So... At the end of the last year I came to the resented conclusion that I won't "push" skating anymore. The boots were not working and I was out of ideas on what else to try, my coach was out of reach coaching at rinks too far away from me, my time was limited because of work, and overall I felt that the time and energy I was putting into skating was draining instead of uplifting or at least help as exercise. I was hopping I could redirect the time and effort I've put into skating into something else, some other exercising and some other hobbies.
The extra time I've had, didn't really go into other exercising, but I continued to do some yoga. I was looking into ballet but my former class series was not offered anymore, I couldn't find anything else interesting. As for other hobbies, I picked up painting again. Overall I felt I was resting more.
I skated for the first time this year in April. And... how I've missed it!
I had work to do near my old skating rink and I took the skates with me. In April and May I've got to skate two, three time per week. I didn't have a plan on how many days to skate, or what to work on, I just skated as one would skate on public ice, catching up with old skating friends, getting to know skaters that were newer.
I was very happily surprised that I've got some clarity in the boots situation. As I was using the skating specific muscles that were relaxed after this long break, I've realized that my left calf was chronically tight. The left boot is slightly too small, it was professionally stretched but it reversed. I occasionally stretched it myself by warming it up with a hair dryer and wear it in the house, but I didn't worry too much since I wasn't hurting. It seems though that my toes were crunched and that affected the calf. For sure it also affected the edge quality as I wasn't pressing uniformly into the ice. So, at the suggestion of a skating friend, I've bought a boot stretcher and now I always stretch my boots between skating days. This have made a huge difference in how I felt skating!
I skated mostly at my old home rink. If you remember I gave up on skating there because while usually would take my around 15 minutes to get there and up to half hour to come back, because the construction on the expressway, the drive time doubled. The traffic was lately better and I had work to do around the rink anyway. Skating there I've realized that I don't like the "feel" of the new rink I skated on last year. That may have been another reason I slowly gave up on skating.
So, I think I'm ready to work on bringing skating back into my life. Having the few moths break ended up being exactly what I needed. The lesson going forward is to be more trusting of how I feel (my body, my energy) and adjust the schedule as I need.
Starting June, the rinks schedules change as they offer camps for the kids. I won't even bother trying to plan and commit to a skating schedule. But I plan to use the summer to gather information so I can hopefully have a plan for fall.
