Focus, focus!

Today was quite odd.

Firstly, after three days last week of skating on a virtually empty rink, going to the smaller rink today seemed so busy. I have decided I either need to win the lottery, or marry a wealthy man so I can be a lady of leisure and skate on quiet sessions during working hours ALL the time!

Secondly, for the first half of the session, I felt strangely detached from everything. I feel a lot more secure on the ice now (I think the practicing last week really helped with that) and am becoming more experimental, but definitely for the first half . . . . detached. Then I started becoming more interested in what I was doing and the last half simply flew by. I suppose everybody has moments like that. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying myself, I just wasn't focussed on what I was doing at first. Just floating round the rink!

Apart from that, not a bad practice today - managed to squeeze in a little edge work (difficult when the ice is busy) and I even started practicing two-footed snowplough stops! All stops are currently practiced next to the barrier - I am not brave enough to do faster ones without it yet.

Lastly today, I had some correspondence about my Learn to Skate course (booking the next set of sessions etc.) and I have just learned that I am being tested in nine days. AAAARRRRGGHH!!!! I just have these visions of being kept back, just because my stops aren't very good, even though everything else is not bad. I might take next Tuesday off work, so I can practice the day before on quiet ice. Plus the fact it will be the day after my thirtieth (sob . . ) birthday, so I can recover from any alcohol the night before!