Day Forty Eight: Not Just Me

These people are making me bored
and it's all their fault.

All of yesterday I wanted to turn on everyone and yell abusively, "Why aren't you being more entertaining and engaging?" but this is generally considered highly unacceptable work behaviour and although my family would act like nothing unusual had happened, it's certainly not something I do with any regularity.



Fortunately I know it's not just me. After the high of a weekend like the one just past, getting back to the mundane is not an easy task. As an adult I'm aware that 'weekends away' are always going to be fantastic, because they'll never run long enough to get septic. Plus we all seem to get along like a house that's on fire, rolling down a hill into an orphanage, which helps.

My point is, if you're going to do something, do it well.
Or alternatively, whatever is happening in this image.

Fitness: So I moseyed about online and yes, it would appear I have text-book variety whiplash. For some inane reason I find this rather entertaining, partly because I keep reliving the brief instance when it happened. I did some shuffling in the elevators but other than that, an hour of Aikido (gentle on the left) and two hours of skating tonight.

Aikido: Sometimes I feel like every other time I turn up to the dojo that I have some inherent brokenness that compromises my training. I am aware I've been in fairly good condition for a few weeks running, so now I am a little bit damaged I can actually indulge it a bit. I always keep training through injury though to keep my muscles from atrophying. I just take it easy on the bit that's sore. Rolling on the right, thrown only on the right. I learnt a very important aspect of a basic move today that will also make it a lot easier.

During the game I felt a little bit like this baby elephant.
Bring on the lions, they're gonna get messed up. 

Derby: I felt really good about tonight. Fortunately the whiplash is all upstairs (shoulder/neck) so my legs are still feeling fine. I don't think I got quite as wrecked in the game as my teammates, but one thing bothered me. During a powerjam, I was knocked down, but Swamp City broke apart their wall and there was a massive gap toward the edge of the engagement zone. All I needed to do was get my toe stops under me and sprint/leap the five feet to clear the pack. But I couldn't. I got my feet under me and skated slowly off instead. I was lucky Swamp City disengaged early (and they looked how I felt at this point). All because my legs weren't strong enough - they were shattered. I pride myself a little on my speed, but I slowed down far too easily and struggled to step it up when I needed to. I know I'm fast, but I need it accessible for gameplay. So when we did pyramids tonight I put it down. Looking back, maybe I could have done even better but it was hard to judge - what I know though is that when it comes to the Endurance, explosive power, acceleration and speed I have a really good idea of what I want from my legs now. A whole lot more. The 'competition' is insane as well. Breaking even with the other jammers is going to take some time and doing, and that's just the first stop on the way up.

Diet: Weetbix and banana for breakfast, plus the sneaky uplifting of enough bananas for the week from the breakroom. I know I need to eat a banana a day otherwise I exhibit low potassium, so I think it's justified - I hardly ever eat the rest of the fruit. I ate a lot of crackers today. Cheesy, not particularly good crackers. Then a muesli bar and some brie before jumping ship to go to the supermarket as I didn't have any sandwichy items left. The new Metro was intriguing, although the deli section was a little upmarket for me. I just wanted some processed meats, I don't need to be highly distracted by grilled artichoke hearts. Don't get me wrong - I love 'em, but damn they were expensive. The eternal student in me goes, "How much per 100grams? And they look heavy! Seven dollars is a lot for a one food item snack." Anyway, so I made a sandwich with two different hummus varieties, high quality ham, brie, red onion on Ploughman's bread. I had a couple of muesli bars and some chocolate milk after Aikido/Derby, then when I came home I cooked together chicken, bacon, leek, carrot, parsnip, pepper and marinade sauce into some sort of... stirfry... thing... all I really wanted was something I could eat with chopsticks (for no apparent reason). It was different but kind of tasty. Nothing wrong with it but I would not cook it again. I need to find a girlfriend to stay at home and cook me food. I think that's probably one of the top things I miss most as a singleton.

Sleep: What the what? It's 1.20am and I just got out of the shower. I've asked for a standard late start on Wednesdays to cover this unavoidable lateness - (home at 11.30pm at the earliest, requiring at a minimum dinner, a shower and faffing about) totally bed time. Alarms off, sleep till I don't needs it no more.



Tonight really helped, getting a good skate on. It was a little subdued owing to various injuries and borderline sniffles but part of me still finds it a little incredible how much I enjoy all the aspects of Derby at the moment. Every corner I turn, every mile stone I reach, for some unfathomable reason I expect there to be a softening of Derby fever as I become more capable, more in control. The complete opposite is happening, the more involved I become, the more involved I want to be.

And I thought popcorn was moreish...