Dream Chaser On Wheels

Yay For Practice

I wasn't feeling particularly good nor bad about practice today yet in a way, I was not at all bothered by it. I do not feel indifferent. More accurately, I was in such good spirit that I was impervious to any negativity. Does that make any sense?

If I want to be picky, there are lots to be displeased about. The parking lot was occupied by some film crew and I had to unload all our club equipment from far away. The unofficial start of my practice began with donning a pair of latex gloves, picking up globs of goose poop from our track, and flinging them to the lawn. It was so disgusting yet so ridiculous that I couldn't help but to fall into a silly mood (yes, that was me humming to Kylie Minogue songs while cleaning). Our attack/blocking drill was more than a little messed up with everybody moving together in a cluster of chaos. It reminded me of a swamp of bees circling on the track. Our 1000m repeats were tough as expected. I couldn't hang on to the pack but that did not bother me either. Normally, I would feel discouraged and wonder if I really belong in my group. Today, I just kept on skating hard...no expectations, no disappointments.

Something good did happen at practice though. I was paying attention to reach my left leg in the corners and it translated to a more powerful underpush. I tried to use more weight transfer in the straights for a more effective push. I may not be skating well today but at least I had a good workout and beginning to feel confident on the track again. Ever since my frame shifted over a month ago, I have been dreading track skating. My confidence on the track was low and it showed in my skating. The accumulation of non-sucky practice means I am slowly picking up where I left off. Now is the time to gather momentum for my string of races starting in mid August. I need to skate with confidence.

Like Being 10 Again

Skating well in the flying 200s is something that has eluded me all season. Although I have achieved some significant improvement in the form of personal bests with many of my track distances, the flying 200 is not one of them. I had a pretty consistent mid 23s last season yet this year, despite all the improvement I made elsewhere, a 22 was all that I could manage. It has even gotten to a point where I don't bother asking coach AH for my time anymore because resignated is how I feel about my flying 200 ("okay, haven't we already established that I suck at this?").

AH had me lead the first flying 200 at practice today and my time was 22.08. I shrugged my shoulders and just continued on with the drill, getting dropped every time less than 25m into the acceleration. Before we began our third set, AH called me over and asked me to jog on the spot on the lawn with everybody looking on.

"Move those legs faster!"

"Here, JeP, let me see you do it."

"You see that? Go faster!"

With my friends chanting "Faster, Candy, Faster!" in the background, I felt like I was back to being that 10 year old kid in gym class who couldn't do a cartwheel even though her grade was on the line. I would be lying if I say the thought of just running away to hide in a corner did not cross my mind. However, the adult side of me knows that logically, coach AH was trying to help me get over this plateau because he knows that I have it in me to skate faster than a 22s lap. He wanted me to skate with a sense of urgency, forget about all those nuance of a proper stride, and just move my legs as fast as I can.

With JeP encouraging me every step of the way, my second attempt yielded 21.50s. That's cutting half a second off! Coach AH told me afterward that I was doing best in the second straightaway when my leg speed was the fastest. Am I in a celebratory mood? Hmm, not really. I was pouting like a kid for a long time even though I knew that coach AH successfully helped me to get over a plateau. I just couldn't help it.

Other than the pouting, I actually had a pretty good practice today. I clicked skates with DR during warm up and I would have a good tumble had JaS not held me up from behind. Thank you thank you thank you!! I completed all the 200s and finished the 12k steady pace in the pack.

Things May Not Always Go My Way...

For every fantastic practice that I enjoy, there is a bad practice just around the corner. Today was suppose to be one hard practice leading up to a bit of tapering. However, after three consecutive days of being off-skates (though not off-training), I felt absolutely horrible at practice today.

Practice was the usual flying 200s and points race. For the technical drills, coach EG had us work in pairs for some drills on attack awareness and those drills required us to skate at race pace. I worked with GN and without some adequent warm up, I had a hard time catching my breathe just to complete the exercise.

Next we launched into a group warm up which started off well enough. I was skating behind SaH and the pace was controlled and steady. However, it did not take long before it felt way harder than a warm up pace. My legs felt heavy and my strides were laboured. I left the pack to roll around the track for a bit. By the time I rejoined the pack, it was already the start of those flying 200s. I did not expected the acceleration and left the pack. I did a few of the 200s but I just felt like an absolute mess...I even stepped on my own skates during crossover not once, but at least five times. The effort of completing the sprints took so much out of me that I had trouble skating up to the pack during group up time. I ended up rolling around on the outside for the pack to lap me in most cases because I just felt so exhausted.

For the first 2k of the points race, coach AH wanted to handicap the race so that only the slowest four skaters were allowed to go for points (that included me). By this time, I didn't even want to skate anymore. Skating at the front with any decent amount of speed and going for points? Ha, like I was gonna do it. I stayed in the front for three laps before getting out of the pack to skate on the outside. Oh did I mention how much I did not want to skate? I continued skating by myself on the outside lane until the end of practice and made it a point not to skate with anyone. I felt torn between listening to my body and fighting to train hard (which was of course the right thing to do). Unfortunately, once again, I let my emotion got the best of me and wasted valuable training opportunity.

Believing in myself is a key part of learning to be a strong competitor. I cannot let one bad practice to shake my confidence. Yet it is difficult not to doubt myself when I slacked off, gave up, and sucked so badly today. On a mildly brighter side, perhaps it is good that I got my bad-skate-of-the-week out of the way instead of having it haunt me at the race this Saturday. Staying positive when things do not go my way is one hard lesson to learn indeed.

The Dreaded 1000m!

Ever since coach AH posted the training program for July and August, I've been dreading tonight's practice of rolling 1000s. This is one of the hardest distance  to race and to sustain a hard effort for five laps continuously is no easy feat. Tag on a half lap accel to the front and changing leads while at speed, I was certain that tonight would be a struggle-fest for me.

So, after seven sets of 1000s, how did I feel? Well, my legs were jello yet I was very happy with my effort. I was grouped with JaS, EG, ShH, JB, and CC (later joined by GN and EL). With my previous miserable experience with flying 200s, I thought that I would be skating these 1000s solo every set. However, with a less abrupt acceleration, I was able to stay in the draft a lot more often than I expected. This is perhaps due to the fact that I made some minor adjustment to my cornering recently. Since coach AH assigned me a drill to do crossovers without lifting my right skate, I have been more conscious of a deeper knee bend, a more pronounced underpush, and smaller movement with my right leg. Also, with my weak corner acceleration, I cannot really afford to push the skater in front of me when I jam up in the corner. Instead, I learn to skate a little wider in such cases to keep my speed more consistent.

I really did not think that I could complete this tough day of training but somehow I survived. Not only that, I am also making small improvement with my track skating. For the longest time, club training at the track has been very discouraging for me and it is a constant struggle as I ask myself why am I doing this. However, with occasional glimpses of hope such as today, I think that is why I come back again and again.

My Frame Has Found A Home At Last

In the last several weeks, track skating had been a painful and frustrating experience because I never did find a good position for my left frame. However, after much experimentation, I learned a very valuable lesson. I can now rely on my own instinct to know where my frame should go instead of running to more experienced skaters for help everytime. After many trial and error, I finally learn to feel the difference of frame position and how it affects my skating. I guess this is simply a very long-winded way to say my left frame is where it should be, at last.

Tuesday practices are very predictable with a bunch of flying 200s followed by a points race. I am happy to report that my left shin did not threaten to cramp up even once. That means I could actually concentrate on sprinting instead of worrying my leg would collapse on me any minute! Obviously my corner acceleration still leaves much to be desired. However, I also found out that it was not all doom and gloom. When I skated behind PP, I could match her stride by stride for the entire sprint! There are a number of skaters in the club who are around her speed or slower and I skate behind them in these rolling sprints on a regular basis. Yet I always get gapped so badly to make me wonder if I am really so incapable of track skating. My success with skating behind PP restored my confidence a bit...my problem is that I have yet to learn to adapt the different skating/cornering/acceleration style of the other skaters.

I felt that I skated the points race better than I have in a long time. Instead of resigning myself to just skate the distance solo, I hopped back into the pack when I got lapped. At the end of practice, I felt like I finally took full advantage of what our club practice offers. It has been too long since I last felt this way but it's never too late!

On a totally different note, I've been following the blog of Olympic gymnast Kyle Shewfelt for a while. Shewfelt was the gold medalist for floor routine at Athens in 2004. Less than a year ago, he broke both his legs during training but with a lot of hardwork and determination, he comes back on form to represent Canada in Beijing. Obviously, gymnastics and speed skating are vastly different sports. However, Shewfelt writes eloquently about his worries, insecurities, focus, hopes, and the highs & lows of training. Those are common sentiments that most athletes can relate to.

Those Legs Are Mine? I Couldn't Lift Them Anymore!

Practice began innocently enough with some agility drills on avoiding crashes in corners. Coach EG explained the different trajectory of a fallen skater at different locations of a corner and the corresponding line that we could take to avoid the crash. In a nutshell, it is tempting to take to the outside lane but chances are staying on the inside lane is a safer bet.

