A fun indoor practice at Scooter's

It has been for three and a half months since we started indoor skating.
For the first two months I missed some practices and I couldn't really skate technically. It means I didn't really enjoy skating at Scooter's and there was some frustration and disappointment about my skating at practices.
Tonight, I was so happy because I felt really good about my skating.
I am getting better and feeling comfortable with crossover now.
I couldn't finish our long warm-up until last month but from this month, I manage to do so.
I tend to stop skating during the warm-up when I feel that my technique falls apart ,which causes early tiredness. But it doesn't happen to me during the warm up recently and I am also able to push and lean more at the corner. In doing so, it allows me to get steady speed during the whole warm-up with less not-efficient strides.
Last night, the floor was awesome, I always thank to skaters who clean the floor. They know how to do it properly. It's unfair that the same guys do it most of times. I wish I could do it sometimes but I actually try not to do it because I am not good at it, so I try to do something else such as getting cones and pads, putting back benches and chairs. I know that's easy one compared with cleaning the floor but at least we can skate on the better gripper floor when it's done by better guys.

Anyway, I am so glad that I am improving my technique and has begun to enjoy skating at Scooter's. I am not really serious about speed or winning races but it's always good when you feel better about skating.
Hopefully, I can keep improving my technique until the end of indoor season, so that I can enjoy outdoor skating this spring.

Ahn hyun soo and a bit of subtitle work

I found the video of Ahn hyun soo made by SBS, a Korean broadcasting company, on a Korean website yesterday.
Once I thought about making that kind of video and put it on Youtube to let people know how good Ahn hyun soo is but I've been just lazy to do so but not that lazy to download that video and put a little bit of English subtitle in that video and upload it to Youtube.
Here they are.

World #1 Short track skater, Korean, Ahn hyun soo

- part1


- part2


- part3 + subtitle

He broke his kneecap after he hit fences so hard at a practice. So, he had a surgery and is now recovering. The hospital said that he can get back to ice after 3 months or so.
I am disappointed that I can't see his 6 time consecutive winning at World but glad that the injury is not going to stop his skating career.

Lots of pizza~

It's been a while since I posted about skating last time.
There was a the-end-of-year party and indoor practice afterwards tonight at Scooter's.
I was a bit late due to bad traffic. I and Travis had more time to talk in his car on the way to practice. Since I hadn't had dinner, I was a bit disappointed that pizza wasn't ready to fill my empty stomach when I got there. I was starving to death. As soon as pizza arrived, I rushed the snack stand where the pizza were put on and had five pieces of pizza. It was so good. Hunger always stimulates good appetite. I would have had more pizza if there were more but I got some cookies which Travis brought instead. There was the award right after the party. Some skaters who did a good job through this year got awarded. The regular Monday practice followed after the award.


< The group picture after warmup, courtesy of Peter Doucet >

We did pretty much the same drills we have been doing. Because of the free pizza(?), we had more skaters on the floor than usual. The floor was a bit slippery I even slipped during the warm-up drill. I always hesitate for the first crossover right before the corner. However, during the drill which we are supposed to do nice one lap technical sprint, I skated a bit wider before the corner and did the first crossover confidently but I slipped at the last corner and went down. I am not sure whether it is my technical issue or the condition of floor but I felt good both at the corner and the straight.


< During the dropping back drill, courtesy of Peter Doucet >

I was stable and technically settled tonight. Despite of fall and some light scrapes from that, I am happy about tonight's practice.
I will skate more aggressively and technically for the next practice. I will see how I feel.

the long busy Sunday..

