A' rolling: kilo & skates

Spring and summer, 2011

2011-09-30T01:56:00.000+02:00

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

2011-06-08T10:33:00.002+02:00

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

2011-05-11T13:15:00.000+02:00

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

2011-04-16T00:34:00.000+02:00

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

2011-01-05T23:36:00.000+01:00

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.

Frustrated

2010-11-26T10:00:00.002+01:00

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

2010-11-23T11:35:00.000+01:00

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?

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.

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

PS:

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

Shiny new boots

2010-11-12T13:19:00.003+01:00

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

2010-11-08T22:47:00.001+01:00

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

2010-11-02T11:13:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-15T13:31:00.001+02:00

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

2010-09-07T12:57:00.001+02:00

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

2010-08-17T00:55:00.001+02:00

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

2010-06-26T23:29:00.001+02:00

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

2010-06-19T13:52:00.000+02:00

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

2010-06-12T08:36:00.002+02:00

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

2010-06-02T23:02:00.000+02:00

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

2010-05-27T14:41:00.000+02:00

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

2010-05-20T14:04:00.000+02:00

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

2010-05-17T01:43:00.000+02:00

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

2010-05-07T00:25:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-26T11:44:00.000+02:00

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?

2010-04-20T13:23:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-07T11:01:00.000+02:00

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

2010-03-23T13:52:00.000+01:00

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

2010-03-09T14:23:00.000+01:00

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)

Kalokagatia 2010 - Spišská Nová Ves

2010-02-22T12:04:00.002+01:00

Coach TT told the team there was a competition in nearby Slovakia we should visit, for the ice is very fast there. It was quite unclear until the last days if the younger skaters (cat E, F) could attend it but it all turned out fine. Kalokagatia is some kind of a mini winter Olympics for kids, with races in 6 sports. It was based in Spišská Nová Ves, which is a little town in the Eastern region of Slovakia. The town itself lays on both sides of river Hornad and has a beautiful, lens-shaped main square with a pretty church on one end, but the outer districts are quite grey concrete block houses.

We set off from Szeged at around 07:00 and had 530 kms to cover, which went quite uneventfully. Two cars, 6 kids, 4 adults- 'thankfully' also in our car was SzP, a 10-year old telltale who kept on talking for the whole trip, expect for 20 minutes when she fell asleep. In fact it was better to have a trip loaded with laughter than driving in total silence...

We arrived at around 14:00 and found the hotel after some hassle, with the help of a friendly local guy. We stayed at Hotel Preveza, a 2-star but very cosy and tidy hotel situated on the banks of the river Hornad, quite close to the city centre and lots of sports facilities, and it also has a 25m swimming pool. I definitely would rate the hotel one star more, for its tidiness and enormous sized dishes for lunch and dinner.

The first day also saw races - after all, that's what we went for... The Zimny Stadion looks good inside but it is COLD!!! After the technical meeting at 17:00 there was some time to train on the ice, before the races started at 18:00. The races were held with cat E+F racing together, also cat C+D together, but ranking was done separately. Peter started with the 500m as usual. The ice was really fast and he visibly had difficulties negotiating the turns that fast. However the biggest problem he had was overtaking a guy. When at last he managed to do that he was quite tired already and lost a position in the last turn so that meant he did not get in the Final A. Damn... it was so close :( In the Final B he moved much better and relaxed, but still fighting the turns because of the higher speed.
Then came the 222m where he qualified for the Final A having fastest 3rd time. In the final he was the only F cat racer (all 4 others were cat E) so he finished 5th but skated well. Our other racers were about 50% successful, CD was also skating well, grabbing 2nd-3rd places while the others usually got in Final B.

It was quite late when we got back to the hotel, ate the huge dish, had a shower and went to sleep. The next morning Coach TT went to ski some with his friend (coach for the team from Budapest) while we had some lazy hours with the kids. By noon Coach TT got back all tired and we had a video analysis of the races so far - but only after having another huge dish :) I think it was quite useful for the kids to watch themselves in the videos, and also hearing the coach's comments about their pros and cons.

The second day saw the races start at 15:00. Peter had the 333m, where in the semifinal he spoiled all but one turns - that meant he went into Final B, where he raced well and won it. He also improved his best time on this distance \o/. He also was ranked 6th best (4 cat E and 1 cat F was above him in the ranking) and that made him able to enter the superfinal 500m. He finished 6th there, again spoiling some turns - nice ground to improve further... Our other team-members were running as previously, CD got hold of a 2nd position overall, just like Peter. The event finished at about 17:30 as there were no relays.

The awards ceremony was back in the hotel and so we've collected 2 nice silver medals (I mean, they are really nice ones). And - guess what - another huge dish awaited us, which posed some difficulties for us as we've already had pizza on the main square - you know, the obligatory post-race pizza or hamburger :)

In the evening Coach TT again held video analysis. I really hope these occasions plant some urge in these kids to get better...

After another night and a huge breakfast, we dig our cars out of the snow and headed back home, this time we chose a shorter, but more mountainous road that was quite nice and also pretty cleaned up. We arrived home quite early, by 15:00 or so.

To sum it up, as Coach TT told us, the ice was very fast and it made our kids error-prone. So I hope they've learned from it and will fight to learn more. And if there is a similar event the next year, I definitely will vote to come back, as it was a nice, well-organized and friendly event.

Two galleries to surf some pictures: CR and FGy.

8th Tisza Cup, Olympic Hopes Hungarian Open Szeged, 2010

2010-01-26T11:25:00.000+01:00

The first local shorttrack race we could attend... Peter was ill in the previous 2 years so this was his debut race here 'at home'. There were a lot of kids racing, but the Junior A and Senior fields were almost missing as most of them were already in Dresden training for the European Championships.

Peter started with 500m and unluckily fell in the 3rd turn when trying to overtake a much slower opponent. He stood up quickly but finished in 4th place only and so could not advance to the Final A. In Final B he raced virtually alone winning the heat with 2 seconds, earning overall 7th on this distance. His time was fine but being in a stronger group could have helped for sure.

500m Final B

Later the 222m proved to be the best part of the day. In all 3 heats he started well and fought strongly. He got in the Final B and won that, so he made 5th overall on 222m.

222m Quarterfinal

222m Semifinal

222m Final B

Closing the day he had to skate the 333m quarterfinal where he made a big, stupid mistake. They were only 3 in that heat and he fell again upon overtaking. But this time he stood up very late and from then on he did not skate at 100% only 70... in the last turn the guy in 2nd position fell but Peter was too far behind (skating comfortable...) to grab 2nd position. It was a silly mistake and this has put him in the Final C only. We were quite angry about this but re-watching the race in the evening helped Peter understand how silly this slow skating was. :(

The next day he skated the Final C of 333m where he ran fine but as coach TT told him 'it was a fine one but you also know it should have been in the Final A'. This has put him on 9th place on this distance, so 8th overall. Too bad, only one silly mistake and you are out of top 6...

333m Final C

There wasn't much left but the relays where he were teamed up with NB (first race) and HB. He really did not feel like relaying with HB as he only has bad memories of relays with him. And again it proved true. NB had to do 1 lap, then Peter and HB 2-2 each. HB however skated in front of him after 1.5 laps and from then on it was total chaos. Coach TT was absolutely KO-d and noone seem to understand how a 10-year old boy can not count onto 2... They were DQ-d in the end being lapped twice but it did not bother anyone.

All in all I think it was a good race and if those two falls haven't had happened Peter could have easily finished in top 6, or in top 4 maybe. He had quite good starts and the times he skated are fine and I hope they will get better until late February for the Junior Champs. Full results here.

Santa Claus Cup, Budapest, 2009

2009-12-14T13:12:00.005+01:00

We've awaited this competition a lot to measure Peter's development related to his last races on ice - but it did not happen at all.

We traveled to Budapest on Friday, easy & lazy style, did some shopping and even had time for a quick afternoon nap before getting to the ice rink. There was about 40 minutes of practice time for Peter's age category but he was completely lacking his form. When I asked him what the trouble was he said his throat was sore and breathing was almost painful. However he finished the practice and skated quite nice by the end of it - but things weren't looking good at all.

We told coach TT about his health and he told us Peter must not race if he had fever during the night. And yes, his temperature climbed over 38C at dawn so it was clear he wouldn't skate during the weekend.

We went to the rink though and watched the quarter-finals for his category to 'check his opponents' then headed home - we were home by Saturday noon and could began to cure him. Now it's Monday and he is getting better but antibiotics were needed, too - diagnose is laryngitis.

I am (and he is) very sorry he couldn't race but health is #1 for sure. There will be a competition in Slovakia the upcoming weekend but I don't think it is wise to enter after such an illness. Next meeting is in January, in our home town Szeged.

November 2009

2009-12-01T12:44:00.004+01:00

I started training again in November after the October rest. I run (or better, jog at slow speed) and do plyometrics. Later on I'd like to put in some bike hours, too and some tech drills sessions on skates.

November stats are: 13:55h logged, 8973 kCal burnt in 13 sessions.

Well of course as soon as I've started serious work my lower back opposed and I had a nerve stuck for more than a week. However I tried jogging even in that state but obviously skipped some plyo job...

About plyometrics: I (try to) do the exercises as detailed by Bill Begg under the 'Offskate plyo general preparation' title. You can see them listed below:

-	Plyometric Menu	Time
1.	Jogging slowly for warm up	8 mins
2.	Stretch (static, ballistic)	10 mins
3.	Skipping	2 mins
4.	Continuous jumps	8 times
5.	Press-ups	1 min
6.	Skip jump with tuck, knees up to chest	1 min
7.	Bent knee sit-ups, with alternative twist, no hands behind head, only at side (safety issue)	1 min
8.	Stride jumps, extend legs to back & side	1 min
9.	Back extensions, opposite leg & arm raised for about 2 sec, while lying on stomach	1 min
10.	Hip extensions, no explosive movements (safety issue) 30 sec on each leg	1 min
11.	Burpee's, spring into air at end of each one	1 min
12.	Lateral leg raises, raise & lower steadily, with extended leg, while lying straight, 30 sec each leg	1 min
13.	Skip jumps with squat: 1,2,3 on toes then 4th squat	1 min
14.	Floor & wall touches, don't move feet & twist upper body around to touch wall behind, with the palms of your hands	1 min
15.	Step-ups, 1 foot up & two feet up, before down, do not jump	1 min
16.	Single treadmills (keep back straight, back foot extended & front knee to chest)	1 min
17.	Shuttle sprints, run between marks approx. 20m apart, TOUCH GROUND, then re-accelerate back	1 min
18.	Low walking, with knee to ground	2 mins
19.	Crossbacks	1 min
20.	Stride backs	1 min
21.	Gunthers, dryland skating, maintain motion looping behind & pointing toe in, using full arms	2 mins
22.	Heel taps	1 min
23.	Swing hop 15 meters, 4 x on each leg, if hill available, use that for exercise	-
24.	Bounding on spot, use arms to maintain motion	1 min
25.	Wall sitting, legs at 70 degree & back straight	2 mins
26.	Slow jogging & light static stretching to cool down & check if body is OK	10 mins

1-2-3 are OK, #4 makes me out of breath, then I'm OK till #11 which again is hard on lungs. Then I'm fine until #16 which I found to be a killer. The skate-related section is generally OK but #24 makes my heartrate jump up seriously and #25 is the well known burning-muscle feeling after which you can hardly start jogging...

Peter has 4 trainings a week, 2 times on speedskates, once a dryland and a hockey skate session on Sundays, where they do standard exercises then play football on skates. He could be going to 2 more speedskate trainings but they start at 06:00 on schooldays and we do not want him to be too tired during the day. I think he is too young for that.

His technique is getting better and better each week, though there are some not-so-nice moves with his left arm and his right knee is not as good-looking as the left one. Well, first race is in 2 weeks - we will see...

This weekend the National Short-track Team is training in our town so obviously we will attend some of their training sessions to see 'how the big guns do it'. :)

October 2009

2009-11-10T22:46:00.003+01:00

I decided to do a very serious off-season period in October. I had some issues with my knee joints, shins, lower back muscles etc. and wanted to rest them completely. So I took the whole month off, doing exactly NOTHING sports-related. Well of course weather turned beautiful, best skater weather (sunshine but still just below the 20C mark). But I stood firm against all these weather-sirens luring me to cover some miles on the lone roads :)

Peter trains hard on ice since early October. Coach TT held very specific technical trainings for them during the month, both on ice or dryland. We didn't even had to put on the mats as they were skating so slow they did not need them. As a result Peter is skating so much lower I can hardly believe. His motion is fluid, clear, knees ahead of toes, shoulders straight in turns, hips bent inside the turn, using edges... so good to look at him skating.

