Pilot with instructor reported descending over 1;000 feet below the designated altitude for a maneuver. Pilot ended maneuver and climbed to higher altitude.

Narrative

Completed a series of high performance maneuvers: Steep turns; Power On stalls; Power Off stalls; and Slow flight. My instructor asked me to perform a Steep spiral; which I proceeded to perform as per usual; except that today we sequenced the maneuvers in a different order than normal. I started my steep spiral way lower. I don't remember my starting altitude; but I vocalized the process of the maneuver from memory. The last time we did this maneuver; it was after doing a Lazy Eight; so around 5000 ft MSL. This time; my starting point was at the altitude where I finished my slow flight maneuvers which was preceded by a Power Off stall. I did not realize that I was as low as we were; being in the middle of nowhere. Yet; I picked an intersection to do my steep spiral that was just in the kiddy corner of a newly built cluster of homes; perhaps a half a dozen to a dozen homes. When I finished my second turn I was at 3100 feet. I did not like the closeness of the ground so cancelled the maneuver and with full power; climbed away. We were in a fairly sparsely populated area except for the small cluster of newly built homes. In any case; I thought we were at least 500-600 feet above ground since the airport less than 10 miles away was at 2500 ft MSL; but my instructor looked it up on his ForFlight and discovered that the ground there was at 2800 ft; not 2500 ft; so we were 300 feet above ground. No wonder; I cancelled that maneuver. In reviewing this maneuver; I made the following observations: (1) I should have used a maneuver checklist to ensure that both the starting altitude and the floor of the maneuver would have been identified before starting the maneuver and followed. This maneuver starts at 4500 ft AGL and the floor needs to be no lower than 1500 ft AGL.(2) When my guts were telling me: 'don't complete your turn; you are too low.' I should have cancelled the turn and start my climb; right then and there. We would have been above the 500 feet limit; and it would have been much safer; should an emergency occur.(3) When I started doing these maneuvers; I reviewed these steps very religiously; but after awhile of not doing this maneuver; I stopped looking at it.(4) I am training to be a CFI and we were starting to transition the role of instructor to me; which added a bit of load on my mind; having to verbalize everything and doing maneuvers in different sequences. Things happen fast and relying solely on memory makes you more prone to inevitable distractions; such as mine today.Lessons learned: (1) I put the high performance maneuver checklist back in my every-day bundle to have it with me on each flight. (2) When I plan a training flight with high performance maneuvers; I will review all of them prior to departing so it is fresh on my mind. Safety first. A co-worker of mine works in that area; so I asked her if she saw or heard us. She usually is outside with her little boy; but she said no.