Will skating leave me bankrupt?!

A day off work today, so off up to the ice rink this morning. My annual leave is strange this year - no plans for a holiday, so just taking off days here and there when I want to go skating. Works quite well for me! I've still got 20 days left as well.

The rink was beautifully quiet this morning - unlike last time when there were reams of kids, I was (along with Jen who accompanied me again - I think the skating thing has grabbed her!) the second person on the ice. However, the ice had the illusion of being good ice this morning. I don't know if you know what I mean, but it looked beautiful after being zamboni'd, but had lumps and bumps and grooves and ridges all over it not initially visible to the eye.

Now, originally today, I was going to try a bit of mental imagery with my backward crossovers. I was going to imagine that someone was holding my hand. I used to do this in ballet class when we had to hold a position on one leg on demi-pointe and imagine that my hand was resting on the barre. And it worked pretty well. However, today, I tried a couple of backward crossovers and they just weren't happening at all, so decided to leave them today. Instead though, I was a good girl, and did some backward stroking. Firstly round a hockey circle, and then in a straight line up the length of the rink. And that actually felt quite good! Maybe this will also help get my confidence up.

I spent some time on 3-turns today as well. FO3's were a bit rusty to start with, and then fell into place. FI3's were a bit rubbishy (not having got the knack of these yet). However, corrections given to me in the past started falling into place. "Don't drop your free hip". "Don't let your weight go towards the back of your blade". And although one hasn't happened yet, the entrance into it feels generally more secure than it did - most of the time I don't feel like I am going to splat onto my head. I also remembered what helped when I was desperately trying to get the FO3's - bringing my arms down to about belly-button height. So although one hasn't happened yet, I feel a little more on the verge of getting them than I did!

Apart from that, just played around on edges - continuous curves both inside and outside edges, and some one foot edges on the hockey circle. Rather to my amazement, I realised today that I can do an entire hockey circle on my outside edge in one glide. I remember when half a circle was an achievement! Also did some plain old forward stroking - but don't you just love that feeling when you are going fast and feel the wind in your face?!

Jen did well today - some one foot glides on both inside and outside edges, a little backward skating and some two footed turns, turning from front to back. Unfortunately, she did take a little tumble today (as predicted by her earlier - "I know I'm going to fall, I can feel it in my blades . . . ") but, how can I say it, fell on the best part of the anatomy to fall on. Skaters will know what I am talking about!

I am also now thinking of buying patch membership. I think the first one will have to be for six months as can't quite stretch to a full year (it costs how much!). This year's bonus from work should cover it (not a good year for the bonus) and hopefully next years will cover an entire year. I shall just have to save up for the first six months, to pay for the second six months of the year. I don't know why they don't let you pay by direct debit - it would make life so much easier! Good job I haven't got any holidays planned for this year . . . .