Sunday June 28 - garden for a few hours

Tuesday June 30 - ballroom 2.5 hours

Wednesday July 1 - skate 1.5 hours

Friday July 3 - skate 1.5 hours, ballroom 3 hours

Didn't do any core or weights last week.  Also, DavidBowie cancelled my lesson at the last moment, grrrr.  I did get a lesson from Coach L, and I had a visiting friend take some video of 3s in the field, 8 step mohawk, Willow Waltz, and Ten Fox.  Hooboy.  They all look even worse than I thought!  I'm not posting them; they're really bad.  8 step in particular was clunky - you can see how slowly and carefully I place my feet - trying to avoid stepping on blades again and breaking another bone!  Also I'm not holding the check after the mohawk.  The video was cringe-worthy, but very instructive!  The one good thing from the videos was that on both dances, I have nice large patterns that fill up the rink.  Of course I'm also skating as slowly as molasses, with somewhat uh, creative timing, hunched over, ugly bent free leg - oh you know the drill.  Sigh...

Sunday - gardened for a few hours
Tuesday - 2.5 hours ballroom, weights and core
Wednesday - 1.5 hours skating, freestyle and moves
Friday - 2 hours skating (mostly ice dance), 3 hours ballroom dance

(need to do weights this weekend, should do them now, but am knackered)

Lesson with DavidBowie today.  We tweaked the end pattern on the Feista a bit - I was making it too big, aiming the mohawk too far towards the boards.  He wants me to test the damn dance in August and be done with it, but I'm not really willing to commit to a test until the thesis is done.  OTOH, maybe I should go into the test not really caring, not really focussed, and just skate.  I think he wants to test Hickory too, but I hate to test two different levels - what if I fail FT again?!  We'll see. 

Then we did the my nemeses, TenFox and 14step.  I'm finding the FO mohawk in 14step MUCH easier than the one one in TenFox.  I can go into the 14 step on with more speed, power, confidence, and on much deeper edges, and I don't hesitate nearly as long on the entry edge.  Still, the TenFox IS coming along, just very slowly.  I did a few of the mohawks today where I didn't feel like I was about to eat his armpit, so that's progress!  My frame is definitely improving - all the ballroom has really helped my ice dance, and helped me to appreciate/understand what a real partner feels like, which makes me be a better partner myself.

Activity this week:

Sunday:  gardened
Monday:  lifted weights and worked core
Tuesday:  ballroom 2.5 hours
Wednesday:  cursed loudly and often as I worked on my thesis
Thursday: lifted weights and worked core
Friday:  skated 1.5 hrs and had ice dance lesson

Today in lesson, DavidBowie told me that he'd spoken to one of his partners from his elite days, and she mentioned what a prefectionist he's always been.  This made him realize that he doesn't need to hold *me* to *his* standards of perfection.  I'd like to kiss that woman!

We worked Fiesta, Hickory, Willow, and TenFox.  The kids are out in full summer force, so it's difficult to get full dance runthroughs in, but we managed fairly well.  After my lesson I played around with toe loop.  Still there!  At least the tiny little hoppy toe waltz thing I call a toe loop is still there.

In other exciting news, after 2-3 weeks, it feels like the weights and core work do help with my chronically injured hip.  Now to keep it up and not slack off!

Holy moly, has it really been a month since my last post? 

I'm still skating.  However I'm writing my (MA) thesis this summer and I have exactly 4 weeks left until I turn in a complete draft to my committee, 6 weeks 'til I defend.  Obvioulsy, skating is taking a backseat this summer.  Still,  most weeks I manage to go twice, although this week will probably only be once (my Friday lesson with DB). 

Since I can't skate 3/wk, I've decided to work on strength this summer, and have gotten back to weight lifting 2x/wk.  I have the stuff to do at home, so it doesn't take much time.  I'm not doing much, just SLDL, pushups and/or bench press, overhead press, bicep and tricep, and then barbell twist for the core.  I also am using a hula hoop to work my core, which is totally fun.  DB told me last week that my problem isn't so much lack of core *strength* but lack of ability to control the strength I do have and that I should spend less time twisting with a barbell and more time twisting on my spinner.  OK.  I can do that.

