(no subject)
Mar. 10th, 2004 01:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kirkcudbrightI don't consider myself at all athletic, and I've never stuck with an "exercise program" for more than a month, but there are four activities that I enjoy for their own sake, want to spend more time doing, and want to improve at.
Saturday was skating. We had Evgenie, the Russian skating coach, as a substitute instructor. He's really good, and I always learn a lot from him, but he's daunting to work with. He started us out with basic stroking and crossovers, which should be baby stuff, but there was plenty to critique. And, doing it the way he wanted, I ended up going faster than even I wanted (at least given the small area we had to work in). Then he had us doing a backwards-to-forwards change that I'd never seen before. I rose to the challenge, at least insofar as I gave it a good shot, and didn't fall down. But boy, it felt awkward.
Sunday was riding. Cheyenne is usually pretty energetic, but he didn't feel like working just then. I ended up doing a lot of schooling and equitation work with him - figure-8s and serpentines, stop-start, backing up, etc. After I had the saddle off and was bare-backing him (which I often do for the cool-down walk-out), I was inspired to work on leg aids. I dropped the reins (sat on them, actually), and tried to steer as best as possible with the legs only. It was...somewhat successful. Then I picked up the reins, and tried to give the smallest possible reinforcements to the leg cues.
Monday was aikido. It was Dave's usual good class, but no special emphasis on testing. (Vicka and I are both testing this weekend.) After class, Vicka asked some testing-related questions, which led into a long hallway discussion about various techniques you could do from various attacks. Useful, but I need to practice more, and try to bring this stuff into the conscious part of my own repertroire.
The fourth activity is biking. Tonight I got a call from my buddy Dan, who's leading this amputee bike tour through Europe for Otto Bock. (I'm planning on riding the Brit leg, even though I've got both legs.) They're jerking him around again on schedule and stuff - they want to compress it to 30 day, but still ride 2000 miles. Their current plan is to fly out on the 27th of April, and start the ride on the 30th. Now, I turn 40 on the 28th of April, and I'm willing to spend my birthday either here with my best beloveds, or in Glasgow with my riding/drinking buddies, but not on an airplane. So the choice is to go out substantially early, or fly in the night before the ride starts.
Saturday was skating. We had Evgenie, the Russian skating coach, as a substitute instructor. He's really good, and I always learn a lot from him, but he's daunting to work with. He started us out with basic stroking and crossovers, which should be baby stuff, but there was plenty to critique. And, doing it the way he wanted, I ended up going faster than even I wanted (at least given the small area we had to work in). Then he had us doing a backwards-to-forwards change that I'd never seen before. I rose to the challenge, at least insofar as I gave it a good shot, and didn't fall down. But boy, it felt awkward.
Sunday was riding. Cheyenne is usually pretty energetic, but he didn't feel like working just then. I ended up doing a lot of schooling and equitation work with him - figure-8s and serpentines, stop-start, backing up, etc. After I had the saddle off and was bare-backing him (which I often do for the cool-down walk-out), I was inspired to work on leg aids. I dropped the reins (sat on them, actually), and tried to steer as best as possible with the legs only. It was...somewhat successful. Then I picked up the reins, and tried to give the smallest possible reinforcements to the leg cues.
Monday was aikido. It was Dave's usual good class, but no special emphasis on testing. (Vicka and I are both testing this weekend.) After class, Vicka asked some testing-related questions, which led into a long hallway discussion about various techniques you could do from various attacks. Useful, but I need to practice more, and try to bring this stuff into the conscious part of my own repertroire.
The fourth activity is biking. Tonight I got a call from my buddy Dan, who's leading this amputee bike tour through Europe for Otto Bock. (I'm planning on riding the Brit leg, even though I've got both legs.) They're jerking him around again on schedule and stuff - they want to compress it to 30 day, but still ride 2000 miles. Their current plan is to fly out on the 27th of April, and start the ride on the 30th. Now, I turn 40 on the 28th of April, and I'm willing to spend my birthday either here with my best beloveds, or in Glasgow with my riding/drinking buddies, but not on an airplane. So the choice is to go out substantially early, or fly in the night before the ride starts.
