Power

I had my first power lesson with Holly today on the Gilbert adult skate.  I survived...

I had about 10 minutes to warm up but since I skated this morning it was okay.

Today's lesson:

• stroking -- OMG.  I was going (for me) really fast.  Holly told me to arch my back more and really push into each stroke.  Apparently I'm still slightly toe-pushing (grr).
• slaloms -- ugh.  Slaloms down the length of the rink.  Holly told me not to keep my arms out to the side ("no pretty arms here!") but to swing them back and forth and really dig in.  
• small slaloms on the circle -- these really did me in.  Small slaloms around the circle (each way) really showed up my weakness on the clockwise slalom.  Ugh.  By the end of these I was pretty beat and my back was starting to bug me.
• lunges -- we finished up with these, me pushing Holly down the rink alternating sides on the lunge... no time to think in between. DOWN! UP! DOWN! UP!  Yikes.  And of course my R side lunges stink so that was a bit challenging.

After my lesson I had about 15 minutes to skate so I worked on toe loop and spins.

It's good I didn't try for more than 20 minutes as I was pretty beat at the end of this.   I think I'm going to be kinda sore tomorrow although it wasn't my legs that were the problem, more my lower back.  All in all I think it was helpful and I'm hopeful we can make some good progress.