I went through some interesting emotions last week at Skate Canada International in Kitchener. Of course I was happy to have won the gold medal. But at the same time I did not skate the long program up to my own standards. Actually, it was pretty bad. Although it is interesting to win a competition with a performance that I am not 100% satisfied with.

I found myself in an unfamiliar position after the short program, where I earn a new personal best. I was a bit surprised to reach the 70 point mark for the first time. I was expecting to get around 65 points as my previous personal best was 67 points.

The 70 point mark is one that I had hoped one day to achieve, but it may have thrown me for a loop.

In a rare occurrence, I did not have any pressure to deliver a perfect program to come from behind. I simply had to hold on to my lead. The pressure I normally feel was missing.

Unlike many athletes, I enjoy pressure and I react well to it.

But, it’s an important step in the learning process. If this happens at the Olympics, I will know how to control my energy for the long program.

I also learned another lesson from my appearance in Kitchener: I need to make some adjustments to my long program. The choreography is beautiful and complete, but it is so full that I often feel like I am behind on the music. In practice, it’s not like that.

But once I arrive at a competition, I always try to give 110% percent. I therefore end up having trouble staying in sync with the music. As a result I have to cut down hold long I hold my spirals, or revolutions during a spin. All of these decrease the difficulty of the element, and as results the base mark of the element.

The key for me will be to try and get into a zone similar to how I feel during practice. To do this I will need to make some changes with Lori Nichol, my choreographer.

We unfortunately do not have the time to do this before the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo. I fly out to Japan on Monday and the competition begins on Friday. But I am happy to be returning to Japan, and to perform in front of the Japanese crowd who are always very supportive.

The final will bring together the six best skaters from the six Grand Prix events. Yu-Na Kim of South Korea and Miki Ando of Japan also won their respective events without skating to the best of the abilities. It will be very interesting to see how everyone does. Of course I would really love to win a medal like I did back in 2005. Last year I had a bad short, but I was able to pull up to fourth, only 2 points back from the bronze medal.

The start of my season has not been as good as last year: the bronze medal at Cup of China and the gold at Skate Canada. But in my eyes, it’s not exactly a horrible start. Last year I had a great start to the season, as well as at Four Continents and the Canadian Championships. Even though I won the silver medal at Worlds in Los Angeles, I don’t think I gave my best ever performance there.

The most important thing for me right now is to improve and keep growing from competition to competition, and I think so far I am right on track. Here’s hoping that this trend continues at the Grand Prix Final and then at the Canadian Championships. As for the Olympics in Vancouver? I will focus on that in due time.