New gears

Ruri has moved to 4x90 setup, and after just two practices, she shaved more than 2 seconds off her 300 meters. Her time for 300m is now at 35.1'. This translates into almost a straight way. For comparison, my best time for 300m is 36.4'. Today, coach has moved Ruri officially behind me in one-lap burn. So she has beaten me both on long and short practices. I have no excuses to stay behind her anymore:-) I also got the MPC wheels for Ruri from Sara, as her friend is also on those (I know something about keeping up with the Jones:-). She told me it will make a difference. I don't know but they sure are expensive at $15 a wheel. Here is a photo of her set up.



By the way, I bought both Powerslide Venom 4x90 and 3x100+90 frames online. They were as good as new but $90 cheaper for each. I also sold my 5x80 and the Mogema cross trainer 3x100+84 frame almost the same price as I bought them last year. I think this should be the way to go for trying out new gears (especially frames etc), since you can really recover the cost. I'm sure Ruri may need to move to the 3x100+90 pretty soon (beginning next season?) as she is very comfortable on the 4x90 already. I'll have to admit that for something like speedskating, equipment does make a big difference for the youngsters (not much for grownups who probably can't easily adapt as quickly though)

Meet4 @ LA

A crazy trip down to LA again. Anyways, Ruri did well, but others are also improving. I think not sleeping well has something to do with it too. She got 3rd on her first race, and got 2nd in the second race after crashing with her friend on a patch of floor that saw many falls. She placed 3rd over all (as long race has more points than short race).
It's really time for her to upgrade her skates, our coach is talking about 100m wheels for her, while we'll see. I just bought two frames one 4x90 and one 3x100+90. Now I and Ruri can exchange frames and wheels now. I never thought she would go 100 so soon.

Anyway, here are some photos.

More recorder performance

Ruri and Takeru got tasked to perform an American piece for the visiting Chinese school guests at the Mountain View Musica and Art school. They practiced hard for the Jazz piece (I think written by an English composer:-) and Ruri played Jasmin. Enjoy.

Ruri's thoughts after reading the blog

I think it is a good blog. I like it.

Ruri's Merit Scholar Concert Performance

Not soccer and piano, Ruri has chosen to do speedskating and play the recorder. Not the most popular thing to do but she seems enjoying them both very much. Most of her peers would have to be explain what is it that Ruri is doing, but I think Ruri knows that it is how good you are at what you are doing, not what you are doing that matters. Here is Ruri at this year's Merit Scholar Performance.