Dream Chaser On Wheels

My Garmin Is Not Too Smart

In recent months, I've grown to rely on my GPS/HR monitor for training purposes. The ability to have it run programs which coach SZ assigned is enough reason to bring it to every training session. I was scheduled for some intervals today. When I ran the program, all the Garmin did was count down the first on-piece and went beep-beep-beep....-beep-WORKOUT FINISHED! I tried it several times without success. I finished my workout based on some rough estimates and was a little annoyed that my trusty Garmin failed me.

JaS and I shot some video of our skating after practice for some much needed video analysis. Let me just say one thing: unless you have perfect technique, it is an incredibly bad idea to pick apart your own skating days before a race!! Suffice to say, after watching my own video frame-by-frame, I am not so cocky about my skating ability anymore. Haahaa, this is definitly the last thing I need before a race this weekend.

So after I got home, I figured out what was wrong with my Garmin. As it turned out, I never erased any workout history since purchase. It finally reached the point of saturation and that was why it went berserk. I'm relieved to know that it is not broken and now everything is back to working order.

On other news, I would like to coin a term and hope that it will catch on. Here goes:

Crashy

adjective

1. Prone to crashing

Usage: John is a bit crashy recently...best to stay away from him in the pack!

2. Conducive to crashes

Usage: That 150m of the trail is crashy with so much debris all over the place.

3. High frequency of crashes

Usage: It's been a crashy race with people falling left right and center.

Clear!

I'm just back from the doctor's office and as you can tell from my smile in the picture, I'm feeling very relieved. The x-ray confirmed that nothing got broken and I received a nice lesson on scaphoid fracture, the injury-de-rigeur at my club this season. I will be ready for the pre-season clinic hosted by coach AA this Saturday!

Now that a huge weight has been lifted off my chest, I do have some more trivial things to think about. For example, I've been skating sockless for a couple of months and I do worry about my boots getting stinky. I know that once it starts to smell bad, there's no going back. The key thing here is to dry the inside of the boots after skating. The Mayor suggested to me that I can stuff the inside of the boot with a package of desiccant (often found in packaged food like crispy snacks) and I think that's a fantastic idea. Only problem is, those packages are quite tiny. However, I am nothing if not resourceful! Of all the crispy snacks that I can think of, seaweed is most sensitive to moisture so they always come with a big bag of desiccant. Soooo, if I want an even bigger bag of desiccant, I should go for a family-size package of seaweed! This is what I bought today:

See how a regular size bag of desiccant dwarf in its presence? Ha, my boots will be nice and dry at all times!

Evolution Of A Skater

My hand is hurting less by the day and I'm feeling quite convinced that nothing was broken (phew!). There is a big patch of bruises though which explains why it hurts funny because I'm really not used to having a bruised palm. My left knee on the other hand is a different story. I am still feeling a fair amount of pain whenever I put any weight on it. This means I really haven't been moving around much in the last couple of days. I would very much like to go to practice tomorrow morning especially since practices are cancelled for next Monday and Wednesday. However, I really can't say at this point in time.

Aside from lounging around at my house and working on stuff from the office, I have something special planned for this Easter long weekend. Over the years, I tried many different form of skating. Everything from quads to jumping on figure skates to rec skating on the trail to racing on speedskates, I've tried them all. This is nothing special of course. Most of my skating friends probably share similar background. One thing that I notice is there is a certain persona that comes with each pair of skates. In a case of "a picture is worth a thousand words", I took an afternoon to put this mental picture to reality.

From left to right: custom Simmons 4x100 (2007), K2 Velocity 4x80 (2002), Rollerblade SpiritBlade 4x72 (1996), Risport figure skates (2003), Yasaki quad skates (1986)

Pretty nifty eh?

There was lots of running between camera and posing but I really like the final result (yes, this is indeed a self-portrait...). It really represents the different sides of me as a skater. Can you spot out the retro Rollerblade SpiritBlade? It holds a special spot in my heart as the skates that gave me my first real road rash (on my doomed left knee no less). Awww, isn't that sweet!

Eureka!

