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.