The First Bad Hit

“Try that again, this time don’t swing your leg like that so that you remain in control” - Coach T

“Okay!” (I said enthusiastically)

Push forward. Swing leg around. Die.

It was all in slow motion, one moment I was swinging my leg around for a scratch spin and the next moment my head had hit the ice. I thought my glasses had shattered as they rolled forward on the ice. My nose was numbing. I lifted my head with a smile on my face, “I’m okay.” Within seconds, I looked down and there was blood dripping everywhere. I didn’t know if it was coming from my mouth or nose, because it surely felt like I had broken something. Turns out I actually had a cut near my eye (still no idea how I managed to get a cut) and my nose was bleeding from the force of the hit to the ice.

Within one minute, nearly every other adult had gathered around to see if I was okay, surely the blood wasn’t a very good sign. I got up, put my hand under my chin to catch the drips and made my way to the side while my coach ran off to get supplies. I can’t say it enough, but she’s actually the best. She came back and wouldn’t let me do anything, she literally wiped the blood off my face, cleaned the cut, and put a bandaid on it. Then instructed me not to get back on the ice. She had to yell a little for me to get the picture, but I appreciate that she’s like that. I convinced her to only take a half hour break so that I could continue my lesson with her.

Today was a hit for me. This week I’ve heard no less than three outrageous injuries that happened at my home rink including two concussions and other head injuries (w/ blood). I knew my time was coming as I thought to myself last Sunday, I’m so lucky, I haven’t hit my head on the ice yet. The entire time my coach was helping me with the cut I just wanted to get back on the ice and move on. Some would say I’m a trooper, haha.

I may be a little shaken up, but it was worth it. Looking back, the entire scenario was crazy. The cut is not even an inch long, it sits in the inner corner of my eye and runs up through my eyebrow. I’m glad I was with my coach and not on my own. I used to laugh about this before, but today I learned that I really should do what my coach tells me to do the first time around. It’s hard to make a quick fix when learning new skills on the ice, but I should have been more careful. I should have taken my time on the spin.

My pre-bronze test is next week. It would be great if I didn't injure myself before that. If only I could skate and be assured that I won't hurt myself. Yeah, that would be nice.

Skating is good….in moderation.

My name is Gina and yes I know I have a problem. I am obsessed with figure skating. If you know me at all in real life you probably know that I am easily obsessed with things. A nicer way to put it is perhaps that I become passionate about everything that I put my heart into. When I was growing up I was obsessed with Harry Potter, the High School Musical Series (Zac Efron to be exact), and the Twilight Series. As I got older I became obsessed with the ideas of a “perfect” future so I planned a fake wedding, designed my dream home on floor planner, and pinned to my “for the future” boards on pinterest.

So, when I began to take figure skating seriously in late February it was clear that it was becoming another obsession of mine. I lived and breathed figure skating (and still do). I ate healthy for figure skating. I went to the gym, for figure skating. I didn’t play other sports, so that I wouldn’t get injured...so that I could skate. I slept, so I could recover from skating. I ate more after skating to recover from skating. I even read about skating for hours on end. It quickly became a lifestyle rather than just a sport. Unfortunately for me, it is clear that I need to be careful with this rather obsessive lifestyle.

My knee is injured and when I skate for several days in a row, usually by the end of the streak I start falling...a lot. I’ve decided to mandate non-skating days. I am absolutely, positively not allowed to skate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and at least one day on the weekend. Since I have skating classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday it’s really all the skating time I need. This mandate has gone into effect this week. The pain I get in my knee is from over training, I am almost positive of this now despite not yet having MRI results.

If I want to be healthy and fit for my competition I need to be more aware of what I am doing to my body. If that means limiting my skating then that’s what it means. In the past two months I’ve skated for more than 75 hours (averages out to ~10 hours per week). I’ve learned a lot. It is time to perfect the skills I am presenting in my program. I will have two months in the summer to learn some new skills. I’d love to learn a couple more jumps and have my pre-bronze test passed by September #goals.

Crappy Ending to A Great Skating Week :(

My sixth day in a row on the ice, 12 hours total. It’s like spring break all over again! A couple weeks ago I saw my general physician about the knee pain I was having due to the constant falling on ice and she basically told me to give it a rest. So, I stayed off the ice for 6 days and rested/iced my knee constantly. I got back on the ice with more ease and confidence ready to take on the world last Friday evening. I continued skating every day for a few hours until today. I got to the rink, skated beautifully during adult skate. I ran through my program several times, then broke it up into smaller pieces to work on elements. By the end of adult open skate, many people had gotten off the ice so I decided to just have some fun and ice dance to my current favorite song, "She", by Zayn. I was having a blast dancing along to it, I even found myself doing a new move, backwards power pulls (do those actually exist, because they are easier than forward power pulls). The zamboni came on to to the ice so it was time to get off. Luckily for me, there was another public session following adult open skate.

A few days ago I got really lucky and had the ice to myself during public skate. Today, there were four hockey players getting on to the ice and well, me. I knew that this session was going to end badly. While the zamboni was doing its thing I had a nice conversation with one of the other adult figure skaters at the rink. I’d seen her before and tried to be pleasant by greeting her but she seemed quiet. Today, she struck up a conversation with me! It was nice, we discussed our skating experiences. The conversation went as it always does.

Her: "What got you into skating...how long have you been doing it?"

