Taking it easy

I'm taking it easy with my skating, not by choice, and I'm not happy about it. 

I've told you in my last post that my home rink closed and it is not easily doable for my life to go four  times a week to a 45 minutes away rink. I would have probably done it if I could have work towards testing the moves on December 15th. My skating was going well lately I think I could have put myself together for that test. But... I've asked last week-end and the registration was already full and closed. The registration usually opens 4 weeks before the test, and this December 15 one, filled in 3 weeks before the test, so in one week. I'll have to be prepared for the next test session to sign up when the registration opens.

Las two weeks, from skating four times a week, including a half hour private lesson, I've gone to skating Mondays and Fridays. However unhappy I am to drive so far, it seems I'm even more unhappy to skate twice a week. So I'm thinking, depending on how I feel on Mondays to add either Tuesdays and take a lesson, either Wednesday...

I'm still gonna start each skating session with the moves test. That is the "5 minutes warm up" and the test. The idea is to mimic the test conditions, when I'll have to do moves after warming them up for just 5 minutes. I am adjusting my 5 minutes warm up from what I had and described here. I used to feel the need to do the edge presses in order to wake up my alignment for  the 3-turns. Now I don't feel I need those anymore. I feel I need to warm up more at speed, to get the knees soft, at speed. This is what I have for now.  

• I still start with the slalom, but I may do just forward, to gain time, but also because while the backward slalom is useful for posture alignment, if there are skaters in my way, I cannot do it well anyhow.
• I think I'll do the whole forward line of the crossovers to inner edge (I used to do half and change to backwards).  I feel I can actually warm up with that and that change at the middle made me slow down.
• I'll stop the backward crossovers at half line and do the figure eight in the middle of the rink. I feel that the rink will be empty at that point.
• Then I'll do the edge pulls, full pattern
• Then, the 3-turns. My coach taught me to do 4 of the first pattern, then to go a little back so I can  do 4 of the next pattern on the same line. I used to loose time finding that places, but I'm getting better. Then the other line...
• I don't feel I need to warm up the 5 step Mohawk and I won't probably have time for it anyway

After I'll skate through the whole test, I'll work on what I feel like... These last few time that included 3-turns and the slow new things, double 3-turns, brackets, twizzles, power 3-turns, back cross rolls, the Foxtrot Mohawk and dropped 3-turns for the European Waltz, spins and the Tenfox. I'll have to add the jumps, at least those that I need in the exhibition on Nutcracker music that might or might not happen. The rink that organizes that exhibition is closed until December 4th, at which point they'll reconsider, so I'll know soon enough.

Schedule adjustment (some rinks closed)

As I expected we've got new restrictions meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus. We are not in total quarantine mode but in the very next level of restrictions.The rinks fall in the category of gyms, and they are allowed to stay open and function at 25% capacity, though.. no group classes are allowed. Some rinks decided to stay open, but not my rink.... The rink where I was registered for the Christmas Nutcracker exhibition has closed too. 

The rink where I take private lessons will stay open, allowing 10 people on ice. The think is that that rink is farther away, so I really cannot make it there 4 times a week. Ideally I would like skate at least 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but that may also take too much time. Also my lesson is set on Tuesdays... I canceled the lessons for now, until I figure out my schedule, maybe somebody else wants that spot. And wait, next week is Thanksgiving, Thursday the rink is closed, and Wednesday is sold out. I am grateful I can still skate, but I'm so frustrated of how much time and effort it requires to get to skate. I've just bragged in the last post that I felt I've got a good pace and rhythm in my skating, now that rhythm will be gone as I cannot skate at uniformly distanced days. What is also taking away from my good rhythm is that my rink session are  an hour and a half and the rink that is open has one hour session. I have to organize differently.

The rink that my club uses for test sessions is also not closing, so the December 15 test session is still on. I would soo love to test the Pre-Juvenile MITF . Am I ready? I thinks so... but I haven't really worked on them with my coach in... forever.  December 15, so 3 weeks from now. Theoretically, I think I would have enough time to pull myself together. The 3-turns feel better now, after I resharpened the blades. The rest was OK already.

 If I wouldn't test in December I think  I will be tempted to take it easy, maybe skate just twice a week. Then, it would be the Christmas break, when the ice schedule is crazy different and in the past that always made me skate stiffer in January. What I'm getting at is that in January I may be even less prepared to test then now, in December. There is one more thing... if I wouldn't test I don't know on what I would use my private lessons on, I don't want dance for now as I cannot test partnered and I've got it in my head that the old boots are not holding my dance push into the ankle and the jumps'  landings... I'm not motivated to work on the moves for more than a month,  Also... I'm buying new boots and I would like to test on my old boots... or I'll have to wait few months until I'll break in the new ones.

I plan to skate today, Friday and Monday and work mostly on moves. If I feel confident I can have a lesson on Tuesday and decide together with my coach... to test or not to test... And that will determine the skating schedule.