Coach AH had me lead the first half of warm up followed by JaS. Still struggling to find a good setting for my frames, I was a bit unsure. However, it was not the time to be a baby. I kept the pace pretty relaxed since I had no idea how many laps I had to lead. Luckily, my shin held up for the entire warm up. It was whimpering a bit to let me know it was about to cramp but I had the opportunity to adjust my frame some more before practice really began.

500m rolling sprints are tough tough tough. I missed out on the first set because of some club admin issue so it was nine that I completed in total. I paid attention to conciously lengthen my stride because I have a tendency for short strides with little recovery when I sprint. After practice, JaS told me that I was beginning to skate lower even in corners so that was a very good sign. Two and a half laps of all-out sprints is tough like you wouldn't believe. Usually in the last 200m my legs were so dead that I could hardly lift them anymore. I asked AH if it was a better idea to go hard and fizzle or keep a more steady pace throughout. Of course the answer is to skate as fast as you can. After all, we're training for top-end speed. As I get stronger, I will fizzle a bit less...well, that's the idea anyway.

Practice today left me exhausted. When I got home, all I could do was eat and put my legs up. And we get to do it all over again soon!

Soaked

Today was so hot and humid that I really did not want to train. Practice was the usual flying 200s. My left frame was still not in a good place and my shin cramped up pretty quickly. I played around moving the frame a bit more to the outside because my ankle was collapsing everytime I set down on an outside edge. All in all, I couldn't really concentrate on practice between my effort of frame adjustment and trying out my frame setting.

Before we got around to completing the entire set of flying 200s, we were interrupted by some heavy rainfall. It was worse than standing under a shower head! Everyone scrambled to find shelter and hid their skates away from the rain. This frame business is really getting on my nerves now.

Recovery In Progress

One advantage of training under SZ's supervision is that her experience got me to do things I don't even realize I need to do. At the beginning of the season, although I knew exactly which races will be on my race calendar, none of them had higher priority over another. To me, 2008 was just another developmental year on my way to bigger goals and races were simply exposure to competition experiences. I follow the training program diligently and had been exhausted throughout the month of June due to the increased intensity. I didn't give it second thoughts except that we're finally getting into the height of summer and it's time for me to work harder.

After the marathon on Tuesday, LK congratulated me on my results from Nationals and told me that I peaked at the right time. That was the first time it occurred to me that coach SZ designed my program with higher purpose. To be honest, after Provincials was done, all my track racing pressure was off. I had a set of new times for various track distances so I thought I had a good idea of how much I improved since 2007. I didn't particularly care about Nationals because I did not believe I would make any significant progress within a month. However, coach AH said that the track at CITC is fast and all of us could aim for some personal best times at Nationals. When he told me the little things that I could change to take one second off my 300TT between those two races, I was understandably skeptical (though of course I took his advice to heart anyway). It was a very strange feeling to see how both coach SZ and AH were right when I did not even believe in myself.

Practice today was very relaxed with a smaller than usual turnout. The technique part started with a pack skating drill of alternating laps of long slow strides and short quick strides. It soooo did not work according to plan and the whole drill fell apart into just a plain pack skating drill with people getting dropped all over the place. The crossover hopping drill fared a bit better though my timing was off with too little time spent on the left leg underpush.

Next up was 10k of steady pace pack skating. About 20 laps into the drill, my left shin locked up and thus setting down on a left outside edge for every crossover became a huge challenge. My left foot kept collapsing to the outside at the risk of not supporting my body weight any longer. I guess my frame is still not in a good place yet since I tried to adjust it the last time. I finished this drill at a very slow pace.

We concluded practice with rolling 500s, switching leads 3 times in every set. I was tired, my legs felt dead, and by the end of the drill, all I could think of was "I don't want to do this anymore". Whatever happened to the easy practice we were promised? :D

Boys Will Be Boys

A sign that we had an easy practice? JaP had to work off excess energy with some climbing.

Nationals will be this upcoming Saturday so practice was very easy today to ensure we had plenty of rest. I've been taking a lighter than usual workload this week in lieu of full on tapering.

We began with corner acceleration with 4 laps of easy skating in between each accel. Since my last "revelation" of going into my accel way too slow, I picked up my speed a bit today. I think it worked very well because this is the very first time I feel good about my corner acceleration this season.

I did five TT starts just to make sure the body remembers how to do them. I was ON! today and everything felt right. I was balanced and stable though I could have used more power coming out of the first corner. Obviously I could have skated lower too.

Since I did not do much skating today, I decided to skate a few laps before cool down. I made a point of skating low enough that my belly was close to touching my thighs. The result of this small change was immense. I was moving nicely without trying hard and my corners were a lot smoother. Everything just felt right today...I almost wish I do not need to skate tomorrow so I can carry this confidence to Saturday!

Kevlar

I've gotten into the habit of wearing kevlar knee warmers when I do track skating. Many of my friends stare at my legs in amazement before asking me with an incredulous "aren't you hot wearing those?!". The truth is, yes, they are constricting and I would much rather not wear them. On the bright side, I am "blessed" with a pair of legs which are not too sensitive to temperature. I've been known to wear mini skirt without tights in below-freezing temperature.

Having said all that, I honestly don't know how well my legs are protected by those kevlar. You see, I actually haven't given them a real crash test. I've seen ML totally destroyed his and his leg came out without a scratch. I've also seen PP ripped a hole in hers and her knee in one go. I hope that I will never need to find out. One thing that's for certain, you will not see kevlar on me at a race.

Covered knees is a minority in my club.

In the last few practices, we have been working on some technique drills which are building blocks for learning double push. Personally, I'm not too keen on mastering double push so I tend to treat those drills simply as practices for edge control. I must say I'm quite perplexed by this coaching decision. Basically, there are those who already mastered the double push and those who have not. For the nots, most of us are still working on our own laundry list of technique issues for the classic push. I wonder if there's been specific requests from members to learn double push? Well, I suppose it's never a bad thing to work on edge control.

How To Put The Two Together?

A group of us returned to CITC today for another practice on the banked track. Coach AH gave us a program to follow. All I can say is was I ever glad that I took a day off training yesterday!

I completed a 5k warm up by myself, keeping the lap times pretty relaxed. We did a bunch of starts and then another bunch of 300m TT. My starts were about the same as they were last Wednesday so it was not like I forgot how to do them. However, for all the 300m TT, I just never got that feeling of comfort on the track as I discovered last time. I was tensed and frantic which of course translated to small strides with no power.

I did not want to leave practice feeling like I did not know how to skate. That is definitely not the memory I want to carry back to Nationals. Instead of a TT start, I decided to do a couple of 300s with rolling start. What do you know, I was feeling it again! All the corners felt right and I was no longer skating frantically. I can't quite put my finger on it but my guess is when I do a rolling start, I consciously sit lower before I began the accelaration. Compared to a TT start, I would be running almost upright and then too busy concentrating on completing the corner. The thought of sitting lower did not even have a chance to cross my mind.

I think I may ask Mr. P for a bit of help on race day. He has a very loud voice so I can hear him for sure above all the noises. Just having someone yell at me at the first corner to sit lower may work...you never know!

Productive Day

A group of us went to CITC (host of this year's Nationals) today after work to train on the banked track. For most of us, it was our first time this season coming back to this track. I was more than a little worry after adjusting my frames last night.

When I first got onto the track, things started off pretty badly. My feet felt heavy as they clunked out crossovers that went nowhere. I swore it felt just like last season when I went faster with straightaway strides in the corners rather than doing any crossovers. However, help is readily available as long as you ask. I asked PP if I could skate a few laps behind her so I can find my line. Why PP of all people? Obviously she skates on that track more often than anybody. More importantly, of all the skaters in our group, she is also closest to my speed. After a few laps, I got a good idea of where to enter and exit the corners.

Now that I found my line, my crossovers felt more effective and comfortable. However, that last crossover coming out of the corner right on the hump just did not feel right. It was as if my legs were sliding under me, at risk of tripping myself at any moment. I brought this up to AP and it led to some very helpful advice on how to plan for my 300m TT. In a nutshell, I should only go as far up the bank as my speed and strength would carry me instead of fighting the track to waste energy. AP also pointed out a long-standing issue that I have with crossover. The way that I bring my right foot so high over my left means I need to apply more effort to complete each crossover and I am less stable.

With those advice fresh in my mind, I experimented some more. Things finally began to come together. At the same time, I had a forehead-smacking moment. The reason that my last crossover felt all weird was because my legs were trying to go up the bank but my body was still facing the inside of the track. Of course when the upper and lower body head to different directions, all sorts of bad things happen. It's so obvious, duh!

I did three TT starts and felt quite confident with my run transitioning to crossovers. I think I have everything that I need to skate my 300m TT.

Practice wrapped up with two 3k relays and I had the opportunity to push AH and DA respectively. It was really helpful to observe when they began their acceleration and I gradually adjusted my timing when it was my turn to be pushed. During the cooldown, I put another piece of advice from AH to practice. He said that when skating behind another skater on a banked track, you offset yourself slightly to the outside instead of the inside (what we normally do on a flat track). It really made things a lot less awkward in the corners.

