Stroking, 3-Turns, Edges

I was on the ice at 6:40 to warmup for my 7 a.m. lesson. Good ice, only 7 skaters.

Today's lesson:

• Stroking -- Sonya wanted to go over this because we never do... so we did! Reminders to keep the head up (of course). In general she's happy with it. I usually do 6 strokes per side, but Sonya had me try 8 to get me going faster. Of course it was a little scary doing the FXOs going that fast but Sonya gave me the "comfort zone" lecture complete with diagram (Anna used to just use hand gestures, LOL!).
• 3-Turn Pattern -- started with the bad side. These actually are quite improved. Of course I still need to hold the entrance edges longer, and Sonya told me I need to hold the exit from the FO3 longer too. The back lobe is not bad, but I'm inconsistent. I can do them really well, but 1/3 of the time I don't really get my weight shifted and then the whole rhythm is off. After the bad side, we went to do the "good" side and as I went into the first turn I had an excruciating pain in my upper back just below the L shoulderblade. Ouch! I'm not sure what I did, some kind of muscle spasm or something. So we stopped for a minute and then went on to something less stressing...
• B edges -- BO edges are not bad; Sonya reminded me not to rotate early, hold that check position to the top of the lobe. BI edges not too bad either; Sonya reminded me to not let the free foot come around until the top of the lobe -- gotta hold it in front or at most by the skating foot. In general my flow on these has definitely improved.

After my lesson I stayed until 7:40, then left and went home (with a stop at work). Stayed home and took ibuprofen and used my heating pad and took a nap. My back is better now although still a little twingy. Grrr.