Skating (!) and Rowing

I skated! Twice!

You're shocked, I'm sure.   This post is long, so I used headers. Read what you are interested in :)

Saturday:

Saturday I went to freestyle ice and had a lesson with Carson and then LTS with Hannah.

Everything went well- I was spinning really well during the lesson, even eeked out a few revolutions on the camel.  We only got to the Canasta Tango and Rhythm Blues for dance, but those are feeling a lot better.   I won't be testing these until April, so I think we might start on the next 3 dances.  April is a long time to go on the first three, although once we get closer we will drop the next 3, as I don't want to test on contingency.  Unlike better skaters, I'm quite apt to do something stupid like catch a toe-pick and fail the Dutch Waltz…

LTS with Hannah was fine.  She still doesn't have a lot to say for corrections, but it does force me to practice elements I wouldn't necessarily do on my own.  Plus she really hates scratchy waltz jumps (Carson only picks on my salchow for some reason) so I am forced to focus on fixing that.

LTS ice drama:

LTS was, however, ice rink space battle ground again.  The Burton-Carson war had finally been settled, and Burton, Carson, and Carlos were all given a third of the ice.  This system seems to be working.  (Hannah gets Carson's Axel Plus ice until his kids come on, but they do off ice first.  For the last 5 minutes of our class, we go off behind the hockey goal to do spins in place.)  Well, Sergei apparently decided he wanted to teach his own student in axel plus, and not have Carson do it.  So Sergei now has a student out on the ice.  And he decided she should do the 30 minutes in the harness.  The harness which takes up half of Burton's ice!   Burton's class is huge, and they were using 1/6 of the ice for a freestyle class.  Not okay!  Finally, Burton asked Hannah to switch with him (because there are only 2 of us), and that was fine- it did crowd Carson's axel plus class, but they just set up through Carlos's space, and he seemed okay with that.  But using the harness in the middle of a crowded group lesson- it makes no sense.

Monday:

On Monday I skated again, with JSM from SkatingForums.  It is always fun to meet someone from online.  This is the second time she's been at our rink.  I don't usually skate public sessions, but this one wasn't too bad. I was spinning pretty well (kind of travely), was able to jump, and able to dance a bit.  Near the end it got a lot more crowded (with a few speed skaters!) and the dances became quite scary- not sure how AgnesNitt does it, since I think she is always on publics.  I think I'll stick to freestyle!

Rowing:

On Sunday I rowed again.  This time, there were only 2 of us at practice, so I rowed a recreational single- though not the big tub one, but the skinnier one.  It had pontoons on it for stability, but I removed them. That seems like cheating, besides which, balance isn't really my problem. My problem: stamina.  Holy crap.  This was HARD.  I never realized how much work the other person does in the double, even if I actually row twice as fast in it. I was slow as a snail and dying!  I'm really a little confused by it- because the practices are all the same length, the double goes much faster, but in the single I rowed the furthest I ever have.  Maybe the boats get into the water quicker with fewer people, so it was more on the water time? But I went from the Boathouse to Crandic Park, Crandic Park to Hancher, and then back to the Boathouse.  Which means nothing to those outside of Iowa City.

Always injured drama:

And here is the problem: I'm getting nerve pain in my elbows.  When I bend my arms, it HURTS.  I've had this happen before and was tested for a trapped nerve. I was told the nerve conduction tests/emg would be fine, because I wouldn't feel anything. I didn't have a trapped nerve. What I had was a spinal cord injury, which I knew about.  The solution- don't bend your arms.  It eventually went away.  So I don't know what to do.  It doesn't hurt at all during rowing, but is really aggravated outside of rowing, and it has to be rowing that is doing it, because nothing else is new.  Not to mention yesterday my left wrist was killing me, and that is clearly from feathering the blades.  I really want to like rowing (even though it is getting harder! OMG what a workout) but I don't want new problems. I paid for two months, so I guess I will re-evaluate then.