Earn that Latte!

I pretty much always treat myself to Starbucks after my Tuesday morning practices but I told myself today that I would upgrade to a triple venti instead of my usual grande if I did especially well. I feel like I earned it! I worked hard today! Plus getting out of bed was half the battle. I was really cozy and could have lived there for awhile if given the chance. That alone deserves a reward.

Movez - I ran through the whole thing today and then spent some time doing a couple of the patterns over again because I didn't like the way they felt the first time. Perimeter Stroking felt awesome! I feel like it had flow and a smidge more power than I usually have. Neat! Power Three Turns felt pretty good as well, I was a little toe heavy on these this morning so there was some scratching but overall they felt controlled and smooth. I did the BX-BO Edges twice because I didn't feel stable the first time through. This isn't usually an issue and I'm not sure why it was today but the second go around was better so maybe it was a fluke. Circle 8 was also done twice, not because I wanted a do-over but because it felt so good that I wanted to do it again. Just a few months ago I was lamenting that I would never be able to do this move with my bum ankle and now look, I'm doing it twice FOR FUNSIES! Progress! Finally, the Five Step Mohawks got done twice because they didn't feel as clean as they usually are. These were just okay today, but not bad :)

Spinz & Jumpz - I spent just a few minutes running through my program jumps and spins before working on the thing as a whole. Yep, flip is still MIA. Ridiculous. Loop-loops were okay but I wish I had a little more power on the second loop. I did some waltz jumps, half flips, toe loops, salchows, and stag jumps to round it out before moving on to spins. Ok, the stag jump was a mess today. The takeoff and midair positions are fine but for some reason my body wants to keep landing this on the wrong foot. So frustrating. When I'm practicing these at home on the floor, this isn't a problem. I'm landing on the left foot every time. But once I take it to the ice, my brain goes full on derp-mode. I'll just keep plugging away at it. It's still new. Moving on to spins, I had a couple that were perfectly centered for once. I was so excited I wanted to take a picture of the tracings but didn't feel like getting my phone. So I gazed in admiration for a second then moved on. I had one really good sit spin that was right on the rocker and felt effortless. I even felt like I got down farther in position too!

Programz - I took it in chunks so I could focus on one section at a time.  The good news is that I didn't have to stop at any point to remember what comes next. Yay for memory! I did things pretty slowly to make sure I was getting everything the way it's supposed to be. The Ina Bauer into the sit spin actually worked today! I did it a few times because it's fun! The bad news is that I didn't run my program with the music because the other skaters were rehearsing for the Christmas show that's happening this Friday. My program can wait and they looked too cute to interrupt.