My Latest Favourite Skater

Since we do so much pack skating, most skaters quickly develop their own preference for who they like the most for drafting. Of course there are the obvious choices like the big guys who give a huge draft but skating style also plays a key role. Personally, I find that when we skate on tracks, I much prefer to skate behind someone with a skating style that's easier for me to follow over size of the skater. I guess all of this is just a very long winded way for me to say:

Gosh! I love skating behind PP on the track!!! Who would have thought?

We did two sets of (2 laps on / 2 laps off)x10. My pack consisted of GN, ShH, PP, JB, JaS, and AL. Being the slowest skater in the pack (so what's new), I fully expected to get dropped as soon as the on pieces hit. I even warned everyone to not get behind me if they don't want to get gapped. In retrospect, perhaps I should have more confidence in myself. Other than the one time when JaS pulled and I got dropped like a rock, I actually stayed with the pack for the entire drill.

Over the winter, PP has grown taller so I actually get a decent draft from her now. Combine with the fact that I find it really easy to mimic her acceleration and the way she skates the corners, I guess it's not too hard to understand why she's becoming my latest favourite skater at club practices. My natural tempo for crossovers is really quite slow. However, when I skate behind PP, picking up the tempo feels like the most natural thing to do. PP practically grew up skating on a track. By skating behind her more often, hopefully I can learn a thing or two from her!

One thing that I recently have a deeper understanding is the difference between indoor and outdoor skating. Sure we still skate on a track and I practically skate with the same bunch of people. When we skated indoor, my skating was so inefficient that I got tired very quickly. However, with more room outdoor and more trust on my grip on the ground, I now can skate like I mean it. Also, outdoor is so much more forgiving in terms of technique. I'm pretty sure my technique has not been so different within the last month. The fact that I can keep up with the group more often than not probably means my fitness is kicking in to make up for what I lack in technique.