I'm officially on the Disabled List

After a brief off-season in November and December, we came back to training with a fierce and aggressive approach. We started training harder. "Endurance means to endure" was our mantra. From the very first practice I knew something was wrong. I was experiencing debilitating pain in both ankles. But it mattered not because I was enduring. Didn't matter how bad it hurt, I pushed through it because I wanted to be the very best I could.

Playing the Boston Massacre, I had a harsh realization that this pain was effecting my playing and I needed to do something about it. We had a big bout against the Riveters and I couldn't let my team down.

Of course, I couldn't get a doctor's appointment until May 22 (the week after the end of our season). I studied up on tendinitis - it seemed like the most reasonable diagnosis - and found that I needed to stop skating and retrain my tendons. Um, not an option right before the biggest bout of my roller derby career.

Armed with my own personal regime for training, I removed myself from drills during practice and tried to find how long I needed to skate - just in a circle at a slow pace - before I could participate without pain. You see, if I just hopped in the drills, my ankles would throb with hot pain and refuse to bend or rotate. I found that after skating at a snail's pace for a good 40 minutes allowed me to prepare my tendons for scrimmaging.

I did this before every bout this season and it worked out.

Now I'm glad I couldn't get a doctor's appointment until after the season. His orders were - no skating for a month, then ease back into it. I have to do all these exercises to strengthen my muscles, so they can take the slack off the tendons and down Ibuprofen all day.

While I'm glad there's no permanent damage, I'm devastated, of course, to be told I can't skate. Attending the last practice was tough. I tried to stay busy doing a core workout, but come time to scrimmage I couldn't help but feel sad as my team played without me.

I know, I know. Boo hoo, right? A couple months with no scrimmaging pales in comparison to some of the other girls' injuries. I'll just suck it up and do what the doctor says so I'm back on skates in no time.

We've got two bouts this Fall and I plan on skating in them...