Epsom Salt

I'm afraid that I don't have an overriding theme for today's post.  Here are my thoughts in no particular order:
Epsom Salt
When I was marathoning I always liked to take a hot bath after long runs.  That was mostly because I always get really cold after a good workout and a hot bath not only solved the chills but also relaxed me enough to take a nap afterward.  Win-win.  Before roller derby I had never heard of Epsom salt and even when I did, I have to admit it sounded like a lot of crap to me.  Putting salt in your bath to ease aches in your joints and muscles just seems a little far fetched.  However, Epsom salt is cheap so I gave it a go.  I wouldn't say that it works miracles, but I do notice the difference between an Epsom salt bath and a regular one.  It's worth more than the very small amount of money you pay for it.

Being Pushed
My overriding experience in coaches in sports to date has fallen into one of two categories.  In category one falls the coaches who look at me and either say with their eyes or the mouths, "no matter how hard you try, you will never have much success in this."  I love sports but I'm not a natural athlete.  It takes a lot of work for me to keep up with most people and a phenomenal amount of work to come out ahead.  Those coaches see that and give up on me before I have the chance to get started.  (caveat - swimming is the one exception here.  I'm a great natural swimmer)
In category number two falls the coaches (and other people) who see how hard I push myself and just let me go at it.  In some ways I appreciate that because truly, there is no more push than what you see here.  In other ways it's a little dangerous because while I'm fine with giving myself direction that doesn't always mean I'm going in the right place.
I've never had a coach who saw the work ethic and tried to direct it.  I've sure as hell never had anyone tell me I was going to be great.  I've got a lot of both of those things today and I think it's going to make my heart explode.  Truth be told there's a big part of me that believed <still believes> that I have to do all that I'm doing just be able to play this sport at all.  The concept that I could be a stand-out player feels very strange in my mind.  I've never been the stand out.  At my best I've been a good consistent teammate.   I love that they're pushing me in a way that other coaches haven't.  I want very badly to prove them right.
Current Events
This morning was Cadet practice.   Whips, pushes, pack work.  The program resets every three months so the practice was very similar to one of the practices we had in November.  The wonderful thing about it is that going back and working on fundamentals really brings home just how far I've come in the past three months.  Even though the May draft seems like an eternity from now, November seems like yesterday.  I was constantly locking wheels with people and tripping.  Worms at a reasonable pace were REALLY hard.  I was exhausted after the whips and pushes.  Today there was no locking of wheels, no falling.  My endurance has gone from good to AWESOME.  That perspective has been nice.
My mid day consisted of a half hour bike ride to a friends house to mount my clipless pedals and then ride home.  Be prepared for more bike commute adventures.  The thing is finally fixed and ready to go.  In the afternoon we had PFM.  I have really good overriding feelings about the experience but I'm too tired to really lock down what specifically was good about it.  Lots of exercise in one day will do that.
<originally posted on 2.25.12>