Well, I'm not THAT enthusiastic but you get the idea. After a handful of bad practices troubled by shin issues, I finally found out the reason why. The frame on my left skate moved all the way to the inside!!! No wonder the muscles on my outer shin tightened up and my left ankle collapsed outside in the corners. I know exactly how and when my frame moved too now that I think about it.

Let's rewind to three weeks ago when I skated outdoor at the gravel-covered Hamilton Beaches Trail. It was sooo bumpy that I think my frame shifted. I didn't skate the week after that because I was recovering from knee/ankle injury. Since then, I had been plagued by shin problem at every single practice. I feel a little sheepish that I did not notice my frame shifted for such a long time but hey, better now than later.

As expected, my shin and ankle gave up pretty quickly a few laps into practice. However, I really had zero expectation going into Scooter's today so mentally I wasn't too bothered by it anymore. All I wanted to do was skate as much as I could before I inevitably lost all edge control in the corners. Coach AA continued the discussion on track pattern manipulation and the application for each case. It was immensely helpful to see how they relate to skating offensively, defensively, and neutral. All in all, a very informative session. I only wish I could participate more in the drills. Looks like I have some skate maintenance to do before next practice.

Brain Buckets

These are my Giro Atmos helmets. I had been searching high and low for a helmet which doesn't make me look like a mushroom-topped dork and I think the Atmos is stylish enough to escape that fate. Unfortunately, it also comes with a hefty price tag.

The one on the left I purchased at regular price earlier this season. I have been seen in many inline skating pictures with it. The blue and silver one I bought yesterday because there's a 2007 inventory sale at Curbside Cycle on Bloor. At $120 (GST included), it is a reasonable deal. I bought the last medium size but there are still a few small and large available. Not that I'm vain or anything but I can now colour coordinate my skating outfits (helmet+skinsuit+skates). On a somewhat unrelated note, I always suspect that coach AA colour coordinates his helmet and skinsuit though of course he would never admit it...

Since plyos on Thursday, I've been hobbling around much of the time because I was sore all over. I went to watch some local short track races at the Brampton ability meet on Saturday. It was really neat to see many familiar faces. Some of the adults I skated with last year are racing this year and all the kids are so much taller (and faster) now! I missed indoor practice this morning due to some mix up on Saturday night which dragged into the wee hours. I enjoyed a rare morning of sleeping in and ended up logging some time on the stationery bike at the gym. All in all, not a bad weekend and it's nice to be away from my skates for a little bit after a week's worth of bad practices. Let's see what Monday brings.

OMG, My Boots Are Famous!

Umm, well, not really. But still. It is super cool that they are featured on the Simmons Racing website!!! You can find pictures of my boots here (second row from the bottom left of the page). How do I know they're my boots? I think the "Candy" "Supergirl" are obvious giveaways. Heh.

There is actually a reason behind why I wanted to have those two words embroidered on my boots. You can see for yourself...

First Impression

Have I fallen in love yet with my new skates? Well, not quite. More accurately, I'm still in the process of learning how to use them. The combination of new boots, new frame, canting, bigger wheels, and a brand new set of wheels proven to work well on our practice floor made for a very different skating experience than my last practice. Everything was new except for my dirty bearings and spacers!

I spent my warm-up in the middle of the floor trying to figure out how to control my skates. Basically, I could not get them to go where I want them to go. When my body did what it thought was enough to make a tight turn, I ended up swinging out wide. After some frustration, I settled on doing simple drills such as single-leg gliding along the small oval so I could get a better feel of how the skate behaves.

Just as I suspected, my frames were not in the right place. Coach SZ adjusted them and the difference was day and night. During the acceleration drill, I was finally traveling down a more predictable path both in the straights and the corners. The bigger wheels felt weird at the corner...I felt like I was leaning more without extra effort. Good thing that these new yellow Matters are working well! For the first time, I felt secure in the corners. For the first time, I know exactly how much I was not trusting my old marshmallow-y wheels!

We did a couple sets of 5+5+5 laps drills. Coach AA put in a new twist and asked us to skate 5 laps neutral, 5 laps aggressive, and 5 laps defensive to practice our track patterns. In reality, the whole drill turned out to be just a straight race with a speed too fast for me to follow. No matter, I just took the opportunity to skate on the track by myself to get more comfortable on my new skates. I tried to skate the track patterns to some degree. Coach SZ told me afterward that I looked good in my aggressive laps because I really picked up the cadence to power out the corners. These custom boots do feel better when I picked up the cadence. They ran with me like an extension of my legs, for lack of a better description.

