Student Champs 2010

This year's Student Championships were held in Tatabánya. Our small team traveled there one day earlier so the kids could rest and not spend the morning getting up early and travelling 250 kms. The stay there was fine and cheerful as it was coach TT's birthday - so there was champagne, cake, candles, chips and lots of fun in the evening.
Next day we went to the track at about 09:30, got through all administration and such and after some easy laps we decided to spend the upcoming hours doing lazy things, not to sit by the track while the amateur races were being held. So we visited the Turul statue towering over the city and the Szelim cave nearby. We spent some time walking there and got back to the track by 12:30 as we were advised the opening ceremony would start at 13:00.
But it was all wrong. The amateur races were still on - the pros did not start until 15:30. Damn it was a long wait and we could smell disaster when looking at the race program. It was quite sure it would not end in a 'normal' way...

Peter had to run a semi-final for the 200m. He started well and stayed right behind the first guy throughout the whole distance. It was pretty obvious he made it to the final. However when they lined up for the final he was given lane #6. W0000t? He skated 3rd fastest time and got lane 6? We couldn't protest immediately as the official timings were not published until several days were gone :((( Now I'm pretty sure he was put in lane 6 so he wouldn't be close to the local guy GyD :(((
In the final he started OK and was in 3rd place and he could have grabbed 2nd as PK almost fell in the last straight. I was quite worried he would fall and Peter would tip over him but luckily it did not happen. So it was 3rd place on the shorter distance, not a bad start at all.

On the 500m he started cleverly and skated in 2nd position. Then came an attack from behind, Peter accelerated but got pushed sideways a bit by someone, almost fell but escaped that. He dropped back to 4th position, but advanced one place in the next straight. 1 lap still left, he was in 3rd place and attacking the local guy ÁB when in the last turn ÁB punched in Peter's face with his elbow. Poor Peter started crying immediately and stood up, and so lost the chance to overtake AB (which seemed to be almost completed) and almost dropped one place again. Luckily he reached the finish line in 3rd position so another medal was earned. The referee did not see anything???... later a neutral parent told me even he could hear that punch Peter has suffered, from 50m away - quite interesting that a referee standing in the turn did not see anything unusual :(((
Now that I write these lines I am upset again. These kids are 8-9 years old - is this kind of aggression acceptable from then? I don't think so. But when they don't receive any punishment for being aggressive, when a referee doesn't take care of these things, they won't learn not to do it. Looking back at the races that day no referee interaction could be noticed. No warnings, no DQs, no new starts, nothing...

Peter couldn't join any relays so our race program was over. But the awards ceremony was still far ahead. I think it was after 20:00 they started calling the medalists and it was definitely after 22:00 when it was finished. Remember: this race was organized for children, most of them even had to travel home after the race. Simply unacceptable.

So while Peter showed good form, fought clever and strong, he could 'only' earn two bronze medals, both of them in questionable races. I find these things very sad.
Organization was one of the worst I've seen so far - no results published on the place, huge delays, no pre-race calling for the racers, minutes spent sorting out who's starting, minutes spent waiting for a late bird - completely rubbish. Was it happening in a kitchen, Gordon Ramsay would be yelling 'get out of my f* kitchen NOW'.
We won't be able to race in any other inline track races this year in Hungary due to transfer regulations - and I don't think we miss it at all.

LifeInLine - Michalovce 2010

Just one week after Prievidza we were attending another race in the LifeInline series, this time in Michalovce, in the Eastern far end of Slovakia. This time only Peter and me were able to travel from our club so I've invited SSz and FT to join us in the car. We spent the night in the flood-hit area of Satoraljaujhely - the flood was gone but many signs of it were still left everywhere, especially in smaller villages or rural areas.

Waking up Sunday morning I heard a sound that grasped me with fear. Wind - heavy wind. Now that was something completely lacking from the meteo forecasts. By the sound of it is was about 15km/h with strong gusts. Anyway we packed in the car and had a painfully slow car drive to Michalovce - about 50km but took us more than 1 hour to get there. It was quite hard to find a parking place near the event but after two rounds in town we decided to park the car in a plaza parking place and walk 400m.
We built our small 'camp' on the side of the road, just beneath some big trees, as - in spite of the wind - it was totally sunny and hot.

