Thinking like an Athlete

I attended a workout class awhile back at work and the instructor asked me afterwards if I was an athlete. I responded ‘yes’ but actually doubted myself as I was answering. Am I?

I have never considered myself an athlete. I play sports and I work out but the two were never really connected. At least they weren’t.

At some point over the last year, my workouts and my sport became intertwined. I began researching what exercises workouts would help me improve my performance on the track. What movements am I struggling with on skates that I can work on off skates? What do I need to do to be better?

My workouts turned from haphazard rolls of the dice to focused, sport specific training sessions with goals in mind. I started making my workouts fit with my practice/ game schedule rather than completing a formal workout program…and practicing… and playing games. I started to think about “in season training” and not burning my body out over the course of our season.

I started thinking and training like an athlete.

Fall Focus

I like summer, but I love fall. The cooler air energizes me and refocuses me. It’s a great time for me to set new goals for the coming year. For me this means fitness goals and roller derby goals, although often they go hand in hand. 

Last year my goals were to work on my agility off skates and to improve my blocking and footwork skills on skates. With the help of my coaches and teammates I feel I was able to accomplish these goals. I even received MVP blocker in my last game of the season. 

So what are my goals for this year. Well first of all I would like to make the Travel A team this year. But my big goal is to work on my all around derby play. I would like to be a triple threat. Blocker. Pivot. Jammer. 

For blocking I need to work on delivering effective offence. My timing just isn’t there and I feeel I am not helping most of the time. 

For Pivot its the same thing, but add in awareness of when I should be ready for a star pass. 

For Jamming, its practicing little tips and tricks until they become muscle memory. Things like toe stop hops, changing tempo and I would like to not chicken out on apex jumps. 

So what fitness goals do I need to work on to help me out with my derby goals. I need to find a fitness routine that will combine strength, balance, agility and power into one. But it also can’t be so rigorous that I burn myself out. This wll be a challenge. 

For now I am using the Nike+ Training Club ap again as it seems to offer all these things in their workouts; however, I know I will need to change it up. I will have to do some research or just develop my own workouts to acheive my goals. 

Home Gym: Not all there but functional

Well a couple of weeks and a lot of work later the gym is functional. This was actually sooner than expected because I changed the plan.

Originally I had wanted to take out the closet, but my husband made a very good argument about the amount of work and the fact that we could no longer count it as a bedroom if the closet was gone. So the closet stayed.

With that decision everything else became much easier. It was just a matter of painting the walls and floor, getting rubber mats and assembling our equipment.

The Paint certainly turned out to be as bright as I had hoped. I found an completely new can of an orange colour call ‘pumpkin butter’ which I absolutely love. If I hadn’t already started with the other colours I would have done the whole room in this colour. Regardless I like how it turned out.

I also found a chalk decal to use instead of the chalk paint, it was much cheaper and easier to put on. I have yet to buy any chalk though.

It is not 100 percent finished, I still need to put up our mirrors, but it is functional.

Once we are more established, I would also like to buy a squat rack and Olympic bar a plates. In really just need to keep my eye out for a used one and jump on a good deal I find.