Frustration

Today was nice at APEX! There was only myself and another adult skater there and the ice was really nice and smooth!

Movez - I ran through everything at least once. I didn't get the nice rips that I usually get when I do my forward cross strokes so I was a bit disappointed in that but, overall, everything was decent. I ran the entire test and things are looking okay. I was super excited to run the whole pattern of FO-BI 3 turns without a foot down (woot!) but then I ran the FI-BO turns and had a foot down on each side. I allowed myself a re-skate of that pattern but still had a foot down. As disappointing as that was, I have to say that it's still more consistent than it has been. The other icky move was the Eight Step Mohawk. It's still kind of choppy and I'm having a difficult time with placement. My bad side has the crappy mohawks but at least I'm coming back to center where I should. The good side has the better mohawks but I'm slightly off center when I come back around. It still needs some more time to cook. But, I feel like with all of the hard work I've been putting in lately, my Silver MIF should be "testable" by the end of the year. I would like to try testing in October maybe. If I don't pass, I can always try again at the next test session in December. Honestly, I'm not expecting to pass on the first try. It's a difficult test and better skaters than me have had to retry a couple of times before passing. I want to get it out there, though. Just to get rid of those first time jitters. Maybe I'll surprise myself and actually pass. Wouldn't that be something!

Jumpz & Spinz - I ran through all of the jumpy and spinny elements that are in my program and ugh. Today was a bad spin day. Actually, it was a bad jump day too. No height on my jumps and my spins wouldn't center. I only had one really nice camel-sit combo that was perfectly centered but I wasn't able to repeat it. We won't even talk about the laybacks.

Programz - I didn't run it with the music because I wanted to slooooow everything down to make sure I didn't miss anything or rush through any elements that shouldn't be rushed. The salchow-loop-toe loop was fine but the lutz-toe loop was not. The footwork coming out of the first jump combo was okay and I was able to get to the other side of the rink for the lutz combo quickly enough but then I ruined it with a flutz-toe waltz. Gross. Also! I'm having a lot of fear issues on the double three turn entry into the first spin combo. If I isolate the double three, I can muddle my way through it. But at speed? Not at all. I practiced it a bit at the boards and it was fine but out on open ice I just...can't. It's pretty frustrating. 

Tomorrow is my double session at the Y and I always seem to skate really well there. Maybe I'll have a breakthrough!