As far as skating goes, I am ready to test (and pass!) Fiesta Tango and also Hickory Hoedown.  I am also ready to test my PreBronze freeskate (well, my 1 ft is spin is still a bit iffy and my half flip is truly pathetic, but it's probably passable).  Most of my skating time is just running through those things so that I maintain the skils until I test in the fall (no testing 'till thesis is done).

I'm still scared of FO mohawks and because I can't skate regularly I'm not making much progress on them.  OTOH, my 3turns have improved beyond all recognition, to the point where DB and I can actually do European in proper hold.  Well I'm sure it's dreadful, but it's progress and I'll take it!

OH!  Today I start teaching beginning East Coast Swing (ballroom) for the first time, so I'm very excited about that.  At least I'll have another weekly "move my butt" session in for the next 5 weeks in the form of 2.5 hours of ballroom dance (only 30 minutes of which I'll be the instructor).

I'm going to try and start blogging more regularly again b/c I need the reminder of what I'm doing/did/will do.

Skated today and had a lesson with Coach L.  I was extremely tired and unmotivated and unfocussed.  Still I knew that I wanted to work on my pathetic and nonexistant jumps since we haven't done those in awhile.  So we started with waltz jump then side toe hop waltz and finally waltz side top hop which is more difficult but I can do it if I scale it down to two itty bitty hop things.  Then half flip.  Which, amazingly, is still there.  Then she asked me what else.  And I said I wanted to learn the set up for the next jump.

So she decided to teach me toe loop set up.  She showed me once about a year ago but I got it confused with half flip so we abanonded it almost immediately.  Today she showed me the set up, I walked through it - and then I did it.  Adn then I did it again.  OK, it's a bit toe-waltzy, and it's miniscule - but I did it.  Several times.  And then we even did a few waltz toe loop combos.  "That can't be right," I kept saying.  She laughed at me and said I needed to skate tired more often, because I wasn't nearly as uptight and nervous and anxious as I usually am, I just sort of went with what she told me.  Hmmm.  Food for thought.  

On Monday I skated for an hour and had the ice completly to myself; it was lovely.  I worked on Silver Moves and Bronze dances mostly, just trying to get back into some sort of skating groove. 

On Friday (today) I skated for about 1.5 hours and had a lesson with DB.  Some country music was playing, so we started off with Hickory Hoedown, which went really well.  From there we moved on to Willow Waltz.  He's pleased with the progress I'm making on this dance and commented that my 3 turns are much cleaner (actually he made that comment about my 3 turn in each of the 3 dances we worked on, so I guess it's not just my imagination and that they really are better).  I can tell Willow is improving because it's fun now, and I don't worry about dying any more!  The only part that gets kind of iffy is when I try to cut in the circle on that 3 turn, and occasionally that bit where you come around the corner - if there are kids playing in the end zone, I get distracted and don't always get onto a good FO edge as I step forward.  But at least this time I realized it and managed to keep from body slamming us both into the boards. 

Of course my nemesis Ten Fox was next - and even this is improving.  The mohawk may not be pretty, but at least it happens fairly reliably.  But I did take another hard fall, this time *after* the mohawk, on that back run - I forgot to point my toes and jabbed the tail of my blade into the ice and went totally airborne, landing hard on my bum.  My left hip is now quite unhappy with me.  But I console myself that this is improvement - assuming I'm able to walk tomorrow, that is. 

We did a few more turns of TF, but I'd totally lost my nerve, so we left it be.  For some reason he decided he wanted to see power pulls, so I did a few rounds of those for him.  The forward ones are no great shakes, but I'm starting to get some real knee bend, which is encouraging.  Backwards are inconsistent, but when I hit them, I really hit them and get good power and rip.  Today I hit them and he was impressed, so we finished on a good note.

