Thursday, May 28, 2015

Day 2 This Week - (And it's Thursday)

This week I only skated Tuesday and Thursday.  That means 1 of 2 things.

1.  I was busy
2.  I am losing interest


Happy to report I am NOT losing interest.  Frustrated?  Absolutely.  And there are days I dread going to the rink in anticipation of more disappointment.

All my skating friends are sick of hearing me talk about this and how I am preparing for the inevitable end of my figure skating days when I switch to dance and figures.  I still think it's a valid plan to stay on the ice, but I really wouldn't want to dance without a partner.  Prospects are slim!

Anyway, here's Thursday's short 10 minute practice prior to our rehearsal for our show coming up next month.  The number looks pretty sad 5 weeks into rehearsal.  Hopefully it will come together before Jun 19th!



Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Oh Where Oh Where Has My Stamina Gone?

Oh where or where can it be?

Short practice today due to A) Stamina (lack thereof)
                                            B) Wild Hockey Players
                                            C) Total Skating Frustration
                                            D) All of the Above

Answer:                               D



Monday, May 18, 2015

Drinking and Skating Don't Mix ...

... Just ask Lexi from Ice Castles, right?

Hubby came home from a trip yesterday and we went to our local winery for Sunday night wine and dancing.  It's quite fun, but too much wine really hurts in the morning.  After a hearty breakfast and soak in the hot tub - I headed to the rink.  Determined to skate, but not feeling my best.

Once on the ice I had issues #1 from my reinforced left boot... which makes my navicular bone in my foot sore.  I didn't want to stroke hard or try to jump until they loosened up.

So I spent the first 20 minutes doing compulsory figures from the Preliminary Test without my scribe. I didn't capture those on video.  Then I worked on a full set of Gold MIF, mistakes and all and as the bewitching hour approached when it was time for my lesson, I did a little FS warm up and a few jumps and spins.

In my lesson, we focused on the required spin elements for the Silver FS test.  A camel spin and a combination spin which I am doing just a sit spin combined with a scratch spin at the end of my program.  This is going to be a bare bones test program.

Coach Berkley helped a lot today in fixing my Camel spin.  My sit spin is ok, it just needs to be a bit lower and it needs more revolutions and I need to transition quicker into it and especially out of it... I really have to grunt my way back up.

Next we worked on my first jump in my program, the Lutz.  We started at the wall and that really helped too.  I need more distance in all my jumps.  I tend to jump around instead of projecting the jump forward.

Moving on we touched on the 2nd jump a Spiral into Loop Jump from my program.  Again, needing to jump forward more.

Turned out to be a good day despite not feeling so hot!  Next Sunday I think I will skip the wine!


Friday, May 8, 2015

Hiatus #1 - Anniversary Trip

I'm back from my first trip.  Had a lovely 4 days with hubby playing golf, wine tasting and bike riding in Lake Chelan, WA.  Returned home, had to prep for a golf tournament and monthly meeting for which I am serving as President .. and I signed up to skate in our club's ice show June 19, 20 so I had rehearsal on Thursday taking up all my ice time.

What was left was a public session today.  I even canceled my lesson with my choreographer to help me with my test program for July 9 (yikes) because I was too tired to skate 2x in one day.

Today I ran through all my GOLD MIF.  You won't see much progress, but I did them in real time by request from a reader.  Ha!  I have readers!




Later on - I worked on my program and it's missing elements.  I didn't throw any Lutz jumps today .. I didn't feel secure.  Still suffering from the boot problem following my "strengthening".  I seem to have completely lost my Camel spin... and a few other things.


A Mid-Summers Day Lesson

 Home for a couple of days before a trip to Cabo ~  Grabbed an impromptu lesson with Vitali.  Had rubber legs for the first 30 minutes but t...