Well, that was unexpected!

 So I'm sitting on my couch at home and I see that I have a voicemail from Christopher on my phone. I know he doesn't usually call unless it's urgent so I listened. Turns out, The Promenade (where I was registered to take my test next Friday) is going to cancel the test session due to a low amount of signups. It wouldn't be cost effective for them to run the test session blah blah blah. 

I called Christopher back and he told me there is a test session at Apex (my new home rink) on the 26th instead but the deadline to register is literally hours away. So I hung up and registered to take my test at Apex instead. He's already planning to be there that day because he has another student testing so I don't need to feel guilty about him driving so far just to be there for my test. 

On the downside, I have to wait another week to test. I've been wanting to do it and get it over with and now I have to wait a little longer. On the plus side, I get another week's worth of practices and I can test at a rink where I feel more comfortable (Apex has better ice and doesn't feel as strict and stuffy as the Promenade). ALSO! It's so much cheaper to test on home ice!

This may all work in my favor after all but now I need to scramble to get my work schedule switched around to accommodate the new date. That's giving me some anxiety. Also, I'm kind of miffed that the Promenade didn't reach out to me at all yet about the cancellation. I'm thankful Christopher told me when he did because otherwise I would have missed the deadline to register at Apex. Imagine the students who don't have a Christopher and how in the dark they are about everything. That kind of sucks.

All 3 Turns. All the time.

 My typical Saturday morning session is gone this week so I picked up a session this morning to make up for it. Minus the last 15 minutes or so when I started to work on jumps and spins, I spent the whole time on...you guessed it! 3 Turns! 

Today actually felt better! I did several full patterns of the FO-BI 3 Turns without a foot down and I was able to get better consistency with the FI-BO 3 Turns as well. I did ALL of the exercises Christopher has given me in the past to try to improve these. I did some with the theraband, I did some without the theraband, I did backward power 3 turns in both directions, and I did some isolated on the circle. I'm trying everything!

Honestly, it's been months (8 months probably) since I've worked on the backward power 3s and even then, I was only able to do one side since I didn't have my LBO turn yet. But today, I was able to do both directions and it was kind of, dare I say, fun? I'm definitely going to integrate these back into my practices. If I ever decide to move on after Adult Gold MIF, I'll need to know them so why not start now? 

Mock Test...again.

 Lesson today! Christopher gave me another mock test and this time I passed without a reskate so woo! Once again, my 3 Turns were unsteady so we worked a bit on getting my arms right on those so I can stop the rotation after the turn (my biggest problem). 

After a few weeks of mock tests, this was my best one, I think. He said the test overall has improved even though I'm still struggling on a couple of the elements. That's good to hear because I'm honestly not too confident that I'll get a pass from the judges next week. 

I've been trying so hard to train myself to relax during the 3 turns. My heart rate used to skyrocket when I did them and now my fitbit is just registering a relaxed cardio. So I went from an HR of 178-180 to an HR of 140-150. I know it's not huge progress and I'm not sure if it's because I'm more relaxed or if it's because I'm practicing them so often I've become desensitized to the fear of them. Regardless of why, I'm glad I'm not near heart attack status when I practice them now :)

3 Turns Aplenty

 I skated at the Y today for 1 hour and 45 minutes and I dedicated a good chunk of that time to just 3 turns. I wish I could say that it helped or that I had a revelation but alas. They are pretty much the same as always. They aren't bad, but they are not the best either. They are just some form of permanent adequate.

Moves - I did two full test run throughs and they were just okay. Nothing stunning happened and I definitely didn't give myself honors. On a good day, I feel like I can do enough to pass the test. Today was a pretty decent day and I feel like I did enough to get a pass by my imaginary judges. I gave myself a reskate each time. The first time, I reskated the FO-BI 3 Turns and after the second run through, I reskated the FI-BO 3 Turns. It's always the 3 turns. Sigh. So, I spent a lot of time trying to make corrections to get these a little more consistent. 

The 27 Program Challenge (14/27) - Since I was there for almost the full two hours, I had enough time to skate my program twice. Again, I wish I could say they were fantastic programs but they were just okay. I guess that's better than total suck but it would be nice to say I killed it, you know? Just once. 

Dance - I registered for Adult Preliminary Solo Pattern Dance at CSI so I ran through a few patterns each of the Dutch Waltz and the Canasta. I have also registered for the Memorial Cha Cha so I did a few patterns of that as well. I'm on the fence about using popular music or using the official US Figure Skating dance music. I feel like I skate better with the USFS music but god it's awful to listen to! We'll see. I still have time to upload my music so I'll think about it some more. 

Semi-Private Ice

 I guess everyone is busy up at National Showcase because it was super dead at Apex this morning. Just myself and another adult skater. It was really nice and I got a lot of meaningful work done. It kind of made up for Thursday's loss. 

Movez - Since there was so much room to do things, I decided I would give myself a mock test and run it just like it would be run on test day. I gave myself a brief 10 minute warmup. I'm not sure how much I'll get on test day. I probably should have only done 5 minutes. Then I got to my starting position for the 8 Step Mohawk. My pattern was better and overall it was a little less scratchy then it has been but I know my bad side outside mohawk still has the tiny subcurve. I think because of that I'm not quite at a 0. Next up were the Cross Strokes. My forward strokes had some rips and I remembered to use my shoulders more but the backward strokes were still slightly steppy. I think they get better every time I skate them so they weren't the worst. I moved on to the FO-BI 3 Turns and those were fine with not a single foot down. Yay. Now onto the FI-BO 3 Turns. These were gross. I had a foot down on every backward turn on the second side. I knew this would be a reskate. Next up were spirals. These were really nice! In fact, the other adult skater commented on how great they look! That's awesome because I'm really counting on these spirals to push me into the "passing" zone. Finally, Power Pulls. I wasn't able to get any rips, although I tried. They looked okay though and the backward pulls were really nice. I added everything up and came out with -1 overall so I allowed myself a reskate of the FI-BO 3 Turns and came up with a 0!  

