…For the first time since MisCon and the debilitating effects of the Cherryh plague. There are many things we could do while under those effects, but skating wasn’t one of them since it went straight for the inner ear! Not a good idea to don figure skates when the balance is shot!
My feet hurt, badly, but what else is new? They’re always stiff and tight after I’ve been off the ice for a while and it takes a couple of days to convince them to flex around my orthodics.
There’s this semi-myth that what you need for skating is strong ankles and stiff boots notwithstanding, strong, flexible ankles help, but what you really need are strong feet. You’d be amazed how much work your toes do! And if you start out with useless feet, as I did, they quickly go to seed if you aren’t exercising them daily. I have exercise bands that I’m supposed to use daily, but I’ve been very lax since we began working on the CC stuff. I’m working into the evening, sitting crosslegged with my laptop rather than working my feet. Have to change that.
Anyway, I have FLATFLATFLAT feet. Uuuuugly! They basically do their job, but I need to use a variety of orthodics. In my figure skates, I use the barefoot science orthodics. These things really do work, and the best part is, I can use them in my skating boots, unlike the hard Good Feet orthodics, which are my other standbys.
The Good Feet inserts are designed to distribute the weight evenly across the bottom of your foot. They do a demo where they have a person stand barefoot on the inserts, then try to tip them over by pressing on their clasped hands. It really works. Which is pretty cool for walking…and disastrous for skating. Took me a long time to figure out that one big problem with my back edges, and the fact that I flat out couldn’t even slalom backwards safely, had to do with the fact that as far as my blades were concerned, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t differentiate between the heel, arch and ball of the foot. To go backwards, your weight really needs to be on the forward part of the arch, not in the heel. If it goes to the heel, you fall on your head. Well, thanks to the orthodic, as far as my blades were concerned, no matter what I did with my feet, it put the weight toward the back of the arch, making me feel all the time like I was falling over. And frequently did.
I took the orthodics out, and it was better, but my weak arches flattened with the pressure of the tight lacing, which causes its own problems, not the least of which is torn facia tissue. That’s when I saw the add on the BS inserts, which are little graduated lozenges that go into an otherwise flexible insole. It helped a lot, but it still takes muscle in the foot.
Not to mention a strong back that flexes at the shoulder blades. But that’s another post. See you tomorrow!
Ja ne!
