Spring and summer, 2011

Well I did not write too much about Peter's training during the spring or the summer... I'll try to recap a bit now:

There was a slight rest after the last race (Celje, Slovenia, end of March), then came training on inline skates (the ice rink in Szeged closes by April). Long steady distances and lots and lots of technique. Although there were 3 inline races in the spring-summer interval that our club wanted to attend, but none of them were given top priority. Luckily enough, 2 races were held here locally, so we didn't even have to travel at all :)

The first race, the student's olympic brought only fair success. I know, we did not prepare much for it, but in several cases our girls or boys missed the podium only by a narrow margin. It was very disappointing but we must learn to get over it, like some bonze in meditation, because the kids had a long and tiring shorttrack racing season behind them. Peter came in 4th both on his distances, and it was clearly visible that he got unused to the harsh and violent races in inlines, like getting a push or knock at the start... instant penalty in shorttrack...

Early June our club was given the opportunity to show off skating in a big multi-sport festival in Szeged, where several thousand people could see and several hundred could even try out skating (on inlines). Well we tried, but it was quite hard to promote ice skating in 30+ Celsius... :)

We were on holidays in the second half of June, in turn the second local race was held in that time. So I cannot even tell much about that - but the sea is nice and good :) Only 1 week after we've gotten home, there was an Europe-Cup race in Tatabánya, but it would have been useless to race there after 2 weeks of lack of training.

Mid-July the kids attended a dryland training camp in Budapest-Normafa for one week, just like in the previous year. It was brutally hot then, Peter fell every 2nd day and earned war scars during the forest runs, so he did suffer this time. :( Then came 1 week of well-earned rest and again a period of 5 trainings per week.

We've managed to travel to hols again early August for a week, then Peter attended a 5-day training camp on ice in Budapest. From this point inlines were forgotten, just to not mix the two different skating styles. At the end of August, yet again 2 days on ice in Budapest, only to make school start easier :D

September was very tense and intense: 5 dryland trainings each week with running, working on stairs, imitation, cord-assisted imitation... and on 2 weekends head to Budapest, the ice rink, 2 ice sessions in 2 days. This is how we've reached the end of the month and today, when we start and drive to Zagreb, Croatia for our first race of the season.

Santa Claus Cup 2010, Budapest

This event is one of the main highlights in the Hungarian race calendar usually. Last year Peter fell ill just on the eve before the races, so we missed out completely then. This year we had high expectations and I think they've mostly fulfilled.

The program started with the longest distance, 500m for Peter. There were 8 racers alltogether, divided into two semifinals. Peter started well in his race and traveled quite comfortably behind TA for most of the distance, advancing to the A Final easily. His time was 58:500~ish but it was declared NOTIME for some techical difficulties.

500m semifinal

Then in the final his start wasn't as good as usual and he quickly found himself in position #3. He was clearly faster then KA right ahead him but he missed at least 2 occasions for taking over. Instead Peter kept on trying an inner pass but quite late, into the turn - that resulted in some close-combat action and while he managed to skate a new PB of 57:557 he was DQ-d later for impeding. Yes, disqualifed, no P(enalty) - why? I thought the new rules apply...
Anyway he has to learn this aspect of racing, too. Referees, decisions, points of view...
Coach TT helped him get through this mental shock (first DQ in his life) and analyze what went wrong - and to concentrate on the next distance.

500m Final A

The 222m seems to fit Peter this year very much - nice quick start and 2 laps of full power. He came 2nd in the semi again with a not-so-good start.

222m semifinal

Then in the A Final he fought off a takeover try from SzÁ for position 2, grabbing 21 points in the end.

222m Final A

As the closing event of the day Peter joined 2 beginners to form an ad-hoc relay team. The original plan was that each of them skates 2 laps and relays then. However being beginner doesn't help in relays, so poor 2nd guy fell 3 times from 4. All 3 times Peter was there in a wink and relayed him and zoomed off to cover 2 laps quickly. But this resulted that he had to do 10 laps compared to the 6 planned. And a closing twist of life, the race officials ordered the re-run of the whole relays for some technical problems. But luckily it was postponed until the next day.