By the time we started relays, I was already a lot more comfortable on my skates than an hour ago. I did not miss any of my exchange and that is saying a lot considering all the chaos around! I came out of the relay box with JS, EL, and L. I was frankly a little scare when I had to do my exchange beside L because he did not stop skating during the exchange. I had this fear that after I get my push from JR, I would run right over his outstretched legs [shudder].

At the end of practice, I was noticeably more tired than usual. I felt more clumsy as well, though not in a oh-my-god-I'm-tripping-over-my-skates kinda of clumsy. I felt that I was slower in reacting to any change of pace. As soon as the pace of the pack picks up just a tiny bit, I was too slow to react. However, I was able to do more.

As far as boot fitting goes, I'm quite happy with the result. The boot feels very stiff compared to my old Bont ZX-5. The carbon comes up higher around the toes so I doubt that I will go barefeet in these boots (that feeling of toes scraping carbon is kinda icky to me). It fits well around my ankle, side, and bottom of my feet. The tongue is heatmoldable so I may need to work on it a bit as I feel the top of my feet being pressed down by the boot. However, of all the places that I may have potential fitting problems, the top of the boot is probably one least damaging. Haahaa.

All in all, I still have adjustments to make to both my technique and my boots before I feel entirely comfortable in these new skates. I can't wait to skate in them again!

Mystery Solved!

Busy setting up my new skates. Check out some drool-worthy pictures here in the mean time.

And to answer your question, no, I don't plan to skate in my Storm Surges anytime soon. They look good with the colour of my boots though.

Scooby Doo And The Case Of The Mystery Package

I'm not feeling that great after practice on Monday. I had a couple of falls, one of which had my head hit the floor hard. I was alright after the initial shock worn off. Now that it's been a couple of hours, I'm slowly getting a mild headache that's not unlike the onset of a cold/flu. I don't know if the two are related but needless to say, I've had better days. I'll write more about the practice when I'm feeling better.

When I got home from practice, I had a surprise waiting for me in the form of a yellow and brown UPS InfoNotice. Apparently I have a 2lb package from Florida with those infamous C.O.D. charges waiting for me. I checked the tracking number but I cannot find out who the mystery sender is. I haven't actually heard from Simmons recently though the date does correspond with their original estimate time of completion for my boots. Does 2lb sound right for a pair of boots plus one frame? I guess I'll find out tomorrow with delivery attempt No. 2.

In the mean time, I hope this headache goes away soon. AA, with any luck, I think I need my set of yellow Matters 100mm wheels. I sure hope you have them ready for me!

California Dreaming

My custom boots are estimated to be done in three months so that means they should be available some time in December. Shipping cross border would likely cost me extra money on custom, tax, shipping, and quite possibly handling fee. So I thought it may not be such a bad idea to ship them to my friend ML in California. Since a few of my friends will be visiting ML around that time of the year, I can probably ask them to take the boots back to Toronto.

Wait a minute, what if I go to visit ML myself? It would be a great opportunity to visit my favourite puppy Momo and ML's baby. Besides, I have enough mileage points to get myself a free flight. Most importantly, the weather will still be nice enough to skate outdoors over there in December! ML told me that it's a quiet neighbourhood with little traffic and a speed limit of 30km/h. Doesn't it sound like a perfect solution to cure mid-winter blues?

Custom Casting By David Simmons

After much contemplation, I took the plunge to get a pair of custom boots from Simmons Racing. Last Friday in Duluth, I went to the Simmons booth at the vendor expo to get my feet custom cast by Mr. David Simmons himself. I talked with many of my skating friends and the overwhelming response was the quality of the cast can really make or break the boots. That was why I ended up ordering my customs sooner rather than later so I could be casted by the bootmaker.

