(Originally written on 19 Dec 2011--though modified schedule below to fit changes I've made.)
Here's some background info on me.
My main activity is roller derby. Right now, just about everything else I do is aimed at helping me improve at roller derby. I've been doing derby for a while--March 2012 will be my 5-year anniversary of skating. When I started I could barely skate! My league has improved rapidly. When I started it was quite new and lots of other people could barely skate. We are now full members of
WFTDA. Last year we went to WFTDA East Regional Playoffs for the first time and did quite well.
The league has four intra-league/home teams that play each other regularly. I'm captain of my home team. And we have two travel teams that play other leagues. One is our A team, and that's the one that plays in sanctioned bouts and went to Playoffs. It's made up of the top 20 skaters in the league, though a game can have only 14 skaters on its roster, so within the 20 there's competition to be in the top 14 in order get on game rosters. Then there is our B team, which is our "reserves" team. That team plays other leagues in Europe, as our league is quite a bit stronger than other leagues in Europe at the moment. So games are closer when other leagues' A teams play our B team.
I've provided all this boring background to explain my goals. I am currently on the A team. I generally get put on game rosters, so I'm ranked somewhere in the 13-16 range. But in tough games (and they are almost all tough these days) even people who are on the roster but aren't among the strongest players don't get played much. I guess this is pretty standard in sports. Basically, I tend to get on rosters but am not a starter, so can spend most or all of the game on the bench.
I want this to change. First, I need to ensure that I remain in the top 14 so I get on game rosters. It's really competitive, so this is far from guaranteed. I have to work hard just to hold onto that spot. But what I really want is to improve enough that I get on game rosters and actually get played. We have important games in April, maybe in June, and then Regionals will be in Sept. I want to play in these.
There's no mystery about what I need to do. I need to be fitter, stronger, more agile, and smarter on the track. This means I need to go to practice as much as possible. I also need to do exercise outside of practices. We have 3-4 practices per week. My attendance is generally around 60-65%, which means on average I get to 8 practices a month. I'm going to aim to get my attendance to 80% per month.
The other exercise I do is to ride my bike to work and sometimes to practice. It's a short ride to work, so it's not too taxing to cycle and I will usually be doing other exercise as well on the same day. I aim to do this 3-4 times a week (I work at home one day a week). I aim to lift weights twice a week. And I want to start doing plyo once a week.
So that makes my ideal exercise schedule look like this:
Monday: cycle (8mi), lift weights
Tuesday: cycle (13mi), derby practice (2 hrs)
Wednesday: cycle (8mi), plyo
Thursday: derby practice (1.5 hrs)
Friday: rest (though might cycle to work, and around once per month have derby practice 2 hrs)
Saturday: lift weights
Sunday: derby practice (3 hrs), eventually cycle to practice (20mi) when weather is a bit nicer
Right now I do bits of this. I do cycle and lift weights, but not as often as in that schedule. It's not ideal to lift weights on Sat and Mon--I'd prefer to have them further apart from each other in the week--but that's all that fits.
As far as eating, I just want to eat more home-cooked whole foods, fruit and veg, and less junk.
I forgot to mention that I am 39, so my body is not quite as resilient as it used to be. But I'd say I'm in pretty good shape. I wouldn't mind losing some fat--I hover on the border of normal/overweight. I have quite a bit of muscle--I'm lucky enough to seem to build and hold onto it quite easily--but I also have a good amount of fat over that muscle. But losing weight is not my main goal, and I want to keep muscle so don't want to lose weight rapidly. Oh yeah, and I'm a woman.
by FormicaLinoleum » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:47 pm 
