Frustrated

I've planned to run a half-marathon the last weekend in Siófok.
I've dedicated most of October and November to set up for this race properly. Ran 30-40 km a week following a training plan, aiming at 1:50 or even better time to achieve.
Then came Friday last week, 2 days before the race. A rest day. And it hit - met some virus: sore throat, voice gone, general 'down' feeling. Then spent most of Saturday in fever. Classic pharyngitis.
So no half on Sunday, that was quite sure :((((((((((((((((((((((((
Now there's a 'hole in my soul', I think I am

REALLY FRUSTRATED

Maybe I should check if there's another HM nearby I could run. Oh btw by Tuesday I was fine again :s

1. Winter Jász Cup

On the 13-14th November there was a shorttrack competition in Jászberény that we attended. The aim of it was to set up a short series for the novice racers in Hungary, so that they do not have to travel far for racing opportunities, maybe even in towns where there are no shorttrack clubs. Well this year the latter is not true but the Union is planning to enhance the series the next years so we may see that happen, too. This year the series consist of 3 stages, 1st in Jászberény, the 2nd in Szeged early January and the closing stage in Budapest, late January.
Racing in Jászberény was interesting as it is the only open-air competition this season. Peter for example has never raced on open-air ice before (in shorttrack). We were happy to have this race in the schedule as the planned race in Trnava was cancelled and the Szeged race was moved to January, so without this race there would have been no racing in November at all.

The rink at noon

Poor TR fell ill Thursday so we travelled only 5 - 2 racers (CD and Peter), two parents and coach TT. Spent Friday night in a student hostel, about 400m from the rink, so we could get up relatively late. The weather was very nice, quite hot for a November day - it was about 15C and clear midday. The ice melted quite fast so racing had to end about 12:00 both days.

Ice - ice?

(C) Gémesi Balázs

Peter had 3 distances (500m, 222m and 333m). He started the 500m semifinal very strong and was leading clearly when he fell in a turn, 1.5laps before the end. Even though he got up and started again, his legs locked up completely so he was overtaken and finished 3rd, that meant he could not race in the A final.

500m semifinal

In the Final B he was racing almost alone as he lapped his only competitor in the last lap. His time wasn't too good this way, it must have been much much better if he really raced someone.
Later the day he took part in a relay but with quite novice skaters from other clubs and so it was considered a good training only.

500m Final B

On Sunday he ran a quite strong 222m semifinal first, then grabbed 2nd in the final. He managed a new personal best in the semi - his start is really fine!

222m semifinal

Then a new PB in the final, too - 26:42, 1.5 seconds shaved off  the old PB!

222m Final A

Then he ran a similarly strong 333m semi, again a PB (38.90 - 2.5 seconds better than before).

333m semifinal

In the final he was in 1st place for 1.5 laps but couldn't handle the fact he was in front and did not skate a nice style, so he was overtaken by TA easily.

333m Final A

Still he finished 2nd here, too, so in overall he gained a bronze medal!

Cat F boys podium

Coach TT was quite satisfied with him minus the last final, it is still early season, so it all points to a good direction if he can evolve so fine.

Warm-up

CD had only one opponent in his age class, FT - also from Szeged. They've fought nice battles in all 3 distances and while CD finished 2nd each time he was really competent and skated much better style than FT. Again, a promising form for the season.

Ah and this race was the premiere for the new racing suits - black, green and silver.

(C) Gémesi Balázs

The boys looked fine wearing them - what do you think?

(C) Gémesi Balázs

PS:

The new boots worked perfectly, according to Peter. And they did not hurt his ankle at all!

Shiny new boots

We've bough a new pair of boots for Peter, his first 'real' shorttrack boot.

He's been using a Powerslide R2 junior model so far both for inlines or ice. Recently he has been telling us that the boot was bit too wide and it touched the ice in the turns. Add to that the fact that coach TT has also told us Peter would need a new boot soon so we had to look & shop around.
In the end we chose a handmade model from Hungary, produced by ex-shorttrack skater Balázs Knoch. He's living in Pécs and produces either standard, semi-custom or custom boots for skaters along some accessories, too. We drew around the outline of Peter's feet on a paper, measured the biggest length and width (his left foot is 4mm bigger than his right one...) and sent that drawing to Balázs. We agreed on phone that the size was right between 33 and 34 and we'd choose the bigger one for practical reasons - a kid can jump 2-3 shoe sizes in a year if nature decides so... But Balázs told us he'd also make a size 33 boot, so we can also try that.
While there are several models to choose from, we picked the cheapest model, again for practical reasons. It costs only 150 € and made of leather & some kind of compound, in black/silver. There is a 300 € model with stiffened ankle section and then you can have a full custom carbon boot starting from 600 € - something definitely not aimed at kids :)

2 weeks later we were driving to Pécs to try and take away the boots. Peter tried them on in the morning (size 34 fit perfectly) and then Balázs told us they would be ready in the afternoon. So we spent some time wandering around in the town and then late afternoon Peter was the happy owner of the new boots. You surely know that smile one can not get rid of when he receives a new toy :) He even put it next to his bed when we arrived home, so in the morning he could keep looking at it...

The first training with the boots on was Tuesday and he was very satisfied with the feel. He said the boots worked very nicely in the turns and helped him get on the outer edges easier. He can point his knees further down & forward so it generally helps getting lower in basic position. Coach TT told us that the boot would also help in finishing the push movement properly, too.
As the cuff is much higher than that of his previous boots it was quite evident there would be some initial 'suffer' period and of course it arrived by the end of the training. There was a red swallow area over both of his ankles that we iced 2 times that day and tried to apply some magic cream (comfrey) to help heal them. Next morning it was quite a torture to put the boots on again but the afternoon we repeated the above cure. Came Thursday morning and the swallow was not as big after the training than before, still applied both ice and the cream later the day. By Friday morning it seems it is getting normal.

