In honor of that age old question...IS THE TURKEY DONE???

Hot and Crisp - I was cooking in power class today...had to take my sweatshirt off right away ...jumped when she said jump. Only opted out of lunges. I think I'm done with lunges. Not so bad getting down, I just can't get up anymore.

Give it another hour - I'm still trying to go straight into a 3 turn after my bunny hop without skidding to slow down.

So we had the boom box on the edge of the boards that the coaches use when they are choreographing and it was playing LOUD...then we have a monitor playing music over the loud speaker....seems to me the person with the vest and the loud speaker should have the music louder but it was getting to be a contest and when I had my Swing music on I was shouting "ONE TWO ONE TWO" to help me focus on my music. It was a zoo.

No turkeys on this side of the pond! We wait until Christmas for them. Although there is a school of thought says we ought to give thanks for getting rid of you lot.....

Hot and done: Competition will be on Saturday; if we aren't ready now we never will be, and the ice this morning helped by being cold, hard and brittle, just like it will be in Dunkerque!

Another hour yet: Of course, three days before competing so I have tweaked a small muscle in my ankle. Am icing it.

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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!

Just took a week off from skating to attend a conference on prosecuting sex offenders, so between that and reading the "happy pimp birthday" thread I don't think I can cope with the title of this thread! So I will just refer to it as:

Done: Got my skates sharpened while I was gone for the first time since September and suddenly was able to land a clean loop every time I tried!! Hopefully it'll actually be a permanent change and not just a lucky accident. They were pretty dull.

Give it another hour: Got a call last night canceling my lesson today. At some point over the last week the class that allows us to use daytime use for figure skating was canceled for this week and my coach thought maybe we could still use it but when she checked last night found out that we can't. (Since the rink actually has a specific policy about that...not to be mean but DUH!) Too late for me to reschedule as I've already booked up the rest of my week and I don't want to cancel appointments and my students' lessons at the last minute. Luckily I had already scheduled a 15 minute lesson with another coach on Sunday because the ice is canceled next week, too, although the class is now going to meet next Thursday...so to have a lesson next week I now have to spend this morning rescheduling everything I had scheduled for next Thursday! (Of course, since I didn't get notified till last night, it's too late to move that stuff to today, when I now have nothing scheduled!)

Gad but I'm whiny this morning!! But I am really happy about my nice sharp skates!

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

HOT: That move I didn't know I could do (catch-foot spiral)? Apparently I can do it with either arm, inside or outside grab, so coach has already put it in the program.

Half Baked: DAMN it was COLD in that rink again!

HOT: ... but my favorite morning man was on duty and got me on the ice 25 minutes early! (Love that guy! He knows I take time off work to skate so he makes sure I get on early ...... Do you suppose my employer is paying him to do that? LOL!) I got a full 1.5 hours this morning with lesson in the last half hour (after I am already a bit pooped!)

HOT: Came the closest I ever have to a real honest-to-gawd Sit Spin! Love the "ALRIGHT!" from coach.

HOT: Upright spins were coming together today ..... another "ALRIGHT!" from coach. (God I LOVE those! ) "Now we need more revolutions...." she says. Okay, who's going to stop me from falling over when I come out of those?

HOT: Back cross-cuts are improving.

..... and all this on the first day of my skating week!

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

Yeah, and thank us for taking Madonna off your hands while you're at it, LOL!

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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

Hot and Done

• Loop and loop-loop was decent enough.
• Sit spin was okay, not great! He wants me to be more aggressive on the spin entry.
• Salchow... sometimes "spinny" but thankfully not the majority of the time...
• Waltz jump is pretty good

Give it another YEAR:

• My flip and my lutz... meh....
• Toe loop... still fixing the "toe waltz" problem... AND primary coach wants more attack on the toe loop. *sigh*

Give it a DECADE:
Camel spin... I don't think I'll ever get this spin...

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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!!!

