No WFTDA Con this year

I have had lots of travel on my docket, and after a very emotional Beach Brawl and an even more emotional Portland trip I'm quite traveled out.
I am REALLY upset that Stockholm is not going to make Div 2 play-offs, because we showed the world at Beach Brawl that it is where we belong, and that we could have made an impact. And on top of that leaving someone you really care about sooo far behind and knowing you will not see them for two months is just not easy. To be honest, it really freaking SUCKS!

So I feel quite haggard coming back to Sweden having to pick myself up and try to decide what things are important in life. I think I have a real good hunch about it right now... Things are about to change... hopefully

SO... because of all those different things, I will not be able to go to WFTDA Con this year, even if I REALLY want too... INstead I get to go to London and play rollerderby, and considering I LOVE to play rollerderby, that's not a bad thing... I do have a little FOMO about not being at the Con.. .I guess RollerCon will have to be the thing this year... DAMN IT, I just cannot have it all!
 

Kicking Ass and taking names in Florida

Dear Stockholm Allstars

We rocked this weekend at the Beach Brawl... we played THREE Division ONE teams and almost beat one of them! So much fun playing!!

I couldn't be anymore proud to be a part of a team that has worked so hard!

MY GIRLS!

Fiiine ladies of Stockholm Allstars

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... 

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...

Fighting Fit - The crying week

Yesterday at fighting fit was really weird, everyone seemed really emotional, I was on the verge of crying for no reason at all, and I was not the only one...

It was sooooo relieving when I got to do kicks followed by body punches. Yeah, felt real good to punch hard into those pads.  Sometimes the fighting part gets a little frustrating to me, since I'm so uncoordinated... 

Yesterday the crossfit part was freakin sooo hard, we have had much harder rounds, but yesterday it was just like all of us were empty.

We did:

70 push-ups with claps

70 jumping squats

70 burpees

70 switch lunges 

70 toe-touch situps

70 mountainclimbers

It is for sure not the hardest program we done, but we were ALL struggling to get trough it, except from NeveRest (her first time) who just kept going like a little mashine... Must be her cheerleading background. 

On my way home I got some protein-powder, since I've realised I'm real bad at eating, and I might not get enough calories into my body. I'm really determined to get my body into the best shape I can be! 

Starting next week, me and Thunder are going to Fighting Fit twice a week... Yeah... True story! I'm also going to start hitting up the gym more often to get some more strength training.

Next week I will also hear back from my doctor about my second MRI of my hamstring, to get to know more closely what the best sort of physical therapy would be. I just started to go to a sports massage place, and it seem to work out quite well. The level of pain is going down.

Another crazy week: Recap the past week

If you haven't noticed, but my life is crazy busy, it seem like I'm always on the move, on my way somewhere. I like it, but at the same time it does take a major toll on my sleeping habits, I'm always so wired up I have a hard time falling asleep, with insomnia as the result. So coming in to this past Friday I was operating on an average of four to five hours of sleep per night, and that is not at all enough. Especially not if you are working out as much as I am.

One of the reasons I get up quite early is work, but also that before work i wanna catch some chatting time with my girlfriend that lives in Portland. Yeah, that is the westcoast of USA, so we are working on a nine hour difference. So I make coffe and chat with her, either facetime or just voxer before I head to work.

Since i have work and I go to school part-time and I also do a whole bunch od derbywork for my leauge and so on... Yeah, and the nights I don't have derbypractice I do off-skate activities such as Fighting Fit or just go to the gym and do some weights. So... with this all said, I have very little time for my really fab and new apartment... ha ha ha... you catch my drift. It maes me miss living with someone and feeling sad about my girlfriend being so far away, I am so not motivated to keep my apartment looking as fab as it could be.

Well, last week was crazy busy:

 Monday night was boardmeeting, the last meeting of the 2013 Stockholm Rollerderby Board. We had a really great board, and I'm going to miss our meetings, I do think the new board will do a fab job. 

 Tuesday was practice on our sticky floor, we have to take a bus out to an island, and me and Loony laid track for the first time, I think it went better than we expected... We made teh track to long first, but after one lap, we could feel it, and adjusted it to be right. It was a great practice Loony ran and I gotta go over a thing that Fisit Cuffs explained so amazingly in Dresden.

Wednesday was the Annual Leauge Meeting (lasted for 4 hours and we got unicorn cake Crash made) and we voted a new board in. I am no longer on the board of Stockholm Rollerderby, that means I can put more time and work into WFTDA, European Rollerderby, Coachign AND playing myself of course!!

Thursday was Fighting Fit and Panica our new transfer skater joined together with CrackHer, and it was superduperfun, even if the part where we did 300 kettlebell swings felt a little taxing. But hey... it's only about 65 days left until Florida....

Friday was practice, only four people showed up for the off-skate part, but the ones that did, we were superfired up, maybe a little sore since the kettlebell swings from the previous day. The onskate part was run by Sloppy, and it was superfun and everyone looked amazing. I am so proud of how much Stockholm Rollerderby progress all the time, how we push ourselves to become faster and better at all times, how our rookies and our Allstars always are developing and pushing themselves. 

Saturday morning I got up superearly to catch a train at 06.21 to head down to Malmö, to watch Malmö play Copenhagen and for the Sunday Team Sweden practice! But that's all another blog...

What the fuzz and buzz is all about

No longer on the team, but hella fighting spirit...

So Stockholm Allstars are aiming to become more fit for the Beach Brawl tournament in Florida, the first weekend of may. I know, I write about it a lot, but it's because it's something I've dreamed of doing ever since I moved back to Europe. To have a team that is excited and good enough to go to US and play, and we finally  are there now. 

