I was just thinking about when the best time to get off the ice is. Part of me wants to keep going until I can't stand up anymore. I've discovered that if I skate when I'm tired then I'm just reinforcing bad habits and it's hurting my training. I'm usually good for about an hour until my legs start acting funny, at which point my skating deteriorates significantly. I want to keep going but it's probably best to get off. I think the benefits of possibly buidling endurance are outweighed by reinforcing bad habits.

Kevin

For me after a certain point on the ice... I just start playing and experimenting with weird spins and moves in the field... I don't bother trying to train muscle memory anymore because it almost never works. However, after that "rest" sometimes I can skate properly again.

So basically for me, after maybe 2 hours on the ice, there really isn't any more reason to stay on except unless I'm treating myself to some fun.

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Tidesong

The only time I've ever really been hurt was when I was too tired to be skating. I knew better, and that's a mistake I hope to never make again. You can build your endurance off ice too.

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I usually skate as long as i can. Some days i only get 45 minutes to skate and others i have up to three hours. I can cope with long sessions as long as i keep focused. I find that, if i cant focus, i will take a break from working and do something fun for about ten minutes. After that i take a deep breath and get back to what i was doing.

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Flik

LOVING premed and get to skate so much more.

It depends on me... What I do is that for jumps that I do well enough, I do maybe 2-3 of them just to make sure I still have them and then leave 'em alone. I have formed my own "do 5 a day" rule to save my lower back from too much jumping and from tempting to reinforcing bad habits.

In the case where I'm doing really well, I try to land 5 loops or 5 flips in a row and call it quits. If say I land 3 and missed the 4th one... then I aim to land 2 more clean (so it's 6 jump attempts.) If I miss 3 in a row after landing 3, I go back on my wall drill to trying to remind my body how the jump should be done. If it's funky at the wall, I leave the jump alone for the day. If I do remind myself at the wall, then I try for the remaining 2 again... If I don't get it after 3 more tries, I call it day! Of course, if I do end up landing the remaining two, then I call it a good jump day and pat myself on the back!

My order of training has been warm up, do a little bit of stretch... nothing too nasty... just to get the kinks out, then moves to warm up the edges, then spins and finally jumps. Then if I still have a bit left but not enough to jump, I practice my wall drills (currently it's FO mohawks, backspins on the correct edge, and FO-BI brackets on both feet -- my homage to my NYC coach! )

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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!!!

I rarely last more than 1.5 hours. I am usually pretty spent after an hour, but keep working to improve my ensurance. I will often come back to things I did early in the session to make sure I can also do them when exhausted. I figure that is good practise for being able to do them late in a program. I also will do some basic dance moves (I'm not a dancer) and stuff for fitness late in a session.

I used to find I would start experimenting in the last 1/2 hour of a 2 hour session, trying things I didn't normally do. That's when I would fall over, get hurt etc. These days I can walk away when I get too tired.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Well, I'm not jumping right now, but when I was, after an hour I was only pleasantly warm. After 2 I was tired, but not tired enough not to be able to practice moves and edges (only too tired for spins, spirals and jumps, risk of injury increased on those).
It does me in significantly faster if I practice programme or crossovers with power though, in that case I last like a half an hour, and then need a quarter hour break doing edges and moves. Then I'm pretty good again.
But then in school I already was a pretty good long-distance runner, but totally sucked at sprinting (can't remember a time I didn't come in last with that). With almost everything I'm slower than others are, but last longer. My body's built that way.

Also, I do take like two breaks in 2 hours, just sipping up my bottle of water, and looking at others. It's only for maybe 2-3 minutes at the boarding, but it makes all the difference. I think it's more mental than physical (and obviously, I need the water).
And I noticed that at hot rinks, I'm done in much faster.

I'm usually good for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, sometimes 2 if I've not been working really hard. I used to be bad about pushing my limits. If I was tired, I'd slow down and work on small things, and then get a second wind to keep going on jumps, etc.
However, after my accident a few weeks ago, I think I've learned my lesson on pushing it. I'd only been skating for 55 minutes, but my body was telling me it was time to quit. My head said, no, I have 5 more minutes before I have to leave, so let's work on brackets! Then I proceeded to break a bone and tear up a bunch of ligaments. I should've followed what my body said and ignored my head. I plan to do that in the future!

Similarly, the problem for me is that it often takes so long to really start feeling the ice that by then, I'm more tired than I should be. It's almost as if it takes me an hour to warm up!

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When I first started, I could easily do 2 to 3 hours when I was learning the basics but now I rarely last more than 1.5 hours. When we are working on programs, my coach can do me in with 30 minutes!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I've recently decided that currently my limit is 65 minutes. I'm fine for an hour, but after that I start to get too stiff and/or tired to be productive and sometimes end up causing minor injuries that can interfere with my skating for months. Therefore, no more double 45-min sessions for me, at least until all the injuries are healed and I can also improve my stamina.