For this morning's skate:

Hot and Done

• I did this sorta alternating inside edge exercise where I do half lobes down the rink. Key thing is to bend the ankle to the point where I can hear a GRRRRROWL!!! And I sure did on at least one of the foot (my left foot.)
• Alternating Forward crossovers: Not on auto pilot yet but when I am conscious of it, I do skate better on this move.

Give it another hour

• Alternating FO3-back crossover - Both are on the same lobe but you start a new lobe on the crossover. Not that great... I have trouble with stepping forward. Having weight on my back crossover foot/ankle (BI edge) seems to help a lot.
• Back power pulls!!! YIKESSS!!! Okay, I sorta got the general sense of the ankle bend, the shoulders, deeper edge, and the timing of the free back leg (when to pull in and push out) but ONLY if my choreographer was right there for me to hold on to if needed!!! No growls yet... but not too bad!
• Ummmm.... I am not that awake?

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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!!!

Hot and Done: Ran through everything. Husband has grasped the concept of what Coach1 meant when he told him to "bounce" his salchow-loop, and landed a really good one today, except he let his arms go everywhere. Coach1 fixed my clockwise progressive runs, which were catching in the middle, because, he said, I was letting my shoulders go. Sure enough....

Still cold and raw: Husband had the pre-competition panics today (it happens to us all!) and nicked almost all my private lesson! Oh well.... His camel has gone off to find a nativity play somewhere again, but it should come back if he remembers what to do! And although the ice was somewhat better today, the music system went down!

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

Hot and done - all of yesterday's lesson. More like wet and cold and never even started. Blech it was bad. Ice was wet and soft, and eventually bumpy as raindrops froze to it. Couldn't spin, couldn't jump, edges sucked. All the corrections from coach were just making me anxious and not fixing anything. Should have stayed in bed.

Give it another hour - went this morning and erased the bad memory. Bright crisp late fall day. Jumped till sweaty and running on endorphins. Actually got a decent backspin a couple of times. Just stood on that spot and watched the world whirl by. One of these days, coach will get to see it.

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It's all about the dress!

Hot and done -

I do like the new-old-shorter blades. I can spin really well on them and my backspin is slowly returning.

Didn't try any jumps other than a few waltz jumps since I still have the temp screws in.

Spiral patterns weren't too bad, but change-edge were very weak.

Give it another hour -

Still struggling with turns to the right on both feet. Brackets were meh, three turns were scary if I did them on pattern. sigh

Didn't take Advil before skating, so my knee was twinging the whole time.

Dropped the skates off to be sharpened with my 3/8" preference. Hope they come out all right.


Taught a group lesson last night. There are five instructors. I was early since I set up the clipboards, etc. One of the young ladies arrived just as the lesson time was beginning to put out cones. Two more were late, which is a constant pattern and the rink manager gave them a warning. So they're in a snit now. The fifth instructor never showed up and no one received a call AFAIK.

Fortunately, I thought to grab her students while I was warming up my own two-level group of students, so they received a good workout and lesson. It was difficult - I had three different group levels in one class!

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5:45 Lesson today - DD came home last night and I offered her my lesson time and last night before she got home she said she wanted it but this morning there was no signs of life from her room so I let her sleep

Hot and done - My gala program - shaping up pretty good. When I take my time and stretch and glide, the RFO 3 that's been scaring me is just fine...

Give it a few more hours - working on 3 turns...first inside then reveiwed outside....coach noticed it's not the side I favor but the direction to turn - which is clockwise. She thought it was because it's easier for me to stretch my right shoulder back than my left shoulder.

Except it doesn't work that way for back outside 3 turns...right now it seems easier on left foot and that does have my left shoulder back. Who knows? So for those I need to concentrate on tighening my buttucks - not letting my hip rotate and bending my knees AND coming up on the back of the blade. Whew- that is a lot to think of!

