Snappy:
Little kids at the rink again. They didn't get in my way so much, but one of my rink buddies is practicing her new jumps (she just started taking privates with our coach) and for a while, pretty much EVERY time she'd set up for a jump, she'd be about ready to go and then some kid would skate in her way and she'd have to abort. I'm surprised steam didn't come out of her ears!! I would lovelovelove if they would have an adults-only session.

F 3-turns sorta meh. B 3-turns still pretty much suck (for some reason it feels to me that on backward 3-turns, I have to rock a lot further back on my heel than I have to rock forward on forward 3-turns. It feels a lot more unstable, and sometimes I don't get all the way around because I rock back too soon and scrape my blade, just because I feel somewhat unbalanced having my weight on my heel that much. I should make somebody watch me closely some time while I do it...I feel like my toe comes way up off the ice!) And I didn't much feel like working on them this time, I admit.

Tried a few spirals but it just wasn't easy...too many people. I could find enough space to DO a spiral, but not necessarily enough space to speed up enough to make a spiral worthwhile. And besides, the last thing I need is to spend the rest of my life in jail because I beheaded some kid with my toe pick...

Happy:
Spins still a TINY TEENY ITSY bit improved. Barely noticeable. If you don't know me, they still look ridiculously pathetic. But I notice. I am actually thinking of seeing if I can pick up a private lesson with my coach at some point to see if she can do anything for me. But I'm not sure if she'd give me just one lesson without actually signing up to do them regularly, and I just can't afford to do them more than every once in a GREAT while if I need extra help with something. And I'm not sure if I should even be having any sort of private lessons at this point, being as I'm still really only around Basic 5 level right now. But I know one of the Basic 5 skills is a one-foot spin, something like 3 revs, and I just can't get 3 revs. 1.5 maybe on if the stars line up right... And if I'm not "getting" it on my own, maybe I need to have a coach take a look and see if she maybe can see what I'm doing wrong, or give me pointers.

I tried working on mohawks, and I think I'm starting to maybe "get" it a little bit. They're nowhere near adequate, but I'm starting to get the idea. Yay!

Backward crossovers seem to still be improving a bit as well too. However, it's hard to practice on public sessions, because it still makes me nervous with all those people, that A. I'm a bit inept still and B. I can't see all of where I'm going--I look over my shoulder, yes, but that means I only can see what's going on over that shoulder, so if I hear someone coming from in front of me or the side I can't see, I get nervous because I don't know if they're some bumbling kid who's about to run into me, or not. I live in fear that some kid will zoom into my way and I'm not "with it" enough to be able to stop in time or avoid them (mostly I'm pretty in control but if I get too nervous about running into someone, I start stumbling)...and a backward fall like that would probably be pretty nasty. I am just not comfortable enough with skating backward to trust that I'll be able to avoid people, because it's hard to see where I'm going.

Happy I skated. I didn't fall down. I'm regaining confidence in my turns. the RFO is still terrifying due to the ligament weakness after The Fall. It may never heal. I'm regaining control on my inside and outside edges.

Snappy I didn't think it would take this long to regain my skating skills after being off the ice for 5 months. I don't think skating everyday would help as the ankle can just take so much.


Very Snappy My new rink is cutting back from 37 freestyle sessions a week to 27. Not that I'm on freestyle, but that means fewer coaches to pick from, and weaker figure skating programs. The annoying thing is that I think that they could have successful freestyles on the weekends if they did them at 7 am. I miss my old rink. They could open up with one person. This rink seems to need about 4 and that really shades their costs.

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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

Happy
I finally got up the courage to try the Y spiral position I have been aspiring to for the past several months. . . and managed to do it! The position I was doing before was acceptable, but now I'm actually holding the foot of the free leg at the heel like THIS, which was my goal! Yay!

Snappy (is that bad?)
The air in the rink was dry and cold today and made it a little hard to get through my program. Is this the start of inhaler season?

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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

Haven't posted in a while, as I was skating very sporadically for the last few months due to schedule conflicts and health issues. But I'm back on the ice, and after two weeks it is starting to not be so excruciating.

I am happy with my progress getting back my skills, and I am also thrilled to report doing a 2 rev backspin for the first time with circles instead of 3 turns! yay! now to move it up to 3 revs...

Not snappy about much, just happy to be back on the ice.