The casting process was much quicker than I expected. I had my right foot done first. My foot was first smeared with Vaseline and then Mr. Simmons wrapped my foot with one roll of water-soaked wide-width plaster bandage. The wrapping was done in a very efficient manner with emphasis on the ankle area. My foot stayed relax while he wound the bandage around.

It was interesting to note that he used paper towel to soaked up the excess moisture from the plaster bandages while he shaped the plaster more closely to my foot. Next, Mr. Simmons asked me to put my foot on top of a soft fluffy foam pad and stood up with my knees bent. He adjusted me stance for a bit and held me knee while I carefully sat back down.

He shaped the cast a bit more while we waited for the cast to harden a bit. In the mean time, I voiced some of my concerns about my skating in general (knees turned in and having a really difficult time with pronation especially when I'm tired). He took a look at my ZX-5, noted how I already have the frame moved to the inside, and explained that he has problems with pronation himself too. Mr. Simmons recommended that he would build in 10 degree canting to my boots. I was a little skeptical about the built-in canting because after all, this is permanent....however, he is a very experienced bootmaker and I trust his judgement. I hope that this is a right decision.

It didn't take long for the plaster to harden just enough. Mr. Simmons proceeded to make a vertical slit on the plaster directly on top of the metal strip and the cast slipped off my foot easily. It was still soft enough to press the slit shut. I signed my name on the bottom of the cast and that was basically it. Picking and choosing the colour for my boots was pretty quick as I have already given my custom boots some thoughts previously. I ordered an extra set of mounting bolts because, well, you never know when disaster strikes, right?

It will be exciting to receive my boots in 3 months! Haahaa, this is probably as good an excuse as any to go to the Great EsSkate in Miami comes February next year. :)

Off To Duluth

I'm suppose to be sleeping at this time in anticipation of my early flight to Duluth. Since this is not my first time traveling out of town for competitions, I'm not really feeling nervous. From last year's experience, I know better now to pack some non-perishable food for breakfast on race day. Rushing around town the night before race day looking for suitable breakfast food just adds unnecessary hassle to my schedule.

I don't expect anything out of my performance other than making my way across the finish line. My ramp-up days in tapering are working as expected but I lose energy very quickly during a workout session. On the bright side, I'm now more used to the effects of exercising while bordering on sugar low symptoms. It's a little annoying but I can mostly get through it somehow. Unfortunately, club practice is becoming more and more uncomfortable due to various reasons so I'll be glad when the season wraps up in two weeks. I feel the need to hibernate (in a gym) for a while.

On a more exciting note, I made my casting appointment at Simmons Racing for tomorrow afternoon. According to the very helpful Jennifer, David Simmons will be doing the casting himself. Getting these custom boots will be a very heavy financial commitement. However, when each marathon is a gamble to see how many kilometres my feet can last, these custom boots may not be such a bad idea after all.

One Man's Garbage Is Another Man's Treasure

I went looking for a phone book in AL's basement today and I accidentally stumbled across a box containing a brand new Bollinger Aerobic GlideSlide, complete with VHS instruction video. It was one of those fitness fad that AL's sister bought years ago and had been sitting in the basement gathering dust ever since. The saying on the box cracks me up:

The fat-burning, low impact workout. Glide into leaner hips, thighs, and buttocks. A fun way to lose inches and build endurance. No sweat, it's an easy, natural exercise anyone can do. Includes super slick sliding surface of 6 feet/1.8m and shoe covers. Rolls up for easy storage.

Granted, 6 feet is a little short for a slideboard but since my friends don't mind giving it to me for free, I'm quite happy to be this slideboard's new owner. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. It's been rolled up for so many years I need to flatten it on the floor for a few days first. What an unexpected gift!

My New 4x100 Frames

These are my new 4x100 frames. They are Cado Motus Pro db III 12.0 inches, probably one of the shortest 4x100 frames on the market. As you can see in the picture, they are just slightly shorter than my current Bont Sniper 4x90 so with the addition of the 100mm wheels, I hope that the transition will not be too painful. Unfortunately, I am not able to try these frames yet because I do not have a pair of 195mm mount boots. My plan is to get molded next weekend at Duluth for a pair of Simmons boots but of course it's not exactly spare change so I'm still a little uncertain. Foot pain and boot problems had been a recurring issue for me ever since I got my Bont ZX5 last August so perhaps it is time for me to splurge.