Give it a few months but I'm excited: For our spring show, you get a solo or feature based on how much ice you contract (plus volunteer work and testing and competing - yea it's buying a role but it sure helps to sell the ice time!) and I am applying for a feature role in our show which is the Wizard of Ice Theatre this year. I expect I'll be Auntie Em...but we'll see! Don't believe an adult skater has had a feature role before. I'm also hoping to get in the Flying Monkeys group number!

Hot and done: the temp in the rink was up so it was almost too hot for skating by the time I warmed up! I had to strip down to a t-shirt!!!

Everything is going well, (except for those items noted below) and since school is out for the holiday, there was about 6 kids skating.

Give it another hour: not sure another hour is enough, my loop is still getting landed on one foot (yay) but the rotation is not there....I'm not getting down enough in the knee for springing up. I'm hoping that it will come together better.

And what was up with my toe-loops? they were really crappy and instead of (again) getting down in the knee and picking in they were really waltzy.

Under either/both categories: scratch spin "exercise" which is just weird. Enter the spin like normal, but keep free leg LIFTED UP and don't bring it in. try it, that is HARD TO DO!!!! Hip flexors need more strength I guess.

I only skated for an hour, I was worn out by the time I finished!

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

I forgot to mention yesterday that ankle bend is HEAVILY REQUIRED on he back power pulls!!! In fact, right after my drill on back power pulls with my choreographer (which results in some much better back power pulls. ) I said "WOW!!! I just found another area of my body that I rarely exercise.... my ANKLE!!! And WHOA do I feel it!!!"

I then thought of my personal trainer's exercise Monday morning about doing sit spins requiring a LOT of ankle strength to hold the low sit spin pose. We did a little bit of testing where I squat halfway down and then go all the way down on the sit spin. She asked "Which one requires more work to hold?" I said "Both are equally tough." That's NOT the answer she expected. She then realizes that on the full sit is that it requires a LOT of ankle strength but next to NOTHING in leg strength to hold the pose. Yup!!! I was thinking of her when I did back power pulls. OWWWWWWEEEEEE!!!!

That said....

This turkey's FROZEN SOLID:
So this morning secondary coach says "Show me your left foot!" I showed it to her. Then she said "No, put it up on the boards" So I did. Then she said "I have a SURPRISE for you!!! " When I saw the ankle weights and she puts it on me, I was like . She then said "I have to live up my title and rep as the EVILLE secondary coach!!! " It was 3.5lbs, but it felt like 10lbs when I skated with it!!!

And what's the drill today? SPEED DRILLS!!! She first wanted 3 laps of GOOD stroking and forward crossovers and let's just say she "has the need for speed... " Then comes forward and back pumps around the hockey circle and she wants to see a LOT more speed coming out of me. Then it alternating FO3 tap toes down the length of the rink (which I'm sucky at already WITHOUT the ankles weights!!!) Then she said "I want to see FAST forward crossovers. When I tell you to... LIFT into a spiral ("and it better be a good spiral with high free leg and straight legs for both!!!") and STAY on the spiral position until I tell 'ya too (which is pretty much when I'm slowed to a grinding halt!) Then it was back crossovers for 30 seconds as FAST AS I CAN!!! Stop for about 10 seconds and then back on there for another 30 seconds set. BOTH directions!!!

Hot and Done
She FINALLY release me from the ankle weights and told me to stroke around fast again for a couple of laps. One of our Master level skaters said to EVILLE secondary coach that "She's definitely noticeably faster!!!"

And on that note, I came off the ice VERY HOT (as in my t-shirt was DRENCHING IN SWEAT!!!) and very DONE!!! (As in when I tried to put my blade guards on to step off the ice, I realized that I could BARELY lift my knee to bend to put the blade guards on... and instead of walking, I was "skating"/shuffling off ice.) GEEZ LOUISE!!! I made a decision right then and there that "I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE GYM for a workout -- I just GOT one!!!"

