Arctic circle: Skating was so-so yesterday. Crossovers on the crappy side, and my two-foot spins as well.

Had some errands to run tonight so got to class a bit late. Oh well! Instructor liked my progress on backward stroking (as did I; it just sorta "clicked" on Sunday) and had me try a few backward crossovers...yeah, that wasn't so good. At all. My backward stroking/gliding and then edges need more work first, I think.

Warm rink: Everything else improved though on Sunday! And I managed to avoid at least 4 or 5 kids with ice walkers, and no one died.

At class tonight, backward stroking still improving...I sorta almost "got" forward progressives/advanced crossovers...two-foot spins (the couple I tried at the very end before the zamboni driver literally kicked us off the ice by driving the zamboni out) went better than Sunday. And, the skate shop called today and had gotten my message and said their power was out due to recent storms since last Thursday. No wonder they didn't answer the phone! And no wonder I was confused because I knew they were supposed to be open! So I'm getting my new skates on Wednesday. *crossing my fingers*

Warm - had a good practice with my partner tonight. We had lots of room, so worked on some throws and a couple of death spirals at the end.

Arctic - was going to do to session, but was in traffic for one of them.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Warm rink: we have a very warm rink at the moment and it's not a good thing. Like skating in a sauna and just drains you of energy so with my warm rink = bad viewpoint my field moves seem to have gone awol and the double 3's that were so good just a week ago are now proving troublesome.

Arctic circle: being good compared to the sauna situation. Can make a few revs on a pair spin now and although coach wanted to make it much harder I think she realises that is a lost cause for the moment.

Did one really nice salchow-loop combo.

Warm rink: Which it was! One of the few sessions I was able to skate in just a T-shirt (well, I did have trousers on, before anybody makes silly comments). Loving my new blades today - everything was so smooth, and the edges are wonderful and feel incredibly stable.

Arctic Circle: However, a lot of elements have yet to reappear; the blades show up all my bad habits, and then some, so I was very tentative trying some things.

But I can see that when I get used to them, I'm going to adore them even more than I loved my old ones!

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

YTD

Arctic Circle: I just realised how cold the rink was. The temperature difference between a crowded session and a regular-not-so-crowded rink is so different! But my trusty frosty tights are so good at keeping me warm, but my fingers were freezing!

Warm rink: Was rather wet when I just reached, and then I fell doing a shoot the duck. My WHOLE back was dripping wet. Wore a jacket and made the jacket wet.

Arctic: camel went on a long vacation. Toe loop went along for fun (gosh I think I can't remember when I had a good single toeloop done solo).

Warm Arctic: AWESOME sit, all centered, and they travel a little when doing variations with arms!

Noticed a trend: If my scratch is fast and centered, sit will be travelling. If sit is centered, scratch will travel. Is it a mind thing?

Axel is closer, but the more I rotate, the harder I fall.

Good session in all. BUT I think bunion is growing.

Skated yesterday. Left knee is at abou 80%. I was prepared to get off the ice if I felt any pain. Not sure if it is stiff from not exercising or from the injury.

Artic: worked on Bronze moves. All patterns small and not able to get enough knee bend. Did not attempt any jumps as I am CW skater and left leg is landing leg.

Warm: Backspins - 6-9 revs per spin. One spin had 4 centered revs out of 6-7. I was able to keep a couple revs with the foot crossed instead of popping out after 1 like I usually do.

Pinklaces, good to hear the knee is getting better, and congrats on the good spins!

Arctic: Horrible rain again on the way to work. I drive across a bridge over Tampa Bay every day, and the wind was fierce.

Warm: I rechoreographed some of my pre-bronze program, and coach loved it, just added some polish. Falling leaf stag jump in the program was huge.

Warm Rink:

-Lutz was HUGE! Not sure where it came from, but hope I get to keep it
-Axels felt decent.
-Camels were great. I was adding combinations like crazy.

Arctic Circle:

-2 screws fell out of my right skate on the ice. Didn't even know they were mine until I was wiping down my blades at the end of the session. I tried to tighten the other screws, and they just went round and round. This is not good...I'm afraid new boots are in my near future. I don't dare jump now. I keep thinking the entire blade will fall off the boot.

-Right ankle is acting up. It's been achy after skating the past few weeks. Last night it hurt even more, and it makes weird clicking noises. I wish this whole getting older business would just stop ... I'm tired of complaining about aching body parts

Warm Rink: I got the camel spin down now!!!! Fixed my foot so its turned out every time I go into it and it keeps me centered and balanced. So excited! Spins were good as well as getting height off of my jumps.

Arctic: Back spin. My coach told me it was much better today...I just don't see it. LOL

Please DO something about it before it gets beyond the point of no return!

Warm Rink - first lesson with Summer Coach, working on pre-bronze moves. Nothing I can't do, but need to get the sequences down pat.

Arctic Circle - flip is history again, chickening out of lutz, despite knowing I can do it perfectly well.

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It's all about the dress!

A good skate technician can plug the screw holes for you if the soles are not completely rotted through.

Sorry about the ankle. Have you tried Salonpas? They are inexpensive medicated adhesive pads available OTC in drug stores. They deliver aspirin directly to the affected area and have saved me many times when my feet hurt after skating.

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Matches (the unburned ends) can be used to temporarily fill in the holes and tighten screws until you can get to a skate pro to fix them.

