Track development / Pre-race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 :)