Grounded

Yes it's happened: I've been grounded from the ice! :-( I'm SOOOOO SAD!!! That bad case of shin splints that I mentioned 2 weeks ago turned out to be a little more than just shin splints. About a week and a half ago (it was on a Sunday) I started having pain in my calf even when I was walking. I waited over Labor Day to see if it would go away but it only got worse. So that Tuesday I called a sports medicine orthopedist that a friend had recommended and made an appointment for the following afternoon. Tuesday morning I was still able to practice but I started noticing that I was having trouble getting into a flip from a 3 turn and I had already stopped doing Salchows and toe loops because they were quite painful. Wednesday morning I was supposed to have a lesson before my appointment that afternoon. I went out to warm up about 30 minutes before my lesson as I hate going into a lesson cold, but by the time my coach came out onto the ice I was in tears, not from the pain, but simply because I couldn't do anything without it hurting! I knew I was going to have to take some time off of the ice and that realization was heartbreaking! It only took a few pokes and prods on my shin for the doctor to suspect what the X-rays confirmed: a stress fracture. Even worse than I thought! As a nursing student, I had done my homework before going in and thought that it was a tendon problem. I figured a week at most off of the ice, a little physical therapy and I'd be good as new. Not so much. Between a soft tissue (such as ligaments and tendons), actual fracture and a stress fracture, having a stress fracture is probably the worst of the three. This is because of two main reasons: first, once you get a stress fracture, you're at risk for having future ones. Secondly, and more importantly, unlike a true fracture that heals in 6 weeks, there is no guarantee that a stress fracture will heal and if it does, there is no guarantee that it won't come back again to haunt you. Naturally, this diagnosis produced a few more tears. And I haven't even mentioned the other factors that were upsetting such as we had just finished choreographing my program 4 days before and I had a competition in 7 weeks (now 6) or the fact that, well let's face it, I'm addicted to the ice and to go from skating 6 days a week to NOTHING was impossible to imagine. So now I'm on a diet extraordinarily heavy in calcium. I eat 2-3 Tums a day, drink a minimum of 16 oz of milk, eat 1 cup of yogurt and 2 cheese sticks. I try to grab a bite or two of ice cream or some extra milk as well but it just depends on the day. It's probably my own fault now that I think about it because not only do I pound the life out of my joints and bones every day, but I started really watching what I was eating back in early July and since school has been in session for the last month, if it doesn't pack in a backpack, then I probably am not eating it. I live on peanut butter sandwiches, apples and granola bars. So yes I know that I inadvertently set myself up for this one but that doesn't make it any easier. Here's the crux of the matter, and this is hard for me to admit: what I've accomplished in the last 5 months is amazing and awesome, not to mention highly unusual. But it's the fact that I'm definitely not a typical skater that drives me forward even more to continue to surpass any and all expectations that anyone has for me, including my own. If I can't compete at the end of October, I'll be disappointed but it won't be the end of the world. What has me willing to kill to get back out there is that I'm really afraid of loosing some of what I had before. I started getting a consistent camel-sit just a couple of days before I was ordered off of the ice. My sit spin was getting much lower and tighter. My spirals were looking better, and I had a great catch foot towards the end of my program. I'm really afraid that I will have to go back and somewhat re-learn what I already have. And then there is sectionals. Okay, I guess I'll admit my secret. I know that the only thing I'm going to have to push hard for is the flying spins to skate in the silver division. The Axel won't be a problem for me. So, I was super secretly hoping that I would actually be able to do gold and not just silver. Because I'm fairly sure I could have had the double Salchow and toe loop. But now that I've lost ground I don't know if I'll be able to have even the flying spins by the end of December, which is when I'd have to test into silver if I was going to skate gold. Because you have to be tested into the level you're competing in (well you can skate one up but that's it) NOT by the time of the competition but by the time of the registration. So let me just point out that the registration for both sectionals and nationals is the first week of January. And sectionals are the last week of February, and nationals are the second week of April. Okay just so we're clear that's two and three 1/2 months respectively between registering and competing. Anyone else see the problem with this? I can accomplish.....well let me think a second here.....I think I had every single jump except Lutz and of course Axel by the 3 month mark. Just saying...So anyways, the only ice I'm seeing right now is teaching learn to skate. Hopefully by next week I can do some general stroking and moves just so that I can stay on my blades and maybe the week after I can really get back to what I do well....I think as long as I can be back on the ice at 100% by 3 weeks out from the competition, I can pull it off if I do 2 a day practices. We will see....more to come soon! I may be off the ice for a couple of weeks but I'm flooring it full force as soon as they'll let me get back on!

Three weeks later...

