May 2009

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72944
2009-05-04 11:39:00
2009-05-04 16:39:52
Waste of a Trip
Thankfully it's a short trip to the rink. Today the ice was so bad it was like skating on a pond. Seriously. Tough, brittle ice with giant ruts, and huge bumps. YUCK. I asked if they had a zamboni schedule they use during public (10-6) and he said they zamboni when public is done, or after a large group. So apparently that's what the ice is like. After a few laps. I did 5 backspin attempts (they were okay), a few scratch spins (they traveled horribly), then just did edges on a line. I was scared to try anything else and went home after 10 minutes.
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73137
2009-05-12 20:06:00
2009-05-13 01:06:44
New blog, but skating will stay here (for now)
My new blog is skittl1321.blogspot.com I'm not going to use my Skittl1321 livejournal anymore. Out of college, it just isn't the style journal/blog I want. For now, skating will just get cross posted to here too. I know more than a couple people follow this blog. Would you still read it if the rest of my life was intertwined? So tonight's lesson went really well. I pulled something in my knee while trying to stretch my hip flexors in case we did spirals, so the beginning of the night was tough with the stress of taking off and landing on that knee. Yep, loops. But these weren't regular loops, we were doing waltz-loop. Mine are getting better, but I still only occasionally get a landing on the loop that will allow a held landing position. Still for more than one Andy shouted across the ice (because he was working with someone else) that I did well. That NEVER happens to me. I was so happy. Then we moved onto toe loops and I've managed to get my toe pick about even with the edge of the tracing (needs to be before the tracing ends, used to be 2 feet away in horrible toe waltz form). When we did the one at a time thing, the comments on mine were "it was what it was supposed to be"- which isn't quite true, but pretty exciting. Back to one on one Andy said I was looking sluggish, so he tried to get me to count a faster jump and that resulted in some bad toe waltzing again. I just do not get how that pivot works, and if I don't stay on the ice for an hour waiting to pivot before I jump I toe waltz bad. :( Last we did half loops. I never remember what these are. I once again got great compliments on mine, but I don't feel like I'm jumping at all. It's more like stepping to the other foot. Still, Andy said I was doing what I was supposed to.
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73318
2009-05-13 21:22:00
2009-05-14 02:22:12
Wednesday Freestyle
I only skated about 40 minutes today because I'm still a little worried about my knee from yesterday. Since I'm going to Detroit, and it's looking to be the only highlight of my life this summer, I don't want to be injured when the time comes to go! I did a bit of moves (even 8 step mohawk) and I have a long way to go to get to passing. On the 3-turns in the field, I'm having more trouble with the forward turns than the backward ones- only because I'm so scared of turning over my left shoulder. For some reason, going backwards, it's a non-issue. I hope it stays that way. My BO turns are retrograding. It feels like a really good, strong edge, but really it's cutting the lobe to a weird shape. My BI 3s are getting better, but the lobe is tiny, and the speed is non-existant. My 8-step mohawk on my bad side is HORRIBLE. Out of 10 tries, I only did the mohawk (at a snails pace to begin with) 2 times without practically skidding to a stop before going into it. Based on pictures I have on the computer, my spirals were better when I was in LTS than they are now. :( My forward cross rolls felt good, and the backwards ones are okay- but my lobe is only like 3/4 of a lobe. Should the tracing actually be a full semi-circle? Power pulls do not gain speed, but none of them lose speed anymore either. I think that's a big plus. I can't do the whole rink on my left side, but technically, you don't have to. I did some spins- sit spins, scratch spins, backspins. No camels. My backspins are weak. My sit spins are starting to feel really good- I need to get the camera out there. I don't know what to say about my scratch