Snow Day: First of all, we haven't had snow all week! Thank goodness. And this is the first time I've been able to see my lawn in two months.

As for skating, I have made huge progress this week. One foot spins from BXO's have been frustrating me since my last lesson in October. Finally today they clicked. I went to two public skate sessions, and only went to the second one to make sure my spins weren't a fluke!

And, I've been complimented multiple times this week.
First: Saw a coworker at the rink who was amazed at my skating abilities.
Second: Skated at the downtown outdoor rink and random people asked me how long I'd been skating. They were shocked when I said "since May." People would stop skating and stare! I wasn't doing anything all that special...just crossovers, 3turns, mohawks, edges, and horrible attemps at spins.
Third: A guy came up to talk to me and complimented me on many things...I think he was hitting on me!

And my new boots finally feel comfortable. Not lacing all the way up yet, but I really enjoy my new skates.

Work day: Many frustrating attempts at spins. Also, jumps are just not happening. I can't seem to jump off my toepick for a waltz jump. What gives??? This toepick is huge compared to my recreational skates, and I still can't seem to find it. But lessons will start again next week and hopefully I can fix my jump issues.

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My Blog - FINALLY updated!
Living out my childhood dream

Work Work WORK:
No lesson today , coach had to cancel last minute.

Snow day:
Nice ice today - the two girls who are normally doing doubles weren't there (still half term here), so there weren't as many people flying everywhere. Crossovers were okay, spirals were much better (no pancaking today ), and spins were working just fine. And I got three revs on my one foot, which was not only one of my goals for this year, but the requirement for the test. I need a lesson however, to work out how you enter it - I'm just doing them from standstill at the minute.

FYI, that metronome track is used for power circles on the PSA moves-in-the-field video for Intermediate MIF. I found the video to be really helpful in terms of pattern and technique, as well as timing. Here it is:
http://www.skatepsa.com/catalog/inde...2333d454fc6f72

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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

Wow. The coach called my sit spin "neat and controlled" today, and she didn't seem to be on drugs and I didn't seem to be dreaming, either.

My counterclockwise scratch spin is "gone" though (decent amount of revs, but it travels all over the place and I can't even pull in). Just what I can use, a week before competition! Needless to say I'm freaking out here. The coach says all I need to do is really "go" for it, but I disagree, there's something wrong on the entrance edge.


Oh and one of the club coaches said maybe they'll let test MIF in october (our season only runs till april 12th then starts in september).

Snowday: I had my dance this past Friday... I had a great time, but

Work: getting up and skating the next morning wasn't very productive. I need sleep!

Snowday: My outside/inside and inside/outside 3turns are pu to passing standard, along with my forward and sometimes backward stroking. Yeah!

Work: I need to get my stamina up to par (along with getting enough sleep so that I can concentrate).

Snowday: I realized that most of my posts to this thread have more to do with the rinks I skate at and the conditions of the ice, customer service, etc., and so I decided to start a blog about the ice conditions, etc., in the Portland, OR area - something to share with my skating friends and also an outlet besides this list to vent my thoughts about that subject.

So if anyone is interested, please visit my blog at:

www.pdxrinkreport.blogspot.com

So maybe now my posts will be more about the skating and less about the ice!!

Let's see - the skating was pretty good this morning - my coach was too tired to give a real lesson and so he said he would just skate some of the called dances with me and not charge me - so every dance that came up (it's a social session) was something I didn't want to skate, so we didn't skate much but we had fun anyway. There was another skater there that he wanted to skate with - someone he used to skate with in the past... I really didn't mind at all because I was pretty tired from skating-related activities last night (we did an exhibition/judging critique for all of the adult skaters in the area that are going to Sectionals and/or Nationals - it was fun but exhausting!!).

I am finally starting to be able to do more or less full patterns of some dances that I was able to do in the past - which is great. One of the judges that comes to skate gave me some good tips about where to think about my back, etc., while doing turns that I used to be able to do without thinking. I think she totally understands the feeling of having been able to do something previously (as in years past) and then now not knowing how to do it - something that has happened to most of the turns that we do in ice- dance. I used to be able to do all of the patterns solo without much thought and now the thought of doing them kind of freaks me out and I feel unsteady. It's something that happens naturally with age, but still, we have to fight it!!

At work: I can't think of anything - it is all positive!!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Aaaah, don't say that!!!! Some of us are still trying to get through our dances fighting time, let alone keeping the ones we've already got!!!