Nowdays they are trying some faster laps, but still very moderate tempo. They also practice relays much as that is where some 'easy' medals can be found on competitions.

Turul Cup again

2009-10-12T09:47:00.008+02:00

Quite interestingly the closing competition of 2009 was called Turul Cup again, just like the one held in July. There were some international competitors from Poland, Germany, The Czech and Croatia but the field wasn't as large as it was in the summer.

All the previous years this event has been held in cold, windy, rainy weather in early October, but this time it was sunny at last! Peter was 2 points down from the local GyD on the annual overall so if he could have beat him by two places he could finish in a draw with him. I did not want to tell him much about it so not to put any pressure on him but he was asking about the overall so I had to outline these facts - better tell the truth than not.

Peter had 2 distances and a relay. First it was the shorter distance, 300m and it was the worst 300m he has ever raced so far :( Everything was bad. His start, his skating, his finish. He finished last and truth be told he cried a bit after that, he knew exactly he was completely lacking concentration and everything.

His finish in 7th place meant all of his hopes to catch GyD in overall were fading quickly. However he managed to calm down completely by the start of the 800m, he was like having the pressure off his shoulder and racing for fun. I don't know how this change came but we really tried to not tell any expectations to him before the race so I don't know if it were us doing something wrong or if it was his own mind working this way. Must learn to handle that and face any fears he has of short distances.

Well the 800m race itself went fine, he found a good position behind IT and traveled there until the last lap, where they both caught FB. IT overtook FB easier than Peter did and it made him slow down a bit and I guess this is why he missed 3rd place by an inch or so. GyD came in 5th. I think now (watching the video many times) if Peter could overtake IT before the bell for last lap then he could have a better position to overtake FB, but this is a lesson to be learnt by the videos and not realizing it on the track is no mistake at all.

Here is the finish line - let's be fair with the kids and don't tell them this is a difference of 0.25s... If there is no electronic time measurement then don't try to act like if there was. Simply put the winner's time in the sheets and no time for the finishers, still more fair than claiming such a difference was there. :p

So in this competition Peter finished 5th - no wonder after the fail on 300m, and that has put him in 4th place overall in the national championship in 2009. He could have grabbed 3rd place with some luck - but with a crash in July's race and with such awful short distance performances this is the maximum he could reach now. But his performances on longer distances are very promising for the future!

He entered the relays with IT and FB and after winning their semifinals they finished 2nd in the finals. So he did grab a medal in this race, too :)

I had 2 distances, too, 500m and 1500m. A new competitor, OB joined our small group and he finished 1st ahead of me in the shorter distance. Then IR senior arrived (20 minutes late for the short distance) so it was no question who would win the longer distance. He lapped me and then lapped OB right at the finish line. OB is a tall guy and while I was riding 'comfortably' behind him for some laps, at one point I simply could not match his longer pushes and he gained some advantage easily over me. However I am happy he was there and hope to see him again next year. All in all I finished 3rd this time but was declared the overall amateur champion for this year - but I know it is only because I was present in all competition :)

Bont Cheetah

2009-09-25T10:08:00.002+02:00

I want one...

I want one...

I want one...

Details here.

IV. Dél Csillag Cup, Szeged

2009-09-20T23:55:00.001+02:00

Preface

Peter didn't look like being able to race at all today. He was coughing and breathing hardly so after some warm-up laps we decided to call it a day for him and pull out of the competition. Then the sole fact his classmate/friend turned up to cheer him made a complete turn in his mind. From then on he was focused on the competition and did not care any further how ill in reality he was. Interestingly his symptoms seemed to fade indeed so we agreed he could start. Well of course add a lot of magic, too - calcium, Zyrtec, menthol-eucalyptus cremes, etc.

Gathering for the opening ceremony

In the last competition Peter complained he was afraid for his glasses, so the last day of the summer we went to the doc and asked her about temporary contact lenses for Peter. She told us that day-by-day usage at this age is not recommended as kids do not care enough for hygiene and so can cause a lot of infections for their own eyes when moving the lenses in/out. But we agreed that for selected days, and in a controlled way (ie we adults put the lenses in and take them out) he could use one-day lenses. So we bought some to test it and this weekend was their test. In the morning Aniko could put the lenses on for Peter easily and he enjoyed them very much, and it was also Aniko getting the lenses out in the evening. Peter simply loved the fact he could race without the glasses on and he could return to wearing his 'trademark' sunglasses. He did not complain at all except for 'feeling' them at the end of Day2, which was natural given it was hot, bit windy and the environment quite dusty. I guess it will be even more comfortable when racing on ice.

Enjoying the new flat concrete

He and me agreed he could take an MP3 player to the track with his favorites loaded and use it before or between the races to get 'in mood' - so it was loaded with AC/DC, Metallica, Queen etc powersongs. He looked very professional: skinsuits, skates, helmet, sunglasses, earplugs, drinking Gatorade... Olympics, here we come :D

Opening ceremony

The competition

As I wrote previously they were expected to be 10 or 11 in his age category, but it turned out they were only 7, including Peter. So that meant they did not have to run semifinals but could start with the finals. It helped him a lot, as it meant he had to start in 3 races only, not 6.

His opponents included local guy IT, big opp GyD from TDKE, FP from the Czech, and 3 Romanians: DE, GP and EI. We have already saw FP racing in Tatabánya so we knew he is a strong, long guy, better on long distances, but we knew nothing about the Romanian kids so they were the proverbial dark horse.

Opening ceremony ends

200m

Weather was perfect, calm & sunny, sometimes even a little bit too hot. By the time it was Peter's turn the delay was over 1 hour and it kept increasing with every race.

He had to start with the 200m distance, which he really doesn't like, but by some miracle he had a very nice race. He started quite good (in 4th place) and then he wasn't afraid of some (aggressive) scrum during the 1-lap distance. Then in the final turn he couldn't quite solve the thinking of a Romanian opponent (DE) and instead of overtaking he slowed down a little bit, but then regained speed for the final straight and finished 4th, beaten only by 0.05 seconds. I was very happy with that, as he showed true & strong will and did not fear to fight his opponents like earlier this year. He told us he could have been 3rd if he hawked for the finish but I told him it was better to play safe then injure himself.

400m

Then after some hours his 2nd distance came, about 2 laps. He pulled a bad start, literally starting half a second later then the others. But after one straight he was already overtaking and zooming at a nice speed. Then he found his way across the field very nicely and by the finish line he was 3rd! He really moved on the track like one who has a thorough understanding about what was happening. Very nice, we couldn't stop praising him and he seemed very pleased with that - only the fact he was again just few cms from finishing better annoyed him a bit (this time it was 0.03s)...

500m

That marked the end of Day 1 and we really hoped he would get better for the next day. In fact he did and it was the longest distance waiting for him so he was quite relaxed before the start. He started well and was skating with the field, moving ahead one by one. He was 4th at the start of the last lap, then moved up to third in the turn. There he sat behind his local opponent (and sometimes relay teammate) IT and I saw an attack coming from behind from a Romanian guy. I was afraid he would get locked up in a scissors situation but he stepped out from behind IT at the beginning of the last turn, accelerated with deep carving crossovers and came out of the turn as 2nd and held on to that during the sprint. Once again he showed clever and brave racing, using full force when needed. Sadly I missed pushing the Rec button (was too nervous I guess) so can not show the video. I am really angry with that, this race was so good to watch :(((

So he earned a 4th, a 3rd and a 2nd place and that put him on the 3rd place overall. Not a bad finish when you think about pulling out of the competition, right? :)

Podium photos

Relays

Coach E asked me if Peter could do the relays with HB, a teammate in age category D. It was a 15-lap relay and we knew beforehand they cannot even qualify for the finals against 3-men full D cat. teams - but no problem, let's play practice then. HB is usually a good starter but burns off after 1 lap - and this was proved once again with the twist that he had an awful start and was last by the first turn. Then they were doing 2-2 laps each, Peter doing the remaining finish lap. HB showed great fluctuations on his laptimes while Peter was more consistent, but truth be told he was completely out of fuel on his last 2-lapper. But when he started the finish lap he found some energy somewhere (I'm still puzzled where) and produced a rocking finish, almost overtaking the team ahead.

He was completely KO after that lap, he couldn't talk or move normally for long long minutes only grasp for air. He really gave in all and produced 110%. After all, he was racing 10-11 year old ones while he is only 8.
As a matter of fact if he was relaying with IT in age category E as in the Savaria Cup they could have grabbed a gold - but this was 'team order' so nothing to do, think or say against that.

Cheerleaders...

I had 2 distances among the senior amateurs on Saturday, and when I say senior it means 14+... We were 3 women and 5 men at the start, only 1 older than me. However I managed to overtake some younger ones on the shorter distance (800m) and finished 4th (3rd between men). In the 1000m I decided to rest a bit behind a tall guy who kept on looking backwards to check when I'd attack - I guess he did not know I was a bike racer :) So I made 3 false attacks to scare him and when he thought the 3rd was over and relaxed for a second I overtook him easily. Then I reached up to a female racer and passed her and then it was over. The time was not the best because I was having fun and playing with that guy but no problem - I have plenty of time to reach PBs :D

In overall I earned a bronze and the guys ahead were junior age so nothing shameful.

Seniors?

Organizers

The races' order was published only after the technical meeting, not beforehand. And there were big & numerous delays. I don't really know why does it take 20 minutes for the main referee and the coaches to re-assure that 110mm wheels are not allowed below a given age, as it is clearly stated in the rulebook and the referee has sent each coach an email about it a week before.

As the delays summed up, it was clear the first day won't be finished properly. The last amateur races were held at 18:00 while the amateur award ceremonies were scheduled to 16:30... so they had to move several pro heats to Day 2.

I understand electronics can play strange games when you want to use them to clock the events but still it was not to blame for the bigger part of delays. There was literally no pre-heat call for the racers and we had to wait long minutes between each race to let enough time for them to gather at the starting line.

By the end of Day2 everyone was very exhausted - this is what long waiting does to humans. And I don't even want to think about at what time poor Polish or Czech kids managed to get home...

Waiting

The meet had a 'star' competing on Sunday, Daniel Zschätzsch from Germany. He raced the real-Berlin-Marathon on Saturday and traveled quite a bit to get here. He entered the race on the 10k elimination and showed great form and tactical expertise - racing on an unknown track against unknow opponents is tough. It was good to see an international-level skater racing.

Sum-up

After all it was a good race for Peter as he proved himself he can be a dangerous foe for anyone in the national cup, even when being ill, and that self-confidence is very much needed. And he showed very clever racing, something that is hard to gain and learn. So I think it was a good preparation for the last turn of the cup in Tatabánya, in 2 weeks.

Track development / Pre-race

2009-09-17T23:53:00.003+02:00

Out local skate track has a new inner section built now, a center part of nice flat concrete. It's about 11m wide and joins the track at the middle points of both straights. Quite practical for kids & newcomers lessons.

This weekend there will be a 2-day inline speedskating race meet here in Szeged. Peter is facing an international field of 10 racers in his age category, from Hungary, the Czech and Romania. Too bad the distances are quite short for his liking, the longest one being only 500m (and *maybe* a relay). The races do not count in the national championships so that makes it a perfect occasion to practice some race tactics.

However right now he is fighting sore throat, too. I just hope he can get over that tomorrow so he can attend the races. It would be a pity to miss them, as they are local so no travel is needed... :s

Ah and I will also race, beware everyone around :D

Savaria Cup 2009

2009-09-07T01:00:00.005+02:00

The weeks before our holiday started was marked by coach E traveling to Belgium for the European Championships, escorting our club's only competitor there. That left the kids without coach for a few days, but then coach TT came around and held superior sessions.
TT was in the national shorttrack team until lately and so payed much attention to proper technique, especially body (shoulder-hip-knee-toe) position, weight transfers and agility trainings. On Monday and Wednesday trainings he taught the kids to slow down extremely and pay maximal attention to proper practice; he also tried to teach them the importance of stretching after trainings (this one is never done in great detail with coach E sadly). Then on Friday hell broke loose and he pulled out such a killer interval training the kids were half dead after 30 minutes :)
Sadly (?) we were able to attend only 1 1/2 weeks of this as our holiday started, this left Peter quite sad as he really loved coach TT's practices.

