Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

 After not skating at all in April, I skated now once per week for the last 2 weeks. Interestingly the balance and skills felt pretty good (or could have been a comparison with my low expectations). The building back the muscles will be a problem... again. I think it would be way easier if I would skate at least 2 times per week, and/or I would do some off ice leg workout when I take a break from skating.

The next weeks I'm gonna (hopefully) skate 3 times per week. Besides the physical pain from building the muscles working at the old things feels "grinding" to me, there is a disappointment that the things don't improve, and after a break from skating they actually regress and there is lack of excitement.

Breaks are gonna inevitably happen again, so I'm trying to build some wisdom in dealing with the breaks. I think the problem is more mental than physical and it is a loss of motivation, a disconnect from skating. And talking about breaks happening again... the summer ice is starting in 2 weeks so very little ice is gonna be  available (and because the kids are on vacation and have camps).

 I hope I won't "fall" into a break again, but it doesn't look that during the summer I can build  a full skating practice for progress. Progress motivates me.Testing motivates me, because even if I have to grind on those skills, I have a goal. And learning new things motivates me because that is exciting in the moment. 

Testing the Tenfox is not in the stars until I find a way to take weekly lessons, the skills I believe are there, but because I test while partnering with my coach and I need consistent time partnering to get comfortable. 

The next Skating Skills (former Moves in the Field) that I could test are the Standard Bronze (former Juvenile) or the Adult Gold and most of the skills in these tests are the same. I haven't have instruction on them in forever, I guess I can have a lesson in that, but with unpredictable skating time I'm not sure I can see progress and testing may be not close by.

 For learning new things I definitely need another coach, my old coach is into "grinding" the fundamentals (ice dance and everything else), and he is great at it. But he is also more than an hour driving distance away from me. So it would be great to find a coach at the rink that is close to me. A new coach would be a whole new adventure, could be good or not...

These are some thought on some possible scenarios. 

I don't feel I can plan much, I think I should have a lesson towards moves with my old coach and try and find a new coach at the close by rink.