A very late early-2010 post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I want one...


I want one...


I want one...

Details here.

IV. Dél Csillag Cup, Szeged

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...

Me

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.