This weekend there will be a competition in Jaszbereny, the first round of the Hungarian Novice Cup (3 stages). I really hope Peter's legs will be able to cope with the stress and that he can use his new boots successfully during racing. I am really curious to see how it works, will report back of course. Until then, some pics of his new boots:

XI. Pick Street Running Festival

Early October there was a running event in Szeged named after the local salami trademark, Pick. You could choose from a 6km distance, a 3.4k or a 1.2k family group run. And of course there were several fill-in programmes in between, and some lottery at the end, all the usual stuff.
I opted to run the 6km as I knew beforehand that the 3.4km would be very crowded to achieve any decent time. And of course I was feeling kinda running-pro (Gebre beware) so there was the übermensch feeling of 'yeah I run the long one' added, too :) I've entered Peter and myself for the shorter one, too but as Peter had a training that time it was obvious we would skip running together this time.
In the morning it was quite chilly but clear so I was a bit uncertain what to put on - I chose the long outfit however. It later turned out to be the perfect choice, sometimes it was wee bit too warm but in a minute it would cool down due to the wind. Ah yes, the wind was quite strong, 18km from the North. But at least it was not raining :)
Due to organizational problems I had to solve this event all alone, so there were no cheer-girls (Moira and Aniko) this time. Too bad, they could have made quite a few photos entitled 'Daddy suffering' or 'Dad is dead'...
Drove there, warmed up, had a light jog and some gymnastics - and bang, The Urge hit me: where is the looooooo... only 10 minutes left... trick or treat... or is it dare to win?... nah, let's be brave, no time for such crazy things. Got near the starting line where many of the folks were facing the wrong way??? Something I did not know of before, some late changes to the route??? I've taken a place at the second part of the field and then in a moment the organizers told the majority that they were facing the wrong way - yessssss, I was right \o/. So I found myself in the 6th or 7th line at the start :)
Off went the gun and we were running. I tried to keep calm and chose a pace I knew I was OK with. Some early birds left me of course but I knew I could not run that pace so I did not bother. When we reached the river and turned North on the quay the headwind hit us. I was using good old cyclist tactics, hiding behind someone for some time and then leave him/her and jump up a position. You may call this opportunism or un-ethical but I've learned this all my youth and it was a race after all... I've run this way till the first turning point and then almost enjoyed running tailwind, but started to feel not-so-good. Running didn't feel comfortable at all. Well I've climbed the ramp up, left the quay and then soon came another turning point and I was quite afraid of the headwind quay section waiting for me. But at this point I've just reached up to a man and decided to start the headwind section behind him. And in fact I traveled there from this point onto the finish line, suffering badly.
Right before the last turning point that was positioned at the end of the quay (so you even had to run up the ramp) we've caught a tall girl (FSz, I know she's been running for quite some time) and later I learned she was the 6th in the women's race and even she couldn't keep up our pace. Then about 300m from the finish we caught the women's 5th and 'my rabbit' and she seemed to know eachother, as he told her she was 5th and keeping that pace would finish under 25 minutes. Now I looked at my watch and was really shocked to see it was true -  too bad the heart-rate was blinking at 100% :) Well we finished soon, and I thanked my rabbit the help immediately. Too bad there is no official ranking for outside-top-10 finishers so I don't know his name :(
I felt completely tired and exhausted but tried to keep on walking. From time to time I glanced at my watch and couldn't believe: 24:54??? I slowly came to realize it was only a little bit worse than 4 min/km pace. OMGWTF, I hoped for a 28:00. Yet I felt very tired, completely useless but very happy. This whole event didn't feel good at all. Mid-distance I was like 'ah forget it, stupid me, just ease off and walk away'. But still somehow managed to finish and achieved such a good result. Wohooo!!!
Then I had a choco bar and some water and met an old classmate from secondary. We talked a bit though talking didn't feel right either and it was getting chilly again, being wet. Then I jogged to the car and drove home. Up the stairs it was very hard but later the day I've regenerated completely, so next day I could do an almost 15km run at 5:40/km pace with Peter following on bike, talking. Superman, right? :D

Zagreb Trophy 2010

As mentioned earlier, after 1 week on ice we've already been to a competition that was scheduled quite early in the race calendar, at the first weekend of October. The Zagreb Trophy was the first station of the Alpe-Adria Cup, which was planned to have 4 stages but now it seems there will be only 3. The original plans included Zagreb, Delnice, Sarajevo and Celje, but if you look at the calendar these days, the Sarajevo leg in February is missing :( Too bad, I really would have enjoyed a trip there and look around in the Olympic stadium.

Anyway, Zagreb. Luckily it is not a long drive from home so with an early-afternoon start we've arrived to the hostel at a reasonable time. Next day we got up at 6am and had breakfast, then went to the rink at 7am for the training. The rink, placed next to a hippodrome is called Klizaliste Velesajam and looks quite impressive from the outside, and is very friendly inside, too. There are many large, warm dressing rooms, a nice coffee bar, huge panoramic windows, and everything was quite warm - though it may have helped that it was nice fall weather outside. One could comfortably get around the rink without a coat, contrary to some deep-freeze rinks :)

The racing field size was not big at all but it matched the team's aims perfectly: early-season 'training' competition, to get in the mood of racing. And who knows, if we race in all the competitions of the series, we might get a good overall result anyway. While mostly local racers, there were kids from Slovenia, Bosnia,  Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech and even from Kazakhstan. We've entered 3 competitors, TR (cat E), CD (cat C) and Peter (cat F).

Peter's field was only 3, with JP from Szeged and the local TK, who was obviously a real beginner, so it was down to a 2-men battle. Peter had beautiful starts in every heat but could'n skate in a good form in the first day at all. It was clearly visible he missed time on ice and could show some decent movement form only on the second day. That day he fought much much better but fell 2 times - no luck. His best time on 500m was only 1 second slower though than his PB from the last season. 2nd in each distance he grabbed a silver medal this time.

TR was the youngest of her category and she's been racing only for 1 year now, so it was obvious she would not win yet. Anyway she did not finish last and managed to better her PB on 2 distances.
CD only missed 3rd overall due to a big tactic error (not paying attention who is taking over) and a disputable penalty in the superfinal. He also managed to get a new PB on 500m.

After a lengthy ceremony we headed home but this time the travel seemed to take much much longer - still we managed to get home quite early. It was a good competition with a friendly attitude, quite some early-season-form errors and mistakes to analyze and correct. Let's hope the upcoming legs will be as useful as this one was at least.
No videos this time (you know, will publish only those that are worth it...), results are here. You can find quite some photos around on FB.

On ice again

Short entry:

the local rink in Szeged is open again since late September. Quite early compared to the previous years.
Our team has 3 trainings on ice per week at the moment.
One week in training we've already been to a competition, more on that soon.

Oh how I missed handling cold, dirty mats... :)

Summer ice training

Following the dryland training camp and some more dryland workouts in the next 2 weeks, the team took part in a short ice training camp in Budapest early August. There were 7 sessions during 4 days, ie 2 trainings in a day.

Working in 2 age groups

Each participant stayed in Hotel Pilon, about 400m from the ice hall, which proved to be a very good selection especially in the mornings: The daily schedule was something like getting up before 5:00 and walk up to the ice hall, then at 5:20 start 40-50 minutes of dryland before getting in the hall and onto the ice. The ice sessions were 1-1.5 hours long and the kids only got to eat the breakfast after that. Then they spent the rest of the morning in laid-back style and had lunch in a nearby restaurant. Then they had some more rest (and occasional nap) before doing another dryland/ice training. Then back to the hotel, eat some and get into bed early.

Rest

As it was August, there was a high contrast in temperature (~30C outside, 5C in the hall) so the clothing part was tricky but manageable of course. The 'wake up early' part of the camp was a real killer but the kids at least learned to pre-fetch the clothes they wanted to put on the next day.

