Hmm, looks like we forgot to start a new thread this morning!

Cool Breezes:
Haven't got to skate more than twice in the past five weeks, but when I got on the ice Sat to give a lesson, I still felt balanced and smooth. Maybe I've finally reached a point where my comfort level won't go to H*ll when I've been off the ice a while. B power pulls were not bad on L leg.

Sweltering Heat:
Right hip has been so painful for the past week that I didn't dare power pulls on R leg. I'm now taking 600 mg ibuprofen twice a day. I've also finally found glucosamine without chondroitin and started taking it regularly.

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Thread hi-jack alert, sorry! My cousin, who is a GP, says that 4 out of 5 people find glucosamine helpful, but you need to take a hi-dose tablet (at least 1,000 mg) daily. Chondroitin has not been proven to be of any use. We both take it regularly now, and find that it really does help!

Skating in the morning, and our couples' lesson; I'll post all about it afterwards.

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

Thanks, I knew all that, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it for the benefit of others. I'm taking a 1,000 mg tab twice daily. I can't tolerate chondroitin anyway! Hoping I'm one of those who responds to glucosamine.

__________________

Cool Breezes:

Landed the axel! Er in the harness with a cheat. But hey, beggers can't be choosers.

Started going over the basic mechanics of the double salchow. Coach thinks it will be easier for me.

I'm READY for my Bronze test. I am. I will believe this and skate like I am ready.

Sweltering heat:

I'm developing a head block thing regarding LBO 3 turns. I know I can do them, I did them on Thursday of last week. But today I went right back to collapsing on the attempt. Bah!

I notice my knees start making creaking noises whenever I've stopped taking glucosamine for more than 2 days. Which reminds me, I need to take mine, LOL! Thanks!

P.S. I think I remember reading some study result that concluded that Glucosamine + MSM is actually even better than glucosamine, although it said nothing about chondroitin. Some biochemist on a thread about a year ago (not sure if it was this board) said the chondroitin molecule is too large to be absorbed into the human body, so I haven't bothered with it since reading that. I take 1500 mg per day of glucosamine, though.

Okay . . . just got in from my group lesson and 1 1/2 hours add'l practice . . . whew!! We spent a good bit of time on spins and the entry from backward crossovers.

Cool breezes - the one foot spin is getting more and more secure for me. And by the end of the public session, I was starting to get the hang of the entry from the crossovers. There was a more advanced adult skater in the public session who was nice enough to TRY to show us the entry - of course it looked a whole lot easier when she did it!! But watching her go through the steps really helped me to see what we are SUPPOSED to be doing. And there weren't very many people in public session tonight . . . plenty of room to practice - yay! I even got to run through my small selection of jumps (waltz, ballet, half flip and I even tried a few toe loops - fun!!).

Sweltering heat . . . well, I can get through the entry to the one footed spin BUT ONLY when no one is watching - eek!!! It never fails - as soon as the instructor looks my way - I choke big time! Oh well, I have a whole lot of information about what NOT to do. Seriously though, it is starting to feel much more natural. I will say the public session FLEW by tonight . . . I love having something new to work on.

Oh yeah, and I really, really need to get my skates sharpened. Whole lotta slipping and sliding going on tonight!! I did speak to the instructor who takes skates out to be sharpened from time to time (to the GOOD guy - not at the rink - shhhhhh!) and she thinks we can get it done next week. Can't wait!

Cool Breezes: Limited practice time, plus head infection and sciatic nerve has slowed me down....but....today in my teeny tiny window of time, i FINALLY got the footwork leading up to and including my lutz. Now my nerve has improved on tackling it moreso!

Sweltering heat.....dodging all the kids who don't understand freestyle protocol, plus working through sciatic nerve issues.

Cool Breezes: I got a 3-turn! Four times in a row!

Sweltering heat: That was after about 15 minutes of failing to get a 3-turn. THEN the group lesson ended. I considered begging the Zamboni driver for a few extra minutes... I'll go back tomorrow morning!

Congrats on the 3-turns, Hannah! I remember when I first started working on 3 turns in group lessons--they felt TERRIFYING! But after a while it got better.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

cool breezes- my leg seems to have gotten better since the mysterious tendonitis which seems to have been caused by nothing in particular.

sweltering heat- had a nightmare getting my jumps back after only being able to do moves for like 4 weeks b/c of the pain.

I thought I'd lost my axel- nvm my doubles. But by the end of the sessions I was landing my axel again and double toe and sal. Lost my double loop and flip again- hope it won't take too long to egt them back or i'll never start working on lutzes again.

Sweltering Heat:

• The ditch is getting LONGER STILL!!! Can't wait 'til September since it will be our annual ice maintanance schedule.
• No clean landing on loops!!!

