In honor of my DH's three-hour marathon session yesterday, and our lovely leaf-viewing drive today.

Raking Piles:
I wanted to go skating today, but life got in the way.

Turning Leaves:
Did off-ice and managed a full rotation in the air without damaging anything!

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Turning Leaves:

Finally, am finally getting the sitspin back, as well as the loop. I "lost" both when I got my new blades.



Raking Piles:

Will I ever get my forward scratch back to being centered like it used to be??

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Raking piles: Had a night of interrupted sleep (darn - on the longest night of the year, too!) and so felt like dog meat at the dance session this morning. Could barely skate, didn't take my lesson and left early.

Turning leaves: Primary coach is back from long vacation (and Regionals) and we have a lesson scheduled at the old hockey rink. Hope I can skate!

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

I did go to show rehearsal today-the director knows whay I'm going through with my back/leg/foot....so I tried to do what I could, which wasn't much. but i tried. I can't spin because my foot is totally numb, so I did a 2-foot (which is still kick-a**!) But I can still spiral, so that's nice. No jumps, though because I can't feel my leg enough to push off.

staying on my leg for more than two minutes causes extreme agony. But i got through it.

I see my family doc on Tuesday and hopefully he will give me a referral to a specialist. I'm tired of just popping pills, and living in a drug-induced fog.

But my sewing room is coming along, because my chair has wheels and I can scoot around doing stuff!!!! yay!!!!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Raking Piles: My endurance is so not where it should be I tried running through my program without music and was sucking wind as I was going through...2 minutes is a long time!

I was getting really frustrated with the whole scratch/back scratch spin again...ugh...I just can't get it...I can do them alone, but putting them together just escapes me!

I wish I had more time to skate...that thing called work gets in the way

Turning Leaves: Moves are getting better. Still not as consistent as I would like, but better. As I've said before...I just want to be done with the Intermediate moves!!!

Axels were much better today. The toe that always comes down on the landing wasn't as much of a problem...don't get me wrong, it was still hitting the ice, but it was less

I am actually enjoying the footwork for my program, I just need to ask coach to go through one piece with me again, because I don't think I have it right...

Turning Leaves: Finally got the courage to pull the trigger on a delayed axel at full speed. Got the snap and rotation. It felt great until ....

Raking Piles: .... I crashed and burned on the landing. I rolled over like a stunt cop car in "The Blues Brothers". It was quite an advil moment. Can't wait to try it again!

Kevin

Going to keep this quick because the real-world calls after a weekend of skating:

Turning Leaves: Had a great lesson yesterday, and since it was a "jump day" for me, we were heavy on the jumps and combo jumps. My coach and I were pretty satisfied with the majority of what we worked on.

Raking: I desperately need a sharpening (especially my right boot), so my spins were practically non-existent. I was able to eke out a few revolutions CCW, but couldn't even get going CW most of the time-- and that's my "better" side. I couldn't get the edge to curve in...

And I was taken out by a dorito that some kid dropped on the ice. One second, I was gliding out of one of my MITF, and the next I was flying through the air, hitting my knee, hip, and elbow. My coach and the skate guard thought I was was really hurt because, instead of getting up, I started crawling on the ice to see where the "bump" had been. We were all amazed when I found the halved dorito. Who eats chips on the ice?

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Same thing happened to me! With sit spin...maybe THAT'S why my loop has been off.

Raking piles: Sit spin is better than it was on Friday but nowhere NEAR what it used to be. I think I'm letting my right hip drop again. I've just got to practice, practice, practice it. Started to do a flip today but bailed out of it because I still have flip mental block.

Turning leaves: All loops but one were landed correctly and I think one of them was actually a good jump. But - two footed the one in my program. Still was happy with how that went today. I feel like I'm skating the program stronger, even though the actual elements (including scratch spin) aren't what I'd like them to be.

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

Turning leaves

Got my passport skate UK passport through the post so took it to my lesson and passed bronze and silver yay. Started my program for gold and fiddled about with that for a bit which was fun.

Raking Piles

Nothing at all today which is lovely to have once in a while!

Turning Leaves

I'm going to compete the Swing Dance in January. We have to sign up this week to get the early bird discount. Coach asked why the Swing and not the Cha Cha and I said I have more confidence in my ability to get that mohawk by then than the step behind. Though I do want to still work on it.

So we worked on it today and you know, the mohawk is coming. We have to really slow down the swing roll and edges before the mohawk but I was able to do it a few times and before I would just come to a stand still. It's part mental and part positioning myself, bending my knees, squaring my hips ... but I also don't rush it as much.

Raking Leaves Didn't have much energy for power class at 6 am today.

j

Turning leaves: And, indeed, the trees lining the M40 were very beautiful when we drove down to the competition at Oxford.

We skated well - our Golden Skaters' Waltz felt great, and one judge even had us in 5th place! The others, sadly, had us in our proper place of last!

Husband finished 4th in his solo compulsories. In the changing rooms, a couple of other people who had finished 4th said they wished we had 4th-place medals, so I commented that in the USA where there are 4th-place medals, one always finishes 5th!

Raking them: We skated a pretty poor Riverside Rhumba, and alas, mucked up our free dance - I caught my toe-rake and very nearly measured my length, which is totally how I didn't want to finish with that dance. Ah well... but the oddest thing was, we weren't last in that class!

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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!

Ah yes - that was me I think having been 4th for the third time with that free dance (and I've only competed it three times!). Maybe if I compete with it a 4th time I'll actually not come 4th!
Not quite as bad as the year I entered 4 classes at Bracknell and was 4th in each of them.

