A Perfect Day

Last week I went back to a 12 step (6 left) approach when my coach and I were reunited after the holidays. It went extremely well and didn't hurt me at all. My line up the pole continues to be tremendously better than it was before I was injured. I was wondering if it was a fluke the day I jumped after I pulled the skates off my feet, and it something to do with the missing weight of the skates. But it wasn't. I'm lining up fantastic. So the decision came down from the boss at the end of the session. "Next week, full run." 

Up until today I was both nervous and excited about it, but trying to keep it in the back of my thoughts as nothing. After a long warm up on the ski hill with a close friend this morning, somehow I knew, today would be the day to try it out. I went to the track, warmed up with a little silly gymnastics play, spiked up, and went for it. No pop-ups, step-through's, swing-ups, and so on, it was straight to business. 2 jumps from 10 steps (5 lefts), 2 jumps from 14 steps (7 lefts) then straight back to 18 steps (9 lefts) I took 4 jumps from there with zero run-through's in the entire session, and only one jump where I didn't swing upside down, but when i did swing upside down, I could feel that I was doing the same thing I've been seeing on video from my shorter runs, and there appears to be a great improvement in my jump. It's one thing to do something from a short run (easier, generally), and its another to do it from full (much more difficult). Granted I was jumping on a pole that is generally very small for me these days, but it is still a pole I have jumped 18' on in competition. Even as small as it was, when I stepped on the back of the runway for the first time in these months, I felt fear of my most favorite thing in the world once again. I must admit that when I started my approach the thought of not planting the pole crossed my mind several times (and yes, you can have several thoughts in that short moment it takes to run 30m) but I fought the fear off with a small technical "que", and when I was thrown off the top of that pole I was greatly rewarded with all that power and energy transfered into my body once more, in that moment, life was perfect again.