(Time warp, skipping non-skating holiday)

So race day came and there we were, no practice for more than 2 weeks - proper pre-race taper, right? :) It turned out literally no-one from our club came to the race, only two sisters, TM (age cat E) and TA (age cat D) and their parents. We were 3 racers and a true amateur (me), wow... what a big team :s No coach even...
Szombathely still lacks a skater oval so the race was held on the well-known double handball court. That poses quite some difficulties when you want to takeover, with its non-elevated turns and very short straights. Weather was fine, meteos guessed it right this time, they only warned of rain later in the day (and in fact it was only about 5pm when it started to rain and the race was already over by then). Organisers seemed to keep up with their proposed schedule (we've started at 10:00 and finished by 16:00) and there was a fantastic speaker (a local coach) who admittedly spent the previous night in the Wine Street of the Savaria Festival so he was in high spirits still :)

Peter had 2 distances to race, 2 laps and 3, about 300 and 500 metres. His first start was *****. He started, then stood up, then almost made a stop and then started again. Later he told us he was afraid the guy next to him would hit his glasses off. Well that may be true but anyway he shouldn't stand so close to his opponents at all. On other occasions he pays attention to this, now he did not :( Anyway, from then on the race was gone, he finished 5th:

Then on the longer distance, he started better but again let others in at the first turn. Then he was apparently faster than the two guys ahead but couldn't advance. I don't blame him, he was too nervous about the fact he did not train for more than 2 weeks at all. I only hope that when we watch these videos he learns from them and uses this knowledge in the future.

So in overall he finished 5th, that makes it quite hard now in the annual championship to earn podium. I must invent something for him for the upcoming 2 race weekends.
In the relays he teamed up with IT from the other Szeged-based club, Tornado. Peter was the finishing man, the scheme they followed was 1Lap (IT) - 2L (Peter) - 2L (IT) - 1L (Peter). They performed perfectly and came in 2nd, behind the very strong team of Jászberény. Silver medal earned at last!

About myself: I've had 500m and 1500m races, no real opponents this time but only younger ones and one female (BA from Tatabánya). So I knew beforehand I *could* earn gold :) 500m was terrible, quality about 2 on a 10 scale, while the longer one was about level 5 then. In fact the latter came too early, I wasn't paying much attention to the programme and just had lunch about 10 minutes before the start. Not the best idea at all :)

Down down down

2009-09-07T00:43:00.003+02:00

Negative thoughts below... be warned.

I am lacking training mileage this year. I am seriously down on schedule. I've even run more than I've skated :(
What has gone wrong? Busy weekends not allowing 2-3 hours of training? Financials not good for travelling to races?
Maybe the fact I can go & run some laps in the night in total darkness gives a hint why I've run more than skated. I wonder if I could do that on skates with a strong headlight like the ones you can buy for bikes? How do inline skaters in the Svalbards cope with the half-year-long darkness? :)

Speaking of schedule - I've planned to travel to Poprad this weekend for a HM but there was no-one to fill up the car, so it was definitely not worth it then (850 km). Then I've had the Kosice 20km race in my plans, but it conflicts with the last track race of the season. I really hoped to do at least 4 HMs this year, but now it is clear I won't be able to. Why don't we have any road races here in Hungary, just like Slovakia/Czech or Austria has??? The LifeInLine series has 4 races in September only...
That leaves track races to attend - we sure attend them as they are important for Peter. But track racing is not what I like. Too short distances, too many turns, I don't get the feeling of it and it is already finished. The other day I got out to some road practice and while the first 30 minutes were awful it all changed suddenly and the next 40 minutes I felt great. You can not do this on the track...

I've tried to do as many drills session as I could but I feel my technique is still just an inch above zero. I've run many slow kilometres to build up a good physical base. I've done intervals to get up to speed. And still I don't feel any development.
Now soon the cold weather & dark afternoons arrive and what to do then? Last year there was a gym we could use for indoors - about 4 times. Then nothing.

Training l'art pour l'art, without any races in sight is hard.

Whining ends here but I had to let it go.

To Shim or Not to Shim

2009-07-30T00:22:00.003+02:00

I've been thinking about it for quite a while.
My right foot pronates a bit and I've had difficult times correcting it. It just doesn't work as smooth as my left one.
Following Bill Begg's advice I thought - OK I've hesitated quite long, let's give it a try.
I put 2 layers of fine sandpaper between the frame and the boot, on the outside. I only had a 12k-skate since then, but it definitely feels different and I think it helps me find the correct edge now when doing drills (or so I tell to myself).
Is it useful or not? Time will tell. Now I should just put in more miles to find the answer :s
Anyway the ultimate plan is to buy a low-cut boot next Spring and leave these trusty K2s...

Turul Cup 2009 - seniors

2009-07-20T13:31:00.006+02:00

Between the professional races of the Turul Cup we amateurs had the chance to run our races, too. Our age category was entitled 'born 1995 or before' so that meant ZsD (1992) was racing with us, too. All in all we were 6, 3 women plus 3 men - besides ZsD it was IR sr whom we've met in Trebisov lately.

The first distance was 500 m - and I was completely out of form. I moved like Pinocchio without any working joints I think, it's so good there is no video shootings from that run :s The clock showed 1:15 when we finished and I know I can do much much better. Well, let's say it was the unknown track that made me this slow :)

Then after the pros showed us how to skate we had 3.000 m on the program. Well it was shortened to 2.000 m and in this case I was not against it at all. The wind on the backstraight was very strong and gusty. We started, IR and ZsD left us in no time and I was skating between two women, GyD and BA. In the 1st turn of the 3rd lap however I wandered off the track with my left skate, tried to run a bit on the grass but I didn't succeed. So I was fell (my first crash on a race \o/) on my left elbow and left side. I managed to get up quite quickly and came back on the track to finish only a few seconds behind BA. Were it a 3.000 m I would have caught her. I finished at 5:40, 3 laps behind IR and 2 behind ZsD...

While skating I only saw my left thumb bleeding and the left racing number flapping in the wind, and I also felt my elbow was sore. Then the paramedics team (ie Aniko) took care of me and it turned out there was quite a deep and big bruise on my elbow, and a long scratch on my side, besides some road rash on my left hip and the bleeding thumb. I first thought the scratch on the side was caused by the concrete tiles on the side of the asphalt track but no, we realized it was caused by the racing number's safety pin that opened when I fell on it and tattooed my side with some tribal drafts. Yes, now I laugh at it but then I felt sore and yes they were a'burning. The evening shower didn't feel good either :s See the pics on Cor's nice website (he is so much fond of road rash...).
I don't want to play a hero here, I know the pros & kids fall and have bigger and nastier bruises & injuries but I'm not a young fellow any more... The next morning we went to the track with all my fresh bandages - it was damn hard to get in/out the car and driving, too. But of course we had a good laugh with everyone about my fall :)

On Sunday we had 1.000 m to cover and surprisingly I skated much much better than the previous day (so I'll show you photos). Maybe I 'knew' the track by then - bit too close even? :) I started at 5th place and quite slow, as BA managed to gap me about 60-70m.

Then I told myself to get my butt lower and do longer pushes to the sides and soon I started to close the gap.

I got behind her right at the start of the last turn, took a step outside and tried a hard crossover push (did not succeed) but sprinted and won on the finish line.

We came in separated by 0.1 seconds only, at 2:31. While it was not important at all to finish before her, it was a good feeling.

Anyway, I earned pos 3. (from 3...) and a nice hand-made medal. Big smiles, good atmosphere on the podium and before / after it, too - real fun!

Turul Cup 2009

2009-07-15T01:25:00.006+02:00

Only 2 weeks after the Junior Championships we had the 17th Turul Cup in Tatabánya. The competition was also part of the Alpe-Adria Cup and the organizers invited quite some skaters from Germany, the Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria etc. It was a nice touch, at last we did not see the same faces as always.
The event was also the inauguration of the new speedskating track in Tatabánya. The city has been a driving force for the sport for decades now but they have managed to build a track only now - what a shame!

The start was set at noon on Saturday, so we had a lazy wakeup-pack-drive morning. We got to the track at around 11:00 so Peter and I could test it thoroughly. It is so much different from the other tracks in the country! Very smooth asphalt, you feel like you may slip anytime. The curves are banked nicely but the banking goes on for some meters in the straights - quite strange at first but it can be used efficiently if you do an extra crossover exiting the turn, to gain more speed.
Weather was sunny but very windy, full headwind on the back straight. It made holding a constant speed very difficult.

The organizers put up a schedule that showed 500m and 1000m for Peter on Saturday. Despite 10 entries on the list, only 5 contenders showed up in his age category so there was no need to run qualifiers or semifinals. That meant he had hours of waiting ahead. So the 500m qualifiers and semis were run, with amateur races between them (more on that later). At about 15:30 he could go to the meeting point and then race at last.
His 500m started as usual. His start was fine but he let everyone pass him in the first few metres. Then he needed to fight his way back and spent too much time passing the slowest guy. Why why why...

Then after some time the 1000m came. He did fine I think, seems like he knew every moment what was going on and reacted to actions perfectly. He came in 3rd, beating the next one with 0.007 seconds.

Then the organizers said time permitted the relay qualifiers to be held on that day. Peter relayed with a guy from ZKK and HB. When he was to come, he was started way too late by the coach and couldn't get up to speed, and HB - seeing this all - did not slow down enough but skated out of the relay zone. Pffff :(
We got to our 'hostel' and after a quick shower and some meal, we were in bed ASAP and had a good sleep.

The next morning the program started at 9 o'clock, and soon Peter was called to race the 300m - his dreaded distance by now I think. Well, I say dreaded and indeed it turned out to be a real nightmere - he fell in the 2nd turn, in 5th position. He did not get up fast so I rushed to him - he was crying a bit but I could make him stand up and saw no sign of any serious injuries. He could skate to the finish and earned a 'standing ovation' around the track.
Then we took off his clothes but even closer examination did not show any bruises, just two very tiny scars on the right side. I think the T-shirt and the leg warmer under the elastane protected his skin against the typical 'road rash' injury.
So he finished 5th on the 300m and was 2 points behind the 3rd in overall - that meant he should have beat him with 2 positions on the 800m to gain bronze medal.

He started fine this time and followed GyD (the 3rd position holder) closely, keeping him under pressure. They moved to the top of the bunch after 1.5 laps but Peter did not stop there. He went on with the attack and quickly gained a 10m gap after the next turn. GyD seemed exhausted but the two Czech guys realized the danger and started to close the gap. In the final lap, with about 150m to go Peter dropped to 2nd and I saw he was very tired, fighting the headwind along the straight. The other Czech guy overcame him in the sprint - bummer, as GyD came in 4th, so there was no 2 points distance :(

Two laps in the lead were too much - 1.5 would have been ok. On the other hand I think Peter made the good decision attacking there and then. He fought wise and brave, tried everything. All in all he gained 4th place even after a fall!

There was no serious delays in the day programs at last! So kudos for the organizers. The meal was fine, buffet fine, results printed fast - see, it is possible!!!

One thing to note though that 4 distances are too much for kids of this age. IMHO an 300-500-1000m triple would be enough. I don't see much difference between a 800m and a 1000m. But just imagine one kid, 8 or 9 years old, doing qualies, then semis, then finals in 2 distances a day. That can easily mean 6 races, plus the relay qualies - simply too much for them.

His next race is in late August, so now there is some time to refill.

LifeInLine - Trebisov 2009

2009-07-02T00:51:00.007+02:00

After the Junior Championships were finished, we've slept in Jaszbereny, in a very pleasant student hostel (we = Peter, FT, SSz and me). Then next morning we started at about 7AM and drove 200+ km to Trebisov, Slovakia. The NESTLÉ LifeInLine Tour series' next stop was held there (you can use Google Translate to read the site, I use it myself, too. Sometimes you have to switch between Slovak or Czech as the source but it gives quite a good result.). I am quite envious the folks in those countries have a race series like that.

We arived there at about 10:30 so we had quite some time for registration and skating around on the closed roads. The track itself was 3.2km long, a 4 lane avenue, on one end a roundabout, the other end signed with a buoy. The finish area was about in the middle, there was chip timing. The asphalt was quite OK, but there were numerous cracks (all marked with yellow by the organisers), and you had to pass two pedestrian crossings, too, 2 * 5m of clinker blocks.
The town itself is - not pretty. Sorry, but that is the truth. There are concrete block type houses everywhere and you can feel that economy is not strong here only by looking around. But on the positive side, there were lots of trees and people were friendly.

