Jsem Unavena
I keep neglecting this poor journal, although recently I've been neglecting my personal one as well, so I guess that shouldn't be surprising. This week I just finished up what should be my last round of midterms, so that was good. Then I got kind of sick, which was less good. I've just felt kinda crappy the past few days, both physically and mentally. I think I just need something fun to get me out of it, like a good hard skate or an entertaining game.
On the topic of skating, I have a few updates. We had our midterm in the class a while back. It didn't go too badly, though I kept looking at the ice when I was doing my backward slaloms. I think I've fixed that problem though. Roomie #2 and I went to Chiller again last Sunday and spent a good three hours skating. I finally wore my hand-me-down skates. I'm amazed by how well they fit, all things considered. My brother only wore them twice, if that, and I got them for free, so the fact that they don't fit exactly really doesn't bother me. It's not like I'll ever be doing anything more intense than an occasional pick-up game or something. But anyway, I spent a LOT of time working on going backward and finally got myself to a semi-respectable level of competency. The best part is that I don't look at the ice anymore. It felt really good to catch myself doing it and actually fix it. That used to be my problem a lot with riding, I'd catch myself doing something but I could never actually fix it. God, I remember getting so frustrated because I'd round my shoulders over jumps and I'd NEVER get myself broken of the habit because I was focused on too many other things.
While I was skating, I did notice that I had NO outside edge on my right blade. That was a fun discovery. I went to make a sharp turn by #2, and just kind of...skidded across the rink. So I got my blades sharpened afterward. The guy working at the rink was uber-nice, and offered us hot chocolate. I have noticed that the staff at Chiller is incredibly good-natured, which is fantastic for me because I get intimidated easily when I'm trying new things like this. I'm just hoping I don't get myself into obsession mode and burn out. I don't have any sort of internal gauge for what's a reasonable amount of time to spend on things...
I finally wore hockey skates in my class this week. I really do like them so much more than figure skates, especially now I've had more time in them. No toe picks to catch, and my ankle doesn't turn awkwardly if I go over backward (though I haven't done that since the first time I wore them, so yay improving balance?). It was good times. We did some work on circles, and more backward skating. Tony had us do a bit of backward gliding, then try to do one-foot glides. I think my record was keeping my right skate up for maybe .75 seconds. I got pretty nervous about falling, even though it's practically second nature to me by this point. I guess that's something for me to work on on my own. Tony also introduced one foot swizzles on a circle, which is damn near impossible for me. I have issues getting my foot back in to center. Oh, and the whole trying to stay on my outside edge thing? Yea, that feels really strange. He had us run a few circle drills doing that, which was a ton of fun, but also the most barely-contained chaos I've ever seen.
We also did some crossovers on the circles. I had a bit of a rough start because they're easier to do the faster you go, but I'm not comfortable going very fast in a circle... So at the end of class Tony put on music and told us to skate for the duration of the song. No talking, no stopping, and doing crossovers in the corners whenever we could. I was doing pretty well for a while, until I caught a gouge in the ice and went down. I just laughed, because I slid a good 10-15 feet on my ass. Then a few laps later I caught an edge and completely bit it. I landed weird and my knee did something awkward. I kept skating (much slower), but I didn't do any more crossovers that day. After class when I was taking my skates off I realized that my knee was swollen and bruised already. About an hour later it was twice the size it should be. The swelling went down some overnight, and it was normal size by about Thursday, so it's good to know that wasn't anything major. Just me being a clutz. A group of us also went to Chiller again on Thursday and I got to try out my skates with sharpened blades! Woo! Unfortunately we only had about 30 minutes of ice time, so I didn't really do anything specific. I was still a little shaky for whatever reason (I think I was a bit concerned about hitting my knee again). Although #3 and I did have a race down one of the long sides of the rink, and had all of the other skaters in hysterics because of our taunts and me flailing like an idiot because I'm ridiculously uncoordinated. It was good times.
