Wall squats. Lunges. Squat pyramids (on and off skates). Crunches. More squats. Push-ups (but not as many of those, as I’d like my forearm tendons to remain intact). I’m focusing on the basics right now, as my month 1 assessment for New Girl is coming on Saturday. Gotta stay low. Core tight. Knees bent and soft.
It’s been a hell of a journey for me. In some ways, I feel like my skills have regressed due to my being timid about skating the track right. But people I skate with tell me that’s not the case, that they see me doing things now that I couldn’t do when this crazy time started.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. I know my chances of surviving this first cut are very, very slim.
I’m OK with this. MORE than OK with this, really. Who’da thunk it? I just started banked track in June. In September, I made New Girl. I hadn’t even intended to try out when I started! To have made it this far, to have lasted through the whole first month WITHOUT QUITTING – this is huge for me. I feel like an honest also-ran at the Oscars. It was an honor just to be chosen for the program. And now, I have a much better idea of what I need to do to make it farther.
It’s going to take a lot more conditioning. A lot more squats. Thousands of laps around that track. Hundreds of repetitions of box turns, T-stops, plow stops, falls. I’m game. I plan to try out again. This sport is too fun for me to give up on now.