DAY OF PB’s
Warming up for my two races this morning, I had the physical & emotional sensation telling me that I was on a very good day!!!. Of course I felt that way last week as well, and ended up mashing headfirst into the pads! It’s a double edged sword, feeling “possibility” thrumming within yourself, and then when the gun goes off finding balance between intensity & precision. This sport is so technical, if you just thrash along at 110%, you generally go slower than a precise and powerful 85%!
Today’s racing went very well!!, I skated Personal Bests times in both the 500m and 1000m! 37.36 and 1:15.22. I am very happy! Results are here. The best part was, neither of these were perfect races, they both had mistakes in them, so I could go even faster!
This was about 120 meters from the finish of the 500.
Even though Jessica had been out late last night noshing sushi with some colleagues from work, she was up early to cheer me on! She picked a good day, or maybe it was the pressure of her there that made me go that one notch faster!
Two things are worth mentioning here, first of all I have been messing around with an up start recently. A down start is still faster off the line for me, but I find it easier to keep the shoulders up, back curved, & butt down for the whole first 100m with an up start, so I am playing with it until I get that aspect of technique rock solid.
Also coming out of the final turn, I took my first two straightaway strokes with one arm. Notice in the video how my ankles & knees come together well, and then suddenly I lose efficiency when I drop both arms with 50 meters to go, my ankles describe a bigger arc, my knees point out, and my upper body sways more with two arms. I asked my pair, Michael Stein, if he was catching me at the end of the race, as he has caught me in the last 100m before. Michael said, “I didn’t start gaining until about 50m to go”.. Hmmm, maybe I should just be using 1 arm for the final 100m until I get this technically ironed out! Traveling at the 33mph that I average for the 400m lap, stability is key.
A week ago, I posted a movie w/music about a midweek crash I had, I am redoing some of my old movies using audioblog, and this one came out really nice, if you couldn’t see it, check it out. I tried doing today’s movie with audioblog, but it looked terrible! I would rather have half of you out there in Internet-land see something nice, rather than everyone see something crummy & pixelated…
I *think* that when you have one arm down, your recovery stroke is more relaxed and you drive your leg a bit further forward. With both arms down, you look like you are recovering your leg a little further back, upsetting the balance.
That’s what the movie looks like, anyway.
If it matters to you, your right shoulder is coming up in the turn, too. This can lead to, uhh, minor crahses in the turn.
Terrific start!
37.36!?!?! i did that TOO for the 500! 37.36 DAYS!!!!! you’re lucky you HAVE arms to swing or not swing, and that you don’t have to skate with one leg like us monopods do! try that sometime. and then when you get good at it, try doing with your HOUSE on your back! though its great when you crash to have your own built in protection system with you and not have to rely on external pads and luck to avoid getting banged up…