Spring and summer, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Santa Claus Cup 2010, Budapest

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

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

500m semifinal

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

500m Final A

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

222m semifinal

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

222m Final A

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

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

333m semifinal

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

333m Final A

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

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

Summer ice training

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

Working in 2 age groups

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

Rest

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

Relays start

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

Dryland exercises

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

Dryland training camp

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

End of warm-up football

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

Peter in red T-shirt

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

Imitation

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

BÁ and Peter, working on technique

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

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

The cake

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

ST Junior Championships, 2010

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

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

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

500m semi-final

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

500m Final A

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

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

222m quarter-final

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

222m semi-final

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

222m Final A

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

333m quarter-final

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

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

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

333m semi-final

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

333m Final B

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

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

(This photo was shot in Spisska Nova Ves

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

Santa Claus Cup, Budapest, 2009

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.

Dark gray January

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...

Santa Claus Cup, 2008

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...

...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 :)