Yes, I know we'd all rather have the donut...but that doesn't give us what we need to skate well in the morning..

Donut - 6 am power class...I'm a little out of shape for that. The whole session was really a donut....couldn't get into it ...though I did skate for an hour and a half.

I'm relearning inside 3 turns...I seem to have forgotten how to do it and I'm doing the same thing I did with my outside 3 turns when I first started...muscling it instead of letting my lower half do the turn. I do beautiful outside 3 turns - why can't it just transfer over to inside 3 turns?

Bagel: Did the Swing to music and I was on time most for most of it!

j

Doughnut: Really stiff back after watching the IJS competition at Lee Valley yesterday afternoon!

Bagel: The Kerrs! Still as wonderful as ever this year. And our couple - a distant second - are still pretty good, too.

For my own skating, this morning, most things went pretty well. We know what we need to focus on during the next 3 weeks while our coaches are on holiday. Then when they get back they can put the final polish on us for Oxford.

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

Doughnut: Kind of everything. I'm just not very motivated right now. Post-test letdown, I guess. Thinking I need to just take a few weeks off!! Also just darned timid on the toe loop and not seeing entirely what is different between a half toe walley and ballet jump (yeah, inside edge vs outside edge, kind of, but I feel like they should be MORE different).

Whole-grain bagel (mmmmm!): Spins are getting better. At least, I could get 4 one-footed rotations today, and I usually know what I'm doing wrong on an entry when I flub it.

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Doughnut (chocolate only, don't like any other kind!): Loop is all the way around on two feet!

Whole grain bagel (a lot of calories and not all that tasty): Loop is not all the way around on one foot--tail is long enough to put on a sizable dog.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

Cinnamon rasin bagel (this is the flavour I like the most): Not much. Hubby is bringing home pizza.

Donut made with artificial flavours and colours (I'm allergic artificial flavours and colours): I've either come down with a really bad cold or my sinuses got badly infected. I've also no ice on which to practice before competing on Sept. 6, 2008 until Sept. 2nd, 2008 of which I know.

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

love the title!

whole-grain - lesson with summer coach this morning, working on things that are good for me, namely my backspin and BO3s. Silly coach, doesn't seem to think just being able to do the things is good enough - he wants me to do them when I'm supposed to, without scraping them or throwing my limbs around. Silly, silly coach.

picked up my car from the garage - it needed a new starter. Now I can go to dawn freestyles without worrying I'll get stranded there. Hooray!

Donut with empty calories - the one around my middle I seem to have aquired on summer vacation.

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It's all about the dress!

I'm having trouble figuring out which is good! I love donuts of any kind, and most bagels too!

Donut With Empty Calories:
Finally got to a public session to practice only to pick up a lesson, cutting into my time, and find an adult student of mine there. I hate practicing in front of my students! Fortunately, this one is super serious about her own practice and wasn't watching me nearly so much as I was watching her.

Bagel:
Alternating FI threes are almost testable! Adult PreBronze three turn pattern was flowing fairly well, at least on the side I was able to do (a few too many kids zipping around all which ways.) The FI and FO threes in that pattern are now so well checked that I'm really in control - it feels great! Same on Prelim power threes, on my bad side! Forced myself to work a bit on BO threes and made a big mistake (DONUT here): I had watched our new director working with a young skater on B power threes, and having her cross her free leg on the turns. I tried it, put a little too much oomph into it, and came very close to one of those bone jarring falls on my behind. Then (Back to Bagels) I had to make myself continue the BO threes without crossing, just to be sure I hadn't scared myself out of them entirely. I'm clearly not ready to cross the free leg.

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Doughnut (mmmmm.....yummy):
-Doing this weird thing where I lift up my right elbow on flips. It throws off the whole jump.
-Loops felt off today.
-Camels were in inside-edge-land today. (But they were great yesterday!)
-Scratch spins have been off-center lately. But I think I figured out why, so I guess that's actually Bagel, not Doughnut


Bagel (mmmm if it's one of those cinnamon ones from Panera Bread...but those aren't whole grain & are probably just as bad as a doughnut):
-Flips are suddenly huge (but having elbow issue as noted above).
-Sit-backsit feels like it's getting back on track.
-Moves were excellent this morning (at least they felt that way!).
-Think I did well on the Swing this morning, and am proud of myself for doing it to music...twice!
-Axel is plodding along slowly. But plodding along is better than plodding backwards
-Back camels and flying camels were decent.
-I'm just a couple inches away from having the splits on one side.