This weekend is the big ice dance weekend in Wichita.  I've gone the last two years, but simply could not swing it this year due to school stuff.  I'm sad to miss it, but also glad to not have something else to stress over.

I have not been able to skate all week until today's lesson with DB.  It was really a wakeup call!  The first part was OK - we worked on TenFox which actually went surprisingly well, then Willow Waltz.  Then we did 14Step for the first time.  I was really nervous for this one and after a few runthroughs I stopped him and said Enough on this for today.  I'm glad we finally got the first time out of the way, but I'm freaking now.  So we spent a few minutes on consecutive outside mowhawks which went rather better than I had any right to expect.  Then we did that FI3 BI3 thing in a circle, and I took a big bellyflop of a fall.  Not really hurt, but kind of stunned!  After that we did twizzles which were quite bad but at least I was able to more or less stumble though them.  Then he wanted to see bracket 3 bracket, and I was like No.  I'm so exhausted I can barely stand up and with something that requires that much core strength, I'll hurt myself.  You can push me aerobically, but you can't push me on turns right now.  So we did power pulls.  Then we finished up with stops.  He told me I have to learn to stop on 1 foot, which I absolutely cannot seem to manage; it always turns into a lovely little 3 turn.  Very exasperating.

Anyway, today really brought home to me how terribly out of shape I've gotten since September.  I was so tired 20 minutes into my lesson that I wanted to cry.  School is finishing up for the semester and for the next 2 weeks I should be able to skate on both Monday and Friday.  And then after that I should be back to 3 times a week.  I've got to get myself back in shape - it's mortifying to be so tired after an hour of skating.  Also, I haven't made any progress in over a year now - at Wichita last year I tested Swing (pass) and Fiesta (fail), and I should have retested and passed Fiesta months ago.  To be fair I probably *could* test and pass, but I'm not willing to do it until this thesis is out of the way.  But I can work on Silver Moves and I can work on (what I laughing call) freestyle.  And I can relearn the Silver Dances and play with them while I plug away on the Bronze dances.  But mainly I've just got to get back on the ice regularly and skate.  

Last Friday I had my usual lesson with DB and we spent the entire time on the Bronze dances.   Willow was much improved - once I figured out that for the LFO3, I need to step *outside* of him, not try and cut inside the circle.  And then we moved on to Ten Fox.  We did it a few times and it went just fine, even the mohawk part.  Although after about 3 or 4 times I totally lost my nerve and asked that we stop for now - I'd gotten so tense I could feel myself getting ready to tighten up and fall for no reason at all.  So we finished up with my favorite dance, Hickory.  The blade sharpening took care of my problems with this dance, and we ended on a happy note.  

After skating I came home back to the student hovel, had a giant bacon cheeseburger and fries for fuel, and got gussied up to go ballroom dancing.  I had invited Coach L to come along and she agreed, although she missed the inclass lesson (rhumba, one of my favorites).  It was a smallish turnout with at least 4 extra women.  Usually I'm pretty aggressive about finding partners and not sitting on the sidelines all night, but  Coach L doesn't really know how to ballroom, although she follows beautifully, and I didn't want to leave her sitting on the sidelines while I whirled around.  So I spent most of the evening teaching her the basic steps to the different dances.  Since normally she's the one giving me instructions, this was really fun (not to mention gratifying).  Quite often I would gather a crowd - women behind me, men in front of me, as I shouted out the steps (which is incredibly exhuasting!) over the music and the others followed.  After one such episode (to ChaCha) the main instructor for university ballroom came over to me and told that me I NEEDED to come to the "master class" he was giving over the summer so that I could begin to teach intro ballroom at the university.  I was HUGELY flattered, and am way excited.  I am a natural pedant, and while this can be annoying in everyday life, it is certainly useful in certain contexts, including this one.  This would be volunteer of course, but that's fine with me; I come to class every Tuesday anyway, it's not like I'd be going out of my way to do this.  So yay! 

