Pushing to the limit

Starting from this week, Tuesday is dedicated to racing. These are controlled-time laps to get each group to the desired time. For the masters (35 yrs and older) the lap time are 13.5 for 4 laps, 13 for 3 laps and 12 something for last three laps. It's done continuesly in groups (Pro, Senior, Master and kids). Today's entire training included a 100 lap controled burn plus 3 races for each of the adult groups, the kid group raced after each adult group race (meaning 3x3 races). The coach threw in one more at the end, so they had a total of 10 races.

It's the first time I see Ruri getting really exhausted after each race. She did really well. Apart from the first race, all other races she was just behind the two junior boys, both of them are placed number 1 in the South West region for the Standard Junior class (better than the Junior Olympic class). I didn't check her time, but I believe it should be in the lower 13 seconds. However she is two years older (JO elementary class) so catching up with the Junior boys will be her goal, and she knws that.

Next regional meet will be Feb 17-18 in Merced (near Yosemite), it happens to be during the spring break, we are planning to be there....meaning she'll need to train harder.

Goal: lower 11-12 second lap

Tuesday Ruri took her first private lesson from her coach...it exposed a lot of little problems with her technique: outside edge, one leg glide etc. I recorded the session on video and we should come back to the drills in the next few month as much as possible. I look at this as a blessing, this means she has a lot of room to improve. Coach also told me that to qualify for nationals, Ruri needs to place 4 and above in the June regional meet, and she believe it should be in the lower 11-12 second lap range for the 300m. Wow, I wish I can skate 11-12 second laps, right now I'm stuck at middle of 12-13, but I believe Ruri can do it in the next 6 months. Ruri seems to understand more now she needs to work hard to make the nationals. She did a very good controlled burn session afterwards and it's the first time to see her face turned so red afterwards.

Japanese new year's food

We've been having the same new years food (called Osechi Ryori, 御節料理) for many years but this is the first time I have tried to record it. I was told ready-made boxes sold in Japan town can cost between 100-500 dollars (probably with more exotic materials).

The main objective, as I was told, is to give the designated cook in the house a rest (up to 15 days:-), and to eat some food that will bring good luck (I'll explain later). To be honest, these are not my favorite food, but you only have to eat them once a year for good luck, so no complains allowed.

The Osechi Ryouri comes in a set of lacquerware boxes and they are chosen more to do with their superstitious meanings rather than the taste:-). Below is one set we had for this year. The chestnut in mashed sweet potato is meant for money (as gold), the Gobou (牛蒡) root is for strength and toughness, the Kazunoko (herring roe) is meant to give you many children, and the black beans are for smartness. The soup is called Ozouni(お雑煮) and has rice cake in it. I was told every new year, quite a few people choke on them and die. I wander why it is still in the Ozouni, could be the result of heavy lobbying by rice farmers if you are really paranoid:-)

Oh, everyone must have his/her own chopsticks for the fifteen days to eat this food only. You also have to write your names on the paper container, and not wash the chopstics in the sink after each meal.....I'have probably forgotten a bunch of other rules:-)

Finally, update on Thursday training. We did a 100-lap controlled burn (by placing the pro skaters at the front of the pace line to control the speed of the pace line). I was able to hang on to around 80th lap with a 12.8 time before the pack went too fast for me to catch up. The overall time was 23 minute 50 some seconds for the team. Ruri had a music class and couldn't attend the training.

First training session 2006

Yesterday was the first training session for 2006, but we were late for half an hour because a friend who was supposed to drive Ruri to the skate rink couldn't make it. We had to drop in on the paceline without warming up, that sucks!

But, we quickly settled into the routine. We had the "one-lap burn", followed by "slow corner in 2-3 crossovers", "start" and "relay". Ruri clocked 13.6 seconds for the lap and I clocked 12.6 seconds. This was quite impressive for Ruri. Three months ago when we took the speedskating clinic, Ruri's graduating lap time was 19.2 seconds, and mine was14.7 seconds. Considering she just started regular training a month ago, this is good progress. With this pace, Ruri will beat me in a couple of weeks. The coach has recommended Ruri to get prepared to go to the nationals, and I've also arranged a few private session with the coach to give her a boost as she missed most of the first two months training.

