I do a variety of activities like Pilates, bike riding, physical therapy, and running. I also train on the ice five to six days a week. On the ice, I work on my programs as a whole and the individual technical elements that comprise the programs.
I was a natural skater, but I also took private lessons to enhance my skills.
I'm most comfortable definitely when I'm on the ice. I love to play. It's something that I just love to do.
While I circled around and around in my brown rental skates, I studied a group of skaters spinning in the center. I was fascinated! When my mom picked me up, I began a campaign for skating lessons.
I definitely still work on my skating a lot.
Ice skating is very difficult. It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of hard work. It's fun, but you are there on the ice every morning freezing and trying to do these moves and these tricks.
A lot of the off-ice is actually spent sort of as a recovery process. Because the closer we get to a competition, the more and more you do on-ice. So if you're already on the ice three to four hours, you get enough cardio doing your run-throughs. But I sometimes do the elliptical or bike.
I'm a show pony, and I don't get to skate with girls doing triple Axels every single day. I skate with little babies who are working on their single Axels while trying not to hit them on the ice.
I used to ice skate at parties when I was eight, but that was sort of the extent of roller skating, ice skating, that kind of sport.
If you skate with an Olympic level skater, they make you so much better because you're skating behind them, and you're trying to imitate their stride and their stance. It's like having the world's greatest training wheels.
Generally, speed skaters don't run that much. I'm a little bit of an exception in that I run a lot.
I wanted to learn how to skate backwards and they wouldn't help me and they went off and left me on my own.
