It is a mystery

I went ice skating last night at the rink that is quiet and has weekday evening skating hours. No rink has them except this one and I'm so glad I found it. The hours are 7-9pm and it's usually pretty empty. It also costs only a dollar. Not a full size rink but a decent size. 

I got there last night and there were four people practicing skating in hockey skating (including me), a couple on a date, and parent and kid and one family. So pretty quiet. One of the people practicing skating was obviously pretty new at it. She was just starting crossovers and was doing okay. Definitely couldn't stop but she was getting there. 

After I skated for an hour and 20 minutes or so, I sat down and started taking my skates off. She ended leaving about the same time and had sat across from me. She had on a st. lawrence university hoodie so I figured she was either in college or just out of college. 

I decided to talk to her and took a minute to figure out what to say. We chatted for five minutes or so and as it turns out, she was teaching herself to skate. I didn't really give her advice, but mostly encouragement because she'd only been doing it for a month and was already trying crossovers! Which is pretty dang good! I told her I was in her spot a little over a year ago and it just takes more skating time to get better. 

So that was kinda neat. Hopefully I see her again there and maybe I'll look up how to teach how to stop because she definitely needs to learn that and maybe would enjoy learning? Who knows. 

I've been working pretty steadily on backwards skating and I've got good crossovers in each direction. Something is a little funny about them, maybe I'm taking too long strides or something, I still haven't figured it out. I've also been working transitions and they've been improving a little. Still not natural feeling but getting there on both mohawk and two foot transitions. 

 Nice weekend. 

Got a bunch of stuff done, saw an amazing hockey game saturday (listen, local team is Not Good this year, they have 10 freshmen on the team and somehow they scored 4 goals on one of the top teams????? they did lose 4-5 but it was just. A wild weird game. I want to write something up on it later). Yesterday I made fig newtons which I messed up slightly by softening the butter too much but they'll be tasty. I also made yogurt. I was going to make taco stuff but I went ice skating in the afternoon and by the time I got back and walked the dog I was tired. I'll make that tonight. 

Ice skating was good. I'm trying to figure out where I'm going from here. I'd like to start buying equipment, which I never got around to this summer but the local rec teams started their season a month ago. I thought about taking another skating class but it overlaps too much with work stuff right now, I can't guarantee I'll be able to leave work early enough to make it. idek, either way, that skate 3 weeks ago I felt super shaky but this time I felt good. Got backwards crossovers both ways. I need to work on transitions. Bleh. 

 Today was a lovely day, the weather was awesome. 

I watched the Women's Worlds games that were on today, mostly. I watched the France-Sweden one fully but only half watched the USA-Switzerland one because USA so dominated it and I tend to dislike those kinds of games. Also the game caller on NHL Network is an asshole and I always mute him so I don't know what's going on as much. Actually, he's worse than listening to the game caller in Swedish because at least then the talking becomes background noise and it makes me able to hear the person playing the trumpet/possibly airhorn in support of their team. I couldn't figure out which team. There was a full on trumpet at yesterdays Germany-Japan game and they played a victory song with Germany won. So fucking funny. There were also cowbells in support of Switzerland today. Hockey is wild.

I got some spinning done while sitting out on the balcony with the dog. I'm working with mystery roving that I apparently didn't write any information about anywhere, even online. It's got a shorter staple and it's not combed as nicely as the first set of roving that I've been working with so I was struggling for a little while. But I figured it out now, I just need to pre-draft it much more than I think I need to and then I can properly draft from it and get the consistency I want. 

Then I went ice skating and I can now somewhat do a backwards crossover. Kinda. Sorta. I'm going backwards and my legs are crossing vaguely in the direction they should be, so it's a win. I'm extremely inconsistent with my transitions, sometimes they feel like magic and a lot of the time I can't manage it. There's something not clicking quite right in my muscles but I just need to keep working on it. I think I'm not lifting enough as I do it but eh. I did fall a couple of times. One thing that happens is about halfway through the session, my balance goes to shit. I don't know if it's not enough muscle built up or just general fatigue that I don't notice or if I'm not bending my knees enough but I have a lot more trouble. Honestly, it's probably the last one. 

Apparently since this is the only arena with open skates, a bunch of figure skating coaches come and teach students in the middle of the arena. Which was less terrible than I anticipated it to be. One of the coaches from the learn to skate was teaching someone and she was said she was glad to see me practicing. 