The "slow corner in 2-3 crossovers" is our new pain exercise. The human body is incredible, it will adapt to the training so quickly. Things that make you pain first will not do so after a couple of training sessions, but the coach knows how to change the exercise to give you new "pain". But I like it.

Sandwich

To dedicate to the sport of short track inline speedskating, I have also decided to quit drinking, and to eat healthy. The "eat healthy" part starts with making my own sandwich for my lunch to replace the junk food, which will also help me to save money (plus the booze money) so I can get my custom speed boots (> 500 $) when I need them down the road.

My google on sandwich recipe gave me a good laugh....I was googling "English sandwich" as I really missed the simple proper sized sandwich I ate outside on the lawn during my student years in Britain. I didn't get the recipe I wanted, but I got a good laugh...which is how I remmember Britain, or the British. By the way, my sandwich today was simple enough: homemade all-grain bread (made with bread machine), slices of Japanese cucumber (small ones), one slice of Salami and one slice of Swiss cheese. Cut in the rectanglular way (it fits the description of how an athlete would cut his sandwich, this is eery, see below:-)

From BBC forum on food, quoted below without permissioin (do I need one?).

The sandwich was, allegedly, invented by the Earl of Sandwich, so that he could play cards uninterrupted. The definition of "sandwich" varies from country to country.

For example, the British sandwich is two slices of bread with one or two fillings. The British make up for this seeming lack of content by offering a wide choice of presentation.

The British sandwich may be cut in a number of ways:

* Diagonally, making two triangular sandwiches (a favourite among business people);
* Along both diagonals, for four dainty sandwiches (favoured by wedding guests and the pretentious);
* Down the middle of two opposite edges, for rectangular sandwiches (favoured by workmen and athletes);
* Or not cut at all, as preferred by bachelors, students, and psychopaths.

On the other hand, the American sandwich may use two, three, or more slices of bread (of an almost infinite variety). The number and variety of fillings is vast and unlimited by anatomical considerations or common sense. Never ask for a cheese sandwich in America. You will either be thrown out, ignored or served something monumentally elaborate, on the grounds that you could not possibly have meant a cheese sandwich.

The one thing that unites sandwiches all over the world is that they are, more often than not, outrageously overpriced - particularly when bought from a specialist sandwich shop or a railway station.

I'm back

How to get back?

I'm sure I'm not the first one, but could be the worst one. I committed a beginner's error by forgetting not only my password for this site, but also the username. Worst, I registered with the wrong email address. At least I got it back, after a brute force attack (this will probably serve me well as I work in the computer security industry:-).

Douglas Adams

Over the weekend, I accidently borrowed (as I had to grab an audio book before library closes) Douglas Adam's "The Salmon of Doubt", and I was fascinated to discover a genuine writer who has the kind of technical/logical/curious mindset, yet is very very funny with the words as well as the world he writes. One thing he talked about, was how he would like to "write" by not worry about the format/functions/graphics layout while complaining about Apple's word processor. I think if he had lived till today to see how blog is used, he would have been very happy and will be the most read blogger no doubt. I intend to just drop a few lines when I have something to say, and put a few pictures/or video together, without actually doing it on a book kind of journal....I'm too lazy and dis-organized for that.

There are some many interesting tidbits in "The Salmon of Doubt" and I shall come back to it many many times in this blog probably.

New Year's "Re: Solution"

As a new year's resolution, it will be one of my goal to document my daughter's (and to some extend, mine) journey on learning how to become a good inline speed skater. We are lucky to live nearby a very good inline speed club with good coach and team members, some of whom have represented US in world cup inline competitions. She is required to keep a training journal on paper, but I'll try to filter something interesting for the blog.

Ok, this wasn't so bad, it took me 5 minutes to write up for one day's entry (a lot longer to brute force attack my own password:-). Hopefully it'll be more interesting as time goes by.