Pumpkin Spice Ice

Ah fall...changing leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, and a new contract. From now until December, I'll be skating on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. It was pretty empty this morning as it was only me and a coach working with her student. However, the ice was absolutely terrible! There must have been some hockey drills last night because there were deep curved ruts in four different spots on the rink. I was actually pretty scared and briefly thought about taking my skates off and leaving. I'm pretty sure a hockey rut was responsible for breaking my leg last year at the Sport Stable (hence why I don't skate there anymore) but the ice at my rink is usually so well maintained. I was surprised to see it so bad this morning. But, I needed the practice so I just made a mental note to stay away from those areas as best I could (not the easiest thing to do when your program takes you there anyway).

Today, I focused quite a bit on transitions. The transition from the waltz-falling leaf-half flip sequence into the attitude spin is tricky so I worked on that to make it a bit more seamless. The other tricky transition is right after the salchow-toe loop so I spent some time polishing that as well.

I did a lot of spinning today and got a number that had about 8 revs and were centered but it's really just hit or miss. When I'm off, I'm really off but when I hit that sweet spot on the entry it's lovely. Spins for days! Still a work in progress, though.

Compulsory moves got some attention too. I tried adding speed and it's flowing much better now but I think I'm not taking up the whole 1:30, even with the added fluff moves. So, now what?

Finally, I ran my program. Since there was no skate monitor, I had to start my own music and then rush out to the ice to jump into the program. Overall, it went well. I almost ate it on the lunge because the student working with her coach almost ran into me but I didn't fall and I recovered nicely. Spins were spinny, jumps jumped, and I ended on time. Cool.

It was a good and productive practice. I had a couple of falls and one of them was a hard backward fall off the end of my blade but instincts kicked in and I tucked my head in so I didn't get a brain bleed or something. It's been a while since I've had one of those kinds of falls. And on a loop jump no less! So, to cancel it out, I did another one at full speed and it was BIG and AMAZING! Probably the best one I've ever done! The other coach saw it too and the look on her face made me proud. She seemed impressed. So I left on that note. :)