The race route itself was a 1.010m long triangle-like route around a small park, asphalt was OK, patches marked as usual. On the back-leg we were given 1 closed lane from a 4-6 lane motorway, while the start/finish straight was a 4-lane road totally closed. The most tricky parts were the end of the start straight with a small ascending turn up the motorway and the start of the finish straight where there were numerous surface errors so you had to plan your way ahead.

Race track

The wind was blowing hard when Peter's race started. The field was smaller than in the previous week and he gained a 15m lead by the time they were to turn left to the motorway. Then I lost his sight behind the trees but when I saw him again on the end of the backstraight he was leading with a comfortable 50-60m. Then he zoomed down the next 2 turns and crossed the finish line with 12 seconds' advantage. He was very tired though and complained about the strong winds.

Peter 20m from the finish

photo (C) J. Meriac http://jaminline.rajce.idnes.cz

Then we saw FT racing in the 5km race. He is in base-building period for the shorttrack season so while he could easily skate with the others and had no difficulty with the tempo, he surely lacked sprinting speed and couldn't attack for real in the last lap. Nevertheless he earned 3rd place and said it was a good warm-up for the 21km.

FT in 3rd place

photo (C) J. Meriac http://jaminline.rajce.idnes.cz

Then after the 10k race came the half marathon, 21 laps to cover. FT decided to start there, too. SSz and me positioned ourselves perfectly in the starting field (read: rolled to the last line) and at 14:30 we started.

I was quite happy to find IC from Presov, Slovakia and travel in his draft for the first 7 laps. The 7th lap was for some reason 20 sec faster than the previous ones and I immediately felt tired. So in the finish lane I dropped from IC's draft and from then on it was pure hell. Alone against the strong winds (nice memories from Bratislava...) - and by this time the finish straight was having wind from the side, not from behind. So it meant that you: tempo all along the higway section in headwind, turn left and roll some in the relative wind-free small straight, then you drop onto the finish straight and meet some wind here, too. 

By the 12th lap I was seriously considering giving up the race and sit down next to Peter, who was acting as a photographer in the finish straight. But then came lap #14 and I thought "hey only 7 is left which is almost equal to 1 lap on the route where I practice usually..." So I started to convince myself and in the end it paid off.

In the final 4 laps I was able to catch two elder guys and sit in their draft again. This was a real life-saver and I did not think much about the aesthetics of drafting all the way to the finish. I came in in 59:12 which is seriously worse than last week's result but this time I had to fight the winds alone for quite some time, unlike last week. SSz finished some 2 minutes ahead while her son FT skated a 42:44, that is quite a good one if you are in base-building period IMHO.
IR from Tatabanya has won this race! This is his first win in this series and he was obviously very happy with that. He told us the leading group wasn't driving a fast tempo so he could sprint away from them in the last few hundred meters, using his good technique in the last 2 turns. He won by 10 meters ahead of a Czech and a Pole guy.

IR finishing

Travelling home was a quite uneventful 5-hour drive. I had some time to think about and re-live the race. Main mistake was dropping from draft - it would be so much easier to cover the distance if I could just stay there. Lesson learned (again).
Results here.

LifeInLine - Prievidza 2010

We traveled to Bojnice, near Prievidza, Slovakia early on Saturday so we didn't have to drive a long way at dawn, Sunday. It proved a good idea as we couldn't follow our planned route due to the floods hitting the area, but drove bit more westwards and headed North from there. We could see the devastating effects of the flood gone by near the roads in Slovakia, sand bags, flooded fields, suction-pumps working everywhere.

