In honor of ringing in the New Year.

Champagne toast: had a great skate last night. We had good progress on the death spirals and the throws are sailing.

Toasted:haven't seen our coach for a couple lessons - time to start the program.

Happy New Year to all.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Thank you for the thread title...wanted to post earlier but couldn't come up with a title!

Champange toast - My coach cut me a 2:30 minute version of Pacobel's Canon and today we choreographed a moves program for me to it. No I'll never compete it or use it for anything - it's just a fun way for me to practice my moves. It's hard for me to be motivated without a test or competition or program...

It starts with just stroking and arm movements, then crossovers, then eight step mohawk, waltz threes, slaloms that someday will be power pulls, forward and backward, 5 step mohawk, inside 3 turns and two foot backward turns, inside spread eagle and a pivot. other than the mohawk and inside 3s- they are only one way so I figure I can start at both ends of the rink and do them both directions...

And she was pleased with my backward edges with the foot forward to set up for falling leaves.

J

I love that music. It would be a beautiful show piece with all those edges.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Yea but it would have to be skated REALLY well....

j

What a totally COOL idea!!! I know what you mean about needing motivation to work on things sometimes. Maybe I'll suggest this to my coach (I even have music in mind!) for working on Juvenile Moves!

champagne - skated saturday and monday, which is more skating than I've done since thanksgiving. Backspin / changefoot spin and showing progress. I'll pass FS3 before summer!

toasted - tired and generally underachieving yesterday, jumps were low and slow.

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It's all about the dress!

Champagne: Great final skate of the year today, plus we had visitors from Various Other Rinks, followed by a brunch party at ours. Which was fun.

Toasted: It was the final skate of 2008, and now we don't have any lessons with coach1 for weeks and weeks because we are away next week, and then he is away at the British. We will have a lesson with Coach2, though.

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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!

Burned Toast:
Haven't had a good practice for two weeks now, since my last lesson. Too tired all the time, and too much work. Had to pass up another half hour lesson on Sun evening because my feet hurt too much to go on, and predictably, woke up Monday feeling run over by a truck. Woke up today with pain in hip and a cold. I'm resigned to feeling like a complete beginner when I finally get back to practicing. My goal right now is just to sharpen my blades with the Pro-filer before I get back to skating.

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toasted - I am getting out of shape and gaining weight, and I can feel the lower stamina on the ice. Time to hit the treadmill and all that other stuff when I'm not able to get to the rink.

Champagne - this was a perfect morning for outdoor skating, perfect temperature and not too windy. I had a few decent spins, and jumped a bunch.

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It's all about the dress!

More Champaign today - had a good practice.

It really was a good idea to make that Moves program. I'm still working on my inside 3s and usually when I get to the RI3 - (and it's direction not the foot because my Foward RO 3 is my good one) I have to have a major pep talk to get me to even try it. When I do it in the program, I just do it. Not great. Sometimes ending on two feet quickly - but for me to just DO IT is a major accomplishment.

Same thing with the 8 step mohawk. It's very clunky and I barely end up an outside edge but that's another one that takes some nerve and there's something about doing it in a program to music that makes it easier to do.

j

That sounds beautiful! And you can always skate it as an artistic program.

I probably will at our home competiton this summer but I will have to be able to skate it VERY VERY well. And hopefully by next summer I'll be able to do a one foot backward three turns...

j

Champagne: Landed a great axel and then quit because I wanted to have that good feeling for the rest of the day. You know, the one where you convince yourself you can do it whenever you want.

Toasted: The previous session I busted up my right shoulder pretty good by waxeling not once, but twice. Jumping sideways is not recommended. My spins are officially gone.

champagne toast:

Was trying to sort out what I want to do for interp this year (have a list of ideas, only have time/registration $$ for 1 program, no $$ for new costume) and was iPod surfing on the way home from my boyfriend's yesterday when I was reminded of a song that I love, when it came out 5 or so yrs ago I had always wanted to skate to "if I ever did freestyle," (at the time I wasn't), goes with my favorite dress (which I'm not already wearing at ANs since I'm doing silver dance and not pre-gold...would've worn it for the Blues). And just looking at the time as it was playing on my iPod and cutting it in my head, I can get a perfect 1:40 cut with all the "good parts" in. Yay! I start working on it tomorrow but have it roughly coreographed in my head.