All in all, a very productive session. I think I will skate one more practice there before Nationals and I will be as prepared as I can be.

Annoyed

Skated on rough surface last week...

Shin seized up pretty quickly during the 10k points race...

A moment of deja-vu from indoor...

My frame must have moved...

Practice was a wash as I tried to get my frame back to the right place...

Elbow wound from last Thursday wouldn't stop oozing...

One very annoyed Candy.

(I hope my writing style for this post doesn't look too much like a ripoff of a certain double A)

Four-Skaters Pile-Up!

The improvements that I made last night regarding cornering were not a fluke. I felt more secure in the corners with slighly more power and my strides felt snappy as I did my warm up. It was gonna be a great practice today!

Well, that's what I thought anyway.

We did some corner technique drills including my specialty of exaggerating the right skate stepping OVER motion. ShH rolled over to me before that drill and whispered "ha! I'll stay right behind you since you're the expert." I've been spending lots of time to STOP stepping over with my right skate so I thought it was kind of ironic that I was doing a drill to reinforce that habit. It was a weird sight...all these skaters around me crossing over in that awkward fashion which I usually only see in my own skating videos. We did corner accel from the apex towards the end of the technique hour and it was a complete disaster for me as usual. I'm starting to think that perhaps I'm having so much trouble because I have too little speed before I begin the accel. In a realistic skating situation, I don't accel from (almost) a complete dead stop. I would either carry enough speed from my skating or I would have just finished running from a standing start. In both cases, I would be rolling much faster than what I have been doing during drills.

We played number game which coach AH assigned a number to every skater in the pack. He would call out two numbers with the first being the skater initiating an attack and the second the skater reacting to the attack. My turn came pretty quickly at the beginning of the drill. I was skating near the front of the pack but DD was skating beside me the whole time. With only one lap to make my move, it did not leave me much choices to keep my attack inconspicuous. I was originally hoping to let a gap open in front of me for a bit so I can give myself some room to accel before stepping out of the pack. That plan certainly could not work because of where DD placed himself. Argh. I had no choice but to step out of the pack, got in front of DD, and then began my acceleration. To make things even more, hmm, interesting, Mr. P exclaimed loudly in exuberance "Hey look at Candy go!"...alright, I think that's plenty of warning for whoever was suppose to react to my attack! Haahaaa. GN had been skating way out in the front and he started picking up his speed before I even came anywhere near him. The chaser became the chased and as he is faster than me, it was quickly apparent that I would not catch him. It was an attack that failed on so many different levels....on the bright side, my accel was decent.

The number game continued on and I just sat in the pack near the front with CC, JaS, and JaP in front of me. Since the pack was going at a very relaxed pace, JeP did some passing drills working his way from back of the pack to the front. None of us knew what actually happened but at the apex of the corner, JaP had his skate stepped on and went down. What followed was a four-skaters pile-up with JaS, CC, and me all falling on top of each other. The guys had it the worst with road rashes here and there all over. CC and me only had some minor scratches. We all got concerned when JaS did not get up for a long time, with a confused look on his face. Apparently his helmet took a hit from...something (perhaps skates or limbs or the ground) and he was a little shaken up by the pain in his shoulder. All of us kept WB busy at the first-aid station for quite some time.

Practice wrapped up with two 5K pieces but I wasn't really into them. I landed on the top of my left hip bone and I couldn't really tell if it was the joint that was hurting or just the road rash. I finished them nonetheless in my pack.

Time to heal.

I Beat Who?!

It has been over a week since I last skated on a track, it almost felt unfamiliar to me. Suffice to say, my left leg is sore from all those crossovers!

We practiced starts during the second half of practice in anticipation of the upcoming nationals. I'm happy to report that I no longer topple over when I do my TT start! Unfortunately, I forgot how to run (again) so most of my starts were pretty pathetic. When it was JeP's turn, the unthinkable happened. Two steps into his start, his frame came flying off to the side of the track! I was glad that he didn't get hurt. Being his goofy self, he did a few starts with one foot in skate and the other in shoe. If that was not enough, he challenged PM to a 200m race which he handily won. I thought he was joking when he came to me next with another 200m challenge...of course I shushed him so I could listen to the direction for the next drill.

Coach AH introduced a new drill to us today which basically involves passing between two packs skating side-by-side. I was a little nervous when I first heard of the idea but at the same time, I know that this drill will be tremendously helpful to build up my confidence with navigating between packs. It was a little hectic with so many people moving left right and center. However, strangely enough, my fear of this drill quickly disappeared. It was actually far less scary than our echelon drill at indoor. I recall all the tips that I learned during winter about skating with our hands and pushing the skater in front to make room in a pack. It was by far my favourite drill at the practice today.

The 10k points race was a deja-vu from provincials. It was windy, I was tired, my muscles were screaming in pain, and I was skating by myself most of the time. I managed to jump in and out of packs occasionally but it was just one painful experience.

Just as practice came to an end, JeP challenged me again for a 200m race with him being on one skate (and one shoe). This sure brought back memories from two years ago when we had those crazy scooters races and wheel barrel races at the Support Your World Team clinic! AH handicapped JeP by standing smack in front of him at the start and of course JeP graciously gave me the inside lane. Thankfully, I did not disappoint (?) and won the challenge. This is probably the only time that I can claim to beat JeP in any race involving skating!

Getting Ready For Provincials

In a perfect world, I should be feeling a little anxious now (not overly so) about Provincials this weekend and probably as ready as I can ever be. Of course I don't live in a perfect world. I am feeling zero anxiety about my skating and all I can think about is whether we will get rained out.

I have done all that I can do to prepare myself for this upcoming race. I practiced my time trial starts numerous times. I worked hard on my sprinting drills. I trained hard throughout the year to build up my fitness so I can endure a 15k track race. Heck, I even cleaned my race bearings just now and have my brand new race wheels ready to go. Perhaps that right amount of anxiety will come tomorrow as we inch closer towards the race.

As expected, practice today was not demanding. We worked on our 40m TT opener. My first three or four attempts were awkward and clunky. I guess I need to include this in my warm up routine this weekend to get the "bad starts" out of the way. We did a few 300m sprints alternated with 5 min periods of easy skating. Well, at least I am now familiar with the amount of effort required for the 300m sprints. ShH, CP, and I practiced relays once more and my timing improved much from Tuesday. I finally see how outdoor relays is fun...way more fun than indoor!

ldskater posted his pictures from the Wolverine Marathon too. There's plenty featuring me...woohoo!

The Answer Is Within You

Another Tuesday, another "Tuesday". What was different today though was a moment of "Eureka!". Somehow, pieces of information I learned in the last few months came together to solve a mystery that eluded me since we started working on flying 200s.

Problem:

I get hopelessly gapped in every sprint.

Lighbulb Moment:

After skating behind me for a few sprints, GN pointed out that I slow down in tempo specifically in the second corner. First and third are okay though.

Things That I Already Know:

• From indoor, coach AA pounded into us that our radius of travel is proportional to our speed. Skating a smaller radius means you need to scrub off some speed.
• Last Tuesday, when it was my turn to lead out the 200, I specifically warned SaH that I slow down significantly in the second corner so she wouldn't slam into me unexpectedly.
• Last Sunday, coach AH pointed out that I should start my TT at lane 2 otherwise I would be entering the corner too tight.
• Since outdoor season began, I skate behind ShH a lot and I noticed that she would swerve a little to the outside before entering each corner. I feel more stable with my crossover when I imitate her.
• Last November, coach SZ broke apart a 300m TT for me and explained the significance of the 100m opener. In a nutshell, the sooner I reach top speed (hence timing the first 100m), the more I can cut down on the overall time of the entire distance.

The Answer To My Problem?

Enter the 2nd corner wider!

So this is what happens. When I slow down in the second corner, I basically lose the acceleration I built up in those first 100m. Instead of maintaining my top speed for the 200m sprint, I need to accelerate again after my second corner. This compound effect is why I get gapped so much between the acceleration and the end of the sprint. In order to keep up my speed in the corner, I need to keep moving my legs quickly. However, since I used to enter the corner from lane 1 (stems from that desperate need to find a shorter path of travel once I start getting gapped), I had a choice between slipping or scrubbing off my speed to remain upright.

Although it took me so many words to explain my solution, coming up with this solution almost came instinctively as soon as GN told me of his observation. I put my theory to the test and the result was obvious. I was able to pick up my tempo in the second corner thus losing far less speed. GN gave me the thumbs up too.

Learning To Time Trial

I couldn't quite make of my results from the Detroit marathon soon after the race ended. It was a significantly slower time than my Montreal result (by 5 minutes) yet placement-wise, I did very well. Of course I know that results are not really comparable when gathered from different courses and different conditions. However, what is comparable is how far behind I was from the main pack. Minus the winning breakaways, the main pack in Montreal finished in the range of high 1:14 and the main pack in Detroit finished in the range of 1:19. That means I actually remained approximately 14 minutes behind the main pack in both races. Okay, now I feel much better.