Mid month update

My skating goes so well! Only good news in this post! Mmm wait... I'm pretty sure we will get another stay at home order soon...

Back to my skating... for now, I'm still skating Monday, Wednesday and Friday on my own at my rink and I'm having a lesson on Tuesday at another rink. I've missed one Friday and one lesson, but still, I feel I've got a good pace, a rhythm. The muscles feel good, the mask doesn't make it easy, but stamina is improving too.

Pre-Juvenile MITF: The only move that I was not 100% confident for testing was the 3-turns. And they count as two moves and two of the marks for the test, so they need to be confident. Looking back they started to get hesitant when my blades got very dull (I was skidding on some). Then, when the blades were too sharp and on a too deep radius, it was confusing. I wasn't sliding but whenever I wasn't perfectly align (and that is often, and that is ok because this is still a low level test) I would have a balance check and a scare. And a bad fall... yeap, on the bad hip... Also the backward circle eight hasn't gotten completely around on too sharp blades. Now, with the right sharpening, everything is back... The next testing session is December 15... And I'm very doubtful that that is gonna happen because of covid... So I'm not really pushing the moves but I do run them carefully, kind of eye-ing the testing. 

Ice Dancing: I've got it in my head that the boots are not supportive enough. When I push into my ankles, and in Ice Dancing you push on every step, I get no resistance, it's uncomfortable, so I don't feel I can go for speed and power. I do maintain the Ten Fox, but I'm not putting any heart into it. I'm not particularly attracted to this dance and there is no hope of testing partnered any time soon. I've considered testing solo but I'm late on few steps, so not on music, and I feel that I would need a little more power that I don't seam to be able to find. The Foxtrot and European Waltz also don't work without speed and power, the pattern just doesn't goes where it should go.  So I don't do much Ice dancing...

Slow new things: I'm spending most of my ice time on new things that I can do slowly, no power and speed needed. The forward inside brackets are getting really good. I'm not hesitating anymore on the outside ones. Twizzles... I couldn't work on them with too sharp blades, so I just started them again. They are confusing... The counter clockwise sometimes gets 2 full rotations, yeiii, the key word being sometimes. I'm not able to figure out what I do differently when they work. The clockwise ones stop invariably after one rotation. I feel I'm leaning outside the circle, I'm blocking myself with the right shoulder. Per my coach's request I've made a list with the new thing I wanted to learn. And I tried them on my own first... forward double 3-turns, backward power 3-turns, backward crossrolls that he explained to me and I'm ready for the next set of corrections. I'm also working on adding arm movement to some of the edges.

Exhibition program on Nutcraker music: This gives me so much joy, as I expected. The music is a little longer then my old Freestyle program so I added some moves from the Freedance program I was working on. This exhibition also me to work on Freestyle, the spins and jumps that I planed to put in the program. I decided that I'll run the program each time I'm on ice to be sure I build the stamina even if I don't put on the music. I've put the music just once... it's complicated... Anyhow, I'm trying to not allow this program to take over all the skating time, I just work on it on the last 15 minutes on ice. Now, the bad news... The exhibition is suppose to be on December 13th, so probably it's not gonna happen...

Power and Speed: I'm getting into the habit of trying to push myself at the end of the session, if I'm not too tired. If I'm tired, I do breathing kind of edge lunges and contractions. When I feel good, I do power stroking, forward and backward crossovers, forward and backward chasses.

Sewing: I've finally sewn some soakers (absorbent covers) for my blades. I haven't really felt I needed them before, because after wiping the blades after skating I was putting them on a towel in my skating bag. But now, we are not allowed with the skating bags in the building and I'm using the plastic guards to transport the skates and those keep the blades wet. I've also sewn a new skating skirt. From when I've hurt my left hip, I'm always wearing a hip pad so I like to have a skirt over the leggings to cover the pad. I used to wear mostly black leggings and I have made two black skirts. Lately I've got into heather grays, as they don't show the cat hair so badly... so I needed a gray skirt!

Skates update - I need new boots

It feels that I've finally got the sharpening right... I was on dull and then too sharp blades for a month a a half... I went to a figure skating store and they confirmed the radius I had now, was deeper than 7/16 I have used all the time before now. They said it was a little deeper then 3/8... that's deep... I'm more, relieved then anything else... It was really exhausting doubting myself, trying to control the deeper edge and not really knowing for sure what is wrong. As I was saying in the previous posts, on the previous, deeper edge, I've felt the blades went where they wanted. The solution for that would have theoretically been to press more into the ice, but that only made it worse. So I've lost the habit of pressing into the ice... I've also probably lost some stamina as I skated very casually for more then a month. Now, I'll have to spend some time  to get used to my new, old, sharpening radius... again...