On Sunday Peter started with the 333m semi-final, where he showed quite a good start. But then he didn't have a good transition speeding up in the first turn and that left a good choice for SzÁ to take him over. From then on it was a nice combat, Peter looking for takeover opportunities but never really finding a good one. He almost managed to finish an attempt in the last lap but it didn't come true. No problem, he got in the A Final again.

333m semifinal

In the final he started strong from lane 3 and entered the first turn in 2nd position, right after TA. He was very close to TA but missed a crossover in the 4th turn. So he found himself 3 meters behind immediately and SzÁ was coming close dangerously from behind. But Peter did not give up and pushed a bit harder again in the straight, leaving no chance for SzÁ for an attack. So he finished 2nd again.

333m Final A

In the overall he gained 42 points and so finished 3rd, only 5 ponts behind SzÁ. It is a very good result IMHO given the fact he missed out on points on one distance completely, due to the DQ.

His skating looked good and he showed good form throughout the weekend. Official results here.

1. Winter Jász Cup

On the 13-14th November there was a shorttrack competition in Jászberény that we attended. The aim of it was to set up a short series for the novice racers in Hungary, so that they do not have to travel far for racing opportunities, maybe even in towns where there are no shorttrack clubs. Well this year the latter is not true but the Union is planning to enhance the series the next years so we may see that happen, too. This year the series consist of 3 stages, 1st in Jászberény, the 2nd in Szeged early January and the closing stage in Budapest, late January.
Racing in Jászberény was interesting as it is the only open-air competition this season. Peter for example has never raced on open-air ice before (in shorttrack). We were happy to have this race in the schedule as the planned race in Trnava was cancelled and the Szeged race was moved to January, so without this race there would have been no racing in November at all.

The rink at noon

Poor TR fell ill Thursday so we travelled only 5 - 2 racers (CD and Peter), two parents and coach TT. Spent Friday night in a student hostel, about 400m from the rink, so we could get up relatively late. The weather was very nice, quite hot for a November day - it was about 15C and clear midday. The ice melted quite fast so racing had to end about 12:00 both days.

Ice - ice?

(C) Gémesi Balázs

Peter had 3 distances (500m, 222m and 333m). He started the 500m semifinal very strong and was leading clearly when he fell in a turn, 1.5laps before the end. Even though he got up and started again, his legs locked up completely so he was overtaken and finished 3rd, that meant he could not race in the A final.

500m semifinal

In the Final B he was racing almost alone as he lapped his only competitor in the last lap. His time wasn't too good this way, it must have been much much better if he really raced someone.
Later the day he took part in a relay but with quite novice skaters from other clubs and so it was considered a good training only.

500m Final B

On Sunday he ran a quite strong 222m semifinal first, then grabbed 2nd in the final. He managed a new personal best in the semi - his start is really fine!

222m semifinal

Then a new PB in the final, too - 26:42, 1.5 seconds shaved off  the old PB!

222m Final A

Then he ran a similarly strong 333m semi, again a PB (38.90 - 2.5 seconds better than before).

333m semifinal

In the final he was in 1st place for 1.5 laps but couldn't handle the fact he was in front and did not skate a nice style, so he was overtaken by TA easily.

333m Final A

Still he finished 2nd here, too, so in overall he gained a bronze medal!

Cat F boys podium

Coach TT was quite satisfied with him minus the last final, it is still early season, so it all points to a good direction if he can evolve so fine.

Warm-up

CD had only one opponent in his age class, FT - also from Szeged. They've fought nice battles in all 3 distances and while CD finished 2nd each time he was really competent and skated much better style than FT. Again, a promising form for the season.

Ah and this race was the premiere for the new racing suits - black, green and silver.

(C) Gémesi Balázs

The boys looked fine wearing them - what do you think?

