We're down to a matter of days now before these competitions begin.


While I didn't skate this weekend (there is no freestyle ice at my rink on weekends) I went shopping for whatever toiletries I need, as well as bottled water and ice for the cooler- Aston is a 5 hour drive for me and I'll be pulling out on my driveway at 11:30 Thursday morning!

So, how are everyone else's preparations going for these competitions???

Aston is about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive for me and I'll be pulling out of my driveway at 6:00 Saturday morning. I'm hoping to wake up by the time I skate.

I went skating today (but only for the first session, as I needed to get home by 1 to watch SA ). I did what was probably the best camel-sit I've ever done - unfortunately that was only 1 out of about 5 tries. I landed several good loops, although I still don't think I'm completely rotating them, and they were probably only about 1/2 inch off the ice, but hey, at least they were on 1 foot. Sit-attitude is getting a little better - I still have a tendency to spin on my toe.

Of course, the question is which version of my elements will actually show up at the competition.

Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to see everyone's programs!

Saturday was a really bad day for training b/c of the crowd and the ice was just GAWD awful after about a half hour. No concentration. The "kiddie alert" kept going on. Lost my "zone."

This afternoon's session wasn't as bad though. I concentrated on the transitions to my program and on the new ending to my program. Essentially it's trying to work out landing my loop correctly and then doing RFO3 spin entry from another waltz-3 instead of the ol' back crossover windup. And of course, the other thing I had to work on is this long footwork sequence I have to do across the ice lengthwise... EEEEK!!!

In any case, I'm so NOT ready for this program!!! And in addition to that, I've been having a bit of a congestion problem, though I suspect it's just an allergy and not the flu. In any case, I just pray and hope that I'll stay healthy the next few days...

I still haven't made an appt. to see my regular hairdresser/makeup artist. Lucky for me, they have a hairdresser/makeup artist at Skate SF, so I should be covered there too. As for my weight... I'm still maintaining my weight but I still look like a sack of potatoes... albeit a lot smaller sack but...oh dear...

Thank goodness, my event is at around Noon... so I don't have to worry about waking up too early. But I have to take a day off my job to compete... but it's a small price to pay considering that my boss owes me a lot of comp time...

So... I'm as ready as I'll ever be... Good luck to everyone that is competing at either the Halloween Classic or Skate SF!!! If you're competing at Skate SF, I look forward to meeting you and seeing you skate!!!

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Good luck, all of you!

Now, checklist time. Have you got:

• Your music, plus a spare copy (that's the most important thing; you can cadge everything else, even skates, if you have to! One copy of the music IN YOUR HAND-LUGGAGE, if you're flying.)
• Skates
• Blade guards
• Spare laces
• All the costumes you will need
• For costumes that are not dresses, check you have all the bits (men: all the shirts you want? Bow-tie? Cummerbund?)
• At least one pair of tights (for ladies)
• If over-boot tights, or if you are a man, at least one pair of socks to wear in your skates
• Brush and comb
• At least 1/2 litre of water, and probably more.
• Rescue Remedy
• Blister plasters
• Aspirin or similar NSAIDs
• Your mobile, programmed with all the numbers you're likely to want
• Any teddies, soap, flowers, drinks miniatures, whatever, to throw at your friends
• A noise-maker, like a cow-bell, clapper or even rubber chicken! (Do take one, even if you don't think you'll use it - I had no voice at all at my last competition and felt as though I wasn't there when I couldn't cheer loudly for all my friends!).

Men can probably ignore the rest of this list!

• Any hair ornaments or scrunchies you use
• Hair gel or spray
• Glitter
• Make-Up - check contents of bag one more time, please
• Jewellery - necklaces, earrings, etc.
• Small mirror in case there isn't one in the changing-room

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

At the rink today, I felt like I was wearing a sign that said "Hey, I'm competing this week, please get in my way or put your student in front of me during my runthrough"

Ice was not cut and was crap by mid session!

Only a hour tommorrow, since I've used my punchcard up for the month and have to pay walk on ($$)

Despite the horrible past two weeks I've been having, which includes problems at work, immense hip and lower back pain suffered from skating and weight training (Loops, did you know this? and maybe that's why I'm even more spaced out than normal, because of medications ), feeling like I can't spin worth a damn anymore, regression in some pair elements that I thought were rock solid, plus a weird loss of appetite that has soon come back, the skating gods smiled favorably on me this morning.

