Vicious or virtuous - 22-29 August 2004

[Mrs Redboots]

The title comes because today, in our practice, we were again better than ever in our compulsory dances. I reckon it's a virtuous circle - Robert is suddenly able to partner me properly and help me more, which means I skate better, which enables him to help me more, and so on. Kills the thighs, though! We are both focussing more on kneebend and ice coverage just now.

I wish, however, the same could be said of our Free Dance, which is still a bit vicious; it is beginning to happen now, though. I found one bad mistake on my part where I couldn't get the steps - identical on both feet - on one foot, realised I was looking down at that foot (duh! :roll: )..... and with a bit of practice we are getting our turns smoother. All the same, there are still some rough bits, and it's getting horribly near the British Adult Championships, which are the first weekend in October.

I've decided not to do my Artistic (Interpretive) piece there; not only is it really quite expensive, but there is only one Artistic class for all levels and ages, and I don't see the point in entering a class where I know I won't be competitive - unlike on the Continent, my lack of skating ability tends to matter in this country.

[sk8pics]

Virtuous My practice and lesson yesterday were great, but boy was I tired afterwards. My coach is on a speed kick and so I was absolutely flying around the rink on the forward perimeter crossover stroking; my eyes were tearing from the wind. Also made a miniscule amount of progress on the backward perimeter crossover stroking. My coach changed my entry from a mohawk to a 3-turn because (I can't believe I'm saying this) I can do the RFO3 with more flow than the mohawk. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but I've worked a lot lately on doing that 3-turn out of stroking. The best part, though, was doing my first completely unassisted and correct power 3's on the right foot! 8-) The left foot is almost there, too. Of course, there's no power there yet, but first things first. In another breakthrough, I can now do the stupid 5 step mohawk on each side. Very tiny and not with the proper cadence, but at least I'm on all the correct edges. So, much progress!

Vicious Nothing on the ice, but my lesson schedule got a bit screwed up this week. Hopefully it will work out.

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

[jenlyon60]

Virtuous: Cross back chasses from Tango were better today, even with the music.

Viscious: I fell off the back of my blades, while skating solo forward working on American Waltz style 3-turns. Coach was having me work on staying upright and getting a stronger check. Well, as I stayed very upright, I shifted the weight too far back on the blade, and down I went. Shook everything along my spine. So far, physically, I just have a cracking headache, but took some tablets, so should feel better soon.

The really viscious part was that I managed to rip my skating pants AND TIGHTS on the fall. Guess there was a ridge in the ice. And my coach, being the jokester he is sometimes, didn't tell me I had a rip in my skating pants and tights until after my lesson was done (about 5-10 more minutes). And I skate commando. Well, I guess someone got a nice view of a few inches of my fat backside.

[Mrs Redboots]

We don't normally skate on Mondays, but because we have no morning patch this week, Robert and I visited friends at another rink yesterday evening.

Vicious: I forgot my boot covers!!!! :cry: :cry: I practically couldn't go on the ice without them. And my friend looked for a pair to lend me, but could only find one, so I had to manage without. Waillll...... I was very careful to tuck the loops of my laces around the hooks, and didn't catch them. But it did put me off, especially at first. Of course, later on I forgot about them....

Virtuous: Apart from that, we managed to get some good work done, and compare notes with our friends, who are working on their free dance for the same competition. They will probably beat us - they usually do - but we do have great fun competing against them and, one of these days, we'll win. But their free dance isn't quite as far along as ours is, but it looks as though it'll be a lot better when it is. Sigh. I'm not going to rethink too much of ours, but there's a couple of bits I'm still not very happy with. The rest of it is fine, though, just needs speed and smoothness.

[NCSkater02]

Vicious: We spent the entire lesson on two things: MITF back inside edges and 3turns. I really don't like spending that much time on anything backwards. As usual, my head thinks it knows how to do it, but it just can't convince my body to do it!

Virtuous: I did one scratch that was centered. Not sure I had my arms in or free leg crossed completely, but it was three centered revolutions. I was able to remember some of the foot work from Saturday's seminar and work on that. My coach was impressed with one of them--she tried to teach it to me a while back and I just didn't get it then. We also touched on back spin. Since I struggle so much on forward, I found it ironic that my free foot goes into proper position without any coaxing. It doesn't do that forward. :roll:

[Mrs Redboots]

Vicious: Just arrived at the rink last night when husband rang to say he was held up at work and couldn't make it after all. Bang went our practice! And as there was nobody there to work with - nobody else my age to challenge with Evil Exercises, or whatever - I felt very unmotivated. Spent some time helping someone else find their feet, but felt, when I got off the ice, that I hadn't really done much. But my thighs were aching, so perhaps I had done more than I thought....

[flo]

Victorious: Last night Mika and I skated in an edge class exhibition. It was a class which meets weekly, and we joined them for the exhibition. It was fun to do class again (I haven't done an edge class in a couple of years), and Mika skated like a pro!
My old skates are on their last few strokes. Hopefully I can spend more time in the new ones soon. My feet hurt from both - one too smushy, one too stiff.

[CanAmSk8ter]

Virtuous: Um, I skated. ;) And I have a fitting tomorrow for my new skates! Good thing, too, because I noticed this morning that I need my blades sharpened and I don't think there's enough left on them to sharpen. Literally.