I came back, walked the dog and then Jade wanted delivery, so we got delivery and I ordered nachos, which, I had very low hopes for. The chips were soggy and the cheese was cold but like, that was the best damn melted cheese I've ever had???? Baffling but delicious. I ate a ton and now I'm getting tired. 

I should probably get the one sidejob task done tonight but we'll see. 

 My period has decided that headaches and nausea are In this time and I like a fool only took a half dose of meds before leaving for ice skating and had a lovely 45 minutes of incredible sensitivity to the sun, to noise, to temperature, to the movement of the tiny children in the warmup area. 

But once we split up and it was two others and the instructor and I had a task, I did much better. I got a half hockey stick to hold this week :) 

I need to work on weight shifting while going forward and we started doing backwards edge work which ugh hard. Then we started on one foot turns which also ugh hard. We've hit the issue where half the people are missing one lesson and then the next so now I'm ahead of the others because I've been to every session, one person today missed the last two, one person was missing today, on and on. I suspect I'm the only one practicing between sessions too. 

We're going to cover crossovers next time, which I know already but I'd like pointers on. The person teaching watches hockey so she's been helping me and that's why she gave me the half hockey stick to carry while doing certain things like pumping and stroking. 

I made venison meatloaf, yesterday I think? I'm tired with the nighttime dog shenanigans. It's super moist and tasty and like full of flavor. I've had some bland meatloaf and this was much better. I made some marinara sauce to go with it. 

I've got cherry brownies in the oven right now so I can eat them and also take some with me tomorrow to A's farm. I need to go collect all my peppers and tomatoes and print my list because they're going to start them for me so I'm working a couple of days in exchange. 

I'm going to head to PA too. I have a little hope that I can get the spring fields rototilled but it's supposed to rain saturday night into sunday. I might do next weekend in PA too to get things planted but I'm not sure yet. Spring is approaching fast and I'm not prepared. I'm more concerned about the spring crops because they need to get in the ground so they grow before it gets too hot, but getting in the field can be difficult when it's wet. I'm also still shuffling around some things in the field. 

I also have incredible timing, I ordered the nice underwear and got it tuesday right as my period was starting so I'm holding off wearing it until my period is done. 

Went ice skating last night and got some cleaning done!

I went to the quiet rink and there were only five of us for most of the time. A couple, me and a father-son pair who were allowed to get hockey sticks and a puck and do some hockey stuff. They were very polite about keeping the puck away from us and only messing with each other. The only issue I had was towards the end, the other two people had left, they starting missing passes and so the puck drifted past me a couple of times but they didn't chase it until I was clear and it was cool.

( more skating rambling )

I got home a little after 9 and I got my laundry put away, and then since I was there and looking at them, I boxed up two boxes worth of books to be donated. I'm going to see if I can get them donated tonight and do another load thursday maybe. I need more medium size boxes so I'm going to hit up a liquor store or two and see if I can snag some of their boxes. PS if you ever have to move a lot of books liquor store boxes are the best because they aren't too big but are very sturdy and also generally free.

Yesterday I had skating lessons and I was the only adult who showed up this week so I got one on one learning with an instructor. 

noice

I learned slalom, which is two foot being a plane on ice going back and forth to work on turns. then I did the one foot versions of that on both inside and outside edges for both feet. I learned one leg glides and then pumping in a circle and then picking up a foot and still going in a circle (v hard). 

I then tried to do backwards pumps on the circle and while I can now skate okay and stop while going backwards, I could not do the weight shifting to pump properly. I just need to skate backwards more. 

then I learned the turning where you just move your body in place and then you should be going backwards which is very very hard because I mostly just try to make a circle turn and stop and flail around some. gracefully. 

I'm not sure how much skating time I'll be able to get in the next few months. Most ice rinks are just about done with public skates and it is warming up. My learn to skate sessions are going until the end of april and that rink seems to be open year round but they don't have public skating. I'm probably going to ask if they have small skating sessions or something I can join. They have figure skating practices but like, literally I'm in hockey skates, I probably shouldn't go to those. 

idek, we'll see. 

