Spring and summer, 2011

Well I did not write too much about Peter's training during the spring or the summer... I'll try to recap a bit now:

There was a slight rest after the last race (Celje, Slovenia, end of March), then came training on inline skates (the ice rink in Szeged closes by April). Long steady distances and lots and lots of technique. Although there were 3 inline races in the spring-summer interval that our club wanted to attend, but none of them were given top priority. Luckily enough, 2 races were held here locally, so we didn't even have to travel at all :)

The first race, the student's olympic brought only fair success. I know, we did not prepare much for it, but in several cases our girls or boys missed the podium only by a narrow margin. It was very disappointing but we must learn to get over it, like some bonze in meditation, because the kids had a long and tiring shorttrack racing season behind them. Peter came in 4th both on his distances, and it was clearly visible that he got unused to the harsh and violent races in inlines, like getting a push or knock at the start... instant penalty in shorttrack...

Early June our club was given the opportunity to show off skating in a big multi-sport festival in Szeged, where several thousand people could see and several hundred could even try out skating (on inlines). Well we tried, but it was quite hard to promote ice skating in 30+ Celsius... :)

We were on holidays in the second half of June, in turn the second local race was held in that time. So I cannot even tell much about that - but the sea is nice and good :) Only 1 week after we've gotten home, there was an Europe-Cup race in Tatabánya, but it would have been useless to race there after 2 weeks of lack of training.

Mid-July the kids attended a dryland training camp in Budapest-Normafa for one week, just like in the previous year. It was brutally hot then, Peter fell every 2nd day and earned war scars during the forest runs, so he did suffer this time. :( Then came 1 week of well-earned rest and again a period of 5 trainings per week.

We've managed to travel to hols again early August for a week, then Peter attended a 5-day training camp on ice in Budapest. From this point inlines were forgotten, just to not mix the two different skating styles. At the end of August, yet again 2 days on ice in Budapest, only to make school start easier :D

September was very tense and intense: 5 dryland trainings each week with running, working on stairs, imitation, cord-assisted imitation... and on 2 weekends head to Budapest, the ice rink, 2 ice sessions in 2 days. This is how we've reached the end of the month and today, when we start and drive to Zagreb, Croatia for our first race of the season.

Bont Jet review

Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Almaty, Cologne, Paris, Budapest, Szeged - that is a 7250-mile trip that my new Bont Jet 2010 (3pt 100mm) has travelled. But it has finally arrived in 5 days!
Upon receiving I opened the box like a kid opens a Christmas gift. The boots, frames, wheels, bearings were all separated, there was a wrench included, too. Yohooo, Lego! :) Oh and a small gift, a wrapper for a soft drink plastic bottle that helps it make cool. Cool :)
It was fun to put all the parts together but when I put the boots on I quickly realized that they needed some melting before first use. Another strange thing I've noticed was the opening of the boot was quite narrow so putting my feet in them was not easy at all.
I was excited to put the boots in the oven. I have to admit I was also a bit nervous as I have never done such a thing before. I was a little bit worried not to overheat the boots so I kept on checking them every 3 or 4 minutes. After 20-22 minutes I decided to put them on. The next challenge was to stand in low position for quite some time. Nevertheless a chair in front of me helped to stay low for long enough but still it was almost a good static thigh-workout :)
I put the frames on again, in a neutral position and took the skates on a ride. However my first test session was plagued by my injury I have suffered the previous week when I fell on gravel. That's caused big pain in my os sanctum and it still made it hard to push my right leg properly to the side. However I simply couldn't wait and so I managed to skate about 2 miles. The test was good enough to make me sure that I had to melt the boots again. My main problem was in my left foot around my navicular bone that sticks out a little bit more than normal - due to my mid-serious flat foot. This time I've tried to put more pressure on the inner side of my feet to make more space for that bone.
The next test drive was much more enjoyable. Although the boot still annoyed my navicular bone - it went away after 5 minutes, I think mostly because I tried to skate as much on the outer edge as I could.
Generally I feel this is a brutally good piece of hardware. Due to the 3-point styling the centre of gravity remains very low. I was worried of the 84mm->100mm change beforehand, but it was literally impossible to tell the difference, as the skates are so stable, not wobbling, not showing any kind of shakiness! The length of the frame makes me go back and re-learn skating, but as this was the shortest frame, I should try to skate better :)
Now I am after the 4th melting already, I've put a small foot arch support in the left boot. I've cut off the toe- and the heel part of it, so it should affect only the (missing) arch of my foot, without lifting my foot in other areas. I still feel that damn navicular bone after longer skating sessions, but I am a little bit at a loss what I should do. Maybe I'll try to heat only that area with a hair-dryer and then push that certain point out some more.
Oh and due to my imperfect technique I've already rubbed off the nice white leather on the inner sides of the boots, so there are smudged red and black stains on it now. Well I did not buy them to be put on a show in a museum, but to use them instead. I've put 400 km in them already and I enjoy it quite a lot!