It's so awesome to have a goal, the team having a goal together, to play and aim to climb in ranking. Over a year ago we went and played our first big tournament together in Berlin, we prepared for it at length, and we did real well. I was really proud of the team taking third behind Berlin and London Rollergirls.

In March last year we went to Berlin and beat them, but after that it was like the air just went out, people moved and decided to take breaks from rollerderby, leaving us with to few and  unmotivated players for the Gent tournament. We just didn't seem have it in us, the aim, the spirit nor the drive.

This time it's different, it's like the entire team is buzzing, pushing, skating and wanting. Everyone are showing up at practice, ready to go, to push themselves and excited to go to Florida. We need to create a winning mind, to want this equally and to be excited for progression.

A few things I'm personally doing to become better and more fit is for sure the Fighting Fit class and recovering my hamstring. We are reintroducing the Friday off-skate before/after practice and we will have monthly team meetings where we do some bondage.... Oh, I mean bonding.... I still have some sessions left with my Personal Trainer that I was using before and after Berlin, and I'm thinking of maybe activating those. I am also really looking forward to when I can start biking to work, I probably could already, but there is something about not wanting to bike in February. It should be snow, and somewhere in my mind I do wanna hang onto the thought if it being winter... 

A hundered of it all

Go go go go.....

I wrote this Friday, but didn't have any wifi in Dresden to post it.Giving a hundred percent, today at Fighting fit we as usual did a bunch of punching combos that made me confused. It's funny how "knee, jab,cross,jab, elbow" can be so hard when I have no problem blocking a jammer while looking for my own jammer and getting hit by the other team... I guess I know why kickboxing never really stuck on me and why I love rollerderby.
Never mind, the fighting part is the most fun when we get to wrestle, we did some sparring yesterday, but I'm just not into hitting anyone and I really don't like to get punched at all. I'm not really taking the class for the fighting part, but for the second part when we really get a workout.
Yesterday we got the mission of doing 100 burpees, 100 kettlebell swings, 100 squats, 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups. We got to break it up as much as we wanted to, and whoever finished first would win wraps for the hands. Hand-wraps to have in the boxing gloves, ou know the kind Rocky would sport... You know what I'm talking about... Too my surprise I finished first, well JUST at the same time as Thunders. Since I'm a terrible counter I did do 10 extra burpees... So I got the wraps, which will be me from some pain, my wrist does act up sometimes...  We are kick-ass... It's really cool to see that it's a bunch of STRD girls that show up at almost every Thursday practice. It's Kimizooka, Thunders, Chaos, Slinky and me from the Allstars and Alpha, Ziggy and Asstroid from BSTRDs. I wish we were more girls from the Allstars. In March when we don't have Tuesday practices I think we are planning on all coming twice a week. 

Yeah, I think the byproduct of getting fit for BeachBrawl will also get us into getting fit for bikinis... Ha ha ha ha... Whatever that means...

Stockholm Allstars getting ready for Florida

Some people aim for Beach 2014, meaning that they are supposed to be ready for a bikini summer of 2014, Stockholm Allstars are getting ready for BeachBrawl 2014... BeachBrawl is a tournament in Florida, and we are playing really highly ranked teams... teams that are almost 100 spots above us, you would say that we are taking on a lot, and if you say that, you are probably right. Still, it's such an amazing opportunity, Steele City, Houston and Tampa Bay, we could not have asked to play against more amazing teams!

AND the BEFORE we go we have TWO bouts here in Sweden, first we are going down to Crime City in Malmö to play our annual match-up. Always a very tight and nervewrecking game, and in April we are playing against an American team coming to Stockholm. Yeah, we are not shy when it comes to take on the top teams of the world, we might get beat down, but only so we can get up quicker... yeah...

Yesterday we had an Allstar meeting, planning for Florida, doing some teambonding, me making hot apple cider and some of even went for some ice-skating before. Ice-skating REALLY is fun, except from when you forget that ice-skates don't have toestops and you fall flat on your face. At least hte flatfallonyourface entertain the rest of the people, and we all almost do it. Freaking Chaos is amazing on skates, she does some really impressive hockeystop and running out of it. yeah... at least I was very impressed by the footwork and wished I could do it... one day, one day... I must admitt I feel like such a amatour on the ice with NEverest, Slinky and Chaos, that all have very solid hockey/Rignette backgrounds... damn those sporty girls, All I have to come with is competative snowboarding... 

We are going to Florida

We known for a while that Stockholm Rollerderby are going to Florida for the Beach Brawl, and we been very excited about it. We already got shirts and held two bootcamps, where the proceeds are going towards our Florida trip. So dont hesitate but buy a shirt here: http://shop.rollerderby.se/se/klader/linne/

We knew we were going to get three sanctioned WFTDA bouts , but we had had no clue what teams we will be facing off until yesterday. We are playing Steele City, Tampa and Houston... Such great and amazing teams... Can't lie and say that it doesn't make me nervous, but I believe in my team and that we can accomplish anything that we really put our minds too. It's going to be fun and amazing to play in US again, but this time with my Swedish team!  

All of a sudden it felt so real, it felt like we were on our way, and this will really happen! I'm excited and this will be one of the most exciting things that has happened to Stockholm Rollerderby. And it's really exciting that Berlin are going too... Berlin are such an amazing team, and I have many great friends in that team, they went to US two years ago and did amazing. Damn, time flies and it's amazing to see how far we all have come... 

And here you can see all the match-ups for the Beach Brawl... http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/2014/01/beach_brawl_lined