Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Grr…Arrgh.

I am so over this ankle sprain. I got hit during scrimmage last Thursday on turn 4 and fell awkwardly on my right ankle, which resulted in a high ankle sprain. My team-mates felt bad for hitting me and causing an injury, but I honestly don’t blame them. They were doing their job and preventing the jammer (me) from scoring. I blame myself. I stupidly ran 10 miles on Tuesday and came to practice on Thursday with legs that were still recovering and not up to an intense scrimmage. They just couldn’t support me properly and the ankle took the fall.

I am now on day 5 of being hurt and the pain hasn’t seemed to improve. The swelling went down by half, but the pain and stiffness is still there. I was told by the therapist to take a week off of running and skating is a ‘play it by ear’ thing. But, as of Monday (yesterday) when we had our next practice I knew I wouldn’t be ready to skate for at least another week. The ankle is just too weak to handle sharp cuts and stopping. And I am now in that angry and frustrated phase. I just want to skate! And run! My half marathon is 2 weeks away and I’m really worried I won’t be able to finish the race. :( I realize I’ll have to walk some of it because the ankle will still be weak, but this just pisses me off more, because I put all this time into training so I can have a good race and a possible PR, and it’s pretty much over because of an injury. UGH. (And don’t ever tell a runner that “there’s always next year”, because, yes, we know we can do better next year, but we trained for THIS race and we were going to do well THIS year and even better the next.)

So, in the meantime, I’ll be the lame-o sitting at home moping and doing my ankle strengthing exercises like a good girl so I can be back out on the rink kicking some ass as soon as I can.

Derby Boot Camp- The Day Poor Bex Broke Her Leg

So, yesterday’s boot camp practice was a bit overwhelming. It was a review day, so we were going over everything- pack work, bumping skates, weaving, getting hit, hip assists, pushing, whips, and blocking. I hold my own pretty well with each. I suck at giving whips- mainly because I don’t quite stand correctly to transfer my momentum to the other person. Something I need to work on. But, I thought I was okay at everything else.

We were practicing the whip when Bex went down. No one is even sure what happened, because it wasn’t in the area where the whips were going on. She went out on the track to skate towards her partner to recieve a whip and I think she collided with someone as she was crossing the track to get in place. She fell awkwardly and immediately started panicking. Which is understandable. You fall hard and something snaps and suddenly you’re in severe pain. Yeah, I think I would have screamed like she did. She was laying face down on her belly with her right leg laying flat and left leg held at an unnatural awkward angle. We stopped immediately and went to the middle to give the First Aid crew room and to give her some privacy. We were all shaken and scared; this was the first injury we’ve seen. Poor Bex. Turns out she broke both her tibia and and her fibula (both shin bones) at the knee. Yikes. She has to have surgery to get a rod put in.

After the paramedics wheeled her away, practice continued on. But, after that, we were all so timid and scared whenever anyone fell. I’m still shaken.

It sounds like she’s in good spirits and will be a NSO this season, but it sure has to suck for her to make it to the very last practice before becoming an official derby girl and have that happen. I hope she doesn’t get discouraged and I really hope she tries out next year.

And we have our skills test tomorrow! I’m already getting nervous.