Wow, I was just cleaning up my harddisk and I found a video of my skating precisely 1 year ago. Talk about toeloops and salchows without getting off the ground, sheesh!
Makes me feel a little bit better about myself

Heartless:
Time for my LOOP to go on vacation! I can land them usually clean but no flow comes out of it. And my primary coach wants a loop-loop??? I just didn't want to jump after that...

Generous:
Of course, my primary coach made me do a flip after that... landed my first one clean and he says "That was a good flip. How come you can land that but not the loop?" I said, "Might be a lucky flip???" Primary coach goes then says "Try another then..." I did another nice clean one, came back and said "I guess I didn't make my case of lucky shot that well, huh?" He said "Not only THAT, but...you got to fix your arms on that last flip!!!" (Murphy's Law of Skating in action here!!!)

Camel spins are definitely improving. "It was pretty good... well good for you, anyway..." primary coach says!

Sit spin was low...

Heartless again:
...but now I have to turn out my free foot too!!!

Practiced my 3-turn entry from a standstill to a backspin.... it's not working today!!!

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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!!!

ugh, heartless - got up early to skate Rockefeller Center under the newly lit tree. When I got there, the zamboni was jammed up on some bit of rubble from the celebrations and there were all kinds of tassles and doodads frozen into the ice. No way they were getting it skateable before I'd be late for work, so no skating. Sniff. Tree was pretty though.

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It's all about the dress!

Generous:
Primary coach was pleased with program runthrough today, though I'd have to re-skate the loop and sitspin if this had been the test.
It was also not bad considering I had to skate this without the music!

Heartless:
Our friggin sound system is down again!! Just last week it was working to where I knew when my music would start and this week- shot again!
GRRRR!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Ahem....all Generous I skated today and had a lesson! It was great! Actually, I felt slightly wobbly at first because the ice was actually smoother than I have been used to, since I'd only been skating public sessions with crappy ice, and this was a freestyle session with only semi-crappy ice, LOL! But it was great. My coach was great, and we ran through all kinds of things, basic, but fun. My left ankle and foot have gotten so much stronger, I was able to hold a backward one foot glide on it and go perfectly straight, straighter than I could go on my right (never broken) foot! Just like before I broke my left ankle!

The best part: I did forward crossovers. Okay, so they were clunky (although the left over right ones were somewhat progressive-like), and they were halting, and I had a death-grip on my coach's hand (and he had a good grip on my hand and arm as well), and I was terrified, but I did them! So cool! I have really not stopped smiling since I got back on the ice.

Since today was my first day back at my regular rink, I got to see lots of people I hadn't seen in a while, and that was great, too. And in fact, when I walked up, my regular coach was standing outside talking with the guy who was my spinning coach before the broken ankle. Both of them gave me big hugs, which was sweet. And my regular coach couldn't get over how much stronger I am, and was commenting on how fast I was walking, and how I looked totally normal (he meant it as a compliment, LOL), and my balance was totally back. I also showed them how I can even jump up and down now, and he was commenting on the spring I had. It was all nice to hear, because sometimes the progress seems so slow, and it's good to be reminded of how far I've come!

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August 22, back on the ice!

SOOOOO glad to see that you're well beyond recovered from that broken ankle, Pat!!! SOOOOO glad!!!

Does this mean that if I have a NYC skating meetup this year that you might be able to join us too!!?!?! I know, long shot question... but given you did make it to Staten Island a couple of years back... This year's meetup will probably be at Aviator again...

4 more weeks 'til my visit to NYC!!! WOO HOO!!!

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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!!!

I haven't posted in a while because we finally moved into our new house and I haven't had time to skate until this week!

Heartless:
-My spins haven't been so fabulous. I really have not wanted to practice therm, either!
-Ran my program for the first time and I ended like 20 seconds too late. Hmmm...
-I think Intermediate moves are going to have to wait until after sectionals. Maybe I'll just start messing around with Novice so there's still a chance I can pass them both by the end of the summer.
-My spiral are hideous. I must stretch and work on them more!

