10-10-2007

9:50p
Tuesday
Just a small little thing that made me smile yesterday:
After group lessons I skated for about 15 minutes on public ice with a girl who did a make up freestyle lesson, and is in my edge class. We did a "follow the leader" sort of show and tell. I'd do a move, then she'd do it. Then she'd do one and I would. It was really fun to play this game with her. (Especially when she was impressed with my spin- as we are technically the same level.) After we did this for a 15 minutes or so I told her I needed to work on backward lunges- and she told me she had never done one. I said, me neither- but I need to for synchro. Then she was impressed I did synchro- and I said "yes, I'm on the adult synchro team." At which point she looks at me and said "But you're not an adult. Can teenagers not be on the kid's team." I told her I was 25. "You don't skate like an adult, you skate like a kid." That made me laugh. Although they have had teenagers on the adult team in the past, I am firmly into the age of "adult". I hope she'll still feel comfortable skating with me now that she "knows."

LTS was a bit crazy- two of the instructors were missing due to regionals. Burton and I combined classes, and I helped him while he played games with our classes. Then I taught parent/tot- which was so nerve wracking but I got a great compliment from a parent afterwards, she said I was great with the kids and it was a fun class. The regular teacher is amazing, so it was a tough spot to fill- and the added nerve of having the parents right there to watch what you are doing! Then my group lesson Andy was gone, so Burton taught. He told me I'd improved my speed going into jumps, which is a plus. We jumped the entire class, my wrong side half flip is getting better, which is good. I need it for synchro. My left leg really hurt after all that jumping.

Just skated another 20 minutes. Ran through scratch spins (not at all centered, but all crossed), attitude spins (I want a tape of this, I'm worried it looks really ugly- but I'm spinning still after changing positions, so that's a plus), and sit spins (also want a tape). Hmmmm... I seemed to have skipped camels. LOL.

Then I did about 10 backward lunges, until my leg couldn't take it anymore. I never actually got down. This is going to be HARD. I did about two minutes of moonwalking (getting better, but slow) and left the ice.
(Comment on this)
9:51p
Wednesday
I switched my lesson from club ice to freestyle, because club has been so crowded- plus I don't have to pay for freestyle.

This was NOT the week to do that!

Club and Freestyle had about the same number of people at them, but freestyle was SCARY. Our "regular" kids have doubles- but they are small, and two or three of the kids move FAST FAST, but most are just sort of fast, and it's not really that threatening. Well, regionals is in Cedar Rapids. Coralville is only 30 minutes from there- and our only 3-people there last week freestyle turned into a practice session. I talked to three girls who were juniors, two intermediate, one pre-juv, and then there were quite a few more who were there practicing for regionals. Everyone had BIG FAST cover the ice doubles. There were LOTS of triples. One girl was doing triple triples. Backward spirals that covered the entire ice, camels that spun faster than I've scene, double axels. Lots of double lutzes, which are the hardest to get out of the way of for me. Needless to say it was difficult to do my lesson. I practiced after my lesson for about 10 minutes on spins- but my spins were so bad it didn't make sense to keep trying them. I wasn't going to try to jump in that circus. (See locked entry)

My leg is still hurting today. Based on where I said it was, Burton was wondering if it's from my boot hitting my leg, rather than being a hairline fracture. I went and got some makeup pads and put it so the diameter was at the edge of my boot, half the pad below, half above. I don't remember the pain being horrible during synchro, but it doesn hurt now. But I don't jump too much in synchro, and when I was doing half flips, it was hurting. So hopefully this will help, if I do it from the get-go, rather than skating 40 minutes to get it to hurt, then padding it.

Synchro went okay. We had lots of girls not there again, and I think it's starting to frustrate the coach. I can moonwalk now, but the footwork goes so fast, I can't then. (And moonwalking KILLS my feet. It's like all the movement comes from under the arch, which then DIES) I still can't do the mohawk at speed, and don't come close to the backwards lunge. Most everything else I can do, but I'm definetly the weakest or closest to the weakest link. It's a bit frustrating, and I wonder if the team is too far ahead of me, for me to really belong on it, but then I remember if the other girls keep not showing up, then we barely have enough for a team- so I guess it's okay that I'm there.