Soreness is my life!!

Here I am again, writing to my anonymous audience... hello all!!

(MY COMPUTER JUST STOPPED LETTING ME USE THE "ENTER" KEY AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIX IT; CONSEQUENTLY THIS WHOLE ENTRY IS ONE PARAGRAPH) I got up this morning with a little bit of a sore groin... more stiff than sore. It was important for me to approach the day without hesitation going into whatever I decided to do. Early on I had made the choice to do everything in my programs and to minimize the exhaustive axel exercises that followed, simply to keep my groin in good working condition. Soreness is expected! Pain is expected! Soreness and pain management are also expected--do whatever necessary to improve while avoiding the unnecessary injury-provoking drills. Funny thing is, a little soreness fades into the background when you choose to focus on something else. I had another great day today, starting off with a clean short followed by a long with a couple small bobbles (nothing big) and a fall on the triple lutz--overall a great program though. The important thing for me to do is avoid my perfectionist tendency to say "if it's not perfect, it's not worth doing" and keep my mind on the idea that the overall trend of my skating is slanted upward; everything has gotten far more consistent, I am more confident, my jumps are more secure, and the overall package is continuing to improve. One or two mistakes on a session or in a program do not make or break anything. MOVE ON, staying focused on whatever you set out to achieve!! Keep pushing; keep pushing; keep pushing!! Tomorrow will be yet another day of the same kind of training, completely independent of what's come before and what's yet to come, but exercising the mind to do exactly what I want when I want to do it. Keep your focus on right now, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today (right now), for it's the only time your mind actually has control of. Yes, my groin is still sore though, I'm still working and it won't get in the way of anything I set my mind to. "Thanks for listening"--Frasier Crane. --Braden