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)

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.

Cancelled flight to Helsinki

Soooo I showed up to the airport with plenty of time just to find out that my flight was cancelled. Helsinki flight at 19.20 was not leaving. 

SAS was kind enough to book us on a flight that was 3,5 hours later and give us (me and Loony) a voucher of 75 kr each (about 10 dollars) to a restaurant where the cheapest option was 130 kr. Very generous! 

So afte some stretching and cracking my back in the sort of empty airport we still have another hour left until our flight leaves... And tomorrow we have a bout and all I wanted to do was to hangout with Only and Pygmi in the sauna... Vittu! 

 

Tomorrow: Team Sweden vs. Team Finland

I am still at work, but soon to leave and head to the airport to go to Helsinki, tomorrow is thefirst bout with the 2014 Team Sweden. I am so EXCITED and a little nervous. I will be staying with Only as usual, I love seeing only and her wife (!) Pygmee, and hopefully she will feed me some Karelian Pirogies.

I am also really excited knowing that my lady will be watching the VIDEOSTREAM from her home cheering me on, and many others with her. I am so amazed and happy how far we have taken rollerderby the past years! Yay for Euopean Rollerderby! Yay for worldwide rollerderby and YAY for all of teh amazing people that have made this possible.

Magazine party pre-reading night... in QX style

Me, Gisela, Mire and new friend

Wednesday I went to the pre-read of the Swedish Gay and Lesbian magazine QX. It was my friend Giselas birthday, and since we are both superbusy it was nice to spend some time with her.
I also had the pleasure to see a whole bunch of the other girls from the TV-show Flator that I'm in. Well, it's airing this spring, and I guess it will mean I become gaymous or something...

Well, it was nice and chatty and free drinks, that I only had very few of, since I have the important Sweden vs. Finalnd game this weekend... oh and looking at the pictures I get very pleased with my haircut (yeah, I know, I am shallow)

My friend Gisela is currently the vice-chair of the Swedish Youth LGBT organization, and i have so much respect for what she's doing. I really often think that I should and could do more. I guess being as involved as I am in rollerderby that is such a female empowering sport and very open to LGBT people is a step, but well, I don't think I'd have time for much more... sometimes it might be the thought that counts...

I'm getting shown  pictures. Matilda (the blonde) is also in Flator

Team Sweden 2014 - first practice and first bout

The Team Sweden training group that were in Malmö this weekend

This past weekend the traininggroup for Team Sweden 2014 got together in Malmö, to get ready for the bout we have this upcoming weekend in Helsinki.

A few years ago, in 2010 to be completly accurate I applied to be the HeadCoach of Sweden, at that time Sweden had one full bouting team, and that was Stockholm rollerderby that JUST had bouted their first time. When we held the try-outs in May 2011, a majority of the girls trying-out had only one or two bouts under their belt, but most of them were in their first season and a few had just been scrimmaging. I had NO clue what I was getting myself into, and it was probably one of the hardest things I've done in my life. Having to dissapoint people is the worst thing I know. I didn't have any clue what was coming, and I did my best and I had times really fun, but most of the times I had no clue what I was supposed to do, but all I can say was that I learned a lot from it! I learned how important it is to delegate, how important it is that people show up on time and that we are all human and here to help and support each other. But I did learn this the hard way.

Being a coach this year, I'm in a completly different position, we have a few coaches working together, we have the Swedish Skating Federation helping us. And I have said that this time around I mainly want to do the on-skate training, I also want to progress as a skater, I don't want to be stuck in admin or telling people that they are not good enough, I don't want to worry about what shirts we are bouting in or if people are in time. I love seeing the game evolve and I love pushing forward, I just wanna be one of the players, one pwersaon on the team, a part of this amazing team that I know we can become.
I am so proud of what we, rollerderby players of Sweden have accomplished, that we together have multiple bouting teams, that we have arranged a Swedish Championship, that we have pushed forward and upward, we have two leauges that are full members of WFTDA going to US this year to compete beyond the level most had even seen four years ago. We have so much talent and we have so much drive, and I love it!

I love playing rollerderby, it really makes me happy, I work out because it makes me a better derbyplayer, and I love the girls I've become friends with in rollerderby. I love my homeleauge Stockholm Roller Derby soo much, all the girls are soooo hardworking and developing fast. I also LOVE that we have a National Team, I have such a great time to see everyone on the track pushing themselves, I love explaining a drill, and everyone understands why and how it's done in no time. I love that we have so many high level players in Sweden! And it makes me feel a tiny bit old, that i remember a bunch of those girls from when they JUST began rollerderby!

