Photos from the meet

Citrus Height Meet

We drove up to Citrus Height last weekend for the third meet of the season, and my first one. I also began my trial to be speed referee...that will take a whole blog to write about. Suffice to say that it's not a easy job.

Ruri did well, won the short, long, grand championship (when they put the top 3 of boys to race the top three of girls, of two adjacent age group to race together), but lost the open (2nd) to a skater coming from Washington State. She did race in the challenge up races (meaning racing with Sophomore) but she was using them more as warm up rather than really racing.

The master class (35-45) is incredibly competitive, with two guys with national placement, and now 8 skaters. We even had a guy from Australia! I didn't do well in my division races (500, 1000) but placed 5th in the classical and above open. This is my greatest achievement so far in indoor race. I was with the lead group of probably 7 skaters until the last 3 laps or some when it broke up. It was a 30 lapper and I am so glad to see the people who out sprinted me fell behind:-)

So in total, I skated the two standard races, 4 men, 2 men, 2 mix, and open. That was a lot of races in one day, plus I was doing the referee (rolling ref) meaning you have to follow the skaters as they compete, that's a lot of laps. I also got to start the race for Ruri's grand championship where she beat the boy of the freshmen class!

I'll get some photos if I find some.

Getting it, one bit at a time

I've moved up quite a few places in the paceline, and moved behind Ruri again:-) Still she has a better top speed when doing one lap burn so I have to move before her when doing that drill, but it shows her that I'm not easily giving up my position and she has to try to get it back. In fact all three midgets have to get their position back from me and they better try hard!

Here is a list of things that I believe helped me as the season progressed
- left foot only drill in the beginning of the season: I begin to kind of throw my body over my left foot (left and front) when doing this exercise and I begin to feel the left leg push. This drill builds up my left leg strength and muscle memory which allowed my progress later.
- left leg grab and push under: once you can throw yourself over your left foot, this drill just magnifies your left leg power box, you are now fully extending the left leg during under push.
- hands on your back at high speed entry into corner: I was doing good with all these circle drills above (left leg stuff) but when I carry a high speed into the corner, none of those forms I learned during circle drill works, because (1) it is at a lower speed (2) it is done when you already had the lean. When you go into corner with high speed you are transition into the lean from a more upright posture. Putting hands on my back forces me to get the lean right all through the corner because there is no arm swing to correct my unbalance at any point of the corner.
- track adjustment: once I become comfortable going into a corner high speed with hands behind my back, my left leg push become stronger as I'm (and had to) be perfect on edge, which makes push very consistent and strong. This is when I started noticing track pattern. I begin to coming out of the corner more gradually (not shotting to the wall then go straight) and start leaning gradually earlier. This make my pattern more like an oval then two half circles linked by two straight lines. This made my lap much more efficient and I felt the sensation of cruising. No more jerky movement to lean into corner, and struggle to accelerate out of the corner. My lap becomes a big smoother oval. I felt great, I no longer get nervous getting into the corner, and following the elite skaters becomes easier. I'm hoping to get down to lower 10s by the end of the season.

Talked a lot of this to Ruri, and she begin to see my point and how I'm experimenting to figure out a way that suits my style and build. This is really cool, especially when I get yelled at by the coach when I tried to do hands behind my back, but I didn't give up and the results said it all. I hope she will learn how to figure things out herself, and not be afraid to experiment, and not be afraid to try things against authority, that include what I tell her.