Since I have started working again, I get up late like 10 or 11 am. However, yesterday, Sunday, I woke up at 7 am and had quick breakfast and meet Ed at around 8 am. He picked me up at Yonge&Sheppard where I live. We planned to skate 80k with Jay.
When we got to Hamilton beach path, Jay was already there and a couple of minitues later, we saw Scott and Eric. While many skaters were in Duluth, I didn't expect we could see other skater folks there. It was nice to skate with more people. We put skates on and started skating after chatting a bit. Honestly, I had not skated for the last 10 days for some reasons, I felt like I was so weak and out of shape. If I am out of shape, my right leg is always troublesome. I can't support myself when I setdown with my right leg. Two laps of skating on the path was O.K. but I couldn't pull as much as Scott and Ed did, though, They did a great deal of work. After skating on the path, Ed, Jay and I got out of the path and started skating on the road. Scott, Beth and Eric were with us for a couple of km's. When they turned around and I wanted to tell Ed I couldn't skate any more but I just kept going I thought I could manage to finish 80k, but shortly after, I started feeling I couldn't support myself with my right leg. So, I had to tell Ed and Jay that I needed a rest. Because of me, we stopped skating and turned around. It was a bit early than we planned. I felt sorry about it. On the way back to the path, I got a bit better but still uncomfortable pushing with my right leg. Ed and Jay pulled me all the way back there so thankfully I got back to the path without any mishaps, Thanks guys. Ed and Jay skated again to complete their goal, 80k of skating. Meanwhile I took my skates off and got changed and lie down on the bench and enjoyed the weather. The breeze was so good, that was the moment of happiness for me. Even though, I had a bit hard time to skate but I skated with my nice friends and laying down and enjoying the weather. I don't remember when was the last time I felt that kind of feeling. I gave a hi-five to Ed and Jay when they finished their skating. Good job guys~.
We had lunch at Lick's which is my favorite hamberger place, I love the hamberger there. Every time I go there with Ed, he buys me a hamberger, he has a buy one get one card. It's so nice of him. I bought Ed a french fries instead, hehe.

Anyway, I learned lesson from yesterday's skating. I will keep in mind that lesson.

Jay dropped me off at Islington subway station which is close to his place. Thank you Jay, and I headed downtown. I met Shery who came here four months ago from China.
She has a very interesting background. She is a Korean Chinese Canadian will be(make sense?). She's from the area in China where many Korean people live called Yeonbyun.
A hundred years ago when Japan invaded Korea, they forced some people to move to that area. I don't know exactly why( I need to learn more about Korean history ). So, she speaks Korean with her mom and also speaks Chinese, as well and she said she studied Japanese in school. So, she speaks Japanese, too. But, I don't know how fluent her Japanese is. Anyway, she goes to high school now which she said is very overwhelming and stressful because her English is not enough to keep up her study in school.
A couple of days ago, she asked me to teach her English which is very funny to me.
What she said, basically, is she can't take tutoring from Canadian because she can't understand what they say, so she needs Korean English tutor so that she can study English in Korean. Gee, I never thought about that I teach English here. I couldn't say yes or no. I just promised that I would meet her. I spent time with her for about two hours and helped her writing and speaking which was very basic. At this point, I am not sure I can keep helping her English.
While I was there with her, I got a call from Emily. She wanted to had dinner with me and others. She and Andre are leaving here on Wednesday. I will talk about them later. They are very interesting guys I met here. Anyway, I wanted to buy something for them, so I went to the bookstore near Bay&Bloor and bought one book which I read all. I found it very useful for Emily because she wants to learn Korean. The book is about effective and practical theories to learn foreign language. I hope she enjoys reading that book.
I met them in one of restaurant near Bathurst subway station. Emily, Andre, Nenry and I have nice dinner there and moved to Emily's place which is sold a month ago. So, there are not many things left there, it's almost empty place. Two more friends came over there and we had snack and talked till 12 when one of us told us, she was very tired. I said to them 'See you in Korea' because some day not too long from now, I will leave here too and can see them in Korea. I was a bit sad but not as sad as when I sent off other friends who I can't see them any more.

It was a long day. I was able to fall asleep without any difficulty to sleep

The race weekend.

During the long weekend I skated and raced on Sunday and Monday in a row.
Sunday one was a fun skating on Hamilton beach trail which is my favorite one to skate.There were less people than usual and we spent more time chatting than skating. It was fun, though. After skating Candy, Jacky and I went to Eric's place to do some dryland workout. Eric videotaped Candy and Jacky while they did dryland. I didn't do it, not keen on doing exercise in a warm condition. I did some slide board thing a while, though because we did it inside, kk. We cooled down a bit with drinks and snacks. We stayed at Eric's till 4.
The next day, today, I went to Mississuaga to race for 10k. I was the last one finished the race. I dropped out after one lap of 10 laps and skated by myself the rest of the race. Some skaters finished their race in Fitness category earlier today. So, there were only 11 skaters out there in elite category. It was good to be out and skated with my friends but I couldn't enjoy the race. No matter whether I finished the last or not. It is not a good feeling you found yourself so weak during a race. I think there is no point that I race competitively without training. I'd better prepare If I want to race and enjoy. I am not sure I should keep racing, though. I can just enjoy social skating like Friday night skating, Hamilton skating for fun. I am here to study and learn English, not racing seriously. On the other hand, skating is so fun and I get to see lots of skater friends and socializing with them by skating here. However, I found most skaters in the club enjoy races and go to many races taking place in States and Canada. Therefore, There are not many chances If I don't race except the regular practice every Tuesday and Thursday. That's why I sometimes get to race. It's such a dilemma. I guess I need to exercise more to hit two birds with one stone. Anyway, regardless of some disappointment about myself, the long weekend went rather quickly.