Peter had a 1km race, a bunch start of 19 right at noon. The 7-9 year old girls and boys all raced together but results were given separately. He was a little bit embarrassed first to start in such a 'big' crowd but then I saw he turned more confident by the start. In fact there was some scrum when the gun was shot but he managed well. At the first turn he was 3rd, at the 2nd he was 2nd and finished 4 seconds behind a girl, who started really really well, avoiding the scrum. Anyway, it meant he earned gold in his own category \o/

Then there was a 3km race for 1o-13 year old ones, where FT and a (very strong and talented) guy from TDKE Tatabánya, FP started. They had 2 laps to cover, FT was leading all the way until the last turn where FP rocketed away from behind and won overall. Behind him came a guy and then FT as 3rd and a girl, all within 1 second.

The 5km race I did not see but FP's brother, FM finished 3rd.

Then we had some free time while the kid's ceremonies were held, and then while there was a 10km race. We met IR senior and his son, IR junior and made the sr forget about all the knee problems, sore muscles and enter the half-marathon :) I think he can finish a HM even when asleep so he only needed some kick-in-the-a**.

So off the HM went at 14:30, about 100 starters, in clear and sunny weather, I guess it was about 30C. I started 'fast' only to be able to find me a good group and try to draft in there. Well that was a plan. And nothing goes by the plan... I couldn't hold on to any of the groups, the IR family and FT were well ahead, while SSz was some places behind me.
After the first lap I felt I was goind to die :( It was hot, I had no strength in my legs, I was very tired and had 6 more laps to cover etc etc. Then SSz arrived from behind when 1.5 laps were gone, and I could get behind her and draft there for 2 laps, but lost contact with her after a turn and couldn't get back. So there I was again alone, half of the race still left. I saw IR jr fighting in the lead group and FT sitting comfortably somewhere in the middle of the main pack.
Then - deus ex machina - came EL from behind and I could hold on to him and spent the next 2.5 laps there. Once I tried to overtake him and lead a bit but we both had to realize that won't work. I was simply too weak. In the last half lap I even lost his draft and had to cover the last km alone but I was extremely happy to finish at last. I couldn't even say thank you to him but waved something thankful I think. So EL, here it is: Thank you very very much _o_

Bad news - EL is 65 this year. I was able to draft behind a 65yr old man. Call that a big step forward...
IR jr finished 3rd (36:42), 1st in his age category, IR sr 48th (42:37), FT 52nd (44:14), SSz 93rd (56:48) and me #95 (59:09). In the morning I would have been happy with 59:09, and now, some days gone, I am happy. But there I felt totally worn and eradicated. Results here (zeny - women, musi - men, detky - kids).

Organisers were nice, refreshments were fine and many, atmosphere was warm - everything fine. Except my performance :) Then we had a 450km drive home, went uneventful luckily.

Peter is already telling me we should go to the next stage in September. Well I can understand - what else does a kid need on the podium than a gold medal and 1/2 kg of chocolate? :)

You can find more photos here.

Junior Championships 2009

2009-07-02T00:06:00.009+02:00

Like in previous years, it was held in Jászberény again.

Should I say what was it starting with? Oh yes, I can hear the correct answer - organisation problems! 2 hours delay, quite usual, right?

Peter had 4 distances (300, 400, 500 and 800m) and had to run a qualifier on the shortest one even, as there were 8 starters and only 6 were allowed in the final. In the qualifier he finished with the 4th best time so he could enter the final safely.

300m final - bad start, trying to overtake the significantly slower #4 FB, without success:

400m - a good start, #3 in first turn, then holding the opponents almost to the finish line where his local rival SzT beat him with 40cm:

500m - a bad start again, almost getting in a crash and finishing #5:

800m - bad start, not overtaking when the ones ahead slow down and beaten in the last half lap:

Overall he finished #4, so no podium this time. Could be much much better if the starts were better, but I don't think he could have grabbed the bronze. No problem, he is one year younger than those ahead of him.

Amateur seniors - we were 3 (parents). In the program we saw 500m and 2000m, with a 2400m relay. However, we ran a 600m, then a 400m, and our relay was canceled with 'no time to do it'. Do you agree we should ask for half of our entry fee back? :s
We raced together with cat A and B boys, the official results show them as a separate category each - but the only cat A racer, ZsD was given the gold and I got a silver only, though I was the best man :( How many times do I have to receive a wrong medal???
I finished with 0:58 on the 400m, and 1:29 on the 600m.

Results here.

Interval season

2009-06-17T09:52:00.003+02:00

Summary of the interval sessions:

ran 83.3 kms in 8h04m (13 sessions)
skated 161.3 kms in 10h26m (16 sessions)

18.289 kCalories burnt during the above. I've done intervals like 20 sec on, 40 sec off, repeated 10 times, or 20 sec on, 10 sec off, 6x. I could easily manage to survive them, but I am quite unhappy with the quantity of distances covered during this interval period.

National Student's Championship 2009

2009-06-05T14:20:00.006+02:00

This year's Student's Championship took place in Szombathely.

We decided to travel there one day earlier and stay there for some more time, read about that part in the kilo & fam blog.

Coach E decided not to attend the race, in fact he declared before the regionals that this race is not important at all. I do not agree with him on that, the kids represent their schools and regions in this race, and they can score full marks from teachers. In fact when it was the same race on ice, we were told it was very important. Then what about this one???

The race was to start at 9 o'clock, it started at 11:30 :( By that time the early morning good weather has gone and some enormous storm clouds came from the North. And the wind was high and pushed some very cold air ahead so it generally turned into an ugly, bad weather for racing.

What caused that delay? We will never know... There were difficulties with everything, start numbers, start lists, who came, who did not... aaarrrgh. Same story as ever.

Warmup

So at last the race started, with the amateurs. There were lots of them and as a parent of an oh-so-professional Peter sometimes it is a chore to wait all that time, but on the other hand it is good to see so many kids skating. One thing though - there seem to be 'real' amateurs and 'racing-as-amateur' amateurs, the latter move and race just like any pro. It is quite unfair for the real amateur ones.

When Peter's short distance came, we were well over noon. On the start list hanging near the directors there were 7 listed, he was put on start position #2. Then I saw 9 starters and the referee put him on lane #6. Why oh why??? These things can make him so nervous. Well Peter's start was OK until 20m, when a guy from TDKE decided to cross-skate just right before him, their skates clapped and he almost fell. Somehow he managed to stay on his wheels but dropped from #4 to #8 in a moment. As the distance was quite short (2 laps) and the track is very difficult for takeovers, I was quite happy to see him pass a guy clearly and fight and win over another one on the finish line. That put him in 6th position, which is good if we look at the circumstances, but he was very upset and sad and angry with it. Watch it here.

Then came - waiting again :D It is a pity there is no schedule put up and poor kids cannot be told 'You have 2 hours until the next race, take off your skates, eat something and rest a bit'. Instead they sit there listening to the speaker and guessing when it will be their turn. At some point rain came so we had to sit in the car and wait for the longer distances.

The 'long' one was 3 laps (500m I guess), Peter had a good start but stopped 'running' early and lost positions there. Then he got in turbo mode and skated fast and finished #5.

In the relays he teamed up with 2 guys from the other club in Szeged, Tornado (SzT & FB). He was the starting one and he did fine until he reached the relay zone and found noone there. The 2nd guy, FB then started, very very late and entered the zone, so according to the rules they had to touch eachother for a valid relay. But by that time Peter has already left the zone so it was over, DQ for no relay. I think it was FB's fault, if he sees he is so late he shouldn't enter the relay zone and let Peter go on for another lap. Interestingly Peter and SzT almost cried in frustration, but FB did not, he took off his skate and started eating pizza. I think that shows the approach clearly :(

Peter met with HÁ from KDSE whom he befriended last year, they talked so much during the day. And he made friends with SzT from Tornado, whom he fought so hard in April in Szeged. It is so good to see them this way, they fight during the race and then play and talk together. Sportsmanship practiced early.

The podium ceremony lasted for at least about an hour, in chilling freezing 7-8 C - and then came the mandatory visit to the McDonalds with the very exhausted kids, a quick shower and big sleep :)

X. Cora-run, Szeged

2009-05-26T00:01:00.004+02:00

This last Sunday the 10th Cora run was held in our town.
I've entered the 6.6km race (in an insane moment) and decided to run the 3.3km with Peter as a cool-down.

We've arrived quite late, about 20 minutes before the race start so I immediately went to do some warm-up jogging. Weather was perfect for running, about 20C and cloudy. About 5 minute left and I approached the start line and found a comfortable place for myself in the middle of the crowd. I wanted to start a bit slow and then increase the pace in the 2nd lap, but then after the start I was quite amused to find I was running a good tempo at a heart rate of 97-98% - it was better than my expectations.
On the quay we head a light headwind so I went into 'head down and keep on pushing'-mode, taking care of the HR - if it rised to 99-100% I slowed slightly until it dropped to 97-98% again. Then at the end of the quay on the small uphill I caught up with two guys running side-by-side and it was quite relaxing to follow them for the next kilometer or so. At the end of lap 1 they increased the tempo a bit and I let them go - but I was satisfied with my tempo and overall state. I finished lap 1 (3.3km) in 15:14, that's a pace of 4:37.

300m from finishing lap 1

Then I ran alone for the next km and on the quay I managed to slowly overtake at least 4 runners. I kept on keeping my HR at 98% maximum and planned to do a flat-out last km. However when I had about 1.5km to go my side became stiff and painful and it took me a whole km to get rid of that with deeper breathing and easing up a bit. I was lucky though that those whom I've overtook before did not reach up to me. So the last 500m came and I started my so-called flat-out, however it was not a real sprint just a nice tempo :s The 2nd lap was 15:31 (pace 4:43) mainly due to my last 1.5km sufferings.

50 m to go

All in all I was very happy with my finish time of 30:45, it means I can run a 4:40 pace for half an hour \o/. Slow long distance runs show their strength at last. And take into account that I've only done very few interval trainings so far this year so the tempo should increase further later on.

Then there was about 1 hour left before Peter's run so I had quite some time to recover - I've done some cool-down jogging and thorough stretching. We've met some people from Peter's school or Moira's kindergarten, too.

We warmed up again with Peter and he was eager to find himself a good starting position so he went straight into the crowd early. At last when he stopped we were about 6 rows from the start line. We had to wait for 5 more minutes and then the gun went off.

As usual a lot of people started rushing ahead so I kept on telling him to keep a steady calm pace and not to care about the others. By the end of km 1 we started to take over those early birds and all I felt was it was hard to keep up with him. I've checked the time and saw 5:20 and the alarm started ringing in my head: it would be too fast. I told him to slow down a bit but you may guess how successful I was with that... he kept on running this pace and even increased it further. Then came the 2km right at the end of the quay and he told me he felt tired so we slowed down a (very) little bit. However after 200 metres he increased the tempo again. But nothing goes unpunished, he dropped down again at about km 2.7 so it was again time to slow down a bit. Then just before km 3 I told him to look right for a photo and that there is only 300m left to go - so he made a smiling face for Aniko and then produced such a sprint to the finish line I could not keep up with him :)

Peter just before starting his sprint for finish

I finished about 15 meters behind him but stopped the watch when he crossed the line - it stopped at 17:10! That's a pace of 5:13 / km - remember he is not even 8 yet!!! I was amazed with this, however after drinking a cup of water his first sentence was: Daddy I am veeeery hungry! :D:D:D

Then we went and searched for the girls near the stage, luckily Aniko has bought some scones so he had his CH refill soon. Small things that count for real...

Split

2009-05-20T13:58:00.003+02:00

I've decided to split my earlier posts into different blogs. See kilo & TORCS for TORCS-related ones and kilo & fam for family-related musings.

The naughty left knee

2009-05-04T11:50:00.003+02:00

Last Thursday I've noticed my left kneww was swollen quite a bit. It felt warm, however I did not feel any pain.
I couldn't decide what could have caused this. I've run 8km the eve before but - that is not much at all. Anyway I took some diclofenac before going to work and later, in the evening I've applied some ice to it, raised it during the night and had some more diclofenac.