Skate Woes

I've been having a lot of boot problems since the outdoor season began a little over a week ago. Basically, my left ankle is pressing the top of my boot where the carbon fiber ends and it's hurting like crazy as soon as I put my foot in my skates. The molded padding that EG made for me is not helping much anymore and every stride is now a test of my pain tolerence.

I went for a trail skate on the Martin Goodman Trail with KN, JS, ML, and EG. More accurately, I was on the trail with them at the same time but wasn't really skating with them. The rough patch just east of Sunnyside Pavillion almost made me cry...that was how bad my ankle was hurting.

I don't recall my boot hurting me so much last season and last night I suddenly remembered that AH helped me to remold my boots at the beginning of indoor season because it was too loose around the ankle. It did not bother me at all during indoor season...in fact, it felt pretty good on the smooth surface and it helped me to get on the outside edge more consistently. However, I think I'll need to remold me skates yet again for outdoor purposes.

Hmm...I Am Looking For Something To Replace My Rec Skates...

Check out this upcoming semi-race skate from Bont...it looks very snazzy and the price is still manageable. I've been casually looking around for options to replace my rec skates but I haven't found anything that I fall for head-over-heels yet. I have an arbitrary quota of one pair of skate per year so who knows...

Shopping At The Expo

We arrived in Duluth today after a flight to Thunder Bay and a drive across the border. It was rather uneventful except for the fact that I was wearing my favourite cargo pants (aka road trip pants) which set off the metal detectors left right and center. I ended up being frisked for over 10 minutes...

As soon as ML and I met up with GC at the Hawthorn Suites, we made a beeline to the expo to pick up our race kits and some serious shopping. Although this is not my first time competing at a large inline event, it is definitely my first time visiting an expo. At the National Capital Marathon, I arrived the night before the race and received my race kit from friends at the club. This time around, I had no intention to miss the great shopping opportunity! I tagged along with ML and checked out some new skates. I ended up with a new skinsuit, a set of Hyper Mach 2 wheels, spacers, and a skate tool.

We were going to have a carb-loaded dinner at an Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, that was also the idea of half the town...so we ended up hunting for all the measly carb options in a barbeque restaurant. Of course, being the good student that I am, I tried my hardest to follow coach EG's order of drinking 2L of Gatorade on the evening before race day. I ended up with about 1.5L of ice water before calling it quits...I hate Gatorade.

Weather's looking iffy for tomorrow morning, I hope it's not going to rain.

Heat Moulding My New Boots

The instruction that came with my new skates is rather brief on how to heat mould the boots. After going on the Bont website, the same four sentences show up for heat moulding instruction. For a newbie like me, the lack of details is little nerve wrecking because after all, I'm going to bake my very expensive new skates in the oven. With lots of hesitation, I heat moulded my boots yesterday and took pictures every step of the way. Who knows, may be another newbie will stumble to this post and happy to see more details.

What I Need

• skate tool
• screwdriver
• long skinny pin
• large disposable foil pan
• big fluffy towel

What I Did

1. Preheat oven to 185F.
2. Using the skate tool, remove wheels and then the frame from boots.
3. Using the screwdriver, remove the buckle from the boot.
4. Remove laces from boot. Push the strap away from the lace cover to remove the strap. See picture for all the removable pieces neatly laid out on the floor.



5. Place boots in foil tray and place the entire tray in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes.
6. Remove tray from oven. I put the towel across my lap so that I can work with the hot/warm skates without burning myself.
7. To mount the frames to the boot, I use the skinny pin to maneuvre the nut to the right mounting point at the bottom of the boot. Use screwdriver to fasten the buckle to the boot as well. Leave the wheels alone.
8. Put on the boots and push out any parts of the boot that causes discomfort. I use the plastic end of a screwdriver to help with moulding occasionally.
9. Lace up the boots and fasten the lace cover.
10. Stand in basic position until boots completely cool down.
11. Take off the moulded boots and put the wheels back to the frame. Skates are now ready for action!

Heat moulding is a bit of trial-and-error for me. Since the material can be remoulded multiple times, I would skate in the moulded boots and remould if necessary.