I missed my Wednesday skate and lesson with Coach L this week b/c I was sick and so had my lesson again with DB today.  Since I had not skated all week and did not feel adequately warmed up, I asked that we not work on dances with an FO mohawk.  At my level, this does not leave that many dances!  We started with Hickory, which went well, moved on to Willow, which continues to improve, and then spent some time on European Waltz, which has improved enormously since my 3turns have suddenly decided to come out and play.  Then he got a wild hair up his butt and decided we should do Foxtrot.  Hello, FT has that EVIL IMPOSSIBLE mohawk!  Still he was adamant that we work through the beginning.  Of course we 've never worked this together before, I barely know the steps, and have certainly never partnered it.  Well guess what - it's an ENORMOUSLY fun dance to partner!  I didn't even attempt the mohawk, just blatently did a 2 ft turn, but the rest we did together and it was awesome!  Man I need to get that damn Fiesta Tango out of the way so I can work on bronze and pre-silver in earnest!

Skated yesterday for about 2 hours and had a lesson with Coach L.  DB had left my newly sharpened skated for me.  I don't know what that man did to my blades, but I swear, it was magic.  My edges were solid.  My spins improved, no catching the inside edge or rocking up onto the toepick.  BXOs were quiet.  3turns were not scraped.  I was in shock.  My blades must have really been trashed.  Before he sharpened them, I couldn't even skate in a straight line without hearing little snicks; spins were always a danger b/c at any moment I might catch an inside edge and blow out my knee; BXO's sounded like Phillipe Candelloro, and most recently I was having trouble holding any kind of edge at all.  He must have taken more care than usual with their sharpening when he saw that I couldn't even stay on an outside edge.

We spent most of my lesson on 3s in the field.  These had more flow and control than I've ever had - Coach L was thrilled, and I kept saying, "It's a fluke!  They'll be gone next time we look at them!"  Of course they are still along way from passing, but they really were remarkably better.  Next we did spins, which also showed dramatic improvement, even though I've completely neglected them.  Last was 8 step mohawk, which was actually *silent*.  Holy sharpened blades Batman!

Last week DB was out of town, the week before that we had tornadoes and storms, so this week I was raring to go for my lesson.  We started out with a few run throughs of Fiesta Tango, which were more or less fine, although he told me I'm not skating into my edges, but am floating on top of the ice.  How a 200 lb woman floats on top of the ice is beyond me, but my blades *are* dull and I've been falling off the edges, so I left them for him to sharpen; hopefully this will improve matters somewhat.  After that a few runs of Hickory, and again he told me I'm not getting good edges.  On this was I was consistently falling off my LFO on the end pattern (where the lady is running around the man, just before the restart), and that's never happened before. 

After this we moved onto Willow Waltz, which has really been neglected, so I was glad to spend some quality time on it.  Except I body slammed him into the barrier on the end pattern.  Apparently this is fairly common - I was on too shallow of an RBO edge and stepped forward without getting onto a proper LFO, and bam, we were off the circle and into the boards.  Oops.  We both went down fairly hard; and I'm a bit stiff these last two days, though not really hurt.  He insisted he wasn't hurt either, although I later saw him doing that thing where you push down on your hips b/c you've got them out of whack ...  well instead of of freaking out and moving onto something else, we continued with the dance, and did the end pattern a few more times without mishap, so that felt good, like we made some real progress, not just on the Willow, but on skating in general, if you know what I mean.  He told me to work on BO edges, and changing lobes with a good strong power pull action to help clean up that end pattern.

I had wanted to also work on TenFox, but we ran out of time.  Just as well, Willow was a good warmup for partnering TF next time and I can work some more on that FO mohawk before putting it back in hold.

