Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

At the beginning of last month I felt somehow defeated that I haven't progressed on the Ten Fox as much as I expected in the previous month. I tried and did reset my mind to get back to work at it methodically instead of pushing. On the other hand I had other things on my mind, so I don't think I could have pushed the skating even if I wanted too. Then, I haven't felt good the last two weeks because of a bad cold/ flu... I skated just twice a week and I took it easy. I know it by now, but I'm always surprised of how much more I enjoy skating when I don't push for progress. I just go and skate... But then I don't progress much, so at some point I have to get back in pushing as I do want to progress, I want it badly... The deadline for the next test sessions is in few days, I think I'll miss it again. At least I hope I can get back into pushing.

I do feel some progress on the Ten Fox. The only technical correction I was still getting was to not scrape the 3-turns. I don't scrape them anymore at low speeds and I keep drilling them by adding more speed into the one step I take before the 3-turn, then adding more steps. I think it goes better, but in the dance, I still scrape them, though maybe not so badly. Then, I still need more power and confidence to test standard track. And of course, I need to be able to don't forget I have a partner, when dancing with my partner/ coach. I'm literally embarrassed at points on how I forget he exists and I go on my own, while he is right there, arm distance. But my coach says I'm very close to testing. I hope he's right because I'm really loosing my patience. As I couldn't skate with any power during my cold (I couldn't breath), my coach taught me the Fourteen Step and the Foxtrot. I feel motivated to finish already with the Ten Fox so I can get to work on them.

I worked very little at the MITF Pre-Juvenile exercises, and I haven't work at all on Freestyle. I just haven't had the time, skating just twice a week, one time being the lesson...

I had few weeks, during the last few months, when I skated four times a week: Monday, when I have my lesson too, Wednesday and Friday as I usually do, plus an extra lesson on Thursday and to be sure I'm warmed I skated on the studio rink before the lesson. It felt good... I would hope I could skate Monday trough Friday. On Tuesdays there is some really empty package ice time, while kids are still in school. That would give me lots of space o practice dance. I would have to be careful to take it easy on Wednesday so I can still skate on Thursday (not be too tired) as it is the only other day besides Monday when my coach is at my rink and I could have a lesson. I really like the pace of my skating when I have two lessons a week, as I was doing two years ago, before I hurt my hip, but of course, I need practice time on my own... For every half hour private lesson, my coach recommends two hours of practice on my own and it feels about right. But today is Tuesday and I'm not feeling up for skating, so hopefully I'll skate Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and add Tuesdays from the next week.

About my other activities, I was telling you that I help alley cats for few years now, but last year it got more intense. Toward the end of the year I figured out how to consistently work with one organization to get the friendly ones adopted. I still have to figure out how to consistently spay/ neuter those that are less friendly. And here is the blog I started to tell their story: https://alleycatstales.blogspot.com/