SkateMonster

What a miserably cold day it was today! I didn't think it could get colder than it was last night. I wish that I had Jen to keep warm with this weekend, but she's gone on a big Ski Race Weekend up at Alpine.

Today was all about skating. Pushed myself today.

Went to bed too late again last night. I thought the "domino" effect would happen this morning if one of us decided to stay in bed setting off a chain of people sleeping in on a bitterly cold Sunday morning. Dorota and Carolyn both sounded pretty tired when I talked to them on the phone, but they were both wanting to get up and skate, so I loaded up the car with all the ice and inline gear I would need today and picked them up for practice. I guess the good thing about having a car (besides not having to walk to the Subway) is that it gets me out to practice when other people rely on me to get there. Otherwise I'd be hitting the snooze and being lazy.

It was pretty casual at Inline this morning. I tried to skate behind Kevin as much as possible and he had some good pointers that I haven't been thinking about lately. Dropping my shoulder/twisting into the turn have always been my problem with crossovers. It helped to follow someone with better technique than me. I've always learned best skating behind people and trying to match their technique. During the past two summers, Camilo and Leo always tried to describe proper technique to me, but I have always found I learned best just skating behind them. If I was thinking too much about something and consciously trying to do it, I tend to get sloppier.

Kevin described it as "sticking my hip out", which means being aware of it so that it can remain in neutral position (if I am understanding correctly about how you might compensate metally when they say +1 or -1). Coincidentally, "the hip" was the focus during the intermediate session of Ice today. While I struggled with it this morning, it did Click on Ice later with the kinds of drills we did.

I finished off Inline practice by following the fast pack around as they were doing their passing drills, staying at the back of their pack and just trying to watch technique. I managed to stay with them for a few dozen laps.

After that we had the debate as to whether to stay for Dryland and/or Eric's inline training session. We opted to go eat instead.

At ice tonight, I did all three sessions. We were unexpectedly invited to stay for the advanced session! I was the only one of our Inline group who opted to go back to do the Learn to Skate session today. I figured that I just really needed to reinforce the basics as much as possible. The soft spoken coach (Mike?) had our advanced group and we covered a real range of stuff... basic position, crossovers, starts. I was really good to go over all this stuff again, particularly since I had missed the first two sessions of the original Learn to Skate program.

At the intermediate session Jared decided to focus on the "hip" thing that had plagued me this morning. The drill was fun... we took a bucket and basically had to lean on it while we did crossovers, first on the outside of the cones and then on the inside of the cones. It forced us to get our hips into the proper position! and towards the end of the intermediate session, things began to "click" for me. Pushing the hip out, I felt much more power from the inside leg, and it felt like the blade on the left side was gripping better as well instead of it's usual fishtailing.

The Advanced Ice session was pure endurance. I managed to keep up for most of it, but I was starting to get really sloppy towards the end the more tired I was getting. We had a minor Pile-up at one point when I went down.

The most tiring part of all about going to the advanced practice is helping to put the big crash mats away!

All in all, I felt very happy with Ice tonight. It will be interesting to see how this will start translating into my Inline.


Focus continues to be an issue lately. I have too many physical activities and they really take a toll on my body. It seems that it's really hard to focus on one training activity without the others suffering. For the longest time it has been climbing, which I've managed to maintain recently in the winter, but that went out the window in the past few weeks that I've been focusing on Kickboxing for the new Body Combat release. I've also been negecting my Resistance Training since I haven't done Pump or any weights in a few weeks now and I'm not getting the stretching I need via Yoga and Flow. I think Inline has suffered as well because my legs are so tired from the Kickboxing that my techniques been going out the window.

Hopefully after the Thursday class I am teaching, I can resume a normal schedule with a balance between Pump, Flow/Yoga, Combat, Spinning, Climbing, Ice and Inline!

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Strawberry Yogurt, Banana, Flax Bagel with Light Cream Cheese, Mango Smoothie, Rare Beef and Beef Ball Pho, Satay Beef and Onions, Strawberry Milkshake Thai Style, Feta Cheese and Spinich pastry, Chocolate Chip Muffin, Peanut butter sandwhiches on Ancient Grain Bread, Veggie Chili and pickle. Orange Juice.


SATURDAY

Rest Day. Stayed indoors and cozy up until I had to go out to see the Canadian Tenors with Dorota. Coincidentally it Mike and Iona were going as well with Mike's Mom, and the concert took place at the Church where they got Married! Went to Mike and Iona's for dessert but I was good and didn't have the Pecan Pie ('cause of my nut allergy).

WHAT I ATE ON SATURDAY

Whole Wheat Bagel and Cream Cheese. Peppermint Tea. Veggie Chili.

FRIDAY

Taught Body Combat at noon St Clair with Tanya. Spinning in the evening at St Clair, followed by much needed Yoga with Yvonne. Combat was exhausting.

WHAT I ATE ON FRIDAY

2 Lick's burgers with all the fixin's. High Impact Acai Booster Juice. Tuna Fish Sandwhiches.