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)