A blog about skating and cycling, or vice versa

Some day my sprints will come#

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:00:00 +0000

No race report from last weekend, because I didn't race anywhere. I have three weekends off (now two) between Preston on the 4th and the next event, which will be Le Mans on the 1st July, and I spent the first weekend of the break ... well, having a break. Went for a beer or six after work on Friday, woke up under my desk on Saturday, remembered why I don't do that too often. Then Sunday morning I was up with the lark (the specific lark I have in mind is quite a tardy one which only rises at about 9am) for Mike's 500m sprint sessions on the Mall - should have been on South Carriage Drive, but that was closed due to a sponsored run going on in the park.

I'm going to complain, as usual, about my armswing, although it's starting to feel more natural and from time to time it even seems to be making a difference. But it's still something that I do to accelerate and then start feeling rather self-conscious about as I reach top speed and my cadence slows.

And then we were moved on by the police after only about 5 sprints, who didn't like it that we'd left our bags in a neat pile by the side of the road. Bah.

So, headed off to find a quiet corner of the park in which to practice rightward crossovers (Le Mans is a clockwise circuit) for a while - until I found the angle at which my wheels don't grip any more, and stacked. Need more knee bend - wouldn't have stopped me stacking, but need it anyway. Then idled away a few hours until the Sunday Stroll by which time the weather was mostly too hot to go all-out but in which I had a few fun moments zipping through the crowd nevertheless.

Other stuff I am thinking about lately

Ball to the wall#

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:00:00 +0000

Perhaps a bit faster than 8mph. GPS trace is here (it doesn't start at the beginning because I didn't give it a chance to find satellites before moving off) and demonstrates that a fair amount of fun was had at the front - more so in the second half. Somewhat hobbled, metaphorically speaking, by my ankle - there was no full-on sprinting to be had, but a good skate anyway. Pictures on the London Friday Night Skate web site.

I have a new toy. No, sadly, I'm not talking about my boots (which are stil not here whine whine where are they whine I need them for Le Mans whine whine), but yesterday when I left work I was feeling somewhat under the weather (probably a viral thing: today I'm actually off work with a throat that feels sandpapered and a headache and my temperature is all ovet the map) and decided on some retail therapy at Decathlon before going home - so, now I have a great big inflatable Swiss ball. Which is more fun than ab crunches by a factor of 10000 per cent, and even if it's only a tenth as effective in principle (I have no idea if this is the case in fact), on the basis that I haven't been doing any core exercise at all, is bound to be infinitely better for me in practice. I hear there are some people around who actually approach training in a disciplined fashion, but I'm really truly and emphatically not Mr Motivated when it comes to anything I don't enjoy doing...

And I'm still mostly refusing to wear my speed boots again until either the new ones turn up or it becomes obvious that they won't. Teh suck.

These boots weren't made for walking#

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:00:00 +0000

NEW BOOTS!

(Crummy photo. Sorry)

I suspect there's a fair amount of crossover between readers of this blog and people who skate in London, and therefore this may be news no more to a significant number of readers. New boots arrived last Wednesday, and have been used on a LondonSkate, a Stroll RC, and the Stroll itself. (Unfortunately, two days after new skates arrived, my cold returned, so I was in no fit state to skate on Friday)

So far, they're great: no ankle pain at all. A small blister on the back of my left ankle, which I think was a problem with the sock I was weearing (which has a seam just there) coupled with a slightly off frame placement. Mike helpfully suggested I might be toe flicking, which advice I received with the same grace and equinamity I preserve in the face of all accusations that I molest goats.

What else? I think I'm over the cold, which is nice. I've spent a little more time messing around with bicycles lately, but this is not the time or place to talk about that (it does remind me though of another advantage of skates over bikes: less grease). And my abs ached for a whole day following the first use of the swiss ball, and not at all following the second. Hrmm.