Bratislava

I've done it!

Arrived to Bratislava, Slovakia at around 7:50 and we walked to the registration, everything went smooth & professional.
Then warmed up a bit and put skates on.

The race started at 09:45, weather was overcast and around 10C, light breeze from south. All in all there were 271 starters and in fact I was a bit overwhelmed by that number. Following the slow start we rolled down about 400m to the quay of river Danube where we stopped, and following the gun started the race for real (map here).
It was here I made my biggest mistake in the race, I positioned myself way too back near the end of the crowd. After the initial 400-500 metres we had to climb up to the bridge 'Novy Most' which proved a bit hard for quite some people and I was able to overtake some. Then some more climb up to the middle of the bridge and from there whoooosh down in straight line onto Panonska Cesta, a 4-line road (2 lines closed). Fighting the small breeze I tried to hop from group to group, but it was quite demanding. My heart rate went up to 99% sometimes so I had to relax a bit drafting.
The road turned eastwards and climbed a bit for an overpass which I found very hard to cope with. Then onto a rough asphalt for 1.5 km and then down south again, following the dam.
This part of the route was shown as 1 km on the race map but proved to be 2.8 :) I could see the leaders racing in the opposite direction, on the top of the dam, and tried to catch glimpse of the others from our club (Szonja, Balázs and Dani) without any success. This section was quite OK, the asphalt was smooth and by now (we are talking about km #9-12) I was feeling OK and perfectly warmed-up. I could lead the group I was in long enough and bring them up to another group ahead.

Then came a short climb and turn back, and we started our way back to the finish. With the turn the breeze now helped us a little bit and it was much much easier to ride with speed. However sometime later my lower back started to signal it would become stiff soon, so I had to stand up and stretch it sometimes.
We were rolling on the bike routes on the dam all the way north back in the city, the road was OK with few hazards but all of them were signed with red paint. I was drafting a lot with #201 (a big thank you goes for Peter Cervinka from Vienna).
At around km #19 it started to rain, first only very slightly but soon enough water gathered to make the roads slippery. Unfortunately it was also the last kilometres that we had to climb up the bridge 'Stary Most', which proved very hard for me on slippery surfaces. I was not able to push long enough to the side and completely lost my speed in the climb. Then on the bridge I suffered to gain some speed again but the dilating elements and the surface errors made it too hard for me to cope with it :s In the last turn, down from the bridge & left, all the organisers showed us to slow down, I guess the turn was quite slippery and the crossing tram lines did not help either. After that it was a 500 m ride up to the gate and the clock stopped at 1:03:03!

I was and still I am very happy and satisfied with this result!!! I earned 155th place between the men (from 200 starting). I now think I could have earned about 2 minutes if I did not make that silly mistake at the start and stay with the rest of the team - but well, next time it will be better :) According to my HRM the first half of the race went harder, HR average was 95%, while it was only 94% during the second part.
Szonja finished 17th in the women's race (47:13), while in the men's race Balázs 133th (59:55, had a small crash), Dani 135th (59:57). Results here, photos I will try to find (Szonja here on Stary Most, #243).

(l-r) Szonja, me, Balázs and Dani

The race itself was very well organized, lots of police and race staff everywhere, chip timing, big screens; and friendly spectators, friendly racers, it was really fun to be there. I really hope to get back here next year.

Bratislava pre-race

22 hours left before the inline race in Bratislava will get started.

22.5 km to cover. That is a bit more than a half-marathon but I heard it starts with a slow start to lead the pace out of the zigzagging inner streets onto the new bridge (Novy Most) where the race can start for real.
Weather is not looking good. They predict 5-10 C, wind and... rain.
What do I expect? Last year I've done the HM distance in 1:29, now I'd like to finish under 1:10. I know I have the aerobic fitness but I haven't skated for a long time, only 2 short occasions. Hmmm... maybe a bit too courageous? We will see :)
We will get in the car at 03:30, drive along 350kms, run the race and get back home. Sounds like a perfect lazy weekend :)

Building a base 1

Sometime in October I decided to follow Rob Bell's periodisation tips on Inline Planet to build a more sportsman-like body shape in 2009.
According to those plans I've started a Base1 period at the 1st of February. Due to the weather it mostly consisted of doing running trainings, both outdoors or on the dreadmill. I just simply hate the stationery bikes in the gyms with their awful seats. I think spinner bikes are OK but I definitely do not want to take spinning classes. I should look for a gym where I can use the spinning bike for an hour or more, without a crazy instructor shouting around.
Anyway, Base 1 period ended last Sunday and now I can sum it up:

• ran 187 kms in 18h42m (23 sessions)
  
• did 1 indoor skate session

That is not too much :( 24 training sessions in 6 weeks, means I trained every other day. Running was at 6 min/km, that is OK I think, as long as one wants to do long, slow distance trainings.
So I am still undecided if I can call this Base 1 period successful or not. Time will tell.

ST Junior Championships, 2009

The last race meet for the kids this winter season was held 21-22 February, in Budapest.

Peter was not in a good form before the races. He looked tired, he moved out of sync a lot of times on practices. It may have been the long winter, the day-to-day school work or something else, maybe the touch of flu halving his class, though he did not catch that until lately.