Coach AH scheduled a supplemental practice session today for us to focus on our 300m time trials. With already an hour of recovery ride in the morning and legs that needed more rest, I showed up with my skates but without my skating apparel. AH worked with CC on the mechanics of starts from the very basic so I gladly joined in. The more I practice the motion of a start, the more natural it would become (I looked ridiculous in my T-shirt and jeans though). By the end of the session, I was noticeably more confident at the start, especially with controlling the balance of my body. AH gave me some useful feedback so I'll make a note of them here so I don't forget:

• only stretch my back leg far enough so I can align my body on top of it when I rock back.
• I need to lean forward when I run. Think forward motion. This is not a generic comment about running but to fix my natural tendency to stay too upright when I run.
• start in lane 2 so I do not need to go wide before entering the corner.
• fast legs! Drive my leg speed with arm swing to keep the tempo up.
• once transitioned to crossover, think left leg push instead of bringing my right leg over. Turn my shoulder in. That should generate enough speed to continue crossing over the last 2/3 of the corner without resorting to cross-stride-cross-stride.

Conventional Wisdom Goes...

I suppose if I'm not good at something, conventional wisdom dictates that I keep working at it until I am no longer an absolute mess. Well, that's the most positive thought I can muster up about my feeling for acceleration drills.

I wasn't sure if I would go to practice last night. Various club exec duties had me feeling a little obligated to show up so I did. Of course one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was skating a full practice session. The main portion of practice was 10-30 acceleration drills. Because of the longer ratio of rest, my body wasn't feeling too bad. Coach AH wanted us to focus on faster leg speed for these acceleration. What I found interesting was we got a chance to begin acceleration all over the track. As expected, if we started in the corner, I got gapped immediately. Whereas if we started in the straights, I did a decent job of staying right behind the skater in front.

Based on what I could observe in the drills, my corner acceleration is problematic in more ways than one. Obviously, my legs were not moving fast enough. I was also very nervous about stepping on the legs of the skater in front of me. As a result, I would either go out of sync with their crossovers or I would miss their first crossover into the corner. Once a gap forms, that would pretty much be the beginning of the end.

I wasn't too happy with the way I conducted myself at practice. I was irritated with myself and many other things (long story there). When asked to lead out the acceleration in my group, I grudgingly agreed though not without a few harsh words. Next time, I should just shut up and skate or get off the track. Less talk, more work.

Pushing Through

I was feeling under the weather last night at practice. Knowing that it would be a "Tuesday", I was not sure if I could manage to complete all those rolling 200 sprints and the 10k points race coach AH had in store for us. Before we began the 200s, I told myself "I can do alternating sprints so I only do half of the assigned drills". Well, that did NOT happen. I pushed myself to do those sprints one after another. They were hard and towards the end, I'm not sure what I did can be called a "sprint" at all.

The rolling 200s have been frustrating so far. It is a daily reminder that I am at the bottom of the barrel and that there is a significant difference between my ability and the next slowest person in the pack. I don't know what I can do differently to change that.

Before we began the 10k points race, I told myself that I would sit this one out. Well, that did not happen either. I ended up skating a straight race, mostly solo. I was exhausted but I just kept pushing myself to continue skating lap after lap. I have that nagging feeling that I will need to skate 10k solo in one of the many upcoming track races because I will get dropped inevitably. So I need to be tough enough to be able to finish this distance without feeling like it is an insurmountable feat. In the end, this drill was cut short because of time.

I was very tired by the end of practice yet it was not the sort of good exhaustion after a satisfying practice. Rather, it just felt like I did a lot of work, the extent of their success and what they contribute to my overall progress as a skater are unknown. This is not a criticism to the practice program at all because I do think the program is fantastic. More accurately, it was the way I handled the drills.

I woke up this morning with sore throat, stuffy nose, and congested sinuses. This is the early onset of a cold. It is the last thing I need.

Supplemental Training On Saturday

Today was the first of hopefully a series of weekly supplemental training at our club. Coach AH gave us a program prior to practice so it was a simple matter of running through the program. Since I knew the program by heart and blessed with a reasonably loud voice and a stopwatch, it was only logical that I kept things moving along.

We had a good group of skaters showing up including DA, MW, SaH, JaS, and EL. The wind was strong today and I remember clearly at one point our pack got blown sideways as we entered a corner. Our 5k warm up was skated at approximately 23s laps. Obviously I couldn't keep up but I continued skating nonetheless and completed in 10:46. It felt slow and labourious though only afterward did I realize it was still faster than what I could do last season in optimal condition. I was exhausted after the warm up.

We ran a series of rolling 500m sprints. I opted to stand aside and just keep time. That was a very hard drill and with so few people in the pack, everyone had to take their turn to lead out the sprints. EL talked me into joining the last four sprints and I took my turn leading out two of them. I thought it was really funny when DA high-fived me after my turn...goes to show how tired everyone was! I'm glad that I did part of the drill in the end. It was difficult but at the same time, it gave me an idea of how hard to skate for a 500m sprint. It is afterall one of the distances for provincials and nationals. We wrapped up practice with a 5k cooldown. Although our practice was short, it was very hard. Hopefully we will have more people showing up at the next practice!

Not Too Dorky

Provincials is fast approaching so practice today included lots of time trial starts and sprints. Thanks to ShH, I finally know what I look like when I do my time trial starts. She took plenty of pictures and videos today during practice. If picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture and a video together should make my post quite brief. Let's take a look:

This video was taken probably during my third or fourth attempt because I remember my balance was off in my first few tries. JeP gave me some good advice...do not stick my bum out while I run! Ideally, I want to generate forward momentum and the feeling would be similar to falling forward. With my bum sitting back, my running motion was too up right and it looked like my body was dragging behind. ShH commented that my start was smooth and coach SZ agreed that the general mechanic of my start was all in place. I do need to keep in mind of a more aggressive arm swing and of course stepping one foot in front of the other so the initial run would be more crisp.

This picture was taken close to the end of the drill when I was a lot more confident. I absolutely love this picture! To have my foot off the ground like that and the body leaning forward, that is something I wasn't able to do last season. Somehow, things just sort of came together this year and I no longer feel awkward with my starts. Still a long way to go but I can't really complain. For some comparison, this is what I looked like this time last season during Provincials: 1, 2, 3, and 4.

After the TT starts, we moved on to group starts in preparation for 500m sprints. The distances varied between 50 to 200m. My running legs were missing today and my tempo was still not fast enough during the sprints. My reaction to the start signal was reasonable and I could typically reach the 50m mark in front of my group. Beyond that though, my poor acceleration caused me to lose significant ground. This is something that I continue to work on though I doubt any miracles will happen this season.

Picture and video by Shannon Hegarty.

Back On Earth

After being on cloud nine for my first marathon of the season, there's nothing quite like getting my butt kicked in practice to bring me back on earth. We had our first "Tuesday" today, which is modelled after the "Wednesday" at Weinfelden. I had a lot of trouble with the series of 200m sprints. Basically, after the first five sprints, it became apparent where I belong...at the very back of the pack and I was still getting gapped. I suppose it didn't help that I felt nervous in the corners and I subsequently slowed down my crossovers. However, this is really the first time I experience this feeling of nervousness outdoor...like my wheels will slip under me, just like at indoor! After the first ten sprints, things improved slightly and the gap was not as big. I started mimicking the way W skated the corners and my crossovers became more stable and less panicky.

If there was any cockiness in me because of the race last Sunday, I'm sure they were all gone by the time we finished the 200m sprints. On the bright side, as the titleholder of the slowest skater in the racing and fitness group in the last two years, I can say our club has gotten faster overall.

I felt a lot better in the 10k points race. I was working hard but it was not a complete struggle. In fact, I stayed with the main group until the last five laps while a number of people quit the drill early. After practice, I spoke to coach AH and he explained that when done right, the 10k points race should feel a lot harder than the 200m sprints. However, with less of a dramatic acceleration than the sprints, I was able to keep up because of a more steady pace. Acceleration, the bane of my existence!

It will be the same practice format every Tuesday from now on. I hope to work my way up the ladder so eventually I will not be the last skater when we do the 200m sprints.

Picture courtesy of Chelsea Parry. The Mogema Girls sporting their matching defunct skinsuits. We should take this picture again when SaH comes to practice with her Mogema suit too!

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.

Coming Out Of My Relay Hiatus

I had my rest day yesterday to recover those jello legs. It's amazing what a day of rest can do. I felt great on skates today at practice. All those sluggish feeling on Sunday? Well, they were replaced by much snappier strides and I was able to pick up my tempo without feeling like I was lifting two blocks of lead! How cool is it?

We skated two 3k pieces with alternating "medium" and "hard" effort. Considering that my pack has a bit of discrepancy in speed and I was right at the bottom of the totem pole, they felt more like "hard with no arm swing" and "harder with arm swing" to me. However, unless I skate by myself or if I am smack in the middle of the speed range in the pack, this is something that I'll have to learn to handle anyway. At the end of the day, I would rather push myself harder to stay with faster skaters than not be challenged enough by the drills anyway.

