First time after a long layoff

I spend last weekend (actually more like 5 days) with my brother's family, then had to catch up at work, so this is my first session after a week-long layoff. From my dance and weightlifting experience, this was going to mean one of two things - either I would be a complete train wreck, or some of the training will have had time to sink in and things will be surprisingly easier. I've had both experiences, and can never anticipate which one will show up, so when I got to the rink this morning, it wasn't without a little hesitation.

So the good news is that it was the latter. I've spent a lot of time over the past week running the forward crossovers in my head and trying to figure out why my feet keep getting tangled up - it's like there's just not enough room to execute the step. I had some ideas to try out, and for the most part they worked. Still having the problem of not enough space (is it just that my feet are more like FLIPPERS, or is it something else I'm missing) but at least I can get around a circle without messing up. I've been told by friends that are athletes that this sort of "mental rehearsal" is actually quite beneficial - almost as much as actual practice. Something about your body understanding the mental rehearsal as very much like the real thing - I've had this happen with dance before when I'm trying to remember a particularly hard or complex combination, so it's not a completely alien concept. It was nice to see that it does work, though.

All in all, it was a good session. The goal right now is to have more GOOD sessions than BAD. A few of the adults came up and chatted - which is always nice. The "Shawn" guy introduced me to his dance partner and we commiserated about the poor state of the ice that morning. It's a common gripe for skaters, and now that I have some experience I can see why - the Zamboni operator really has a lot of control over how that machine resurfaces the ice - I've seen it smooth and wonderful, and I've also seen it more like a gravel driveway. This morning, there were actual puddles of water at both hockey goal areas (never seen that before) and the ice was... well... mushy is the only word I can give it. No idea what happened, but everyone just avoided the puddles and continued to work. I guess part of this learning process is learning how to skate on crappy ice.

At least this time I didn't step onto the ice with my friggin' blade guards on...