(C) Gémesi Balázs

PS:

The new boots worked perfectly, according to Peter. And they did not hurt his ankle at all!

Shiny new boots

We've bough a new pair of boots for Peter, his first 'real' shorttrack boot.

He's been using a Powerslide R2 junior model so far both for inlines or ice. Recently he has been telling us that the boot was bit too wide and it touched the ice in the turns. Add to that the fact that coach TT has also told us Peter would need a new boot soon so we had to look & shop around.
In the end we chose a handmade model from Hungary, produced by ex-shorttrack skater Balázs Knoch. He's living in Pécs and produces either standard, semi-custom or custom boots for skaters along some accessories, too. We drew around the outline of Peter's feet on a paper, measured the biggest length and width (his left foot is 4mm bigger than his right one...) and sent that drawing to Balázs. We agreed on phone that the size was right between 33 and 34 and we'd choose the bigger one for practical reasons - a kid can jump 2-3 shoe sizes in a year if nature decides so... But Balázs told us he'd also make a size 33 boot, so we can also try that.
While there are several models to choose from, we picked the cheapest model, again for practical reasons. It costs only 150 € and made of leather & some kind of compound, in black/silver. There is a 300 € model with stiffened ankle section and then you can have a full custom carbon boot starting from 600 € - something definitely not aimed at kids :)

2 weeks later we were driving to Pécs to try and take away the boots. Peter tried them on in the morning (size 34 fit perfectly) and then Balázs told us they would be ready in the afternoon. So we spent some time wandering around in the town and then late afternoon Peter was the happy owner of the new boots. You surely know that smile one can not get rid of when he receives a new toy :) He even put it next to his bed when we arrived home, so in the morning he could keep looking at it...

The first training with the boots on was Tuesday and he was very satisfied with the feel. He said the boots worked very nicely in the turns and helped him get on the outer edges easier. He can point his knees further down & forward so it generally helps getting lower in basic position. Coach TT told us that the boot would also help in finishing the push movement properly, too.
As the cuff is much higher than that of his previous boots it was quite evident there would be some initial 'suffer' period and of course it arrived by the end of the training. There was a red swallow area over both of his ankles that we iced 2 times that day and tried to apply some magic cream (comfrey) to help heal them. Next morning it was quite a torture to put the boots on again but the afternoon we repeated the above cure. Came Thursday morning and the swallow was not as big after the training than before, still applied both ice and the cream later the day. By Friday morning it seems it is getting normal.

This weekend there will be a competition in Jaszbereny, the first round of the Hungarian Novice Cup (3 stages). I really hope Peter's legs will be able to cope with the stress and that he can use his new boots successfully during racing. I am really curious to see how it works, will report back of course. Until then, some pics of his new boots:

Zagreb Trophy 2010

As mentioned earlier, after 1 week on ice we've already been to a competition that was scheduled quite early in the race calendar, at the first weekend of October. The Zagreb Trophy was the first station of the Alpe-Adria Cup, which was planned to have 4 stages but now it seems there will be only 3. The original plans included Zagreb, Delnice, Sarajevo and Celje, but if you look at the calendar these days, the Sarajevo leg in February is missing :( Too bad, I really would have enjoyed a trip there and look around in the Olympic stadium.

Anyway, Zagreb. Luckily it is not a long drive from home so with an early-afternoon start we've arrived to the hostel at a reasonable time. Next day we got up at 6am and had breakfast, then went to the rink at 7am for the training. The rink, placed next to a hippodrome is called Klizaliste Velesajam and looks quite impressive from the outside, and is very friendly inside, too. There are many large, warm dressing rooms, a nice coffee bar, huge panoramic windows, and everything was quite warm - though it may have helped that it was nice fall weather outside. One could comfortably get around the rink without a coat, contrary to some deep-freeze rinks :)

The racing field size was not big at all but it matched the team's aims perfectly: early-season 'training' competition, to get in the mood of racing. And who knows, if we race in all the competitions of the series, we might get a good overall result anyway. While mostly local racers, there were kids from Slovenia, Bosnia,  Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech and even from Kazakhstan. We've entered 3 competitors, TR (cat E), CD (cat C) and Peter (cat F).