No sign of getting better Friday, but then I could feel some very mild pain on the outer side of the knee. I've searched the internet for the anatomy and any probable causes and finally decided: I had a lateral collateral ligament injury. What could do that to me? I'm still uncertain & puzzled.
Anyway, I kept on icing and raising it while eating more and more diclofenac. By now it is not swollen anymore, only a very light breeze of pain remains if I push the ligament hard.

Question is: should I enter the upcoming Tour de Tisza-tó? 55 km of skating on the 9th of May. Hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmmm

BTW did you know that European rivers are all polluted with diclofenac? It seems to be the most commonly used drug here nowdays...

Building a base 2

2009-04-28T11:58:00.002+02:00

At the end of the Base 2 period let's make a quick summary:

ran 81.4 kms in 8h12m (10 sessions)
skated 97.4 kms in 5h (11 sessions)

That is significantly lower than I've expected :( However often there are days when I simply do not feel strong enough to go training. I guess it must be some kind of spring fatigue?
Next period is about intervals. Insane...

Dom VSI Cup 2009

2009-04-27T13:20:00.006+02:00

It has come at last, the first inline speedskating event of the year.

I particularly liked the idea entering as it was held here in our town Szeged, so travelling meant exactly a mile to cover :D Sadly enough only the young amateurs were allowed to enter so I did not have the chance to scare the locals with my vast amount of skating knowledge - however it also marked Peter's first race in age category E, those born in 2000 & 2001.

He had 3 distances to cover, namely 1000, 300 (on the 1st day) & 500 metres (2nd day). He was a little bit scared of the 1000m, as he has not raced this distance before. I knew he was strong enough but we knew nothing about the opponents. He was also scared of the fact he had to race with older ones. Both those fears were really baseless.

Our tactic for the 1000m was to ride on the wheels of the leader or 2nd and try to overtake him/them the last lap. He started hanging on to the 2nd guy but quickly recognised he was too slow so he jumped up to the 1st guy, SzT and followed him from then on. However he was not close enough and I guess he couldn't find his draft. Well in the final lap they both started to accelerate and Peter came in 2nd, seemingly not too tired at all. I was very happy to see him do exactly what we've discussed, it showed that he knew exactly what would happen and controlled himself all the way.

1000m

The 300m in the afternoon was a go-go-go kind of racing, and 'as usual' he made a bad start and used quite some time & energy to climb up the ladder, however he was able to get hold of 2nd place finish again. Later he told me the starter did not call out 'Ready' before blowing the whistle and it perplexed him a lot...

300m

Then came the relays but he could not start there not having any mates in the age category. That's just annoying, it means all the season would go like this :(

Next day the 500m was due. Analyzing the 1000m I found his main opponent only started sprinting hearing the bell, so I tried to make Peter surprise him by starting his sprint earlier. I think it will work - another time, as this time Peter had a bad start again, almost let everyone ahead of him and spent the first 300m fighting the rest, so it was clear he won't be able to start a sprint from there. Anyway he finished 2nd again so it was obvious he earned silver this weekend.

500m

We all were happy with this result, a really good start for the season. It showed us Peter is in good form physically and mentally he is able to cope with the older ones. I am sure he will grab a gold sometime later this year.
Weather was perfect, organization was quite OK, the only bad thing was the speaker (a coach) giving instructions to her own team members. Let's give a microphone to all coaches then :D

Vivicittá Run 2009

2009-04-06T23:17:00.004+02:00

Choco after the race

We've done the Vivicittá Run Saturday. There were about 5.000 people running (well, half of them walking after the first few hundred meters...).
I ran with Peter and helped him to start slow, keep a steady pace during the first half and then increase tempo gradually. He ran a 21:24 which is quite OK for a 3.4km run.
He told me later he would like to do it again the autumn. Only 1 of his classmates was there but their proud photo now hangs on the wall of their classroom.

At km 2.5 on the quay

Bratislava

2009-03-30T14:33:00.005+02:00

I've done it!

Arrived to Bratislava, Slovakia at around 7:50 and we walked to the registration, everything went smooth & professional.
Then warmed up a bit and put skates on.

The race started at 09:45, weather was overcast and around 10C, light breeze from south. All in all there were 271 starters and in fact I was a bit overwhelmed by that number. Following the slow start we rolled down about 400m to the quay of river Danube where we stopped, and following the gun started the race for real (map here).
It was here I made my biggest mistake in the race, I positioned myself way too back near the end of the crowd. After the initial 400-500 metres we had to climb up to the bridge 'Novy Most' which proved a bit hard for quite some people and I was able to overtake some. Then some more climb up to the middle of the bridge and from there whoooosh down in straight line onto Panonska Cesta, a 4-line road (2 lines closed). Fighting the small breeze I tried to hop from group to group, but it was quite demanding. My heart rate went up to 99% sometimes so I had to relax a bit drafting.
The road turned eastwards and climbed a bit for an overpass which I found very hard to cope with. Then onto a rough asphalt for 1.5 km and then down south again, following the dam.
This part of the route was shown as 1 km on the race map but proved to be 2.8 :) I could see the leaders racing in the opposite direction, on the top of the dam, and tried to catch glimpse of the others from our club (Szonja, Balázs and Dani) without any success. This section was quite OK, the asphalt was smooth and by now (we are talking about km #9-12) I was feeling OK and perfectly warmed-up. I could lead the group I was in long enough and bring them up to another group ahead.

Then came a short climb and turn back, and we started our way back to the finish. With the turn the breeze now helped us a little bit and it was much much easier to ride with speed. However sometime later my lower back started to signal it would become stiff soon, so I had to stand up and stretch it sometimes.
We were rolling on the bike routes on the dam all the way north back in the city, the road was OK with few hazards but all of them were signed with red paint. I was drafting a lot with #201 (a big thank you goes for Peter Cervinka from Vienna).
At around km #19 it started to rain, first only very slightly but soon enough water gathered to make the roads slippery. Unfortunately it was also the last kilometres that we had to climb up the bridge 'Stary Most', which proved very hard for me on slippery surfaces. I was not able to push long enough to the side and completely lost my speed in the climb. Then on the bridge I suffered to gain some speed again but the dilating elements and the surface errors made it too hard for me to cope with it :s In the last turn, down from the bridge & left, all the organisers showed us to slow down, I guess the turn was quite slippery and the crossing tram lines did not help either. After that it was a 500 m ride up to the gate and the clock stopped at 1:03:03!

I was and still I am very happy and satisfied with this result!!! I earned 155th place between the men (from 200 starting). I now think I could have earned about 2 minutes if I did not make that silly mistake at the start and stay with the rest of the team - but well, next time it will be better :) According to my HRM the first half of the race went harder, HR average was 95%, while it was only 94% during the second part.
Szonja finished 17th in the women's race (47:13), while in the men's race Balázs 133th (59:55, had a small crash), Dani 135th (59:57). Results here, photos I will try to find (Szonja here on Stary Most, #243).

(l-r) Szonja, me, Balázs and Dani

The race itself was very well organized, lots of police and race staff everywhere, chip timing, big screens; and friendly spectators, friendly racers, it was really fun to be there. I really hope to get back here next year.

Bratislava pre-race

2009-03-28T11:16:00.003+01:00

22 hours left before the inline race in Bratislava will get started.

22.5 km to cover. That is a bit more than a half-marathon but I heard it starts with a slow start to lead the pace out of the zigzagging inner streets onto the new bridge (Novy Most) where the race can start for real.
Weather is not looking good. They predict 5-10 C, wind and... rain.
What do I expect? Last year I've done the HM distance in 1:29, now I'd like to finish under 1:10. I know I have the aerobic fitness but I haven't skated for a long time, only 2 short occasions. Hmmm... maybe a bit too courageous? We will see :)
We will get in the car at 03:30, drive along 350kms, run the race and get back home. Sounds like a perfect lazy weekend :)

Building a base 1

2009-03-23T11:06:00.004+01:00

Sometime in October I decided to follow Rob Bell's periodisation tips on Inline Planet to build a more sportsman-like body shape in 2009.
According to those plans I've started a Base1 period at the 1st of February. Due to the weather it mostly consisted of doing running trainings, both outdoors or on the dreadmill. I just simply hate the stationery bikes in the gyms with their awful seats. I think spinner bikes are OK but I definitely do not want to take spinning classes. I should look for a gym where I can use the spinning bike for an hour or more, without a crazy instructor shouting around.
Anyway, Base 1 period ended last Sunday and now I can sum it up:

ran 187 kms in 18h42m (23 sessions)
did 1 indoor skate session

That is not too much :( 24 training sessions in 6 weeks, means I trained every other day. Running was at 6 min/km, that is OK I think, as long as one wants to do long, slow distance trainings.
So I am still undecided if I can call this Base 1 period successful or not. Time will tell.

ST Junior Championships, 2009

2009-03-17T10:58:00.003+01:00

The last race meet for the kids this winter season was held 21-22 February, in Budapest.

Peter was not in a good form before the races. He looked tired, he moved out of sync a lot of times on practices. It may have been the long winter, the day-to-day school work or something else, maybe the touch of flu halving his class, though he did not catch that until lately.

Anyway we 4 + Marci arrived to Budapest quite early on Friday, had much time before the practice. Then next day the races began.
Peter's age category had the most contenders, 14. So it meant he had to run quarterfinals, semifinals and finals at each distance. An it proved a little bit too demanding.
Saturday he had the 400m quarter/semi/final, then the 222m quarter/semi/final, and even the 333m quarters. No wonder he was damn tired by the end of the day.
And interestingly, Sunday he was more impressive. He did not fight the corners at last, got in nice low position, pushed nice long. Where was all of that before? Who knows... Too bad it came only on Sunday, I wish it was a day before that.
He finished 10. on 400m, 11. on 222m and 13. on 333m. Not an impressive result at all, but I keep telling myself he still has 2 years in this age category, so no need to hurry at all.

Detailed results are here and I will post some photos as soon as I get to it...

The moment

2009-02-08T00:29:00.004+01:00

There is a moment in the rink, when the ice resurface ends. The zamboni leaves the ice, the doors are closed, the mats are put back to their place.
Then, just before the referees enter the rink again and blow their whistles to get the racers on ice, to wake up the monster called 'racing crowd' for an un-wanted awakening, just before the rink is starting to get surrounded again by all the excited coaches, racers, parents, helpers and supporters - there is a moment.

The moment when the rink is clean in its virginity. The ice is perfect and smooth and shiny. Plain as plain as it can be, only few patches of water left behind to start to turn into that so much loved and so much hated material we call ice.

That moment is filled with silence.

Those up in the seats look at the boards to see which heat is a'coming, the coaches look at their papers and check their stopwatch; and the racers look at the ice. They look at the ice and see the upcoming moments.
The moments before the start, filled with enourmous anxiety, the seconds after the gun was shot before they reach the first corner.
They see the battle for position, the first straight where they realize the possibilities and threats, the fights they have to fight to gain a position, the 'wars' they are to wage soon.
They hear the clip-clap of the post-start rush, the carving sound of the steel urging to get a grip, the blade cutting the ice firmly in the turns, the smooth sssssssshhhhhh when they negotiate the calmer straights.
And they hear the sound of the blade losing grip, the human falling down, the lycra gliding on the ice and the inevitable whop when one crashes into the mats.
They hear the one beat that parents' heart miss when they see their children crash, the beset moment the distressed moms and dads have to live through until they see if their beloved can stand up.
And they see and hear the moment at the finish line, when everything is over. The seconds when they can stand up again and look down at the ice, glide in free lines not caring about boyes or opponents again. The seconds when they replay what they have done in the seconds they have just left behind and rethink if it was worth it.

All these things are there, in that given moment, filled with silence.

That moment is what I love most on shorttrack competitions. You should try to get a chance to catch that moment someday.

Indexed

2009-02-03T11:18:00.003+01:00

I love thisisindexed.com. Jessica is truly one of the bests of Internet.
Here's a recent one from her, titled Fate = Decisions:

Simply great, isn't it?

