Aaaaand we’re back! After about 6 weeks of being off season, practice started back up this week. We have a new warehouse to use for practicing and with that comes a new schedule. Before, we were limited by when the OKC Farmer’s Market was available, but now we are the sole leasers for our space and can use it whenever we want!
We had tryouts about a month ago for the 2011 season, and everyone has to re-tryout for each team each year. That was our bigger tryout day, so they had 2 sessions split up by last name. That week I went skating on Thursday to get prepared, and the day before I focused on drinking a lot of water, reading the entire WFTDA rulebook, and getting plenty of rest. The day of tryouts, I got up early to stretch and warm-up at home. I ate a banana and took 4 Ibuprofen and got to the Market early to warm-up on skates. The track wasn’t ready yet, so I continued to stretch and drink Gatorade until we could start skating. I was nervous, as always at tryouts or min skills testing days, but I was also confident and focused. Before testing started, my legs cramped up every few laps, but I’d stop and stretch more and get back on the track trying to get my legs to hurry and get warm before we started.
When testing started, I didn’t look around at others, but tried to do my personal best. Unfortunately, not long after starting our laps testing falls, starts, stops, etc. my shins started cramping pretty bad. I pushed through it for a while pretty much desperate to keep going, but when you’re also being told to fall and get back up and toe start while your shins are screaming at you to stop and your muscles are refusing to relax, it’s pretty much impossible to keep going for much longer. I finally left the track and fell down hoping some fairy derby godmother would come heal my shins quickly so I could finish trying out. I hadn’t even made it past the first 15 minutes! I sat and watched as the rest of the girls did all their falls and complained that they knew they wouldn’t do good enough. I was jealous that they even had the opportunity to fail tryouts. I couldn’t even finish.
So I talked to Josey, and asked if I should jump back in on the next drill (boy, wasn’t I hopeful that my legs would suddenly play nice – they were still in pain at that point) or just start over in the afternoon session. She said since I hadn’t gotten that far in, I should just start over, which was just as well for me. I took off my gear and headed upstairs to watch and drink more Gatorade. After my legs started to relax I went up and down the stairs a few times until my shins hinted at cramping and I stopped.
The afternoon session started, and I jumped in with them. I basically got exactly as far the 2nd time around as I did in the morning session and at that point felt pretty defeated. I stuck around for the rest of the tryout session to watch and to take my written rules and ref signals test. I had studied all of that pretty hard, so I was happy that I at least made a 90 and 92 respectively. 
So, all this brings us to now. Last night was our first practice in our new warehouse, and we worked on some basic skills to get back into skating. Mondays are also New Recruit nights, so that’ll be the focus that night each week. For now, I am still listed as a New Recruit, and I will be going through their newly structured 6 week program starting in January. I’ve also talked to a couple of our refs about coming to extra practices to work with them to get more skate time. Meladramatic also said she’s going to let me know when she’s planning on going to a local skating rink to help me and another girl work on stride, crossovers, and stance.
There are really 2 aspects that make my shin splints so hard to deal with. First of all, it’s frustrating just personally. I want to keep going, but my own legs won’t let me! And the other part just gets to me when I let it, but the way other skaters look at me when I have to stop makes me mad. Some understand, but others have a look in their eye that just says “oh, you’re giving up again?” and I really don’t think they realize the deep, cutting pain that I’m in by the time I finally stop. My legs start hurting WAY before I stop, and once I stop it’s because my calf muscles will not relax to the point that while standing up or sitting in a chair I can’t even tap my toe. I do truly appreciate the people that offer their advice or even just a “that sucks” when they really mean it, and that’s what helps me ignore the judging eyes of people who just don’t even try to understand how hard I’m trying and how frustrating it is to make such little progress.