Back to Montreal...

I did Montreal 24 hours relay race 2 years ago. I was in the winning team in elite category. All I remember about that race was tough and tough. I was so weak at that time and the slowest skater in my team, it was so really hard race mentally and physically. This year I skated in the team which belongs to recreational category. Most of members are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s from TISC(Toronto Inline Skating Club). There wasn't much pressure to win and our team was supposed to support Eric's solo skating at some point which we did. Human being is very greedy sometimes. It was fun and enjoyable race but, on the other hand, I wanted to compete and push myself. All members weren't serious about winning and did what they could do, so I didn't feel like I was racing. Basically, I took it easy and sometimes I pushed myself to break my time. In general, I just enjoyed skating on the surprisingly smooth F1 track.

It rained and stopped on and on most of time on Saturday. Track was wet all night and I had to skate in the puring rain a couple of times. Skating in the rain itself isn't bad but we got completely soaked after skating in the rain and had to put on soaked skates again after a break. It isn't a good feeling at all.

Our team consisted of 8 members. Each skater skated one lap and took a little more than an hour break while other 7 skaters skated. We divided into two sub-groups to get some sleep at night. I was in the first shift. For some reasons, I did 2 laps of skating twice during the night shift. It was hard but okay. After finishing our shift till 2 am. I cleaned the bearings and got two hours of sleep. As soon as I opened my eyes, I looked up the sky. It was clear. Even though, I got exhausted, I was so happy about the weather because I didn't need to skate in the rain any more. Sunday skating went well till the last turn.


< approaching to the relay zone >

For some reasons, I was an anchor to finish the race. When I got the baton from Calra, it was at 12:42 pm. I was supposed to skate till 1 pm. My time for one lap was 9 minutes something, so I thought I needed to skate for just two laps. I slowed down at first because I had to do two laps. "Kevin, pick it up~". It was Nick, who I skated with at RSO #2, passing me. I knew it was his final lap, he was doing his best. Pace was a little tough but I followed him and we pulled each other. I think it was pretty fast lap for me, could be 8 minutes something. He exchanged with his teammate and I had to keep going.


< With Nick >

I tried to chase his teammate but I was already tired. So, I just let him go and skated by myself. When I approached to the finish line, I checked my watch. I slowed down and waited for 1 pm. I passed the finish line at 1:01. I thought I was done skating. "Kevin, one more lap", I heard Richard cheering me up. Oops, I had to do one more lap. I forgot my watch is 2 minutes faster than normal. I should not have skated with Nick. It was late to regret, so I got to skate 3 laps for the last turn. I was dying but it turned into an awesome experience.


< The last lap >

I broke the my personal time and got hi-five from many skaters when I finished the race. It was really really awesome. The skaters standed on the both sides of the track and gave hi-five to finishers. I was one of them having chearing and hi-five.

I didn't win anything at this race but was so happy about myself finishing the 24 hours relay race and closing the race with the awesome experience.
I am not sure I can do it again next year at this moment, but I am quite sure that it is so worth it to try.


< After the race with TISC Skaters >

Race weekend and teaching Korean.

Another crash last Saturday during the 500m sprint and got a big scrape and burn on my arm. It was my first race since I came back. I found myself not good at races and need to do more races If I want to perform better. However, that's not what I am here for. I have something else I have to focus on.


< the crash in the 500m sprint - photo by Eric Gee >

Anyway, I got some very good pictures of me during the races. Thanks Peter and Eric.


< 10k - photo by Eric Gee >

< 10k finish - photo by Peter Doucet >

The next day, I did a 42k marathon. I took it easy and finished without a crash. hehe. There were some crashed, though.


