Non-specific post#

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 13:00:00 +0000

So on Sunday it turned out that we all felt unenthusiastic about maximal effort at 9:30 am, so did some technique work instead: starts, relay, and a bit of paceline stuff. Then the Stroll was cancelled due to rain forecast, but we went out for a suicide stroll instead until the rain actually started, then directly back to the park. There were a bunch of skaters down from Nottingham this weekend who thus got to see the sights - well - got to see Trafalgar Square and Westminster, anyway; I can't recall many other sights on our route. And a lot of the inside of the Vic, of course. During the day I also collected more evidence for my "it's not the skating, it's the tarting" theory of ankle pain: after an hour or so in skates pointing video cameras at Hans and Fred while they committed Sardinia drills to ccd, I needed to take them off and give my feet a rest before the stroll. So, don't do that again.

For one magic moment the other day skating down Oxford Street my armswing came together and really felt like it was helping. Not been able to reproduce that again since. I mention that more or less in passing, but recapturing it is something to aim for. On the other hand, the bright side is that my two-foot slalom (not what those coneheads would recognise as slalom; just wavey lines to scrub speed) is starting to feel natural sometimes - still lopsided, but not completely alien.

My sprinting is pants - or rather, my acceleration is pants. Well, my sprinting is also pants due to aforesaid armswing lack. I think my acceleration is pants because I'm trying to do it in too high a gear, so to speak - in the first few breaks on Sunday I was way behind, but with more more steering and taking shorter strides I was starting to get it together by the time we went onto the next exercise. I haven't worked on acceleration at all since I was skating in Crossmax, but it's still really quite silly that I'm so poor at this given that I spend so much time of my skating time marshalling, which is all about acceleration. Or 50% about acceleration and 50% about stopping, anyway. And 50% about guessing whether people are going to step out in front of you without warning and whether it'd be safer to go around the traffic island on the right or the wrong side of the road.

Today's Tatem session cancelled due to rain. In principle I could have done something else, but I spent the time tidying the flat and doing washing before Berlin this weekend instead - which also needed doing. I don't think I've seen the inside of this place for more than two consecutive waking hours any time in the past month. And I found my passport. I didn't even know I'd lost it, but given that it turned up in the pocket of a pair of trousers I was about to wash, I think we may consider that to be the case.

I have an LFNS lead in two week's time (Good Friday). Wonder if I can think of an Easter theme for it.