TBN Monthly Marathon At Hamilton Beaches

I took part in the TBN monthly marathon yesterday at Hamilton Beaches to try out my new skates. Suffice to say, I had to learn to skate all over again. By the time I was done, I was still adjusting to the different feel of my new skates. The lack of ankle support will take a lot of getting used to, as expected. When I was skating, I would flip unintentionally to the outside edge. Also, I had trouble doing a big recovery. I think this has to do with me not feeling 100% comfortable with balancing on one skate yet.

As for stopping...well, let's just say that I have a long way to go. I can sort of stomp my right skate repeatedly until I come to a complete stop. However, the brake distance is long and my lack of confidence in my stopping ability certainly doesn't help. During the marathon, I dropped my wallet on the trail and didn't notice it until a few hundred metres later. Once I found out, I was skating like mad to look for my wallet. Luckily, a couple of passerby picked it up. As soon as I spotted them, I called out "oh, that's mine!" and tried to stop just as I was about to come to a downhill. I lost concentration and tried to stop with the non-existent heel brake, panicked, and fell on my butt. At that point, those two pedestrians were more concern about my safety. Way to go Candy (haahaa)!

This is the first time that I skate with full racing gears on including skinsuit and skates. For anyone who does not believe in skinsuits, I can assure you that they are light and feels very aerodynamic. Learning from EG, I shoved many things inside my skinsuit such as wallet, power gel, car keys, and water. The water bottle wouldn't stay put so that was too bad. The wallet and gel both slipped out after my legs got sweaty so that wasn't such a good idea either. I had my car keys attached to a neck strap and eventually I hung the wallet on the strap too. The strap goes underneath the suit so everything was neatly tucked out of the way. That was the best way to go.

PD and ME dropped by to take some the pictures of the event. I notice that I look absolutely flat-chested in the skinsuit. Okay, this better means less wind resistence because it doesn't look very flattering for sure.

Here is an extremely brief clip of me skating the trail. First time ever on speedskates!

(pictures courtesy of Peter Doucet, video courtesy of Joel Hughes)

P.S. What's up with all the mindboggling ear, bum, legs, and crotch shots from EG's camera?!

Come Meet My New Skates

Well, after much waiting, here they are. My first pair of speedskates.

• Bont ZX5 boots 36.5 regular width
• Bont 4X90 Sniper frames
• 88mm Crager wheels
• mini bearings

I think the left boot pinches my ankle a little bit but I'll skate in them for a little while before deciding if heat molding is necessary. Compare to my rec skates, the lack of ankle support feels very strange. Oh, and they are LIGHT! I hope I don't trip over the much longer frame...

I'll try them out for the TBN monthly marathon at Hamilton Beaches tomorrow. My target is under 1:45:00 for the 42km distance.

My First Skinsuit

This sounds quite frivolous but I was excited to go to practice today wearing my first skinsuit. My normal practice attire consists of a Sugoi tank top with mesh back and a pair of capri (see my profile picture). It is extremely practical and comfortable. However, silly as it sounds, I've wanted to have my own skinsuit ever since I started practicing with TISC a few months ago.

Since I fell on Sunday, my left knee has a medium size patch of road rash glistening with Polysporin that I would rather not cover up with fabric. Fortunately, by some lucky coincidence, SZ brought along one of her skinsuits that she made to the clinic last weekend for me to try. It fits me very well so I bought it. (Did I mention that SZ won best team uniform award for the skinsuits she made for her Montreal 24 team The Incredibles?) The bottom of the skinsuit only reaches mid thigh so it would not rub against my knee at all.

I thought that I would be quite self-conscious about wearing a skinsuit because after all, it is skin-tight. However, it turned out to be very comfortable for skating and I was too busy concentrating on skating anyway to care about what I wore. Funny thing was, since SZ and I are about the same height, some people at the club did a double-take when I walked by because they recognized the suit before they realized it was me instead of SZ. Heehee, of course they would not make that mistake as soon as I started skating because I still have a long way to go before skating like a true speedskater. It was funny nonetheless how we all recognize each other by the gears that we wear.