Bojnice, Pálfy Castle

Bojnice is a cosy small village with a fantastic, Disney-like castle in the middle. There is also a zoo and a spa there so it isn't an average place at all... We stayed at the edge of the village in a resort area in tangible silence. But of course before sleep TT assembled his old skate in ephemeral 3 hours while we were busy laughing and whinnying. Recycled WD-40, clap frame, loose or completely locked bearings with outrageous sounds - you know that for sure :)

Next morning we went to Prievidza after having a lazy breakfast. The race route was a 2x2 lane avenue, closed from traffic, with nice green reservation in the middle with grass and trees. A U-turn on each end (quite bad, melting blacktop patches), so one lap was about 1.4km. Organizers marked every surface error carefully, the asphalt itself was that grippy type and as the Sun was shining on it, it became more and more grippy. (This is an excuse here why I wasn't any faster...)

First on the line was Peter, there were about 25 opponents. The route was shortened a bit in the kids' races, there was a U-turn about 40m from the start. Peter started from the second row but exited the U-turn in 3rd place (I did not see how he's done that but maybe it's better this way), and then he skated fine after a local guy, but soon they disappeared in the distance. He exited the 2nd U-turn in 2nd place (a Czech lass was 1st, she looked so professional), but he kept looking back bit too much at they guy following him. As a result that guy passed from behind and although Peter tried to squeeze him to the side in a Schumacher-like move, the guy beat him with 1 wheel's length in the finish. No problem, a silver medal is quite fine!

Peter sprinting

There were 2 more kids racing from our club, TR finished 7h in her age category on 3 km (this was her first race in such a long distance), while CD came in 4th on the 5 km. By the time their races finished weather turned hot, so we walked around a bit, then pitched our 'camp' in the reservation green in the middle of the avenue, in a shady place. Lunch, kid's ceremonies, and then we watched the 10km race where the top riders pulled brutal times.

OB, me, TT and CD

It was time to warm-up (and it was then I started yawning, as the mid-day nap was due by then - Red Bull consumed), and then we lined up for the start. OB and Raimo was there from Hungary, too.

14:30, starting gun fired! TT and CD got ahead fast, and I started to skate (slowly), too. It was quite clear from the beginning I would not win this race either, so I tried to skate in a relaxed, constant pace. There was a light breeze, only wee bit troublesome, but I did not like the U-turns, it was no fun re-accelerating 30 times all in all. After 3 laps an 'old' man, UMR came past me (he was born in 1949... let's say I've waited for him, OK?) and I hid in his draft immediately and I think it was my best decision throughout the whole weekend :D Even this way lap #5 and lap #10 felt critical. But after 12 laps I even started to feel like the end could be something good :) Sometimes I've managed to skate feeling fine, with nice long pushes to the side, I almost started to enjoy it - but stayed in UMR's draft just to be sure :) I tried to drink a bit once, but they handed water in plastic cups and after 2 gulps my side started to twinge a bit so I decided to skip that.

UMR in white, me ahead...

I felt like the distance was decreasing quite fast. In the end I ran home in 54:28 (personal best!) OK I was quite worn by then. We talked a bit with UMR and another Slovak guy, analysed Raimo that he surely arrived here from another planet... and then we said goodbye to eachother. It was time then for Aniko to take care of me, she poured a gallon of isotonic drinks into me (I may have looked bit bad based on that). And of course to admire the chamomile collection of Moira who was busy picking them throughout the whole length of the race :D

CD drafting

We changed clothes and it turned out CD earned first place in the M1 age category (41:38), he deserved it as he was racing in a clever and good way, spent most of the distance hiding in big men's draft (see above). Anikó was even complaining she found it quite hard to take photos of him... TT was literally dead after not having raced such a long distance for at least 8 years (44:54), his lower back was stiff and aching, so we took an extra-slow lower-back-rehabilitate jog with him. Raimo ran some stellar time again (41:02), OB finished somewhere in the 46-minute region.

Packed up, had pizza near the castle in Bojnice, checked the Ferraris parked there, then got into the car at 18:30 and headed home. The kids fell asleep soon, but we were in Szeged by midnight.

It was good and fine, results are here.