Dark gray January

2009-02-03T10:23:00.004+01:00

January. Sportwise it was not the best month.
Peter had a small local race mid-month, where he skated like he learnt skating a month before. After the race he summed it up "I was tired and I did not want to race".
Then he got hit by flu.
Then at the end of the month we entered Pannonia Open ST race in Budapest. 230+ racers from 17 nations, a really big crowd. But for Peter it was one of his worst races.
He started with 500m on Friday, where he almost fell in the 3rd turn and so finished 4th (3 advancing), 3 seconds slower than his best. And overall, you could see he was 'not there'. He lacked concentration, but I told myself it was due to the fact he has just got better after the flu. Anyway, it was quite hard to get him in normal mood again.
Then Saturday, in the 222m he started well, he fought like he usually does - and then fell :( He was crying when he quit the rink but I persuaded him he was doing everything OK, it was just bad luck. And indeed it was.
Sunday, 333m - a good start again but loosing ground in first turn, then he climbed back and reached up to the 3rd position guy, but then when he was looking for the occasion to overtake him, he fell again in the turn.
What can you say after a weekend like this? The next one will be better :)

In school he was flying high though. He brought home his half-year sum-up and it was all excellent. So there is a silver lining...

Thin ice & the lazy days

2009-01-13T11:44:00.007+01:00

The last training session in the year was a free-for-all ice time for the kids, brother/sisters/parents (and pets). So we took our chance and tried ice.

Ice is wicked. Period.

It is slippery and fast. And using hockey skates I spent most of the time preventing falling ahead. I just missed some blade length as I was used to the frame length of my inline.
However Moira enjoyed it and skated quite a lot, Anikó also entered the rink and had fun, mainly laughing at herself trying to get around (she did quite well though but she won't admit that) and Peter was scorching around as usual, this time they played games on ice on hockey blades, too.
In the end we opened some champagne just to realize yet again many many people don't like it at all :)

Aniko holding firm. As if I could stand firm...

The kids, Peter in center in dark blue/black, Moira bit to the right in pink.

Peter and Aniko asleep :D

Ah and the next day coach Endre decided to go to hospital with 6 hours remaining in the year, and used an appendicitis to make it happen. Nice way to spend New Year's Eve, isn't it... :D

It has been unusually cold outside for at least 2 weeks now, in the -10 & -5 range. Though this may sound like a warm spring to some Canadians but we are freezing here. It made me change my training schedule to skip running and use a stationery bike instead in the gym. I just hate the seat :s

Santa Claus Cup, 2008

2008-12-29T21:36:00.008+01:00

So it has arrived, Peter's first real shorttrack race. Santa Claus Cup 2008, Budapest.

And in fact a very proud dad reporting, you may expect a very much biased report here :)
It was a 2-day race, with a warm-up session in the evening prior to the first day, so we had to drive to Budapest early afternoon on Friday, 12th December. Peter enjoyed the evening session quite a bit, he especially liked the quality of ice in the rink.
Saturday morning the race started with the smallest ones, so he had to get on ice quite early, in Heat 3 of 500m. He finished 2nd in his heat so he made it directly into the final, though I was not too much satisfied with his time, he clearly eased up in the last 2 laps, giving away 2 seconds per lap. It is quite uncommon from him but I told myself it must have been the stage fright.
In the finals he finished 6th but no problem, as he was smallest & youngest so grabbing a 6th place from 14 competitors is a very nice achievement.

Then came the heats of 222m and he made it to the semis in a nice way, it was a big fight to claim 2nd but he missed it by 0.2 seconds. In the semis he finished 3rd so went to the B-final and finished 3rd there (7th from 14).
After all these heats and finals he had to do the 333m quarter-final in the evening but again, showing a superb form, got it under his belt coming 2nd.

The next day he was simply - tired. He was lacking concentration and was yawning while I laced up his boots - not the best state of mind to get on ice at all :s But I think I must not blame him for that, he had to fight in 6 stages the previous day and this kind of pressure was quite unknown for him so far - but remember, he is only 7 years old...
He fell in the 333m semi-final so went into the final B, where he met the mats again so finished 3rd there (7th from 14 again).
Then there was only 1 commitment left for him, to cover the starting 1.5 laps in the relays for cat C-D-E boys, so we could start a relay team, otherwise there would have been only 2 boys from the team, missing the criteria of 3 starting... He started (looked bit comic compared to 14-yr-old boys...) and made a nice relay, so he did what he had to do for the team :)
Overall he gained 7th place and everyone finishing ahead of him was significantly older - just click and check out the age of the others on the overall classification list. He ran super times, personal bests in all distances and very promising ones - now I am very very curious about his season-ending times due in March or so.
Generally speaking about the race itself it was very well organized, with a good speaker and nice people all around.

Complete results are here, or you can see them filtered for Cat F boys, too.
I'll try my best uploading videos to YouTube and link them here ASAP.

Transition...

2008-12-11T14:07:00.004+01:00

...to ice was going on since October. In fact, Peter says he likes skating on ice more than on inlines. He managed to adopt well, though many times he is not low enough, but... he is only 7, has quite some time to refine his position skills.
There was a small local race together with another club, a good opportunity to check out race times and gain some experience. Peter - as youngest in his category - finished 2nd (from 5) in 3 heats, and 3rd in one, where he clearly missed overtaking opportunities. But we talked it over and he showed the next heat he can fight.
You may check out the videos on YouTube, in cronological order:
400m 222m 333m 500m
(the camera ran out of memory in the last lap of the 500m but nothing happened there...)
When running alone, against the clock, he is now 6 seconds quicker on 222m than he was in March - we will see next March how he will develop during the winter season.

Santa Cup is going to happen this weekend in Budapest, so, his first real shorttrack test is near :)

... my transition to winter mode is like:

got back to going to the gym 3 times a week
running 4-5 kms 3 times a week
an hour-long indoor training, once a week

I generally refer to these as 'pre-season' - I myself wonder when the base/season would start at all :D:D

Oh almost forgot - convinced Aniko to start skating, so she already had 2 lessons and she says she had fun :)

2008 inline season review

2008-10-17T12:57:00.006+02:00

All the race events of 2008 are over, it's time to make a quick summary.

I've started the season at absolute 0 level. My goal was to learn to skate and gain some racing experience. So we can call this year a development year, starting from scratch.

I've attended:

4 track races
1 half-marathon
1 super-marathon relay

Initially I wanted to go to Kosice as season closing but due to other factors I did not manage to get there this year.

It started with the half-marathon of Wink Marathon in Siófok. Lacking actually everything I'd have needed even the fact I've finished can be seen as a good result. I missed my target time of 1:25 by 4 minutes, but that did not put me back at all. Instead it made me realize what I should do - train! Train systematically, work on drills and gain endurance. Sound like a lot of work and no fun, but - it seemed like fun :)

The track races were quite a bit of challenge, lacking crucial skills like proper crossovers or nice lateral push. However I never wanted to skip them, I thought of these as laying down some base to measure development later. And in fact there has been some development, I was able to takeover Feri once! He trains regularly with the club, along with the kids, so obviously he should be ahead of me - but still a good target ahead...

Well in fact I finished last every track race except one (due to a fall ahead), but the latter 2 races I finished less metres behind the others. And that is an advance.

The super-marathon relay came as a surprise event just the moment I was feeling down not being able to go to Kosice. So I did not think about it but entered. In fact it was about a half-marathon distance and I was quite pleased how it went.

All in all I am happy with the progress I made this year.
Next year I want to cover more mid-distance races and work on my technique to get competitive on track events, too.

Turul Cup 2008

2008-10-10T13:22:00.008+02:00

The closing stage of the Hungarian Cup was held at Tatabánya early October.

There was uncertainity until the last week exactly where it would take place - they've built a new, 200m banked track in Tatabánya recently but we heard news the asphalt cover was terrible, bumpy and uneven, so the club leader wanted it to be redone completely. That would put us back on the industrial roads near the city that were used in the previous races - see my spring opening review...

Well the last week it was confirmed the new track is a no-go :( Sad but at least understandable.

We decided to go a day early, do some shopping in Budapest (looking for some furniture elements and sportswear - for Peter of course...) and spend the night in Tatabánya, do a comfy wakeup and miss out the early-morning rush. Everything went fine but - the morning we woke up to see a day of slow, steady, un-forgiving rain under a grey grey sky. Bammmm. Now if there is an idea I don't like that is surely the idea of skating in rain in 8 C or so, with 25-30 km/h winds. Definitely not loving that.
Anyway we drove to the meeting point while contacting everyone else in the team so we met 4 other cars there and one local. He lead us to a school as we were told the amateurs will compete indoors. Wohoo, not a bad idea at all, I thought. Until I saw the gym :D

It was tiny! One round was about 70 metres all in all, and it had plastic cover. Skating on it it felt like skating on melted chewing gum until a point where it totally lost grip and you were off in the air, heading for the walls sooo close. I was like... erm... scared :)
We had 4 and 10 laps to cover. Completely missing warmup we started with the shorter one. Feri took the lead but suffered in the turns on his 100mm wheels, so in lap 3 I overtook him from the inner side. He made a nice recovery and it was a draw I think on the finish line - a photo finish would there be such a device around :) However a few good photos were shot where both of us are smiling, almost laughing while skating around.
For the 10-lap race we were joined by the ladies (so we were 4 on the track...) and this time he seemed to find a good trajectory and gained a small advantage lap by lap, I finished half a lap behind him.

It was early afternoon when the podium ceremony has finished and we all went out to the edge of the town - leaving everything behind you could associate with comfort.
It has dried until then (result of the heavy winds, not the heat) and Peter had his first distance, 200m, quite early. He missed warmup totally and suffered all the 200m, finishing with a face usually known only from the end of training sessions. Right after that we put him back in the car and (oh well forgive me all enviroment-friendly ones around) turned the heat full up with the engine running.

200m finish with same cat girls, sprinting along with teammate Reka

His 400m was a suffering one again - but he made it, won all 5 races in this year and became a champion with 100%!!!
He had a relay with Bence (2 years older), 3 * 700m. Bence started and was in pos. 2 when they changed:

On the headwind part of the course Peter was caught and overtaken but he managed to not fall back significantly and came in about 15 metres behind that guy:

It was Bence's turn again and he quickly reclaimed position #2 and held onto it until the finish. So it was a good race claiming a silver medal and remember, Peter was the youngest of all participating. But not the youngest one present :)

Moira fighting the winds

We had 2 series of podium ceremonies, first for this particular event (individual/relays), and the latter for the overall championships. In fact the team had quite a few times reason to cheers, seems like all the hard work is beginning to show in results.

Winner of XVII. Turul Cup

Cat E-F relays - silverHungarian Champion 2008, Cat. F

Gosh it was so good to get in the car... no wind and no chilling cold in there :) We had our usual post-race McDonalds visit, packed and headed home - it was a silent drive since both our small elves fell asleep quickly :)

Supermarathon

2008-10-09T11:15:00.003+02:00

There was a 56-km running event held nearby, called 'Homokháti Szupermarathon'. The small villages and towns wee bit west of Szeged are commonly called 'Homokhát', means 'sandy part' or something like that.

I was not insane enough to cover that distance by myself so we entered the relay. We were 3 in the team (called 'Kiribati Turbo 608'), and there were 5 etaps to go, so Feri did the first (7 km) and the third one (12 km), myself the 2nd (13 km) and the 5th (7 km), Szilvi had one distance to go (15 km). The main difficulty of the race was not the distances but the road surfaces. Etaps #1, #3 and #5 were quite rough, someone called it a hazelnut choc...
Weather was fine if you like windy overcast 10C, after a rain... there were a lot of runners and hurdes of schoolkids running a 1km distance. We've met some skaters from Budapest, from Kori2000 and had a nice chat with them. They opted for skating the whole distance, but as a pleasure run, not as a race.

Well we left Feri behind for the start and drove to the first relay point and waited quite a lot. It turned out the start procedure was repeated for some reason so everything was postponed half an hour :) Anyway Feri arrived at some time and then came my 13 km. The first 2 kms were very rough & tough: headwind, bad surface, even wet at some point. But then the asphalt turned quite smooth and after a big turn westwards headwind wasn't a factor anymore. I tried to catch up with a guy skating about 300m ahead of me but with no success, in fact the gap has remained the same by the end of my etap. My back was aching badly after 20 minutes but... I've reached the next checkpoint and it was Feri's turn again.
Quick drive up to the next meeting point and talking to Feri meanwhile, he suffered very much on the rough asphalt. He turned up at some point though and Szilvi started. We drove to the last meeting point - and then disaster came.
The race route was a loop, like a lasso - the first and last distance were the same route but opposite direction. We were waiting and waiting and then decided something has happened to Szilvi. Feri got in the car and went off searching for her. Later it turned out she missed a crucial turn and got lost. Feri found her though sometime later, she must have covered 10 extra kms by then... Anyway she got to the meeting point and I was on my way to finish. Though the asphalt was rough still I quite enjoyed this second distance, and during the last 3 kms I was quite happy, skating smooth style with big strong sidepush and nice recovery. I was really having fun then.
Crossing the finish, line Szilvi and Feri were waiting for me there and we were given a gift package each. There was no prize for the skate relays but that's no problem.
I've checked the race times and I was over 20km/h - hooraaaay!

