Be in the zone and bring it... or wuss out and not.
I had the weirdest dream-sequence last night. I had a hard time falling asleep, or rather, I did fall asleep and then woke up twice after just short periods of time. But anyway, the dream. It was nothing exciting. I was sitting in an armchair with ear-plugs in my ears. Then I took them out, placed them on one arm rest... And then suddenly I was sitting there again, with ear-plugs in my ears, and I took them out again, even though I could have sworn that I had done that already. (I think there might have been one more repeat of that.) Then I "woke up", into another dream, took out the ear-plugs out of my ears and started telling my room-mate (who was neither of my real roomies) about the odd dreams. And then I finally really woke up, to wakefullness, and realized that I still had those ear-plugs in and it was kind of confusing for a moment or two. So weird.
There was another dream, too, and it had a déjà vu-like quality about it as well, about a magician called Houdini who was to perform in a this tall tower in Dresden. I'd seen that place - the tower - in my dreams before, or it felt like it, even though I didn't remember it until then. (And it doesn't exist in reality.) The magician was strange, too, not really human, more like a huge puppet with an oversized head and a clowns face... Then I saw glimpses of the performance itself, or of a rehearsal, and there were men climbing - or flying? - to the top of a ladder that was as tall as the inside of the tower. To get down, one of these performers let go and just kept falling and falling, and a parachute opened under him (?!) at some point so he wouldn't get killed, because it was incredibly high. I felt vertigo just watching. I also remember discussing this magician on LJ, in the dream - I think warily_w had said, in the dream, that she would come to see him perform.
The morning was lovely, sunny and warm. I went to the rink and got my blades sharpened. When the blade master gave me my skates back, he asked where I'd had them sharpened the last time - here, I said. He explained that one of the blades had been askew?! He said he fixed it. What? When did that happen? (or did I misunderstand him?)
It is such bliss to have freshly sharpened blades, and the ice was nice - as opposed to the last time (that Sunday was the morning after one of those "mousse parties" they sometimes have, where they squirt a waist-high layer of foam onto the ice) when the ice was full of weird indentations and bubbles.
I avoided staying on my right foot for prolonged time, because that hurt a bit, as did extending my right leg behind me on every ride-out that lasted more than a few seconds. Sit spins were a no-go, too, because while I can get into those just fine, standing up hurt. Basically, the things that required flexing the muscles on the right side of my butt a bit more strongly was a problem (including mohawks etc.).
My right inside edge in particular scares me when I'm doing three turns - even forward 3turns. I need to work on that. Or was it my left inside edge? I forgot. The point is: I have to work on my inside edges.
I tried spinning, but the spins were scratchy - I'm not going to worry about that too much, though, because I've noticed that every time after getting my blades sharpened, the spins feel a bit off for a while, usually just the first one or two sessions. What was not good was that I kept sort of forgetting my upper body, because I was so preoccupied with the lower part. :/ I tried backspins, though, and they kind of worked better than expected?
I didn't jump much (or almost at all), just a waltz jump here and there, one or two salchows and one or two loops. (I still love those.)
So instead of doing jumps/spins, I did a lot of other moves, basic stroking, step combinations, slaloms, three turns upon three turns, crossovers... The problem? At the moment, these frighten me more than spins and jumps.
I felt slightly insecure on the ice and I HATED that, plus I kept being afraid of falling down the wrong way and hitting the sore spot again. I do hope that this will go away once I'm all healed and not hurting anymore, though. I don't want to be scared on the ice. It's not enjoyable that way at all. :(
I stayed for like an hour twenty. By then, there were too many people, boys picking up speed and throwing themselves against the boards with war-cries of Yes We Can!, kids using those support "constructions" that are particularly annoying, since often the kids tend to run around on their toes holding onto these things instead of skating, or the parents/friends push them around that way... The ice was crappy by that time, too. So I left, though it made me feel a bit like a wuss. :(
I realized one thing today. I'd suspected it for a long time already, actually, but today it really became obvious. As much as I love the artistry in skating, what I enjoy the most at the moment is the athleticism of it, the speed. (Probably because I am not very graceful/expressive? I'm not good enough to be these things yet?) I love to jump, it has become one of my favorite things to do on the ice; I love to spin - fast enough to get dizzy, those spins that feel like they could go on forever make me sooo happy. It's probably one of the reasons why I've never been very attracted to ice dance (for my own skating) - the adult ice dancers that I've seen basically just repeat the same patterns over and over on the ice. Which... is not so exciting?
But don't get me wrong. Nice clean deep edges are still one of the sexiest things in figure skating, imho, and I cannot wait for the day when I'll be able to do real step combinations and sequences with enough speed and smoothness for them to be worthy of being called step sequences. For now, though, and considering that I sort of don't know how to teach myself new steps/new variations, jumping and spinning are definitely my favorite things to do on the ice.
