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.

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 :)

X. Cora-run, Szeged

This last Sunday the 10th Cora run was held in our town.
I've entered the 6.6km race (in an insane moment) and decided to run the 3.3km with Peter as a cool-down.

We've arrived quite late, about 20 minutes before the race start so I immediately went to do some warm-up jogging. Weather was perfect for running, about 20C and cloudy. About 5 minute left and I approached the start line and found a comfortable place for myself in the middle of the crowd. I wanted to start a bit slow and then increase the pace in the 2nd lap, but then after the start I was quite amused to find I was running a good tempo at a heart rate of 97-98% - it was better than my expectations.
On the quay we head a light headwind so I went into 'head down and keep on pushing'-mode, taking care of the HR - if it rised to 99-100% I slowed slightly until it dropped to 97-98% again. Then at the end of the quay on the small uphill I caught up with two guys running side-by-side and it was quite relaxing to follow them for the next kilometer or so. At the end of lap 1 they increased the tempo a bit and I let them go - but I was satisfied with my tempo and overall state. I finished lap 1 (3.3km) in 15:14, that's a pace of 4:37.

300m from finishing lap 1

Then I ran alone for the next km and on the quay I managed to slowly overtake at least 4 runners. I kept on keeping my HR at 98% maximum and planned to do a flat-out last km. However when I had about 1.5km to go my side became stiff and painful and it took me a whole km to get rid of that with deeper breathing and easing up a bit. I was lucky though that those whom I've overtook before did not reach up to me. So the last 500m came and I started my so-called flat-out, however it was not a real sprint just a nice tempo :s The 2nd lap was 15:31 (pace 4:43) mainly due to my last 1.5km sufferings.

50 m to go

All in all I was very happy with my finish time of 30:45, it means I can run a 4:40 pace for half an hour \o/. Slow long distance runs show their strength at last. And take into account that I've only done very few interval trainings so far this year so the tempo should increase further later on.

Then there was about 1 hour left before Peter's run so I had quite some time to recover - I've done some cool-down jogging and thorough stretching. We've met some people from Peter's school or Moira's kindergarten, too.

We warmed up again with Peter and he was eager to find himself a good starting position so he went straight into the crowd early. At last when he stopped we were about 6 rows from the start line. We had to wait for 5 more minutes and then the gun went off.

As usual a lot of people started rushing ahead so I kept on telling him to keep a steady calm pace and not to care about the others. By the end of km 1 we started to take over those early birds and all I felt was it was hard to keep up with him. I've checked the time and saw 5:20 and the alarm started ringing in my head: it would be too fast. I told him to slow down a bit but you may guess how successful I was with that... he kept on running this pace and even increased it further. Then came the 2km right at the end of the quay and he told me he felt tired so we slowed down a (very) little bit. However after 200 metres he increased the tempo again. But nothing goes unpunished, he dropped down again at about km 2.7 so it was again time to slow down a bit. Then just before km 3 I told him to look right for a photo and that there is only 300m left to go - so he made a smiling face for Aniko and then produced such a sprint to the finish line I could not keep up with him :)

Peter just before starting his sprint for finish

I finished about 15 meters behind him but stopped the watch when he crossed the line - it stopped at 17:10! That's a pace of 5:13 / km - remember he is not even 8 yet!!! I was amazed with this, however after drinking a cup of water his first sentence was: Daddy I am veeeery hungry! :D:D:D

Then we went and searched for the girls near the stage, luckily Aniko has bought some scones so he had his CH refill soon. Small things that count for real...