Relays start

There were 4 kids (CD, TR, NB and Peter) from our club plus coach TT, 4 from Pécs and their coach, and a lot of girls from Jászberény. I am quite an outsider in ST but I could see huge differences in technique and dryland work of the different teams (and I think our kids are on the better side). The last day 2 of our Olympians (R.Darázs and B.Heidum) joined and helped the kids a bit in the dryland part - it must be a good and positive impulse for them to get help from the sportsmen / sportswomen they saw racing in Vancouver on TV just some months ago...

Dryland exercises

The camp was very tiring but it was useful for sure. Too bad we won't have ice time locally until October and so we must grab every occasion to train on ice, yet it will mean lots of travel. Coach TT says it will be a busy September...

Dryland training camp

Peter and the team has spent a week in a dryland training camp in Budapest mid-July, together with the local Sportország SC team. The setting was beautiful as it took place in the hilly section of Budapest, in Normafa. Cool forests, pathways, and lots of elevation change. The climate was terrible though, each day it peaked around 33-35 C so it was no fun at all.

End of warm-up football

The camp consisted of 3 days work, then 1 day off, then 3 days work again. Each day they had two training sessions, the first one from 9 to 11:30, then lunch and some rest time, then the second session from 15:00 till 17:00 or so.

Peter in red T-shirt

In the morning training they had runs, imitations, sprints - usually uphill. Then in the afternoon they did more imitations, with or without non-elastic band and some more running. This all sounds very simple but the fact they had BÁ, the well-know ST trainer train them shows how serious work they had to do. The aim of this all was to prepare them physically for the upcoming ice season.

Imitation

Peter lost 2.5 kg in one week, and 4 cm from his waist. And his muscle definition looks fantastic. Now I wish he could transform all this technique he learnt now onto ice when racing...

BÁ and Peter, working on technique

They stayed in a one-star hotel on the Pest side of Budapest but it was quite clean. And after all, they went there to have sleep - and in fact they did not care where to sleep, only to get some.

We visited him in the last 2 days with Moira and Anikó, to support him a bit and also to celebrate HR's and Peter's birthday with a nice cake in the last evening. They were born only 1 day apart so the cake was half pink and half blue, with '9' candles on each half.

The cake

Poor ones - they still had trainings on the next day...

Student Champs 2010

This year's Student Championships were held in Tatabánya. Our small team traveled there one day earlier so the kids could rest and not spend the morning getting up early and travelling 250 kms. The stay there was fine and cheerful as it was coach TT's birthday - so there was champagne, cake, candles, chips and lots of fun in the evening.
Next day we went to the track at about 09:30, got through all administration and such and after some easy laps we decided to spend the upcoming hours doing lazy things, not to sit by the track while the amateur races were being held. So we visited the Turul statue towering over the city and the Szelim cave nearby. We spent some time walking there and got back to the track by 12:30 as we were advised the opening ceremony would start at 13:00.
But it was all wrong. The amateur races were still on - the pros did not start until 15:30. Damn it was a long wait and we could smell disaster when looking at the race program. It was quite sure it would not end in a 'normal' way...

Peter had to run a semi-final for the 200m. He started well and stayed right behind the first guy throughout the whole distance. It was pretty obvious he made it to the final. However when they lined up for the final he was given lane #6. W0000t? He skated 3rd fastest time and got lane 6? We couldn't protest immediately as the official timings were not published until several days were gone :((( Now I'm pretty sure he was put in lane 6 so he wouldn't be close to the local guy GyD :(((
In the final he started OK and was in 3rd place and he could have grabbed 2nd as PK almost fell in the last straight. I was quite worried he would fall and Peter would tip over him but luckily it did not happen. So it was 3rd place on the shorter distance, not a bad start at all.

On the 500m he started cleverly and skated in 2nd position. Then came an attack from behind, Peter accelerated but got pushed sideways a bit by someone, almost fell but escaped that. He dropped back to 4th position, but advanced one place in the next straight. 1 lap still left, he was in 3rd place and attacking the local guy ÁB when in the last turn ÁB punched in Peter's face with his elbow. Poor Peter started crying immediately and stood up, and so lost the chance to overtake AB (which seemed to be almost completed) and almost dropped one place again. Luckily he reached the finish line in 3rd position so another medal was earned. The referee did not see anything???... later a neutral parent told me even he could hear that punch Peter has suffered, from 50m away - quite interesting that a referee standing in the turn did not see anything unusual :(((
Now that I write these lines I am upset again. These kids are 8-9 years old - is this kind of aggression acceptable from then? I don't think so. But when they don't receive any punishment for being aggressive, when a referee doesn't take care of these things, they won't learn not to do it. Looking back at the races that day no referee interaction could be noticed. No warnings, no DQs, no new starts, nothing...

Peter couldn't join any relays so our race program was over. But the awards ceremony was still far ahead. I think it was after 20:00 they started calling the medalists and it was definitely after 22:00 when it was finished. Remember: this race was organized for children, most of them even had to travel home after the race. Simply unacceptable.

So while Peter showed good form, fought clever and strong, he could 'only' earn two bronze medals, both of them in questionable races. I find these things very sad.
Organization was one of the worst I've seen so far - no results published on the place, huge delays, no pre-race calling for the racers, minutes spent sorting out who's starting, minutes spent waiting for a late bird - completely rubbish. Was it happening in a kitchen, Gordon Ramsay would be yelling 'get out of my f* kitchen NOW'.
We won't be able to race in any other inline track races this year in Hungary due to transfer regulations - and I don't think we miss it at all.

LifeInLine - Michalovce 2010

Just one week after Prievidza we were attending another race in the LifeInline series, this time in Michalovce, in the Eastern far end of Slovakia. This time only Peter and me were able to travel from our club so I've invited SSz and FT to join us in the car. We spent the night in the flood-hit area of Satoraljaujhely - the flood was gone but many signs of it were still left everywhere, especially in smaller villages or rural areas.

Waking up Sunday morning I heard a sound that grasped me with fear. Wind - heavy wind. Now that was something completely lacking from the meteo forecasts. By the sound of it is was about 15km/h with strong gusts. Anyway we packed in the car and had a painfully slow car drive to Michalovce - about 50km but took us more than 1 hour to get there. It was quite hard to find a parking place near the event but after two rounds in town we decided to park the car in a plaza parking place and walk 400m.
We built our small 'camp' on the side of the road, just beneath some big trees, as - in spite of the wind - it was totally sunny and hot.

The race route itself was a 1.010m long triangle-like route around a small park, asphalt was OK, patches marked as usual. On the back-leg we were given 1 closed lane from a 4-6 lane motorway, while the start/finish straight was a 4-lane road totally closed. The most tricky parts were the end of the start straight with a small ascending turn up the motorway and the start of the finish straight where there were numerous surface errors so you had to plan your way ahead.