3 kids of the club were also doing a relay, namely Petra (10), Balázs (16), Marci (10, Feri's son). They handled it professionally, but they also had trouble on the 3rd part. Balázs covered distances 1,3 and 5, while Marci ran the 2nd and Petra the 4th. When I asked them after the race, they were not tired at all!
Some photos of big numbers of crazy runners and small numbers of crazy skaters here.

After all, it was a pleasant ride (minus Szilvi getting lost) and we may do it again next year, but I think we could do it as individuals. Now do I sound insane? :D

Jász Cup - Jászberény

2008-09-02T10:41:00.015+02:00

Second time this year it was racing time in Jászberény, this time to compete for the 'Jász' Cup. The surroundings there are inhabited by the jász people since the 13th century and they celebrate their identity this time of the year with a festival. Anyway, a nice setup for holding several sport events. And drink a lot in the evenings :)

We were still on hols, in nearby Parád so it was an hour's drive or so to get to Jászberény. Weather was hot hot hot throughout the week but right before the racing day a cold weather front hit the region so it was cloudy and windy in the morning. Not too windy and in fact it looked better than another day in 35+ C...

The race began with yet again some organisational problems, turned out the racing numbers of few of the team members had to be changed - don't ask me why. It is completely unclear to me. I thought they've put it in some database when they handed them out first. Obviously they did not, and now every coach had to fill in the race numbers of his team on a piece of paper. What can be soooo difficult handling about 100 people's name/bday/racing number???

Anyway, then came the usual chaos of 'now we will do the F category girls, then amateur men cat D, then pre-heat prof. B men'... so you sit there, all dressed up, skates on and you don't know how much time you have until the next run, or when you can go and do some warmup laps. I really don't get it what does it take to make up a race program, a schedule, and stick to it.

Well somehow it started, first it was my 500m. We went to the start and... came a 10-minute shower, raining cats and dogs. After 5 mins however all 4 of us (soaking wet) voted to run the race and get back to the tent :) So off we went, one guy from Serbia fell at start but then went on to win, Dani (14 yr) was second, and I was able to keep the pace of Feri (at last) and was 1 meter behind him at the finish line. It may be the difference in our wheels though, he suffered with his 85A 100mm wheels while I didn't even notice any slips on my 82A 84mm wheels...

Then came Peter's 400m, however they were only 2 starting :( The track was still bit wet and slippery and in fact he almost fell at start but then it was a smooth, clear win ahead of Hazafi Ádám from KDSE.

It was my turn again, 2000m (10 laps) this time. The track has dried up but the wind was quite strong. Senior women & men were starting in the same heat and I was quite happy to perform a smooth start. Then I was in position 6 (out of 8) and after 2 laps decided to move up a bit and overtook 2 ladies. Well... my energy lasted until lap 7 and from then on it was pure horror, I felt I was slowing down lacking any power and then those 2 ladies left me again. It was a bad decision to move up early it seems...

Then soon came Peter and 300m, and a super performance again, skating nice style and an easy win. It is a year like that it seems.

We saw some great elimination and points races then for the upper age category boys and girls, too bad Tomi from our team produced a huge & spectacular crash and had to be taken to the doc for serious checks. Later he returned smiling but... I wonder how he put on normal clothes or slept in a bed...

Oh and we seniors raced relays, 1800m (9 laps). It was nice, quite uneventful and we came second, the ones beating us were those youngsters from Serbia allowed to run in amateur despite being pros, so no problems begin defeated by them :)

There is a very fine pizzeria close to the track so it was obvious we had to visit that and refill our carbohydrate stores, then came the 'usual' waiting time and then the ceremonies. Peter won a nice cup, I've collected a silver in relays, and the team has performed quite well, we had quite a few podium appearances.

Then came the overall prize and... tadaaaammmm... the overall cup was won by our team, KDE Szeged!!! Wohoooooo, last year the team was 3rd, now you can see the cup in the middle of the pic, in the hands of Sonja.

Moira was having a good time in the team tent playing with the younger ones about her age. Interestingly, she was most impressed with a boy's Ferrari matchbox car - she may be influenced by his brother :)

Aftermath - Bearings dead. Though we put tons of WD-40 on them, most of them went dead by the time we got home :( The only cure is - throw them out and put in new ones. Well well well, no fun racing in the rain indeed :s

Savaria Cup - Szombathely

2008-08-24T00:49:00.009+02:00

The 3rd round of the Hungarian Championships, called Savaria Cup, was held at Szombathely.

Szombathely is a very pretty place. We've been there 2 times already, so both Moira & Peter were delighted to get there. We like the city itself, not too small, not too big, kinda general 'small Austria' feeling we have in & around the city. The air is much more clear than at home, so Aniko likes it more, too.

Anyway, to the race now. As there is no speedskating track (yet) in Szombathely, the race itself was held on a double, asphaltous, open-air handball track, in the backyards of a newly built sports arena. Don't believe everything on the satellite map, it must be a 2-3 year old photo - so believe me, the middle of the sat map is a handball track now :)

So there are no elevated turns, and one round is 140 meters. It imposes some technical difficulties as it is easier to loose the grip in the turns, and it is much more difficult to overtake as the straight sections are very short, about 2-3 pushes for a junior age speedskater. It has a 'short-track' feeling for this reason.

It was very hot and sunny all the day and Peter was a bit nervous - he wanted to defeat the local guy Hazafi Ádám and he feared the track a bit. He had 2 distances to compete, 1.5 laps and 3.5 laps, about 200 and 500 meters, and 4 challengers.
It wasn't until noon his races have come, first the shorter distance. He started perfectly, negotiated the first turn leading the bunch and was increasing his lead from then on.

Then about 1 hour later, he was devastating - starting the last lap with comfortable lead, by the sound of the ring he started a sprint as if it was a 1-lap race. He finished half a lap ahead of the others, his coach called him the 'skater of the day' and that made him so proud.

The team was not in top form, frankly :( Due to the specialities of the track, we didn't see much takeovers and most races were like modern-era F1, where a start could decide the finishing order. Well, let's see what the team will do next week, as they will spend 6 days in training camp.

Me... well I've started, and finished 4th (of 4) on the 200m, and 3rd on the longer distance (cca 500m), due to one falling out on a turn :) I didn't even notice that fall but I was told later only, after finish :) So... still have room to develop :)

Crossover week

2008-07-25T12:46:00.003+02:00

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

2008-07-11T12:42:00.003+02:00

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!

Hungarian Junior Championships - Part Two

2008-06-30T14:05:00.005+02:00

Although it is called a 'Junior' Championship, there was a senior age category, too.
And it was too tempting not to enter :)

We spend too much time beside the skate track each week just looking at our kids doing the hard work so it is quite logical to turn that time into something useful - like skating. And with speed increasing, stability growing, our aimes get higher and higher each week :)
So another dad (Feri) and myself decided to enter - in fact we were three originally but then the third one played football a week before the event - and of course injured his knee. I've always known football was a bad sport :D

Feri on the left, me on the right

So we were two then but luckily a mum (Szilvi) jumped in so we could even enter the relays... wohooo. Well we practiced some relays the day before the race, I've fell right at the first one but nothing serious, just a little road rash on my right knee.

And then came the big day. In the senior men, there were 4 starting. We had 500m and 1600m to cover. I finished... erm... 4th :) but enjoyed it a lot. Then the relays started soon after, and there were 2 teams only - a sure silver \o/ as the other team had an ex-iceskater so it was no question who would win. But all our relays went nice, we all had 3 laps to go. The other team chose another strategy, 1 lap each for 2 of them and the rest was covered by Robes, the ex-iceskater.

Nevertheless, it was fun, and the kids were so supportive. It was good to race and I think it is something I'd like to do some more in the future. So.. better learn skating :D

Hungarian Junior Championships

2008-06-30T13:34:00.006+02:00

The Hungarian Junior Championships were held at Jászberény on 21st June.

It was damn hot that day (too). I guess we've seen 35C or so, effectively no clouds during the day... Luckily the team's new tents (the blue Powerslide/Core/Matter type) have arrived and served well. We looked sooo professional... And again the race was an administrative catastrophe ballet, the start was set at 09:00 but no professional racer hit the track before noon :( And all those kids suffering in the heat... Damn. How on earth can it be done right in Germany or in the Czech or Slovakia? And how does it happen each and every time here in Hungary? An age-old curse sitting on us or just plain stupidity???

Anyway, Péter had 3 distances to race and 4 contestants in his age category. On 200m, he started awfully and came in the first turn 3rd, the guys behind him made it a clearly dangerous situation, almost crashing into him. Then he fired up the rockets and overtook Remete Botond from TDKE (in blue/white suit) in the straight, then the guy from KDSE, Hazafi Ádám (in red/black skinsuit) in the first half of the 2nd turn. From then it was a clear run but when he crossed the finish line his face told it all - "phew that was a tough one but I DID IT!"

Then on 300m he started much much better and dominated the race from start to finish (check his new helmet):

And at last he had a longer distance to race, 500m. He produced a wonderful start and had a nice lead soon.

Then after 1.5 laps he started to stand up a little bit but I was just there and shouted at him "You are getting slower, Pete" and those words worked like magic, he tucked in a wonderful low-sit position and produced a delicious flying lap, humilating the others so obviously.

So all in all he claimed unambiguous gold, hurray!

The team produced bit too few podiums or good results but they were right after a week-long training camp, putting many many miles in their legs on bikes for 7 days, so obviously they were all worn out and tired.

And at last, the federation has decided to have personal race numbers for a season, so we won't have to collect them and give them back at each race...

Helmets

2008-06-09T13:11:00.002+02:00

We've been looking for a helmet for Péter for ages now, tried all kinds but with no success.

There were ones that would just sit on top of his head, too high.
Then the ones that looked good but did not hold on his head enough, I could push a finger between his head and the helmet, above his ears.
Then some others that almost covered his eyes when sitting properly.
Ah and of course the ones he disqualified at first sight.
So we saw all kinds, from cheap to expensive, big names, no names, etc...

But now - at last - LAS!
Fits perfectly, looks great (dark grey+white), is of the right size. Perfetto!

Phew...

Gold!

2008-05-27T11:12:00.007+02:00

Friday Péter took part in the national student's championship and earned two golden medals!!!

We started to Tatabánya at 8:20, the drive (220 kms) was easy and un-eventful. We were only 2 to go so I've organized Tomi and Balázs to travel along with us, sharing the car and the costs. But how slow we went we couldn't arrive late enough - the amateur's events have just started off so we had plenty of time to do... erm... nothing. So we did exactly that. Of course the skates had to be on all the time :)

The track is just outside Tatabánya, on some industrial roads, a quadrangle of 700m length. It has some elevation changes, too, and the quality of the asphalt is quite good. The organisers had some illustrious buffet set up, with yummy muffins even...

There were many amateurs. So it meant a lot of time to waste. Then at last, around 14:00 the professionals' turn has come. Péter had to race on 200m and 300m distances. There was a 'dark horse' between the opponents we knew nothing about - the other ones he had beaten already previously, in the regionals and in Groß-Gerau. And in fact, on the shorter distance, that guy (Hazafi Ádám from KDSE) was the first at 100m, then - as the track has some climb until the finish line - Péter was able to overtake him, using his strength and nice technique.

The longer distance was much more obvious, Péter won by at least 20m. Double gold!!!

The team earned quite some podium finishes, more on that when I receive the protocols.

We set up for home around 18:30 and had a nice & smooth & fast drive again. And one can imagine what Anikó was like when Péter was in her hands at last :)

Half-marathon sum-up

2008-05-20T13:26:00.004+02:00

In short:
I've done it, finished my first half-marathon - but missed my target time.
Péter has also finished - and earned a podium again.