Generous:
-Still landing the axel pretty consistently! Now it's just getting it into the program...
-I landed TWO double salchows that only had a 1/4 cheat. It won't be long now!
-I love my new music and footwork. I'm really working on slowing down and really skating everything well.

Congrats! I'm so happy for you!

I used a Elliptical machine yesterday for the first time in ages, skated this morning's coffee club for 1.5 hours, then taught a 1/2 group lesson this evening. My legs feel like the calf muscles have turned to stone.

Advil and Ben Gay for me tonight - which reminds me of something not so nice. This past spring, a young (17!) track runner died suddenly in her sleep. The coroner's office ruled that the death was caused by an overdose of muscle pain reliever. The girl had been using the rubs, the pads, and some other method (not stated) often. Very unusual, but thought I'd ask our skaters to be careful with this stuff and avoid methyl salicyte poisoning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19144600/

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Generous
Oh the joys of pretty much empty ice even though there is a competition this weekend, there was NO ONE at the rink...it was quite nice.

Ran through moves, and they were actually pretty good. Back double3s, power3s and brackets were all good. Power crossovers were also passable, although, I need to work on making sure they are not so loud Slide chasse pattern was okay as well, but I always mess up the last lobe...I think it's because it's so close to the end that I think I'm going to run out of room.

It was a good spin day Did some good scratch/back scratch, good camels, sits, and laybacks.
Did some big loops, flips, and lutzes...still need to work on the lutzes and getting them up to the quality of my other jumps...there is just something about it though...

Worked on axels a bit...still very close...I can't wait for the day when I can land that jump.

Measured myself today, and it appears that I have lost an inch off each of my thighs, and a few inches off my hips, waist, and chest I am so excited about that! However, I do need to start going to the gym in the mornings before work to work on my endurance and making sure I don't keel over in the middle of my program.

Heartless
Did a program run through on the empty ice (so that I wouldn't knock anyone out!)...it was very slow, and I was very late, but not too bad. I need to keep running through it to build up endurance. I should also try to make it to the gym...ugh...the gym (dang, I said that horrible word again!)! I am so not a fan! I need to also drill my footwork...I keep getting "stuck" on a bracket-bracket that's in there...I can do it, it's just that it takes me a while to get set for the second one.

Talked with my mom today...some days she is supportive of me skating again, however, on others....not so much...today was one of those other days...it's frustrating to try to share something that I love with her and she doesn't want to hear about it. Today she said somethings that made me believe that she thinks I'm too old to be skating And I, of course, believe that as long as I'm happy and able to skate, I will be on the ice!!

Heartless:
Infection creaping in to my skating. That is to say the infection that I'm fighting for the second week in a row has travelled down to my glands where my torso joins with my legs. LOL Not LOL , ... LOL After my skating lesson with my secondary coach (I have him on Thursdays), I went to do another full ice Change Edge spiral which is part of my spiral sequence only to find out painfully on the change edge that I couldn't do it because of the stupid infected gland. I was hunged over after that. LAMS (means=laughing at myself)

First attempt at salchow, I nearly kissed the ice because the infection has left my right foot and my foot isn't swollen anymore which means my foot is sloshing all over inside my boot.

Gernerous:

Didn't fall on the first attempt of my salchow today even though I just about touched the ice with both hands, was very deep in the skating knee and the other leg was way back but somehow I had the strength to fight falling and jumped up out of the wacky landing to save myself. I really thought I was going to kiss the ice with my head, I was so close to the ice. I was surprised but my coach was even more surprised that I pulled it out.

Forward Scratchspin (for us Canucks Corkscrew): Fast but not as fast as yesterday.

Sitspin was good for my coach but when I went to do it after lesson, somehow I got freaked that I couldn't see out of my glasses after 6 rotations and just stood up and didn't ride out the exit. Must either get new contacts or learn to close my mouth during sitspins so that I can see. LOL

Coach loved my spiral sequence which covers the whole ice but said that if I were to get even more speed going in, I could get around faster on the second part of my CE spiral so that I will hit my third position(LBI catch foot/beillman type spiral) in time with the music so that I would have the rhythem for my half flip/flip/toe combo which starts from the edge of my LBI spiral.

