Rollerfit (Wheels of a different kind)

So, it's the near the end of the year..  

I've been cycling for a year..  (And come such a long way!)

I have a gold racing license but I currently have no clear goals or events to look towards.

(I intended to do a few more CX races but the one I was intending to do got cancelled and then I felt too overwhelmed by the Rapha Supercross - although had it not been the day before my first MS Gong, I should have given it a crack.)

Anyway, I was internet surfing (do people still say that?) and I came across RollerFit.

(so random: bike valet -> newtown festival -> rollerfit promotions -> rollerfit classes)

(via facebook)

"RollerFit Members. 

Join us tomorrow Morning 7.30am-8.15am for a $5 drop in class. All Levels, plus skate hire. Perfect way to start you day!"

I thought, wow.

And then there was another post further down the page:

"We often hear from newbie RollerFitters that it took them 3-6months to build up there confidence to join our classes! Read why you should stop putting off your first visit from one of our instructors Amy, who started out just like you!
http://www.rollerfit.com.au/uncategorized/why-you-should-stop-putting-off-coming-to-rollerfit/"

My previous memories of rollerskating involved shuffling around, clutching the barriers..

 After some reading, it seemed like the classes were very friendly for beginners.

I decided to head down and give it a go.

I figured my fitness from cycling would put me in good stead and I was looking for something interesting to do.

(via http://www.schmutzie.com)

The night before, as usual, I was bouncing between "OMG I can't believe I am doing this, this is excitingly amazing" and "OMG I can't believe I am doing this, it's going to hurt and I'm going to be so crap".

I spoke to my sister and she seemed to have a different memory to me - "you were good, I was the one clutching the barrier, you were so good you won a hat!"

Sometimes I wonder what my memories are actually made of.  They seem to not necessarily be based in reality.  Who knows!

My husband laughed at me, about clearly only remembering the traumatic moments, and wiping out any memory of being competent and enjoying myself..

I actually wasn't sure what to wear, but I had an urge to wear long socks this week so I did that.

Also, I had started googling skates and found that rollerskaters are also into #sockdoping (not just a cycling thing!).

(via http://shop.rollergirlpromotions.com.au/)

Too cool..  I'm into long socks, I could do this.  :)

(It's all about getting into making it look cool - hehe)

I wear a lot of dresses and my 1 pair of active shorts that fit me was not washed from boxing class, and I didn't necessarily want to wear my denim shorts for activewear.

So I found my Adidas onesie and wore that.  :)  

It was a bit cool in the morning so I wore arm warmers (the best - keep your arms warm without trapping sweat in your underarms)

Packed my work clothes for the day and cycled off to the class.

It was amazing!

It was sooo much fun!!  

My husband is involved in teaching about computer games and they always say to the students that saying something is "fun" is a cop out because the word "fun" isn't very descriptive and doesn't mean much.

I totally understood what that meant when I tried to explain how fun it was!

It was nervous and exciting and enjoyable to learn and inspiring to watch the other skaters do their more advanced moves!

(Yeah.. I'm not even sure how that works..  I can't even get into that position stationary and barefoot...)

So the class involved some drills and exercises.  

I started off just walking (in a marching sort of action) and the instructor Stacey said soon I would just start rolling.  

I thought, yeah whatever, maybe next class, and of course 30 seconds later, I was rolling along!

The drills were tailored to our level, so when the others were doing advanced drills, I was practicing scissors.

I realised there's a lot of leg and core strength required.  I was lucky that I had this from cycling and boxing.

It was also interesting the different leg muscles involved - I felt it most on the outside sides of my thighs the following days.

I didn't know whether they wear protective gear, but when I got there no one was.
I guess it's more a roller derby being full contact sport thing.

I did borrow some wrist guards though.  My husband warned if I break my wrist, that's 6 weeks off the bike!! :(
He said from his experience in mountain biking, there is a twisting arm / rolling weight falling technique.  (Where you roll on the curve of your arm, rather than putting your arms straight out and having the impact and weight go straight up your wrists into your collarbone).
But as I was a newbie, my instinct would probably be just to put my arms straight out.

But falling wasn't really an issue.
I watched some youtube videos the night before and the tip was pretty much: if you lose your balance, get into crouch so you're closer to the ground (less distance to fall).
I did fall a few times but I wouldn't call them stacks or anything, just losing balance and touching the ground. It didn't really hurt.

I'm really so grateful and happy that I'm at such a great point in my life I can try new things and give it a good crack!  Life is so good!

So of course on burst of excitement about rollerskating, next week my husband and I are going to watch the Sydney Roller Derby League Presents the 2014 Home Season Grand Finals!

I've never seen Roller Derby live, only in a Drew Barrymore / Ellen Page movie, so I think it'll be interesting!

Eek!  So good.

Cyclocross (CX)!

(A very belated post)

So a while back in August, Sydney Cyclocross Collective posted about a free workshop with Lindsay Gorrell, NSW State Champion.

(via australiancxmagazine)

And I thought, I can't turn down this opportunity!