I love how we just can line up next to each other,  all from different leauges and we already know what to do, what to look for and how to act and react together. I love that we can do this together, that we can travel to finland and feel confident that we are a great team. We are made up by induviduals but with a great goal to push ourselves together, because it's all about making the team look good, let our jammers shine, let us all work together. And most of all, let us all just have freaking FUN!

Can I tell you I'm SOOOOO excited to play Team Finland this Saturday in Helsinki, and the next day we get to scrimmage against Helsinki Rollerderbys A-team. This is going to be epic, and I love rollerderby and being a part of this.

Valentine gift...

So I sort of don't relly endorse those holidays that are just made up for consumption reasons, I like to buy gifts at any time, just because I feel like getting the people I care about a gift. Earlier this month I ran into a shop that had a shirt with an eagle AND roses on. What could be a better present for my lady than that? (She plays for Rose City and her nickname is Eagle). I just like getting gifts for people I care about, because it makes them smile.

Today when I was home writing a paper for school a package arrived, and it was full of  heartshaped Jolly Ranger lollipops and each of them had a HANDWRITTEN supersweet message for me! WOHOOOOO... made me so EXCITED and sucking on a lollipop of course made schoolwork so much easier. 

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...

In school

So yeah, besides everything else crazy I do in my life, I'm also in school. I'm taking business classes online via a Swedish University. We meet every 6 weeks for seminars, and then we have a final before we start a new class. I'm sometimes struggling to keep up with the homeworks, since I always seem to travel or have something derby.

Yesterday Stockholm Rollerderby had their annual meeting, and we elected a new board in, meaning that I'm no longer on the board. After two years on the board, it's quite nice to no longer be on the board. I will be able to focus more on coaching, be a better captain, WFTDA and Team Sweden.

Crash made us cake for the Annual meeting

Dresden Derby Days

All the participants of the bootcamp! 

This weekend I spent coaching in Dresden with Fisti Cuffs, it was a bootcamp that Dresden Roller Derby put together. Fisit is one of the most awesome rollerderby players I know, and also one of the most amazing people I know, so this was a camp I knew was going to be amazing in so many ways. She is not only a very good player, but she's also really smart, and probably one reason we get along so great is because we do share a lot of views on how rollerderby should be played and what's important for a team to progress and become better.

The bootcamp was fairly small, with only about 30 participants and it made it possible for us to plan to have the girls on-track at almost all times. I ran a short little off-skate session on Saturday while Fisit did some wallwork. Oh, and the bootcamp also had a referee part that was run by the always, oh so chaming Dr. NoNo from Berlin. I love whe nbootcamps have an officals part to them, I think it's so important that we have good officals at bouts, and just like us skaters they need to practice, not fair if only us skaters get all the fun.

NoNo, me and Fisti taking a little break! 

The camp was really well organized, we had time to do on-skate, off-skate, video-analysis and some basic inclassroom strategy... there was also a little portable sauna for the nights. The participants of the bootcamp all spelpt in the hall and the food was all AMAZING! AND they had gotten me some WINESCHORLE, so I was of course really delighted.

For the onskate stuff we did lot's of plowstopping and walls, and everyone were developing so much, it's so amazing to see! We alos did backwards blocking and when to do it, we all know it's the hot thing to do, but that deosn't mean you should be doing it all the time. Both Saturday and Sunday the day was ended by a scrimmage, and it was really cool to see how everyone where using things during the scrimmage that we had been working on during the day.

This is how happy we are to coach together. 

All photos are stolen/borroed from Roller Derby Dresden facebook page. 

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... 

Shitty, shitty SHITTY day

Damn, all I need is a hug...

Well, yesterday was one of those days when everything was superduper frustrating, I missed Eagle more than usual and I just felt superdeuper lonly!

Practice was good, lot's of ppl shopwed up and we did a bunch of great drills, I still feel like I am not fit enough, and there is just not enought time in the day for me to get as fit as I want too.