Vicious: I went to the gym yesterday and rollerbladed four miles last night so my hips are a bit sore. Not nearly as bad as I expected, though. And my skates are killing me, but since I don't have to wear them much longer...

Still slacking off since coach is out of town, but I keep telling myself that it's not worth killing myself when I'm going to have new skates to adjust to anyway. Besides, I have a competition in November, and there was talk about me testing soon, so I know he'll be cracking the whip when he gets back... I can't wait! (Seriously!)

[Mrs Redboots]

Dance club tonight, which ought to have been preceded by 45 minutes' practice of our free dance, but in fact we got 5! And my skates had just been sharpened, so I could do very little for most of that time.

Dance club itself was good, though, but we didn't feel we danced as well as last week. However, we had been talking about partnering 3-turns, in, for instance the British/Prelim waltz and the Willow Waltz, and Robert was able to help me far more tonight. In fact, he overdid it in the British Waltz and nearly had me off my feet! :oops:

Mind you, not as bad as one woman who was following us round while we were doing the Riolado Samba, found she was on the wrong foot, tried to change feet and then found out, the hard way, that she had no feet on the ice! :roll:
Won't be posting for a few days now as I'm off to the country for the long weekend. Enjoy, those who have one!

[kisscid]

Victorius - I finally landed the elusive lutz! :D It was on one foot and not too pretty but I did it! My coach is going to start on exercises to work me up to the axel. Whoo Hoo - My camel is coming along very well too.

vicious - %&^$#@$% Back Spin :evil:

Cid

[mikawendy]

Victorious: Last night Mika and I skated in an edge class exhibition. It was a class which meets weekly, and we joined them for the exhibition. It was fun to do class again (I haven't done an edge class in a couple of years), and Mika skated like a pro!
My old skates are on their last few strokes. Hopefully I can spend more time in the new ones soon. My feet hurt from both - one too smushy, one too stiff.

Thanks, flo! (You must not have seen me freaking out in the FI3-FXO exercise. I can do FI3s, but when I pick up speed from the FXO, it freaks me out a little!)

I hope your feet feel better soon!

[CanAmSk8ter]

Virtuous: I'll have new skates on Wednesday!!!

How's this for lucky- went to be fitted today, found out that my size would normally be a semi-custom. They're not custom boots, but they're not stocked regularly, they have to be special-ordered. But my fitter had ordered a pair in my exact size for someone else a few weeks ago- they arrived and were too wide, so he had them sitting on the shelf. The wait would have been roughly 8 weeks. No way would I have gotten through another eight weeks in my current skates! We put a rush on the blades, they should arrive Monday or Tuesday, and I should have the skates on the ice Tuesday or Wednesday. *breathing a sigh of relief* That'll give me a week to get them broken in before my coach comes back.

Vicious Didn't skate today- the fitting took up the middle of the day, and I had promised to help my mom set up her new office after. I had planned to do an evening session at another rink, but according to their website it's been moved up an hour. Too late for me! But I did go running this morning.

[Dr. Phil]

Virtuous- I passed my Ten-Fox by all three judges today!!!

Vicious- Gah- I failed my f@%*$ Intermediate moves. :frus:

[blue111moon]

Virtuous: I skated for the first time since mid June and it felt GOOD. The rink has been reconstructed and is gorgeous with windows in the lobby, new ice from the dirt up, new boards and glass, new paint, new lights... It's like a brand new building on the inside. And we had John back, who makes The Best Ice so it was smooth and flat and not rock hard and rutted from hockey. Heaven!

Plus I managed to find several nice backspins in the bottom of my skate bag and a couple really good scratch spins. Since spins are the first things that go when I'm off the ice, this was a very nice discovery. Jumping was iffier because I don't entirely trust my landing leg to hold yet, and I promised my doctor I would not fall on my tailbone right away. But I was out there and that's good.

Viscous: Nothing really, except that my feet have obviously forgotten what it's like to wear closed-toed footgear after several months in sandals. My ankles protested the leather confinement of skates. And I couldn't remember what the Pre-Juv moves were, let alone how to do them. Unlike the Miracle of the Backspin, I could not do back threes at all. Oh well, they weren't that good when I was skating last spring so it's not a big loss. I'm going to get back to figures today so hopefully they'll get better. They certainly can't get worse! :)

[tidesong]

Vicious: Jumps are... ugh.. Ice was soft and wet later in the day which made even 3-turns feel mucky like i was skating on bread or something.

Virtuous: Did some decent combination spins.

[jazzpants]

Vicious:

My secondary coach!!! I got my butt kicked by one of her little 6 year old "whippa snappa" students on back crossovers, though not badly b/c it took her a while to catch up to me. But my legs were KILLING ME!!! My calf stiffen up and I had to stop for a while. It was a cross between "lack of potassium" and just "legs overused?" Have to push myself more on those!!!
Spirals!!! And she wants them high and stretched!!! And she knows my limits and says "Yes, I know you're an adult! All the more reason you should be stretching more!" :roll:
No skating Monday night! Had a wedding rehearsal. Also no skating Sat. afternoon either. But I get to see one of my best friend get married. :mrgreen:
Virtuous:

My forward stroking and alt. forward crossovers! The leg is straighter. Still, in a couple of cases with the alt. forward crossovers, I had a "doggie on a hydrant" moment. But things are getting better. (Have to keep at it!)