While working on my footwork which I'll be using for my connecting steps into my lutz, we played with different turns to see what would work the best with the music with what I felt comfortable doing.

Coach introduced me to counters and brackets. He makes them look easy. But I tried them at the boards to get a feel for them. They rip your butt and hips apart. He wants me practicing them at the boards all the way around the rink one foot at a time and then the other direction on the other. These babies are what made it imposible for me to do my CE spiral at the end of the session. My body is still feeling these.

By the way is it true counters and brackets are StarSkate Gold level?

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

HEARTLESS!!!! COLD BITTER COLD! OMFG was the rink COLD this morning!!! Outside it was -34C (with the wind-chill) and I swear it was colder inside! Couldn't get properly warmed up, couldn't be comfortably warm even with my winter coat over my skating jacket, over an insulated vest, over a t-shirt! By the time lesson started, 45 minutes into the session, I couldn't feel my toes. Now, an hour later, they are still tingling.

Generous: Worked on back cross-overs - started to catch on to those - maybe if it wasn't so friggin cold that my knees wouldn't bend, maybe I would have had them. Spins (wearing two coats = lots of extra mass) went on forever (for me).

With all that clothing, I sure wasn't afraid of falling LOL!

Generous: It don't get much worse than this, even in this part of the country.

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

Heartless:
Rusty Blades, I too froze on the ice this morning!! I went to another rink in the area and it was bitterly cold, so cold that I left the ice 10 minutes early because I still couldn't feel my feet after stroking!!

Generous:
While the rink was FREEZING at least they had a working sound system. I feel a lot more secure skating my test program when the beginning of it is audible.
Got ahead of the music during the first half of the program and this gave me time to set my sitspin up properly.

Two weeks to go until test day, people!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

I left work early yesterday so I could watch ds' lesson (oh, and since I was there anyway, figured *I* might as well skate too . . . ).

Heartless: I don't know where my spin went. I think now I am overanalyzing it . . . I may just go back to a 2 foot spin and start from scratch!! I am consistently rolling way too forward on my toepick. Can't seem to correct for that without falling out of the spin. grrrr.

Generous: but everything else went pretty well!! My whole family was on the ice and I got DH (in hockey skates no less) to go around the rink with me in killian position . . . fun fun!!!

Jumps - I'm really trying to jump UP and not sideways or whatever it is that I have been trying to do. the flip is so close I can TASTE it. (I'm still working on the exercise where you set up, pick in and jump without rotation . . . but it's getting really high and solid on the landing . . . exciting!).

DS' program is going to be neat! . . . he's skating to the Grinch theme song and there's a cool little swirly pivot to start, there's a stag jump and a kind of neat spin variation that his coach caught him fooling around with on public session and told him it was going in the program. It's just a forward scratch spin but instead of pushing his free leg down he grabs his blade and brings it all the way to his left side with his leg parallel . . .sort of like a donut, but not in the camel position, he's upright?? And LOTS of jumps . . . I saw a salchow-toe loop combo and a lutz so far and I'm sure there will be a flip in there somewhere too since that's ds' favorite (aka: highest) jump. Coach was trying to stick in a mazurka after the pivot which DID look cool but DS really REALLY doesn't like mazurkas so after much negotiation (aka: whining) they substituted a couple of bunny hops instead.

Coach's other student that has the lesson right after my son's is doing Frosty the Snowman and her routine is SUPER cute . . . right down to the "melting" at the end (flat on her back).

but sigh ::: but back to myself . . I just want to take off work for a few days and be at the rink nonstop so I can *get* the flip . . . so hard to build muscle memory when ice time is limited!!

Jazzpants - Yes he is moving to LA.

Generous-
Rhythm Blues should be testable in January.
Managed a decent change foot spin.