4th. Tour de Tisza-tó

57km skate around the Tisza lake again. Last year it was almost fun.

Starting from Szeged at 06:30, we've arrived at Tiszafüred at 09:30. Registration, change to race dress.
This time organizers have provided a bus to transfer us from the finish area to the skaters' startline, about 5 miles away, near Poroszló, and they've even taken our shoes back to the finish so we did not have to paddle around in socks :) This worked great - almost, as it wasn't that great to stand there with skates laced tight from 11:00 to 11:30, feet getting numb. The bikers field stretched very long, we could have started after the first 10 minutes and not wait for all the young kids on bikes, cycling slowly...

We skaters were many more compared to last year, all in all 28 according to the results list. After the start I've started at 90% pace, not too exhausting, leaving time to get warmed up properly. I was surprised to see that Raimo & co. did not get away at all, so I jumped up to them with a little sprint and travelled with them in the following 7km. There was a light rearwind, the 6 'experienced' worked together flawlessly, changing lead from time to time, and we 2 with KP enjoyed the ride at the tail of the queue. I glanced back but there was no-one in sight - uh-oh, SSz, FZ, where did you drop??? At the 50km sign MZ left the queue (she was complaining already at the start about being ill the last few days) and we 3 got dropped a bit consequently. I thought we would group together and work on but this did not work, so I was left alone. The lead group was gone, thinking about it now I should have stayed with them longer :(

Alone

I was skating alone and started to feel warmed up now, then I caught a biker guy and we had a little talk - he told me we were doing 26km/h. This seemed OK, we even had some faster straights here and there. We caught & left a lot of bikers until we got to the dam near Kisköre. The refresh there was a bit quirky, as I did not brake at all passing the mass of cyclists having some water there, but luckily everyone jumped away :) I suffered a bit goind up to the dam, looking back I saw KP about 300m behind me. Going down from the dam the concrete is useless, I had to flounder in the dust on the edge of the concrete.

On the next few kilometres I did not find my tempo at all, so KP caught me with a friend of her on a bike. Then came the horror, Abádszalók. The asphalt there is so awkward that it is almost an art...  by the end of that 1.5km my butts were in a cramp... but then it ended at last, I couldn't even see KP ahead. And what did follow? Turn North, right into the headwind, that got strong enough by then. Although the speaker at the start was quite happy with the weather and the lack of wind, I've checked the meteo after the finish and it showed 22km/h wind from NNE.

The last two experience was too much together - the bad asphalt and the headwind. But as the bike field was huge, I could find a biker easily to travel behind him and have some rest. In fact I had a 12km rest there... Meanwhile I followed a strict diet of glucose every 15mins and cyclist CH gels every 45mins, but during this rest my water got low. So I was eager to reach the 2nd refreshment station where I could drink some water and also fill some in my bottle. I started towards the finish quickly then, this time together with KP and her biker mate.

About 15km to go

The last CH gel however made me feel almost high. At the 5km sign I've almost attacked but kept myself back. But at the 4km post a pair of bikers came in with good tempo so I've launched a small sprint and chased them down, leaving KP behind. We've reached Tiszafüred soon and I stayed with them until the last zig-zag. I've tried to push a bit solo (you know, a good finish photo...) but the bad asphalt shaked my brain like a mixer... I've finished with 2:40:55.