Race track

The wind was blowing hard when Peter's race started. The field was smaller than in the previous week and he gained a 15m lead by the time they were to turn left to the motorway. Then I lost his sight behind the trees but when I saw him again on the end of the backstraight he was leading with a comfortable 50-60m. Then he zoomed down the next 2 turns and crossed the finish line with 12 seconds' advantage. He was very tired though and complained about the strong winds.

Peter 20m from the finish

photo (C) J. Meriac http://jaminline.rajce.idnes.cz

Then we saw FT racing in the 5km race. He is in base-building period for the shorttrack season so while he could easily skate with the others and had no difficulty with the tempo, he surely lacked sprinting speed and couldn't attack for real in the last lap. Nevertheless he earned 3rd place and said it was a good warm-up for the 21km.

FT in 3rd place

photo (C) J. Meriac http://jaminline.rajce.idnes.cz

Then after the 10k race came the half marathon, 21 laps to cover. FT decided to start there, too. SSz and me positioned ourselves perfectly in the starting field (read: rolled to the last line) and at 14:30 we started.

I was quite happy to find IC from Presov, Slovakia and travel in his draft for the first 7 laps. The 7th lap was for some reason 20 sec faster than the previous ones and I immediately felt tired. So in the finish lane I dropped from IC's draft and from then on it was pure hell. Alone against the strong winds (nice memories from Bratislava...) - and by this time the finish straight was having wind from the side, not from behind. So it meant that you: tempo all along the higway section in headwind, turn left and roll some in the relative wind-free small straight, then you drop onto the finish straight and meet some wind here, too. 

By the 12th lap I was seriously considering giving up the race and sit down next to Peter, who was acting as a photographer in the finish straight. But then came lap #14 and I thought "hey only 7 is left which is almost equal to 1 lap on the route where I practice usually..." So I started to convince myself and in the end it paid off.

In the final 4 laps I was able to catch two elder guys and sit in their draft again. This was a real life-saver and I did not think much about the aesthetics of drafting all the way to the finish. I came in in 59:12 which is seriously worse than last week's result but this time I had to fight the winds alone for quite some time, unlike last week. SSz finished some 2 minutes ahead while her son FT skated a 42:44, that is quite a good one if you are in base-building period IMHO.
IR from Tatabanya has won this race! This is his first win in this series and he was obviously very happy with that. He told us the leading group wasn't driving a fast tempo so he could sprint away from them in the last few hundred meters, using his good technique in the last 2 turns. He won by 10 meters ahead of a Czech and a Pole guy.

IR finishing

Travelling home was a quite uneventful 5-hour drive. I had some time to think about and re-live the race. Main mistake was dropping from draft - it would be so much easier to cover the distance if I could just stay there. Lesson learned (again).
Results here.

LifeInLine - Prievidza 2010

We traveled to Bojnice, near Prievidza, Slovakia early on Saturday so we didn't have to drive a long way at dawn, Sunday. It proved a good idea as we couldn't follow our planned route due to the floods hitting the area, but drove bit more westwards and headed North from there. We could see the devastating effects of the flood gone by near the roads in Slovakia, sand bags, flooded fields, suction-pumps working everywhere.

Bojnice, Pálfy Castle

Bojnice is a cosy small village with a fantastic, Disney-like castle in the middle. There is also a zoo and a spa there so it isn't an average place at all... We stayed at the edge of the village in a resort area in tangible silence. But of course before sleep TT assembled his old skate in ephemeral 3 hours while we were busy laughing and whinnying. Recycled WD-40, clap frame, loose or completely locked bearings with outrageous sounds - you know that for sure :)

Next morning we went to Prievidza after having a lazy breakfast. The race route was a 2x2 lane avenue, closed from traffic, with nice green reservation in the middle with grass and trees. A U-turn on each end (quite bad, melting blacktop patches), so one lap was about 1.4km. Organizers marked every surface error carefully, the asphalt itself was that grippy type and as the Sun was shining on it, it became more and more grippy. (This is an excuse here why I wasn't any faster...)

First on the line was Peter, there were about 25 opponents. The route was shortened a bit in the kids' races, there was a U-turn about 40m from the start. Peter started from the second row but exited the U-turn in 3rd place (I did not see how he's done that but maybe it's better this way), and then he skated fine after a local guy, but soon they disappeared in the distance. He exited the 2nd U-turn in 2nd place (a Czech lass was 1st, she looked so professional), but he kept looking back bit too much at they guy following him. As a result that guy passed from behind and although Peter tried to squeeze him to the side in a Schumacher-like move, the guy beat him with 1 wheel's length in the finish. No problem, a silver medal is quite fine!

Peter sprinting

There were 2 more kids racing from our club, TR finished 7h in her age category on 3 km (this was her first race in such a long distance), while CD came in 4th on the 5 km. By the time their races finished weather turned hot, so we walked around a bit, then pitched our 'camp' in the reservation green in the middle of the avenue, in a shady place. Lunch, kid's ceremonies, and then we watched the 10km race where the top riders pulled brutal times.

OB, me, TT and CD

It was time to warm-up (and it was then I started yawning, as the mid-day nap was due by then - Red Bull consumed), and then we lined up for the start. OB and Raimo was there from Hungary, too.

14:30, starting gun fired! TT and CD got ahead fast, and I started to skate (slowly), too. It was quite clear from the beginning I would not win this race either, so I tried to skate in a relaxed, constant pace. There was a light breeze, only wee bit troublesome, but I did not like the U-turns, it was no fun re-accelerating 30 times all in all. After 3 laps an 'old' man, UMR came past me (he was born in 1949... let's say I've waited for him, OK?) and I hid in his draft immediately and I think it was my best decision throughout the whole weekend :D Even this way lap #5 and lap #10 felt critical. But after 12 laps I even started to feel like the end could be something good :) Sometimes I've managed to skate feeling fine, with nice long pushes to the side, I almost started to enjoy it - but stayed in UMR's draft just to be sure :) I tried to drink a bit once, but they handed water in plastic cups and after 2 gulps my side started to twinge a bit so I decided to skip that.

UMR in white, me ahead...

I felt like the distance was decreasing quite fast. In the end I ran home in 54:28 (personal best!) OK I was quite worn by then. We talked a bit with UMR and another Slovak guy, analysed Raimo that he surely arrived here from another planet... and then we said goodbye to eachother. It was time then for Aniko to take care of me, she poured a gallon of isotonic drinks into me (I may have looked bit bad based on that). And of course to admire the chamomile collection of Moira who was busy picking them throughout the whole length of the race :D

CD drafting

We changed clothes and it turned out CD earned first place in the M1 age category (41:38), he deserved it as he was racing in a clever and good way, spent most of the distance hiding in big men's draft (see above). Anikó was even complaining she found it quite hard to take photos of him... TT was literally dead after not having raced such a long distance for at least 8 years (44:54), his lower back was stiff and aching, so we took an extra-slow lower-back-rehabilitate jog with him. Raimo ran some stellar time again (41:02), OB finished somewhere in the 46-minute region.