Had a lesson with Coach L on Wednesday.  We spent most of the time working on some of the Silver Moves, starting with back crossrolls.  These have really been neglected as they are difficult to practice during crowded public sessions.  They aren't bad form wise, but they are very small and fairly slow.  Still, I just need to practice them more and they will come.  Power pulls - backwards ones are really getting some good power, though a bit wild in the upper body.  Forwards ones are still quite small and pathetic and no knee action - I don't know why it's so much harder to bend my knees going forwardthan backwards (I do know, it's the balance, but still...).  We finished up with work on Ten Fox, which is starting to look half way decent, although I know it will fall to pieces the moment I try to do it with DB.  Still, it was encouraging to finally start to feel comfortable on the end pattern, even if I am still holding the first beat of the FO mohawk for at least 3 beats before gathering my courage to put my foot down.  It will come, it will come.

Last week I was able to skate Thursday and Friday.  Had a good practice on Thurs and on Friday a lesson with Coach L.  Per plan we hit FO mohawk and then Ten Fox, 14Step and Foxtrot pretty hard.  These are coming along better than anticipated.  I'm finally starting to get my nerve back on these (remember the FO mohawk on the TF is how I broke my arm and wrist).  I'm seeing/feeling how and when to really push into the TF and 14stepto get up the speed and power but then I have waaaay to much speed adn power going into the FO Mohawk.  Which actually happens more easily when I have the guts to attempt it with a bit of speed.  Trying to trust myself again and not be afraid of falling is my biggest task right now.  Foxtrot is a joke, not even really attempting the mohawk, just walking through it.  Ah well.  One day. 

I think I'm skating Wed and Fri this week; the plan is to work TF with DB on Friday.  Hopefully.

I skated on Friday, but only for about an hour.  We had the big snowstorm on the way and as the thunder rolled on and the rain pounded on the roof of the rink, I was too anxious about the long drive home to concentrate.  DavidBowie didn't show up, so I headed out.  Have not skated all week until today - got in a good hour and a half.  DB is out of town for my Friday lesson, so I have a lesson with Coach L tomorrow and we agreed to work on FO mohawk and then TenFox, 14Step, and even Foxtrot if we have time for it (and I haven't broken another bone by then).  So today I warmed up with Bronze Moves and then worked pretty hard on all the FO mohawk stuff including the above dances.  They weren't brilliant but I was actually pretty pleased that I was able to stumble my way through them consistently after not working on them for so long.  Really looking forward to my skate and lesson tomorrow.

I'm not anticipating being able to skate more than twice a week (and that's on a good week) for the next 6 weeks (until the semester ends), but I'll keep plugging away in anticipation of my schdule opening up again in May.

Class was cancelled today, so I got an unexpected Monday skate in.  There were only a few people on the ice, all of them adults I knew, so it was a really really nice skate.  I had decided that I was going to make my way through Bronze dances today, so that I could work on Ten Fox with DB on my Friday lesson.  So after working Willown and TF for awhile, I got a wild hair up my butt to check out Fourteen Step.  I dragged out the diagram and made my way through it a few times, since I haven't even attempted the Pre-Silvers since September.  Then I did European.  And then I really got crazy and tried Foxtrot.  I had all the dancers on the ice doing Foxtrot for me!  None of them can do that crazy mohawk properly, not even the gal who is testing her Golds.  It's been ages since she tested it and it's out of practice; the other gals are working on it and having varying degrees of success (or not).  I was rather shocked at where I was able to pick up with these dances after so long away from them - honestly, they don't seem as dreadfully difficult as I remembered them to be... no doubt I'll be singing a different tune once I get in with DB on Friday.  I think I have a lesson with Coach L on Wed - my plan is to spend some time on FO mohawk then go into TF and 14Step, maybe even Foxtrot if we have time.  Wheeee for dancing!  I'd forogtten how much fun it is to try these dances that are above my level!

Skated about an hour and a half and had my lesson with DavidBowie.  We were somewhat crimped by all the little spring break ankle biters, but still managed a decent lesson.

Fiesta continues to improve.  I realized that I was *really* feeling more comfortable with it when we had to sort of bail on the center steps (cross front, cross back, slide chasse) and then the long change edge (due to traffic), but I was still able to do the mohawk on time and without freaking out.  So that was really encouraging.  Hickory feels good; I love the speed and power on this dance and I love the feeling of doing the heehaww thingy in unison.