In between the 3k pieces, coach PD had us practice some half lap and one lap accelerations. Perhaps I misunderstood PD's direction but I was under the impress that he did not want us to begin the accels with any running. Honestly, I was at a lost of getting myself up to speed from a standing start in a gradual manner. We began at the start of the straightaway and for the length of that straightaway, I stumbled and fought my way to stay low, maximize weight transfer, drive my knees, etc. Suffice to say, it was not pretty. Luckily, by the time I hit the corners, my arm swing felt natural and it really drove my tempo up. My push was devoid of power though. See what I meant by not having everything coming together yet? I am confident that it will eventually happen.

We received the details for provincials today. I am soooo excited! I'll be racing in the senior women category this year and the distances are 300m TT, 500m, 1000m, 10k points and elimination, and 15k elimination. Well, my long term goal is still the masters women category so I was of course curious with their distances as well. 300m TT, 500m, 1500m, and 2k points?! That really put a twist in my plans...looks like I'll need to specialize in shorter distances! The most exciting part though is the open relay races. These are single gender teams with three skaters in each team. By the end of practice today, there was already lots of buzz of who will be forming a team! Of all the TISC girls, SaH, ShH, and me will be racing provincials for certain. If MM also races, they will probably form a TISC women's team (watch out Ottawa!). But if she doesn't, it means I better get my butt in gear for outdoor relays. I've actually been avoiding relays since the beginning of outdoor season because it caused me so much grief and falls in indoor. Now I have no excuse to avoid them anymore...

1000m

Five laps on a 200m track is 1000m. At Provincials last year, I remember asking ShH for advice on racing this distance. Her answer was this is one tough distance to race because it's too long to sprint yet not long enough to skate a "distance race" pace. She said your best bet is to hang on to the pack for as long as possible to conserve your energy so you can hopefully out sprint your competitors.

We did a bunch of 5 laps at practice with plenty of rest in between. Coach PD wanted us to skate in smaller packs with the intent that we maintain 80% effort and our technique intact. I was originally grouped with only CC but after the first set, we merged with the next pack up with GN, ShH, MG, EG, and JB. Our lap times hovered around low 24s and occasionally dipped to high 23s (that's when I got gapped). We targetted 24s flat and EG advised us that the difference is only a bit more power coming out of the corner. I made a point of skating behind ShH and MG because mimicking their technique increases my chance to staying in the pack. My cornering technique still leaves much to be desired. When there was any acceleration in the corners, chances are I have to play catch up.

My feeling is mixed about this drill. On one hand, I know that I was skating beyond coach PD's instruction of 80% effort. On the other hand, coach AH also told us before that in order to race fast, you have to train fast. In the end, I went with coach AH's approach and pushed myself to stay with a faster pack. Perhaps it is not the wisest thing to do...hopefully I'm not taking people's advice out of context so I only listen to what I want to hear.

Eeek! Time Trial Starts

Coach AH had a group of us practicing time trial starts today and eventually working up to a full 300m TT in preparation for the upcoming Provincials and Nationals. This certainly brought back memories from last year when I received a quick primer right before Provincials. (as a side note, now that I have grown a little as a skater since last year, there are things from that primer that are no longer applicable or I agree with.) Difference is, this year, I am among skaters who are a lot more experienced with time trials so I had a chance to observe how they do it while I was waiting for my turn.

When I first started learning TT starts at the Support Your World Team clinic in the summer of 2006, I couldn't even figure out which leg I prefer to step forward. I remember spending an afternoon in an empty parking lot going through the motion of a TT start in my running shoes so my body could figure out what it should expect on skates. Overall, I feel a lot less self-conscious now about my starts and running. I mean, my friends have all seen me before when I couldn't be any worse. Letting go of the feeling of self-consciousness is key to trying things over and over again until something feels right. I know this may sound silly but I used to be so embarrassed about my starts that I worried more about making a fool of myself than to concentrate on making actual improvements. However, throughout the indoor season and in the last two weeks, we revisited these drills on such a regular basis that I'm getting thick-skinned enough to just do them.

My first attempt with planting my right leg behind me to wind up was, hmm, interesting. I actually lost balance and ended up placing my hand on the ground to prevent falling over. However, after that initial stumble, I quickly got a lot more comfortable. Instead of worrying my front skate would move (which would trigger the timer in a real race), I just visualized the start in my head as one fluid motion. After all, that's what practices are for, a no-pressure environment. CES reminded us the importance of staying low in the first few strides and the feedback I received from coach AH is generally positive. He pointed out that when I transition from running to skating, I have a tendency to slow down my cadence and losing speed. I must remember to keep up the speed of my arm swing to drive my leg speed especially during the transition.

Provincials is only a month away. I'm starting to feel the excitement now!

Focusing On The Positives

Tonight was another hectic practice for me but I am slowly learning not to let all the external factors affect my training. So instead of whining about anything and everything, I would just focus this post on the positive things that I take away from practice tonight.

• 24s lap is the magic number to aim for, not necessarily this season but in my future for sure. That is the pace to skate for a 10min 5K or a 20min 10K. So far, I am still inconsistent for even skating 25s laps. It is feasible on my good skating days but I need to prepare for bad skating days too.
• I have made clear improvement on running down the length of straightaway. I did well in our 200m sprints from a standing start. During one of the sprints, I was not ready for the start signal so I was third coming off the start line. However, I actually managed to pick up speed and cadence to get into second place just before we entered the corner. I did not expect that. My legs were sluggish in crossovers though...legs simply would not go fast in the corners.

I hope to resolve some of the club administrative issues soon. I need my concentration to have quality in my training.

Wow, Was That 20km?

Thank heavens practice was a lot less hectic for me today! I was able to concentrate on the tasks at hand and it was amazing how much better I felt on skates. During the technique hour, I was quite tentative and was almost afraid to push on the ground. However, once we settled into fitness portion of practice, I felt like a totally different skater.

There was plenty of skating today and I completed every part of the drill without missing even one single lap. The first 5km was skated at approximately 26-28s lap. It felt the hardest because I was skating in a pack of three and two skaters hopped in and out of our pack to catch their breath. It was a pleasure to skate behind MG. All I had to do was mimic the way he skates and not worry about anything else. The second 5km had a slightly faster pace (consistent 25s lap, the pace for a 1:28 marathon) but since we had a decent size pack, the increased intensity was not bad at all. I did not feel like I would fall off the pack at any point in time. Our last drill of the day was 10km of skating at 28s lap but passing up from the back of the pack to the front for some acceleration. The thought of skating 10km on a track intimidated me a little but it was not as bad as I thought. 28s lap was a pretty relaxed pace so even when there were some jamming up in the pack, it was not taxing at all. I think all the cardio and plyos I did over the off-season are indeed paying off handsomely.

Frazzled

Could not concentrate at all during practice today. In fact, concentration would be asking too much. Even just being calm would have been nice instead of running around like a headless chicken. WB is away this week and so it's my turn to ensure the club administrative side of things gets done during practice. Between getting people to sign in, dealing with new membership application, guest skates paperwork, introduce the club to a new potential member, lending out my spare gears, and finding people to temporarily babysit the club equipment before next practice, I was completely swamped.

I missed most of the instruction for the drills and practice was a blur. Think we skated three sets of 5k at around 28s lap. Hopefully Thursday will be less hectic and I can actually focus on training instead of the million other little things. With any luck, a lot less swearing and perhaps even a smile or two. I don't like to be on the verge of losing my temper any minute during practice when I know that my friends do not deserve to be on the receiving end.

On a more positive note, EkM asked me if I can help her with skating lower during cooldown. So I had her skating behind me for a few laps, getting her to concentrate on knee bend and ankle bend. I'm rather flattered that she asked for help on her own accord. Hopefully her interest in skating will continue to flourish.

Run, Candy, Run!

My knees are still hurting from yesterday's back-to-back practice but I didn't realize how tired my legs were until I took to the track today.

We did some one-legged gliding and hopping during the technique part of practice. I felt quite comfortable doing those drills and suddenly realized how far I've come along since the first time I skated with my club almost two years ago. I used to struggle to even glide for any length of time on one skate! I'm thankful that my skating friends have been so helpful and welcoming every step of the way.

After a bit of pack skating to re-warm up, we were divided into three groups to do 10 repeats of ATP sprints. I was glad to continue where I left off yesterday. Compare to yesterday, I am now more stable and lighter on my feet. Also, I am now able to "run" down the full length of the straightaway. Unfortunately, I must have swung my right arm funny and pulled my shoulder. I'll have to see how it feels tomorrow.

We then skated 5k with the first 10 laps at approximately 27s laps. I was near the back of the pack and soon enough, all the jamming up and acceleration was more than I could handle. I kept on skating at 80% effort on my own and eventually picked up other skaters on the track here and there. I was a little discouraged that I could not stay in the pack for long, especially since I had been doing well in the last few outdoor practices. However, considering the overall fatigue that I'm feeling after a whole week of non-stop training, I guess it's not entirely unexpected.

If You Think That Was Intense...

[Editted 04-10-2008: silly me, I published this post last night before completing it. It is now completed.]