My personal trainer was in the middle of her lesson so she wasn't paying much attention... but the coaches at the penalty box where my secondary coach was SURE got a GOOD chuckle!!!

Interesting visitors I had at my rink today. Les and Ellen were at my rink. Apparently they're in to visit relatives but wanted to stop by to practice at YB!!! Too bad they've picked the WRONG DAY to come practice their pairs stuff. There were at least 15 people during my lesson (which is the latest FS morning session that they also got one.)

Then in the middle of my lesson, my old group lesson coach, Jordan Wilson, showed up! But not to practice this time (sadly I don't get to watch his triple axels) ... he had a young student there! But very happy to see him. At least NOW he can see that I got my FO 3turns!!! LOL!!! (The memory of him that sticks to me when he was teaching FO3 in my group lesson. We were all struggling. I told him that "he made it look easy!" He said "It *IS* EASY!!!" I said "Yeah, right!!! EASY for you! ")

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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!!!

This is a combo of the past two days

Hot and Done
-Moves are feeling pretty good. 8-step seems good in both directions. Clockwise has actually been easier for me. Forward cross rolls feel GREAT and my coach has been really pleased with them. They feel nice and easy, I have the rolling sensation, and get a good rip too.
-Doubles were nice and big. I couldn't actually LAND all of those because of my ankle, but they had really good lift, distance and timing. Coming down just hurt.
-Donut spins are getting more consistent

Give it another hour
-Took a lovely splat on a spiral. Toe-pick=>belly flop Hadn't done that in a long time. Lovely scrape on my hip bone from the bad ice.
-Living at the doctor lately. I just found out that I have a pinched nerve in my spine at the L5 level, so I'm having an MRI for that. Plus, I have to have an MRI of my right hip, because I'm still showing symptoms of a labral tear. And my ankles are totally messed up from my skates. I can't WAIT for my new boots. The ankles hurt most right now. They're tender to the touch, so just being in my skates hurts. My right ankle also hurts on the outside, so I'm actually taking it easy on the jumps. I'm focusing on using 2toes as the second jump of combos instead of 2loops--easier on my right ankle. I'm getting a little overwhelmed right now though.

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Youtube Videos

LUCKY YOU!!! School is out all week here and on Wednesday the rink was FULL and we had a waiting list to get onto freestyle ice! So my coach decided this was the perfect day to have me skating FASTER and threading through the other skaters to do kill drills (skate as fast as you can then do a loop jump at one end, land it, hold it for three counts, then skate as fast as you can to the other end and do a flip, land it, hold for three counts, then skate as fast as you can and do a jump (she calls the jump when I'm about midway down the rink starting with the third one). I thought I was going to kill someone... maybe me. But during the entire hour I only had one bout of interference from one kid who ran into me while I was spinning (I was even centered). She just wasn't paying attention. But I did have to abort several lutz attempts when one of the other kids decided he needed to wander all across one-third of the ice, looking for the perfect place to practice his camel... and would always seem to settle near the lutz corner! I told my coach I can hardly wait until the kids are back in school.. but she just laughed and said "Christmas vacation is less than a month away...."

This sounds really serious - why are you even skating??

Ugh, asked to work on Viennese Waltz on a day when all the kids were out of school & therefore at the rink! Bad idea--that dance is mostly backwards, and makes unexpected changes of direction, and has a very weird shaped pattern. Bottom line--I was in everyone's way, almost got killed once, and kept "half-skating" because I was trying to watch out for people behind me.

However, with all that, there have been some improvements, and my 2 forward outer edges are now actually edges--not deep enough but at least it's a start. That is one difficult dance, and I'm really interested to see everyone else doing it at AN! I have a feeling I'll be with lots of skated-as-child dancers, so don't expect to be anywhere near the podium. Still looking forward to it though!

Umm, yeah, what she said. Labral tears are nothing to mess around with! Be careful--you don't want to do even more damage to that hip that could make the rehab time even longer.