< After the marathon >

Recently I have taken over language exchange meeting from Youngin whom I met at ISM. He is going back to Korean, soon. Therefore, he can't continue that meeting. He asked me to take over. I said yes. Today was the first meeting which I was in charge to teach. Less people showed up because we couldn't find any places where to meet. At the very last minute, Dan suggested us meet at his place. Even though there were less people than usual, I really enjoyed teaching Korean language and culture. I have also started language exchange with Hilary. One of members I met at Yougin's meeting, Steve, introduced me to her. I met her last Tuesday. She is around my age and I found her very nice person. we sat down at a coffeehouse and started talking about ourselves first and we then started our first Korean lesson. I had never taught Korean before, so I found it very tough and felt that I need to know how to teach but I had fun while teaching.

I think teaching might be the thing I really want to do, at least I can enjoy. I couldn't enjoy working as a computer programmer. Sometimes, I felt a little joy after solving harsh problems but It didn't mean I loved that job.
Life is once and too short to do what you don't like. I will keep looking what I want to do to pursue my happiness.
By the way, Am I happy now? Sure, I am. kk

Skating at Rondeau again...

I've just got back from Rondeau Provincial park, which is three hour drive from Toronto. There is a beautiful 15km long trail. I got there yesterday at around 4 pm.
I didn't skate, though. I woke up at 9 am next day as usual and started skating 30 mins later while Eric was already skating on the trail. I started with Candy but she turned around after a while. After that I did four laps of solo skating totally. Pace was fairly fast, say 30kph when I skated solo. It was hard but I tried to keep a steady pace. After solo skating, I skated pretty much with others skaters. Sometimes easier, sometimes hard. I did totally 9 laps, 120km. It is kind of too much skating in one day. However, it was quite fun and enjoyable. When I skated alone, I looked at the scenery and took a deep breath to get some fresh air. It was good.
Somehow I'm not so tired right now, maybe tomorrow will be. Sometimes I feel like I'm here to skate and train which is not the reason I'm here for.
Anyway, I will take a rest tomorrow. I will get sleep as much as I want and get up; do some chores and go to library to read some book. It was a long day, today.

Falling in a row...

I went down again tonight's practice at CTK. After falling I was so frustrated and upset myself. I threw my helmet (it's okay; it's broken from last Thursday's falling).
I should not have done it. This time it's nothing compared to last time. It should be fine. I am going to Rondeau Provincial park again to skate with other 4 skaters. I will skate as harder and much as possible, so that I can be in a good shape again. There will be two races next weekend. I've got to prepare for that.

Hopefully, My confidence of skating is not shaken from falling in a row.

I've been reading books in Reference library recently. I've finished like 4 books in 4 days. Technically, I finished one book and I found other three books boring, so I went through and read some interesting chapters. After TOEFL test, I haven't decided yet what to do. I got my TOEFL score today. It's way lower than the score I need, but I can do something with that score. I will try it again sooner If I have to, otherwise I will do it before I go back to Korea. I think my life is getting boring. I should do something to forget that.

I'm getting faster and a little mishap...

Recently I've been feeling good at skating. I've fixed some technical problems and been eating well. I guess that is why. However, sometimes, I forget that skating is a risky sport. Today, I went down so hard but luckily I didn't break any bones except my helmet and got some scrapes and burn on my bum. It's burning, so hot. I hope it doesn't bother too much so that I can keep skating next week.
It's so worth buying a good helmet. It saved life again. kk
Gotta go to bed, have to rest...

The skating day trip to Rondeau Provincial Park.

Candy picked me up at around 8 am (May 13th) and we headed to Rondeau Provincial Park. It was a three hour drive from my place. When we got there, Eric and Jacky looked like they were in the middle of break after some skating. Candy and I put our skates on and we started skating all together. The trail, which goes around the park, is so smooth, and it was perfect weather to skate. As I skated, I enjoyed fresh air and the sight. The trail was 15k long. We ended up all together for the first lap.