Spring sum-up

This is to sum up my intensity phase for this spring:
I've spent 34h 43m burning 21024 kCals during 31 sessions. The training included skating 271 km, running 75 km and plyometrics 6 times - this time Bill Begg's 'Offskate Plyo Specific':

-	Plyometric Menu - Offskate Plyo Specific	Time
1.	Jogging slowly for warm up	5 mins
2.	Stretch (static, ballistic)	5 mins
3.	Skipping	2 mins
4.	Vibrations 30 sec with 30 sec rests	4 times
5.	Frog jumps 15 sec recovery	8 times
6.	Crossbacks	1 min
7.	Stride jumps, extend legs to back & side	1 min
8.	Gunthers, dryland skating, looping the leg back in D shape	2 mins
9.	Heal taps	1 min
10.	Control hop 30 sec with 15 sec recovery	4 times
11.	Imitation jump 30 sec with 15 sec recovery	4 times
12.	Sheer power 30 sec with 15 sec recovery	4 times
13.	Swing hop 10 sec with 15 sec recovery	8 times
14.	Pulsing up & down 10 sec, hold 30 sec, then pulse 1 min, 30 sec recovery	2 times
15.	Bounding 15 strides, 1 min recovery	6 times
16.	Sprints 30m, 1 min recovery	6 times
17.	Low walking, with knee to ground	2 mins
18.	Wall sitting, legs at 90 degree, back straight	2 mins
19.	Slow jogging & light static stretching to cool down & check if body is OK	10 mins

In the last 2 occasions the plyo program felt almost easy to complete. That means I advance bit by bit :)

I've raced in the DOM Cup with a less-than-satisfying result and completed the Tour de Tisza-tó, which was more enjoyable.

I have 2 LifeInLine HMs coming up early June, before heading for the beach. I really hope to improve my PB in one of them, though I haven't been able to skate as many interval sessions as I'd planned, so there may be problems with my speed. We will see...

Regional Student Champs 2010

Reporting in short, newspaper-style :)

After some re-scheduling turmoil, the Student Champs regional races were held early May here in Szeged. Only held for the smaller age categories, so there were quite few participants, all the usual faces :) Oh not all, our ex-club KDE decided to skip this venue for whatever reason...

There was some timed drills race beforehand, where Peter fell once but still managed to post 2nd best time of all the Cat E & F boys and girls. Then he had 3 challengers in the 700m and had no trouble finishing ahead of them, in fact he didn't even skate fast the first 3 laps, only sprinted the last one to make it look like a race:

Cat E boys 700m

Then an interesting idea came up from the organizers: start all the kids at once, young or older, and make it a 8-lap elimination race. At first I was a bit worried there would be many falls but then it proved a nice and good idea. Peter skated clever and tactical and was fighting for 2nd place. Only 2 older boys could finish ahead of him, here's the video (he is #61, in dark blue t-shirt):

1500m elimination

Nationals are due this weekend in Tatabánya.

Intersport Tour de Tisza-tó 2010

This "tour" is a 57-km ride around the Tisza lake, which is an artifical lake and also a natural park. It's completely flat around there so you won't need to climb any hills or roll down slopes. And it is called a tour, as - while some bike pros are racing hard - the main aim is to get people moving and make them cover the distance either on bikes or skates. This tour-ness is what greatly describes the friendly attitude of the event.

