Sunday Skate - The Day After

For an almost an hour and a half I got to skate with no real objective or agenda other than to skate (except for checking in on the kids, who migrated between small and big ice as their comfort levels allowed).  Basically, it was me and my skates.  Yay!

A bit of a shock, however, awaited me in the realisation that it had been two weeks since I'd last been on the ice, which meant that two weeks of fairly intense inline training had my skating self (body, mind, neural pathways) keyed to a different pitch than 'ice', that I was pretty fragile after yesterday's efforts, and that my skates haven't been sharpened for almost three months (the first month of which they got a lot of use).  In other words, I'd have to be careful, not immediately follow my skating desires.  And, adding to the sense of skating on the edge, was that any falls would probably hurt twice as much as usual due my weakened physical condition.  Lucky I love a challenge.

For the first few laps it was basically just go at a comfortable pace, no tricks.  Even my hockey stop had degraded to a snow plough.  Keep at it, find my edges, feel their limits, don't transgress.  Stance felt natural, no muscle strain, lower than when on the inlines.  Speed, slow to moderate, occasionally at high cruising speed.  Mohawks, remind self to not do the splay foot turn on my present edges, work on getting my transitions going left/right and forward/backward.  Return to the hockey stop.  Drill it hard in the corners. 

Stay in the envelope, but push it.  Expand the bubble of confidence.  Feel the competence return to fill the voids.

Moment of realisation - having deprogramed myself mentally and physically over a fortnight (at least as far as the ice is concerned) had created a 'deep learning' opportunity in that not only had my good habits to some degree dissolved, but so had my bad.  In other words, aspects of my skating that were especially resistant to change before my break (eg the difficulty in planting the outside edge on the hockey stop, with all the consequent limitations to future development of the art that this entailed) were now exposed and malleable.  Thus, in drilling the hockey stops I put emphasis of the two footedness of the stop, the swivel nature of the core, the weighting on the outside edge.  Will be interesting to see how much of it sticks in the next few weeks.

I kept the drills short, had the odd breather on the edge of the rink (used these breathers to check on the kids, give them words of advice and encouragement).  Managed my energy.

At the end of my session I felt great, though tired and, after Tracey had picked up the kids, luxuriated like a lizard lounging in the sun at the bus stop.  How convenient that the bus to the rink also stops just around the corner from my home!

Another great Sunday skate!