I skated six days a week last week with a mixture of indoor practice, outdoor practice, and trail skating. I thought that was a bit of a crazy schedule this early in the season but I spoke too soon. This week is similar except that I actually skated two sessions today, an outdoor training session at our home track and an indoor practice at Scooter's, with only an hour and a half of rest in between. Needless to say, I'm exhausted.

The outdoor portion of the day was quite informal. Seeing that the weather was so nice, JS, AH, SZ, and I met at the track for some skating. My original plan was to warm up and record my time for flying 200, 300m TT, and 500m TT. You know, just a short and sweet practice to take advantage of the warm weather. It did not quite work out as expected. It was very windy today like last Tuesday and skating into the wind solo is not the easiest thing to do. In the end, I had my time for the flying 200, a new personal best. Definitely not as much improvement as I had hoped but I'm sure I can better my time soon enough. AH gave me some useful feedback including being less deliberate with my crossovers and a much higher back swing. Improving my arm swing is an important key that leads to faster leg speed, bigger recovery, and driving my knees forward. I practiced my arm swing for quite a bit though I have a feeling that it will be a while before it becomes second nature. We also did some ATP sprints which essentially had us doing a TT start, ran down the straightaway like a madman, and then two minutes of rest. I like the fact that I have a chance to practice my starts and run. It will take lots of practice in order to figure out to do this but this will become a once weekly habit for me this season.

AH and I grabbed a quick bite for dinner before heading over to Scooter's for indoor practice. Neither of us felt too motivated but it was a small group who showed up anyway. Between WB, AH, CP, JB, and I, we skated 10k at truly warm up pace. Unfortunately I slipped in the corner and had a minor crash. I tried so hard to roll but my knees landed on the floor nonetheless and ripped my favourite pair of knee warmers. I took a few laps of rest until the pain lessen enough to skate again.

Next, we each had our turn on the floor while the group critique the skater's technique. It was good to train our eyes to observe both the good and the bad. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I push with all my wheels on the floor and that my movement is smooth. However, my gliding leg seriously collapses at the knee and that is one thing that will take a lot of serious hardwork to correct. AH gave me some drills to practice including gliding, pushing, and skating with both fists between my knees. The one that amuses me the most is how I can try skating with a pair of volleyball knee pads turned inside my knees or even stuffed with a tennis ball. The physical barrier would instantly tell me when I collapse my knees.

My knees are a little swollen but I hope I'll be okay for outdoor practice tomorrow.

Open Up Your Senses

It's been another whirlwind week so far, switching between indoor and outdoor skating everyday. Practices have been intense (very physically demanding) though a little unfocused lately, mostly because we're in a transition period. Today is the eve of coach AA's departure for another season of racing in Europe. Coincidentally, a few things that he mentioned throughout this last indoor season finally take on meaning to me. I'll try my best to describe these little moments of "aha!" and how they relate to some recent changes to my skating.

A few things stand out in my mind. If I am to look for a common theme, I would say I finally realize how skating involves many different senses. Obviously, sight is important for judging speed, avoiding obstacles, synchronizing strides, and critiqueing skating technique. However, it is only part of a larger picture. About a month ago, AA discussed the importance of opening up our senses while we skate. It sounds a bit new-agey but it makes a lot of sense. A beginner skater often has a bit of tunnel-vision, overly concentrating on the back of the skater in front, or not peeling his sight away from the skates in fear of clicking skates. This kind of intense focus takes the attention away from things happening around you such as an attack or perhaps a fallen skater a few people ahead. The trade off is, of course, less reaction time.

Sight is only part of the equation of knowing what's going on around you. Touch is an effective feedback if used properly. We had a discussion last night after practice about skating with your hands and AH made an interesting analogy. He said that hands are like a cat's whiskers. Not only can you use your hands to protect your space while skating, you can use them to detect movement from surrounding skaters so your vision are free up to look further ahead. For example, say I am in a pack between skater A and B and I want to swerve just slightly to the right or left behind skater A to check out what's going on around. Skater B can easily come up and thus squeeze me out of the pack. However, if I leave my hand on the back of skater A, I would know immediately if skater B tries to do anything because he would come in contact with my arm. Another good example of skating with the hands is to make space for myself. I can be skating beside a pack at the same speed and there is not quite enough room for me to squeeze in. If I place my hand on a skater's back and give him a little push forward, I effectively open up a space behind him for me to hop in. Making space for myself can also happen during a pass. Let's say I'm making an inside pass out of the corner and the skater in front is skating just a bit too tight for me to squeeze through. If I give him a litte push forward (no, I'm not talking about shoving them outside!), I would create enough space of me to make a successful pass. All of these do require a certain level of comfort in pack skating before I can execute them successfully. Definitely something to remember though.

In my mind, sound and rhythm are closely related. AA mentioned in a practice once that the sound of our push is directly affected by how we push. In fact, the noise of wheels against the ground is an instant feedback of how well the push is executed. I know I don't have a habit of pushing hard. When I look at my videos, I often skate like there isn't very solid contact between my wheels and the ground. Last Sunday in Hamilton, I experimented with different rhythm in my skating strides and I hit that sweet spot where the noise was "right". I arrived late at practice today and ended up mostly skating by myself because I was tied up with work. Without the "distraction" of pack skating, I quickly found this rhythm again, even in the corners doing crossovers. It's amazing how listening carefully can be so helpful in making adjustments. Being able to change the tempo of my strides is something that I'm just starting to pick up. Last season, I had a habit of drafting big tall guys in the fitness group. Their strides are typically long and the cadence is slow. As a result, I developed my natural cadence to be on the slow side as well. There is a time and place for this kind of tempo but skating with only one tempo simply would not cut it. MW told me in February that I get gapped in the corners when there's any acceleration in the pack because I could only maintain one tempo and I could not output more power per push. Applying more power in each push is great for gradual acceleration. However, if I want a more abrupt change in pace, I need faster leg speed. This was a concept that I was just starting to grasp late last outdoor season but without too much feedback, I wasn't sure if what I did was complete rubbish. During the off-season, part of my off-skate training involves drills for fast legs/CNS. Add to the fact that I am now making better use of arm swings, I think I have finally introduced a faster cadence to my repertoire.

Coach EG once told me that improvement doesn't necessarily happen gradually. Rather, they may occur in bursts. Perhaps I am overly optimistic but I think that's exactly what I'm going through right now. Previously abstract ideas are becoming concrete things that my body is able to do. I don't have hard evidence yet in the form of clocked times for my performance in various distances. It's probably a good idea to set aside a practice session to time myself in the next few days.

It's Like Indoor, Only Outdoor

I am exhausted and cold but I'm smiling. Sometimes, it's really strange how a couple of great practices can be so energizing and leave me motivated.

Coach AA has taken rein of outdoor practice today and we kicked off practice with the now-familiar echelon tower on the 200m track. Although the number of sets remains the same, we are now skating on a track double the length compared to indoor! Furthermore, with better grip, the speed inevitably picked up so of course it took longer for the lapping group to lap us. Before long, the echelon tower drill became "this is the drill that never ends~~". I surprised myself with how strong I felt and how secure I was at the corners. It was only last summer when I would inevitably get gapped in every corner and had to play catch up in the straights. It sure didn't feel like it when I was paying my dues in the fluorescent lighting of Scooters but a whole winter of indoor practice is already paying off this early in the season. Did I mention that I actually completed the drill save for a couple laps of rest?

Wind is an inevitable part of outdoor skating and AA had a discussion on when to attack with relation to wind direction. This discussion reminded me of a practice long ago when I just started training with TISC. We had a tailwind in the back straights today and headwind the other way. Let's work this out backwards. To make the best use of wind, the attacker should force the pack to accelerate into the headwind. That means the attacker should be skating full speed and reaches the front of the pack when he comes out of the corner into the headwind. Depending on the speed of the pack and how well the attacker accelerates, the attacker needs to adjust how soon to begin acceleration from the back of the pack. When it was my turn to go, I remember from last outdoor season that coach EG had us working on attacks as well. One of the key thing was I need to give myself room to accelerate. Just before acceleration, I opened up a slight gap in front of me and then picked up the tempo of my strides significantly to work my way to the front. Coach AA told me that my tempo was quick and punchy (yay!). He reminded me that I need to manage what tempo works best with what speed, and at what rate of acceleration. Also, once I reach full speed, I should continue with long powerful strides. Efficiency is key.

I was very tired at this point so I decided to skate some laps at technique pace. I paid attention to bringing my recovery leg behind my gliding leg before each setdown. There was a very rhythmic feeling about it once I got into the groove, something that I did not feel last Saturday nor Tuesday. Definitely need to reinforce this feeling so it becomes natural.

2008 Outdoor Season Begins!

A small group of skaters showed up at the first practice of the 2008 outdoor season. Notice how we had more girls than guys? Photo courtesy of Gillian Clarke.

It really wasn't that cold today but with some crazily strong wind, the weather made our first outdoor practice of the season quite memorable. The wind was so strong that when we skated into the head wind, I would come to a complete stop as soon as I stopped pushing. Some people would say it builds character but I say those are the same people who are enjoying a mug of hot cocoa by a warm fireplace. Heh.

