Um... hi there. It's been a while Smiles sheepishly. Baah. Finally a fairly nice day on a day when I plan on skating. I don't like driving in the snow. You... may have noticed that :p Ah, the sweet sounds of melt water. The feel of outside air that won't give you frostbite. The ease of pavement rather than packed ice and snow on the road. The joy of having the street not be quite as constricted by enormous snowbanks. The... wonder of enormous potholes, refrozen snow as ice, and dirty slush on the side of the road? Ah, well, you can't have everything. :p
Anyway, it felt really good to be back on the ice after not having had a lot of exercise - apart from shoveling snow - for a while. It took me a few minutes to get my rhythm back, but after a while I was doing my regular 3-turns and mohawks as good as ever. Practiced skating backwards. I some rather wimpy and hop-like waltz-jumps - in fact, a nice explanation for how to go into them was in the paper a little while ago - and tried a few spins which I think actually felt more centered than I'd done previously. Still need work, though. The spread-eagle glides were ok, but I haven't been practicing pointing my toes out. I did feel a little tired by the end of my half-hour, but then, I hadn't been working out. As I said, just good to get back out on the ice. Oh, by the way, this time I did sort of scratch the back of my leg with my ice-pick, but surprisingly it didn't do any damage to my pants. Apparently because I was wearing knit yoga pants. Maybe I should wear these every time I skate? LOL. I was also wearing thinner socks (which meant I could lace my skates tighter and have better control) and could bend more because of the yoga pants, both good things which may have contributed to the success of the session.
There were plenty of people there, but it wasn't crowded like I've seen on the weekends. Preteens, adults, little kids with crates to hold onto so they don't fall down. The toddler class which I've seen on Mondays had moved over to the adjacent smaller rink, which is better for all concerned. Good stuff.
