Derby, derby, derby...

'Saulty's always crampin' my style. Courtesy of On Tap Magazine.

So, as quickly as it came, the desire to write about my life seems to have abandoned me. But now there are people who bother me about things like keeping up my blog… which is probably a good thing, because feeling accountable to other people has always been a better motivator for me than anything else.

Part of the reason for the lack of posts has probably been the fact that derby has started back up. After going back to look at my schedule since the league break, I’m kind of unsurprised that I haven’t been feeling the introspection as of late. In the past 11 days, I’ve had a total of 3 non-practice days, one of which was supposed to be a practice, but was canceled. And it only gets more intense from here with travel. 

The toughest stretch so far was bouting Saturday in addition to an early-morning All-Stars practice Sunday, both of which were rough. My home team, the DC DemonCats, lost the bout 144-186 against the Cherry Blossom Bombshells, though we fought hard and my teammates are amazing. It was followed up by an incredibly competitive bout between the Majority Whips and Scare Force One. Actual bout recaps are on The Examiner and DCist, with awesome pictures from On Tap Magazine. A bunch of skaters were interviewed by Al Jazeera (!), so I’ll hopefully be able to post that as well. (Sidenote: I am pretty sure that the last few months of being photographed for derby has roughly equaled how much I've been photographed for the rest of my life combined. Holy crap.)

The highlight of the bout for me was my first perfect derby hivemind moment: on the second jam of the bout, our pack successfully held the opposing jammer and, after she was sent off, got a goat and controlled pack speed for the rest of the power jam. I usually come off the track a little pissed that I didn’t do better, but I came off the track and yelled “FUCK YES!” and did some fist-pumping because everyone did exactly what they needed to do. For those two minutes, all four of us in the pack knew just where we needed to be and had the same focus and commitment to getting it done.

I think those smaller moments of perfection are the main reason why I love playing sports. Time slows down and you know precisely what the outcome of the action will be. In soccer, it’s the perfectly-timed assist to your teammate. In ice skating, it’s the powerful, effortless jump takeoff. In lacrosse, it’s getting there a half-step in front of your opponent to snag the interception. There’s nothing to think about, except: YES. This is what it’s supposed to be like. Once we got that wall together, I knew that there was no way the opposing blocker was getting out. That was the first time I’ve experienced that kind of moment with my team in derby, and it was a huge rush.

Unfortunately, the rest of the bout didn’t live up to the awesomeness of that moment, at least for me. I was reasonably happy with my blocking, but I really struggled to get out of the pack as a jammer, mostly because I need to work on my predictability. I also received one forearm penalty while jamming, which sucks, but I didn’t receive any cut-track penalties, which is what I was most paranoid about. Next bout goal: NO PENALTIES WHATSOEVER. Also, winning. Because I would really, really, really like to win.

As for my first full-length All-Stars practice Sunday morning, it was definitely as intense and exhausting as I thought it would be. It doesn’t seem like the All-Stars do drills that are that dramatically different than what we do at league practice, but the difference is in skill and motivation. Every single one of those women knows what they’re doing and is going hard. Although I didn’t get my ass kicked as much as I was afraid I would, it is still abundantly clear that I have a lot to work on: I need to be stronger when teammates brace or push me, I need to make my stride more efficient, and I need to work on my endurance A LOT, among many, many other things.

My main goal for All-Stars right now is to prove to myself that I belong there. Right now, I’m still in the mindset of, “I was watching most of these women on WFTDA.tv during my lunch break four months ago, and now I’m skating with them? What the hell am I doing here?” I’m trying to get over that feeling, not only for myself, but because being successful in derby requires being confident and fearless. I know I can't be either of those things if I'm intimidated by my own teammates. The solution, as always: work harder.

Bright spot? On Sunday, I did 25 laps of the track in less than 4 minutes for the first time ever! Granted, this was on an incredibly sticky floor – I don’t know that I could replicate that in the Armory, at least not immediately. But this has been a derby goal of mine for a while, so I’m reasonably pleased, especially since it was about 16 seconds faster than my previous best two months ago.

In non-derby-related news? Currently, I'm in a stretch of 3 non-practice days. Even with cross-training, it's felt like an incredible luxury. I'm teleworking right now because the very potential of 5 inches of snow has DC freaked out like no other. Inauguration is coming up and I’m trying to decide whether my love of politics outweighs my fear of cold. My friend Ruby is coming to visit this weekend, which I’m super excited about – she’s an old friend from preschool/high school debate. I’ve been cooking a lot (last week: Yumm bowls, tandoori chicken, mushroom bourguignon, gingersnap cookies, congee, Bolognese, and Korean short ribs. I've named my slow cooker Phyllis). I’m going to a Wizards game at the end of the month with my office. And... yeah, that's about it.

(Sorry, non-derby friends. I did warn you.)