Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I've already described in detail how the skating went last month in my previous posts. Overall, I would say that I feel as comfortable on ice, as before the quarantine.

This week I still skated at the north side rink where I skated all last month. But starting this month, they allowed 15 skaters on ice instead of 10.

For the rest of this month, I have already bought ice at my home rink 3 times a week. That's gonna save me lots of time of sitting in traffic. They allow 20 skaters on ice plus coaches, and I know I'm gonna feel overwhelmed especially as last month I've got used with 10 skaters on ice. I fell lucky that I had this week the opportunity to skate with 15 people on ice to smooth a little the transition. 

And one new happy development, as more ice was added on the schedule to the north side rink, where my coach is teaching, in the sense that more skaters will be allowed on ice on the same time, I was able to get some ice there so I can still have lessons. I'll have a 45 minutes lesson every second week.

Plan and goals for this month?... I'm not sure. My big skating goal was always training for progress and lately I think more and more about skating for my own enjoyment.  I feel crowded skating sessions will not help "training" the moves for testing. And seeing my coach just every second week will not help "training" the Ten Fox for testing as for testing I need the dance partnered and from past experience, I forget the partnering part unless I'm seeing my coach, twice a week. I also don't think I can work on figures in crowded sessions. That only leaves on freestyle (jumps and spins)... as those are individual elements that don't take so much space on ice at my level. I also think I can work on specific turns, like dropped 3-turns and the Foxtrot mohawk for dance, and maybe learn new turns like brackets, double 3-turns for moves...

As for skating for my own enjoyment, I haven't figure it out yet. Las month in this "Mid month update" post, I was saying that I thought I would enjoy doing easier things, on what I wouldn't struggle. Coming back on ice after 3 months gave me the opportunity to see with fresh eye what I enjoy. And I actually enjoy everything, the difficult exercises too. A friend that is an accomplished  violin player, said that when she studied as a kid, she got extremely bored to keep  working and practice the same thing over and over. And then, a new instructor scheduled "playing" time in her practice, when she could play whatever she wanted, and not work at it, just enjoy. And this resonated with me. So I'm thinking now that is not what I do on ice, but the intention behind it, "work" or "play". This month, when the ice will be too crowded to work on things, I will have the opportunity to just "play" on ice.

My desire to skate for my own enjoyment came after losing that enjoyment and getting frustrated. I'm also looking back at the times when I've lost that enjoyment for skating in the past, before the quarantine. My coach thought it was  related with me getting frustrated that I wasn't progressing as fast as I expected. I didn't have any better explanation, and I'm sure there is some truth in that. So I was trying to make my progress goals more flexible and have a process oriented training instead of a goal oriented training. But... I'm starting to think that the frustration is actually more related with my body being tired or in pain... I mentioned in the "Mid month update" that I was hurting and frustrated, and then, at the End of month update" I was better and I really think what changed was how I felt physically. Two years ago I used to skate 6 days a week, two days twice, that's a lot, of course I was getting tired. Then I hurt my hip, and I had some kind of pain for almost a year. I will have to wait and see if the pain or feeling tired will prove to be the main source of my frustration.