We have travelled there by 2 cars, 3 bikers and 4 skaters. The drive was rather uneventful as SSz and FT spent most of the time asleep and Feri spent the time fighting the GPS that seemed to decide 3 satellites are too much :) We got to Tiszafüred quite early, registered and drove some more, as the skaters started from near Poroszló, 8km from the start of the cyclists. We parked the car and had some lazy time, then put up our skates and began waiting for the cyclist.
And there they came, all 1000 of them. Young & aged, racers or tourists, on many types of bikes, we saw even a velociped, a handbike and many many kids, too. After they have gone, we had to stop by a line and an organizer started us, syncing the start with the chip timing system via radio comms. We were about 15 at the start line, later it turned out there were yet more who arrived bit late.
So we started and as there was a light breeze from behind we had quite an easy and comfortable ride southwards. Feri has dropped in the first few km, in fact I didn't even notice as I wasn't looking back - it was such an easy ride I did not think he would drop :( So we rolled on with SSz, as FT and the 'more advanced ones' from Budapest has started out so much faster we lost their sight within minutes. We changed lead in about each 4-5 km for the first 20 kms. RT was following us closely, we talked a bit and agreed to stay together as there would be headwind on the way back.
Apart from the ambulance dealing with injured cyclists every 5 km this part was quite uneventful - nice clean and smooth asphalt on the top of the dike, lake to the left, trees to the right. I kept on eating some glucose every 15 minutes and swallowed a magic energy gel after 1 hour. Then we arrived to the dam near Kisköre where there was a refreshing station (water only) and some concrete surface. SSz and myself eased up a bit, stretching our backs but RT kept on skating the same speed and disappeared quickly. We thought we would catch up with him later but that never happened...
Then we had to climb up the dam, cross it (no big problem, but had to care for the dilating elements) and then came about 2-300m of really bad surface rolling down from the dam, where the safest method was to skate right at the edge of the concrete, almost in the dust. Well that did not do any good to my knees and the left one began to hurt a bit. After that it was a nice ride again eastwards but we knew something bad was still ahead.
And there it was, after 31 km, near Abádszalók. There were 3 kinds of cracked asphalt (bad, worse and even more worse), patched on each other in random order so you had to take every step with caution. I couldn't push a normal push sideways, I was 'tiptoeing' for the next 2 km. This part of the route was tough, mainly for the brain, exhaustive with constant awareness.
From km 35 it was smooth again, but turning North we met some headwind now. Luckily we could use a cyclist to rest behind him for some time, and according to his meter we were travelling by 25 km/h. Both SSz and me were happy with that as we knew this was a really big plus for us. Sadly enough I forgot to eat properly during the rough part and following the cyclist, so all of a sudden, right after 2 hours, all my power was lost, I couldn't even rest there. So I told SSz to go on with the cyclist and I pulled out.
There was about 15 km left - I ate some glucose, consumed another energy gel and tried to get in some rhythm, but I wasn't feeling good. Then I saw OB sitting in the grass (he was travelling with the 'pros' from the beginning), asked him what was wrong but he told me to go on, as he was only waiting for his support cyclist to get him some water. Murphy hit again: after only a few kilometers there was the next watering station (at km 48 or so) where I stopped for a glass of water but then continued without rest. Then came the 'low hit', there were some gravel on the road after about 500m, and I did not notice it in time, caught a stone and couldn't avoid falling. It was no big deal but there was blood on my right knee and my left hip also hurt, though I did not see anything on it from a quick glimpse.
2 cyclists came past me just then, one of them asked if I was OK and I managed to get in their draft. I was suffering badly and didn't have power to skate properly, so I rested there for a bit. I tired to speed up and left them 3 times but failed and slowed down again. Then OB came past me in the draft of his support cyclist, yelled at me to jump over there but I simply couldn't :(
No problem, there were only 5 km left - but what a 5 km. I thought they would go down fast but it was horribly slow how they passed. I've managed to get away from the bikers and skated alone the last 5 but it felt incredibly slow. However I arrived to Tiszafüred at last and crossed the finish line after some zig-zag, in 2:48:05.
I felt completely empty. I rolled to the water, drank some, got rid of my skates and sat there for 5mins. Then phoned home to tell Aniko I was still alive, then sat there again for 5 mins, listening to the speaker announcing the cyclists in the ceremony. After some time I managed to get on my feet and walked to the podium to meet SSz and the other skaters already there. Friendly talk, etc, socializing. Then we saw Feri arrive, just a bit above 3 hours.
Then I caught a ride in a complete stranger's car back to my own car (8 km from the finish line, remember) and during that a heavy thunderstorm hit us. So I was completely soaked when I got in my car, drove back to Tiszafüred and when the storm has gone, we packed up and started driving home. And we felt really grateful that the storm did not come 1 hour earlier :) During the drive - guess what - SSz and FT were asleep for most of the time...
Interestingly I did not feel tired the day after, only felt a little muscle burn. So by Monday I was thinking where to go skating.