Anyway we 4 + Marci arrived to Budapest quite early on Friday, had much time before the practice. Then next day the races began.
Peter's age category had the most contenders, 14. So it meant he had to run quarterfinals, semifinals and finals at each distance. An it proved a little bit too demanding.
Saturday he had the 400m quarter/semi/final, then the 222m quarter/semi/final, and even the 333m quarters. No wonder he was damn tired by the end of the day.
And interestingly, Sunday he was more impressive. He did not fight the corners at last, got in nice low position, pushed nice long. Where was all of that before? Who knows... Too bad it came only on Sunday, I wish it was a day before that.
He finished 10. on 400m, 11. on 222m and 13. on 333m. Not an impressive result at all, but I keep telling myself he still has 2 years in this age category, so no need to hurry at all.

Detailed results are here and I will post some photos as soon as I get to it...

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.

Indexed

I love thisisindexed.com. Jessica is truly one of the bests of Internet.
Here's a recent one from her, titled Fate = Decisions:

Simply great, isn't it?

Dark gray January

January. Sportwise it was not the best month.
Peter had a small local race mid-month, where he skated like he learnt skating a month before. After the race he summed it up "I was tired and I did not want to race".
Then he got hit by flu.
Then at the end of the month we entered Pannonia Open ST race in Budapest. 230+ racers from 17 nations, a really big crowd. But for Peter it was one of his worst races.
He started with 500m on Friday, where he almost fell in the 3rd turn and so finished 4th (3 advancing), 3 seconds slower than his best. And overall, you could see he was 'not there'. He lacked concentration, but I told myself it was due to the fact he has just got better after the flu. Anyway, it was quite hard to get him in normal mood again.
Then Saturday, in the 222m he started well, he fought like he usually does - and then fell :( He was crying when he quit the rink but I persuaded him he was doing everything OK, it was just bad luck. And indeed it was.
Sunday, 333m - a good start again but loosing ground in first turn, then he climbed back and reached up to the 3rd position guy, but then when he was looking for the occasion to overtake him, he fell again in the turn.
What can you say after a weekend like this? The next one will be better :)

In school he was flying high though. He brought home his half-year sum-up and it was all excellent. So there is a silver lining...

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

Santa Claus Cup, 2008

So it has arrived, Peter's first real shorttrack race. Santa Claus Cup 2008, Budapest.

And in fact a very proud dad reporting, you may expect a very much biased report here :)
It was a 2-day race, with a warm-up session in the evening prior to the first day, so we had to drive to Budapest early afternoon on Friday, 12th December. Peter enjoyed the evening session quite a bit, he especially liked the quality of ice in the rink.
Saturday morning the race started with the smallest ones, so he had to get on ice quite early, in Heat 3 of 500m. He finished 2nd in his heat so he made it directly into the final, though I was not too much satisfied with his time, he clearly eased up in the last 2 laps, giving away 2 seconds per lap. It is quite uncommon from him but I told myself it must have been the stage fright.
In the finals he finished 6th but no problem, as he was smallest & youngest so grabbing a 6th place from 14 competitors is a very nice achievement.

Then came the heats of 222m and he made it to the semis in a nice way, it was a big fight to claim 2nd but he missed it by 0.2 seconds. In the semis he finished 3rd so went to the B-final and finished 3rd there (7th from 14).
After all these heats and finals he had to do the 333m quarter-final in the evening but again, showing a superb form, got it under his belt coming 2nd.

The next day he was simply - tired. He was lacking concentration and was yawning while I laced up his boots - not the best state of mind to get on ice at all :s But I think I must not blame him for that, he had to fight in 6 stages the previous day and this kind of pressure was quite unknown for him so far - but remember, he is only 7 years old...
He fell in the 333m semi-final so went into the final B, where he met the mats again so finished 3rd there (7th from 14 again).
Then there was only 1 commitment left for him, to cover the starting 1.5 laps in the relays for cat C-D-E boys, so we could start a relay team, otherwise there would have been only 2 boys from the team, missing the criteria of 3 starting... He started (looked bit comic compared to 14-yr-old boys...) and made a nice relay, so he did what he had to do for the team :)
Overall he gained 7th place and everyone finishing ahead of him was significantly older - just click and check out the age of the others on the overall classification list. He ran super times, personal bests in all distances and very promising ones - now I am very very curious about his season-ending times due in March or so.
Generally speaking about the race itself it was very well organized, with a good speaker and nice people all around.

Complete results are here, or you can see them filtered for Cat F boys, too.
I'll try my best uploading videos to YouTube and link them here ASAP.

Transition...

...to ice was going on since October. In fact, Peter says he likes skating on ice more than on inlines. He managed to adopt well, though many times he is not low enough, but... he is only 7, has quite some time to refine his position skills.
There was a small local race together with another club, a good opportunity to check out race times and gain some experience. Peter - as youngest in his category - finished 2nd (from 5) in 3 heats, and 3rd in one, where he clearly missed overtaking opportunities. But we talked it over and he showed the next heat he can fight.
You may check out the videos on YouTube, in cronological order:
400m 222m 333m 500m
(the camera ran out of memory in the last lap of the 500m but nothing happened there...)
When running alone, against the clock, he is now 6 seconds quicker on 222m than he was in March - we will see next March how he will develop during the winter season.

Santa Cup is going to happen this weekend in Budapest, so, his first real shorttrack test is near :)

... my transition to winter mode is like:

• got back to going to the gym 3 times a week
• running 4-5 kms 3 times a week
• an hour-long indoor training, once a week

I generally refer to these as 'pre-season' - I myself wonder when the base/season would start at all :D:D

Oh almost forgot - convinced Aniko to start skating, so she already had 2 lessons and she says she had fun :)