Ok ok I know I’m horrible….it’s been nearly three weeks since I’ve updated the skating blog. And the last two weeks I was in school so that does explain a lot as far as lack of time is concerned. I actually have had to read what my last post was so that I knew what I should talk about that has happened since then. A major factor that has come into play since my last posting is a severe case of shin splints in my left leg. I’ve had shin splints but none quite like this. Let me put it this way, it’s not uncommon for me to be woken up by shooting pain in my leg at 4 am. I think it’s mostly from the amount of spinning that I’m now doing. On my last post I had talked about how I was starting to try some sit spins and was learning how to do a camel. I now have a pretty decent looking sit spin (actually I get into a very nice position and it’s quite speedy, we’re just working on getting it lower) and a good camel when it decides to behave….it’s very inconsistent. So the pain I think can be fairly accurately attributed to my calf muscles freaking out because of all of the intense spinning that is going on right now. I’m not jumping very much at all and I’m really focusing on catching my spins up to my jumps. This was because I had been begging my coach to let me compete on the bronze level for our competition at the end of October instead of the pre-bronze level because I really wanted to be able to throw a Lutz in my program. I have the jumps, why not use them, right? And of course, her response was that if I wanted to compete in bronze, then I needed to catch my spins up to the caliber of my jumps. Logical, yes. Fun, no. Easy to do, heck no! But I am happy to report that I now have a happy and consistent backspin that I am still working on getting consistently into a combo, can do a sit scratch combo, and am within a week or so I’m guessing of having a camel sit. Oh and I can do a pancake spin and a headless scratch spin. So we started putting together my program on Tuesday. I like my music which starts out slow but then picks up and has a nice dark, mysterious accent to it which will go great with my amazing dress that I have. My coach asked me on Wednesday if I had timed my music yet. I said that I had and she just sort of gave me a look. I thought that she was trying to tell me it was a bit too long at 1:47. I said that I thought it could be + or – 10 seconds, which it can. Then she said, yes it could and then just kept looking at me. Suddenly the lightbulb went off. It was 1:47 because she was letting me skate bronze, which has a time cap of 1:50 compared to 1:40 in pre-bronze. I think I just about jumped over the boards! I was very excited, and still am! Although looking back, I should have seen it coming considering I’m throwing a camel sit in the opening 15 seconds! We choreographed the first ½ of the program Tuesday but then went back and changed all of the jumps around today, which was kind of confusing, but definitely better score wise! The one (and only) nice thing about pre-bronze is that the number of jumps as well as the number of repetitions was free. Now that we’re doing bronze, they cap everything out from now on. So we can only have 4 jumps, combos or sequences and you can only repeat a jump once, and it must be in a combo or a sequence. But I think the other catch is that you can actually repeat a jump more than once if it is in a sequence. But I could be wrong…I’ll get back to you on that one. Anyways, so we nixed what we initially were doing since we only had 4 jump opportunities and I’m pretty happy about the jumps that are going into it. Right in the middle of the program I jump around like a frog with a split jump, a combo and then a sequence all in about 30 seconds. But I do LOVE jumping….hence why there is only one solo jump in the whole program! Tomorrow we are going to finish it off so that  means step sequence, although I think I heard something about a spiral sequence instead……hmmmm…..not so excited about that one….and then the last jump and ending spin (which I’m assuming will be scratch backscratch). And then I have 9 weeks exactly to get it perfected. The likelihood that I’m actually going to be competing against anyone in October is pretty low. There is only one other adult freestyle skater at my rink and she’s definitely a pre-bronzer…I don’t think I’ve even seen her do a loop or a flip, let alone a Lutz. Ah yes, and how is that Axel you ask? Well the second time in the harness I pretty much fumbled every one of them until the end, where I proceeded to land my last two most excellently. And then shin splints happened, which have caused a major breakdown in the Axel work since pushing off my toes (AKA plantar flexion) is a KILLER right now. We tried to do them last week which resulted in me pretty much flopping around and doing ‘Tinkerbells’ as my coach called them. Not sure what that meant…maybe that I was just jumping up and not doing anything? But I know that I’ll get out of the harness quickly as soon as I can jump them again without wanting to amputate my leg….hopefully by next week. Oh and about that split jump I mentioned earlier….I should add the small note that I really don’t like it. I was trying to tell my coach that I could do a falling leaf at that particular spot in the program but she said no because we needed to land forwards, so then I suggested a stag jump. I thought how hard could it be? Then she said do a split. Of course, she likes my split jump because I get very high in the air. (Really? You don’t say? Imagine that, the jumping queen gets some hang time on a jump….) I don’t like it because I know I’m not getting a 180 degree split. It’s probably something like a 140 ish….I don’t really know. I should have her shoot it with her flip camera! And of course since she is THE COACH, what she says, goes. Although I will admit that there are 2 equal aspects of the split jump to consider as a skater: One, the spit itself, which I will be working on and stretching. But the second aspect that you don’t think about until you’re doing one is a confidence/security aspect. It’s one thing to jump into the air and rotate with your feet perpendicular to the ground. It makes for a guaranteed landing. A split jump, however requires not only height and rotation, but you have to split your legs parallel to the ice….which is absolutely opposite of every instinct in your body! So for me, I started getting a better jump immediately once I really forced myself to PULL my upper body up. Chest up and out, head back. You have to just trust that you’re feet will find their way back down to the ground. Okay, well I know I’ve more than made up for a lack of posting for three weeks now! I’ll try to get a quick update up in the next day or two regarding the full compilation of my program. Oh and of course, there’s one last little item of panic to mention….my coach could be disappearing on a shortened maternity leave any day! While she will only be gone for two weeks….hopefully….I’m already very nervous about it since I’m trying to prepare my very first program! Not that the secondary coach I work with off the ice and when my coach is gone isn’t fabulous, I just want my COACH!