Packed up, had pizza near the castle in Bojnice, checked the Ferraris parked there, then got into the car at 18:30 and headed home. The kids fell asleep soon, but we were in Szeged by midnight.

It was good and fine, results are here.

Spring sum-up

This is to sum up my intensity phase for this spring:
I've spent 34h 43m burning 21024 kCals during 31 sessions. The training included skating 271 km, running 75 km and plyometrics 6 times - this time Bill Begg's 'Offskate Plyo Specific':

-	Plyometric Menu - Offskate Plyo Specific	Time
1.	Jogging slowly for warm up	5 mins
2.	Stretch (static, ballistic)	5 mins
3.	Skipping	2 mins
4.	Vibrations 30 sec with 30 sec rests	4 times
5.	Frog jumps 15 sec recovery	8 times
6.	Crossbacks	1 min
7.	Stride jumps, extend legs to back & side	1 min
8.	Gunthers, dryland skating, looping the leg back in D shape	2 mins
9.	Heal taps	1 min
10.	Control hop 30 sec with 15 sec recovery	4 times
11.	Imitation jump 30 sec with 15 sec recovery	4 times
12.	Sheer power 30 sec with 15 sec recovery	4 times
13.	Swing hop 10 sec with 15 sec recovery	8 times
14.	Pulsing up & down 10 sec, hold 30 sec, then pulse 1 min, 30 sec recovery	2 times
15.	Bounding 15 strides, 1 min recovery	6 times
16.	Sprints 30m, 1 min recovery	6 times
17.	Low walking, with knee to ground	2 mins
18.	Wall sitting, legs at 90 degree, back straight	2 mins
19.	Slow jogging & light static stretching to cool down & check if body is OK	10 mins

In the last 2 occasions the plyo program felt almost easy to complete. That means I advance bit by bit :)

I've raced in the DOM Cup with a less-than-satisfying result and completed the Tour de Tisza-tó, which was more enjoyable.

I have 2 LifeInLine HMs coming up early June, before heading for the beach. I really hope to improve my PB in one of them, though I haven't been able to skate as many interval sessions as I'd planned, so there may be problems with my speed. We will see...

Regional Student Champs 2010

Reporting in short, newspaper-style :)

After some re-scheduling turmoil, the Student Champs regional races were held early May here in Szeged. Only held for the smaller age categories, so there were quite few participants, all the usual faces :) Oh not all, our ex-club KDE decided to skip this venue for whatever reason...

There was some timed drills race beforehand, where Peter fell once but still managed to post 2nd best time of all the Cat E & F boys and girls. Then he had 3 challengers in the 700m and had no trouble finishing ahead of them, in fact he didn't even skate fast the first 3 laps, only sprinted the last one to make it look like a race:

Cat E boys 700m

Then an interesting idea came up from the organizers: start all the kids at once, young or older, and make it a 8-lap elimination race. At first I was a bit worried there would be many falls but then it proved a nice and good idea. Peter skated clever and tactical and was fighting for 2nd place. Only 2 older boys could finish ahead of him, here's the video (he is #61, in dark blue t-shirt):

1500m elimination

Nationals are due this weekend in Tatabánya.

Intersport Tour de Tisza-tó 2010

This "tour" is a 57-km ride around the Tisza lake, which is an artifical lake and also a natural park. It's completely flat around there so you won't need to climb any hills or roll down slopes. And it is called a tour, as - while some bike pros are racing hard - the main aim is to get people moving and make them cover the distance either on bikes or skates. This tour-ness is what greatly describes the friendly attitude of the event.

We have travelled there by 2 cars, 3 bikers and 4 skaters. The drive was rather uneventful as SSz and FT spent most of the time asleep and Feri spent the time fighting the GPS that seemed to decide 3 satellites are too much :) We got to Tiszafüred quite early, registered and drove some more, as the skaters started from near Poroszló, 8km from the start of the cyclists. We parked the car and had some lazy time, then put up our skates and began waiting for the cyclist.
And there they came, all 1000 of them. Young & aged, racers or tourists, on many types of bikes, we saw even a velociped, a handbike and many many kids, too. After they have gone, we had to stop by a line and an organizer started us, syncing the start with the chip timing system via radio comms. We were about 15 at the start line, later it turned out there were yet more who arrived bit late.
So we started and as there was a light breeze from behind we had quite an easy and comfortable ride southwards. Feri has dropped in the first few km, in fact I didn't even notice as I wasn't looking back - it was such an easy ride I did not think he would drop :( So we rolled on with SSz, as FT and the 'more advanced ones' from Budapest has started out so much faster we lost their sight within minutes. We changed lead in about each 4-5 km for the first 20 kms. RT was following us closely, we talked a bit and agreed to stay together as there would be headwind on the way back.
Apart from the ambulance dealing with injured cyclists every 5 km this part was quite uneventful - nice clean and smooth asphalt on the top of the dike, lake to the left, trees to the right. I kept on eating some glucose every 15 minutes and swallowed a magic energy gel after 1 hour. Then we arrived to the dam near Kisköre where there was a refreshing station (water only) and some concrete surface. SSz and myself eased up a bit, stretching our backs but RT kept on skating the same speed and disappeared quickly. We thought we would catch up with him later but that never happened...
Then we had to climb up the dam, cross it (no big problem, but had to care for the dilating elements) and then came about 2-300m of really bad surface rolling down from the dam, where the safest method was to skate right at the edge of the concrete, almost in the dust. Well that did not do any good to my knees and the left one began to hurt a bit. After that it was a nice ride again eastwards but we knew something bad was still ahead.
And there it was, after 31 km, near Abádszalók. There were 3 kinds of cracked asphalt (bad, worse and even more worse), patched on each other in random order so you had to take every step with caution. I couldn't push a normal push sideways, I was 'tiptoeing' for the next 2 km. This part of the route was tough, mainly for the brain, exhaustive with constant awareness.
From km 35 it was smooth again, but turning North we met some headwind now. Luckily we could use a cyclist to rest behind him for some time, and according to his meter we were travelling by 25 km/h. Both SSz and me were happy with that as we knew this was a really big plus for us. Sadly enough I forgot to eat properly during the rough part and following the cyclist, so all of a sudden, right after 2 hours, all my power was lost, I couldn't even rest there. So I told SSz to go on with the cyclist and I pulled out.
There was about 15 km left - I ate some glucose, consumed another energy gel and tried to get in some rhythm, but I wasn't feeling good. Then I saw OB sitting in the grass (he was travelling with the 'pros' from the beginning), asked him what was wrong but he told me to go on, as he was only waiting for his support cyclist to get him some water. Murphy hit again: after only a few kilometers there was the next watering station (at km 48 or so) where I stopped for a glass of water but then continued without rest. Then came the 'low hit', there were some gravel on the road after about 500m, and I did not notice it in time, caught a stone and couldn't avoid falling. It was no big deal but there was blood on my right knee and my left hip also hurt, though I did not see anything on it from a quick glimpse.
2 cyclists came past me just then, one of them asked if I was OK and I managed to get in their draft. I was suffering badly and didn't have power to skate properly, so I rested there for a bit. I tired to speed up and left them 3 times but failed and slowed down again. Then OB came past me in the draft of his support cyclist, yelled at me to jump over there but I simply couldn't :(
No problem, there were only 5 km left - but what a 5 km. I thought they would go down fast but it was horribly slow how they passed. I've managed to get away from the bikers and skated alone the last 5 but it felt incredibly slow. However I arrived to Tiszafüred at last and crossed the finish line after some zig-zag, in 2:48:05.
I felt completely empty. I rolled to the water, drank some, got rid of my skates and sat there for 5mins. Then phoned home to tell Aniko I was still alive, then sat there again for 5 mins, listening to the speaker announcing the cyclists in the ceremony. After some time I managed to get on my feet and walked to the podium to meet SSz and the other skaters already there. Friendly talk, etc, socializing. Then we saw Feri arrive, just a bit above 3 hours.
Then I caught a ride in a complete stranger's car back to my own car (8 km from the finish line, remember) and during that a heavy thunderstorm hit us. So I was completely soaked when I got in my car, drove back to Tiszafüred and when the storm has gone, we packed up and started driving home. And we felt really grateful that the storm did not come 1 hour earlier :) During the drive - guess what - SSz and FT were asleep for most of the time...
Interestingly I did not feel tired the day after, only felt a little muscle burn. So by Monday I was thinking where to go skating.