One big problem is that I just don't sleep enough, I go to bed, and I close my eyes, but I just don't sleep, I don't fall asleep. It is SO frustrating and I'm always sort of tired, and I feel like nothign can inspire me! I want to be inspired, I want to push forward, I wanna see my girlfriend, I want my team to get tremendously much better. I feel like I don't develop, that I don't get better, I feel like I'm bringing others down by being a grumpy old lady!

Yikes, life is not easy! There are so many things that are positive and awesome, but sometimes it's hard to see the forrest because of all the trees... and yesterday I just saw hellalot of trees...  All I need is a hug and a pat telling me that I am good at what I do and that I really should stop doubting, becvause it's really silly!

I love my leauge

Brooklyn Skate Company - so amazing

Stockholm Rollerderby, you are so fine! Tonight our practice got cancelled because of a bunch of dumb reasons, and after exhausting all of our resources we ended up getting ONE hour in a hall, 9pm to 10pm, instead of the usual three hours we have...

Did anyone pout and not come to practice? Nope... Still 36... Yes you read right, 36 girls showed up to participate in the very intense practice me and Loony ran! It was a blast and I truly felt sooo much better afterwards, I think we all did! It was a great way of ending the workweek! 

Now it's time for weekend, and this weekend is rollerderby work, reps from all Swedish Leauges are meeting up this weekend to continue to shape the future of Swedish Rollerderby! So damn EXCITING!!

American Football

Me and Kim all done with catching balls

So in the wake of the excitement of Super Bowl (seriously not interested but it seem like all my American friends are, thanks Facebook for teaching me everything about Seahawks) we decided to go to an American Football practice. Well, to be honest, my friend Kim is dating a girl that plays American football, and asked if anyone wanted to come and try it. So about 10 Stockholm Rollerderby girls showed up. And it was superfun, I tried rugby last winter and LOVED it, and I must say that I might jus like all he drills, I'm not too sure I'd feel about actually putting all that gear on and play it...

Well, I think a few of us are keen on trying it again... I like that the ball isn't round and that you can run with it... Yeah... Yeah... It was a real good time!

The drills were lots of footwork, running back and forth and getting the non-round balls thrown at us, expecting us to catch them. Yeah... 

Amy got attacked by a ball... staying with rollerderby...

The funniest part of the practice was that the girls kept on telling us "take it easy, we don't have the pads on"... Hm, and I think they were really impressed about our fearlessness in running into each other, maybe a little less impressed by our fear for balls... 

Short practice times

So as usual Stockholm Rollerderby has a hard time to get practice times and even when we do they get cancelled, sometimes just with a few days warning.

Not to be a complainer, but it sucks when you plan your life around practices, and then they don't happen... So this week we decided to just book whatever we could get, rather than not have practice at all. 

We managed to get ONE hour in a hall that's to small for a track and the floor is soft but super slippery. Yikes, but still soooo much fun. 

Instead of laying track and using valuable time in that, a track that wouldn't even fit in the hall, I ran a quite intense practice with footwork and agility in focus... I ended the practice with partner sit-ups and and burpees still on skates.

It was a fun and exciting practice, I tried my best to push and make things work under the circumstances we are in. You know, it's amazing at a point, what we do for rollerderby and how much fun it is!

QX Gaygala 2014

The cast of Flator (see me hiding flexing my arms)

I have never been to the QX Gaygala before, it's the Swedish Annual Gay Awards. Since I never do anythign halfassed when I do it, I entered the stage TWICE... once on skates and once off-skates. I felt accomplished and then I danced in heels for hours.

Things I accomplished yesterday:

Me, Amy and Loony getting ready for the stage

- Got down a set of stairs in my skates together with Amy and Loony, not falling flat on my face or stumbling over each other.

- Danced with a dragqueen on stage in my skates... I was ALMOST taller. (she rocked)

- Met my mothers hairdresser AND my hairdresser

- Met a guy that I went to highschool with, he's gay, I'm gay, neither of us where back then, we didn't know each other then, but I apperently look just the same! YES, I DO love this guy now!

- The trailer for the TV-series I'm in this spring was shown on the big screen on stage, and we all went on stage to present the Movie of theYear.

- I got to say "AND THE NOMINEES FOR THE BEST MOVIE ARE: "

- And then I said "AND THE BEST MOVIE OF 2014 ACCORDING TO THE QX READERS ARE: BLÅ ÄR DEN VARMASTE FÄRGEN" (I thought I was going to DIE at this point)

- I pounded a beer to calm my nerves after all that, thanks Fru Matilda and Maria for providing me with those beers.