8 Step Mohawk = -1

Forward and Backward Cross Strokes = 0

FO-BI 3 Turns = 0

FI-BO 3 Turns = -2 (reskate -1)

Spirals = +3

Power Pulls = -1

Total Score with Reskate = 0 (Pass....but barely and I might be biased in my scoring)

So yeah, I feel like I'm really close! I have two more weeks to spice up these 3 Turns and I think I'll be okay.

The 27 Program Challenge (12/27) - After warming up all of my jumps and spins, I put my music on and ran the program. Everything was fine but I got a little too overzealous on my twizzle and ended up with an extra turn? So I missed the toe turns and the mohawk but I made up for it with a nice second half. This still needs some polish but I think I will be able to make it nice for next month's competition. I'm starting to commit more to the Lutz-Toe which is progress but the jump itself is still pretty garbage in terms of technique. Sigh.  

Waste

With my test rapidly approaching, I decided to add a session this week to work out some of the kinks. What I didn't think through very well was the fact that this week is National Showcase up in Fort Collins and everyone and their mother is squeezing in last minute practices at all the local rinks. So, Apex was crazy busy with people running their programs and I mostly spent the entire session trying to stay out of everyone's way. Needless to say, my kinks did not get worked out. 

Moves - As soon as I started a pattern of something, I would have to break out of it to make way for someone in their program. Literally, it was endless program run throughs the entire time. I was so distracted trying to anticipate where someone was going that, even when I was able to do part of a pattern, it sucked because I wasn't concentrating as I should. There was only one moment where everyone decided to go to the boards all at once for water so I was able to squeeze in one complete pattern of the 8 Step. It was actually pretty okay and I was able to even out the pattern more on both sides. But yeah, nothing else really got worked on so today's practice was a bit of a waste. Sigh. 

Program - I really wanted to run my program today but, seeing as how these girls were getting ready to compete in a few hours, I wanted them to have all the time. I would feel guilty taking up their program time for mine when mine isn't pressing. I was able to run it once without the music and it went well until I had to break out after my last jump to make way for a girl with Chinese fans (beautiful program, btw!). I picked it back up at the spiral into the final spin and ended it nicely. 

As much as I feel like I didn't get a lot of work done today, it was still nice to see everyone's programs. Everyone looks great and I hope they all get GOLD!

Edit to add: I just registered for CSI! I'll be competing Adult Bronze Freeskate (6.0), Adult Solo Pattern Dances (Preliminary), and the Ashlyann Carlson Memorial Cha Cha. Yay!

Closer than I've ever been

The 27 Program Challenge (11/27) - Ok, so first let me start by wrapping up my Sunday practice at the Y. Nothing exceptional happened. I ran through all of my Moves (a few times), I ran my program and it went well for the first time in a few weeks, and I finished up with some dances. I showed up and work got done. 

Lesson - Today I had my lesson with Christopher and we did another mock test. This time...I passed! Even though he gave me a pass, there is still work to be done. I only passed with a 0 and that was after having to reskate my FO-BI 3 Turns. First up was the 8 Step! I made some noticeable improvements! He actually gave me a 0 on this which is nice considering he put me a -2 last week. I'm still having some issues with pattern placement. My good side is a bit bigger than my bad side so I tend to come up short when coming back to center. This is totally fixable though. The Cross Strokes were also a bit more improved from last week. Even though the backward strokes were still slightly steppy, they were better than they were the last time we ran a mock test. The FO-BI 3 turns are usually my better turns but I was struggling today on the bad side. I put a foot down every time. The good side was good though. Christopher warned me that this might be a reskate. Up next were the FI-BO 3 Turns and he noticed improvement on my bad side with coming back to the axis. Yay! Spirals were up next and I improved on those as well. He gave me a +3! That's awesome because I need all the + points I can get. Finally, the Power Pulls. These have also improved but he really wants the judges to hear rips. He passed me on them, though. So, the reskate. He asked me to reskate the bad side of the FO-BI turns and I put my foot down on on 1 of the 3 sets I did. Ugh. So, overall, he gave me a pass but I'm still not really comfortable with the score. He said he wasn't just being kind and that I actually earned the pass but man, it sure didn't feel like I earned it. I still have a lot to clean up and a few weeks to go before August 20th. I think if I just keep doing what I doing, I'll keep moving in the right direction. Christopher did say that this is the closest I've ever been with this test so I think there is hope for me yet. Thank god for spirals or there would be no hope for me. Come on Spirals! I'm counting on you! 

We spent the rest of our lesson on trying to get rips on the Power Pulls. So, he had me just skating on the inside edges of each foot to really dig into the ice and get a sound. Then we did the same for the outside edges. Once there were rips, he had me put it all together and I did pattern of forward pulls and guess what? THERE WERE RIPS! I think him isolating the edges like that really helped. I'll need to dedicate some serious time to it in my practices because with this move, it's important for the judges to hear it as well as see it. 

On a side note, I never really had rips on anything until I started working on Silver Moves. Now, I'm getting them consistently on my cross strokes and sometimes I hear them when I'm doing my 8 Step...and now I'm getting them on my Power Pulls. It's a beautiful sound.