Heartless-
Still lamenting over loss of coach. Yes I will get over it one day. But not this year.
Forward squat spin is still awful.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

See?! Isn't video the best?! Sure, it is downright PAINFUL the first time you watch it, but without those videos, we wouldn't have any perspective on how much we actually do improve every year!

How's the ankle doing, BTW?

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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

Generous: My coach is back! My coach is back! My coach is back!!

Heartless: Oh no, she is back - now I have to start working again! We mostly did figures - I want to compete figures at Pacific Coast Sectionals - the figures I have to do are front serpentine - this will be no problem... And then there are the FI3-B03 - she wants me to do LFI3-RBO3 - that LFI 3 kills me but I think I can get it doable by March -- and the BO3 on my Right foot is much easier than my left, so we are working on all of that. Also tackled a bit of BI3s -- for the Silver Moves and also just for my skating....

Generous: the old hockey rink - it was cold, but at least they left the lights on for us - they like to "save money" by only turning on the lowerst of lights and we generally skate around going, "hello? Hello? where are you?" But today they left them on after hockey. Yea, yea, yea.

I also kind of decided to maybe try to put together an interpretive program for Coasts - I don't freestyle at all, but I could string together a bunch fo dance-stuff and make it work I think - like an "All-footwork" program (boring... I know!). Now I have to think about music - I am sure my coach will come up with something that I might not like...

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

Thanks, Jazz. Not sure about a Christmas NYC skating meetup. I'm actually already pretty booked, and I usually only skate about 40 or 50 minutes at a time. But, we'll see... Keep me posted!

Isk8NYC --Thanks!

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August 22, back on the ice!

Heartless:
What's almost worse than falling right on your butt? Jamming the middle of the front of your thigh into the large hook the doors in the boards latch onto!
Our sound system is controlled from a booth on the boards that has access only from outside the ice (smart, huh). The door opens out to allow more room inside. There was a group of kids in front of the partially opened door, and rather than shoo them away, I squeezed by and attempted to step into the booth, resulting in a very painful collision with said hook. The worst is that the darn bruise is right where my shoulder bag hits if it swings forward (which it does a lot), and right where the heavy radio I have to carry most days, bangs into my thigh from my jacket pocket (yup, the jacket is huge). It also takes a hit when I close kitchen drawers with my thigh, which is a habit that I've just about broken.

Got on the ice before my lesson, and could do almost nothing - not even a two foot spin! Then I remembered to suck in the belly, and spins happened...duh!

Generous:
My CW FXO's have been much better than my CW's ever since I practiced them more learning them, because they were harder for me. Yesterday, I suddenly realized why. I'd been assuming that it was the crossing foot that was the problem, but it's the under foot. I haven't been pushing all the way through or supinating my ankle enough! Showed coach, and she agreed and had me slow down the FXO's to practice. I think they will finally become as smooth and fear-free as my CW's.

Great progress in FO threes today. For the first time, I experienced the initiation of the turn by just a small forward movement of the leading shoulder.
If everything is right, then you cannot keep from turning when you push that shoulder. Duh! This is one of those things that simply does not exist on quad skates, and shows me that if I hadn't had that roller training when I was young, I would be super klutz on the ice now.

Butt is feeling much better, and what I thought might be bursitis starting, has eased up. DD is walking without the Air Cast now, and ankle is much, much better. She thinks she may be back on the ice by Monday, but I'm going to encourage her to take more time.

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Heartless:
All heartless. I'm not back on the ice yet with my busy work & school schedule. I'm still trying to balance a life (as if I have any) without skating.
Fooled around with FO mohawks and ina bauer, which are not going anywhere.


Generous:
The weather is finally cold enough in here and the outdoor rinks are running. May take a trip down to skate under the xmas lights!

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Reach out for the sunshine ~*

Heartless: I have been battling a nasty back strain for the past month, and it has come back with a vengeance - probably due to having my skates sharpened, and making everything "stickier" on the ice. No more jumping or spinning for me for while now. At least the chiropractor didn't tell me to stop skating altogether. Pain stinks!

