The plan for last month was to get back into skating and to develop awareness of positive and negative factors affecting my skating so I can plan better for the future. More specifically, I planned to skate 3 times a week, work continuously on the blade alignment, pay attention to building muscles, stamina, add more protein to my diet (plant base protein, as I'm almost vegan), and work on finding goals and motivation.
It was not easy, the first 2 weeks I had to push myself to go skating, there were also moments of doubts that I could get myself to skate regularly and enjoy it. But by the 3rd week I started to feel less tired, the boots felt better and better. I also found one more rink I cold eventually skate at, and with more sessions available, there are more chances to do skate 3 times a week, so less pressure. I kind of did it! I feel I've finally got where I was planning to get 6 months ago, after I've got the new boots (well 2 years ago if I make it about boots, because it was 2 years and 4 pair of bots that I've went through). Anyway, analyzing all the points from my post last month...
- Equipment (boots and blades) is a big issue, I think it is the biggest deciding factor in keeping skating. The boots are still not as tight as my previous ones (because of the new high toe box design of Riedell), I feel hesitant when I change the lobes/edges quickly. The harder I tie them, the better, but I've got feet pain.The blade alignment is not worse than I had 2 years ago, the issue is the same, I pronate on my right foot so I would need corrective insoles, only I have hyper mobility and the corrective insoles gave me plantar fasciatis. I am stuck with commercial insoles and wedges between the blade and the boots. I may try again some extra wedge in my right boost, the left felt fine for few sessions in a row.
- Rinks: My home rink and the hockey team rink are in the city, they are at 15 minutes drive without traffic, up to 30 with traffic, the advantage is that I can run errands in my way to or from the rinks. I went occasionally for lessons at rinks on north suburbs at 30 minutes without traffic, to 45 minutes with regular traffic, drive on expressway. BUT, there is big repairs done on the expressway so I get 40 minutes towards the rink AND between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half coming back... that is just not doable for my life. My home rink doesn't have ice that fits my schedule in the summer, and before the summer, it was very crowded anyway. The hockey rink has a different schedule and level of crowdiness every day, plus days without ice. But, I found Monday, Wednesday, Friday noon public skate, not crowded for the 2 sessions I went to, at a west suburb at 30 minutes driving both way, hopefully it will work!
- Food, the attention to add more protein, I think had a bigger impact than I realized. The half portion of vegan protein shake that I succeed in drinking after skating (it is too sweet for my taste o drink more of it) definitely helps. Keeping track of the more successful recipes with added plant base protein, was also a good idea, because I have plenty of less successful, so less enjoyable ones.
- The muscles felt better as I skated more regularly. I also went to a weekend gentle yoga class, that felt more like restorative yoga, and it felt great, I hope to keep it in my schedule. I'm trying to add some arms and core exercises at home, with mixed success.
- Motivation. As I expected, when I started enjoying skating, I wanted to go... I didn't have to push myself. The only thing I figured out that helps with motivation, is
consistency, or it is actually the other way around, lack of consistency
hurts motivation. For now, I just wanted to get back into a rhythm, and consistency is the key, but if I'll work again for progress I know I will get frustrated so I need too keep looking for things that help.
For the next month I plan to keep an eye on all these. Ideally I would take a lesson, maybe start to really work towards future tests... I thought that if this month will go as the last 2 weeks of last month I will be happy enough. This week I skated Monday and it was fine, Thursday a complete disaster (I was stiff and distracted, and the public session at the hockey rink was crazy busy), then it was better but not good on Friday. So think it is a wise plan to take it as it comes...
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