Bella & Colin Blog 4: A Look Back On Summer

We wanted to use this blog as an opportunity to look back on our summer. …Oh, wait…what summer?

5:30 a.m. – Wakeup call (not a pretty sight on all accounts)
6:30 a.m. – At the rink / “warm up” (basically standing in a circle, not speaking, and throwing our bodies into various stretches…still not a pretty sight)
7:00 a.m.-9:50 a.m. – On-ice (most days literally laying on the ice and being yelled at in Russian)

–SHORT BREAK– (consisting of chugging coffee)

10:40 a.m. -11:20 a.m. – Dance class (alternated between Ballet, Modern, Ballroom, and Jazz…and being yelled at by different Russians)
11:30 a.m. -12:20 p.m. – Skating/Coaching (depending on the day)
12:20 p.m. -12:50 p.m. – Stroking class (Oh, the dreaded stroking class! And again most days were spent laying on the ice…in pain)
1:00 p.m. -1:40 p.m.  – Work out
1:50 p.m.-9:00 p.m. – Home (eat, complain, nap, complain, complain, eat, coach, complain, dread tomorrow, sleep…and repeat.)

This may have been slightly over-dramatized…

At first glance you may cringe and think, “How could anyone voluntarily put themselves through this?” The answer: it’s actually not that bad! Maybe all skaters are bred to be slightly masochistic?

Every year we go into the summer knowing our coaches show up to the rink for one reason, and that is to kick all of our asses into shape. While some days we were almost driven to the point of screaming various profanities at their faces, we would not want it any other way. We know the pain we feel now is all gearing towards a great end result, and we will more than likely be in the best shape of our lives. For every skater summer is the time to either move it or lose it, and the coaches facilitate a great environment for us to push ourselves in. Our summer may be one big blur, but we know that the hard work we put into our training shows.

We did not have much of a life outside of the rink due to training and coaching. Though, in all honesty, have you ever met a skater with a life? All complaining aside, we pride ourselves on the effort we put in everyday. We know that we worked our asses off and it felt great knowing that we were striving to accomplish something great. Like our coach says, “You can rest when you’re dead.”