"You're like a virgin, get down lower!"
Quote is from my teammate from when I was doing endurance and she was counting my laps (slash motivating me. Thanks for stroking my ego!). I got 27 and a half laps which is my personal best - even after we did a whole heap of skating beforehand! The one thing that gets me is leg pain so if I can build up my muscle endurance I will be fine. Cardio fitness isn't too much of an issue for me - I used to play soccer (both outdoor and futsal) in my pre-derby sporting life.
I love my new wheels so far! They're Atom Booms in XX Firm (so, they're my old wheels, just harder) and they give me the right amount of push while still giving me decent roll and speed (considering it's a fairly grippy urethane and 59mm profile for that extra agility over a wider/higher wheel for speed and less agility). To quote myself upon skating in them for the first time, "they feel like yes". They work wonderfully at the local rink and quite nicely on the other concrete floor I practice on too! I need to work on my control a bit more and also my technique so I can skate faster because my speed still needs work - but hey I'm not even bouting level yet so there's that too. I tried some Prestos in 93a and while they were a nice wheel that didn't have too much grip, it wasn't exactly what I was after. Although it skated similarly to a Juke, at my current ability I would choose Jukes over Prestos because they respond a bit quicker (for me anyway).
Training-wise, I loved the speed and endurance training session last night and learnt I really need to work on my technique always (especially when it comes to getting faster and skating backwards). And tonight I worked on my backwards crossovers and they're getting to the stage where they're in my muscle memory and I can do them! How well I can do them is another story but I just have to keep practicing!