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icepixieMy skates came in today!
I didn't wear them for my lesson because it seriously would've taken the entire time just to lace them up, so I won't actually get to skate on them until Tuesday. I think they fit okay, although I really wish the toes were wider. The ball is perfect, it's just the toes. Of course, skates are supposed to fit "snugly," and I hear they should basically feel like concrete blocks squeezing your feet with the strength of ten anacondas at first, so probably they fit fine! My heel, at least, does stay in place much better than in the rentals, which is very important.
The heat moldable stuff does seem to work, or at least I could feel a difference after I had them on a while. I also set them out in the sun in their box for twenty minutes (it's 90F here) and then put them on, which helped even more. I filled some socks with rice, which I plan to microwave and place in the skates right before I make the ten-minute trip from work to the rink to get them nice and pliant before I skate.
I think they'll be okay once I break them in. (At least my toes will stop going numb? That would be good.) There are definitely some pressure spots that need to be punched out (over the little toes, to the side of the big toes, just under the inside of the right anklebone), although probably I'll wait to do that until I've skated in them a couple of times. I'm hoping the pro shop at the rink will do that...otherwise, I get to experiment with ball and ring pliers. Would really prefer not to do that. I guess I could take them to a cobbler.
Complicating things is the heel and ankle pain I developed this week. My symptoms are long and bizarre and boring, so I won't write them all out, but since skating is the only thing that's changed in the past month, I suspect it's the culprit. However, it hurts more when sitting down and barely at all when skating. The new skates don't seem to hurt (in that way) either. Anyway, I decided to be safe rather than sorry and made an appointment with an orthopaedist a co-worker recommended for Monday morning, because if nothing else I could use tips on injury prevention. I hope/assume I will get PT similar to that I got for my knees in college and the pain will soon go away. Maybe he can give me more exercises for my knees as well, since they're still proud members of the "working joints are for losers!" club.
In the meantime, there has been much ibuprofen.
Pictures
Shiny! I just hope I don't trip too badly over that giant (compared to rentals) toepick...
With temporary "guards," which have been allowing me to stand on carpet to try them on without worrying too much about scratches. What can I say, my real hard guards haven't come from Amazon yet, I had to improvise. I ordered all kinds of fun skating stuff recently--hard guards, real terrycloth soakers as opposed to washcloths + rubber bands, knee pads, wrist guards, and a can of sno-seal wax for the bottoms of my boots. I always thought the brown part was wood, but it's actually stacked leather. Given that these are ice skates, you see why they need to be waterproofed.
As far as class goes, today we put our crossovers together. Well. I should say, we attempted to put our crossovers together. Neither of us actually managed a real one. I can do a sort of stumbling, shambling attempt at a crossover, although at least it is equally stumbly in both directions. My bigger concern is getting them to go in a circle instead of an ever-narrowing spiral. Perhaps the mystery behind that will be revealed next week, since we didn't put them on a circle until right at the end of class today.
I didn't wear them for my lesson because it seriously would've taken the entire time just to lace them up, so I won't actually get to skate on them until Tuesday. I think they fit okay, although I really wish the toes were wider. The ball is perfect, it's just the toes. Of course, skates are supposed to fit "snugly," and I hear they should basically feel like concrete blocks squeezing your feet with the strength of ten anacondas at first, so probably they fit fine! My heel, at least, does stay in place much better than in the rentals, which is very important.
The heat moldable stuff does seem to work, or at least I could feel a difference after I had them on a while. I also set them out in the sun in their box for twenty minutes (it's 90F here) and then put them on, which helped even more. I filled some socks with rice, which I plan to microwave and place in the skates right before I make the ten-minute trip from work to the rink to get them nice and pliant before I skate.
I think they'll be okay once I break them in. (At least my toes will stop going numb? That would be good.) There are definitely some pressure spots that need to be punched out (over the little toes, to the side of the big toes, just under the inside of the right anklebone), although probably I'll wait to do that until I've skated in them a couple of times. I'm hoping the pro shop at the rink will do that...otherwise, I get to experiment with ball and ring pliers. Would really prefer not to do that. I guess I could take them to a cobbler.
Complicating things is the heel and ankle pain I developed this week. My symptoms are long and bizarre and boring, so I won't write them all out, but since skating is the only thing that's changed in the past month, I suspect it's the culprit. However, it hurts more when sitting down and barely at all when skating. The new skates don't seem to hurt (in that way) either. Anyway, I decided to be safe rather than sorry and made an appointment with an orthopaedist a co-worker recommended for Monday morning, because if nothing else I could use tips on injury prevention. I hope/assume I will get PT similar to that I got for my knees in college and the pain will soon go away. Maybe he can give me more exercises for my knees as well, since they're still proud members of the "working joints are for losers!" club.
In the meantime, there has been much ibuprofen.
Pictures
Shiny! I just hope I don't trip too badly over that giant (compared to rentals) toepick...
With temporary "guards," which have been allowing me to stand on carpet to try them on without worrying too much about scratches. What can I say, my real hard guards haven't come from Amazon yet, I had to improvise. I ordered all kinds of fun skating stuff recently--hard guards, real terrycloth soakers as opposed to washcloths + rubber bands, knee pads, wrist guards, and a can of sno-seal wax for the bottoms of my boots. I always thought the brown part was wood, but it's actually stacked leather. Given that these are ice skates, you see why they need to be waterproofed.
As far as class goes, today we put our crossovers together. Well. I should say, we attempted to put our crossovers together. Neither of us actually managed a real one. I can do a sort of stumbling, shambling attempt at a crossover, although at least it is equally stumbly in both directions. My bigger concern is getting them to go in a circle instead of an ever-narrowing spiral. Perhaps the mystery behind that will be revealed next week, since we didn't put them on a circle until right at the end of class today.
