From guest poster Andrew
One of my favourite things to do on a Sunday afternoon is to roll around on the ground with ten sweaty roller derby girls and their friends. No, no – put your video cameras away: this was all about getting a lot of exercise and raising money for ORD at the same time by attending the Ottawa Roller Derby Boot Camp in MacDonald Gardens Park.
There were thirteen of us valiant souls (three boys and ten women), who attended. (Lesson one: when a number of people sign up for an event via Facebook, always deduct two-thirds of that number to find the actual number of true heroes who will turn up.) We were led by the awesome Kelly (Heavenly Paingel) who is not only a great fitness instructor and merciless, heartless taskmistress, but also an inspiration to anyone who thinks they can’t shift a few pounds.
And joking aside, Kelly was a great class leader. I do a LOT of boot camp – I have been going three times a week for nearly four years – and this was one of the best, most kickass sessions I have done in my time. With eight rounds of tabata – that means sixteen sessions each of jump squats, squat thrusts, jumping side to side and v-sit crunchy thingies to start with, followed by pyramids of three different types of push-ups, more squats, etc etc., it really was a testing regime, well worth doing, and giving me an appreciation for the amount of training ORD players put in to keep their legs bent at 90 degrees for a whole bout, AND skate, AND repel violent oppostion.
Despite the difficulty – and the constant verbal abuse from an “injured” H.P. Lovecrash – we were a merry bunch, and with all exercise it is always much more endurable when you are with an awesome, friendly, funny, wiseass bunch of people. I would definitely recommend working out with this crew as a way to keep in top shape. What I wouldn’t recommend is going to boot camp again next morning, and doing about a million more squats. I am almost able to move my legs again now…