Me: “Oh, around December I graduated from college and got really bored so I thought I’d come to the rink and skate. I was really bad at first, holding on to the wall but kept coming anyways. One of the other adult skaters convinced me to take an LTS class but I thought I was too old…”

Her: “Too old? I didn’t start skating until I was 40, I’ve been skating for 15 years. You are progressing so quickly and you have so much ahead of you.”

Me: “I really want to compete with other adult skaters, but I just don’t know if I’ll be able to”

Her: “If you want to seriously compete you need to skate between 4-5 hours a week.”

Me: “I usually skate between 8-9 hours a week, but I injured myself recently and I’ve had to limit my time”

Her: “Oh no, what happened?”

Me: “I hurt my knees from falling on them so many times”

Her: “You should wear knee pads”

Me: “I usually do, but I’ve been wearing a brace on my left knee”

Her: “You should still wear padding, double up”

Me: “I know that I need to…”

Her: “Well, I have to head out, I’ll see you later. Have a great day!”

Me: “Thanks, same to you!”

I literally had the same exact conversation with Anne (the other regular adult skater at the rink yesterday). Well, back to skating...I got on the ice with just my knee brace on the left leg knowing that it was going to end badly. Me and a few hockey players...they were sure to ruin the ice. I fell within the first 10 minutes on my right knee doing a crossover, arghh!!

After doing my program a couple times and working on my spins and mohawks I thought I should begin working on my backwards consecutive edges. As I was skating over I was looking down at the ice, it was already cut up by the hockey players, shocker. I thought I’d give them a try anyways. Before I made it to the end of the line I found myself on the ground again (thank you rut in the ice), on my left knee, in the same spot that I had been falling on for the last month. I held my breath, holding back the tears and I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Damn. I can’t get up. I tried harder and was able to just barely skate myself to the side where my stuff was. I had never felt this kind of pain before. It was miserable. For the first time in 3.5 months I was getting off the ice because I was injured. I limped my way off the ice, took my skates off and limped myself to the front desk for some ice. Then I drove my sorry butt home with the ice on my knee.

No more skating for one week. I just can’t. I need to let my knee heal and that means ice and rest. I can’t keep doing this to myself. I just can’t. **Insert tears of pain and sadness here**

Week Ruined

I haven’t been to the gym in days.

I haven’t been skating since Sunday.

My knee hurts constantly.

I feel like crap.

I think that fall that I took on Friday really might have hurt me. I mean I’ve been falling over and over again on basically the same spot and my body has been sore after, but not like this. I think I might have actually hurt myself this time. There is constant pain. It doesn’t just come and go.

I need to go skating and I feel like I need to work out, but I can’t bring myself to do either. Not skating isn’t really a choice since I am working all week, but not working out - that comes from my knee pain which is keeping me from the gym. I tell myself daily to just go and work on my core or arms but when I head up to change I end up on my bed sleeping at like 8 every night.

This is my biggest nightmare. Not being able to skate because of injury. And everytime I go online to read up on knee problems and figure skating I end up getting angry and turning off my computer. Results are anything from staying off the ice for weeks to surgery with up to five months of recovery time….that is longer than the time period that I have been skating!

Help.

Falling. One Too Many Times.

About a month ago I started to experience pain in both my knees.** It varied, one day the left one would hurt and the next day it would be the right one. I went to see a doctor about it, but the only person available that day was a PA. Nothing against PAs but I came out of the room with very little as far as understanding what was wrong or fixing what I thought to be a problem. She said some knees just make a “clicking/popping” sound naturally so I shouldn’t worry.

March came and went and the pain has persisted. Sure, I’ve continued working out and skating at the same crazy rate that I have been for the last few months. So, if rest could have helped...I sure haven’t let it. I met with my real doctor today and a problem definitely exists, why else would she have ordered an x-ray and MRI on the spot? This shall be fun. I’m supposed to keep from exercising my legs for at least one week, but preferably two. And while she didn’t say it outright, I am pretty sure that includes skating too. Do you hear that? That was the sound of my heart breaking.

I’m not sure how this is going to work. I am trying to come to terms with it, but it’s going to be difficult. I am already experiencing skating withdrawals and I skated yesterday. On the one hand, learn to skate is cancelled for two weeks for a hockey tournament so I won’t be missing any official classes. On the other hand I do have a private lesson scheduled for this Saturday and if I cancel it I won’t have a lesson for two weeks because my coach is going out of town. Decisions. Decisions.

There’s also this whole no exercising thing. What am I supposed to do, not go to the gym that I’m paying $70 a month for? Half a month of not exercising is $35 down the drain. Another way of looking at it is saving myself from having surgery in the future if I don’t take it down a notch or two.

On top of all of this I have my first competition is the first weekend in June. If I manage to stay off the ice for two weeks I will only have one month to choreograph and learn a program. ARGH!

** If this is your first time reading my blog I am having all this knee pain because I am constantly falling on my knees while skating. Every time I fall on my knees they usually take the impact from the fall. Like all my body weight is thrown onto that one spot on my knee. I fall on my knees while doing crossovers most of the time because I hit my toe pick on the regs. Last week I took a hard fall while stepping forward from doing backwards crossovers. If only I was being a little more careful I would have stepped properly but I was so caught up in the music I was listening to and not my foot work. #skaterprobs