Getting better all the time#

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:37:45 +0000

Turns out I'm even more of an armchair cyclist than I am an armchair skater: I haven't actually mounted the dratted thing in the last fortnight, but, my interest having been attracted by seeing Stage 1 start in London, I have been spending an ordinate amount of time watching the Tour de France. While humming "Hurt" (the Johnny Cash cover, not the NiN original) because "focus on the pain" just seems so appropriate... I'll save my amateur cycling-vs-skating observations for another time, though.

Still haven't been feeling much like "training" any time recently, though I've been skating reasonably appreciable distances every time I've been motivated to skate anywhere at all: last Sunday 60km, 40km on Tuesday for route check (home->park 10k, RC 20k, home again 10k) which was actually rather good fun, and then the same again on Friday. My New Trick (crossover armswing) has brightened up my left turns no end: sooner or later I'm going to have to work on the right side as well, thobut. Have also been thinking on and off about setdown angle on uphills and for acceleration, and got a lovely lovely sprint up the last part of St James St at the end of the LFNS on Friday where it seemed like my feet were landing on the ground in exactly the right place every time. The route went around Swiss Cottage/Camden/Haverstock Hill; it's one I worked out last autumn and never actually got as far as running because downhills are treacherous to lead a marshalled skate down if there's any chance they'll be slippy. Lots of good feedback.