New Blades!

I got my skates back with my new blades last night and skated on them for the first time this morning -- they are MK Professional Parabolic. Skated on them at the beginning of the 7 a.m. session... weird! Feels very different and taking some getting used to. It didn't help that I'd been off the ice for two weeks!

Today's lesson was mostly evaluating how my blades worked for me:

• Stroking -- really just a straight line.
  
• Back edges -- I'm a bit thrown but they quickly improved.
• 3s -- FOs are better, FIs a little worse.
• Spins -- both 2-foot and one-foot. I'm seeing a noticeable difference/improvement -- in particular I did my best one-foot spin ever, two solid revs.

Sonya's conclusion (which matched mine) is that the right blade needs to come in "a smidge." In general I'm liking these new blades a lot.

Perseverance

I skated the 6 p.m. FS at Shiny Rink tonight. There were 10 or 11 skaters, so not too bad. I mostly worked on FXOs and BXOs and back edges. My back edges have really improved a lot! I think they are definitely passable now, at least when I do them as well as I can (so, maybe not nerves-proof yet). FXOs are coming along well.

New Blades Ordered

After some discussion with my coach and feedback from some friends, I'm going with MK Professional Parabolics. The pro shop will order them tomorrow, and I'm going to drop my skates off Thursday after I skate; they should be ready when I get back from my Thanksgiving vacation. The damage is $240 mounted.

One of the things I'm grateful for is having such a great pro shop. The owner, Jim, is VERY knowledgeable and he makes things very convenient -- for example I can drop skates off at the rink even when the shop is closed, and they'll get them; or they can leave them in the coaches' room for me when they are done sharpening. They're great. If you are ever in the area check 'em out, Northwest Skate Authority. (no, I'm not getting kickbacks)

Waltz-8 & Back Edges

Today's lesson on the 7 a.m. FS:

• Back edges -- we started with these because I was working on them when it came to lesson time (doesn't that often happen?). We finally fixed my takeoff for BO edges so that I'm going straight out, not back and out! I feel like I'm doing it in "slow motion" and have to really get the feet together and feel the outside of the ankle really pushing out, in order to get the takeoff set correctly. These have really come a long way.
• Waltz-8 -- Sonya asked me turns vs. waltz-8 and I chose waltz-8. Arrggh! Some of my progress from yesterday held but it's still a struggle to place the 3 better. I'm also getting up on my toe on the LBO.
• Spins -- finished up with these. Still a struggle, although I had one where I at least got around in a circle.

After my lesson Sonya and I talked about testing, critique, etc. We decided I will NOT test 12/6; I'm just not passable. We will ask one of the judges to come and critique a runthrough, though, which should give me valuable feedback.

We also talked about my blades. I've been thinking about this for a while anyway, but then I read a post on SkatingForums about someone else who had problems turning/spinning when moving to Coronation Comets. In looking back I think my blades might be the issue. I hate to sound like one of those skaters who blames all their problems on their equipment, but I would also hate to be wasting time (which for me is in really short supply) when I could fix it by getting different blades. So, Sonya is going to do some investigating and we will probably switch me to Coronation Ace or MK Pro. Hopefully I can get them ordered before I leave for Thanksgiving vacation.

Sunday Zoo

I skated the last hour or so of the Sunday public session. When I drove up the parking lot was *packed*, but it actually didn't seem to be any worse than most Sundays.

Skate buddy Lisa was there, just getting over a bad fall. She helped me work on controlling my 3s, with some progress -- THANKS LISA! Hopefully it will stick. I also worked a little on FXOs, BXOs and a few waltz jumps.

One problem I have in controlling my turns is that if I just skate an edge and then want to turn, I feel "stuck". As I was driving home it occurred to me that one exercise that might help fix this might be to trying skating an edge, then bending and straightening the skating knee a bit without actually turning. I'll see if I can remember to try this in the a.m.

Perseverance

I skated the 5:15 FS at Shiny Rink. It was the usual zoo, but I worked my 3s pretty extensively with maybe some small progress. Also worked BXOs and FXOs.