Wednesday, January 19, 2011

And up ...

After doing some hydroblades over the past week I seem to have irritated my psoas, which is not entirely unexpected. So I'm laying off them for now and concentrating on less glamorous tricks which are in fact not even tricks, but basic skating.

I had hit a plateau on some of the formerly (pre-PAO) easy maneuvers - in particular FO rockers and stepping forward from back crossovers to the inside of the circle. I have been really concentrating on just doing these things and not jumping ahead to do the fun things like twizzles and patterns of the Rave. I've also really been working on my lazy glutes off the ice. Due to the lifelong dysplasia they have never fired correctly and now I am forcing them to work, so that my other muscles don't incorrectly take up the slack. Today I had the ice to myself and really saw improvement, although I am sore. I touch down with my free foot much less frequently as my skating muscles get stronger, although I still use training wheels when turnout doesn't happen.

Some of the things I struggled with 4 - 6 months ago I now do easily, such as LFI 3 turns and the Starlight mohawk section. I am still skating very slowly for me, but my speed has increased and I don't think I look like a slug. Maybe a turtle!

Friday is my last day of skating and lesson before 9 days at Nationals, so I hope to show Coach R a lot of improvement.

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