I used to think Cyclocross was odd.

I mean, who creates a bike race where you pick up the bike and run up stairs?

Anyway, after watching my husband and his friends do a race, I just thought it was a very fun thing!

Lots of pain faces very early on, but everyone laps everyone, so you never know who's winning or last.

My kind of race!

I even wanted to buy a CX bike!

Liv Giant 2014 Brava SLR 2

It is pink..

Anyway, so I did this workshop - I didn't want to do it and when I arrived I didn't want to do it even more because everyone had Cyclocross bikes or mountain bikes and I had my road bike.

As usual, I decided to have a goal so that I could try and have a sense of achievement at the end.

My goal was to try everything at least once.  Even if it was slow or a walkthrough.  (A pretty basic goal as I was expecting to be challenged.  This would be the first entrance to off-road cycling that I'd ever had.)

Our first lesson was suitcase carrys over a barrier.

(via onespeedblog.blogspot.com.au)

Which meant unclipping, and moving 1 leg over the back of the bike while still rolling, before unclipping the other foot and picking up the bike and running over the barrier.

I had trouble unclipping.

I am still not 100% confident with my clipping in / unclipping.

I felt like crying!

Thank goodness I always cycle with glasses, so hopefully when I'm crying, it's mostly hidden!

The first exercise and I already couldn't do it!

I thought to myself, this is just going to be a horrid day!

But, I thought about my goal - "try everything at least once".

So I sucked it up and gave it a go.

Not me.

It was pretty shit.

Lindsay was super nice though and tried to loosen my pedals (already at max looseness) and then gave me some exercises for practicing clipping in and out.

I talked myself into continuing - as I'm sort of used to cycling without being clipped in.

So I decided to practice by unclipping super early.

That was much better.

And I also did my first down hill slope.

It freaked me out watching the other girls, and I had a mental block of thinking of road bike would slip out.

Finally, I agreed to borrow someone else's bike (see how friendly everyone is!) and I did it!

Not me.  (That's Lindsay)

So after all of that worry and initial mental anguish, it ended up being a really fun day and great meeting other girls interested in CX.

That's me.

The group.

Big thank you to Rob Parbery who is huge in supporting CX in Sydney and Lindsay Gorrell for taking the time to run the session.

A few weeks later, I ended up doing 1 race at Terrey Hills but I felt like my attempt was a bit lame

I did it on my road bike with my road tyres.

I was too nervous and I didn't really apply anything that I learnt.

My transitions were really awkward and clunky.  Basically, stop, get off bike, walk over obstacle, stop, get back on bike, go.

The technical parts were also really difficult (even for those on mountain bikes).

Something to think about for next year.  ;)

Favourite part of the race - at the beginning - speaking to Lizanne:

Me: My goal is to do 2 laps.

Lizanne: Oh, you'll do more than that, unfortunately..

Yeah.. I did 5 laps.  (The winners did 8).

2 Things I Learnt From Husband Doing The Newcastle Overnight

Last night, my husband participated in the Newcastle Overnight.

via http://newcastleovernight.com/

It was a 170km ride starting at 9pm at Observatory Hill, Sydney to Newcastle Baths.

I initially considered maybe doing it, but it sounded a bit long and tiring..

I was irrationally worried about my husband doing it as I had been affected a few months earlier by the gentleman who was killed by a truck while participating in a long ride.

My husband reassured me that one must not go through life avoiding things that 1 person once died from.

Which is a really valid statement.

Otherwise we'd all either be sitting in the middle of a room not doing anything, although, I'm sure someone must have died from doing that at some point in history..

Anyway, everything went fine and apparently the group stuck together quite effectively (however my husband is a pretty strong beginner rider who can keep up with the more experienced riders if need be).

2 Things I Learnt From Husband Doing The Newcastle Overnight

1.  I don't think I want to do it (right now).

Despite it sounding like a challenging event with a bunch of nice people (I mean, who has the energy to be an arsehole while cycling 170km.. surely you run out of air at about 80km.), my husband's by-line for the ride on Strava was "Everybody hurts . . . sometimes . . . everybody cries . . ." which is the song he sings when he climbs.  

But, his description of the last part of the ride and how at the last stop, everyone's pretty subdued, and it's about making conversation and being easy going and staying positive..  I'm just not sure if my personality would be that conducive.  

My husband even mentioned there was a point on the ride where he thought "if my wife was here, she would be crying right now".

Anyway, not for right now, maybe when I'm old and wise AND A MONSTER CYCLIST.  Teehee..

2.  Using lots of chamois cream is important

I always marvelled at photos of how much chamois cream was used by experienced cyclists - eg.

(via euphoriabeforetotalimplosion.blogspot.com.au)

Without going into too much detail, despite my husband bringing along a ziplock bag of chamois cream to reapply.  It was not enough.

He described parts chafing that I didn't realise even made contact when cycling.

As I have never ridden close to 200km, now I understand why this (formerly considered EXCESSIVE) amount of chamois cream is required.

Yay for chamois cream.