Sundays

If ever there were a perfect freestyle to take video, I forget my camera. In my defense, the last several Sunday freestyles have been crowded. But yesterday? Must've been a competition somewhere. I pulled into the parking lot and saw one car. One. I worried the rink cancelled freestyle. But I checked! I checked the schedule right before I left. (it's happened once, only once, but I got all the way to the rink, and there was hockey instead of freestyle. I was hot. Thankfully, the manager was apologetic and credited me with the cost of a freestyle for my trouble. I wasn't the only skater to show up and find out the schedule was wrong.)

That one car meant one other skater on the ice. No music. Just quiet. The sound of my blade (it helps if I can hear when I come up on my toe pick to try to avoid doing that). I got a lot done. None of which is really super great yet.

Warmed up with figure 8 back crossovers. These seem to be the best way for me to warm up. I'm too shaky to do forward crossovers all that well when my muscles are cold. Into back crossovers/back outside edges. Then power stroking. Power 3's. Waltz 8. Alternating outside 3's then inside. My inside alternating 3's are getting much better. Wish I could say the same for outside. They're noticeably better, of course, than when I started, but they seem to be stagnant lately. Oh well. Just keep practicing.

Lots of work on forward crossovers. Will these ever not feel awkward? I should film myself. See if I really look as awkward as I feel. Then 5-step mohawk pattern. Some 8-step mohawk circles. Scratch spin. This is still not as consistent as I would like. And I come up on my toe pick a lot. I can see the circles on the ice, two lines running parallel in a circle, showing me I'm scraping my toe pick. Back scratch. Did a few "not too bad" ones. Stable position with arms and free leg out. Pull in. Maybe 2-3 revolutions, foot crossed over, arms tucked in. Not bad. Then I lost it. Always. I'll start to see improvement on a practice session only to lose it. That means, move onto something else for today.

And some back 3's and forward brackets. Finished with back crossovers into spread eagle. This really stretches out my laces. Made my boots super loose. I don't know how skaters do this move without needing to re-tighten their laces. Maybe I'll ask my coach. I already knot in between each hook. I don't know what else to do to keep them from getting loose.