- Wore red lipstick for a hot moment because I thought it was funny, until I forgot about the lipstick and wiped my mouth... Yeah, probably a reason why people see a resemblance between me and Courtney Love.

- Pussy Riot as suprise guests and lot's of talk about Russia in general. What's wrong with the world? The girl who got awarded Hetro of the Year was Emma Green Tregaro, who wore rainbow nailpolish at worlds in Russia this summer. There are moments in all this glitter and glam you are reminded that we aer so fortune to live in a country like Sweden, where we freely can express our love to the one we love.

- Photobombed a photo with PussyRiot without first grasping it was two members of PussyRiot, not until they started to speak Russian...

Photobombing.... 

- Met a whole bunch of really interesting new  bunch of gay gays. Like really? Where have you been all my life!

- Hung out with a bunch of dragqueens, and got to lay my head on the most gigantic boobs I have ever seen... (not real) *very pleased*

- Danced in heels, and my legs/feet HATE me today. But dancing was hella fun and totally worth it!

- Spent money on a cab to go home... to sleep four hours before work...

We went to HighSchhol together in Malung

And this whole shebang will be sent 

Back in Berlin

So really, I barley came home, touched down just to take off again. I'm back in Berlin to enjoy my Fourth EROC... The annual European Rollerderby Conference. This is the place where things happen, where Europe meet and greet... It never really feels like we get enough talk, I wish we had more time to hash this out, to understand each others struggles.

Rollerderby in Europe is in a constant growth, it pulsates and it becomes something we can be proud of knowing we been a part of forming! Go fast and push harder, turn left.

Things are happening

Travelling with big plans in the back off head, it all involves rollerderby and taking over the world! Monday will be a really cool day - not one but two amazingly cool things are happening, and they aren't really even connected at all and at the same time they are totally connected! So it is! It's gay and rollerderby connected... I don't know what to do with myself - but I'm extremely excited.

Lesson learned

I know this already, I still do it at times... I should not go to the gym without eating properly before. Without eating properly the entire day, I never eat breakfast and when I end up only having cottage cheese and two apples for lunch... The workout is doomed to fail! Well, the lack of sleep might have had some to do with it too... I had to give up after 10 burpees and rest... Yikes... And the class I took at the gym is fairly chill... 40 sec and rest 20 in blocks of three exercises...  I block of strength, one block endurance and one block of core... Straightforward and I really should not be feeling lightheaded...

Well, I am still proud of myself going to the gym, instead of just going straight home and just laying on the couch reading a book... Or watching Heroes... Books sounds smarter, right?

An AMAZING trip

I had such a great trip, from a snowy Sweden to a snowy NYC to a overcast but warmer LA, with lots of rollerderby! I got to see some of my amazing friends and skate both banked and flat track with Team Wolfpack!
I got to skate with some amazing skaters from allover USA, and I had such a blast... I did get blisters under my feet, it has been about 1,5 years since I was on a banked track last.
Coming back to Sweden I'm just as pepp as ever to play more rollerderby, why is it so much fun!?

On Sunday we scrimmaged against ACDG

In LA I was staying with my friend Mad Dog, and she was jsut the best host ever and even better was that Demanda and her girl came down from SF to hang out! The only thing that was a bummer was taht I didn't get to go to Portland. 

Skating in NYC again

Scrimmage at the CrashPad!

Today I got to come and guest scrimmage with Brooklyn, it was superfun! Thanks so much to Brooklyn for haing me!  I really miss skating with Gotham, so it's awesome to come and see old friends once in a while, and skate is even better!

I felt good skating, even if the jetlag almost made me bail on practice, and the off-skate after the skating was gruesome... I always eat too little while on trips and jetlagged, I just don't seem to get hungry.

Tomorrow I'm going to hang out at Five Stride, get myself new wheels and probably something more... 

There is honestly a CRAZY amount of snow in New York!

Me and Freddie bonding

My own challange...

Sometimes a just doing something little everyday takes you a looong way... So I made myself a promise - I'm going to do this routine every morning for 30 days... It's not much, but it's better than nothing, and it will also get me out of bed and I probably will end up being in time for work more often.

