How To Train

Alright, these blog is really just me expressing how I need to train and what I do in training. This year is a little different for me because of many different things. First this is my first year out of high school. Secondly, it is my first year with a job. And third it will also be my first year of college (in January).

I love skating and I didn't have to get a job but skating doesn't exactly have the money flowing in, plus I am 18, plus I can't train for skating all day because I would wear myself out so I decided to replace at last some of the time I'm used to spending in school I would get a job and be productive (basically I'm trying out this responsible adult thing).

College is an easy one for me it's a complete necessity in my opinion (at least for me). I don't think college will be as difficult for me as some have tried to explain that it will. I'll be finished college way before I've ever been finished high school so I'll have more intense training before tryouts and such but also I'm not going to the same class everyday which I think is my style.

For me this is where How To Train comes in. This year has to be more and harder and smarter then last year plain and simple. Every year I've skated I've picked it up more and more with my training and I don't plan to stop now. When I was first getting really good (2006 when people started knowing me) I lived on the slideboard. I mean I literally lived on the thing, had it the floor of my bedroom right next to my bed. Homemade if I might add (still the same one I use today). I used it about everyday. Sometimes I'd get for over an hour on the thing and I liked it that way. This year I'm going to get back to that same idea. For me the slideboard helps with getting all of my power through my hips which helps in the straight away plus it's easy to practice technique on which is my primary focus this year.

I plan on getting to the point where I wake up, eat breakfast, then have a session on the slideboard (everyday) then going to shower, go to work, etc, then another session at night (in addition to normal practice).

What I love the most about where I am at right about now in terms of myself and skating is that I'm 18 years old and I know what to do everyday (training wise) just by listening to my body. I know when I need a day off and when I can hit it hard which I think is pretty rare.

Enough of that stuff this is pretty much how I plan to train depending on when certain events are (tryouts, etc)

Now until December - won't even try to hit 100% at all, solely technique. Only skating indoor and using the slideboard.
December through March will still be solely technique but outdoor will begin regularly for me in December, I'll continue on the slideboard. I'll be at the stage of training where I'm no longer doing circles but I'm not training direly hard either. I'll be working on getting my shape right for outdoor meaning skating long, slow, and exaggerating the skating position so I will be comfortable being in it for long periods of time in the spring and summer when it counts. Somewhere in this time frame I will begin lifting weights again.

April and May will be when the weather starts to break so I'll be going a lot harder outdoor but still having specific practices dedicated on my technique (this will be new at that time of year for me) I'll begin skating outdoor more then once a day in May (most likely) on top of my indoor and slideboarding. In this time frame I will most likely have really long practices outdoor on my skates.. at least an hour.
**Side note*** if tryouts are in June then everything gets shifted back.. April and May will be intense training like the next phase:

June up until residency/worlds I will be skating at least twice a day outdoor every day plus the indoor and the slideboard. My outdoor training will be a mixture of simulating races (at full speed), intervals, sprints, catch the pack, a few technique practices (mostly when my body tells me I need a rest), and a few really long skates. This time period is when I really am going hard all the time. I'll still be lifting up until a week before tryouts and then I will resume after tryouts. I'd like to still get on the slideboard but skating so many practices outdoor I may not need the slideboard unless it rains or something.

This year I am also going to put a lot of dedication into my nutrition especially starting in about March/April. Overall my underlying goal almost never changes year after year, it is to reach new heights that I've never gotten to before. Only this year I'm trying to skip a few years and take a much bigger jump then I have in the past.

Back At It

Yesterday I attended my first team practice sense worlds. It was nine days later. It was an indoor practice and it was the typical technique work: circles, half track, starts, duck walks, etc. I've come to the conclusion that I will still do these things while I'm taking my break.

Alright well I laced up the skates and got right to work. A few things I was trying but I won't know any type of result until I get to see myself on camera which will hopefully be sooner rather than later. First thing is simple it's one thing to bend your knees (you are always being told, bend your knees) but it is completely different to bend your knees correctly. What I mean is, most of the time when you 'bend your knees' your back goes with it. What this can do is cause your butt to come up and then you are bending over for practically no reason because when your butt comes up your feet slide back and then your feet are not under you. What I worked on was bending my knees but making sure my butt stayed lower then it probably should (exaggerate the motion) so that my feet stayed under me allowing me to put a lot more into each one of the steps. This I can tell is a great idea and will work tremendously if I can keep it going especially when going fast. One of my biggest problems (weaknesses) has been putting power into my pushes. For so long I could beat everyone just by moving my feet faster then well, everyone else. If I can get my feet under me 100% of the time then I will see a enormous improvement in the amount of power in each one of my pushes. Then it will just come down to what makes me go the fastest: 100% power, 100% foot speed, or the golden combination that will take me forever to find (the combination).

Another thing that I was working on (simultaneously) is properly distributing my weight on my skates. I have almost always been a heel pusher, by that I mean all of my weight has been resting on my heels and when I push, I normally push right through my heel. It's bad enough that you could probably take my toe wheel off, and there may not be any affect. So instead of focusing on the infamous 'push through with your whole skate' I focused on distributing my weight and push between my heel and the ball of my foot (the second and fourth wheels for the most part).

I fully understand why people don't skate technically sound, it's hard and it hurts.

October

Is here already. Jeez. Well, I've been home since Sunday night and I have not put my skates on which is a good thing. A lot of people don't really believe in taking breaks and stuff but I believe in just listening to your body, and mine is telling me to take it easy. Today was the first day where muscles in my body were not sore which is a good start but unfortunately I might have strep throat (when to the doctor's today and find out the results tomorrow). One reason that I believe in taking it down a few notches is because of your immune system. It seems odd that athletes can be more likely to catch sickness then a normal person but it's kind of true. When an athlete endures long periods of intense training their immune system is weakened slightly due to the training. So if I take it easy for a little while then my immune system should strengthen back up and I will hopefully avoid sickness. Another reason is I'd like to give my muscles and tendons and body time to have a little less stress on it because when I start skating a lot again it will be 100% technical and that means a lot of stress.

There's the final ESS race Sunday and if I feel decent I'll skate. It won't be a terribly difficult race so I should be okay even if I'm not at 100%. Then I will start skating twice a week just technique stuff. Drills that won't even require my skates to be tied.

Alright here's some new stuff: a few goals and part of a plan.
-Okay my goals are really like this, I want to improve myself technically because if I can manage to do that then all of my training come spring will be even more beneficial.
-I want to skate good at the NSC races (at least the ladder 4), I want to skate great at trials, and I want to skate awesome at worlds. Other then those three places the rest of my races are going to be used as training, I will not try and peak for other races and will not stray from my training for them.
-I want a medal in a race longer then 1000m at trials (two fourths last year, 1 pt off in both pts races)
-Lastly I want to take the next step and I'm going to leave that one up for one's own interpretation.

Alright then finally I'm going to start skating light but technical. Then I'm going to add things that I've done little by little but I'm going to bring them all together. I've debated a lot whether or not I want to do a lot of dryland this year because I've come the conclusion that it helps with the motion of the push but not with where the power comes from. I believe that everything starts from the hips and dryland is just motion and I don't want to get in the habit of just going through the motions. I think I'm also going to slideboard by not in a traditional sense, when I slide board it will be more objective based so that I'm again not just going through the motions. Another thing that I'm doing this year that I've toyed with but never taken seriously is a little notebook. I have a notebook small enough to fit in my pocket and it's purpose will be for me to track my nutrition. I've found it's much easier to eat healthy when you know you are writing it down.