Manic morning

Well, I am a little late in writing about it, but I went for my second "day off" skate on Friday.

Bit of a hectic day really - I went up in the morning, and it was completely rammed solid with screaming kids. I paid, went and sat in the hockey pit, stared a bit, put one knee-high 'tight' on, stared a bit more, took off the knee-high, put my shoes back on and went back to reception begging them to let me transfer my pass.

I then went back into Crouch End, went and paid an extortionate £11.40 to have keys cut after losing them the day before whilst out skating (d'oh!), went to Costa's for a coffee and panini and shot back up to the rink again!

And it was much quieter in the afternoon. I was there for about two and a half hours, mostly practicing 3-turns. BUT . . . after my epiphany of the day before, I forgot a vital part of it! I remembered the transferring from an inside to an outside edge, and letting the turn take care of itself, but I forgot the bit about pushing the free leg further behind me! And yes, they barely worked. So it's off to the Littlest Rink tonight to go and remember everything this time. I also want to focus a bit on my backward crossovers as I feel a lot more secure practicing them down there. The ice feels softer :)

On Friday I also practiced a lot of FO3's - these are really beginning to feel good now, when I complete them that is. I'd say they are about 70% successful. I also did some forward crossovers which are now beginning to feel smoother and faster, a few "barrier backward crossovers", lots of edgy stuff, a few cross-rolls which I am really beginning to enjoy and lots of forward stroking. I also got to catch up with a skater who I haven't seen for about six months as she has been gallivanting around the world, which was lovely.

And although we haven't properly done them yet, I tried a couple of bunnyhops at the barrier. They are pure evil . . . I now understand why someone on the Skating Forums started a thread called "Die, Bunnyhop, Die" . . .

Looking forward to skating tonight and getting back to those FI3's.