Shaking Off The Cobwebs

I got to skate today, the first time in 2.5 weeks. I drove down to Sherwood Ice Arena (which I'll henceforth call "Shiny Rink" a la Nerd). It's 17 miles from my home, but 10 miles of that is on the freeway so that part's not bad.

Shiny Rink is nice. It's only 1 sheet of ice (most of the rinks around here seem to be that way), but it's clean and well-lit. I was there for the Saturday public session, which was a zoo of course. The ice wasn't too bad though. There were a few figure skaters hanging out at center ice, but I was the only male.

It was too crowded to really do much. I really wanted to "stretch my legs" a little and do some laps at speed but no going. I contented myself with a few spins, turns, and some FXOs. I also did some waltz jumps from a standing start, some Salchows the same way, and 2 or 3 waltz jumps from BXOs (half the time I had to come to a screeching halt afterward to avoid a collision, though).

Shiny Rink is nice, but a bit far. I'm going to try out the closer rink sometime soon hopefully. Unfortunately none of them have evening ice except for a Tuesday evening freestyle at Shiny Rink. I'm realizing what a nice situation I had in Tucson -- not just my wonderful coach (sob!) and friends, but also the closeness and availability of the rink. I can skate here but it's probably going to take a bit more intestinal fortitude than I needed in Tucson.