I was absolutely correct that skating would make me feel better and I was very energized when I got home. I made yogurt and rice and  then got sidejob work done and then went right to bed because I had to be up early this morning. 

today was an all day meeting about blueberries, specifically blueberry production but lol use your imagination. I did make that post. I left the apt at 6am this morning and got back at 6:30pm. what a joy. so I'm super tired and probably sleeping soon. 

tomorrow I drive to pa. spring is nearly here, it was beautifully warm today and tomorrow, while rainy is supposed to be 60 degrees. the snow is melting very quickly and I need to get plants started. 

ice skating lesson progressing well

this week we did swizzles to stops forward and back, squats while moving forward and backwards, one leg glide where you crouch and balance which I could do forward but not really backward, c cuts in a circle as a precursor to crossovers, and jumping. yes. jumping. 

tiny itty bitty jumps but I was sweating by the end. I'm writing this down partially so I know what to practice. I was just going to go to a public skate on saturday but I kinda want to go tomorrow to get that empty ice time. I'm not sure yet. oh wait there's a hockey game to watch never mind. 

And in the first session, Coach D said that I would have a harder time since I'm in hockey skates. I do tend to slip and fall more than the others do and part of the issues I'm having with stopping while going backwards is that I instantly unbalance when I try to stop. But eh, it's fine. 

It's also a very good reason to continue actually working out. Squats and such. I think that's what I'll do tomorrow instead. 

 tonight's skating was lots of fun!

at first I was concerned because I pulled into the school and the entire parkinng lot and half of the next was filled (big parking lots). There was some event at the building, still havent' figured out what because I didn't see anyone bringing equipment in but something was happening. It wasn't bad except for some parents brought their other kids and so there was a pack of 8-10 year old children engaging in shenanigans in the rink. going the wrong way, falling on purpose, randomly skating, stopping to take photos in the way, etc. they calmed down eventually. And also the parents with kids who could barely skate just took over the center of the rink which was a much better place than the rest of the rink where they were in the way of the faster skaters. 

there was just more people than normal so I worked on 1. balance which led to 2. right crossovers and 3. c cuts and shifting weight. 

I started by pushing off and then holding that skate up off the ice as long as I could, back and forth, whether fast or slow. Eventually I started leaving my left foot up near the front of my right skate, which I then started working into crossovers. 

I can now do a left crossover, skate two steps, do a right crossover, skate two steps and repeat all the long side of the rink which I'm pretty pleased with. I'm still having a little difficulty doing the right crossover on the turn but I think it's just because at the end I was trying to work too sharp of a circle. Traffic was still going left and there were a few people still skating so I was on a much smaller circle so they didn't get worried. It would be nice to use a faceoff circle but there's too much risk of collision. 

the c cuts and weight shifts came because I thought it was a good idea. It took a bit to get into the rhythm but I started with a half rink, doing c cuts and not lifting either skate to push myself forward, only adding speed through c cuts. then I started working the turns and I ended up doing three or four laps of the rink in a row just doing the c cuts and not lifting my skates. that really worked my hips. 

towards the end, I also started working on balance on turns by doing the push off and hold but on either foot.

I worked up such a sweat that I took my hat off for about ten minutes towards the end to cool down. I also worked both my hips evenly today but doing all the above things. I've got my left crossovers 90% of the time smoothly and it's really neat. 

I also just skated around a while at the end and that was great. 

lessons start wednesday!

 Skating in the new skates wasn't bad. It was incredibly different than the rental skates which are either not sharpened or sharpened differently than the way the store guy did it because I was sliding all over. 

It was slipping sideways when I would push off so I'm guessing he put more of an edge on it, which is helpful only if you are already good at skating. I did get used to it and it actually helped after a little bit, I was much more stable and consistent with things

I also can now pretty consistently do left turning crossovers although some can be a little choppy and weird. I waited towards the end so most people cleared out to loop to the right in the middle of the rink to try right crossovers. Meh. I can do them but not gracefully or consistently. 

Increased my skating backward distance to the length of the rink!

I still cannot stop. 

I did leave ten minutes early because either my sock or the constant left turns were causing issues because my left arch started pinching a little and I was afraid it was a blister. It wasn't and I hopped back on the ice for a bit but it came back.

I also didn't really stretch after, mainly because I end up cold and I'm not sure how much help the stretching will be. I stretched a little while the zamboni was going halfway through. But my thighs and hips are cold the whole time I'm skating although I am sweating a little bit. 

I'm going to try and make it to the other rink on wednesday for skating. We shall see