I personally don't think this makes me obsessed, spoiled maybe. see, my rink has public sessions tuesday mornings, 8-10. nobody really goes to them, except a couple other skaters working on moves or things. so the guy knows me, and charges me as a senior citizen (i'm actually 19, but for some reason, he charges me as a senior citizen so i get the discounted price). it's simply amazing, all that ice to yourself.

only problem is, i have to get up at 7:15 so i could leave by 7:45 to get the most ice time, because i have to leave the rink at 9:30 to get to my class on time. when i got up this morning, my roomate said i was obsessed. i could have slept an extra 2 hours, and instead i went skating. i said no, i just like it when nobody else is at the rink because thenn i don't neeed to worry about crashing into anybody, i don't need to constantly look over my shoulder when i go backwards, the ice is as smooth as anything. it's great.

and, i finally did a clean back 3 turn on my left leg. i have no problem on my right (either edge) it's the left 3 turns that bother me, and i finally did them!! and it actualy made a 3 on the ice. so there is happiness in my world.

except sshhh nobody tell my parents. they don't like that i skate so much, so i can't tell them how often i go. it;s actually gotten to a point now that if on the weekends, my parents call my room and my roomate answers if i'm at the ice rink, she has to say that i'm at the library which is why i'm not answering my phone. i feel bad doing it, but they worry about me skating, especially after hte concussion incident. but it only happened once! anyways, if i'm going to be able to get practically an entire ice rink to myself for $3, i'm going to do it. unless there is some sort of extrenuating (sp?) circumstance.

Hey, so what if you're obsessed? So am I! My parents aren't too interested, but they do get annoyed how I talk about it a lot, and they tell me its taking over my life, and not wanting to study. I never did want to study in the first place, but now there's a distraction.

Getting up at 7.15 is worth it for the ice time, and $3 seems cheap! If i wanted early morning Ice I'd have to get up at around 4.30am!

At least it's a healthy obsession (when you're not getting injured ). I used to leave the house at 5.15am to get to the rink for 6.30am! People thought that I was mad but I enjoyed it. Was I obsessed? Yes. Did I care? No. What used to REALLY irritate me, though, was that if I was ever sick or tired my boss and colleagues would say it was because I skated. If, however, someone came in with a stonking hangover that was ok because it's socially acceptable for adults to go out and get completely wrecked

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The best whisper is a click

Ah yes....I see we have another 'sufferer' of AOSS...Adult Onset Skating Syndrome.


Are you obsessed? Probably, but then we all are. Hey, at least it's a healthy obsession!

If your roommate gets snarky, you can always tell her to MYOB. I'm sure she's got something she's equally into. As far as your parents--are you taking lessons? If so, that may help alleviate their fears, because you'll be learning the right way to do things, and make a fall + concussion incident less likely. If you're not taking lessons....well, be sure to wear a padded headband, or hat with a good thick fold-over edge. If you do fall and hit your head, a hat like that can cushion the blow quite a bit. Besides....is this just one day a week (Tuesday)? If so, that's not really all that much. How much do you skate a week? In my book, anything less than 10 hours is certainly not crazy, it's just being devoted to something you love. (Not that over 10 hours is crazy either.....but it would depend on what all else you have to stuff and shoehorn into your life!)

I'm very jealous! 2 hours of empty ice for $3? Wow.

We're all jealous. Especially if you don't have to get up until 7.15 am AND you get to skate on a virtually empty rink.... now, that is LUXURY, in spades! Most of us are up at 6.00 or earlier and skate on crowded teaching ice.

Wear your hair up, if it's long enough - a pony tail will do - and this will protect the back of your head.

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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!

i don't just skate tuesdays, that's just my favorite day to skate because it's the least crowded. i also go friday afternoons at 1:30, where it's a bit more crowded because they have a kids skating lesson and an adult skating lesson going on for about 30 mins, and sometimes they stick around for the rest of the session. i also go sometimes on sunday if i go home on the weekend.

so in hte grand total, it's an average of 4-7 hours of ice a week. i don't think that's so bad. i guess by your standards, that makes me devoted. i like that. and yea, my roomate is really into video games. no offense to her, she's a great person, but i can't sit around for 4 hours playing video games. i'm too i guess active is the word? but that doesn't seem really appropriate.

i'm at the moment, not taking lessons. i used to when i was younger, but my knee made me stop. although i'm taking lessons again come middle of december, hopefully they'll take me. they want you to have taken the LTS program first, but I know how to skate. this class, you work on technique for jumping and spinning and more edge work.

BTW, if you were talking about me iwth the AOSS, i don't htink I count because i was skating from a very young age, but had to stop. but it always stayed a part of my life, but now i'm getting back into it.

All I have to say is enjoy it while it lasts!!!! While in college I skated five days a week-- one of those being 7:30-8:30AM with usually only two of us on the ice. Don't worry about what everyone else says. You will be glad you skated when you could once you have a full time job, I am.

Don't worry--there are lots of us out there who are way sicker than you!!

I get up at 5:45 to leave at 6:15, and drive for an hour & a half to have my lessons.

see, that was my thinking. i know people who have to get up much earlier. when i took lessons, i used to get up at 5:30 to get to the rink, which was about an hour away from me. lessons at 7, but you need 30 mins to get your skates on and a bit of a warm up. now, i go to school, the rink is about a 20 min. drive. when i go home on the weekends, there (or their, i never remember the difference) is a rink about 2, 3 blocks from my house. i just never took lessons there because we didn't really like the rink, it's a bit bare, and not very comfortable.

ponytail won't work, my hair is long enough to go up in one, but not stay in one. if it does stay, it's a little nub of hair, that hardly constitutes a ponytail.

