Old legs :-)

During Sunday's practice, I clocked 11'3 twice in a roll in the one lap burn. Looks like I'm now back to the right place of the paceline (for me:-) behind the "miggets" as they are called. Perhaps this has something to do with my new wheels. I've switched to matter yellow wheels, they roll so much better than the agent oragne. I'll see how long I can hold Ruri in front of me. So my old legs still can do new tricks! No photos yet because the people who took the photos have not gotten back to me with either Ruri's or my photos. Next meet is at LA again, and it is the trophy meet, we have to go. I'd love to see Ruri getting a trophy after this season, she has worked hard and rarely missed any practice. By the way, got my podium photo from a friend...

Home rink meet #5

This is quite a meet, we had two teams from Washington and some world team skaters joining. Unfortunately I was skating and didn't have anytime to take photo or video. But I've asked people to take the photos so when I get them from email I'll upload.

Again Ruri skipped the first day due to Japanese classes, and also she had some competition from the Washington team. She got third (1st, 2nd are from the Washington team) but most impressively she finished the Freshmen and below open by placing 6th out of 13 skaters, passing at least one freshman skater (open placement is up to 5th). After this meet, Ruri is back on 1st on the points. Next meet is the trophy meet and we'll see if Ruri get to stay first.

I skated both days, and got third in Novice race and didn't place in standard (very competitive). I also felt pretty good staying in the classic and up open for 17 laps (out of 30) before gotten lapped out. Oh, I also got a second in two man relay. So all-in-all a very good meet.

Ruri's blog

Takeru's Kendo practice

A few month ago, Takeru began Kendo class (my wife's favorite sports:-) In the beginning he was not so enthusiastic as the practice for the beginners appears to be rather monotonic. Last weekend, I took him to a regional Kendo joint practice with local clubs who invited a master from Japan, we got to see some really interesting matches. Some little kids were really good at it, and you can see the psychology, balance, explosiveness etc in it. I think it's a very interesting sport. Here is a photo of Takeru in his gear (the helmet and body armor are on loan from the master).

Boots, frames and wheels

Since I changed the frame from Mogema crosstrainer (3x100+84) to Powerslide Venom (3x100+90), the first few days on the new frame I felt I had much better feel of the floor. What it meant is that because the frame is stiffer, I can feel the reaction of the floor to my push and edge more. So the frame does matter. A teammate who swithed from agent orange (what I have) to matter wheels lately told me that when he switched , he felt he was skating on a new pair of skates.....so I've just ordered the matter wheels, I'll see:-)

On Sunday, Wouter brought a Liberty 3x100 junior frame for the kids to try, and Ruri had a go with it. First, she was on some VERY used matter blue wheels, and she clocked 11'7. This was not too bad considering that she was on this new frame (a bit shorter but taller than the Powerslide Venom 4x90mm setup she was on) only a few minutes. Then Sara asked her to switch to some new MPC blue wheels, she clocked 11'4 twice. I guess that's how much wheels matter. Another boy who tried it with the two sets of wheels also had his time drop from 11'4 to 11'1. So the MPC wheels along seem to shave 0.3 seconds for just one lap.

So wheels do matter....after you get the right boot and frame:-)