Final Preps

 Tomorrow is TEST DAY!!! So, this week was final preparations for that and I feel ready! Bring it!

Monday Dress Rehearsal - I got wear my fancy dress for the first time and honestly? I felt like a real Ice Dancer! I finished stoning it the week prior so the glue had time to cure and everything held on really well as I squeezed into it. When I was warming up off-ice, a hockey player saw me in my dress and asked if we figure skaters ever get cold. I told her the adrenaline kicks in pretty quickly at comps and tests so we don't even notice it. I think hockey players think we are crazy :) For our lesson, we ran through every dance partnered at least twice and each dance once solo. My husband was able to come to the rink with me (finally! Yay for slightly lifted restrictions!) so he took some video of each dance. Our unison is pretty damn good! I had some trouble spots with the Rhythm Blues during the second pattern. There was a spot on the ice that had some deep ruts and that was the spot where we do the two inside swing rolls. I kept getting caught in the rut and couldn't get on the correct edge. Christopher even admitted to feeling it too. Hopefully the ice is nicely zam'd on test day so this isn't an issue. Overall, things went well. 

Wednesday Lesson - Same thing as Monday but without the fancy dress. Christopher asked what I thought of the videos Dustin took from Monday. I felt like this was one of those trick coach questions where "it looked great" is not the right answer. The one thing I noticed in the videos is that there are spots in some of the dances where I have a very slight break at the waist. Overall, my posture is pretty good but during these weird moments, I break posture for a hot second. He agreed! That's what he was noticing too! So, we worked a bit on trying to get me to lean back more against his arm. If I don't feel his arm firmly on my back, I'm not leaning back enough. This isn't an issue that I think would cause me to not pass but I want to do everything I can to make these dances look amazing. 

So yeah, I feel ready to crush these dances tomorrow. I need to remember to stay tall, lean back, relax, trust my training, and have fun! One of my skate buddies told me that she is a volunteer runner for tomorrow and she told me she might be the one to run my passing results to me. I hope so! I told her if I don't pass to please also run me some adult beverages, lol. Also, because the test session is so busy, all three rinks are being used! I'll be testing on the Red Rink which is my favorite. It's bright and happy and the ice is nice and hard. I always feel my best on the Red Rink :)