spins. I'm not spinning as fast or as long as a year ago, and I'm not centering as often either. I did one spin today with an incredible center- impossible to tell the number of revolutions from the tracing because they were all right on top of them. But then I did 5 or 6 that traveled more than my height... ugh I also jumped out of my own free will. I'm very proud of myself for that. I did some waltz jumps, waltz-toe, salchows, half lutzes, and toe loops. None were good, but hey- at least I was jumping. I didn't do loop (except in my program) because I'm worried about my knee. I ran my program without music twice. The first time it took me 3 minutes, but I stopped to yield three times or so. The second time it took me a bit over 2 minutes. I need to figure out how to jump fast. My program is only 1:50- more than two minutes isn't going to work! In program, I have no backspin. I faked it okay the second time, but it was a pretty big failure the first time. I got bad news today and did not get the job I just had the second interview for. With that news, I'm officially not going to be doing lessons for quite some time (I haven't been doing them for about a month- my coach has been doing 10 minutes each week with me because she's nice). I'm joining the freestyle class on Saturday (probably Freestyle 1 with Carson, but maybe "high" freestyle if Burton doesn't have too many people in his class- Freestyle 1 is fine I need waltz jump, toe loop, scratch spin help. It's just all the time doing the stupid edges that is annoying. High freestyle with Burton when it's really crowded is too much not skating for me)
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73678
2009-05-17 13:19:00
2009-05-17 18:19:07
Saturday skating
I went skating yesterday, and skated about 30-40 minutes of freestyle, did a 30 minute Freestyle 1 lesson, and then helped with Snowplow Sam. Freestyle session went well, but my knees and arm have been bothering me so I didn't skate the entire session. After having a lot of success in lessons with my sit spin I taped it (video on youtube user name: Skittl1321. There is an old one up there too, so check the date). Well, I'm not sitting. Grrr... I think I AM a little lower than the old video, and the major plus is that I'm getting 5-6 revolutions most of the time, and at least 4 every try. Four used to be a stretch. I'm also not wrapping my leg, so that's a bad habit avoided. I practiced all my MITF and I think power pulls are improving. The fronts are better than the back now. My toe picks drag too much on the back. I still don't pick up speed, but I can make it the full rink on my right side, and half on my left without losing speed. 8 step mohawk still scares the crud out of me. I practiced my program a few times, without music, and it, like Wednesday (did I post from then?) is taking about 20 seconds longer than I have music. I have GOT to jump. But it's so scary going fast. I did a few camels, and even a few camel-sit. Except that's more camel-crouch with leg in front, because there is even less sit then when I do a sit spin on its own. My camel is only at about 2 revolutions, so it is nothing to write home about. Freestyle 1 lesson was with Carson. There are TONS of kids in "high" freestyle and seem to range from Basic 7- Freestyle 4, so I skip that one. (It's really just an extension of the specialty class which is really just a group lesson for all of one coaches private kids). But I still have enough I need to improve on that Freestyle 1 isn't really boring. And go figure I had all kinds of problems with my LBO3. I kept taping down, and that never happens on outside. But I was trying to do it on the hockey goal circle, and center it, and I couldn't get enough speed to get to the end. Maybe I was weeny- pushing so because the lobe is much smaller than I've been used to practicing on. Carson told me that my hips and shoulders are fighting each other and that's part of my rotation problems. On crossovers he also corrected my shoulders- I need to pull them back. It hurts so badly to do that. My shoulders naturally roll forward, and it's harder than anything in skating to get them to roll back. Waltz jump I wasn't holding a strong landing position, but he said the jump was fine. I need to tape that again. I wonder if I'm actually jumping now?