Looking back to the event, it was surely fun. Organizers deserve a big bravo, everything was OK. I've never covered such a distance on skates before and I clearly hit some inner barrier at 2 hours, but I want to register for next year's tour again ASAP. It simply felt good skating there!

Transfer

Peter has left his old club and transferred to another one.

This simple sentence above is the result of several nights' bad sleep, a lot of brain cells damaged and weeks spent in anxiety. All of which could have been avoided of course.

Why?
Well that is the question that is still bugging us almost every minute these days. It is one month now that we've made the decision but still it echoes in our mind. I did not want to write about it earlier, letting time to settle things and look back from a distance, but it is still hard to put it down correctly.
If I try to look back from a distance, it all started last October when coach TT was contracted. His main job was to deal with the kids in the club who wanted to race short-track. Coach E told us he had other things in life that took his time and he would be teaching the small ones, who started out discovering skating. This setup seemed fine for us and we knew coach TT was in the national short-track team until recently, so we expected up-to-date knowledge that he could transfer to our kids.
And he did so. He sketched plans and after the initial training sessions told us that our kids lack a lot technically so he could only promise to make them really competitive for the Junior Nat. Champs late in the season, in February. We've accepted this and he began working with them very hard.

And when I say very hard I mean this for real. There have been trainings when the kids almost threw up, when I had to take Peter up the stairs home on my back, when he almost fell asleep on the drive home that is about 10 minutes, etc. According to Churchill: 'blood, sweat and tears'. Okay, blood was not too common :)
After about 2 weeks the first cracks opened. Those (few) who couldn't stand the idea of hard work declared they did not want to race short-track and wanted to do inline only. So they went back to coach E and began some 'base building' period which, to tell the truth, wasn't hard at all. And from then on coach E became more and more jealous(?) about coach TT, it seemed. And of course dirty materials were involved, too, as the club leaders began to complain about coach TT's salary - that was quite strange as it was them who've contracted him...
Months passed, work was on and results started to come. In the championships those who worked hard for real under coach TT posted wonderful times, scoring PBs in all distances. Once again the old wisdom proved true, hard work yielded good results. But then there was another race still in the calendar, late March that we've planned to visit. But all of a sudden the club leaders decided they would not pay for the ice in March. We were shocked - how do we race then if we cannot train on ice?

We swallowed the bitter pill though but our kids were in some kind of 'punishment'(?) - they had to share the training hall with the absolute beginners, but coach TT tried to work it out so they did a lot of dryland and some tech drills. By the end of March it became clear this was not leading anywhere.
And then we suffered a big slap in the face. Coach E posted the groups' timetable for the trainings and coach TT's group had no time reserved for the trainings in the local skate track. We parents decided to meet the club leaders and question their decision, when they told us that they've fired coach TT and his group will be trained again by coach E. Bit strange that coach TT did not know he was being fired...

We were shocked. Really shocked. This all happened on a Friday eve and you can imagine what our weekend was like. We've seen coach E train Peter for years however he has developed in the last 6 months more than ever under the direction of coach TT, so we were sure that returning to coach E was a no-go. Just exactly that time I've read Susan Ellis' article about coaches telling 'do 10 laps of this or that' vs coaches teaching the correct position and technique above all. Coach E is of the former, coach TT is of the latter type for sure.
We talked a lot. We phoned a lot, then talked a lot again. One thing was clear. We wanted to leave the club that didn't even consider what was good for our kids, just their own personal greedy ambitions (maths is simple: ice is expensive, renting a gym is not). After 4 years they just threw away our kids, several champions, hard working ones.

There were 3 clubs in Szeged: one for short-track only, one for inline only, and the one we were to leave, doing both. The obvious would have been to transfer to the first. But after several days' thinking and asking Peter, too, we decided to stay with coach TT. He decided to start a new club and so we joined it.
There are only 5 kids in the club now, but I hope it will grow soon. What are they doing these days? They train 5 times a week, 4* inline and 1 time dryland, as there is no permanent ice available. Sometime during the summer we plan a training camp to gain some ice time, then in October it will be available here, too. If we can find free slots in the ice schedule... Generally speaking we are looking forward racing short-track, but we may visit some inline races, too - just to keep racing spirits high.

