my recovery workout. Of course when Jackie starts, my recovery workout will be on the same day as my breakthrough workout...

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

 

# water
* stretch
* wash up
# green tea with greek yogurt and applesauce
* make bed
* do dishes
* put away laundry
* sort mail
* answer emails
* write 4/9 bout press release
# pasta with roasted tomatoes and lima beans
* clean out old bills
* clean out files
* put away extra gear
# bread and flaxseed honey
* watch Bones
# rice and tofu scramble
* fury practice
# banana almond smoothie

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring Work Wear

fat babys

Eeeee, my new spring boots!

I knew that I couldn't keep wearing snowboots, now that it's nicer out. I do have a pair of black knee high boots that I used to wear all the time for work, but they have heels and I think I have to be done with heels. And I still want to wear miniskirts with leggings, and I like boots instead of shoes because then I don't have figure out what socks to wear. And I do have a pair of brown hiking boots that I love, but I'm thinking that I have to dress it up a little more than that.

Not a lot more than that, though. I can wear fun boots to work if I want to. I did only want this boot in black. A lot of the Derby Lite ladies have these Fat Baby boots in different colors, but Vivi Sewhot has them in black patent. I found them on just one website, who had them in just one size. And it was my size. I have such weird feet, I normally never buy shoes online. It seemed like kismet though, I threw caution to the winds and hooray they fit—

Monday, March 21, 2011

Spring Chart

I have been on vacation. I may still be on vacation. I've been going to work and going to practice, and pretty much nothing else. Not writing, obviously. Not cooking, I'm still mostly eating white food. I have actually been doing laundry, which the sweetie man usually does. I like doing laundry, though. I always feel like a total winner when I get change at the laundromat, though possibly this is an excessively positive attitude for a person who still does her laundry at the laundromat. Though I like the laundromat. Laundry is probably a good metaphor for what I needed, and actually probably so is white food.

I've been watching Bones, which two of my friends troubled to tell me was the worst show they've ever watched. I trust their opinion, I'm waiting for it to get bad. I think I'm on season three, and I still love it so much. I'm a little bit sorry for the first time in my life that I didn't go into science, which was highly encouraged. Which I ignored. Anyway. They rehydrated an old dried-out finger in fabric softener, and were able to get a fingerprint. That's another good metaphor, I've been soaking in fabric softener and plumping myself up enough to leave fingerprints again.

I'm not sure that I'm plump enough yet, so HOBBY for spring may involve more soaking in fabric softener. "Fabric softener" means something like artist dates, filling the well. Not as decadent as being in bed from noon to midnight watching television like I did last Sunday, but more consumption than production. But everything else gently back into place, except that I'm taking a break from teaching plyos. I'm glad to get back to practice, though. If I don't practice, I can't sleep and I have no mouth and I must scream is how I feel about not being able to sleep. It's not even that I'm doing anything so important that I have to be rested for. It's just way too much time to be conscious, I only have to have insomnia once to be totally motivated to work out again. And also, I probably do need to be rested.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
PLAY
League
PLAY
Referee
PLAY
League
PASTIME
 
PLAY
Fury
PLAY
Scrimmage
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

Friday, March 4, 2011

March Diet Quality Card

march diet card

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Walk This Way
 on skates

 

* walk

So right in the middle of saying that walking means you always have one foot on the ground, I realized there's a stage before you walk when you have wheels on, viz., always having two feet on the ground. So okay, being in skates isn't exactly like being in shoes. You don't have to pick up your feet in skates, and you still go forward. Just by picking up your feet, you're going to pick up some speed. No worries, I think people tend to fall when they're thinking skate fast! But if you just tell them "just walk," they stay pretty stable and they go faster.

* power walk

Swing your arms, and you'll pick up some more speed. And also, swinging your arms keeps you balanced.

* power walk with a spring in your step

Same as in shoes, just slightly spring off your back foot as you step forward with your other foot. There's such a thing as a skating stride, but don't think about that right now. It's really just like walking, how your weight transfers from foot to foot to foot.

* run

And now spring off that back foot enough to get yourself a little bit airborne. Don't even worry that you're in skates, just run like you just did in shoes. Do your wheels feel like they're rolling too much? I mean they're wheels, they roll. As long as you're in control. Here's something to think about, you can roll a wheel and you can stop a wheel. You stop by pushing across the wheel. That's how you stop, right? That's also how you control your roll, with just the smallest signals from your feet. Which are beyond me to explain, but I suggest getting to know your plow stop from 0 to 100 and all the degrees in between.