I'm still wondering how come I had time to do my 1.5 minute programme through 3 times in the 3 minute warm up though, even after the warm up lap of the rink. I had to resort to just skating about a bit since otherwise I'd have been worn out before I got to my turn!

Back to free skating tomorrow!

Turning: I passed the Hickory Hoedown and Willow Waltz last night.

Raking: I wasn't so very pleased with the way I skated them.

Turning: I felt better when I saw the judges' comments. The words "good soft knees" actually made an appearance!

Not Raking or Turning: I'm still adjusting to the fact that it's okay for me to work on the Gold moves. I keep feeling like an imposter. Especially because one of the coaches at the rink is still working on her Gold moves. After my Silver moves test, she actually said she thought I'd get them first!

Johanna, who will not be posting about passing another test for a good while

Johanna, a big CONGRATULATIONS to you!!!
"Soft knees" from JUDGES? WOW!

And Caris, WAY TO GO!!!

And now would you two mind passing along your good testing karma to me for this Thursday, since you won't be needing it for the rest of the week? I'm testing my Intermediate MIF in 3 days and I'm still wrestling with those back perimeter power 3's!

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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

~~~ Good testing vibes ~~~> doubletoe!!!

You'll do great! I just know it!

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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!!!

Good luck, Doubletoe! An awesome skater like you will have no problem on that test!

Raking Piles: The most AMAZING skating day yesterday! Spins were dead on, worked on my camel-jump backsit-change to forward sit-pancake combination. I went in the harness for the first time in probably 8 or 9 years. I've never been in it with my current coach. It helped a bit! I landed one perfect clean double sal and my coach said she wasn't pulling me at all. Of course, I couldn't land it the same out of the harness. Blah. But that double sal...what a feeling that was to land it. Total breakthrough on axel, I think I've finally fixed it for good!

Turning leaves: Nothing really, but a great skating day is almost as frustrating as a bad one. Why don't I skate that well ALL the time?

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Sometimes the biggest victories are the ones where we do NOT finish last.

Just a general limbering-up session after my 4 days off. Practiced a bit of everything.

Piles: I need a subconscious tranquilizer pill! I can do my jumps just fine off-ice but when I get out on open ice there is some sort of subconscious reluctance to just throw myself into the air. Gotta loose that, GOTTA!

Fall Colours: Practicing Upright Spins - coach said I was getting the full 3 revolutions - THAT'S NEW!

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

Leaves: had a great time at the Halloween Classic. It was a nice start to the season. I had been having cammel problems for the last couple of days. and at the event I had a nice cammel jump cammel in the warm up and in the program I had a strong cammel - so I stayed with it and left out the jump to back cammel. It was such a nice change to have a good one, I didn't want to stop it.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Oh wow, Johanna! Congratulations and respect! I would love to have a half-decent Willow. No, I take that back, I do have a half-decent Willow - I'd love to have a really decent Willow!

Good luck! And don't forget, if you don't pass you've only lost a few dollars - you will be no worse off than you are now.

True, and thank you, but why did we finish last when we skated really well, and not finish last when we skated crap, do you suppose? Or is that just a Law of Skating?

Back on the ice today and working on our Willow Waltz for Dunkerque.

Raking piles: Had the oddest cramp which felt almost like a muscle strain, thought I wasn't going to be able to skate, but fortunately was able to skate through it. Having enormous trouble skating with Husband when he's going backwards and I'm going forwards, and we aren't sure if it is him or me.

Turning leaves: Gradually improving things, I think. Husband got a few corrections but he now knows what I'm going through while he does his Mohawk, as he has the same issues in one of the steps in the Foxtrot, so he tells me.

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

Thanks! I think I have just a half-decent one, as well. I'm still not too comfortable on the four forward edges section (and one judge commented on that). And there's other stuff, too, but I guess it was good enough for that level. I did pass it standard, not adult, though, so that's something.

Johanna

Lots of posting to catch up on here....

Sometimes the dance that you think you did badly on isn't as bad as you thought it was. Yeah, it's the Laws of Skating and all. (Then again, in my case, I know when I'm skating badly...)

CONGRATULATIONS, je!!! Geez, Silver Moves and NOW Hickory Hoedown and Willow Waltz!?!?! You're knockin' those tests left and right there, kiddo!!! You must have WONDERFUL edges!!!

But sooner than she thinks...

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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!!!

Knowing doubletoe... she will probably pass it on the first try... just like her other tests. IIRC, her test track record has been all pass on the first try!!! (And we don't care if it's a "barely pass", doubletoe! A pass is a pass is a pass!!! ) So I think she's gonna do it again!!! (No pressure, of course, doubletoe!!! No pressure at all!!! )

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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!!!

Too late for that! I took it last year and ran into the back wall on my CW back power 3's. . . I also don't think it helped that my blades were a little dull and I was sliding around on my other moves. Can you say "RETRY"?! I was so depressed I just put the MIF away for awhile before deciding to try again.
This time I've made sure my blades are sharp enough and they feel great! And as of this morning I am making it through my back power 3's in both directions. . . but based on my history with these evil things, that's no guarantee that I will do it Thursday, so I'll need all the luck I can get! (FX FX FX!!)

Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes! (And Stormy, WOW on that combo spin!)

P.S. BTW, I also flunked my Bronze FS test (crappy sitspin) and Silver FS test (crappy camel) the first time I took them!

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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 thought the longest night is in december?