Blueberry Bagel
-Axels are consistently getting bigger and bigger
-Today, when I asked my former secondary coach (who I am still close with) if my axel was improving, she said "Sarah, everything about your skating is improving." I said, "Good, because I work hard!" and she replied "Yeah, I wish everyone would work as hard as you do." So that was all really nice.
-Grab camels were nice today
-When I told my coach my goal for the next year (as in 365 days, not the rest of 2008), she didn't laugh. My goal is to be at the novice level so I can compete at qualifiers. I thought she'd give me a semi-skeptical look, but she said "That's a very good goal. And then you get a jacket!" (we had just been talking about club jackets).

Jelly Donut
-Ugh ugh ugh. I ruined so many jumps today by reaching for the ice. And I have it on camera to really piss myself off. It was getting so frustrating. I try SO darn hard not to reach for the ice, but I still do it.

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Youtube Videos

Whee! IIRC, what gave me those last few inches was really stretching out the hip flexor of the back leg before trying the splits. (Sit on a low bench or at the top of a flight of stairs, extend the back leg straight back but bend the front leg so the thigh is on or above the bench and the foot is on the floor). Of course the longer you hold it, the better it will work.

Awesome!! What are you doing at 4:00 on Friday afternoon? I'm going to be at your rink for my competition warmup so maybe we can do a few axels together!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Why I'll be at my rink Friday at 4:00. Maybe we can do some double toes together too, eh? eh? Nah I'm just kidding, not before competition.

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Youtube Videos

Doughnut: Last lessons for 3 weeks as coaches going on holiday
Still, they are entitled to it - they work very hard - and it is actually quite a good moment for us as we have a competition in five weeks, so two weeks' solid practice, and then they'll be back in time to put a final gloss on everything before competition.

Bagel: Husband's train was cancelled, which meant he had a further 25 minutes on the ice so we got to run through everything, including the compulsory dances that don't really need more than a final polish! Which was good. And having been so dreadfully stiff yesterday after sitting in those horrible seats at Lee Valley (is there an ice-rink anywhere in the world that is truly comfortable for spectators?) has started me back doing off-ice workouts again. YAY!

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

Ha ha! I was going until the "Nah I'm just kidding" part, LOL!

Whole Grain Bagel
I am feeling great today because I snuck away from work at lunch to skate an adult freestyle session at a rink about 45 minutes away. . . and was rewarded with a clean program run-through! I hadn't had one for weeks and this was my last run-through before my competition on Friday, so I couldn't be happier.

Donut
Nothing to complain about today (knock on wood!)

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

At 4 in the morning calories are your friends and at the time in the morning, my tastebuds are not working anyway.

DD and I had a dance lesson in Omaha this morning (she doesn't leave for school till this Sat) Then her coach offered her a lesson at 5:45 in Ames so we stopped there first. I opted out of skating and slept in the car...

Whole Grain Bagel - in that it's not that tasty or fun but it's really very good for you. Dance coach is getting picky, which is a good thing because it means she thinks I'm good enough to handle the pickiness. We did get a real quick fix on my two footing transistions - on my switch from left to right only - on forward chassess...She had be make sure my left arm stayed in front - wallah - I had control and no more two foot transisition. The swing rolls are still troubling - same foot - and my arms are already where they should be so that's still a problem.

Worked on getting me to touch my free foot to the instep before the turn in the mohawk. I don't like that one bit. But she was very encouraging --saying my turn was perfect - we just need to make it look better.

And I have to work more on the down up motion in my chasses and swing rolls..I don't get down enough in the knees. But I did fool her --I stood up really straight on the end of the swing roll and she said "That was much better" Yea I didn't get down in my knees more but at least standing up straighter gave the impression of a down-up movement.

We were going to check the rulebook but forgot to make sure I can test Masters at the pre-bronze level. For some reason I fear that it may be not available until bronze...in which case I'm screwed. But she did say if worse comes to worse there's a guy in Omaha and I can test with a partner which should be easier. Fortunately I've passed my prelim dance both solo and standard.

j

Whole grain bagel (from Trader Joe's )
-Had a really good lesson with my secondary coach today. We worked the whole lesson on double flips. That involved a lot of single flips, naturally. She's made it so that I can now recognize when I do it right and wrong. I did some singles that absolutely flew. I did good doubles too, but I sat down on them. She said something I found really interesting--When you land, it goes ankles, then knees, then stops. She said you have to support your landing with your butt so that you land lightly. That made a lot of sense to me. Looking back, I totally see that the times I've landed really heavily I've let my booty drop.
-Did a cool combo spin today that my coach really liked. It was back camel, back sit, push to forward camel, grab, sit, cannonball (shoot the duck spin, shotgun spin, whatever you wanna call it). It's gonna go in my program, but after the cannonball I think I'm gonna have to do back pancake.