Cool breezes:

• Starting to look like I'll be doing a flip in my when I test Bronze FS program! I landed a lot more flips than loops tonight, especially around the middle of the session when I was warmed up enough.
• Everything else is stable! My footwork for my program is pretty fast tonight for some reason. I had another "skating niece" that I haven't seen in a while and I have to give her a reason to be impressed!!! And she was impressed, thank goodness!!! WHEW!!!
• I calmly took the rest of the time doing whatever I can of Bronze Moves and started on Silver Moves.
  • Forward Power Pulls aren't bad...
  • Forward cross strokes are pretty good. Then again, for me having stuff be this easy usually means there's a CATCH!!!
  • Practicing my alt 3's. It's still not passable for prelim yet but the 3's are getting better and smoother. Jay would be QUITE surprised when he sees it! He suspects that I won't be able to do a RFI3 since there's not much I do with a RFI3. What he doesn't remember, of course, is that a LOOONG time ago I was starting on an artistic program that had a FAST RFI3 in it... and I have been practicing FI3's and FO3's a lot just before I took the Bronze Moves test. (See? I'm trying to "really skate" here!!!)
  • Still have my better power 3's from Sunday. (Now why couldn't I do THIS one on the test!)

__________________
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!!!

Cool Breeze:

I passed my Aussie Skate Dance 1 and Dance 2 tests. This is a bit of a laugh actually. Aussie Skate is the skate school stuff which precedes the ISA tests in Australia. I passed my prelim and bonze back in 1984, my coach at that time got me to take the Aussie Skate tests so I could sew the badges on my jacket to promote the newly started Aussie Skate program at our rink. To come back 22 years later and take an Aussie Skate test feels a bit weird. Plus I am just not into dance. Well, I could be, if only I could convince my husband to join me.

Spins, finally getting some centred. And I did some decent flips. A skating acquaintance told me I was landing flips still in the jump position instead of following through with the landing. Probably because I have been landing so few of them there was a delayed "OMG I landed it" moment before finishing it off. They went better once I committed to the follow through before waiting to see if I was actually going to land it.

Sweltering heat?

Frustrating practices, too many people, not enough ice.

__________________
Karen

I skate - therefore I am

sweltering heat (though more like the power outage of last week)

I can't skate - I've hurt my back (not through skating) - disk injury - can't enter British Adult Champs. Don't even know when I'll be able to get back on the ice.

Feeling very miserable

Oh no! Oh, I am soooooo sorry to hear that <<<Batikat>>>. How on earth did you do that?

Miserably hot and sweaty: As for me, I think - I hope - I'm in the darkest-hour-is-just-before-dawn stage, as I had the worst skating day ever, I think. Coach was doing his usual thing of blaming me for all that was going wrong in our dances (hello??? When the judges are saying it's Husband?????), so, of course, it's all my fault I can't do what I'm meant to be doing when I'm being pulled off-balance..... sheesh. "Oh well, if you bent your knees/pushed harder/whatever" say Husband and Coach, but why can't they understand that I can't push when I'm off-balance. And at the very end of the session, just before Husband went off to work, I finally managed to get through to his head that I can't get on a left outside edge when he is pulling me over! At least, I think I did......

To be fair, the coach did say that it was both of us in the Fiesta, and did correct Husband a bit, but after we were working on our step sequence for our free dance, I just felt so down I felt like giving up altogether!

Cool breezes: However, what saved the day from being a total disaster was that a dear skating friend came in - she has been off the ice for a couple of months due to having to have a really major operation and most of her insides taken out and rearranged. It was fantastic to see her, and she looked really well, and, best of all, is planning to come back on the ice on Friday! So that cheered everybody up, including all the people who are getting stressed about the NJS competition in two weeks!

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

Sweltering Heat:

Well I wouldn't call it sweltering, but I felt that my runthrough today was rather uninspired. I completed all the elements, but some were a bit shaky. Funky entrances to sit and back scratch. My back scratch is one of my strongest elements, so I wasn't happy about that. I mean, it was all there, but I just felt it was mediocre.

*Shrug*

Moves coach called over to me today that I was picking in with a bent ankle for my lutz. He never comments on freestyle, so it must have been pretty funky. Eeek. Glad he spoke up, I think I corrected it. Will have to mention to FS coach.

LBO 3 block

Cool Breezes:

I'm getting the forward cross strokes pretty easily and improving slowly. That's nice. My other 3 turns besides evillle blocked one are improving bit by bit. My alt forward insides are fantastic now, because I do this as a warmup to practice my axis.

We worked on back crossovers a bit today. There's always more work to do on crossovers. It was nice to return to something that I can actually do.

My salchow is getting much more comfy and has more oomph to it now. I think it's just a confidence boost hearing my coach say she thinks I can get a double and that it will be easier for me than the axel. I did some 3 turn take offs into a backspin. Was able to repeat what I did in the harness yesterday. Backward takeoffs are so much easier!

Sweltering Heat:
For yesterday's lesson, it was the RFO3. Primary coach took it apart and has me working on it from the short axis.
For today, it was a crowded session, couldn't do moves until the end.

Cool Breeze:
Did a nicely centered sitspin for Primary Coach yesterday on lesson.
Did a shacky but fought for sitspin for Secondary Coach today.
Moves, except the #1 Hated Move for Bronze Moves testers, were fairly good.

