Bout against Crime City 2014

Crime City is our biggest competion in Sweden, last year we played each other 3 times, and we beat them twice and them us once. So this weekend we went down to play them again, it was sort of a big deal since two of our main blockers left Stockholm. Emma Ryssfemma is doing the babything and Kix acctually moved to Malmö, and was going to play against us. I would lie if I said I wasn't nervous.

Playing CCR is always really emotional, partly because that they are my old team and also because so many of the girls on the team are my good friends and teammates on Team Sweden.I want them to do good! This being the first time for us to bout without Kix, and having her play against us, was of course also a factor that made the game a little extra emotional.

At the same time I was SUPEREXCITED to have two new girls on our Allstars playing their first bout with us, and both Panica and Mounty did amazing. The entire team did freaking amazing, I am really proud to be a part of this team, to captain and coach. Everyone has such a great attitude and their heads on their shoulders, we skate well together and push each other! I like that!

The bout was close, Stockholm took the lead from the beginning, but it wasn't like it felt like we were winning at any point, Crime City really gave us a run for our points. And once again this gives me so much hope and happiness for the future of Swedish rollerderby.

I got awarded MVP, and that always feels really good, but without my team being so awesome I would not be able to play as well as I did.

In three weeks we will be playing against Rocky Mountain, and that will really be something... the last bout we play in Sweden before we head over to Beach Brawl and play Houston, Steele City and Tampa... yikes! It's EXCITING and sooo amazingly crazy. I rememember two years ago, when talking about bringing Stockholm Roller Derby to USA, just was a dream, something we barley thought ever would happen... and NOW, it's what's happeing! 

EXHAUSTING scrimmage, but fun!

Lately we have had so many people at scrimmage that we almost have felt like people don't get enough playtime. Yesterday my dear friends was NOT one of those days!

BSTRDS (our B-team) had a bout in Hamburg on the Saturday, and since our Allstar team has a few cross-overs we were running low, and half of the leauge seem to lay in their beds suffering from a really bad case of the seasonal flu.

So we only had 17 people showing up at practice, 5 of them coming straight from Hamburg! So the 7 allstars taht showed up ended up playing the rest of the leauge (the remaining 10 people). It was fun, even if I wish that htere would have been more people, but noone can complain that they did not get tracktime...

Well, I mean - skating every jam for two hours does leave little room for complaining...

I had a great time, even if we cut the scrimmage short about 30 min, because people were just getting exhausted and we could feel the injuries hovering. Instead we did a drill, and used the remaining time for some freeskating and fun. The whole practice/scrimmage was really amazing, and it made me think how far our rookies have come, they really can hold their own! 

My legs really are feeling EXHAUSTED today, I am worried that it might be the flu moving in on me, my joints and my body is hurting and I'm feeling really tired. BUT we have practice tonight, so I have to shake that feeling and put my head down and get better... Beach Brawl is just about two months away... and before that we will be playing both Crime City and Rocky Mountain!

Last night I spent at my mohters with one of my best friends visiting from Paris. Went to bed quite early borrowing my moms iPad and watching LRG vs. Atlanta.

This picture is completly inrelated to teh text (it's VR Nordic)

Dressing up... and looking good

I am very pleased with my body, the way it looks, of course I could get a little more muscular and bla bla bla... but sometimes you just have to be happy with what you have.
I have realized somethign the past years, I never buy any cool nor fancy clothes. All I spend money on are compressionpants and other rollerderby related workout clothes. Sometimes I feel like it's a waste, that I have the best body I have ever had, and I never dress up, I never show it off, I never really even end up in situations where anything but work-out pants and a top are considered the outfit of choice.

Maybe I should ask Rachel Rotten or Fisti Cuffs to give me a red lip-stick tutorial, to put on some kool heels  on and some avantgard dress that I found in some obscure Berlin shop. I feel like that would maybe improve my fun at times, to have a reason to dress up, to go on a date, to make myself look DRESSED up and not just ready to work out. I know, at work I dress proper, most of the time. I don't wanna dress proper, but wild and fierey...

Yeah, I guess there is nothing that stops me from doing that at any given day. I do feel I need a special occation for it... I mean, I couldn't even really fource myself to dress up in a dress at the QX Gay Gala... 