Rink was open yesterday so I got to skate and had a (fairly short) lesson. My coach and I worked out intro fluff and ending fluff to the solo dances I'll be competing this year (14 and Tango for silver at NIY and ANs, I'll do the Tango at Mids as well as the Blues).

Flying camels were pretty good and getting more consistent.

Other than that I spend a good chunk of my time on ice working with a friend (bronze skater) who is spending the next few months in Canada for a grad school clinical and I won't see her again until March. She has a (wonderful) coach, but since her coach isn't 100% certain of adult rules and doesn't really do choreography, I was free to help her play around with that. We broke down a few spins she's having trouble with and went through her free and interp programs for ANs, rearranged a few things in her free to fit in a 3rd spin and finalized everything the way she'll be competing it. I hadn't coached in a long time so that felt good (and always serves as a reminder to myself of things I tend to forget when I'm skating).

Toasted:

Did a crappy run-thru of my program, which was mostly crappy because I have switched around my jumps so many times that I was doing the wrong ones in the wrong place.

Still no clean axel, I'm obviously going to keep working on it, but I've given up stressing over getting it consistent in time to have in my program at ANs this year. I have yet to do a decent flying camel in competition and want to focus on that, lower sit-spins, a stronger sit-change-sit, and smoother footwork and tackle the axel in competition next year. I'll be silver at least another year anyway. So yesterday I set an axel time limit of 10 min, did some drills and 3 full attempts, and put the jump away for the day and moved on.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

champagne - skating on my birthday, rested and not hungover. I saved the champagne to have with lunch after my skate.

just toast - still can't get the snap into a camel. This one's going to be along time coming. I pretty well forgot how to get a sitspin going, by the time I got it together I was too tired.

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It's all about the dress!

just toast Tedduble code in de hed.
used my arcane mystic 24 hour recovery system to alleviate the symptoms and get back on the ice. It worked, but I was pooped after 2 hours on the ice.
My mohawks which were looking smooth have returned to chunky, scary.
champagne toast My alternating FO3 turns on the line have significantly improved--my LFO are actually at the top of the lobe! My RFO are early--But not scrapey, they're clean, so it's improvement.
I'm finally getting a feel for inside 3's and can do them without support! Coach says these are easy--but arghh, 57 year old body just takes forever to learn.
A poem about 3 turns I found online. http://tinyurl.com/3turnpoem
Forward edges nice--no complaints from coach except they were 'too chubby', made them join Weight Watchers . Back outside edges, I'm getting down. It's that turn of the body as you come around the curve, it took me a couple of tries, but I have it now.
I can actually consistently do BO3 on the boards---it will be months before I'm ready in the center.
Waltz eights--worked on timing and position--meh, practice some more I suppose.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Champagne: started our pairs program today!
toasted: 11 weeks to go

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Champagne Toast:
First day back at my home rink from New York! It's good to be back with nice kind familiar faces...

Just Toasted:
When I got there... apparently secondary coach had scheduled my lesson slot off to another skater b/c "she didn't know that I was coming back today." I asked her the Monday before I left for New York if she had the 31st available and can I take it? She said "Yes and yes." So at first I thought I got up for nuttin'.

Then she found out that one of her lessons wasn't gonna be back and asked me to take that slot instead. Of course, I took it... but after I move my car from the one hour slot. Took me a while to find parking... and when I got back, she was still on her lesson previous to me...

Champagne Toast:
She felt bad and gave me a 15 minute lesson, free of charge. Her "Christmas present" to me!!!

Just Toasted:
My back cross stroke push!!! Secondary coach thinks I haven't been practicing the exercise she gave me! (I did. I swear I did!!! ) She did at least acknowledged that I am at least moving and staying at a good speed. (Of course, for her "good enough" would be that I would be accelerating with each stroke, as her younger students should be doing...) I shut up and try to do what she tells me to do.

Forward cross strokes. Shoulders are not still today. Unfortunately, I probably did that to accommodate NOT pushing under with my toe picks on that one bad side.

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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!!!

just toasted: no skating today....had a migraine and slept the afternoon away in a drug-induced state. By the time I woke up it was too late for the session, which was just as well. Although I was feeling better, I know from experience that my balance would have been for cr*p!

might get some time in tomorrow (I'd better, haven't skated all week and I hit it with my coach on sunday and we might start working on my program).

sheesh! stupid migraines!!!!!

