Ice, Ice Baby....

The extra Wednesday night sessions have been purchased by hockey.

I discovered this, thanks to my wonderful coach, via text message on Wednesday afternoon after carrying my skates in my trusty backpack on the Long Island Railroad.

Wish I had found out on Tuesday night. It's not my coach's fault, of course, but those darn hockey skaters. Grrrrr....... Taking all the choice ice times.... Making figure skaters skate in the wee hours of the morning....

And those skates are heavy!

I've almost gotten over the disappointment of my competition. It's funny really. I could actually feel when I started losing control of the situation. I started off well. Three elements in and it was shaky, but okay. It was an artistic program, so I didn't think I needed a lot of jumps; I had two in the program. A simple mohawk, back three turn, which I tripped over into a Ina Bauer (or my version of one. It is probably the shortest Ina Bauer you will ever see. Did you see it? Missed it!). This was followed by the first spin, an attitude spin. No laybacks for me on Sunday. Sal stopped by with all the pain he could muster and brought friends.

My first jump went well. Very well. But my knees still knocked and my feet felt as though they belonged to someone else and that person had smaller feet than I do. I have a good strong spiral, high leg, pointed toe, don't dip too far down with my chest. So far, so good. I even did the turn from backwards to forwards without looking like it was an afterthought (usually it IS an afterthought). Inside spiral, not as high. As I was trying to figure out why my leg wasn't higher, I noticed the boards were much closer that I expected. "Turn! Turn NOW!" I thought. And I did, although I think I brushed up against the boards anyway.

The only other jump in the program had footwork as a setup. I hate footwork. I don't know who invented footwork, but I think they need to be slapped. Usually I screw up the footwork and sail through the jump. Did I? Oh no. I sailed through the footwork and screwed up the jump. And I swore. Right in front of the judges and aloud I swore. I know they heard me because one of them said "oops!"

After that, the rest of the program is a blur. I did a nice camel spin at the end, my coach told me. And I didn't cough up a lung which surprised me. In the end, I felt out of shape, ill-prepared and out skated by a woman who I know and consider a friend.

I just wanted to beat her for once.

What have I learned from this experience? 1. Boy do I need to lose more weight. 2. Waiting one month before a competition to run through your program regularly is not good training. 3. Judges still expect jumps in an artistic program. 4. Try to stay in the here and now, even if you want to know why your leg isn't higher. 5. Taking a painkiller might help when you're in pain.

My sister thinks I should have a drink before I compete. It's a thought. I once had 5 pina coladas before skating a session. I thought I could do a Beillman spin and gave it a try, over and over again. I am NOT that flexible; never have been. So the next day, when I found myself unable to get out of bed because everything hurt, I remembered the spins and the drinks. I've never had a drink before skating since, nor have I tried a Beillman spin again.

I must scramble to find ice for the next two weeks. My NYC rink won't have their new schedule out for another week. I'd rather not take time off from lessons or practice, so I will start hunting for ice time. Even with the additional rinks around NYC, I find that figure skaters still end up skating at unbelievable hours. I am still not a morning person, but I need the practice...

Now that the competition is over, I can concentrate on improving my jumps and spins. Oh yes, and my footwork. Grrrr.........