I'm actually half thinking about seeing if there's open ice anywhere tonight and going skating. No one else is around and I'm kind of bored, plus I haven't been out of the apartment for anything other than class in about three days, so I'm kind of going crazy. Maybe I'll see if anyone's interesting in rushing a Jackets game tonight.
On the topic of skating, I have a few updates. We had our midterm in the class a while back. It didn't go too badly, though I kept looking at the ice when I was doing my backward slaloms. I think I've fixed that problem though. Roomie #2 and I went to Chiller again last Sunday and spent a good three hours skating. I finally wore my hand-me-down skates. I'm amazed by how well they fit, all things considered. My brother only wore them twice, if that, and I got them for free, so the fact that they don't fit exactly really doesn't bother me. It's not like I'll ever be doing anything more intense than an occasional pick-up game or something. But anyway, I spent a LOT of time working on going backward and finally got myself to a semi-respectable level of competency. The best part is that I don't look at the ice anymore. It felt really good to catch myself doing it and actually fix it. That used to be my problem a lot with riding, I'd catch myself doing something but I could never actually fix it. God, I remember getting so frustrated because I'd round my shoulders over jumps and I'd NEVER get myself broken of the habit because I was focused on too many other things.
While I was skating, I did notice that I had NO outside edge on my right blade. That was a fun discovery. I went to make a sharp turn by #2, and just kind of...skidded across the rink. So I got my blades sharpened afterward. The guy working at the rink was uber-nice, and offered us hot chocolate. I have noticed that the staff at Chiller is incredibly good-natured, which is fantastic for me because I get intimidated easily when I'm trying new things like this. I'm just hoping I don't get myself into obsession mode and burn out. I don't have any sort of internal gauge for what's a reasonable amount of time to spend on things...
I finally wore hockey skates in my class this week. I really do like them so much more than figure skates, especially now I've had more time in them. No toe picks to catch, and my ankle doesn't turn awkwardly if I go over backward (though I haven't done that since the first time I wore them, so yay improving balance?). It was good times. We did some work on circles, and more backward skating. Tony had us do a bit of backward gliding, then try to do one-foot glides. I think my record was keeping my right skate up for maybe .75 seconds. I got pretty nervous about falling, even though it's practically second nature to me by this point. I guess that's something for me to work on on my own. Tony also introduced one foot swizzles on a circle, which is damn near impossible for me. I have issues getting my foot back in to center. Oh, and the whole trying to stay on my outside edge thing? Yea, that feels really strange. He had us run a few circle drills doing that, which was a ton of fun, but also the most barely-contained chaos I've ever seen.
We also did some crossovers on the circles. I had a bit of a rough start because they're easier to do the faster you go, but I'm not comfortable going very fast in a circle... So at the end of class Tony put on music and told us to skate for the duration of the song. No talking, no stopping, and doing crossovers in the corners whenever we could. I was doing pretty well for a while, until I caught a gouge in the ice and went down. I just laughed, because I slid a good 10-15 feet on my ass. Then a few laps later I caught an edge and completely bit it. I landed weird and my knee did something awkward. I kept skating (much slower), but I didn't do any more crossovers that day. After class when I was taking my skates off I realized that my knee was swollen and bruised already. About an hour later it was twice the size it should be. The swelling went down some overnight, and it was normal size by about Thursday, so it's good to know that wasn't anything major. Just me being a clutz. A group of us also went to Chiller again on Thursday and I got to try out my skates with sharpened blades! Woo! Unfortunately we only had about 30 minutes of ice time, so I didn't really do anything specific. I was still a little shaky for whatever reason (I think I was a bit concerned about hitting my knee again). Although #3 and I did have a race down one of the long sides of the rink, and had all of the other skaters in hysterics because of our taunts and me flailing like an idiot because I'm ridiculously uncoordinated. It was good times.
I'm actually half thinking about seeing if there's open ice anywhere tonight and going skating. No one else is around and I'm kind of bored, plus I haven't been out of the apartment for anything other than class in about three days, so I'm kind of going crazy. Maybe I'll see if anyone's interesting in rushing a Jackets game tonight.