Meanwhile, At Work: Had a fab practice tonight. Everything worked, lots of fun exercises. Secure, fairly quick, and had really good posture throughout (can tell because if I don't the exercises don't work!!) I even did the Novice moves crossing 3's end patterns w/ a decent amount of flow, which was a nice surprise. (that one also requires a ramrod-straight back to work at all.)

I'm sorry but this is my reality - I don't think it's true for everyone, as it seems most of the dancers I know are doing just fine despite the inevitability of aging.

I think I'm quite a LOT older than you anyway, from what I've seen in your postings - it sounds as though you are doing great!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Really a huge combination of snowdays and at work....

This is for last week but I had my wisdom tooth pulled out the day right after my skating lesson and haven't been in the right mind half the time since.
In any case my knee (and back) has been hurting right after nationals so I didnt skate for quite a while. Last week was first time back on the ice and I told coach that I wanted to try the US move in the fields since I could get my hands on it and it seems to be pretty useful at basic skill training.
So I brought the stuff to the rink and tried some of them going through one by one. I was stumped at the second move already Basic consecutive edges. I know we had something like that in ISI and I must have passed them but we just had to complete a certain length to pass. My backward edges must have been still about the same quality from standstill as 8 years ago... they were slow and took forever! So I asked to work on that during the lesson and by the end of it I was moving a little faster and nicer on them but sheesh... I had been doing backward edges from crossovers so much that I now know that I actually don't really know how to do them in solo (with speed and stuff aka nothing like my forward edges). We also found out that my forward edges tended to go out of control when I wasn't concentrating either and that sitting not equal bending the knee! So there goes another mystery solved about my "sitting" problem. When I got stressed on the edges I started sitting and killing alot of motion in the process. Its hard to explain now that I think (I hope I think... haha ) I'm getting the idea, but it is possible to bend your knee and not get power because its in a wrong... position in general as well. In any case, I hope that my basic consecutive back edges can be up to the same standard as forward edges by next year!
Coach thought I should work on my spirals too, she said they could be better. Now I haven't really thought of those (especially with self-inflicted too much pride on the level 4 due to just-enough-gumbyness lol), but I can definitely see the (huge) room for improvement now too in terms of stability, edge quality and power on them.

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Tidesong

Snow day: I think I have figured out how to teach my three learn to skate classes on Saturday and still go to Easterns!! I was really thinking about withdrawing after I realized I'd be missing the penultimate class/testing week. I don't compete until Sunday morning, therefore I can drive to NJ Saturday night after teaching. It also saves me money because I only have to spend one night in hotel, and I don't have to pay a sub to teach my classes. Wahoo!!!

Friday I got in 5 straight hours of practice

My boss gave me the afternoon off without having to spend my PTO AND paid for my skating session as a reward for going 2 weeks without a cigarette. He said at a month I can have a full day off for skating.

I worked on my scratch spin and waltz jumps Friday afternoon. I also went through my artistic program several times, and although it's not quite perfect it's getting better. I was sore when I woke up Saturday morning, and realized 5 hours of skating the day before three early morning classes wasn't the best idea I ever had. I may be sore, but at least I'm happy!

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deannathegeek
"It's like trying to do a toe loop in hockey skates-you have to have the right tools for the job."

For yesterday...

[Snow Day]
Got someone to hold the duty phone again (duty just screws everything up because I'm not supposed to be more than 15 minutes away from campus and need to be back on campus by 8pm).

Jumps and spins felt good even though the huge bruise on my knee was stinging because of the friction from my tights.

Footwork in my program is getting better with both speed and coverage on the ice

[At Work]
CW power 3's were cruddy. I can do them at 1/2 speed but once I start trying to do them at full speed (which is pretty fast!), I tend to lean and my free foot doesn't like to cooperate, even if I put a lot of tension on that side of my body...

Brackets were also giving me troubles....

Couldn't do a clean run through of my program...I really need to start hitting everything

I think you should trust your instincts. If your sitspin is working fine but your scratch spin is not centering, it might be because you are using your sitspin entry timing for your scratch spin. The sitspin entrance edge is slightly shorter than the upright spin entrance edge, so make sure you hold your scratch spin entry a little longer (try it on a line and make sure the entrance edge comes all the way back to the line before you start the spin). Also, make sure your shoulders are level.

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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

I watched the video footage I made and you're absolutely right, the entry edge is too short!