Time to Relax!

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Check out tonight’s delectable chocolate turn-down service thanks to my fellow skaters! I’ve already nibbled some toffee from the stash, plus the Ibuprofin that one skater thoughtfully included.

tossie haul

I competed this morning and have been relaxing and spectating ever since. I placed third in my group, Adult Bronze III. It’s hard for me to keep all my items together when I’m traveling and that caused a bit of drama this morning. Ready to leave for an early a.m. freestyle session, I couldn’t find the keys to the rental car. After a few fruitless minutes of looking and a mini-meltdown, I realized I could call Uber and got on my way.

En-route (with a driver who missed his exit and seemed to take a very long way) I realized that I could have dropped the keys while coming into the hotel with skates, dress, and groceries last night. I called the front desk and they had the keys, whew!

I had a decent practice, a bit shorter than it could have been but that was OK. Caught a ride from there to the competition arena with another adult and talked skating on the way. Meanwhile my husband, who arrived late last night, drove over in the rental car, which had a few things in it that I needed (luckily not my skates or dress!).

Coach Gary met me at the competition rink. Yesterday he recommended taking out my small and inconsistent lutz and doing a flip instead, and that’s how I’d practiced on my own this morning. On my competition warmup my camel was no good, not even the barely-a-camel that’s the best I can do right now. So he suggested I substitute a scratch spin. I was reluctant since I’d never done my program that way and thought I might get dizzy, but I trusted him on it and it seemed to work out pretty well.

In my program I touched my free foot down on my first couple of jumps. My loop is usually reliable so that surprised me, and after the second touchdown I was feeling kind of bummed. But I kept skating and my other jumps worked out. Despite my vows to just be happy with however I could skate, I was initially disappointed, especially after I saw the video. But, as always, with a little time and perspective I could overlook some things (like the sit spin that doesn’t particularly sit) and appreciate others. My extension is inconsistent, I don’t always get my arms overhead and that looks wimpy, but sometimes it’s there and those moments were nice. I seemed to be smiling and giving some eye contact in the video despite how nervous I actually felt. I need to work on appreciating the meta-level that I can be out there at all.

Hope to share the video and a few other comments later, now I’m ready for that chocolate tuck-in! Did you notice the classy little box with an Italian chocolate covered cherry? Tempting, nice styling, won’t last long. Here’s the close-up:

Italian chocolate cherry!

G’night and talk to you soon!