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

ibreakhearts66 - ouch!! Been there - ouch!!!

To injured - take tme to heal, the ice will be there wen you get back.

thawing: Looking at music for nats - working on matching up our strengths.

Done - having a great time trying things!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Hot and Done

last week I was thinking about giving up free skating as I was stuck in a rut and didn't seem to be progressing much.

This week I've really been enjoying it though. A good lesson on Tuesday followed by starting on a new programme this week. I really like my new music as it is a bit different (from a group which I first came across when they were busking outside the Pompidou centre in Paris - now they are getting well known but I've not heard anyone skating to their music yet)

The programme is really challenging with a few combination jumps that I really cannot do yet but that makes it more exciting. Even better, one of the newer skaters at our rink was very complimentary about it afterwards (even though I thought I did it pretty badly, as I was struggling to even remember what we had just made up - I guess it still looks good to a beginner!)

Probably finally deciding to put behind me the bad experiences with another skater at the rink has helped me feel better about skating too. In future I will just try and avoid contact with her and her 'toxic' personality.

Another hour - hmmmm - no, today was all good!

Oh, apart from going to pay and finding my water bottle had leaked all over the contents of my bag - urgghhhh!!!

I'm expecting the rink to really fill up-the good thing about skating in the daytime is the fact that most parents are still at work and not able to get their kids out and about. No way do I attend the night time sessions!!!!
Yeah, tears can become fully torn and then you are talking MAJOR REHAB if not surgery (and downtime).

I did skate with a pinched sciatic nerve last year (due to the herniated disc in my back) only to keep up my muscle tone...it was hard because my leg was totally numb.

Be careful and be sure you are fully warmed up AND don't push yourself as hard.

on another note:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

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

[Give it Another Hour]
I was in a horribly crabby mood yesterday which of course affected my lesson, which I feel horrible about...

Axels were crap....I feel as if I am never going to land that jump. I don't know if coach understands how extremely frustrated I am with it...which of course doesn't lend itself to a positive attitude about it, so it's this vicious circle...I'm sure she is frustrated too, I just don't know what else I can do

[Hot and Done]
Spins were quite good the last few days...of course, I get in my lesson and can't do a nice layback to save my life, but it's okay...I at least know I can do it....and coach did say that I have great position, it's just that I tend to drop my right shoulder....

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

I only skate morning sessions, too, since I work an overnight shift and then go directly to the rink. These were an 7:45-9:45 sessions that were crawling with kids. But again, they ARE back in school next week.. and I will be back to quiet ice I share with about 8 other people and we are all pretty much aware of each other. I admit it.. I'm spoiled with not many skaters on the ice most of the time.

I'm skating still because I have a test in ten days and, really, because none of my doctors have told me I have to stop. The doctor who did the EMG said my nerve isn't dying or anything like that, so I can keep training, but it might just take longer for my symptoms to go away. She figure skates, so she understands the mechanics of the sport more than most doctors. She did tell me to wear my crash pads more

The possibility of a labral tear is what has me really down. I had surgery a little less than a year ago to fix the torn labrum and reshape my socket, so I'm going to be really upset if there's another tear. I'm hoping that it's just leftover soreness from the surgery, but I guess I'll find out next week. I'm not sure he'll recommend surgery right away though. An MRI of my left hip also showed a torn labrum, but they decided to treat that with PT instead of surgery. Since the last surgery took care of the impingement that would make it hard for any labral tear to heal, hopefully surgery won't be the first step if I do indeed of a tear.

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Youtube Videos

If it makes you feel any better, I know EXACTLY how you feel about the axel. I spent years thinking I'd never land it, and now that I do, I know it's wrong, which is even more frustrating. The takeoff gets cheated and I've failed my Gold Free test twice because of it. It's times 1,000. I've so been there, still there, done that! It's so mental at this point. Anyways, my point is you're not alone!!

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