Although the weather condition really wasn't ideal, I enjoyed practice in an against-all-odds kind of way. I tired out quickly when coach PD had us skate some warm up laps in a pack. However, as soon as I caught my breath, I jumped back in the pack to continue skating before I got dropped again. EM once said to me that this is a good approach because eventually, I will be able to stay in the pack longer and longer. I have no doubts about that too.

We also did some corner acceleration into the head wind. My first two attempts were laughable. My body twisted to some strange direction and my feet stomped the ground with every crossover in the most awkward fashion. Honestly, I looked as if I had no idea how to skate. So while I was rolling around the track on the outside lane, I paid attention to how ShH did her acceleration. Arm swing!!! Oh man, how could I forget that arm swing drives leg speed? It was definitely a forehead slapping moment. My subsequent attempts looked a lot more decent (thankfully!).

Our practice was unexpectedly cut short when it started to snow/hail. Well, what do you expect? It's April in the Great White North!

2008 Pre-Outdoor Technical Tune-Up Clinic

This series of picture was taken during my turn for the 3-lap video shoot. The footage was critiqued by coach AA later in the day. Photo courtesy of Georg Nikodym.

I've been hanging out with my skating friends all weekend starting with coach AA's farewell party on Friday night. AA will be training and racing in Europe again this year so he hosted a one day clinic fundraiser on Saturday. Our club's outdoor practice will begin this week so attending this clinic for some pre-season technique tune-up is exactly what I need.

It was a bit chilly and windy to stay outside all day but the turn out was great. It feels nice to be skating outdoor again though technique-wise, I was not feeling as good as I did in sweltering Miami at The Great EsSkate. The clinic began with a discussion on frame setting. AA pointed out that the frame should align along the weight distribution of the foot, not the center-line of the boot. The picture on the left was a tracing of AA's right foot and there are two key points of weight distribution: the big muscle below the big toe and just off-center of the heel. After the theories, AA proceeded to examine and/or adjust everyone's frame setting. My frames were recently set up by AA so as expected, they did not need any major adjustment...the left frame was shifted to the inside just a tiny bit more.

AA had each of us skate three laps (lap 3 included arm swing) on the track for video analysis. After lunch, we all gathered around the 27" television set up in his hatch-back car to review the footage and critique by AA. The feedback that I received include a few familiar items. First of all, AA reminded me that I cannot be on "too much" outside edge. He said that my setdown is too close to my pushing skate. In order to reach further and still stay on the outside edge, I need to rotate my thigh to turn my knee out. This is a very unnatural motion for me but something that I need to work on. AA said that he likes my arm swing so it is a sign that I am on the right track. Definitely need a lot more back swing though!

Another thing that he pointed out was how my left leg recovers differently than my right. This is a problem that I am aware of for a long time though he shed a new light on what I am lacking. AA said that my left leg does not have a complete recovery and it never reaches behind my right. I think I know the reason. I always had problem balancing on my right skate in my old boots. Single leg gliding on my right was inconsistent at best. They were my first pair of speedskates and I skated for one and a half year on them before getting my current pair of boots recently. So strictly speaking, other than my trip to Miami, I have only ever worked on my straights in my old skates. Think about it, if I could not glide on my right skate consistently, it was only natural that I prematurely set down my left leg to avoid falling over! Undoing this bad habit will be my number one technical goal to achieve in 2008.

The pack. Photo courtesy of Kevin Noh.

We did a bit of pack skating on the track in the afternoon. It's a little hard to explain but it felt different. Pack skating in very close proximity is nothing new now that I have two seasons of indoor skating under my belt. Due to the grouping of our club's outdoor practices, I guess I didn't typically get to skate with the faster skaters very often in a pack situation. I felt that I was a little more confident with my pack skating skills compared to last outdoor season. I guess that's a very good thing.

I felt good at the corners yesterday. It was comfortable and reassuring to know that I have grip in the corners. It was a subtle change but the mental influence is big. I was very conscious of the fact that each crossover consists of two pushes and I pushed with power in both the right and the left leg push. AA commented that my corners looked good and it was very encouraging to know that my hardwork has a positive effect.

Sunday morning indoor practice was cancelled when we found ourselves locked out of the building....now that was another weird story all together.

100m To 200m

Sunday is turning out to be a demanding day in my training schedule. Actually...I take that back. I'll decide after I start plyos this week. Anyway, as I was saying, Sunday is demanding in its own way. Getting out of bed when it is still dark outside is one challenge out of many. However, skating both indoor and outdoor one after another is sure way to push myself harder!

Indoor practice this morning was alright. I skated 50 out of 60 laps in the echelon warm up. Not too bad...I was tired but not totally exhausted. I skated between DA and GN, and later coach AA because GN dropped out. I am slowly getting less stressed out by these warm up drills. I mean, really, the worst that can happen is I get dropped and skate in the middle by myself, right? Of course, I still try my best to stay in the pack for as long as I can. However, there's really nothing to be embarrassed about if I get dropped.

AH worked with a group of us after warm up on placing the body weight over the left leg when we cross over. We skated along the small black oval in the middle of the rink. I used to have trouble turning in such small radius but I think I have improved somewhat with my edges and leaning so this drill felt so much easier now. I think I overheard coach AA commenting to AH that I still keep my right knee locked when I bring my right leg over my left. This has been an issue which AA tried to get me to fix since the beginning of the season (that is....two weeks ago! Feel like so long ago!). I really need to pay more attention to this. When we worked on two-feet pivot, I started off in my usual manner of an awkward feet parallel stance. During the drill, I experimented with placing progressively more weight over my left leg until my right foot was merely grazing the floor. At that point, I finally was able to achieve a scissor stance with my left foot clearly in front of my right foot traveling along the same arc. I know this probably sounds a little silly but I have never been able to do this until now! I'm really proud of mastering this skill at last.

SZ, AH, JS, CC, L, and I made our way over to CTK 200m track after indoor practice for some outdoor skating. It was cold and windy but I was happy to return to our home track after being away since end of September. I felt more comfortable in the corners than ever because I have grip! I skated behind coach SZ quite a bit and I noticed that I routinely missed the first and last crossovers. I need to be more decisive when setting up my corners because missing the first one is almost a surefire way of getting gapped. SZ explained and demonstrated how to setdown smoothly in a heel-toe fashion and how to apply it during acceleration. I showed her how back in September I experimented with straightaway acceleration. She told me that I have the general idea but my hips were bobbing up and down too much. That would be wasted energy.

Despite the annoying cold weather, I'm really glad that we're still skating outdoor at this time of the year. I think it is important for me to keep working on my straightaway strides so I would not lose too much of that skill during winter. I would hate to repeat my experience from last year when I had to relearn skating in the straights again in the spring.

Welcome Back!

To celebrate ARA's (or should I refer to him as AA from now on? haahaa) return to Canada, we organized an unofficial club practice last night at our home track. It was so nice to see the huge turnout...give me that warm and fuzzy feeling of the camaraderie among club members. Although it was to be an "informal" practice session, I never worried for even one second that it would be skating aimlessly around the track. You can always count on AA to come up with a fun (and challenging!) practice program.

We started with two sets of half lap dropback with everyone in one big pack. This warm up sure brought back memories from indoor skating at Scooters last winter! The pace was just fast enough that I needed to work to stay in the draft. It's been a very long time since I last skated in a pack of this size on a track and I realized that I lost some of the comfort I gained last winter. In particular, I had trouble synchronizing my crossovers in the corners. Something to think about comes November.

Elimination race was up next and AA laid down some rules to level the playing field just a bit because we had a pretty varied degree of capabilities among the group. We began with 10 open laps before elimination on every lap. My "strategy" was to stay behind SH for as long as I could. I knew that she would move around in the pack a bit and not be eliminated for a long time. Although I cannot match her acceleration, she is still easier to follow than some other guys in the club. It actually worked, kind of! At one point, I got gapped from the main pack. Fortunately, everybody stood up and slowed down for some reason. I saw my chance and sprinted up. Just as I approached the back of the pack, I heard voices in my head:

"Don't give them your speed. Skate to the side of the pack and then hop in!"

So I did exactly that and I was soon behind SH again. Unfortunately, I started getting tired and fell to the back not long after. I got confused and wasn't sure if I got eliminated....so I dropped out. I know, I should never drop out unless I get whistled by the ref but it was a self-refereed practice. Nonetheless, I had lots of fun. Coincidentally, AA told us after the race that if we sprint up to the pack, we should not settle for the back of the pack (it only means we would be eliminated next!) Instead, make use of the speed, add in a few strides, and get to the front. I was happy that I did the right thing.

That's It!

As promised, we had a chance to re-skate our end of month time trial. My time for both distances came down just a fraction so for all intents and purposes, it is just an error in timing. My flying 200 was a repeat from Tuesday, 00:23.31. Again, not enough acceleration in the first lap. My 500m fared a little better at 1:02.44 though my leg speed was slow.

After the time trials wrapped up, we did 15 minutes of push & glide drill. The motion felt very familiar especially once I added arm swing and then I realized it was almost the same drill we did for crossovers last winter! No wonder I felt so much more comfortable pushing with my right leg than my left.

