Crossover week

This week I've managed to train a lot at last, and it ment I could practice crossovers a lot.

I've managed to do 4 crossovers each turn, too bad I need one extra sidepush to recover before starting the next one - but hey, I'm starting to get a grip on this. I noticed that I don't slow down in turns so much as before, and also I am not fighting the turns but flowing with them. And I don't have an underpush yet... now I can imagine why it is so easy to accelerate out of a corner. It also has the effect of less back pain, the muscles seem to like it more than regular pushes in the banked turns.

I did 15-20 laps at a time, changing directions then and off to the next portion, summing up 60-70 laps a session. That with a nice warmup section gave 12-14 kms each day. Although I record each portion's time ridiculously I don't bother with pace much, I just keep it nice & rolling. I'll start to look at that issue seriously when I can do the crossovers more naturally, using them as a tool, not as an aim.

One may wonder how come I've not mastered this skill earlier. In fact I've read a nice tutorial about skating and the vicious cycle is outlined very very nicely there: you need to use outer edges before you can do crossovers, but to use outer edges for real you should do crossovers. Wicked, right?

Skill drills week

I've been trying to practice basic skating drills the last week - it was too hot to spend much time on the track anyway, so long tempo sessions were out of question.

After warmup, I've been doing very basic skill drills, eg: rolling in position, inside/outside edges, low position left/right, one-legged pushes, scissors, one-foot glides, parallel turns. It was about 20-24 laps each time, then some 10-20 laps on moderate tempo. It was just enough to cover, in 32+ Celsius... then some laps to cool down, and stretches. Bill & Nicole Begg's videos help a lot I think, I watch the technique-related ones each night to prepare mentally for next day.

I was alone on the track each day, at least it was silent, no constant rolling laughter around :)
Anyway, I wonder when and how I will do my first crossover... I am feeling a little bit 'paused', cannot feel any progression with my technique. But my conscious part keeps telling all this tech training will pay off sometime.

Let's hope so!