Maneuvers take more energy than plain-skating—things like 3-turns and crossovers and backwards skating…and I’m still taking it slow, coming back to the ice. I’m limiting myself to about 30 minutes a go, to avoid straining something. And there are a few things I hadn’t counted on—one of which is that I’ve dropped about 30 lbs since I bought these skates (which of course are basically the boots, with blades), and I’m dropping in boot size. Re-heating (heat-molding) the boots will help; maybe wearing socks. Maybe shifting the lacing a bit. But you have to lace snugly, and being able to move your feet around in the boots is not a good thing.

But—I did several perfectly secure crossover steps, and found my ‘under’ foot behaving automatically, going underneath properly, which is a good thing. I was incredibly shaky last week, and this week have my left and right 3-turns away from the wall: the right foot is better than the left, but hey, I’m working on the left. Most of that problem was not getting the offside shoulder back as I’m skating into the turn…ie, leaning forward or letting that shoulder go forward will blow it. Getting that shoulder back and the whole neck-and-shoulders area primly upright means you won’t lean, and that means you keep your balance on the ice. If you’re centered over your skates with knees bent, you do not fall down.

I’m working on my left foot in general, to get it to behave and bite-in the way it should. Ice was great today.

We’re trying to get back in condition. It’s one thing doing yard work, but this is lower-body type work, and fine control, and muscles just have to remember what they need to do.

Meanwhile snow is on the way. It’ll rain tonight, and then the snow starts, and stays, and stays. Gotta get the snow boots out of the closet.