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

Champagne Toast:

• Skated the coffee club session on New Year's Day. Again, nice to be surrounded by nice, kind familiar faces!
• DONUTS!!! (I only took a half chocolate coconut... )
• My jumps were all there.
• I did the darn back cross stroke exercise and made sure people did see me do it!!!

Just Toasted:

• No creamer. Had to drink it black with Splenda (which thankfully I do carry in my wallet.) (The good part is... calories and milk allergy saved!!! )
• Crowded. And LOTS of paired ice dancers too!!! YIKES!!!
• And my primary coach didn't tell me that he was gonna be there giving lessons. Probably b/c his coffee club slots were ALL filled...
• My camels never made it there.

Interesting Note:
Primary coach has gone "John Mayer" and got a buzz cut too!!! (Yes, you've read right! A buzz cut!!!) He looked at me like I had two heads when I mentioned it. Apparently he had it weeks before I left for New York. I said "Well, how was I supposed to know that when you had your SKI CAP ON the last few weeks, huh???" (THEN he gets why I said what I said!!!)

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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!!!

Champagne toast - posting again after a long time. I've been skating on and off, but not consistently enough to really keep in shape since Thanksgiving. Also I've been sick, and have gotten very winded on the ice until today. So I feel like I'm on the comeback. In addition, spins were good, sit is getting better all the time. Jumps were wimpy as usual, but I am learning to get more spring on my waltz. Just need to get up the courage to really jump on the others.

Just Toasted - Moves were not bad, but I seem to invent new problems all the time. I am bending at the waist after my 3 turn on the left foot, and getting myself off balance. But coach likes my 5 step.

Toasted. I pulled a muscle in my back and now it's doing this on and off spasm thing - not fun. I tried ice and then resorted to my tried-and-true heating pad, which at least feels good while I am using it. Am drinking the champagne (with orange juice, in mimosas - multiple mimosas ) while I rest my back and pray that it gets better while I contemplate passing both the pre-bronze and bronze tests this year.

Sorry you are having so much trouble with injuries!

J

Thanks! At least this one actually occurred in 2008 (very late 2008, but still), so I am figuring that it isn't necessarily a harbinger of 2009! On the plus side, my knee is a whole lot happier now that no one has kicked it in a while

Mimi

Champagne Toast
I had a lesson with my secondary coach this morning and she proved once again that she has the opposite of "coach eyes". . . My spins only behave when she's watching, LOL! She only had 15 minutes to work with me, but it was the best 15-minute lesson ever! She instantly fixed my back-to-forward spin transition with just one correction (and that is something that has been giving me trouble for quite awhile), then I had her help me with the change-edge backspin, which I just started working on last week. To my surprise--and hers--I completed one on just the second try! It was probably the best one I've done yet, and she said the change of edge was obvious enough that she "would have counted it." Then I told her I'd been working on a catch foot flying camel, so she asked to see it. I surprised myself--and her--once again by completing a solid one on the very first try! The most surprising thing was that she told me my position was perfect! I did another one, which she said was even better. Since I seemed to be on a roll, I asked if we could try a back tuck sitspin (which I've never tried) right out of the catch foot flying camel without letting go of the foot. She said sure, so I tried it, didn't kill myself, got a few great pointers from her, and got a little closer on the second try. Our 15 minutes was up, but I think I know enough now to work on it on my own. This could be fun!

Just Toasted
Then she handed me off to my primary coach. I had a 30 minute lesson and made no progress to speak of. Not one double sal landed. A few hours later, I skated a second session at a different rink. Within the first 10 minutes, I nailed both axels on the first try. I warmed up two spins and one jump combo, then asked for my program music, sure that I was going to have a great run-through. About 1/3 of the way through my program, I started feeling drained and could barely even get myself off the ice on both axel attempts. I felt like I was fighting my way through the program. This started happening about 2-3 weeks ago and has been happening in every program run-through since. I'm not doing anything differently as far as training, diet, etc. so I'm wondering if it has something to do with the colder weather, i.e., my lungs constricting in response to the cold air. Has anyone else ever experienced this? With Sectionals coming up, I need to figure this out soon!

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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