La La La~My New Skates Are Coming

I just got an email from Zt Sports informing me that my new skates are on route from Australia. I ordered them a few weeks ago during the Montreal 24 event and since then, I've been eagerly waiting for their arrival. Unfortunately, I'll not get my hands on them in time for the Support Your World Team clinic this weekend. Oh well.

Did I mention that I have yet to learn how to stop without using brakes? It would be fun to learn how to skate again when I have my new skates!!! Perhaps it would be a good idea for me to brush off the dust on my knee pads and elbow pads....come to think of it, I do have a pair of impact shorts for snowboarding. They may come in handy too considering how clumsy I can get.

The New Wheels Fit!

I knew that my old set of wheels that came originally with my skates were near their end. I've put a lot of mileage on them last season. However, I didn't realize exactly how worn out they are until coach EG examined my skates last week. These were the things that he pointed out:

• the wheels were worn out unevenly. Sigh, I should have been more diligent with regular rotation.
• cracks were starting to form on the wheels. He said the wheels are worn to the point of being dangerous to skate on.
• instead of propelling myself forward with each stroke, the friction between the wheel and the ground just generates heat. That means I work hard for....nothing.
• one of the bearing does not spin smoothly. The way to test is to hold up one skate and give the wheels a good spin. The wonky bearing stops spinning way before the rest.
• at 78mm, my wheels are small. The standard now for recreational skates is going for larger wheels. I may have trouble finding replacement wheels at this size.

At the TISC party on Monday May 1, EG mentioned that he has a set of 80mm wheels that may work well with my skates so he brought them to the practice on Tuesday for me to try. I checked the user's manual the night before and it was very ambiguous about the maximum size of wheels that my skates support ("depending on the size of your skate, the maximum wheel size ranges between 76mm to 82mm").

I took the wheels home and was going for the good ol' trial-and-error way of fitting. If I could mount them on the skates properly, it must mean they fit, right? Just as I began to remove my old wheels, I saw on the frame in big letters that it supports up to wheels of size 80mm. Well, I was glad that it took the guess work out! I took the bearings out of the old wheels, brushed the dirt out with an old toothbrush, and installed the new set of wheels.

I promise myself that I'll rotate these new wheels more often. I'm very excited to try them out at practice tomorrow!

Technorati: inline skate wheel replacement

A (not so) Brief Introduction

I've been doing recreational/fitness inline skating on and off since 1996. What drew me into the world of inline skating in the first place? It was a Canada Day barbeque party at a friend's house in Burlington, Ontario. A group of us were strolling to a nearby parking lot for some pyro-fun (i.e. fireworks). I remember looking at some friends of a friend who made their way over on inline skates looking oh so cool. The very next day, I walked over to the nearest sporting goods store in Waterloo (my hometown during university years) and got myself a pair of clunky old-school Rollerblade Spirit Blade of plastic molded boot.

After reading through the instruction booklet that came with the blades, I figured out how to manoeuvre around on these babies with a few late night sessions in an empty parking lot. Since then, they were my transportation of choice to go between my apartment and school. All was great until one evening, I had a pretty bad fall after a night class. It would be a few years before I take up inline skating again.

A couple of years ago, I started skating again on different trails in Toronto but it was absolutely frustrating to work with my old skates. They made for a slow and bumpy journey wherever I went. At that time, soft boots had practically taken over the recreational skates market so I got myself a comfy pair of K2 Velocity 4.0 with 76mm wheels. It was an absolute joy to skate on compare to my old skates and I put on lots of milege with these skates.

Over the last couple of years, I skated most trails in Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton Beaches, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and even participated in the Paris Friday Night Skate on Oct 30, 2004. I was a member of the Toronto Trailbladers in 2005. However, this season, I'm looking for more challenges. I would like to improve on my technique and speed. I love skating long distances and a long term goal would be to compete as a recreational skater.

I've known about the Toronto Inline Skating Club for a few years. However, I've always been a little intimidated by the competitiveness of this club. It's been my dream to be a part of this club and I'm happy to say that as of May 1, 2006, I've officially registered as a member for the 2006 season! The people are so enthusiastic about the sport and I'm already learning so much from the two practices in April.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a wonderful season.

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