I'll also have to spend some time soon to get used to... new boots. I'm still skating on my fist pair of boots. They served me well for almost 10 years... They lasted so long because they were an intermediary model not a beginner model, that decided for because they've fit better, like way better. Now I've felt occasionally they didn't give me enough resistance when I pressed harder and also when I was landing jumps. But I have another reason for buying new boots... I want my old boots available to mount some wheels in the spring, or my old blade for outdoor skating, we'll see...

Meanwhile I've asked my coach to continue to teach me new things, that I can approach with the slower speed that it seams I'm comfortable with.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I'm not unhappy with how last month's skating went. It was a challenging month because my blades got very dull, then, they were sharpen too sharp... My coach sharpened them for the first time, as my old sharpener moved away. At first we thought he may have changed the radius, into a deeper one, but it seems they were just too sharp. I felt they went wherever they wanted, and if I pressed more I made it worse instead of better. Also, the left blade had uneven edges, the outside was higher, that made me feel off balance. He corrected that and also took a little off so they wouldn't be so sharp. They feel better but I'm still off... off balance, so afraid to go fast. It's either that I need more time adjusting from dullness, to too sharp, to present, or... it may still be a different radius than I used to skate on...

 But basically, I've skated cautiously the whole last month. I think there are two reasons why I, that I'm always on the hunt for progress, wasn't unhappy even without working for progress. One, I didn't have a goal to test... so while I still worked at the tests, I worked without pressure. Secondly, I had  few new things to work at, and that kept me interested. Also, these new things, I worked on with slow speed so the blades situation hasn't affected me that much. So I haven't got frustrated...

 I usually have a private lesson every week, but last month I missed two lessons, one week I haven't felt well, one week I had something else to do.

Freestyle. I was afraid to jump with dull blades. I just did a Waltz Jump here and there. And I'm realizing now as I'm writing, that I could have also done all the toe jumps Bunny Hops, Half Flip, Half Lutz and even Toe Loop because the entrance 3-turn is quite flat. I worked on the Forward spin (that I don't center as well as the Forward Scratch Spin) consistently, as I'm trying to learn to change positions. But, while the dull blades help spinning, they don't help entering the spins... so not much progress...

Ice Dancing requires deep edges and speed, that I couldn't do on dull blades, or uneven blades, so again, not much to report. I run trough the exercises and the Ten Fox mostly. I still work at the Foxtrot mohawk. I did once the Foxtrot and European Waltz but I just couldn't put enough speed into them. Interestingly, the rink where I take my private lessons allows partnering (with mask on and gloves), and the Ten Fox feels stronger partnered. Too bad I cannot test it anywhere partnered. There is no testing at this particular rink and none of the other rinks allows partnering. I haven't worked on solo Ten Fox on music, as it is an adventure (because of covid restrictions) in using the music player.

MITF. I warm up with them, but, with dull blades the 3-turns that I have not good technique on, were skidding. The power pulls lost their rip sound and confidence. The rest was fine. Back circle eight on dull blades was a dream... And then, it hasn't made it all around with the sharp blades...

Figures on dull blades worked well. I will have to ask my coach to see them, if they are good enough maybe to teach me the next ones. I don't think I want to test these. It would have to be a special request either at a test session, either for a judge to come especially for me.

New things: The new things I've learned from my coach are the Forward inside twizzzles and the Forward Brackets. But I've learned new exercises from another adult skater. She's french and I've known her for a long time from group classes, but she's moved back to France for awile. Now she's back and she's doing some very pretty exercises, MITF type, that she learned in France. Like back inside pulls, and backward change of edge after forward outside 3-turn. 

So, my skating time was somehow used fully.

For this month I firstly have to figure out my blades... I cannot really "work" on MITF or Ice Dancing when I feel off balance at speed.

What I know for sure... I'll have to work on Freestyle and my old Freestyle program. I've registered to a Christmas exhibition to the rink that used to organize the Nutcracker on Ice. As that wasn't safe this year, they'll organize 10 skater per hour on ice, each with a maximum of 5 guests. And everybody has to skates on Nutcracker music. I watch my old program on mute while playing the Nutcracker music and it seems to kind of fit. I think I can even use the intro steps from my new, under construction, Solo Free Dance program. This exhibition is December 13th.

In the Freestyle program I had a Waltz Jump, a Salcow and a half Flip, and I feel the other jumps I ca do, the Toe loop and the half Lutz wouldn't fit so well the waltzy feeling of the music, so I'm gonna keep the old jumps. For the spins I had a two foot spin and a Forward spin and I want to do the Forward spin instead of the two foot spin and the backward spin at the end. So I feel, the next month I will have to work consistently on Freestyle. Hopefully I'll build a habit and continue working on Freestyle. I want the Loop Jump, that I used to have, so it shouldn't be so hard to get, but it is! The main reason could be that I don't work at it consistently... I think put it on my Christmas list, maybe Santa will help...