Adult Figure Skating

...that I haven't posted about going back to skating.  This is because, at just the moment I was planning to go back, I found out that my precious Iceland had broken.  Actually it was their entire cooling system that finally gave up the ghost (it was ancient) and they are spending the summer rebuilding it. 

Iceland is supposed to open again in August, but I suppose it will be all hockey until September.  This has always been the case in the past.

It's a shame because for the first time in months I felt like skating today...

I'm absolutely disgusted at having to take down my Guestbook page because of some asshole spammer.  These people need to be banned from all humanity.  I just wish there were a way to do it.

I have not resumed skating yet; however, in the past few weeks I've realized that my knee is now completely healed.  I had become so used to favoring it that it's hard to stop doing so.

I'll try to get back to skating next week.

I don't know yet, but I could be off the ice for a long time with a knee injury.  It didn't happen while skating, it happened in a classroom -- I was taking a class for my job, and during the class stood up and found that my purse's strap had wound around my legs, and down I went.

This was over a week ago, and the knee is really not much better.  So I'm going to the doc on Monday.

Today I decided to wear my compeition dress to the rink.  It's just been hanging in the damn closet for 3 years, anyway, I thought what the heck.   It's a bit tight, and I may just use it as a practice dress now and then.  I never did get around to putting rhinestones on it, so it doesn't look that ridiculous.

I did start working on my program.  I have it all written out on paper, just have to fill in with footwork, etc.  And I have to slow myself down.  I knew the spins would be a challenge, but it also seems that when I hear the music, I rush into everything and lose my edges.  So I'm practicing without music until I stop freaking out.

I've skated for 2 days in a row, in spite of a fall in the parking lot (on ice, lol) that left me nearly unable to walk most of yesterday.  Still have sharp pains in my legs, but I'm ignoring them.
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On Doc's suggestion, even though I do not have a coach, I'm working on a program.  Having the ice and CD player all to myself this morning helped a lot.  I have a recording of "Dance of the (Little) Swans"  that I was actually, once upon a time, working with a choreographer on.  I love it because it's the perfect length and has a dance tempo instead of a concert tempo.  The program never came to fruition, however, because I abruptly ran out of money and had to stop skating for a while; also, the choreographer I was working with was talking about changing to another recording of the same music, and I'm very comfortable with the one I have.  ("Dance of the Swans" can change radically from recording to recording, and sometimes it's just too fast to skate to).
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And so I figured out how to make the rink's CD player play "Dance of the Little Swans" over and over.  I now have the beginning and end of the program worked out...it's the minute in the middle that's killing me, lol!  I'm going to have to do a lot of fancy, fast footwork and I just don't know enough of that sort of thing.  But, live and learn. 
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I have all the single jumps except for the axel, of course, and the lutz, which comes and goes (right now it's gone).  My toe loop has always been pretty good; the waltz-jump-toe-loop is okay if I don't panic and rush; my flip, if done out of a three-turn, is very strong; my salchow is okay, but I stop dead on the landing; ditto the loop.  All that can be worked out.

Come to think of it, I think I might fill the middle minute with a lot of "footwork jumps" and three-turns.  I just have to re-teach myself all those footwork jumps.

Third to last I do spirals, then I do a combination spin (that's where the layback will be).  At least the very ending is screaming at me: lunge.  Must be a lunge.  That's what the cygnets do in the ballet, every time.  Four girls, hand in hand (if I remember correctly), doing an arabesque into a lunge.  I've always sucked at lunges but found that I got better and better at it as I kept trying it today.  Somehow the old Queen of the Turnout always turns her working leg in and jams her toe pick into the ice.  Because of that, I've always avoided lunges.  But it's a simple error and can be corrected with practice.

I'm going to have to work very, very hard on my spins, which are getting better, but for testing and competition purposes are still nearly nonexistent.  I have a two-footed and one-footed spin...the rest are still works in progress.  To make matters harder, as I mentioned, this program is screaming for some sort of layback at the end.  I I really do not have one at all (ditto a camel; I do have a kinda-sorta sit spin), and think I might try a two-footed one instead of holding myself back by trying to do a real one.  .
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So there is a lot more work to do than there would have been if I had had a coach all these years.  But I still loved skating to music, even if I was really skating only at the beginning and the end.

(cross-posted from my buddy who used to be at The Worst Blog on the Web)

I woke up this morning with, almost miraculously, almost no pain in my back and none at all in my leg.  So, although it was icy cold out, I made myself go skating.  It wasn't a real good skate this morning, but at least I put some names to the faces; for only the second time since I've been back skating (which admittedly hasn't been long), that mysterious adult pair team showed up again this morning.  It was a good thing, too, since I'd walked into Iceland and found the front office completely dark and shuttered, and the rink itself pitch black as well.  There didn't seem to be anyone around.

I put my boots on and waited...and waited...and with my back threatening to act up almost decided to leave, when a man I recognized as one of the pair skaters I'd seen a few months back came through the outside door, followed not too long after by his partner and their coach.  We actually talked a little this time; I found out the pair skaters' names were Keith and Mary, and they have not tested or competed yet, although they have been doing pairs for four years.  They figure they are about Bronze level.  

Their coach is Jeremy Allen, who I thought I recognized and got curious enough about that I did a search and found out that he had been one of Laura Handy's partners.

Their arrival prompted me to go search for Garry, who had given up on anyone coming for a freestyle and gone to work in the back somewhere.

I could only stay on the ice a half hour, so didn't get any further chance to talk.  But maybe they'll be back someday.  It would be nice.

As for me, I'm back to playing "musical boots."  I own two very different pairs of skates: one is Riedell Bronze Stars fitted with M-K Vision blades; the other pair is an early version of the Jackson Elites fitted with parabolic Professional blades.  Talk about polar opposites!  The Riedells have been making me very happy since I've had them, but now I'm wondering if, with the back problems, I should go back to the higher heel, more supportive boot and flatter blades the Jacksons have, if for no other reason that it will prevent me from so often feeling like I'm about to sit down suddenly.

I'm going to go to Oakton's pro shop in a few minutes to pick their brains.  It could be that like last week, I just had a bad day and am going to have to deal with it.  And find a chiropractor.

Later...

Well, I had the blades on the Jacksons sharpened and went for a short time into a public skate at Oakton to try them out.  Generally, although I still have difficulties bending them, I feel more secure with the flatter blade, and it's actually easier on my knees to skate in the Jacksons than in the Riedells.  However, with the flatter blade on the Jacksons, my spins made a quick disappearing act.

So now I'm in a quandry -- should I have the blades swapped and use the Jacksons?  I'm so tired of this, especially since I love those pliable Riedells.  Plus, I don't really think the Riedells caused the back problem to begin with...

During my bout with whatever-it-was a few weeks back, I was confined to bed for 2 straight days.  During that period, I developed a literal...for lack of a nicer way to put it...pain in the rear that radiated down my right leg and was so intense that I couldn't bend the leg.  It resolved after I was back on my feet.

Until now.  After ending a scratch spin in a sit-and-twirl last week, the pain is back with a vengeance.  The only thing that relieves it is going to work and standing for 8 hours.  I was supposed to go skating this morning, but thought better of it.

I suppose I need a chiropractor now.  I'll have to call the insurance company to see if it's covered. 

As the song says, "Spoookaaay, spoookaaay..."

I had all sorts of trouble with my left leg again today.  It just didn't want to work.  It got so bad that I almost bailed out of a waltz jump on my nose, and I ended a scratch spin on my rear end.

I'm always willing to blame the blades when I have a day like this, so later I'll go to the pro shop and they will, once again, reassure me that it was NOT the sharpening .