I am fortune's fool: Skated for more than an hour this morning, and on the 7AM session, there were only 2 other skaters.

Worked on silver moves--ALL OF THEM!--and did them all decently.

Learned how to spin again and completed 3 different spin combinations: camel/cannonball sit spin/catch camel/back sit (or back scratch), flying camel/back sit, and stars into sit/grab camel! Spins, oh, spins where have you been hiding? But thank you for coming back a week before the competition. Don't leave me now.

Landed lutz/loop/toe loop and a 'tano lutz in my 2 program runthroughs.

Reworked my choreography for the gazillionth time (Loops, I swear, no more versions! ).

Can't wait to see if I can pull it together.

I have an incredibly long and tedious 3-day board/staff meeting Wed.-Fri. Upon asking if I could leave the meeting early for this competition (my first event is ~2PM on Friday), I was summarily told by my managing editor, "No." Harrumph. Some diplomatic office maneuvering has allowed me to slip out--undetected, I hope. Thank God there are a few people who are on my side.

Anyway, can't wait to see everyone (Terri, it's been since JUNE!).

Good luck training, folks!!!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Uh,um, Nova, you better be careful and take it easy this week!

Good advice! ... But that's what chiropractors, ibuprofen, and muscle relaxants are for!!!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Took part of today off from work to get in a lesson with my coach at a public session that wasn't as crowded...well at least not 'til the end of my lesson when all the kids are out from school. Anyway, I did two runthroughs and it miraculously came out pretty much on time. I even landed a couple of loops not two footed. Of course, the majority of the time I'm still doing the two footed landings...

And of course, the usual comments about my wearing a skating dress to practice. Hey! I gotta get used to wearing a dress for this competition, 'ya know... (No, I'm not wearing jazzpants to this competition!!! My coaches would NOT be too happy with that... uh huh....)

Nova Sk8r: Careful with those muscle relaxant! You want to still be able to hold that edge. You don't want your muscles to be too relaxed, 'ya know...

Keep it up, everyone!!!

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Well, that's what coffee is for. J/K.

After this morning, no more skating/gym for me this week, so I should be healed and ready to go!

And after watching the Tatiana fall on ESPN this morning (I taped it last night on ESPN2), I'm not in the mood to do any pair skating!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

I wish you hadn't said that - I'm about to restart serious work on our Interpretive Pairs piece! We don't have skating shown on any channel I'm able to receive - what happened, exactly?

I do hope you feel massively better in time for the competition! Don't forget the first rule of pairs skating and ice dancing: The Lady is Always Right. Rule no 2 is: Even if the Lady is Obviously Wrong, Rule No 1 applies.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

So I'm constantly being told. It has yet to sink in!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Yeah, what she said!

__________________
Where are those knives when I need them?
----------------------------------
I need a detachable left foot!

About halfway through their "Sheherazade" program, Maxim was hoisting Tatiana in the air in a lasso lift with an axel entry (the hardest entry according to Peter Carruthers) when he lost his footing and she came crashing down onto the ice--head first! It looked like he had a wide step on the lift entry, almost like he did a spread eagle. Appaarently, there was a rut in the ice? The fall was blamed on a "technical error."

Pic and info here:
http://www.iceskatingintnl.com/index.htm

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Luckily, Tatiana didn't actually hit the ice head-first. Her shoulder and elbow took the initial impact, then her head hit. According to their coach and to Max, he made a mistake (i.e., his footing wasn't secure on the turn) which caused the fall.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune....national-print

"This was the first time Totmianina and Marinin had done the axel lasso lift in competition, but they had practiced it hundreds of times.

It is the most difficult lift in pairs skating," Vasiliev said, "but this did not happen because the lift is difficult. It happened because he made a mistake even before he lifted her.

Three years ago, when Max had trouble with lifts, I could think this might happen, but not now."

__________________
Where are those knives when I need them?
----------------------------------
I need a detachable left foot!

