Four Weeks

In a little less than four weeks I am going to be in my first ever competition. I just got finished with my lesson. My coach only made me repeat the second half of my power three turn MIF pattern. She then had me repeat my back edge pattern but hold my chin up. We then moved on to the compulsory moves program. She told me that it was fine and she didn't want to touch anything. She also told me that was my personal best at skating my back crossovers. She then went on to say that this was getting too easy for me and that I needed to start working on harder stuff. I am so happy. If I were a dog my tail would be wagging! This is someone that doesn't hand out compliments lightly and she basically passed everything I just did! Wow!

Now I just have to remember everything for the competition. I do run throughs in head every night before I go to sleep. I try to vividly think of the rink, me, the sound of my blades, my body positions, what it feels like as I run through my program. Now I am starting to step through it on my living room floor. I am nervous of forgetting what comes next. If I repeat it enough times I'll be fine. I am already pretty ok with it. I tend to get caught up in the element I am skating and forget what comes next. I need to relax and let my body skate.

I did so well we had tons of time left to do other stuff. We moved on to jump practice and she had me walk through Salchows and Toe Loops. We did everything slowly. Went over all the minutia. After doing the entrance over and over I finally jumped a Salchow. She then told me that I could now do it better than some of her other students. I don't think that they are very good yet since I am not doing them at speed or with much height but she is happy that I am doing them correctly. It is a good start.

We then ran out of time. I am starting to want to skate for more than 50 minutes again. A sure sign that I am finally feeling better since being so sick over Christmas. I can't get in enough skating practice. I didn't get to do spirals, spread eagles or Ina Bauers. I am probably going to have to start doing double sessions on Saturday again.

What a great skating day!