Looking back to the event, it was surely fun. Organizers deserve a big bravo, everything was OK. I've never covered such a distance on skates before and I clearly hit some inner barrier at 2 hours, but I want to register for next year's tour again ASAP. It simply felt good skating there!

Transfer

Peter has left his old club and transferred to another one.

This simple sentence above is the result of several nights' bad sleep, a lot of brain cells damaged and weeks spent in anxiety. All of which could have been avoided of course.

Why?
Well that is the question that is still bugging us almost every minute these days. It is one month now that we've made the decision but still it echoes in our mind. I did not want to write about it earlier, letting time to settle things and look back from a distance, but it is still hard to put it down correctly.
If I try to look back from a distance, it all started last October when coach TT was contracted. His main job was to deal with the kids in the club who wanted to race short-track. Coach E told us he had other things in life that took his time and he would be teaching the small ones, who started out discovering skating. This setup seemed fine for us and we knew coach TT was in the national short-track team until recently, so we expected up-to-date knowledge that he could transfer to our kids.
And he did so. He sketched plans and after the initial training sessions told us that our kids lack a lot technically so he could only promise to make them really competitive for the Junior Nat. Champs late in the season, in February. We've accepted this and he began working with them very hard.

And when I say very hard I mean this for real. There have been trainings when the kids almost threw up, when I had to take Peter up the stairs home on my back, when he almost fell asleep on the drive home that is about 10 minutes, etc. According to Churchill: 'blood, sweat and tears'. Okay, blood was not too common :)
After about 2 weeks the first cracks opened. Those (few) who couldn't stand the idea of hard work declared they did not want to race short-track and wanted to do inline only. So they went back to coach E and began some 'base building' period which, to tell the truth, wasn't hard at all. And from then on coach E became more and more jealous(?) about coach TT, it seemed. And of course dirty materials were involved, too, as the club leaders began to complain about coach TT's salary - that was quite strange as it was them who've contracted him...
Months passed, work was on and results started to come. In the championships those who worked hard for real under coach TT posted wonderful times, scoring PBs in all distances. Once again the old wisdom proved true, hard work yielded good results. But then there was another race still in the calendar, late March that we've planned to visit. But all of a sudden the club leaders decided they would not pay for the ice in March. We were shocked - how do we race then if we cannot train on ice?

We swallowed the bitter pill though but our kids were in some kind of 'punishment'(?) - they had to share the training hall with the absolute beginners, but coach TT tried to work it out so they did a lot of dryland and some tech drills. By the end of March it became clear this was not leading anywhere.
And then we suffered a big slap in the face. Coach E posted the groups' timetable for the trainings and coach TT's group had no time reserved for the trainings in the local skate track. We parents decided to meet the club leaders and question their decision, when they told us that they've fired coach TT and his group will be trained again by coach E. Bit strange that coach TT did not know he was being fired...

We were shocked. Really shocked. This all happened on a Friday eve and you can imagine what our weekend was like. We've seen coach E train Peter for years however he has developed in the last 6 months more than ever under the direction of coach TT, so we were sure that returning to coach E was a no-go. Just exactly that time I've read Susan Ellis' article about coaches telling 'do 10 laps of this or that' vs coaches teaching the correct position and technique above all. Coach E is of the former, coach TT is of the latter type for sure.
We talked a lot. We phoned a lot, then talked a lot again. One thing was clear. We wanted to leave the club that didn't even consider what was good for our kids, just their own personal greedy ambitions (maths is simple: ice is expensive, renting a gym is not). After 4 years they just threw away our kids, several champions, hard working ones.

There were 3 clubs in Szeged: one for short-track only, one for inline only, and the one we were to leave, doing both. The obvious would have been to transfer to the first. But after several days' thinking and asking Peter, too, we decided to stay with coach TT. He decided to start a new club and so we joined it.
There are only 5 kids in the club now, but I hope it will grow soon. What are they doing these days? They train 5 times a week, 4* inline and 1 time dryland, as there is no permanent ice available. Sometime during the summer we plan a training camp to gain some ice time, then in October it will be available here, too. If we can find free slots in the ice schedule... Generally speaking we are looking forward racing short-track, but we may visit some inline races, too - just to keep racing spirits high.

So you won't see Peter in black/orange in the future. I think the skinsuit will be green/black/silver. With a silver lining.

Random

I do some running and just found this link about lacing up a running shoe. Wow never thought it would be such an interesting reading...

I am planning to skate 57km on the Tour de Tisza-tó this Saturday. Weather forecast: wind, clouds and rain. Splendid!!!

When you stand by the window and look at the rain outside, eating huge doses of chocolate, can you call that a perfect taper?

The LIL schedule is finalized at last. They parted with Nestle and got a new sponsor LIGLASS who deals with solar energy systems. Last year the winners received huge packs of Nestle products, mainly chocolate. What will they give now, solar panels? :) Hmmm not  bad idea - a solar panel fitted on the helmet and your back, you get home and feel 'energized' :)

Back to taper.