Did 2 good program runthroughs this morning, despite back problems.
An exchange on the ice:

Me: "Coach, my back really hurts. I can't do any sit spins or spirals, etc."
Holly: "Ok, let's work on axel."

But coach fixed my flying camel/back sit (THAT move doesn't hurt my right side), and we reworked some of the beginning choreography in my program. I'm still uncertain about particular parts, but the program should be OK for Saturday.

Oh, how 'bout this:
My rink is changing its freestyle schedule in November to accommodate hockey (blech). So my singles coach wants to move my lesson to Friday--um, that's when I have my pair lesson at a different rink.

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

I've been getting a lot of "you're crazy" comments from friends and co-workers who know I skate adult pairs. I shrug and tell them it's hard to get too injured when my partner only lifts me 4 feet off the ground. We don't do overheads on ice too often (okay, only 3 times ever), but I'm sure we'll be a little more careful on the ice tomorrow! I figured it out, and in a fully extended lutz lift, my head is about 8 feet off the ice. And that's a "low" lift.

Yes, *careful* is the buzz word.

I'm not known for my edges or footwork or heck, even crossovers, and I always chuckle when Loops says, "Wow, that loop lift or axel lift was really good." I'm thinking, "Dear GOD, woman, do you know how close I came to dropping you???!!!"

Good thing overhead lifts are not allowed in silver pairs.

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

HA HA!!!! I've certainly had those days, so I know where you're coming from.

My workouts have been somewhat consistent. I'm not expecting to be spectacular this weekend. I'm just glad I'm getting through reasonably clean run throughs. I'm getting over a cold, but I feel fine otherwise and have plenty of energy.

I have our team sign ready, and will work on my costume tonight!
Skating's been ok. The new boots are still a pain, and I'm trying to get in as much time in them as possible before my feet fall off. The program is ok, but spins are still a bit difficult.

I've been dropped from an overhead lift before - in a show no less. I still remember the sound of hundreds of people gasping. Fortunately I was just bruised. It's not the worst pairs fall. I had one (with another more avanced partner) were I was going backwards, he forwards and a kid skated into us. I fell backwards and my partner sailed over me like a giant frog and avoided hitting me or the kid. He got the partner of the year award. It's a part of pairs. The sore part.

I was on the ice at 5:30 this morning so I could run through my new interp without killing someone with my prop. It went very well, I think I'm ready! Joanna, you'll just have to wait and see. My event is 1:20 after yours!

I landed 1 of 2 axels in my new Gold FS program, which is an improvement from last week when I couldn't even land one at all. The double is out...whew.

They gave me 5:00am practice ice on Friday...what's up with that?? Oh well, I guess I can go back to sleep afterwards and get back in time to watch Joanna.

I will be making the 6 hour drive on Thursday night.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!

Patty

I skated pretty good today. I only worked on spins with my coach, but he told me a bunch of tricks to help me with them last week, so he wanted to see if I practiced them. The layback was good as long as I remember all the parts of how he said to do it. It's the coolest feeling when you have your center and you are laying back staring at the ceiling.

Also the camel was so on (Yippee!) The sit/back sit was good. (He's been really making me think about going as low on the back as the forward sit.

Helpful hint...Flying camel (mine was really good today), but I was having trouble teaching one of my students. He said to do a camel change camel. The second time you do it, try a camel, then hop over to the back camel. He made me try it, so I could show my student and it works.

Happy skating!

I want to see this new layback--perhaps I'll see it on Friday?!

Also, great to hear about your camel!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

I had to do the leapfrog bit today when Husband suddenly prostrated himself at my feet in the middle of our pivot-spiral......

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

The "cut me off during my program runthrough " sign was on me again today!
But I did some awesome sitspins that will hopefully show up this weekend.
I made a final, unsucessful appeal to Coach to take out the scratch spin that's in the middle of my program. I kind of understand why she wants to keep it in, because the scratch spin is a required element on the Bronze freestyle test, but it's a sad state of affairs when your sitspin and backscratch spin are more reliable than a basic forward scratch.

I have to go to AAA tommorrow for traveler's checks and have a 5pm appointment with my hairdresser for a wax. Then home to pack, with a lesson with Coach and a runthrough for the road on Thursday morning!