Sprinkled Donut
-i was in a lot of pain today. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and it makes my joints really achey. I guess I'm having a flare up because honestly, everything ached. Ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, back, head.
-My new program is pretty jam-packed. It goes
2F+2T+1Lo
1A
CCoSp
SlSt
2Lo
LSp
FCSp
2S+2S+Seq
2T

and a 1Lz+2Lo in there somewhere. Don't remember where

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Youtube Videos

Since donuts can give me quick energy I'd prefer that to a bagel.

Donut: Did two loops yesterday for the first time in a long time. Landed a sweet salchow. Got my blades sharpened and my boots fixed and suddenly my skating took a big jump forward.

Bagel: My axel mojo has completely deserted me. The heel on my left skate was coming off My blade got bent as a result.

Bagel (Can I just have a plain one? With cream cheese?) Synchro practice last night we started our new program. It's going to be a ton of fun! I am SO SO excited for this year. We only learned a very short amount, the first cut of music, then straightline footwork on the 2nd cut- but it's just going to be awesome when it's all together. We have a traveling pinwheel, which is new for us (and way easier than traveling a circle), and our straightline footwork is SO fast this year. Plus we have a new problem for us- even starting at the wall instead of the red line we crash into the other wall. Last year we had issues GETTING from the red line to the red line, so exceeding it is a fantastic step forward (though not for our coach, who has to think of a different footwork sequence). I'm just SO excited to start a new program!!!

Donut Why can I not do a CCW mohawk at speed? I don't have a problem with the bracket in the program- but the mohawk? Oh come on!!!! It just frustrates me to no end that I can't just put my foot down. I think I'd be happier if I just put the foot down and fell on it, but instead I'm just so terrified I can't even set it down, and then have to turn the wrong way so I don't lose the line. Stupid stupid mohawks. (3-turns are about as bad going CCW, but I can do them slightly faster than a mohawk, but I chicken out on them too.)

Knees are killing me, especially the left one. I'm starting to worry I have fluid build up too, as the "feel" of the left knee is different than that of the right knee when I massage it. Also I pulled like every muscle in my leg last night between lunges and spirals. Guess I need to start stretching before synchro now.

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Since I'm not much for bagels OR donuts...

Jessi is right -- synchro was way fun last night! Yippee! I missed our team and was glad to see them. Plus, we got a new team member who really seemed to enjoy practice last night.

Ran into some strange issues involving speed last night -- and, for once I wasn't the one complaining that we were going too fast... When skater S and I are next to each other, we almost always skate with more power than a lot of the team. I don't know why, except that we're about the same height, so maybe our stroke length is really similar and we feel less pulling and tugging? Not sure... we didn't THINK we were pushing, but were way out ahead of the line after two strokes and a half of a chasse -- oops! This was in the crash-into-the-wall footwork. I knew we were going to have trouble with that because during our warm-up, I skated it and went red line to red line in about 3/4 of the steps -- and I'm not typically one of the faster skaters.

I love our music -- but I guess I'd better since I'm the one that suggested it, LOL! For the fifth program in a row... I'd feel guilty of trying to steer the team, but the coach asks for suggestions. It's not my fault that she likes mine, hehe...

I'm gluten-intolerant.. so both donuts and bagels are bad for me... so how about if this is a wonderfully ripe banana with chocolate sauce on it? (Hey it was a VERY good day!): After being hurt just before AN and limited in what I could do and how much time I could spend on the ice for the last four months, I had one of those wonderful but exhausting coach-pushed-me-really-hard-to-do-everything-I-can-do lessons: I even landed a couple of lutzes and did a couple of camelspins for the first time since March.. which is when I tore the cartilage in my knee.

So, the only thing I was limited on was sit spins.. I am only "allowed" to do 2 per day. One of them was awful.. but the other was almost as good as before I was hurt. I am SOOOOOOOO happy! I even managed to run my programs twice each (minus the second sit spin) and was thoroughly and happily tired at the end!

Bagel (New York - but w/everything not whole grain): This morning I realized I'm getting good at brackets. Not in a gold moves sort of way, but this is huge progress. OK that is pretty much it for bagel today.

Donut (Krispy Kreme, my love): Stayed up too late watching DNC, had pot of coffee, was not in good shape for early a.m. skating Would like to blame failure at camel spins on that but I made the same mistakes I make after plenty of sleep! Just need to practice them more. Kept trying to do various combinations (sit/back sit, sit/backspin, camel/sit) but nothing was really working and due to lack of sleep I was all over the place on edges!

Didn't really jump today - one tiny toe loop (they are so tiny now that I do them correctly...grr) and some waltz jumps.

__________________
Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Bagel:
-Progress on power 3s today in lesson. So long as I can remember NOT to take a huge step from the BI to FO, I do okay.
-Am managing to get the back power stroking (bronze) bigger and ride that BI edge longer.
-Coach gave me the jump off two feet & rotate, land on two feet exercise. Half around, no problem. All the way around: good once; second time my feet ended up crossed and splat!! She said, "geez, you actually pretty much did a loop there (except for the landing)!" However, I did NOT intend to cross the feet!! I am now to practice this off ice to get the feeling of pulling in.

