The road to Sochi 2014

So I've been told by many people that custom skates are actually extremely frustrating and painful. So far that is true. Yesterday I skipped stair training in the morning because i came down with something the night before. I would not have gone to training that night either but I received my skates ! as was documented yesterday. So I showed up to skating, didn't even warm up or stretch and got on the ice with a sore throat, head-ache, upset stomach, and a general run-down feeling. So with that said, one can imagine how it was hard enough to motivate myself to skate. The new skates are sooooo tight. especially on the right foot, it feels like a wrench clamped around my heel and if I try to lift up, it feels like my heel is suctioned to the boot. I could hardly do anything last night. I did get to watch Jeff Simon again though, which is pretty cool. The great part of last night is I had gotten a response from the Craig's List ad and I actually scheduled a lesson for this sunday!!! This morning I was still feeling under the weather but I did all I could do on the ice and was actually skating on the new skates! Although they are still intensely painful, I was able to really understand what I'm looking at down the road. These things are like platforms to jump off they are so sturdy. I think they also kind of force you into the right position. Towards the end of the practice, I was pushing it with the pain and the fatigue and I fell for the first time. It was a pretty good fall. It was loud. I think it was a combo of the skates and the tiredness. Also, we were doing sprint work this morning which is not exactly ideal for adjusting to new skates. I got off after the fall and somehow got my poor feet out of their vices and then watched the guys do a relay, just one team, all out, 1.5 laps each. It was pretty cool. Viktor was cranking out 8.9s and 8.8s by the end and Jeff was doing 9.0s with two arms on his back on terrible ice at the end of a 2 hour practice. Pretty inspiring to watch. I really hope this thing goes away so I can get serious again and really get used to my new babies.

We were going to go to the X-games after practice today, but Ingmar decided he was too tired and it was better to chill.