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73808
2009-05-19 19:14:00
2009-05-20 00:14:54
footwork, jumps and spins
We started our group lesson today with footwork. The first thing we did were loops. On my salchow side- I actually did okay. On the other side- it took me forever to even figure out how to move my free leg, we won't talk about that. Now, if I was a yeti, I would have loops nailed. They were about 2 feet across, and perfect. I actually did a few that were really good and 1.5 size my blade. I was pretty impressed with myself, but that final power pull really kills me. I get stuck at the end of the loop. Then we did choctaws. Man are those impossible. The concept of being on the outside edge then switching to the inside edge is so easy. Then you have that restriction of having to keep the foot behind you (we were doing BO to FI). Man it's impossible. Thankfully, I have at least 20 years until junior moves... I think I might have done 1 at pretty much no speed. Then we moved to jumps. We were working on half loops. Trying to do them from back crossovers I get so stuck into the ice, I just cannot jump. I wish I could spin like a normal person so I'd jump off my right leg. (Andy tells me the reason I get stuck is my normal loop relies totally on my upper body to get off the ice. Well yeah- I have no muscle in my left leg.) So then we switched the half loop to a 3 turn entry and it actually went pretty well. -- note: when I describe doing jumps well, imagine a manatee in ice skates jumping. I jump about an inch higher than that (Kevin has just laughed at me and said no I don't, I don't even jump an inch. I don't think that's true.)--- So a half loop is just such a stupid jump, but Andy was explaining that it's really useful in footwork or jump sequences, so I did toe loop - half loop- salchow. At first I was so confused. My brain was not working. It turns out it was because I was just not thinking- I know that when I do waltz jump- loop I have to land with my foot in front. SAME THING HERE. The toe loop can't go to landing position. Once I started landing with the foot in front it went much better. I kind of run out of steam and land my salchow not moving, but still very excited about this development. Last we did camel spins. Apparently I'm laying convex instead of concave (so I'm laying on the wrong side of the circus ball...) But I think I'm spinning okay, and i can feel it getting better from recently. I think it's not as good as it was last year, but I haven't worked on it in ages because I've been working on my sit spin. I just want some well rounded spins by Detroit so I don't embarass myself. No ice saturday, but I'll skate tomorrow.
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74062
2009-05-20 17:21:00
2009-05-20 22:21:31
always injured
Left ankle really hurting. Pretty much limits everything I do in skating. That's why I left ballet. Why can't I be right handed when I skate? I'm so right dominant. It doesn't make sense. Started with left over right fwd crossovers. Those never get practiced and so will never get better. Then did a few circles of inside mohawks and a few circles of outside mohawks. One side of FO mohawks is getting better, I swear the other side is not only getting scarier, but also worse. Did 1 beautiful, centered, fast scratch spin and 5 lousy travel to Europe ones (hmm. I could go to Mountain cup... must travel further on spins) Did 3 or 4 really nice backspins. Tracings nice circles and not twizzles. Wonder if I'm getting onto my outside instead of the flat, or if this means I'm doing the dreaded flip to inside. Tried a few camels. 1 felt good, but who knows. My head is up too high, so I'm sure my shoulders are too. Did waltz jumps, toe loops, salchows. Tried to do loops, and realized the nagging ankle was nagging louder. Tried to do 3-turns, and the ankle started yelling at me at the LBO ones. Came home.
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74258
2009-05-27 09:54:00
2009-05-27 14:54:40
:(
LTS last night was just not good. It's because we started with those stupid FI mohawk BO spiral sequence again. On my strong spiral side, I can't do the mohawk. On the side I can do the mohawk my hip flexor hurts so badly if I even try to get my leg close to my hip. (Oddly enough, if I'm not on an edge, it's not nearly as painful). It's not my leg flexibility, it's my hip flexor and the combination of bringing my leg up and upper body down. I can pull my leg up on my maxiflex and not have the same pain. Anyway I hate doing this combination so much it makes me want to stop skating altogether. Then we did sit spins and I'm digging my toe in too much during the entrance, but otherwise they are looking pretty okay. Then we moved onto loop and I'm landing on my toe now but pretty much landing at a stand still... Then we did waltz jump- falling leaf- 3 turn (which others did as toe loop, but Courtney, who subbed for Andy, told me not to yet.) My god what is it with these stupid half jumps? Falling leaf seems even dumber than half loop. It's not a jump. Ugh. Oddly enough, I do it okayish. Courtney is giving me a lesson tonight. I felt really bad when she asked yesterday if I was taking one tomorrow. I told her I just cannot afford to take lessons right now. I have no job prospects in site. It's irresponsible for me to spend money to skate (especially since I AM going to Detroit- although between my parents and credit card rewards points, it shouldn't cost that much). But she told me she is there anyway so she thinks we should go ahead and do it. Sigh.. I still feel bad.
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