Generous: I have been working on Gold moves for a year and a half, and my coach has never mentioned actually testing them until now. I was so proud of myself when she said, "When you feel like testing these, let me know, and I will look into test dates". Usually her comment is: "That needs a lot of work!"

No, actually, the first time I watched that video I was pretty proud of just "doing" jumps and pointing toes and looking up on 3-turns and mohawks.

Ankle: Not good.

Worst part: this puts a real dent in my plants to compete at a jump-free artistic skate in the new year (well I suppose I could but I won't risk it, way too expensive to go with a programme that isn't ready - at least for perfectionist little me.) AND in my plans to go skiing indoor for a week in january with mom.
You know it's funny. I laid out cards last year on Russian new year's eve (mid of january, it's a very traditional thing to predict future on that night - even Pushkin wrote about it in his works) asking what skating would be like for the next few years for me, and the answer for this season was "nonexistant". At first I was like, yeah right, like *anybody* is gonna keep me from skating, but I'm beginning to realise the cards were right. The answer for next season by the way was something like "focus on metals" - I'm gonna guess the interbrons MIF, freestyle and maybe brons MIF? (as in, bronze is a metal). Or, I could just get new blades, LOL!

Heartless:

Axels just weren't happening last night.

No lesson last night because of the competition, and then I found out yesterday that an event for work that was scheduled for December 14th at 7:30pm got rescheduled for 7:00pm, which means that I won't have a lesson that night either. ugh! I really hate it when work gets in the way of what I would really be doing! And unrelated to skating, I have 18 evaluations of staff members to write this weekend that are each 7-8 pages long And of course, I'm procrastinating...

Generous:

Maybe, dare I speak to quickly, I have the scratch/back scratch...
Did my program, it was better than it was on Thursday While I didn't complete the footwork sequence, and I didn't land the flip, and the spins weren't the best, but dang it, I got through it! I still need to work on it a bit more to get it polished, but, it's a start! And, coach wants to add more once I can get it up to speed.

My skate was extremely weird today....

Heartless:

Well, I lost my axel last week...its coming back...SLOWLY....but my coach told me that axel is the only jump you REALLY lose...the rest might not be as good as usual on one day or another, but you don't actually lose your ability to do it, like the fricken axel!!! Oh well....

I'm testing my American next week...for the 5th time, might I add...ahh...anyone have any tips on how NOT to freak out and get nervous for test day? lol

Generous:

My double salchow was pretty good today and I fixed my double loop! I can't land it but I fixed my entry to it so I don't go flying to my butt every time anymore

My dance coach also complimented my dance this mornign..and he's pretty harsh...but he said that it looked really powerful when I was doing it with my partner and he was so overwhelmed by how agressive both our edges were that he forgot to watch for mistakes I guess that'sa good thing? lol

Heartless: it was C-O-L-D in the rink this morning!!!! BRRRR!!! I estimate it was about 15 degrees colder than normal because of a hockey tournament coming up soon.....I hate when they do that! Which meant I really needed the under armour top that I left at home!!!

Generous: salchows from 3-turns, mohawks, and back crossovers; CHECK! Show rehearsal was good as well!

Heartless: forward crossovers are still scary because my left leg is weak and it was cramping because of the cold today. And I had a hard time backspinning. And Scratchspinning....

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

Heartless

I have six inches of rock hard ice on my driveway, and I got stuck. I had a show meeting after skating today so I made sure I brought everything. Got to the rink at the time my class was supposed to begin and I FORGOT MY FREAKEN SKATES!! I just about cried. Not only did I have a group class, I've been sick and this was going to be the first time I could practice our adult group number for the holiday show in two weeks. I was ready to say, forget it, I can't be in the show and everyone was like "no, it's easy" and they had me stand at the boards and watch them practice while the coach talked me through it. And we will have a practice this friday.

Really ticks me off though - Sunday ice is expensive (and it's contract ice so it's paid for whether I use it or not) plus the cost of the lesson and I missed last week due to being sick. UGH!