* run and leap forward

Add a little more force to your spring and turn your running step into a leaping step. Run three steps and leap forward, run three steps and leap forward... you do have to plant your foot to jump safely, and it's the same as above: the push has to go across the wheel. So now you may notice that setting your foot at a forty-five degree angle makes for a pretty stable jumping off point.

* run and leap sideways

Just for fun, run three steps and leap sideways! For a sideways leap, you may actually be pushing ninety degrees or perpendicular to your wheel.

And now let's work our way down:

* run and leap forward

Just like in shoes, you have a fly leg and a spring leg for jumping. It's all about weight transfer. So if you have your weight on your fly leg, you won't be able to jump. You would never try that in shoes, but it's confusing at first on skates for some reason.

* run

Running on skates is no big deal, right?

* power walk with a spring in your step

If you just need a little bit of pickup, you could do this.

* power walk

This pace, actually, is important if you get on the wrong end of a runaway and don't want to race but also still need to look like you're not slowing down and destroying the pack.

* walk

Make this your resting pace. It's actually less tiring than eight on the floor, because it's more natural and relaxed.

And now, tuck—navel in, tailbone down, knees and ankles folded as low as you can—and do it all over again. It's not just about good posture, getting properly low is what gives you power. A compressed leg has more stored energy than an extended leg, right? So on the one hand you're going to be faster and harder hitting, and on the other hand you're going to be harder to knock down...

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Winter Pastime Wear

miniskirt and tights

"Pastime" wear, you know, is what I wear for going out not for work or for practice. Which is a very slim subset, like this was the outfit that I wore to see the doctor. And also what I wear to talk to Myra, and actually I wear my snowsuit if it's very cold. Eee, I love my snowsuit. Otherwise, though, I seem to have settled on miniskirts for winter wear. Because I have to wear layers in winter for warmth, and layers under pants are too bulky and also pants are impossible with boots. Tights with leggings are actually really warm and slim, and they look cute with knee high snowboots.

For work I wear leggings over tights, and for pastime I wear tights over leggings. For the stripes! I picked up two pairs—you know I did, always at least two of everything— of these striped cotton tights from Target two Halloweens ago, a black and white pair and a black and orange pair, and never wore them much. These are the kind of tights that creep down your butt, so halfway through the day the crotch of your tights is halfway to your knees. But they stay up if you wear them over leggings, I guess because they have something to grip. It's the same with knee socks for me, I actually wonder if it's because I have no hair on my legs. Ha ha, is that how knee socks stay up? Human velcro? I took another look these tights when I saw Trixie's black and white stockings on Deadwood. Yeah, the prostitute. Now I've worn holes through the feet, so I cut them off and I also cut the perfectly good feet off the black and orange pair to, um, match. Always at least two of everything. So technically these are leggings now.

My ancient black skating dresses have been pressed into service as the miniskirt part of this outfit. They are just barely long enough, I will have to see about new skirts for spring...

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

National Nutrition Month
 white

I am delighted to be bringing you National Nutrition Month from the perspective of a total basketcase. Whatever this is, it goes like this: SICK fine SICK fine SO GUESS WHAT TODAY WAS. But I am back from the doctor with diet instructions and Dexilant for the stomach acid, which has been bad because there's no food in my stomach and also this is stressing me out.

And hilariously, the theme for National Nutrition Month is "Eat Right With Color." So we can get right started with white!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

No wait, this is a picture of how I feel...

I already knew about BRAT: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Though admittedly I needed to stick to that for more than, you know, one day in a row, and not throw in a sub sandwich and three slices of pepperoni pizza every other. Which sort of explains the SICK fine pathology. Whaaaaat, I'm so hungry! Is this why they call it brat? I'm supposed to drink Gatorade for electrolytes and also eat yogurt for cultures. Maybe I can get wild and add tofu after a few days.

Oh, I should explain the bananas? I'm trying to get back to refueling, even though I'm still not very hungry after practices. Which is possibly where all this trouble started, not that Sultan's doesn't have the best falafel sandwiches. Probably just too much to digest after practice, I've been defaulting to smoothies and pretty light smoothies at that. I use bananas as a base for most of my smoothies. Bananas are good for smoothies and smoothies are good for bananas, too. You can just break them up and stick them in the freezer. As in a time machine, and not a Yoko Ono art project on the kitchen counter.