The plan, last month, was to get back into skating after two months off. I was also looking at the reasons I didn't skate. Most were valid scheduling issues, but some, were lack of motivation because the blade was still not in the permanent aliment position so I couldn't skate fully, I was trying to take it easy/ I didn't have any goals. So I set as priority to work on the blade alignment, to skate 3 times per week and to observe my reasons for motivation/ frustration in skating.
I think there is progress in the boot fitting and blade alignment. I figured I had to tighten the boot to the point of cramping, only then I had control and the changes in blade positioning didn't feel so important. The good news is that the boots will continue to mold on my feet, so eventually I will cramp less. The bad news is that during the last visit at the bootfiter, he nicked the corner of the sole on the heel, so I'm not sure if that will collapse, or if it is already collapsed, and I think I'll have to address this now, before continuing the work on alignment. I am exhausted from working with the bootfiters, I know they are doing their best, I know my feet are not perfect... it's just wearing me out. But, as I said, there was progress, so I have to keep pushing this until eventually gets done. The less I push, the longer it will take.
I expected that the muscle conditioning (and pain) is going to be a problem, but it is honestly more unpleasant than my expectations. The lesson here, is to do my best and not take so long breaks from skating, and if I really cannot go, do some squats and lunges. I don't work out beside skating (and ballet that I also stopped doing) but I think I can make myself do 10 squats and 10 lunges.
Food was also a problem, I need more protein to help the muscle growth, and as I am almost vegan I need to get creative with recipes (and I'm starting a category of posts about food with focus on plant based protein). I also ordered some protein powder, maybe that is gonna be an easy fix or at least help a little.
Rinks... the sessions I use to skate on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at noon for adult figure skaters only, used to be very quiet, but it is suddenly heavily populated by former high level competitors. They do watch out for the rest of us, but for me it is still very distracting. I still struggle mentally because I hurt my hip (is it now 4 years ago?) because a fast skater came close to me and I got spooked and I fell. Also I cannot keep straight my patters, or my thoughts, to be honest. I went and checked up the next closest rink to me, it is the rink of the local hockey team, they usually (not consistently) have an 11am public sessions. I didn't have time to skate but as it looked quite empty, I bought 10 passes (another parenthesis here, to complain that this rink is more expensive than my home rink). I feel that after I'll have the blade set, I'll be more adaptable and I could maybe go to my home rink, for now, I need quiet sessions. And that is gonna be a challenge, as the kids' summer vacation starts, there is less ice available because the rinks offer skating camps.
Motivation...is related with all these difficulties I've mentioned and the fact that I get frustrated. Few months ago I was trying to take a balanced approach to skating in order to hopefully avoid frustration. In my mind that was "take it easy" approach, but that ended with me not skating at all. I still think I should try and avoid frustration, that goes against motivation. I'll try and take the yoga approach and observe the difficulties without judgment, and keep going gently not pushing hard. Of course, specific goals would help, like to test the adult Gold MITF, but it is difficult to work seriously at this while I'm still playing with the blade alignment, that changes my balance each time.
I also asked few of the skaters that skated as kids and keep going what it's their motivation to keep coming back, because I know we all have the same difficulties (work, family, scheduling, finances, aging body, traveling). One said, well, I'm unhappy if I don't skate, yeap... it is true for me too. But few said that music helps a lot, especially in those moments that skating doesn't go really well. So I'm revisiting my skating music playlist and I've ordered some wireless earbuds. I tried to avoid using them because that can be a safety issue, but I see the majority of the skaters on my regular session are using the, so I'll give it a try.
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