Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

First week of last month I skated just once, because of the inconvenient ice schedule. I was waiting for the second week to go back to my regular schedule, but on Monday I bumped into somebody, well, we bumped into each other, and fell on my bad side. It didn't seam that I hurt the hip, but there was pain on the muscles compensating, that lasted 2 weeks.  Yeap, I had to take it easy again... So what did I work on?

Freestyle: I went through my jumps occasionally so I don't loose them again. But without corrections from a coach they are just as bad as they were 2 years ago (pre rotation, no height, no speed, obviously other things that I'm not aware off). I also just try to maintain my forward scratch spin as I don't want to put pressure on the abductors. The backspin improves every week! I enter now from an inside 3turn and I do cross my free foot. It's slow and shy but it's consistent. I'm curious what the next instructions will be from my coach. I'll have to ask how to exit from it... I know, bend the skating leg and pull, but I don't really know how to do it.
MITF: I've got big compliments from my coach on the power alternating crossovers. They were: "Well, for somebody that started skating as an adult, these look great!" I looked at him confused, because  my goal is to not look as somebody that started as an adult, and I'll test these on standard track like the kids... It sounded to me that they are not that good, even if I knew he said it as a compliment. He continued, surely answering to my confused face... "No, no, they are good, I saw worse than this pass"... I think this is all the compliments I will get! My coach is famous for being stingy with the compliments... But he thinks these are ready for the test, so they are good enough for this level. That's all I need to know :)
The backward circle eight initial push was giving me trouble. I think because I was pushing from the bad hip, in time, I stopped pushing. I also forgot to pigeon toe and lead with my heel the foot that's gonna became the skating foot. And it seams that I was dropping the free hip, again....
The 32 3-turns... My hip was hurting when I did 3-turns on it. So each time I skated I did just 2 of each... just to maintain. I still got the correction that I'm not transferring ALL my weight on the skating hip, and that I rush the turn sometimes. The biggest correction was to make the upper body movement continuous. I was actually trying to snap them, as I do in Ice Dancing. There, I stroke on an edge and hold the edge on bent knee with a good extension, and I twist the upper body just when I rise for the turn. I can do them with continuous upper body movement too. I was happy that I'm starting to be able to control these timing differences.
Ice Dancing: We keep working on backward skating: stroking, chasses, progressives. We work on the push, posture, extension, quickness and finishing the lobes. The Willow Waltz I think looks good, the Ten fox we didn't do together too often so I don't know.

The biggest thing this month was, again, feeling frustrated that I cannot push for progress. I'm happy that now my hip seams better. But it seams that it's very easily re injured. I'm trying to find ways to enjoy what I have. What else can I do?

So, coming from my adult Freestyle group lessons I always wanted to be able to connect the elements. At that point I had nothing but elements: some small jumps, the one foot spin, lunges, spirals. I had no speed and the turns, the Mohawk, the 3 turns were not solid on their own, so surely I couldn't have done them at speed. And they are the connecting elements. Now I have some control... So I asked a new coach (after consulting with my main coach that doesn't do choreography) to do a program for me. We would start with few lessons to see what I have, and go from there.This new coach is specialized in adult skaters and he's trying to bring the "fun" into skating. I overheard him telling somebody "let's not put this into an equation". Myself, I love to put everything into equations, forces, momentum, angles... So I was curious if he was gonna be a good fit. I had one lesson and half of it we did hand movements and half a step sequence. So, yes, he doesn't provide a doctorate paper on how to paint a masterpiece but rather a paint by numbers instructions. And I have to say, for now, seams effective.

Goals for next month:
- Order some hip pads. I researched as much as I could, I've asked all my skating friends, I've red reviews and forums and I think I'm leaning towards the gel ones. They are $40 each but I'll order just one for now.
- I still stretch regularly but I'm adding strengthening exercises. I'm doing one leg calf raises for a while now, I recently added 2 exercises for hips and core (I was doing core but I stopped at some point).
- Handle the frustration...and motivation. My goal at this point is progress. I was cautioned about over training and boredom and advised to have fun. But, I feel that, as an adult over 40, I'll be limited in my progress sooner or later. So I was trying to get my satisfaction from the progress and I was planing to have fun later... With the amount of time I skate these days the progress is soo slow, sooo frustrating. I hope working on my first program with my new coach will bring some fun and motivation.
- And I hope I'll get to test the Willow Waltz at the end of the month to give me some confirmation of progress and some confidence.