Defrost me!

Having just got out of a lovely hot shower, and sitting here snuggled up in my fluffy dressing gown on the sofa, laptop on my knee and cup of tea to hand, I feel warm for the first time in about the last 3 hours. The weather . . . is freezing. The ice rink . . . was freezing. When I got home from skating (having got the bus, nipped into Tesco's, nipped into Budgens AND browsed the magazine shelf), my bum was still numb from the cold.

And the ice at Ally Pally was truly horrible today. It was like skating over a gravel driveway - I think the only time I have been on worse ice was when the Zamboni was cutting great ripples into the ice at the Littlest Rink and that was closed. I heard one of the elite skaters mutter to someone "We really shouldn't have to pay for ice like this . . ."

It did rather affect what I did in my lesson - D judged it too bumpy to try and do anything like consecutive BO edges, but we still did a fair bit.

Forward Stroking / Runs: I need to make sure I bend my knees before pushing into the stroke. When I did it correctly, D said "See - you can go so much faster!" Feeling good otherwise and the runs / crossovers at each end feel good as well.
Forward Crossovers on Figure 8: I really, really need to practice these more CW. I do the first lobe CCW, whizzing around as I do now in that direction, and then it comes to changing direction and I can't do the CW ones at that speed. I think some of it comes from not quite committing to transferring that weight right over onto the inside edge, as I do now quite happily on the CCW ones.
Backward Crossovers on Figure 8: First time round - usual thing of using D as a security blanket. Second time round, she said "Come on now, you can do these on your own." She skated very close and I didn't do very well on the CCW ones (my weaker side). But PEOPLE!! On the CW BXO's - I DID A HOCKEY CIRCLES WORTH WITHOUT HOLDING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!! And my knees were bent, and my head stayed level, and I took it slowly and they felt pretty good! Now I have to work out how to carry on doing them and looking behind me at the same time . . . The only other thing on these figure 8 BXO's is the backward one foot glide with the leg extended backwards - I have to rotate my shoulders round so I can look in that direction. It feels a little scary, but I think it is just getting used to it. Overall though, it just feels absolutey wonderful to be getting somewhere on these damn crossovers!
Forward 3-turns: FO3's happened eventually - I think it takes me a little while to warm up into these at the moment, but as I have said before, I have been a bit lax in practicing them. I have always had problems with falling to the inside of the circle after doing the turn, but it finally clicked (with coaches help!) how to keep my weight over the skating leg after the turn. It doesn't always happen, but it makes a huge difference, and all of a sudden I can glide out of the turn and hold it. FI3's were more miss than hit though - effortless when a hand is present, but a mess otherwise. When I practice these myself though, it normally takes a good 10 minutes before they fall (more) into place. I need to focus on having my weight more towards the ball of my foot though, as it tends to be too far back on the blade, which of course makes it more tricky anyway.
Mohawks: Did some at the barrier - went well. Did some holding D's hands -went okay. Tried one or two on my own - HAHAHA! Not quite sure what is stopping me on these at the moment - I think it is a mixture of not quite getting my weight in the right place, the rotating of the hips and upper body into it and not doing the weight transfer quick enough. Definitely something to work on . . .
Cross-rolls: I am finally beginning to get a bigger curve on the outside edge now and I think this is because my knee bend is getting better all the time as a whole. I also remembered to pigeon-toe my foot in before putting it down on the crossover. Did suddenly realise that I was doing absolutely no leg extension behind me at all, until the last one. Saved face just in time :)

That was it for my lesson this week. D was very sweet and said she was amazed at how much I had improved in just a couple of weeks, which is always nice to hear, even if you don't feel it! Afterwards, I just pootled about on the patch and for once, I mostly concentrated on my FO3's, deciding that they had been neglected for far too long. They were getting fairly respectable by the end as well!