It felt a bit too scary to work on Willow with all the traffic, so I asked if we could work on waltz 3s in hold.  These are finally improving.  On the L ones I was stepping inside the circle again, and he told me to look at straight at him.  I actually shifted my gaze to his L shoulder, so I was looking slightly out of the circle and that really help get my L foot where it needed to be for the 3 turn, and not tweak my R hip.  Then we went ahead and did a few runthroughs.  Again, I'm starting to feel more confident, and not shying and freaking at every little twerp that crosses our path.  The 3turn on this is finally starting to feel a bit better, although the back run right afterwards is more of chasse than a run at this point.  Still, itty bitty steps of progress are better than no progress, so I'm happy.

Next week I definitely want to start in on TenFox in earnest, and also more Willow work.  Maybe even take a look at European, woot!

Apparently I now have a half flip.  If you've been reading along, I've been trying to do this stupid half rev jump for what, 2 years now?  I finally figured out *when* the jump/hop occurs - I've been jumping backwards onto the toepick instead of springing from toepick to toepick.  Now I can actually test PreBronze Free - 2+ years after passing PreBronze Moves.  

So yesterday I skated for about 1.5 hours and had a lesson with Coach L.  She's SO excited about my half flip, it's sweet.  Now she wants to start of full rev jumps next week, holy crap.  She asked toe loop or sal, and since I'm an edge girl, I was definite that I want to do sal.  OTOH, maybe I should do toe, since I finally figured out the picking action? 

We also worked a lot on spins.  We spent some time on backspin, concentrating on position of the free leg (my hip wants to open and I want to cross my legs) and once I got that, on staying on an outside edge.  Some definite albeit slow progress - I can eke out 2 slow pathetic non concentric 2 revs, but that's a HUGE improvement from getting around about 1/2 a rev before.  Also, forward spin from a 3 turn is coming back, very slowly.  I've skated so little since September it's really hard to make progress, and I'm still trying to get back to where I was before the damn arm break.

We finished up with forward crossrolls and power pulls (too crowed/full of holidayers to essay back ones).  Forward crossrolls she thinks are test ready.  (Forward back one still need a lot of work, but are improving.)  Forward power pulls actually *look* worse, but they *are* better - I'm finally getting some real knee action - my legs are stronger than they used to be, perhaps all that treadmill walking on an incline??  Anyway, they look less confident and are smaller, but they are starting to be real power pulls now instead of just floating on top of the ice, if you know what I mean.  Not sure what state the back ones are in.

Coach L wants me to get back to seriously training Silver Moves, and I agree.  I just have not been able to make it regularly to the rink this semester thanks to my class schedule, but also to being sick and then last week I had that stupid conference.  Right now the only day I'm 90% sure of making is Fridays.  However if I commit to Wednesday mormings as well, that would at least give me two consistent days a week for the next 2.5 months, and that's 100% better than 1 day a week.  So I guess that's what I'd better do.  I'm starting to really enjoy skating again, and that's been missing lately, which is one reason I've been less than faithful about getting to the rink.  I've got to toughen my feet up again again and get my stamina back so I can really get a workout and enjoy myself.

I was not able to skate at all last week due to a conference.  But this week is spring break, and I plan to skate at least 3 times.  Already got an hour in this afternoon.  You know, an hour on the ice is MUCH more tiring than an hour on the treadmill.  I don't know why I keep thinking I need to get to the gym - what I really need to do is get to the rink!  Since it's spring break, there were kids there, but not too horrible.  The bad part was how exhausted I was after a single run through of bronze moves!  Argh!  Ah well.  At least I go out there and moved my butt, and that's about all I can expect until my thesis is done, I expect.  

After having been sick for over a week, and then other life crap (hello thesis, I'm talking about YOU), I finally got to skate today and had my lesson with DavidBowie.

