Hi, this is my first post after doing a bunch of reading in the past months and finally being able to create an account.
I’m an adult beginner. When I was a kid I messed around on ponds with my mother’s old thin leather skates and considered it success to stay upright and move around. This winter I grabbed some Softecs off Amazon and headed to the new municipal pond, and with the new boots I found I adored skating and could begin to works on crossovers, one foot glides and edges, and skating backwards. I practiced as much as I could get someone to mind my preschool aged daughter, and the boots felt great.
With time I noticed how really they were too large especially when spring arrived and I switched to group lessons at a rink and wasn’t using thick socks for northern NY winter conditions. I ended up with a pair of leather boots, had a new set of blades put on, and with a bit of punching out found them very tolerable. (The first day from switching felt unpleasant after sneaker-like boots.)
They felt better each time, and I progressed happily with the weekly group lessons.
Then I had to take a break due to moving continents. When I began skating again my lower leg muscles were quite unhappy the first time, which is understandable, but luckily my boots suddenly felt super comfortable… for two sessions… I’ll get to that next, and I got stronger after maybe an hour into the sessions,
But I’m finding that the painful weakness happened again today when I just skated last Friday, Thursday, and Wednesday. Is this just needing to build muscle and take time or can I help in some way with certain exercises?
When it happened last week I expected less of a problem today after skating four hours so recently, but I felt quite bambi-like and took a long time to get to practising crossovers or edges and such. Perhaps there has been *some* improvement, because I didn’t feel like my blades were skittering across the ice like I had at first last week or back when I first switched boots, but I’d love some input if I’m doing something foolish… like cutting off blood flow at my ankles today, ha. (I had read that the skittery feeling could be from ankles being too loose, and I overdid it clearly.)
I had tried lacing my boots much tighter and my feet ended up hurting too much after half an hour Friday. Today I left them looser at the feet and ended up tying the ankles too tight. Eventually I figured out the mistake and could skate again after loosening them.
Is there an optimal tightness that someone can try to explain or perhaps different lacing style?
Lastly, I wondered if I should put my Superfeet back in (replaced them with partial insoles for more toe room,) but if I don’t try this until the lesson and it feels awful then I’m really wasting time.
Today I skated thinking to give myself a break tomorrow so I wouldn’t be sore for my lesson Thursday, but now I wonder if I ought to at least skate a little instead? Unfortunately I can’t really warm up on ice (to get past the first foot and leg cramp feelings I always seem to have for maybe at the ten-twenty minutes for the feet and leg weakness for some time after.) The public ice sessions don’t begin until 10, and the lesson with my coach is earlier when evidently outside coaches and students are able to skate, but that information isn’t posted nor is it clear if I’m purchasing the usual 1.5hour session with my ice fee. There was a language barrier when I asked workers there today about how it works, but I always see serious skaters either being coached or randomly skating at other times.
I suppose I’ll have to ask my coach all of this, but I’d love to figure out about the pain if anyone has suggestions of working it out before the lesson. (Especially since I’m new to private lessons and the etiquette of it all and feel nervous.). Just a vote for skating tomorrow vs taking a break would be helpful.
Thank you!