Having just recently emerged from a long discssion on the LSST forum about armswing, here is my current thought on how/why it works

Possibility 1: Lateral motion is key but fore-aft armswing is taught because it contains about as much lateral motion as is productive - let's hypothesise that more side-to-side causes aerodynamic, upper body torque or shoulder fatigue problems which outweigh the weight shift advantage - but that the fore/aft component as such is irrelevant to overall speed. This is possible (and what I used to believe), but would tend to suggest that a gentle swing is very nearly as effective as a vigorous one, because the lateral range of motion's about the same in either case. Doesn't sound quite right

Possibility 2: That there is an extra ingredient of some kind which means extra force in the fore/aft armswing creates more force in the legs despite the fact they're going in different directions. This is what I now believe based on last week's reading of gait papers and the stuff about CPGs - the exact mechanism may be open to debate, but the possibilities are clearly there for forelimb movement to stimulate neural paths that trigger muscle activity in the hindlimbs.

So after Tuesday's failure I took Wednesday as a rest day, then walked into town and back on Thursday (8km) which felt fine, then the LFNS on Friday (20km), then after that I skated home (7km), because I was still feeling good. And today the Stroll RC (12km) and it still doesn't hurt.

Current hypothesis is that it's not about how long I leave the leg between sessions so much as how thoroughly I warm up (about an hour seems to be OK, and about 60 minutes longer than it got on Tuesday) before trying to go fast. Which si sort of good news if it turns out to be the case.

Last week's recap:

Tuesday: RC was rained off

Wednesday: LondonSkate ditto

Friday: LFNS marshalling (in FSKs) in which I mostly did not hold back.

Saturday: slightly sore. Did Stroll RC in speedskates just to help my feet acclimatise to them

Sunday: Still slightly sore. Led Stroll (in FSKs). Third time lucky - unlike my previous two attempts it wasn't rained off. Leg more or less OK once it had warmed up

Monday: sore, skipped Markus's 20 miler

Tuesday: attempted RC, but it turned out to be not at all at all comfortable, and I sloped off halfway round to go home.

Wednesday: skipping Londonskate to give it a rest.

Grrr.

I'm on a (mostly self-imposed, it must be admitted) deadline to get a work project finished right now, because it has been dragging on way too long. The immediate effect is that I am completely caught up on all my online forums and it's time for another blog entry.

Last week: Tuesday (RC ?) was fairly pacey and I decided to push myself a bit more by sprinting up hills in the second half. Some twinges, no real soreness the following day, so I did the (LondonSkate ?) as a recovery skate and everything was fully functioning on Thursday. Friday was the LFNS itself, which I marshalled. A few sprints here and there - leg felt fine but either I'm horrendously unfit or FSKs are even slower than I thought they were.

Saturday it was noticeably sore, but not bad enough so that I couldn't cope with a fairly laid-back Stroll RC on Saturday. Which was in speed skates. First time I've worn those in a good long time, and it shows - I now have blisters on my toe knuckles where I used to have callouses. Going to take a few more iterations before my feet get back into shape for speedskates.

On Sunday the Stroll itself was rained off (second attempt this year to lead a Stroll and the second time that rain has cancelled it) so that became an unscheduled rest day. The silver lining to this particular cloud was that the combination of Friday and Saturday's outings had returned my leg to "uncomfortable when walking", so the rest day came at an opportune time. Today it's pretty much OK again, so tomorrow I can repeat the whole cycle...

(The writing team responsible for humorous blog entry titles are on holiday this month. Normal service may be resumed soon)

13th April: my Sunday Stroll lead was rained off. I was in the slightly odd position of having to post a cancel on Sunday morning while looking at the 11am bright sunshine coming in through the window, but the weaher forecasts all agreed (and turned out to be right, too, which is gratifying in a way and annoying in another way)

16th April: first Londonskate of the year, I skated in the pack and suffered not one jot (or tittle). Then up to the Batcave to fiddle with the Firebrox

18th April was supposed to be the FNRttC but I was unexpectedly ill at the last minute and had to bail out

20th April, the LSST club race - I wasn't racing, but went along to watch anyway. Seemed to work pretty well

Tonight, LFNS route check; tomorrow Londonskate; Friday LFNS; Sunday my rescheduled Stroll lead.

Sometime when I have a minute, lots of reading on Central pattern generators and neuromechanics - apparently we have reconfigurable neural networks in our spinal cords implementing oscillators, how cool is that? Finally a convincing mechanism for "arms drive the legs" explanations of armswing

Last night I cleaned my fridge out. It was overdue for it, the icemaking compartment looked like it had been snowed in. I have taken this photo just so I don't keep opening the door and letting warm air in to admire how much better it looks now.