So you won't see Peter in black/orange in the future. I think the skinsuit will be green/black/silver. With a silver lining.

Random

I do some running and just found this link about lacing up a running shoe. Wow never thought it would be such an interesting reading...

I am planning to skate 57km on the Tour de Tisza-tó this Saturday. Weather forecast: wind, clouds and rain. Splendid!!!

When you stand by the window and look at the rain outside, eating huge doses of chocolate, can you call that a perfect taper?

The LIL schedule is finalized at last. They parted with Nestle and got a new sponsor LIGLASS who deals with solar energy systems. Last year the winners received huge packs of Nestle products, mainly chocolate. What will they give now, solar panels? :) Hmmm not  bad idea - a solar panel fitted on the helmet and your back, you get home and feel 'energized' :)

Back to taper.

Dom VSI Cup 2010

The season opener for track racing in Hungary was held last weekend here, in Szeged. Peter was not racing (more on that later) but I had the chance to race 2 short distances.

We were only 2 in the senior amateurs 'field' and at first the organizers wanted to make us run together with the pro adults. That didn't seem like a good idea at all (we could have been gapped 3 times in 5 laps...) but then the main referee opposed it so we got our own time-slot. \o/

The first distance was 300m and we started fine but then clicked frames and that made me loose one step. OB went ahead and I was right behind him for most of the distance - he was not doing any crossovers as he does not have any experience with banked tracks and I guess he feared it a bit. That made me think I can overtake him on the exit of a turn. So I was gaining speed in the last turn when *something* happened and I found myself flying in the air and crashing. It wasn't a bad crash, I only hit my right hip, elbow and hand a bit (minor bruises) and got up rapidly to easy skate to the finish line. I have a video of the race and looking at it frame by frame does not show what was wrong at all. I'm puzzled...

Then we visited the McDonald's nearby to have dinner with the kids (promised long ago and somehow they don't forget these things...) and I think it was a big mistake, having a quarter and chips and coke :) When we got back to the track we were due to race in 20 minutes - erm I saw well ahead that was not going to be my best race... 

We started and OB got ahead very soon and I couldn't even get close to him. I was suffering badly and looking for a place to throw up safely and secretly :) So I finished with a bad time, about 100m behind OB, feeling lucky to even survive. Stupid stupid me grrrrrrrrrr

It doesn't look like I'd be attending more track races in this year, maybe the local one here in the autumn so no championship hopes are alive. However it would be good to run at least one more race to have more decent PBs for this year.

The event was well-organized and weather was good, bit too windy but nothing serious. However there were many crashes in the pro races and that is simply no fun. Too bad to see many kids around with bandages and scars and road rash.

Peter's age field was not a strong one at all, he could have grabbed gold or (worst case) a silver medal if he raced. I am really sorry he couldn't enter.

Results here: amateurs young pros older pros.

Base Zero?

If I look at my skate calendar for 2010 I can see the main Base (both 1 & 2) period is over. It is the time of the year where you should do long, steady & slow kilometer hunting, staying in aerobic heart-rate zone, to build up endurance. That is the theory at least.

Now let's take a look at my skate log: so far in the year I've skated 121 kms and run 196 kms. I don't remember where I've put my totals for Base 1 - but in Base 2 (that means the last 5 weeks) I've spent 33h 48m, burning 22192 kCals during 31 training sessions. I think it is a bit low but let's be fair, the last few weeks (since the start of April) I had a quite good schedule training-wise, 31 sessions in 35 days is not bad (88%).

I had two disappointing races during this period, first the Bratislava HM and then the IV. Dom Cup (more on that later). Yes there is a silver lining to every cloud, I am looking very hard to find it :)

Now come the Intensity training weeks, I expect to gain some speed during that and do many drills as recovery. What's in the plans? I'd like to skate a tour around the Tisza lake (55km), then run a 4mile race called Cora-run in town. And after the intensity phase I'll have 2 half-marathons in Slovakia before summer, to prove I can make a new personal best.