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.

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...

November 2009

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'. :)