In detail:
The 5th Wink Marathon in Siófok, Hungary was a total mess, lacking much in organisation.
We had to cover 3 x 7 km, but the road conditions were very very bad on at least 3 kms each round. The route was planned taking the competitors down to the shores of Lake Balaton, however while the 30*30 cm concrete tiles may fit runners, they are totally a pain to skate on. Several racers lost a wheel or two, my left 1st wheel got completely loose by the end of the race. There was another part of the track with gravel scattered all around, it didn't help skating conditions either. While the organisors cannot be blamed for strong winds, that thing didn't help either. OK, must admit there was some nice 2 km smooth asphalt road with a tailwind, but that was only enough to rest a bit.
With these conditions in mind, I am not dissatisfied with the time of 1:29 at all. It could have been better by a minute or so if I did not fell the last round, of course on the 'resting' part of the track... Luckily it is only a sore butt, no bruises at all.
Physically, I felt OK throughout the race and wasn't too tired after the event either. I tried it and now I'd like to have some more... :)

Péter finished 3rd in the junior rankings, 3 minutes ahead of me. For 2 rounds he followed an 'older' girl (2 years...) but he missed out her draft starting the 3rd round, so he had to fight 7 km all alone. He did great but was extra tired after finish, that could be cured with some chocolate of course. In 2 hours he regenerated completely and returned to doing what 7-year-old ones should do in open-air events - running around chasing eachother.

Tomi - as promised - tried to win the race and, hmm, well he did. Too bad he missed the turning point in the first round so he went for a 14km, then a 7km - and then those **** organisers sent him away to cover yet one more round. Even this way, racing 28kms, he finished overall 2nd by 3 minutes, and if we subtracted his last round's time, it would give 0:52 for the 21km, a clear win by 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the field. But he was declared 2nd... no glory, no prize money, just bitter taste in the mouth :(

Oh btw those *** ****** ***** organisers registered me as a junior so they hindered my podium finish (ranked 3rd) :(((

Now let's find another event, a decently organised one!

Murphy's laws

2008-05-16T11:59:00.002+02:00

LOL I've strained my biceps femoris on my left leg, when 'jumpin' out of the car this morning.
When else? Aaargh :)

Marathon preparations

2008-05-13T11:58:00.002+02:00

In fact half-marathon but the title sounds better that way :)

We had a long weekend again and I had the opportunity to trains some more on all 3 days.
Saturday and Sunday a qualified trainer joined us (the mum of Tomi, a kid racing in the same team as Péter) and she taught us 'beginners' a lot. I know I must learn quite a bit but damn, it was hard ;) Anyway I won't give up easily.
This way, practicing technique we covered 12 kms only on Saturday and about the same again on Sunday.
Then on Monday I hit the oval and covered 90 laps in 1:05 all by myself, that is 16.2 km so the goal I've set initially (finish the half-marathon) is easily covered I think. Now I think I should aim at covering it in 1:30. Or should it be 1:25? Ok, let it be 1:25. I put it down here so I won't be able to deny:

Target time for half-marathon 17/05/2008: 1:25

BTW Tomi wants to win the junior's event. Being 12 that is a nice goal but if all goes well he can do it. And when I told my son about it, his eyes turned toooooo bright... :)

Regionals

2008-05-13T11:28:00.003+02:00

Wednesday Péter had to take part in the regional qualifiers for the student's national championship, due in two weeks. His races were 180m and 270m and he had no difficulty dominating them. So on 23 May we must travel to Tatabánya and face the challenge there. I forgot to time the shorter distance, but the longer one was 39.6 secs. I don't know about his opponents this year yet - he is in good form, so let's hope for the best :)

The event itself was very poorly organized. Registration was scheduled at 14:30 and it lasted until 16:00... Then the amateurs started and their races finished at 17:30. So we could have come only at that time - 3 hours lost waiting for nothing. The whole event finished at 19:15, but at least the weather was nice (yep it means getting more than enough UV rays again). About half of the team qualified for the national event, which sounds nice but in fact at least 2 more kids should have had better luck. We saw epic fights and again, we saw lack of race experience, takeover attempts at wrong places and lack of self-confidence. And these should be cured somehow.

So I talked to Endre (the coach) and we agreed I'd look around for more races in the nearby countries (Austria, Slovakia, the Czech at first shot).

New skates

2008-05-06T13:38:00.004+02:00

Hmm seems like this is a week of new things.

In short: bought a pair of K2 Power 7.0 skates for myself, tested them, fell and bruised my hip and now I'm recovering.

In detail: I thought (see below) and I was quite right my old Roces skates weren't the best for covering a half marathon distance. So last Wednesday I've found this K2 skate and bought them.
I must say it is a quite new world, it is fast and rolls very smooth. It is a typical long-distance recreational skate, provides more ankle support than low-cut racers' skates but makes covering long distances quite easy.
I got rid of the brakes immediately and then took it for a 10-mile ride on Thursday, with Peter and some more adults on skates and some kids on bikes. It felt great and rolled nice, however approaching the car-park, about 200m to go I crashed and 'succesfully obtained' a palm-sized bruise on my left hip. Or thigh. Ok, let's confess, on my left butt :)

At home, Anikó provided 'medical support' - oh well, it was cca 18 years ago last time I had bruises this size, so it almost felt nostalgic :) However, I've covered an hour on the oval on Friday, and some 12 miles on the road again on Sunday, just to get used to the skates - the half-marathon is getting closer and closer and I definitely need to train some more. Got to polish my technique some more while strength and endurance seems to be quite OK.

So here I am, a happy child with new toys :D

Groß-Gerau 2008 - Part 3

2008-05-04T00:02:00.003+02:00

Travel home
Well it felt much much longer than the other way. The kids were more anxious and had too much energy sometimes. We stopped in Vienna for some looking-around & quick shopping. Arriving home, Moira jumped in my arms and sobbed for 5 minutes - Peter did the same with Aniko but a little bit shorter :)

Aftermath
Well I wonder what each of the kids will earn from the races.
For Peter it is simple - he is flying, after a nice winter season finish he carried on and earned silver medal on his first race in the spring. A really nice start, I hope he can make it go on this way.
The others I think could gain a lot in experience. We miss race experience, there is so little field action in Hungarian races it is very hard to learn tactics or best practises that way.

Columbia
It was 'devastating' to see them racing. They were skating such an easy style, one could think they were not having their heartbeat rising at all. And they raced very clever, too. They showed a nice teamwork, eg in the women 10km elimination they managed to grasp all top 5 places with 3 or 4 laps remaining. They received a standing ovation and earned it well.

Meteo
Meterology... bah. Both weather.com and met.hu forecasted sunny/cloudy weather, 30% possibility of rain and low winds. Well - Saturday we had no clouds at all so we turned red, and Sunday was only a little bit easier. Oh yes, it was raining. On Friday, in Austria...

Groß-Gerau 2008 - Part 2

2008-04-30T13:30:00.001+02:00

The event / Day 0
The kids were enthusiastic to test the track and spent an hour or so skating around.
Later we watched some of the sprint cup event, individual start 300m rush for grownups ;)

The event / Day 1
In the morning our team was involved in the longer distances.
Schuler B Herren 1000m - Bence started like he was racing on 200m sprint. He was caught at 400m, dropped back continuosly and finished 10th (out of 24).
Schuler A Damen 2000m - Barbi had a bad start (as usual), dropped back a lot but then she came up steadily, she seemed fit and strong. She should have been more aggressive though, she slowed down instead of overtaking at least two times, anyway she finished 7th (out of 48).
Jugen Damen 3000m - Szonja was in the middle of the field most of the time, but she also lacked aggression and missed the opportunities to switch to the outer train that moves forward, finished 28th (out of 60). Both girls are strong and skate a very nice way so they shouldn't be afraid to move a bit more forward in the pack.
Jugend Herren 3000m - Roland started rollerskates only 1.5 months ago so it was a good result for him to overtake at least one (55th from 56). Tomi raced exactly like Szonja, with the same mistakes and finished 23th.

In the afternoon we watched and enjoyed the 500m and the relay events for the adults.
As we recorded all our races we had the opportunity to watch them again in the evening and analyze each run, so Endre (the coach) asked for more active, more aggressive racing the next day.

The event / Day 2
Again, our team had to race almost all the morning, first with the middle distances, then the relay qualifiers and then the short runs.
Schuler C Herren 300m - Peter started well (after the first start, which ended in a crash) and finished 2nd (from 7 boys+4 girls). The guy who won was a real sprinter type so no chance to catch him on distances as short as this.
Schuler B Herren 500m - Bence couldn't repeat last day's 2-lap sprint but finished 7th after all.
Schuler A Damen 1500m - Barbi was fighting hard, she managed to stay in the top group all the time, even moved to 2nd position once and finished 8th.
Jugend Damen 2000m - Szonja was more active than on Saturday and managed to place herself in position 23 on the finish line.
Jugend Herren 2000m - Roland overtook 2 times as many racers as previously (ie 2 :) ) however that meant he did not qualify for the last race for the top 40. Tomi was active but lacked the power to move really forward and wasted a lot of energy in position fights in the middle of the group, he finished 20th.

In the relays we could launch only 2-member teams so we were handicapped compared to the 3-racer teams. However it was a good training opportunity.

Soon afterwards the shortest distances followed:
Schuler C Herren 100m - Peter had a very nice start, he was undisputed 2nd after 5 meters and finished 2nd with a nice gap behind him.
Schuler B Herren 300m - Bence made a bad start and fought himself back to place 10.
Schuler A Damen 1000m - Barbi couldn't make use of her long-distance skills and finished 11th after the better sprinters.
Jugend Damen 1500m - Szonja made a nice progress and came in 17th.
Jugend Herren 1500m - Tomi had a bad luck with position fighting and finished 29th.

I couldn't persuade Peter to jump out of the skates until the awards ceremony, so he climbed up the podium still on wheels. Damn I was very proud to see him standing there, shaking hands with the winner and receiving a nice silver award.
Barbi and Bence, being top 10, also were called to stand on the podium of theri category.

The afternoon we watched some great action, the 10000m elimination races of the adults/juniors and the relays. It was around 19:00 or so when we left the track, after all the ceremonies were finished. Back to the B&B, pack up, shower and bed.

It was a long day but an eventful one.

Groß-Gerau 2008 - Part 1

2008-04-30T13:26:00.001+02:00

In short: Peter gained 2nd place in Groß-Gerau, in the category Schuler C. Wohooooo!!!

I will compose a more complete description, cut in several posts so they won't be too long.

The Team
Our team consisted of 6 kids, aged 7-13, two girls and 4 boys.

Travel
It was a long ride, 12 hours, but went smooth. We feared traffic near Frankfurt on Friday afternoon but luckily we did not meet any. Google Maps' route plan worked great and helped us get to our destination easily, almost exactly to the house we were looking for.

B&B
We stayed in Worfelden, just about 4-5 miles from Groß-Gerau, in a nice B&B (Frühstückspension Riegel, Worfelden, Wilhelm Hammann Str. 45). It was so typically German, 'alles in Ordnung' style. Comfortable rooms, nice and helpful landlady, super breakfasts. Frau Riegel did everything she could to make our stay comfortable and showed great patience and tolerance towards our (sometimes noisy) team.

The track
The track itself consists of a 200m banked oval with a concrete center place, and a 304m long, 4-corner, unbanked flat track. Most of the races were held on the 304m track, only the adult/junior sprinters competing for the 300m sprints used the banked track.
The surrounding area is very nice green, just behind the local hospital. The event was organized professionally, with 20+ international judges, 2 ex-racer speakers performing really well throughout the 3 days, olympic-style opening ceremony, all kinds of facilities and a lot of merchants.
The kids spent a lot of time in the boots, checking out every detail of any equipment - but if you do a technical sport, you know exactly what I mean, what great pleasure it is to take even the 100th wheel in your hands... :)

Size matters

2008-04-20T23:36:00.000+02:00

Anikó is feeling better and stronger with each day, 6 days now since her cholecystectomy, so we took a nice light walk in the morning, the kids on bike (of course).

The afternoon I've joined the other Gábor to skate some, in preparation for the half-marathon in May. I don't really remember whose idea it was to enter but with each day I feel like we are insane to try that :) The kids will have no problem finishing but as it looks now, we grown-ups will spend some time at each refreshing station to collect each and every bit of energy to continue.
We've covered about 1.6 miles on street and 30 laps on the track, then 1 more mile home - a half marathon is 117 laps. And I suffered all the way. I think it must be the boot, I falter in it. I don't feel safe, I must change it ASAP. In fact it is a Roces one, not a bad one at all, but it may be a little, very little bit too big. Some millimetres only, but too big.
Pfff, time to start trying new ones.