T-minus...

...just a little bit until the first round of time trial races and then the Fall World Cup Trials in early November. The first competitions of the season are unique in that Nancy and I get to see how much we've improved over the previous spring and summer's brutal training. Whatever expectations in our head are either confirmed or blown to shreds.

My boots arrived right after my last post so I've been on them for over 2 weeks now. They're incredible! basically, I have a much greater ability to control my skates, just like when a certain car or bicycle has way better handling than another. As a result, my technique has developed a sense of fullness and greater ease that has helped me focus on other issues such as power and skating a better track line. The boots are also the sickest looking ones ever. I do find it funny how a good boot can make such a difference and sometimes skaters never find the perfect fit. Maybe there is a better boot than this one and I don't know it! But I guess part of sport is figuring out which equipment fits you best and hopefully you win that part of the game. Yeah, sports aren't fair.

Analyzing

Just got the package from UPS!

As of last Wednesday, our two Japanese skaters left for Japan because they have their own national races coming up and we wish them the best! They said they were sad to leave but who knows! Maybe they were just being polite and not telling coach how are hard she trained them. In all, they trained with us for a month and it was a blast teaching them about our culture, how to speak speak English and playing cards with them for hours on hours. It was also great how they pushed us and we pushed them through tough practice after tough practice. Sayanara.

Here's a look at a warm-up accel I did on Teusday. You can't tell but I wish you could have seen the difference between how I skated on the old boots compared with this short clip. I definitely have a lot more work to do but this is a really encouraging step foward.