Now for the cool, cool breeze:
The loop is on it's way back and I FULLY ROTATED BUT TWO FOOTED LANDINGS ON FLIPS TODAY!!
I want the flip!! Jazzpants, you may not be the only one doing a flip instead of loop for their Bronze free test (whenever that happens for me!)

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Hey Terri C, When are you testing?

Sweltering Heat:
Was in loop heaven on Sunday's public session, then today, nothing. They must have slept in. oh noooo...where did they go? Loops must be my more nocturnal creatures I guess because they sure don't bode well with morning freestyle sessions.

Cool Breezes:
Coach looked at Bronze moves today. she thinks I could test in September. only I will be gone the weekend of the test. (she should have waited to say that until *after* the power 3's) Had an awesome off ice class today. For 2 hours we worked on a lot of quad strenth, jumps, rotation, balance, flexibility. I can hardly walk since my legs feel like jello.

Sweltering Heat: Not as bad today - I have to admit, I wish it had been a little warmer in our rink this morning, but I soon warmed up! But it was a better skate day. Discovered the reason why we couldn't do the revised steps in the free dance was because the husband wasn't swinging his free leg back on the swing roll..... men....

My own lesson was mostly on dance moves and back crossovers. Coach told me what I was doing wrong on the clockwise ones, but unfortunately I already knew what was wrong - it was correcting it that I was having trouble with! Ah well....

Cool breezes: Beginning to get some sort of flow into the dance moves. We did a lovely Dutch Waltz, although the timing went off at the end of the second pattern, but when we did it again we both concentrated and got it right! Fiesta not too bad, either. Could still be a lot better, though.

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

Definitely moves in December, possibly free also if everything looks good!

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Cool Breezes: still spinning well. Coaches say that I have finally achieved the greater-than-90-degree knee bend on my sit position and am holding it for the required three revs. Change foot and back spins are coming along again and not painful for the first time since The Big Trip.
Yucking the free hip under seems to be helping on centering issues.

Sweltering: Jump landings are still painful and loop jumps do not happen at all. I'm using a glucosamine/MSM spray for the tendonitis, which seems to help a little. It would probably help more if I used it the recommended four times a day, but I can't remember to bring the bottle to work with me so I'm lucky if I get three squirts - and usually it's only two.

It also doesn't help that I got eaten alive by mosquitoes Monday night while walking the dog and the itchy spots sting like mad when the spray hits them.

Still I will perservere. I think I have convinced one ot the mothers to join my Adult Learn-to-skate class in September. She took the form last night anyway and talked about her husband getting her new skates as a gift.

Zis where we're s'posed to be

From yesterday:
Drizzle Another day where nothing worked well at the beginning of the session

Sunny Day But started coming together by the second hour. Focused almost entirely on backwards: stroking, inside edges, and outside edges - back outsides are really starting to come together!

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

Sweltering Heat:
First lesson on loops with secondary coach in a LOOOOONG time... WE were working on BO and BO3 edge exercises that forces me to lean and curve into the BO edge. The point of the exercise is to rely on my edge (not my shoulders or arms) to go into the jump and NOT fall onto the outside of the curve prior to the jump.

A small bit of Cool breeze
After going thru that exercise for a while, secondary coach asked me to try for the loop again and I landed the very first loop!!! I didn't land the second one, but at least it's more to her liking on the takeoff. She told me to keep practice the BO edge exercise that she gave me! We'll see if this works...

__________________
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!!!

Cool breezes: Generally the weather in Portland this week has been all cool breezes!!

Skating-wise things are looking up: my coach commented on "how I used to skate" (bad posture) but now of course she wants it brought up a notch (there is always more!). Dances are starting to feel stronger again and dance elements are coming back. Figures are flowing better, but will I ever be ready to take the Silver Figures test? Who knows?

Did a WHOLE pattern of the Killian with my dance coach AT SPEED this week -- never did that before! We both lived through it. He said, "Let's do this" and I was like, "Oh, no, not at speed" and he just said "C'mon", grabbed my hand and we just did it!!

Ice was good at the main rink this week.

Sweltering Heat: Bronze Moves. Power 3s and 5-step Mohawks.

Why can't a Silver dancer do these darn things???

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

Sounds like the exercise my coach had me doing last night. I've been landing the loop, but I've got some bad habits.

Cool breezes:
Did the loop in my run-throughs, except for one when I was blocked by some skaters who apparently didn't think my shouts of "Excuse me" applied to them. But then I landed it right after the program ended as my "reskate". The sit spin is a bit better - worked on that in lesson. I also feel like I'm covering more distance on the salchow.

Sweltering heat:
The rink was its usual Tuesday night zoo. I was blocked or cut off a couple of times during my run-throughs, but I was able to get 2 in during each session (one was during lesson). My backspin disappeared during my lesson, made a brief appearance during run-through, and then never came back for the rest of the evening. My problem isn't the spinning - it's the exit. My coach pointed out that the actual spin has improved - lol. But of course, none of that will matter on test day if I stumble out of it. I must be leaning too far on the BO edge b/c I kept falling over to the right (I spin CCW). I'm very b/c it's been so consistent for the past couple of weeks. Why do my elements always leave when a test or comp is coming up?

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!