Scary - did I just sound a bit like Evan Lysacek with my little "jumps are THE thing" rant?! ;)
I should clean the apartment at some point this weekend - probably tomorrow morning. I hope the boys downstairs will appreciate being woken up by the sound of the vacuum cleaner. They make me suffer in the evenings, I don't see why I shouldn't pay back in the mornings. :/
I also wanted to bake a cake, I have some lovely pears ready for that, but I kind of didn't feel like baking after lunch today, so maybe I'll do that tomorrow as well. Right now, I think I'm going to watch Adam Rippon's programs from Junior Worlds, and also the program of those Czech ice dancers who stole Johnny's King of Chess outfit for their FD. XD
There was another dream, too, and it had a déjà vu-like quality about it as well, about a magician called Houdini who was to perform in a this tall tower in Dresden. I'd seen that place - the tower - in my dreams before, or it felt like it, even though I didn't remember it until then. (And it doesn't exist in reality.) The magician was strange, too, not really human, more like a huge puppet with an oversized head and a clowns face... Then I saw glimpses of the performance itself, or of a rehearsal, and there were men climbing - or flying? - to the top of a ladder that was as tall as the inside of the tower. To get down, one of these performers let go and just kept falling and falling, and a parachute opened under him (?!) at some point so he wouldn't get killed, because it was incredibly high. I felt vertigo just watching. I also remember discussing this magician on LJ, in the dream - I think warily_w had said, in the dream, that she would come to see him perform.
The morning was lovely, sunny and warm. I went to the rink and got my blades sharpened. When the blade master gave me my skates back, he asked where I'd had them sharpened the last time - here, I said. He explained that one of the blades had been askew?! He said he fixed it. What? When did that happen? (or did I misunderstand him?)
It is such bliss to have freshly sharpened blades, and the ice was nice - as opposed to the last time (that Sunday was the morning after one of those "mousse parties" they sometimes have, where they squirt a waist-high layer of foam onto the ice) when the ice was full of weird indentations and bubbles.
I avoided staying on my right foot for prolonged time, because that hurt a bit, as did extending my right leg behind me on every ride-out that lasted more than a few seconds. Sit spins were a no-go, too, because while I can get into those just fine, standing up hurt. Basically, the things that required flexing the muscles on the right side of my butt a bit more strongly was a problem (including mohawks etc.).
My right inside edge in particular scares me when I'm doing three turns - even forward 3turns. I need to work on that. Or was it my left inside edge? I forgot. The point is: I have to work on my inside edges.
I tried spinning, but the spins were scratchy - I'm not going to worry about that too much, though, because I've noticed that every time after getting my blades sharpened, the spins feel a bit off for a while, usually just the first one or two sessions. What was not good was that I kept sort of forgetting my upper body, because I was so preoccupied with the lower part. :/ I tried backspins, though, and they kind of worked better than expected?
I didn't jump much (or almost at all), just a waltz jump here and there, one or two salchows and one or two loops. (I still love those.)
So instead of doing jumps/spins, I did a lot of other moves, basic stroking, step combinations, slaloms, three turns upon three turns, crossovers... The problem? At the moment, these frighten me more than spins and jumps.
I felt slightly insecure on the ice and I HATED that, plus I kept being afraid of falling down the wrong way and hitting the sore spot again. I do hope that this will go away once I'm all healed and not hurting anymore, though. I don't want to be scared on the ice. It's not enjoyable that way at all. :(
I stayed for like an hour twenty. By then, there were too many people, boys picking up speed and throwing themselves against the boards with war-cries of Yes We Can!, kids using those support "constructions" that are particularly annoying, since often the kids tend to run around on their toes holding onto these things instead of skating, or the parents/friends push them around that way... The ice was crappy by that time, too. So I left, though it made me feel a bit like a wuss. :(
I realized one thing today. I'd suspected it for a long time already, actually, but today it really became obvious. As much as I love the artistry in skating, what I enjoy the most at the moment is the athleticism of it, the speed. (Probably because I am not very graceful/expressive? I'm not good enough to be these things yet?) I love to jump, it has become one of my favorite things to do on the ice; I love to spin - fast enough to get dizzy, those spins that feel like they could go on forever make me sooo happy. It's probably one of the reasons why I've never been very attracted to ice dance (for my own skating) - the adult ice dancers that I've seen basically just repeat the same patterns over and over on the ice. Which... is not so exciting?
But don't get me wrong. Nice clean deep edges are still one of the sexiest things in figure skating, imho, and I cannot wait for the day when I'll be able to do real step combinations and sequences with enough speed and smoothness for them to be worthy of being called step sequences. For now, though, and considering that I sort of don't know how to teach myself new steps/new variations, jumping and spinning are definitely my favorite things to do on the ice.
Scary - did I just sound a bit like Evan Lysacek with my little "jumps are THE thing" rant?! ;)
I should clean the apartment at some point this weekend - probably tomorrow morning. I hope the boys downstairs will appreciate being woken up by the sound of the vacuum cleaner. They make me suffer in the evenings, I don't see why I shouldn't pay back in the mornings. :/
I also wanted to bake a cake, I have some lovely pears ready for that, but I kind of didn't feel like baking after lunch today, so maybe I'll do that tomorrow as well. Right now, I think I'm going to watch Adam Rippon's programs from Junior Worlds, and also the program of those Czech ice dancers who stole Johnny's King of Chess outfit for their FD. XD