20 sit-ups

10 push-ups

20 squats

1 min plank

10 burpees

20 lunges

And I will do it three time in a row.... Yupp... This is it! I probably will add in some exercises at times, but I have to make three sets of this everyday, and if I'm lazy in the morning I have to do it at work... Ha ha ha... Well, maybe when I get back home from work... I mean altogether it's just... 

60 sit-ups

30 push-ups

60 squats 

3 min planks

30 burpees

60 lunges

I am also thinking about getting myself a kettlebell, I like those things and they can be used for so many things. 

Writing this post makes me think about when off-skates in derby was unheard of, and barley any leauges did it... And now almost every competitive league does it... Times are changing, and it's a good thing!

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

Enough is enough

It's winter in Stockholm - FINALLY!

So today I skipped my gym session, my body needed to rest, so I went for a 40 min walk instead. When I woke up this morning I felt sore and my shins were aching. I still was redlined to go and do a strength class at my gym, but when walking there I just felt no inspiration and my body just felt VERY sluggish. Considering I had quite a hard workout both Thursday and yesterday, I decided that a walk was a better option.

It's important to push yourself and your boundaries, but ts also important to give yourself breaks when needed or you might end up hurt or mentally burn yourself out. It still is preseason and I know Im not completely out of shape, but I have to keep the fun in working out. 

So now I'm treating myself to juice, coffee and a sandwich at my favourite coffee shop watching the snow fall outside. Life is epic, and I am so happy to have rollerderby be a part of it.

Off-skate fighting to fit

Poor Alpha had to keep up with my terrible coordination

Like really, I totally enjoy working out, but as I've said before, I REALLY have a hard time motivating myself. So working out in a group is really what I love doing, and on Thursdays Fighting Fit is for Stockholm Rollerderby... It's about eight of us that come regularly... the first half is all about fighting and how too, I am seriously CHALLANGED in this part. Considering that I am as good in rollerderby as I am, you would like to belive that I have some sort of coordination... meh... I do have fast reactions... The second part is high intense workout crossfit stylish... Yesterday Asstroid, Kim, Thunders, Chaos, Slinky and Alpha showed up, feels like that is the usual crowd, and I like it!
Yesterday the exercise part was determined by the roll of a dice... yeah... we did roll lot's of burpees... Hella painful today, but I feel great, I'm coming back from Christmas/New Years hiatus and ready to get in better shape than ever. My hamstring IS still hurting, but I truly feel like I have the strenght back, making me feel more comfortble on the track and also while doing off-skate... I do have to remember that I need more of a warm-up than before my injury, and jamming still scares me...
I am also trying to eat better, and that really doesn't mean that I'm going to eat less, but rememebr to eat, and make good choices. Yesterday I got entrecot (it's a hunk of meat) and made a side salad of red peppers, cucumber and an avocado with soem balsamic vineger, olive oil, salt and pepper. It turned out to be yummy, but it really is so much LESS fun to cook just for yourself, sitting by the table eating alone really made me miss Eagle...
I've booked two classes at my gym this weekend, and they are classes I havn't attended yet, and I'm totally trying to coax Kim to come with me on Saturday. Me and Kim are spending Saturday making Chilli, you know one of those chilis that you cook for hours, and it becomes REAL yummy in the end!  SO looking forward too that!

Ready set eat... yum yum yum... 

And then I fell asleep in the compression recovery tights that I got from my mother for my Birthday... yesterday was a good day and tonight we have rollerderby practice, so it will be a good day today too!

I will soon do it...

November 2009 - you are welcome

Soon I will write a blogg called: "when I began rollerderby".

It will be all about how I owned a drawer full of fishnet stockings, several skirts, not to talk about the multiple kneehigh stockings in very many colors... It will be about how rollerderby was so much less pressure and that I just got better and better.
 No one expected me to know anything, because no one really knew anything and I just skated all day long... It was a delightful time!
HA ha ha ... we will see...

Treating myself...

Getting to work early, doing work... I miss my girl, I am cold, I forgot to have lunch, I had too much coffee... I want to buys something to create an artifical happieness. I don't need anything, maybe a pair of new wheels.. I acctually need new wheels... I contemplate what new wheels I should get, I want some real hard wheels I can use when I skate in USA and have to be on sportscourt. I think about it, I will get new wheels, maybe next week when I'm at Five Stride.. I deserve new wheels, I haven't gotten new wheels in over a year, I've spent my money on other things, on travels, on food, on gifts to my loved ones, on more travels...