We had a small turnout today. Coach EG had us skating a series of 400m sprints. He sent us out at intervals from slowest to fastest. We had about 2 laps of rest in between each sprint to bring down our heartrates. I managed to caught up/passed MJC a couple of times. GN passed me once, in the first sprint when I tripped in my start. After a few of these sprints, I was tired.

By the time we did our cooldown, it was already dark. I actually quite enjoy skating on the track when it's dark. Instead of focusing on avoiding any cracks or debris on the track, I just concentrate on the feel of every push. I love that feeling of moving through darkness. I skated a few laps on my own, just savouring the sensation of wheels against the asphalt without really trying to skate hard. I think I was moving at a good pace though because when I was done, my thighs were sore. :)

October is the in-between month when I can take a break from training. This is also the only time in the year when I can afford to donate blood. I've already made my appointment at the Canadian Blood Service along with my annual check up at the doctors. Hard to believe it's been another season already.

Last TT Of The Season (Or Is It?)

We had our end of month time trial on Tuesday with the usual flying 200 and standing start 500. During warm up, I could already tell that this would not be my day. The head wind in the back straight was strong and my legs were drained of all strength. When I had problem with pushing through even one lap during warm up, I knew I was in trouble.

Coach EG gave us some tips on the flying 200 before we began. He told us that we need to skate hard as soon as we hit the first apex in order to bring ourselves to maximum speed. This basically was how I skated all season so it was good to know that I've taken a correct approach. Unfortunately, my legs did not listen to me. When I tried to accelerate, there was nothing in my legs. I was far from my top speed when I began my lap. My time was 00:23.41, about .41 off from my PB.

For the 500 TT, I was determined to put my "new found" acceleration to good use. I knew that I need to maintain a high cadence in my first lap to bring myself up to speed. In particular, I must accelerate in the first corner with rapid crossovers. After that, long powerful pushes all the way until the last half lap when I increase my cadence again. Well, in reality, it didn't quite work out according to plan (surprise surprise). I did accelerate though my leg speed was not as fast as I would like. However, I really messed up my corners after the first 200m. My arm swing got out of sync with my legs and I had to stop my arms in mid-air to resync. This happened not once, but twice. I lost lots of speed in the corners because of this. My time came out to 01:02.86, a personal best at this track. I was not feeling good after the 500...absolutely devoid of energy.

Coach EG said that we will have a re-skate on Thursday for anyone who wants to give this another shot. The headwind made for slower times than everyone would like. I will probably do it just because.

We skated some 3min-on-2min-off intervals after the time trial. I started every on piece with an acceleration which began to feel more and more comfortable. I now have much better control of my leg speed in the corner (i.e. instead of just glacier in motion, I now have turtle crossing too, heh). Of course I don't know how it really looks. For all I know, I can be doing this all wrong...that's the problem when I experiment with new things without feedback.

Wow, My Best Acceleration Ever

Let me first get this out of the way: I was in bad shape today at practice. My body has acclimatized to the reduced food intake as long as I don't go for a workout. Once I started to skate, I was so low on energy I could not keep up with the pack. Too bad for me, practice today consisted of a lot of pack skating/attack drills and I simply did not have the stamina to participate in those drills. I ended up spending most of the practice skating by myself on the outside lanes.

I tried to concentrate on some technical things such as setting down under my shoulder, landing on outside edge, and loading my push with ankle bend with varying degrees of success. None of the above felt natural yet but I guess it takes time.

Towards the end of practice, we skated a few 3min-on-2min-off intervals. Seeing how I was feeling so weak for the entire practice, I surprised myself that I actually was able to keep up at 80% intensity for three minutes. Funnily enough, my skating felt like I was light on my feet though I honestly had no idea if it was really the case. Sometimes, "feeling" fast can be so deceiving, you know? In our last on piece, everything came together. I came out of the corner and began acceleration. For the very first time, my arm swing was driving my leg speed! I loaded every push in the straightaway with ankle bend and felt the power of each weight transfer. By the time I came to the corner, instead of my usual habit of slowing down my cadence to do crossovers, I kept up my arm swing and leg speed and practically ran my way through the corner with each crossover. I totally surprised myself with the speed I carried at the end of this half lap acceleration. This is the kind of acceleration I need when I do my 300m or 500m time trials (eeek, next Tuesday!). I hope this is not a "lightning doesn't strike twice" kind of deal...

So Sore...

As if I didn't learn my lesson from nationals, I did it again. I "added variety" to my training routine four days before a marathon and now my thighs and bum are super sore. At practice last night, coach EG had us working on some dry skating drills to emphasize a setdown that's outside of the centre line. This drill is a good tool to eventually eliminate weaving while we skate. I knew that I was suppose to take it easy at practice (only a short 5x30/30 interval, woohoo!) but I didn't anticipate the dryland would be so hard on my muscles. How hard can dry skating really be, right? Well, for one, since I had my feet planted firmly on the ground, I had a chance to focus on everything else above my feet. This meant more knee bend, more ankle bend, no bouncing up & down, and full extension of my push. All of these added up to a much harder drill then just a simple setdown exercise. Even though I stopped early to change the wheels on my skate, I think I must have worked on this drill for 30 minutes. I didn't even have to wait for the muscle soreness to kick in.

After the short intervals, I was free to do whatever so I skated slow to try out the setdown drill on skates. Half way through, something finally came together. I was able to set down on the outside edge and roll to the inside edge as I applied power to my push evenly over all four wheels! I could feel the increased power and speed even though my body was moving slow. Elated by this sudden improvement, I added in crossovers in the corner but in equally slow movement. Instead of rushing through the steps, I took the time to push with my left leg followed by an underpush with my right leg as far as I could. The result was a much smoother crossover. I was so happy to find my groove that I didn't want to leave the track!  Who knows if this feeling of everything coming together will be back next time I skate...

Unfortunately, I'm paying the price now for being such a keener last night. I can hardly walk and even lowering myself onto a chair is painful. Marathon this Sunday ought to be an interesting experience...

Good News Bad News Go Hand In Hand

We had end of month time trial last night at practice. Good news was I beat my previous best time for flying 200 by half a second so it is now 23s flat. Bad news was I had my worst 500m in the entire season, clocking at 1:03.81.

I'm not exactly thrilled about these results but I'm not entirely surprised either. I've been working hard on technique in the month of August so the improvement in the flying 200 makes sense (phew!). As for the slow time, well, I was hungry at practice. Planning my food intake has always been a challenge for me and every once in a while, I would suddenly decide that eating is a sign of a weak mind. When that kind of loopy mentality kicks in, skipping meals or being paranoid about eating is not uncommon and as a result, my performance suffers.

This was exactly what happened in the last couple of days. When I skated to the start line for my 500 TT, I felt all the energy drained from my muscles. I had to slow down in the corners because my muscles just didn't have the necessary strength to hold. By the time I was done, I was breaking out in cold sweat all over, a sure sign of low blood sugar. It was not fun.

I must break out of this mentality soon as I have a 42k race coming up on Sunday in Ottawa. I NEED to eat normally for at least three days leading up to the race otherwise it would be deja-vu like last year. Bonking during a race was terrible and I don't want that to happen again.

30-30

Since the beginning of August, coach EG has increased the intensity at practice. Take today for example. We did two sets of ten 30-30s after spending lots of time on the "shopping cart" drill.

My left quad was very sore from a rather "unconventional" dragonboat practice the previous day. Our boat had too many left paddlers and as I am a right paddler myself, I was fighting all practice to stop sliding across the seat to the other side of the boat. I tried many things but stablizing myself with my left leg seemed to be the most effective. The shopping cart drill is one of the common drill we do for learning to skate in close proximity. However, the most painful part of the exercise came not from the pushing, but from the long extended time of staying in basic position while I was being pushed. Instead of taking the easy way out, I tried to put an emphasis on ankle bend, gliding on outside edge, and keeping my knees apart (i.e. the cowboy stance). I was in pain long before this drill wrapped up.

I felt so sluggish during intervals and at times felt like throwing up even though I wasn't working really hard judging by my speed. Boy, was I glad when it was over!

Since I got my new Forerunning 305, I have been checking my heart rate more frequently. To my surprise, my HR seems to be on the high side even when I'm not "doing much". It easily goes above 100 for simple activities like putting on my skates or shuffling my feet from A to B. I remember very clearly when I donated blood last September, the nurse commented on my low HR and that was after a day of out and about. I'm definitely more fit than last year so I'm a little concern. Fortunately, the numbers look right when I'm actually exercising. However, this has prompted me to start taking my waking HR. It was 66bpm on Monday and 60bpm this morning. I'll have to keep an eye on things and not let myself get overly tired. I wonder if I can continue to handle 6-days-a-week training schedule with the increased intensity from both skating and dragonboat?

End Of Month is TT Time

I really like having these monthly time trials at practice...especially since we've been focusing on technique so much in the last couple of weeks. Like last month, we did flying 200 for everyone in the fitness group. I was glad to be the first one to skate because I didn't have to worry about keeping my legs warm while I wait for my turn. I know that my acceleration i