Mainly we did more evil mohawk, 3turn, and power pull drills.  Also that godawful thing he made up to torture me that is like doing continuous inside mohawks in a straight line except it's exactly the opposite in that you turn your feet in so that they're pigeon-toed.  It's supposed to train closed hips and it will eventually kill me.  Still, it went better than it has before, and I haven't even thought about that evil thing in at least 8 months, so that's encouraging.

We also spent some time on Fiesta Tango.  On our first runthrough together he stopped me after the mohawk and demonstrated my posture when I was doing the mohawk - chest out, shoulders back, arms *behind* me.  Apparently I think I'm swan diving off the prow of a ship.  He told me to keep my arms slightly in front me and to lean *into* the circle, not straight up and down and certainly not out of it.  How many times have we all heard lean into the circle?  Well I tried it and hey guess what IT WORKS.  Holy crap.  How long have I struggled with that damn mohawk on this damn dance?!  AT LEAST TWO YEARS.

Next we did Hickory Hoedown.  I swear this is my favorite dance EVER.  I did it solo first, and he actually told me to make the lobes more shallow!  We did it together, and you know the progressive cross in front, hee haw thingy?  I've been crossing to a flat or even an outside edge instead of an inside edge.  So we worked on cleaning that up, and then we worked on the hee haw - bending the skating leg and the free leg at the same time for the hee haw.  Wow.  This dancing in unison thing?  Is way cool!  I love that I'm finally starting to be able to feel when his body is doing something that my body isn't.

Only lasted an hour and half, after which I was totally knackered and my feets were screaming at me because they're back to being tender little babies from so little skating.  Still, it was a good skate.  I always forget how much I love this when life gets busy.  I must remember that it's like preventative maintenance - when I don't make time for it, I end up paying for it twice over!

Have not skated much the last 2 weeks.  Got an hour and a half practice in on Monday the 16th, and another 2 hours with a lesson from Coach L on Friday the 20th.  We worked on half flip and I actually did one correctly.  Of course it will take me months to get another one, but at least I finally did one.

This past week I did not skate at all.  On Monday I was at the rink, ready to go, but they had a hockey team practicing that no one told me about, so left, quite irate.  I had a lesson with Coach L on Wed, but I woke up feeling sick, so cancelled.  Friday, I actually got on the ice for my lesson with DavidBowie, but after about 4 minutes, I got right back off and drove home and crawled into bed.  I've got a doozy of a cold, so don't know how long I'll be out.

OK, so I'm a TAD late with my goals this year.  I just had a look at my goals from last year:

1.  Skate smart - no injuries!
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

2.  Eat better/smarter - means more calories during the day and fewer calories at night.
This must be why I weigh 20 lbs more than I did this time last year.

3.  Pass remaining PreBronze Dances (Swing Dance and Fiesta Tango) this Spring.
WellI I managed to pass Swing Dance in May.

4.  Pass Bronze Dances (Hickory Hoedown, Willow Waltz, Ten Fox) before end of year.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

5.  Work on Silver moves each time I skate. (Don't expect to test these for a few years.)
Eh, maybe 80% of the time.

6.  Learn proper spin entrance (BXOs to 3turn).
Did make some good progress on this, but have not returned to it since getting back on the ice.

7.  Increase strength so that I can do hydroblade moves.
No.

8.  Work on flexibility for turnout so that I can do Bauers and Eagles.
Actually, I so have a sort of sad/pathetic eagle/Besti squat thing now.

9.  Work on flexibility for splits to improve spirals and Bielman position.
Did not really do this much at all.

10.  Have fun!
Up until I busted my arm, I was having fun....


OK, so 2008 was pretty much a bust skating wise.  I passed one test (Swing Dance), and I managed to acquire the beginnings of a spread eagle.  Breaking my arm/wrist in September really sort of put a crimp in my plans.

My goals for this year are very simple.

1.  No injuries
2.  Pass Fiesta Tango
3.  Test (and hopefully pass) PreBronze Freeskate, which will entail
4.  A second jump
5.  A 1 ft. spin

That's all folks!