Peter's field was only 3, with JP from Szeged and the local TK, who was obviously a real beginner, so it was down to a 2-men battle. Peter had beautiful starts in every heat but could'n skate in a good form in the first day at all. It was clearly visible he missed time on ice and could show some decent movement form only on the second day. That day he fought much much better but fell 2 times - no luck. His best time on 500m was only 1 second slower though than his PB from the last season. 2nd in each distance he grabbed a silver medal this time.

TR was the youngest of her category and she's been racing only for 1 year now, so it was obvious she would not win yet. Anyway she did not finish last and managed to better her PB on 2 distances.
CD only missed 3rd overall due to a big tactic error (not paying attention who is taking over) and a disputable penalty in the superfinal. He also managed to get a new PB on 500m.

After a lengthy ceremony we headed home but this time the travel seemed to take much much longer - still we managed to get home quite early. It was a good competition with a friendly attitude, quite some early-season-form errors and mistakes to analyze and correct. Let's hope the upcoming legs will be as useful as this one was at least.
No videos this time (you know, will publish only those that are worth it...), results are here. You can find quite some photos around on FB.

On ice again

Short entry:

the local rink in Szeged is open again since late September. Quite early compared to the previous years.
Our team has 3 trainings on ice per week at the moment.
One week in training we've already been to a competition, more on that soon.

Oh how I missed handling cold, dirty mats... :)

Summer ice training

Following the dryland training camp and some more dryland workouts in the next 2 weeks, the team took part in a short ice training camp in Budapest early August. There were 7 sessions during 4 days, ie 2 trainings in a day.

Working in 2 age groups

Each participant stayed in Hotel Pilon, about 400m from the ice hall, which proved to be a very good selection especially in the mornings: The daily schedule was something like getting up before 5:00 and walk up to the ice hall, then at 5:20 start 40-50 minutes of dryland before getting in the hall and onto the ice. The ice sessions were 1-1.5 hours long and the kids only got to eat the breakfast after that. Then they spent the rest of the morning in laid-back style and had lunch in a nearby restaurant. Then they had some more rest (and occasional nap) before doing another dryland/ice training. Then back to the hotel, eat some and get into bed early.

Rest

As it was August, there was a high contrast in temperature (~30C outside, 5C in the hall) so the clothing part was tricky but manageable of course. The 'wake up early' part of the camp was a real killer but the kids at least learned to pre-fetch the clothes they wanted to put on the next day.

Relays start

There were 4 kids (CD, TR, NB and Peter) from our club plus coach TT, 4 from Pécs and their coach, and a lot of girls from Jászberény. I am quite an outsider in ST but I could see huge differences in technique and dryland work of the different teams (and I think our kids are on the better side). The last day 2 of our Olympians (R.Darázs and B.Heidum) joined and helped the kids a bit in the dryland part - it must be a good and positive impulse for them to get help from the sportsmen / sportswomen they saw racing in Vancouver on TV just some months ago...

Dryland exercises

The camp was very tiring but it was useful for sure. Too bad we won't have ice time locally until October and so we must grab every occasion to train on ice, yet it will mean lots of travel. Coach TT says it will be a busy September...

Dryland training camp

Peter and the team has spent a week in a dryland training camp in Budapest mid-July, together with the local Sportország SC team. The setting was beautiful as it took place in the hilly section of Budapest, in Normafa. Cool forests, pathways, and lots of elevation change. The climate was terrible though, each day it peaked around 33-35 C so it was no fun at all.

End of warm-up football

The camp consisted of 3 days work, then 1 day off, then 3 days work again. Each day they had two training sessions, the first one from 9 to 11:30, then lunch and some rest time, then the second session from 15:00 till 17:00 or so.

