Prep Galore

Today's lesson was on the 8:15 FS as usual. With the heavy (for Portland) snow we'd had Tuesday a.m., I'd not gotten to skate since last Sunday so feeling a bit rusty. The session was more crowded than usual, about 3 other skaters plus a high-level pairs team that showed up part way into the session. They were distracting in two senses -- 1) trying to avoid collisions or getting in their way, and 2) I love pairs skating, and it's tempting to watch. Still, I had a lot of stuff of my own to work on.

Today's lesson:

• LFI3 -- Still plugging away. Some small progress. I swear, I work on these every time I skate, but not for long enough, obviously.
• RFI3 -- Sonya wanted to look at these briefly. They're much better than the other side.
  
• Toe loop prep -- we worked these against the wall. I've not done nearly enough work on my own on this (there always seems to be 12 bazillion things to do, and I'm very focused on basics still). We just worked through the prep she'd showed me before. It's getting more comfortable, so that's good. Tried a couple away from the ice, not much doing there. Sonya reminded me to have a straight leg (no bent knee!) before picking in, and that I have to let my feet cross (eep!) before jumping up. Scary!
  
• Spins -- These are so, so close. I'm pretty much getting the body position okay, I'm just not finding the sweet spot. I'm always going up on my toepick. Gaaaah. Sonya suggested I try it much slower because she thinks I'm going to fast (or too forcefully) so that I rise up too fast and up on the toe. Grr.
  
• Back 3 prep -- Sonya had mentioned these a while ago as a goal. We just tried skating backwards in a lobe and then doing a two-foot turn back to front. I need to practice these more too.