Our tiny new hall

T-Rex founf t heir way to practice

So I have written many times about Stockholm Rollerderbys struggle to find a place to skate, find a place to practice, and we ahve practices pretty much everywhere at this point, go-cart halls, empty malls, dry hockey rinks... you name it.. we have done it... So this winter we got times in a school gymnasium, and we got there yesterday just to realise that it's really small and that the floor is really slick. And this is by NO means a permanent hall, this is a hall we get to be in for TWO hours every Monday for a few months...

I was coaching, so I had to re-write practice and make it work, and so I did... and we totally made it work and I think everyone left feeling like they got a good workout and improved their blocking... The season has started and I am SOOOO excited for this year! The year of 2014 is going to be amazing, and I will try to stuff it with lots of rollerderby and good times!

It's great to have a hall that fits a track, but if you can't get one, you gotta do what you can. So on Mondays we will just have to do something different! I belive that you can make things work, you just have to be a little smart about it, or VERY smart about it. Most of the time it's our own creativity and fantasy that limits us! 

Booking flights...

Flights to NYC/LA, Berlin, Dresden and Helsinki are booked... gotten a train ticket to Malmö...  I am on my way once again, a constant movement towards the future. Rollerderby is what makes me really happy, I tried to quit, it made me more determined to continue, this is what I know, what I am good at and what I belive in.

Looking forward to a very busy winter/spring and it makes me real happy! I do wish that one of the flights I booked was taking me to Portland... 

My Birthday

So my birthday was amazing - Eags woke me up with coffee and then I went to work. I had early dinner with my mother, stepdad, brother and Eags...

And then we went to practice... It's probably the best fun to do on your birthday, to skate. And after practice Eags took me for kebab pizza, a true Swedish dish...

This is all I wanted for my birthday 

Fighting Fit

So it's time to get into shape again, I keep on saying that, I probably never be in the crazyass shape that I strive for... one day... one day... as long as my body is just fit to play derby I'm a VERY happy gal. I did realize the other day that I am in better shape now than when I moved to New York and started to play with Gotham. It has been a constant goal to strive for better fitness and better skills, sometimes it has been hard to push myself, but it has been worth it. Tearing my hamstring has been a challange to coem back from, and the constant pain, and pushing through but not too hard has been a struggle. Well, well... I was going to write about our new off-skate class.

So in a tiny basement in Stockholm, there is a small exercise room and a class called "Fighting Fitness" lead by a stout Australian woman named Jo. She's got a background in both rugby and martial arts... and the class "Fighting Fit" is half fighting techniques and half crossfit inspired during 90 amazingly fun and challanging minutes. Yesterday we wrestled, and in the future we have to bring our mouthguards... good thing we all have them. To be honest, I am not a person that goes to the gym just because I like to work out, I really am not, I go to the gym, to off-skate to become stronger and in that way become a better derbyplayer. I prefer to get in shape by doing fun things... like rollerderby OR snowboarding, I just happen to be hypercompetative, so the fun and easy fast turns into becomming better. I don't mind, thaty is where teh fun is at!

Jo just got a pup... very distracting  for all of us

Yesterday at Fighting Fit it was me, Kim, Thunders, Slinky, Chaos, Alpha and Eags who showed up. Oh, and Jo just got a puppy that also was present, chewing on everything and distracting us all from what we were supposed to do... It was superfun to do off-skate with Eags, and that girl can wrestle... but she just wait... she just wait... I am out to get her... It's fun to do this with a bunch of other competative derbygirls, we all push each other and ourselves, no slacking here, and lot's of soreness the next day!

From now and on I'm preparing myself to be in fighting fit condition for the upcomming season, and this is such a fun way to do it, together with teamates, it does such that the tiny basement can't fit more than eight of us... but eight is better than none! Watch out world... I am back! The upcoming few months I hope every week will be two days at the gym, fighting fit once and rollerderby two or three depending on the times we get from Stockholm City.

After practice I made Swedish Meatballs for Eagle, serving it with all the traditional fixings, even if I don't think she's ready for the lingonberry jam just yet.

Fighting Fit in the bathtub...

Sticking a hole in your toe

So the winter bootcamp was amazing and fun, but being on skates three days in a row after almost three weeks with new skates did not work out so well for my right toe.