Donut: Half toe walley is okay according to coach but man, it just feels weird. I guess after having done a group of moves & jumps for so long I gotta get used to being uncomfortable for a while.
-Toe loop needs work; actually I think it just needs courage.
-Salchow?? Yeah, right. BI edges were wobbly today, but super wobbly with putting that free leg about a foot away from my skating foot in attempts to prep for this silly jump! It's gonna take a while.
-Hadn't realized by BI edges were so uncontrolled. This is discouraging!! I spent quite a while just doing BI edges after my lesson.

Coach's threats for next lesson: 20 minutes just on SPINS!!! Goodness knows I need it. And she says she doesn't care if it isn't on the adult test, she wants me to learn alternating FO and FI threes. . .

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Whole Grain Bagel:

Waltz jumps, salchows and loops are fine...

Donut:

• Toe loop is toe-waltzing again... could get it at slower speeds but she was particularly nit-picky about a few things.
• She does NOT like that I'm not picking straight behind me. (I'm picking to the side... ) She also doesn't want me to cheat on the toe pick. She wants a pick on the toe picks/rake, not a "toe turn."

__________________
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!!!

Moldy bread: I was trying so hard to have good posture, a group lesson (school figures) teacher said I skated like a stiff adult. Wah! I'm not an adult, just a little over 50.

Giant Ice Cream Sandwich (I wanna sin, I do it right): Worked on relaxing and moving smoothly with my regular coach, using the minimum muscle driven changes required for acceptable poses. Feels a lot better. Smoother, faster, easier. Don't know how it looks, but felt good. While I was at it, went back to fun falls, with giant glides and gentle landings.

Wow, relaxed, a waltz jump is nothing more than a slight kick while skating an edge, and a very slight nudge on the landing leg. Momentum does the rest. A couple other jumps that worked badly or never worked came a little closer.

Relaxed spins and twizzles are a little closer to being respectable too, though spin centering will never be reliable without a extendable pin.

3 turns and counters improved too. Left my arms, head and shoulders almost relaxed, but rotated into the turn, did a jump - the positional tension tension made the turn happen, and stopped when it stretched the shoulders and neck in the opposite direction. Then did an almost jump - rotation still occurred at the top. Much better than with tight shoulders and concious check.

The switch to a smaller blade hollow made spins and twizzles easier too. Unexpected.

Eureka! Skating is fun again.

[Whole Grain Bagel]
Back on the ice!!

[Donut]
Only got to skate one session tonight because there was a hockey game that the rink didn't tell us about.

[Whole Grain Bagel]
Worked on axels and while they are still cheated, they are getting better. I focused on really bringing my leg through today.

[Whole Grain Donut]
Lesson tomorrow....at 6:30am...I need to pick coach up at 5:30am to be on the ice at 6:00am.

[Donut]
I'm getting nervous about taking over responsibilities for skate school. That's all I really want to say about that on a message board...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Donuts:

• That's what I had at coffee club today!!! I've earned it, given that I was skating from 9am to 1:30pm today (with at most an hour break!)
• Of course, this means I can't move much now!!! I'm SOOOO SOOOORE!!!
• Okay there's always something I forget about my program as far as the arms are concerned on the artistic program. The choreographer knows it's NOT b/c I can't do them.
• Uh oh!!! He's on to me about my CW forward crosssovers too! During the group coffee club lesson, he gave a small forward crossover exercise and then not-so-subtly mentioned that "some people" (glacing directly in my direction with his wise@$$ grin...) does their forward crossovers like this and then demonstrated what I do wrong. BAD BOY!!! EVILLE choreographer!!!

Whole Grain Bagel:

• The SECOND runthrus of the program were pretty decent!!! Just minor details to fix! (Yes, he did fix my CW crossovers a wee bit!!!)
• (Well, I guess this is supposed to be a healthy bagel but it sure doesn't feel like it...) the primary coach started my technical program and the first thing he does is change the jumps around so I can up my technical content. First jump on that list now is gonna be a flip-toe loop though he's eventually gonna expect it to morph to a flip-LOOP by at least AN!!! My loop will be where the first salchow-toe loop is in the program!!! And oh, if that's not enough... I am expected to TRY for a lutz THIS year!!! (Oh, dear...)
• I got to try out our rink's music sound system. You put in all your music to the computer and then you activate which program you play using a key tag and push a few buttoms to set which program to play(and the sound system will tell you whether you are set to play your artistic vs. your technical.) Once it's set up, the sound system will announce your name and then give you a 10 second leeway to skate to your starting spot and get into your pose before starting the music. (KEWL, huh???)

__________________
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!!!