I haven’t skated as much as I did last week due to coming down with a big that resulted in a bad cough. I did wonder if I’d be able to skate at all but thankfully, when I actually got to the rink, I found skating actually helped the cough (though only while I was on the ice). This week I have stopped practicing double jumps apart from doing a couple of double salxhowsm salchows. I am now focusing on my program components and doing run throughs to gain consistency and maintain my stamina.

This last week has been a bit like groundhog day as I’ve skated every day and twice on some days and gone to the gym in between. It has been tough and the never changing nature of the enclosed building has meant that the day or time never seems to change. It has been really beneficial for building stamina and working on those things I’ve not had much time for. My three double jumps are improving and I’m gaining greater consistency in my program elements so it has been a successful week however tiring.

Here is a video of my flying camel this morning.

This morning it felt very cold and I really struggled to warm up. This meant that when I did my competition warmup I was stiff and didn’t feel comfortable. This led to quite a few mistakes, which was unfortunate. Recently I made myself a score board where I log whether I’ve successfully done the main elements for competition in my warm up and in my first program run through. Today’s is not going to look good but hopefully I can remedy it throughout the next week.

Towards the middle/end of the session things were much better and I am really very pleased because I landed my double loop from back crossovers. I used to have a very good double loop from back crossovers when I used to skate, but since I’ve coming back a couple of freak falls from back then have stuck in my head. I’ve not had the courage to properly try it from back crossovers since returning, instead doing it from double three turn entry. While I can do it from this entry, the jump isn’t of the same high quality that it was when I used to do it from back crossovers. I managed a few double loops from back crossovers today and the jumps were off good quality. I’m on Easter holidays for a fortnight now so I’m planning to skate everyday except Sunday starting tomorrow!

I had an excellent skate today in my lesson. No falls on my competition jumps, including in my program. I managed to land my additional jumps at least once for each one, inclusing two big double salchows for my coach. We are planning to compete in International competition at Lake Bled, Slovenia in November. It is a beautiful place and I’ll have a couple of days after the competition is over to enjoy it. Sounds like a plan to me!

It has to be said that I wasn’t in the best state physically or mentally. I got two hours sleep and arrived at the rink today very tired, muddled and with minor injuries. But actually I had a really good skate. I landed all my jumps within the first half an hour, landed the jump in my program run through that was causing the trouble in Thursday, and did a lot of nice versions of that jump generally. Spins were good, as was everything. I’d done everything to my satisfaction by 7.30am so I stopped half an hour early because I thought that there’s no point forcing things when there’s no major problems to correct. Then I made up the half an hour’s ice time in the gym when I got back into Manchester.

 

It just goes to show that our bodies and minds are stronger than we often realise and that even if we are tired and not in great shape physically, we can still achieve lots if we really put our minds to it and fight for it.

Skating was an absolute disaster this morning. I just couldn’t do the main jump in my program, despite doing it about 50 times yesterday with no issue. I felt like just sitting on the ice and crying but since I’m not two years old I had to soldier on and attempt the jump another 10 times and keep falling. My coach’s statement on my performance this morning: ‘It was just a nothing. An attempted nothing’. Sobs.

My hips and thighs now feel like they’ve been repeatedly hit with a bat.

I got my skates out of skate jail this morning (the sharpeners). I hadn’t realised how blunt they’d been but having them sharpened has really helped. I had a good skate this morning.

Well I survived getting my program elements timed ready for my competition application. I’ve been quite anxious for the last couple of days, partly because of some things I’ve had to sort out but mainly just my anxiety deciding to play up. I was nervous this morning about getting my program elements timed because I needed to make sure I had a good run through and performed all my elements accurately and didn’t get out of time with the music. Luckily I managed it on the first run through and that was all we needed. We did three run throughs just for stamina. Unfortunately on run throughs two and three I fell on my main jump which is really frustrating as outside of my program I can do the jump again and again no problem and with other double jumps tacked on the end of it. My coach thinks it’s psychological that I fall on it in my program but actually it’s just because my legs are tired and my general stamina is depleted after I’ve already done one run through so I just don’t have the energy to launch myself into the jump, especially as it’s at the end of my program. As I only have to skate my program once in the competition, hopefully I will be OK.

Today I landed double salchow, double toe loop, a really strong, big axel-double loop, a loop-double loop and a double loop from inside three turns.  Happy Days! However I also had a spectacular fall on a turn. I tried to save myself but to no avail. I fell in dramatic fashion, landed on my front and ended up spinning around on my stomach. A passing coach remarked ‘I don’t think that one was quite right, was it?’

I had a really great skate in my lesson today. Elements have improved lots and my stamina has improved thanks to gym work which meant I was able to perform the presentation aspect of my program more. Today I finally felt my program coming together and I now know that I can nail this.

I can do my Russian sit spin now. My coach wants me to aim for 9 revolutions but I managed 12 on one. He days my combination spin is now really good and I was even getting through my step sequence better. After the first program run through my coach said that the only thing that was missing was not extrnding my fingers when doing arm work, to give a finished look. On the second run through I sorted this out. Due to the increase in stamina I’m also getting more speed across the ice.

At the end of my lesson we did double toe and I managed to land one for me coach. So far I’ve been landing my doubles in practice when he’s not around.

I’ve got some new Chloe Noel black practice leggings that you pull down over your boot. They are really comfortable and look good so I’m really enjoying wearing those for practice at the moment. I’ve also got myself a British ice skating t-shirt that I mostly wear for gym work.