Gah! All this talk of empty ice rinks is making me want to go skating quite badly...4 days to go

HaHa it kinda sucks getting up early (i would know) i wake up every day at 5:30 so i can skate before school! but dont you feel like you got alot done and feel good after? i do! so i think its worth it!

I have to get up at 4:30 to get the good ice (and I've been doing it since I was five....) Going to afternoon sessions is not only ineffective (they're so crowded) but almost impossible with school and the rest of my extracurriculars. My friends still think I'm crazy, but since I've entered high school. where the swimmer have 6 Am practice, it's a little less odd to people. Obsession and craziness all depend on who you ask.

Concussions really aren't that common in skating (in cxomparison to something like snowboarding, or football). Really, the only ones I've gotton from skating were from falling headfirst into the boards at high speed on a triple sal, and somehow, when I was younger, on the 14-step. Neither were very bad, and neither have happened to anyone else I know (though some people have needed stitches after they crashed into the boards....)

I crashed head first into the boards on the Kilian once

As for the obsession - I hate mornings. Absolutely hate mornings. I love nothing better than to sleep in until noon on Saturday. However, guess where I am on Saturday morning at 8 am? Yep - the rink. I actually get up earlier on Saturday mornings to go skating than I do on weekdays to go to work (I skate at lunch time during the week). I'm weird!

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I got my concussion (and suspected skull fracture) from the 14-step!! Dangerous dance that

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The best whisper is a click

I wouldn't say you're spoiled at all. You actually get up earlier than some people (including me).

For a few months, I've just skated once a week for about 90 minutes, which is the length of the session. I'd like to skate sometimes twice a week, otherwise it's harder to progress. Once or twice a week isn't even that much if you're really trying to progress, but twice a week is about the most I could afford or be able to do now.

I usually skate Tuesdays, in the mid-to-late afternoon time. I doubt I'd be able to go skate before 10:00AM, mainly because the rinks aren't too close! The earliest I've ever skated was, like, 11:30AM.

You're obsessed... and the problem is...

You don't have a problem. You just know how to get the most out of your skating! Enjoy!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

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(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

You are like the rest of us. I got hooked on skating over 11 years ago and have never lost the passion for it. You go for it.

As for your parents, I definately sympathise. Just ask yourself - would they be supportive if you went to the gym instead of skate? And also would a person understand if you went to catch a 6.30am aerobics class? Probably would. My mum has never understood why I skate, but had no problem with me joining a gym because it was "sensible" exercise. She views skating as me trying to live some dream of competing at the Olympics. Yeah right - maybe as a spectator!!!

However my father has recently said he would like to come and watch one of my competitions which is really nice of him (my parents are separated).

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of course going to the gym or doing a pilates video is more "sensible" everybody does them. although, i do have to agree that skating leaves a larger dent in my wallet than a gym class does.

although, the other day, when i told my mom that i signed up for skating lessons again, and for the MCAT prep course (those that don't know, MCAT is the test you take to get into med school, and it is the hardest test ever) my mom said to me "so you'll pass your MCAT and get a gold in the olympics. that's ok."

Okay, adults...say "I" if you *wish* you could sleep in until 7:15 on any given day. I !!!!

Like many others on here, I get up at 4:30 a.m., drive an hour to another state to skate at 6:00 a.m., shower in the stinky men's locker room, then drive 45 minutes back to my home state to get to work by 8:30. THEN I start my day as a "real" person (10-12 hour work days...stressful commute...responsibilities at home...you all know the drill). Am I obsessed? Heck no! That hour-long drive is only time I have to myself!

Man, would I love to sleep until 7:15 on a weekday, just once...anyone else?

Seeing as you're all talking about early morning sessions, I'm wondering wether to go EXTRA early tomorrow morning, I'm dying to find out what it's like on 6am patch, but I'd have to get up at 4.30am and get the train at 5.15am. I wonder if the people who are already on the ice at that time would notice, and if they did, would they mind?

An easy way to remember it (at least in the way you're using it)...you want to say 'there is a rink...', so since you're talking about location, remember that 'there' has 'here' in it....both are locations. 'Their' is possessive. Think about an 'heir'...which is a person who inherits (and thus possesses) something.

I!!!!

I have to be at work at 6:45 am, so I get up at 5am every weekday. Even on weekends, hubby and I are usually awake by 6:30 or 7:00. I skate at 4pm or 4:40pm during the week, plus 12:15pm on Saturdays. My coworkers all think I'm nuts.

The one thing about skating as opposed to a gym is that you pay as you go. Gyms are usually a monthly (or yearly) fee, use it or lose it. At least this way, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth, even if it is a little more.

Well, at my age, this obsession seems to be keeping me away from high blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, prostate problems, digestive problesm, does wonders for my arthritis is keeping it in check.

Yup, another one here who has been vaccinated with a toepick!!

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only problem is, i have to get up at 7:15 so i could leave by 7:45 to get the most ice time, because i have to leave the rink at 9:30 to get to my class on time. when i got up this morning, my roomate said i was obsessed. i could have slept an extra 2 hours, and instead i went skating.

Three mornings a week I get up at 5:15 to be on the ice at 6:30am, since I work from 9am to 6pm. And trust me, people who don't skate will never understand people who skate, so you might as well get used to it.

Besides, it could be that your roommate feels a little like an under-achiever right now, if she's sleeping in while you're being this disciplined person who gets up early to go exercise. It makes her feel less lazy if she decides you are just obsessed!

You can consider yourself obsessed if it gets to the point where either you are wearing your body down by skating 20 hours a week, or your grades are suffering because you are skating instead of writing the report that is due tomorrow or studying for the exam you have to take tomorrow.

By the way, maybe you can have your roommate answer, "She's working out" if your parents call on the weekend. It would be true, but maybe it would seem more "normal" to them and they'd be able to handle it, LOL!