Weight pre - pregnancy: 14 stone
Weight today: 14 stone 4 pounds
I come home sweaty and stinky, I’m in the door no more than 60 seconds before I have to peel my sports bra off to feed my baby. Gone are the days when I could come home, strip off, leaving clothes strewn on the stairs as I run up to the shower full of beans after having a kickass roller derby training session.
This was my first training session since having my daughter 19 weeks ago. I had laboured for many hours but ultimately it ended in a C-section due to a failure to progress. The one thing I hadn’t read the info about because I was so sure I would give birth vaginally. I was heartbroken to say the least, but my baby was delivered safely at 9 pounds 3 ounces, best thing I ever made! I had to mourn the birth I wanted to have and come to terms with having an extra thing to recover from before I could begin training for roller derby again. There are worse things that could have happened and I am thankful that even though things didn’t go how I had hoped, both my baby girl and I are fit and healthy.
I got to our training venue an hour before the session was to start, it went this way due to the baby’s nap routine, not because I’m a complete eager beaver (totally is). Putting my kit on felt weird. My skates felt like hard bricks weighing my feet down, a contrast to having worn soft comfortable memory foam trainers for a year. My elbow pads felt awkward, strange and scratchy. My wrist guards hard and unyielding against my knuckles. I always thought my protective gear was comfortable, skating 3 times a week I guess you get use to certain things. And after all that time without it I got use to soft, squishy loveliness instead, and I’m not talking about my thighs and ass.
I had a nervousness in my belly. What if I couldn’t perform how I used to? I knew to expect my body to feel different and to expect that I might not be able to do things quite as well or fast as I used to. After over a year of pretty much no exercise, what if I just fall apart and it’s like I’m right back at step one? Just do what you can. This session is your baseline.
It was strange to be sat there waiting for my teamies to come in, only the first few people that came were our new sinners members. I’m not used to not already knowing all our new members. Normally, I’m right there at their first session helping them learn to skate. These girls were lovely, it was nice having changing room chat with the girls again. I have missed this. Speaking to adults about something other than my baby was refreshing.
As I had had over a year off skates, and per our leagues requirements, I had to redo my minimum skills. I think going straight into a full training session would have destroyed my confidence and wrecked me physically!
Skating through to the hall, laying the track, warming up. It all came flooding back, my muscle memory kicked in. It’s surprising how much was still intact. Yeah, I’m nowhere near as strong as I used to be, and maybe my control is a little weak, but I was nowhere near as bad as I thought.
Yeah, I’ve got this I thought, then we did 27 in 5. Hahahaha. To be honest I thought I would do quite badly at this, as I suffer from exercise induced asthma and the hall was bloody cold, it already hurt to breathe without bombing it around a track. I went for it, first minute long flowing cross overs, I followed the diamond, I felt strong. Surprised how much my body just did what it needed to without me thinking. For those first 2 and half minutes I kept the pace I needed to get the 27 laps, but for those 2 and half minutes my legs burned, my ass burned, my chest burned, my calves and shins screamed and my back begged me to stop. My wife ran around the inside of the track cheering me on (stupidly might I add, as she has an ankle injury!) 3 minutes in, I was wheezing, I slowed down, I could see black spots, I laughed. Ha ha ha, body you tricked me into thinking we are fitter than we are. The final minute passed and that’s it done, no more time to rack up laps. I came rushing into the middle grasping for my inhaler and water. When the black spots finally stopped and the blood rushing round my body was quiet enough for me to hear, I was pleasantly surprised and happy to find I was able to achieve 24 laps in the 5 mins.
Next time I know how to pace myself to get the most out of my body.
The rest of the session, we did leaps, laterals, standing laps and I passed them. I passed knee taps, stops, falls and glides. Sadly we ran out of time for anything else. I was so happy with how my body performed. I really thought after having a c section, growing a human and having no exercise for a year would really have had more of an impact on my overall fitness and ability to skate. Don’t get me wrong, during the session my groin and inside leg has never ached so much in my life (it probably did when I was 252 pounds but that was so long ago I can’t remember the pain of skating that heavy). And sitting here now 4 hours post training I’m struggling to move and my knees feel like the joints are made of jelly. But my core is still unexpectedly strong considering I had a 12 inch cut across it only 19 weeks ago. And my thighs, though far jigglier now are still strong and reactive. I only hope I can continue to come to training and get stronger each week. Let’s see how it feels the day after knowing I can’t just sleep the night through as my baby girl still wakes every 1 -2 hours.
I look forward to having these skills signed off so I can take part in the real challenge. Pushing myself in drills, taking and giving hits, smashing through a wall, holding a jammer and so very much more. Let’s see if my core still feels unexpectedly strong after that! Either way I’m hopeful and excited for my derby future and decidedly happy with how my body has recovered post baby and c section, it’s good to know it doesn’t ruin you and you can come back from it relatively unchanged.
