FO8, FI8

I skated the 7:30 a.m. FS at the brand-spankin'-new Ice Den Chandler today, for a patch lesson with Lynne since the Sherwood competition is (gulp) SATURDAY.

The rink is so new that... well... there are still a lot of workmen running around... y'know... working.  On stuff.  Like the restaurants and the exercise facility.  The ice itself is up, although I had signed up for East Rink and we were on West instead.  Also they had us changing in a temporary locker room, not the actual locker rooms.

The ice itself -- well, it needs work right now.  It's been quite humid (for Arizona) outside and the dehumidifiers are not keeping up so it's fairly humid and foggy in the rink.  Also it didn't appear that the ice had been cut today so it was a bit crusty and, due to the humidity there's been dripping from the ceiling and the resultant "stalagmites".  So it was not ideal; but it was skateable.  If I'd been doing freestyle it probably wouldn't have mattered so much.  Oh well.  I'm sure they will have it up to snuff soon.  On the positive side, I had it all to myself!

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- ugh.  Between the ice and... whatever I was not making it around on one push most of the time.  The fact that I could at all says that it's possible, though.  It was hard to tell how I was tracing between the ice and the fact that my glasses fogged up about halfway through my lesson.  I know I was definitely tending to cut off the end of the circle though, making my return to center a bit diagonal.  Bleah.
• FI8 -- better than FO8, as usual.  Better in almost every respect, but still not good enough.  I had one push where my pushing foot slipped out to the side which was hard to recover from.  Yuck.

All in all not so great but I'm glad I had the lesson.  Lynne's most consistent feedback was to work harder on getting my hips under me when I push.  I was doing a bit better by the end of the lesson on sitting back on my blade more (Kelli's voice in my head.. "stay seated!" lol).

One more lesson (Friday) and then I fly out for the competition that night. Don't think I will get any more practice other than Friday either.  Ugh.  As I was leaving I was pleased to see Skye there.  I don't know what her title is but she's really an awesome person and I'm glad she's still on staff.