Warm rink: Happy days, we're back at our home rink. The management company is running the summer freeskating sessions in the afternoons (hockey clinics take up the mornings) and they're cheap and so far not crowded. That could be just because of the holidays and may get more crowded next week. My concern is that if there aren't "enough" [people on the ice, the management will cancel the sessions. I've paid for the summer though so we'll see what happens.
If I don't pay ahead I find excuses not to go.

I'm finally back to doing free skating rather than just dance. Coach and I worked on spins (upright and sit) and focused on snapping the entry and arm position. Then did waltz, salchow and toe loop jumps. It's been so long since I did jumps because of my ankle and tendons that it's like learning from scratch again. That's not a bad thing since I've changed coaches and the new one has a slightly different technique. I'm not really changing things, I'm learning them fresh.

Artic circle: I cannot keep my head up and I have absolutely no clue what my arms are doing while I'm thinking about my feet. Which makes for some very odd positions in spins.

And while the right reconstructed ankle feels fines, now that I've had the boot puched out to accomodate the new bone shape, the left leg is decidedly grumpy - bursitis in the hip and cramps in the calf, even though I warmed up off-ice. I see my doctor next week though so I'll mention the aches and pains and see what he says - other than my getting old.

Arctic: Tried to run through our programme. Big mistake. I appear to have lost most of the elements.... and have no way of compensating for either my own bad habits or my husband's.

Warm: What I can do is massively better, just limited!

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

[Warm Rink]
Had an amazing lesson yesterday....double run thru of my program went well, minus the 2 foot a single sal on the first run thru -- of course, that was right after I landed the axel....

I also landed a few 2 sals for coach...she got way too excited about that...

Worked on 2 toe a little, they are getting to curvy, which is causing issues...

[Arctic Circle]
Someone is not on my side...did I do something to someone?? Is Karma biting me??? I was going to test my Juv free at my club's test session on August 6th, however, just my luck, my department scheduled a retreat that day (which is not optional with no chance of being able to scoot away). So, I asked the test chair what time she was starting the test (because if it was 7am, I could do it), and she is starting at 8, so that is a no go. Come August 14th, I have no life and will be off the ice for 2 weeks (I am going to try to skate 2 mornings a week if I can), which stinks, but it's the way things work with my job. So, I need to either find a test session on a weekend for end of July/first weekend in August, or something in mid to late September. Boo....I just want to take this test...I feel ready for it (which is monumental since I NEVER feel ready for tests...)

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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

Warm Rink: One of my skaters landed her first axel today, completely clean and everything, about 8 times (out of 10 attempts)! She's only been working on them since February with exercises and all and attempting the actual jump since about mid-March. I'm so proud of her, plus she is my first student to land an axel, so it's kind of exciting for me as well.

That must be so gratifying! Congratulations!!

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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

Warm Rink: Coach wants me to make my 3 turns in footwork bigger, and they really spread out this morning. The ice was wonderful this morning except for:

Arctic: Huge raindrop holes in 2 places in the rink. Patching the roof is an ongoing effort, and it just poured this morning. We actually had to put buckets instead of cones on the ice holes but:

Warm Rink: Except for the raindrop holes, the ice was smooth as glass and superfast.

Wow! That's crazy...especially since your lutz was so huge!

That's really exciting!

That bites! I hope you can find a test session that works.

Petlover - hope there is less rain in the forecast!

Knee is at 90%. Yea! I woke up super still this morning, but by mid-day I was feeling no effects of the fall in my daily life. I skipped the FS group lesson yesterday, because we had a board meeting. Saw that coach tonight and she said she was really worried when she didn't see me last night. Showed her my ugly bruises.

Warm: I did some jumps tonight. Waltz, salchow, toe-loop - decent. Sit spin felt very good. Back spins felt good too.

Artic: Bronze Moves - had more knee bend tonight, but patterns are still too small. Loop jump - 2 footed all, but one teeny tiny one. Scratch spin still feels a bit tweaky on the knee when I try to get the crossed leg position.

Warm: I got my new skates tonight!

Arctic: I can't post pics because Photobucket sucks and uploading isn't working!

So how do they fit??

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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

warm rink
-we've been working a lot on figures in camp, and my coach said that everything she's been working on with me is really starting to sink in. And she's right! We did lots of 3s on the third, and she said mine were "pretty good." nowhere near passing, of course, but I'm still quite pleased with pretty good.
-Double axel is excruciatingly close. It's going to happen soon, I know it.
-Worked briefly with another coach today during camp. He was very helpful with both moves and double axel.

Arctic Circle
-all of the little munchkins at camp were driving me absolutely insane today. They were talking the whole time and not watching where they were going, resulting in numerous collisions and very near misses.
-Tweaked my knee pretty badly on double axel today. My body is just not meant to cheat jumps. I twisted it pretty badly coming down short on the stupid jump.

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Youtube Videos

I know! Maybe those lutzes did it in.

Good to know!

I'll have to check out the Salonpas. Thanks!

I found out my coach's son is a whiz at fixing skates. Don't know what he did, but the blade is super secure now and the screws are in place.

Warm: No rain today until after I got to work, and then it poured!

Arctic: Parts of my pre-bronze program were horrible today, I blanked and missed the music cues, and the landing of the half loop was so bad I didn't even try for the flip.

Warm: Parts of my pre-bronze program, the first half was right on beat, loop was decent, back spiral was good, stag falling leaf was huge.

Even Warmer: Per UPS, my new skates will be delivered today, can't wait to get home from work!