Peter in red T-shirt

In the morning training they had runs, imitations, sprints - usually uphill. Then in the afternoon they did more imitations, with or without non-elastic band and some more running. This all sounds very simple but the fact they had BÁ, the well-know ST trainer train them shows how serious work they had to do. The aim of this all was to prepare them physically for the upcoming ice season.

Imitation

Peter lost 2.5 kg in one week, and 4 cm from his waist. And his muscle definition looks fantastic. Now I wish he could transform all this technique he learnt now onto ice when racing...

BÁ and Peter, working on technique

They stayed in a one-star hotel on the Pest side of Budapest but it was quite clean. And after all, they went there to have sleep - and in fact they did not care where to sleep, only to get some.

We visited him in the last 2 days with Moira and Anikó, to support him a bit and also to celebrate HR's and Peter's birthday with a nice cake in the last evening. They were born only 1 day apart so the cake was half pink and half blue, with '9' candles on each half.

The cake

Poor ones - they still had trainings on the next day...

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.

The moment

There is a moment in the rink, when the ice resurface ends. The zamboni leaves the ice, the doors are closed, the mats are put back to their place.
Then, just before the referees enter the rink again and blow their whistles to get the racers on ice, to wake up the monster called 'racing crowd' for an un-wanted awakening, just before the rink is starting to get surrounded again by all the excited coaches, racers, parents, helpers and supporters - there is a moment.

The moment when the rink is clean in its virginity. The ice is perfect and smooth and shiny. Plain as plain as it can be, only few patches of water left behind to start to turn into that so much loved and so much hated material we call ice.

That moment is filled with silence.

Those up in the seats look at the boards to see which heat is a'coming, the coaches look at their papers and check their stopwatch; and the racers look at the ice. They look at the ice and see the upcoming moments.
The moments before the start, filled with enourmous anxiety, the seconds after the gun was shot before they reach the first corner.
They see the battle for position, the first straight where they realize the possibilities and threats, the fights they have to fight to gain a position, the 'wars' they are to wage soon.
They hear the clip-clap of the post-start rush, the carving sound of the steel urging to get a grip, the blade cutting the ice firmly in the turns, the smooth sssssssshhhhhh when they negotiate the calmer straights.
And they hear the sound of the blade losing grip, the human falling down, the lycra gliding on the ice and the inevitable whop when one crashes into the mats.
They hear the one beat that parents' heart miss when they see their children crash, the beset moment the distressed moms and dads have to live through until they see if their beloved can stand up.
And they see and hear the moment at the finish line, when everything is over. The seconds when they can stand up again and look down at the ice, glide in free lines not caring about boyes or opponents again. The seconds when they replay what they have done in the seconds they have just left behind and rethink if it was worth it.

All these things are there, in that given moment, filled with silence.

That moment is what I love most on shorttrack competitions. You should try to get a chance to catch that moment someday.

Thin ice & the lazy days

The last training session in the year was a free-for-all ice time for the kids, brother/sisters/parents (and pets). So we took our chance and tried ice.

Ice is wicked. Period.

It is slippery and fast. And using hockey skates I spent most of the time preventing falling ahead. I just missed some blade length as I was used to the frame length of my inline.
However Moira enjoyed it and skated quite a lot, Anikó also entered the rink and had fun, mainly laughing at herself trying to get around (she did quite well though but she won't admit that) and Peter was scorching around as usual, this time they played games on ice on hockey blades, too.
In the end we opened some champagne just to realize yet again many many people don't like it at all :)

Aniko holding firm. As if I could stand firm...

The kids, Peter in center in dark blue/black, Moira bit to the right in pink.

Peter and Aniko asleep :D

Ah and the next day coach Endre decided to go to hospital with 6 hours remaining in the year, and used an appendicitis to make it happen. Nice way to spend New Year's Eve, isn't it... :D

It has been unusually cold outside for at least 2 weeks now, in the -10 & -5 range. Though this may sound like a warm spring to some Canadians but we are freezing here. It made me change my training schedule to skip running and use a stationery bike instead in the gym. I just hate the seat :s