I wasn't as worn off as last year. I've taken off my gear, picked up my finish pack, went down to the podium area, phoned home and then saw SSz finishing. After the podium ceremony and some loiter got in the car and drove home. By 6PM I was already home, we even had time to attend the astronomy day observation night with the fam to check the Moon and the Saturn.

Next day I had some muscle strain in my butt but nothing serious. Thinking hindsight:
- should have travelled with Raimo's group longer
- after the Kisköre dam I should have picked up tempo quicker
- got to do something with the awful asphalt near Abádszalók - either in technique or in my head, dunno
- the K2 belt I wore wasn't really good, it didn't feel comfortable putting my hand on my back
- the new Bont Jet skates worked great, but after 2/3 distance I began to feel the muscles holding my ankle getting tired, causing some form degrade. Got to work on that endurance.

I was expecting a finish time of circa 2:30 but the headwind made it worse. I am a bit frustated for this, the mistakes listed above should be eliminated and then I can make it, for sure. Next year :)

Results

GPX of the route

Jet-ways

You sure remember when I've melted seeing the new Bont Cheetah skates, right?
Well time has passed since then and now I can report I've ordered a pair of Bont 2010 Jets for myself. 100mm, AL frame, 3 pt.
I am very excited about it, checking the FedEx status several times a day. The pack has been to China, to Kazakhstan and now is in Cologne...

Santa Claus Cup 2010, Budapest

This event is one of the main highlights in the Hungarian race calendar usually. Last year Peter fell ill just on the eve before the races, so we missed out completely then. This year we had high expectations and I think they've mostly fulfilled.

The program started with the longest distance, 500m for Peter. There were 8 racers alltogether, divided into two semifinals. Peter started well in his race and traveled quite comfortably behind TA for most of the distance, advancing to the A Final easily. His time was 58:500~ish but it was declared NOTIME for some techical difficulties.

500m semifinal

Then in the final his start wasn't as good as usual and he quickly found himself in position #3. He was clearly faster then KA right ahead him but he missed at least 2 occasions for taking over. Instead Peter kept on trying an inner pass but quite late, into the turn - that resulted in some close-combat action and while he managed to skate a new PB of 57:557 he was DQ-d later for impeding. Yes, disqualifed, no P(enalty) - why? I thought the new rules apply...
Anyway he has to learn this aspect of racing, too. Referees, decisions, points of view...
Coach TT helped him get through this mental shock (first DQ in his life) and analyze what went wrong - and to concentrate on the next distance.

500m Final A

The 222m seems to fit Peter this year very much - nice quick start and 2 laps of full power. He came 2nd in the semi again with a not-so-good start.

222m semifinal

Then in the A Final he fought off a takeover try from SzÁ for position 2, grabbing 21 points in the end.

222m Final A

As the closing event of the day Peter joined 2 beginners to form an ad-hoc relay team. The original plan was that each of them skates 2 laps and relays then. However being beginner doesn't help in relays, so poor 2nd guy fell 3 times from 4. All 3 times Peter was there in a wink and relayed him and zoomed off to cover 2 laps quickly. But this resulted that he had to do 10 laps compared to the 6 planned. And a closing twist of life, the race officials ordered the re-run of the whole relays for some technical problems. But luckily it was postponed until the next day.

On Sunday Peter started with the 333m semi-final, where he showed quite a good start. But then he didn't have a good transition speeding up in the first turn and that left a good choice for SzÁ to take him over. From then on it was a nice combat, Peter looking for takeover opportunities but never really finding a good one. He almost managed to finish an attempt in the last lap but it didn't come true. No problem, he got in the A Final again.

333m semifinal

In the final he started strong from lane 3 and entered the first turn in 2nd position, right after TA. He was very close to TA but missed a crossover in the 4th turn. So he found himself 3 meters behind immediately and SzÁ was coming close dangerously from behind. But Peter did not give up and pushed a bit harder again in the straight, leaving no chance for SzÁ for an attack. So he finished 2nd again.

333m Final A

In the overall he gained 42 points and so finished 3rd, only 5 ponts behind SzÁ. It is a very good result IMHO given the fact he missed out on points on one distance completely, due to the DQ.

His skating looked good and he showed good form throughout the weekend. Official results here.