Fighting for what I need

I am getting myself bored by more of those fighting fit sort of blogs, but I can never tell you how important it is to exercise off-track. If you only come to skate practice and expect to really push your own boundaries you are cheating and kidding yourself.

Becomming stronger, faster and more explosive are needed to become a better derbyplayer, both jammers and blockers. All those are important skills that you really can improve off-skate.

I am willing to fight and train for what I want, things don't come easy, and if they did, we would not appreciate them as much as the things we worked real hard for. 

More fighting fit... One extra day

Since our onskate practices have moved from Tuesdays to Mondays, we now have the great opportunity to do fighting fit twice per week. With we I mean, Chaos, me, Thunders and maybe Kim. Yesterday was our first Tuesday practice and it was only three of us there, and that s stellar, it was like we had our own personal trainer. VERY awesome, we did some more kicking, and I do ally prefer the kicking over the punching, don't know why, maybe because my strength has always been in my legs?
Well, and the fit part yesterday was kettlebell technique, and we had NONE of that. I think that Jo (the coach) laughed at us at one point, because we are so flexible and strong, but have so little awareness of our upper bodies.

The weeks in March will mainly look like follows:
Monday: on-skate 2 hours
Tuesday: fighting fit 1,5 hours
Wednesday: resting day or 1 hour gym legs/core/upper body
Thursday: fighting fit 1,5 hours
Friday: on-skate 2 hours
Saturday: resting day or 1 hour gym legs/core/upper body
Sunday: Scrimmage 2-3 hours

I have also started to be a little more conscious about what I'm eating, mostly because I tend to eat to little, compared to the amount that I work out. I have added protein shakes and chia seeds to my diet. I'm really working with a mission to become stronger and keep my body flexible and explosive. If I don't eat enough, I get sluggish and tired. I also seem to become sluggish and tired if I eat too much fried food, but everything in moderation seem to work for me

I really am a juice junkie, so my daily intake of sugar is probably out of hands, but I'm fine with that... I love my juices and am in no way planning to stop drinking all the freshly pressed juice I want nor stop my coffee consumption.... LOVE coffee...

Team Sweden vs. Team Finland

This weekend was spent in Helsinki, the past years I've spent A LOT of time in Helsinki...

Game over :-D Finland and Sweden (photo by Vincent Micheletti)

Ouch, my body is drained and so is my brain... I had a great time playing rollerderby with Team Sweden, such an amazing team! Such a challange to play Team Finland, so many friends and so many amazing players! Scandinavian Rollerderby makes me happy, how far we have gotten the past years is beyond amazing...

On Saturday we played Finland, and they had a very strong team, and so did we. In the end they walked away with the win, but the entire bout wasa back and forth, and it could have gone either way. They were the better team at this time!
I had a great time playing with people I never really have played with before, but it took a while before we did find the synergy on the track, and truly got to feel like a sucessful pack. I am never really happy with my performance after a bout, well, I am happy, but I always think I can improve, and improve I shall.

(photo by Vincent Micheletti)

Both Team Sweden and Stockholm Rollerderby have VERY exciting futures, and I am more than excited to go towards that future! I want to be stronger, faster and more skilled!

On Sunday we got to Scrimmage against Helsinkis travelteam, and that was amazingly fun, I feel like many people were more relaxed, and we also figured out some things that we didn't really get to work the previous night. I am proud to be a coach of such an inspiring and hardworking team!

After scrimmage we set off to a REAL Finnish experiance, NAKED sauna! Yeah, it was a swiminghall, with a few saunas and a big pool. It's odd that I've been to Helsinki probably about 15 times the past years, and no one has taken me here. On Sundays it was women only and you could have a beer by a small table on the second floor, overlooking the lap-pool, where half of the women were swimming laps naked.. I had a beer, I deserved it, after the scrimmage I chugged a protein shake, so I was in need of cabs, and nothing could be better than this yummy beer! And after the beer I swimmeda few laps with Becky. It was a perfect ending with the team after an amazing but vey draining weekend.

Overall. this was a great weekend with rollerderby and a bunch of amazing people that I enjoy to play rollerderby with! Of course it was hard both physically and mentally, nad most of all I just want to lay down and sleep... sleep and sleep some more....

Watching mens rollerderby and longong for a shower (photo by Markko Nimleä)