On the Saturday I got kicked quite hard on my big toe, but didn't really think too much about it. I got home and it was hurting but not more than I was ok with. I did notice that I probably should trim the nails, but got distracted. When I took my skates off on Sunday it was at the point that it was painful to walk in my trainers... I noticed that the toe was swollen and the nail seemed utterly unhappy... Still on Monday I managed to get the foot into skates and skate for two hours... But afterwards it was even more painful. After some Internet research and the very eager wannabe doctor Eagles advice, I realised that there was fluids under my nail, since it looked like it was ready to spring off the nalbed. Eagle did offer to drill a tiny hole in the nail with a gigantic power tool. I politely declined the offer. After being a big scared pussy for about an hour and after been prompted to watch gigantic zits getting popped on YouTube I finally decided that it couldn't be the worst thing to stick a needle just lightly under the nail... And it wasn't..  Lots of clear and yellowish fluids rushed out from the tiny little hole I poked... I cleaned it up and went to sleep... 

Toe is feeling much better today! Yay!

Yeah, I know... it is not a sexy picture...

My Birthday is a BIG deal

Ok, I admitt it, I love my birthday, probably too much for a person that doesn't like to talk about her age.  Either way, I just like having this one day when it's all about me, so very NON Swedish... On my birthday I want presents, presents and more presents, I don't care much for Christmas gifts, but I do VERY MUCH care for birthday gifts.It's a littel over the top maybe, and I am probably totally overdoing it!

I guess I already got a really great and fantastic Birthday gift, Eagle is staying for for my birthday, it wasn't really the plan, but due to the extreme weather in USA at the moment, she got stranded in Stockhoml until this weekend. So I sort of can say I got an exotic and amazing bird for my birthday!

So, FRIDAY it is, it's my birthday! On my birthday I will go to rollerderbypractice, and after practice I will go for a few beers with friends that I can coax into late beers and then I will fall into soft and comforting wings. And along the day I am hoping for lots of small and big presents and many congratulations on the impressive task of accomplishing another year of living!

 I am excited about 2014... Ah! 

Stockholm Winterbootcamp

Stockholm held a two day bootcamp this past weekend, and it was fab, Scald Eagle from Rose City Rollers was here and coached two sessions each day and myself coached one session each day. This year felt really awesome and less stress than the last time I did it. I had a really good time coaching, first class was on briding and offence, while the second one was on reaction, communication and ass towards the jammer. And Eagel had some really fancy footwark classes, jamming and all that stuff she's good at, she has for sure a fiiiine step, and on Sunday I was lucky enough to be able to step in on her morning class, she is a really great coach. Bootcamp was fun, everyone in the leauge worked really hard to make this happen, and hopefully we will be doing the same thing next year. It felt like we all got something out of it!

Eagle jamming 

We also had a referee camp that was lead by Cherry Fury, so we decided on having as much of scrimmage as possible, because it's fun to scrimmage with people you don't know, and referees need as much practice as possible. It was also a way of making it able for all of our Stockholm Rollerderby members to get to skate. The bootcamp was more advanced and participants had to been bouting for at least a season, which made the scrimmage  more challanging and it was great to see that both some of Swedens finest and Finlands finest where there. On the Sunday we did let our rookies in on the scrimmage, they got their own rookieline and got to play against each other, and they did soooo good, our rookies are going places! Europe look out!  I had SUCH a blast. A SUPERHUGE plus was of course that I got to skate with Eagle, and since we both are such derbynerds, it's about the best date ever. (like really)

The bootcamp was also real fun because of the simple reason that lots of fun people were participating, my very missed friend Only from Kallio was there, and her gf Pygmi, so I got to practice my Finnish that still is not very good, I guess I really need to go to Helsinki more, or even better have them move here. Sigh... I wish... 

Eags, me and Becky at Wintergames

We also had Eagle coach two Stockholm Rollerderby practices, and that was awesome, and it was so much fun to have an external coach come in with new drills and ways of thinking. I learned a few new things and got a few new things to work on, it is so awesome to get pushed and the feeling of getting better. Todays session was superfun, and we did some one on one that I forgot how much I like it. Reminded me that it is something we need to practice more often, just a few min every practice can take you a LOOONG way!

So tomorrow will be a very sad day since I have to drive Eagle to the airport and then go to work. The past three weeks been truly amazing, and I don't even know how to put words to how much I have learned about myself, how great my friends are and also that regular iceskating is hellafun!

HAPPY NEW 2014