Dom VSI Cup 2010

The season opener for track racing in Hungary was held last weekend here, in Szeged. Peter was not racing (more on that later) but I had the chance to race 2 short distances.

We were only 2 in the senior amateurs 'field' and at first the organizers wanted to make us run together with the pro adults. That didn't seem like a good idea at all (we could have been gapped 3 times in 5 laps...) but then the main referee opposed it so we got our own time-slot. \o/

The first distance was 300m and we started fine but then clicked frames and that made me loose one step. OB went ahead and I was right behind him for most of the distance - he was not doing any crossovers as he does not have any experience with banked tracks and I guess he feared it a bit. That made me think I can overtake him on the exit of a turn. So I was gaining speed in the last turn when *something* happened and I found myself flying in the air and crashing. It wasn't a bad crash, I only hit my right hip, elbow and hand a bit (minor bruises) and got up rapidly to easy skate to the finish line. I have a video of the race and looking at it frame by frame does not show what was wrong at all. I'm puzzled...

Then we visited the McDonald's nearby to have dinner with the kids (promised long ago and somehow they don't forget these things...) and I think it was a big mistake, having a quarter and chips and coke :) When we got back to the track we were due to race in 20 minutes - erm I saw well ahead that was not going to be my best race... 

We started and OB got ahead very soon and I couldn't even get close to him. I was suffering badly and looking for a place to throw up safely and secretly :) So I finished with a bad time, about 100m behind OB, feeling lucky to even survive. Stupid stupid me grrrrrrrrrr

It doesn't look like I'd be attending more track races in this year, maybe the local one here in the autumn so no championship hopes are alive. However it would be good to run at least one more race to have more decent PBs for this year.

The event was well-organized and weather was good, bit too windy but nothing serious. However there were many crashes in the pro races and that is simply no fun. Too bad to see many kids around with bandages and scars and road rash.

Peter's age field was not a strong one at all, he could have grabbed gold or (worst case) a silver medal if he raced. I am really sorry he couldn't enter.

Results here: amateurs young pros older pros.

Base Zero?

If I look at my skate calendar for 2010 I can see the main Base (both 1 & 2) period is over. It is the time of the year where you should do long, steady & slow kilometer hunting, staying in aerobic heart-rate zone, to build up endurance. That is the theory at least.

Now let's take a look at my skate log: so far in the year I've skated 121 kms and run 196 kms. I don't remember where I've put my totals for Base 1 - but in Base 2 (that means the last 5 weeks) I've spent 33h 48m, burning 22192 kCals during 31 training sessions. I think it is a bit low but let's be fair, the last few weeks (since the start of April) I had a quite good schedule training-wise, 31 sessions in 35 days is not bad (88%).

I had two disappointing races during this period, first the Bratislava HM and then the IV. Dom Cup (more on that later). Yes there is a silver lining to every cloud, I am looking very hard to find it :)

Now come the Intensity training weeks, I expect to gain some speed during that and do many drills as recovery. What's in the plans? I'd like to skate a tour around the Tisza lake (55km), then run a 4mile race called Cora-run in town. And after the intensity phase I'll have 2 half-marathons in Slovakia before summer, to prove I can make a new personal best.

Bratislava 2010

After taking part last year I wanted to go again. This year the weather was changing a lot, it was about 12C but the clouds were travelling quite fast in the sky so it was quite obvious we would meet some wind. And yes there was wind with some stormy gusts from N-NW. But it did not rain at least :)

Right after the start the field climbed up the New Bridge (the one with the UFO-like restaurant on top), it was here that I said farewell to any hope of a good result. I could climb very very slow only, although I had no problem with that last year. Cross the bridge, then descend on the other side, you roll & roll and take care of the dilating elements and any road cracks. Here the route goes across a very dull part of the city (Petrzalka), a real socialist concrete block building quarter, 4 lane road of which 2 are closed for us. Organization is great, you see a policeman or a volunteer in every road crossing, water stations every 2.5 kms, refreshing stations every 5 kms.

As there is nothing to see you can observe the opponents, get ahead a bit, ride at a nice & steady pace etc. An ambulance car gets ahead (later I've heard a girl crashed and broke her arm). Monotone skating (that goes well) and then we turn left in a big radius, climb up an overpass - this one went thousand times better than the bridge. Here I pull up to M from the team, who is suffering badly, her legs hurt, her shoes are bad etc.

We team up and shortly after the overpass the route turn left sharply and bad asphalt begins. It worsens slowly, first there are more and more road cracks then comes 'peanut choc' surface the whole width of the road. Best tactic here is the get to the edge of the road, to the dusty part and try one-legged roller technique. Reaching the dikes we turn South, good asphalt feels like salvation. You can see the top riders on the dikes going the opposite direction already, with some brutal speed. M is still suffering but I keep telling her to use backwind here & now (nearby plants show the wind direction clearly), take some rest as there would not be any time for that later.

We reached the turning point and I literally dropped dead. We should climb up the dikes to the left - my waist is stiffed up, I can hardly produce a push. Somehow I creep up the climb but the group with M is gone already. Stiff & hurting waist, headwind, alone - sound like fun, right? :) I start to flounder ahead, gain some speed but trouble has hit. Getting low my waist cries loud. Standing up headwind blows me to a stop. Well... I've never ever in my life gave up any race, but here and now I am broken mentally. Was there a car coming from behind I would have got in it for sure. But there was none and the bus was waiting for me behind the finish line :)

So I creep ahead slowly - after some time there is some woods next to the dike, the wind gets lower there and I can gain some momentum. But as soon as the wind grows stronger I get slow again. Damn, I deserved this, why do I do things like this in my age :) After all the ex-cyclist experience helps a bit: head down and push it, the road will end sometime. At one moment an older, lean man overtakes me with a young girl behind him, I pull up to them to travel in their draft a bit. After some kilometers comes a refreshment station and I almost fall on the water splashes, then comes a bit of rough asphalt and I am dropped again :(

But by then I can see the first bridge across above me and from that I know the finish is getting closer (it is the finish getting closer to me, not me approaching the finish...). I roll below 2 bridges then down to the park and I am facing the next climb 270 degrees to the left, up to the Old Bridge. Here I perform another Oscar-winning death-scene but can gain a bit of speed on the bridge itself. I know I know there is only one obstacle left, a tram line across the route when dropping down from the bridge. I solve that without any problem, last straight and I roll to the finish at last.

Total KO. I planned to get below 1 hour but managed to skate 1:13. Let's forget this fast!

I roll back to the main square, the cheerleader girls caress me (almost), I receive a nice medallion and free chocolate & refreshment.

