Baaacccckk!#

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 22:02:14 +0000

One of the reasons there's been nothing posted here lately is that I've been away from the net this last week, in Sardinia for the [[Experts in Speed]] training camp. (The other is that every time lately I start thinking about writing stuff, it turns out to be the blogging software rewrite instead of the actual data it operates on. But more on that some other time)

A full report on Sardinia will follow after I've got some sleep, but in the meantime here's the summary by comparison with [[last year => http://www.coruskate.net/view/Skate20063#sardinia]]:

• Better: didn't stack, didn't break anything, didn't visit the hospital.
• Worse: the weather. Two of three technique sessions on the go-kart track were visited by rain (one of them by hail, even), and one of the proposed all-day tours was rained off. That said, adroit scheduling meant that we skated somewhere pretty much every day
• The same: great fun
• The same: basic programme content, hotel, food, etc
• The same but better anyway: group 2, although this time it seemed to be a bit faster than last year's was
• Better: all that time spent on drills practice during the intervening twelve months seems to have paid off. Last year anything involving a left-foot-forward scissor or a left-foot outside edge was basically impossible, this year not. So, evidence of some improvement there.
• The same: ruined myself for several days after the dryland workout, but it was mostly calves this time not quads, and I blame this on either the low walking I followed with or the run (in tennis shoes) that followed that. Stupid stupid idea. If God had meant us to run he'd obviously not have given us wheels.
• Better: as a result of not having lost any tooth parts this year (see bullet point 1) I got my 15 seconds (nominal) of fame behind the mirror bus. The summary is that I am skating like an utter gumbie and need only the knee and elbow pads to make the picture complete. Oh, OK, my setdown is good, but then that's what they said last year as well.
• Different but similar in spirit: last year's Sardinian evening on top of the hill was replaced by a local wine tasting in the hotel which segued into a local wine getting-hammered evening. See picture, right.
• Steeper: the road I lost a tooth on last year is much more inclined than I remembered it, and given that I was pushing all the way down it on that memorable occasion I can well believe I was moving much faster than 30k.
• Better although no direct basis for comparison: we had a short relay race in which nobody pushed me over. I say no direct basis because we didn't do this in Sardinia last year, but it's been a recurring theme of relays since then.
• Better: almost forgot to mention it just because it's so long ago I'd forgotten what it was like skating in Simmons boots, but no pain from my Junkers at all

Techniquey round-up

• Video evidence says that my heel carve is entirely absent. Sebby says this is because I'm not getting power from the fall, which is unfortunate as that F word continues to mean nothing to me. I think it's because I'm leaning forward too much (we were going uphill at the time) and certainly it does seem better when I sit back a bit.
• also, though Sebby was kind enough not to remark on it, the gorilla arms have returned
• not from the video review, but pointed out by one of the coaches - my recovery tends to disappear when skating at speed, right leg especially. This may have been because at the time I was concentrating too hard on getting a heel carve from it ...
• although I now have the habit of using armswing on sprints (it may be thoroughly yuck armswing, I don't know as I wasn't sprinting in the review), I haven't yet acquired it for uphills.
• a little more relaxed on downhills than I used to be. I've thought about this a bit: I don't mind downhills as long as the following conditions obtain
  • my feet aren't wobbling
  • I have some idea of where I'm going
  • nobody behind me is clinging on or pushing me in any manner other than gently and in the direction I want to go. (This would exclude pushing sideways, pushing when I'm slowing for a bend, pushing while I'm shifting my weight around to make the speed wobble go away or I forget exactly what else - how fussy am I?)
  • the turn at the bottom is to the right not to the left. Um, something funny still going on there.
• some of the crossover drills led me to new thoughts on the entry to a turn, but unfortunately I can't remember it now I'm not actually wearing skates. Will probably come back to me when I try next.
• overall: worried. Honestly thought I was doing better than this (the thought also crosses my mind that this year's group 2 may in fact be the same standard as last year's and it's me that's slower). On the other hand, fixing poor technique is a whole lot less tedious and painful than building muscle, so looked at in that light I may have access to a certain amount of easy winnage here.

h2. Other stuff

• started sneezing yesterday, sore throat today, so tomorrow I expect to be cold-ridden. Probably getting rat-arsed last night and only sleeping for an hour or so (plus another three on the plane) hasn't helped any to bolster my body's immune system
• first race this Sunday: Berlin half marathon. So, between that and the cold this will probably be a light week.

And now I am going to bed, in the hope that I will wake up less grumpy