There is one positive thing though - when we start driving home after some walk and lazy time, the main part of marathon runners are still running :)

A very late early-2010 post

Well it's time to update my own sport-related things. I haven't done a decent yearly sum-up of 2009, nor a pre-season expectations post and now that Bratislava inline race is here to come I really should do something like that...

Sum-up 2009

(I'm skipping this for I'm lazy)

Expectations for 2010

Race calendar

The track racing calendar in Hungary is still only a plan, no firm dates are set. Those signed red are Cup races so if one wants to get a medal at the end of the year in overall, he/she should attend most of them - or skip as few as possible. Then there is the LifeInLine.cz series, particularly the stages in Slovakia, that would mean 3 half-marathon races this year (Prievidza, Michalovce/Trebisov and Poprad). Add Bratislava HM late March which is out of the series this year for reasons unknown to me. Maybe Kosice HM in October? I've also found race schedules for the Croatian Inline Cup series of which Slavonski Brod is quite close to our hometown. And then there is the Austrian Inline Cup that has 3-4 races quite close to the Hungarian border.

Races to attend

So that is the menu to choose from. Now what do I want? I'd like to skate as many HMs as possible, given the usual restrictions of time & money. And of course I'd like to race as many Hungarian Cup races as possible. This one is tricky, as it closely matches Peter's races up until mid-July where those team members wanting to skate shorttrack during the winter will have to decide if they follow the Cup races or begin getting ready for ice - and he is one of the latter group for sure. That means it is quite unsure if we will attend the track races in the second half of the year at all.

Goals for 2010

For the half-marathons one goal is set: improve my times. I wanted to buy a real speed skate but am lacking the financials nowdays for that, so it means I'll have to stick with my 'old' skates with 84mm wheels.  I'd be glad with *any* improvement but secretly look at 5-10% of time cut.

The 'But' section

Yes, there is always at least one 'but' section in planning. I've been able to skate only 14kms this year so far. That is... very low. And due to bad weather and various illness-like situations I've been able to run only 2/3rd of the amount I had done until the end of March last year. That is... very bad. So I don't seem to be set up for Bratislava correctly this year, however as I'm no professional who cares if I score a bad time? (Only me.)

Spring is here, jolly-ho... (that was the positive message of the post)

ST Junior Championships, 2010

Junior Championships - the race we've set to reach the goals for this season. Coach TT had 5 hard months behind him and a lot of technical aspects where he found our kids were lacking. But he told us in November that by February they will post remarkably better results than we hoped for, so we were eager to see.

Uneventful travel to Budapest, lazy afternoon and a 40-minute training on ice was the programme for Friday. Peter looked focused, 'on a mission' in his brand-new bicycle long sleeve shirt. Coach TT was very satisfied with his approach.

Saturday morning they started with the 500m semi-finals and finals. In the semi he started from lane #5 but reached the first turn in position 2 - really caught the gun well and cut his way to the entry point nicely. Then he skated a bit wide track and the guy in 3rd position (TA) almost got up to him but it never happened luckily. Peter has skated a PB, cutting almost 2 seconds from his previous best.

500m semi-final

Then after some rest he raced in the 500m Final A, starting from 5th lane again. Good reaction time again but now he failed to get close to the first buoy on the corner entry, opening a door for others to slip in there and so settling in position 5. In the 3rd corner he was lucky to prevent tipping over the guy falling ahead of him and so moved into #4. He was almost caught in the last lap by TA but managed to finish 4th, improving his personal best again.

500m Final A

When we re-watched the video at home we saw that TA finished with a Kick-Out, ie with skate in the air which should mean a disqualification. It proved important later in the overall results but we did not see it there & then. We all (Peter, we parents and Coach TT) were very happy to see Peter skate the way he did, and with proper speed.

Then came the 222m races: in the quarter-final he started well and defended 1st position for more than a lap, but then lost it on a wide exit in turn 3. No big problem, he qualified as second, posting 3rd best time in the complete field.

222m quarter-final

In the 222m semi he came off of the start line as 2nd and managed to hold that position until the finish. He skated the 3rd best time again, and a fantastic PB, just under 28s. We did not expect him to slip under 28s so we were all very happy with the fact. Interesting though that he made a wide exit error again in the 3rd turn.

222m semi-final

Then came the 222m Final A and Peter came off as 3rd and finished as 3rd, too. He did not have a chance to move forward but again made the same error of wide exits. Still a 3rd place is a 3rd place and those ahead him are 1 year older than him...

222m Final A

The last heat for Saturday was the 333m quarter-final. They are quite tired by then, I really don't understand why the youngest ones have to do the most heats in the first day - but it is usual...  Peter exited the first turn as 2nd and from then on it was a clear run onto the finish. He ran a PB again so it was a very very successful day.

333m quarter-final

As the races finished at about 5PM we had time to gather in a nearby pizzeria for a carb refill :) Although service was a bit lagging the spirits were high and we had a fun evening.

Next morning Peter was getting ready to skate the 333m semi-finals when he slipped during the warm-up sprints and smashed his face quite a bit. All this happened in the worst moment, about 10 minutes before he was due to skate. To our luck the Zamboni went wrong and produced some awful quality ice and we had a 30-minute delay in the program. We tried everything to help Peter forget about his aching nose and forehead and re-focus him on racing but we were only half-way successful with that.

He entered the rink still upset and that could be seen easily on his performance in the semi. He did a false start and then failed to do a good one. He came off 3rd and while tried to stay in touch for 2nd place he later missed it by skating wide, far from the corners. This made room for the 4th guy, JP to advance and so Peter has finished this heat 4th. That meant Final B - but seriously, who could blame him knowing the circumstances? And he skated only 0.3s slower than the previous day, so it wasn't a bad effort at all.

333m semi-final

In the Final B he was in 2nd place for most of the race and when the guy ahead fell in the last lap, Peter had to fight off an attack from JP in the last turn from the inside. He was tough hard but still clear of fouls and grabbed 1st place - 5th on this distance.

333m Final B

Only one race was left - the SuperFinal, in an unusual distance: 666m. By then Peter was quite tired and he really did not show his best form. He was skating in 4th place with TA behind him when 2 guys ahead of him fell and they were suddenly fighting for 2nd place - in the last turn TA managed to do an inside pass and won by a blade's length - that is 40 cm. With this unexpected result TA and Peter had the exact same amount of points but as TA has been better on the last distance that meant he became 3rd overall, while Peter had to resort to 4th. Detailed results here.

All in all Peter has managed to skate personal bests in all his distances so we are happy with that. Later, re-watching the videos we could see many technical aspects that can be improved but it will be the subject of the whole year ahead. Coach TT was very much satisfied with Peter's performance and now is planning all the mid-year work to make Peter compete for gold in the next season.

(This photo was shot in Spisska Nova Ves

but still it shows the relation between racer and the coach so well)