Eric told us we took a turn for pulling after 50 left leg stride right after we started skating for the second lap. When it was my turn, I just paid all attention to counting strides and focus on basic techniques, but I didn't notice that the pace was not good enough to skate all together. Thus, Candy dropped out and skated back to the starting point, where our camping site was. I pulled the pack again and I kept the same pace as before. However, I didn't think about the fact that Jacky had skated a lot since last Thursday. The pace could be tough for him. Thus, Jacky dropped out as well. Eric and I waited for him for a while but he didn't seem to join us again. We just kept skating, just two of us. We pulled the pack longer than before. Skating behind Eric was quite good. His cadence and mine were almost the same. So we ended up with quite a fast lap. Technically, I didn't focus on DP because I recently noticed that I lose some power when I push with my left leg because I transfer my weight to the right side before I finish my push. Basically, it is brutal. The last moment of push is very important; it makes most of the speed when we skate. Moreover, my left leg is stronger than my right one. As I skated with Eric, I just focused on fixing that problem and I felt really good. In general, I really enjoyed skating there. After 2 laps of skating, we had lunch. I brought Bulgogi and Kimchi, so we had Korean cuisine, kk. After the long lunch, we took a long walk and hit two beaches. Rondeau Provincial Park looks like a small peninsula surrounded by Erie lake, which is one of the Great Lakes. The first one we went to faces to the land, so it has a quite calm atmosphere.

The other side of Rondeau looks quite different because it faces to the main lake. It appears to be the ocean. There are wind and waves and a long wide beach. The lake is so huge, so I couldn't see anything from the other side but horizon. Since I came to Canada, I have realized that I love nature. Whenever I spend time in nature, I feel so calm and comfortable.

After the long walk, we just sat down and talked, and Jacky started packing. When he finished packing, we talked about skating techniques for a while, and then Jacky and I took off at almost 7 pm and we got back to Toronto at around 10 pm.
It was quite a long and memorable day. I really enjoyed skating and everything there. I hope I can go there again this season.

The photos:click here

the nice and easy practice...and ISM

It has been a nice weather. It's a good news for skaters like us. I went to the WT track yesterday for the Thursday regular practice of TISC. As I approached that track, I saw one skater skating on the track. I noticed who it was. It is actually a funny thing. I couldn't even see his face but I noticed him by how he skates. Anyway, weather was so nice and track condition wasn't too bad except many twigs all over the track.
While I warmed up, I saw Travis on skates. It was so nice to see him again. He said he rolled skates for two laps last Sunday. I hope he sooner joins us for practice.
I was told to skate with Morgan. We did a five laps drill. for the first 2 laps, we speeded up and sprinted for one lap and cooled down for the last two laps. I couldn't keep up with Morgan for the interval lap, but I just kept skating and did my own drills focusing on DP for the most of time and skated with others occasionally. From the last practice I don't tie my laces on my skates because I feel pain on my ankle and I also feel comfortable skating with loose skates except sprinting.
I saw a couple of new skaters yesterday. It is always fun to skate with more skaters. However, we can not skate on WT any more, which is located downtown, that is only track accesible by public transportaion to get more skaters from Toronto. The other track where we practice is not accessable by TTC. Every time we practice, I have to get a ride from someone. I always appreciate them who give me a ride. However, I found sometimes uncomfortable because I lose my time to do other things. I wish we find another track downtown so that skaters in Toronto can show up and skate with us and I also don't need to get a ride from someone. I will see what it is going to happen. It is just out of my hands
After practice, I headed to the church where ISM meeting takes place every Thurday, It ends at 8:30 PM. I hurried so that I can see my friends before they leave. I made it and went to the Second cup near the church with some of them and had a fun chatting. I met one girl who lives close to my place. I found she is so funny and always smiles. I like that kind of person. Hopefully, I get along with her.

Skating on Hamilton path

photo by Daniel

What a day~

It has been outstanding weather since Friday, so I have been skating with TISC skaters three days straight. It never happened before while I have been in Toronto. Today, I skated on Hamilton path with lots of(??) skaters. For the first lap, I did it with my zip pants and jackets on but it got warmer, so I took them off after the first lap. It is my first time skating with shorts and a short jersey this year. It means it was just beautiful weather.
Hamilton path skating is always fun because the surface of the trail is, needless to say, fantastic and there are no obstacles, unlike other trails. I did 3 laps as most other skaters did. Most of the time, I took it easy, focusing on DP. It was so fun skating with others with gorgeous weather on a perfect trail. After 45k skating, we headed to a restaurant named Emma's Back Porch. We all had a breakfast buffet which was so tasty and it is a reasonable price. Everything was just good.
I hope I can skate on Hamilton path a lot this year.


photo by Mike

More photos :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7999897@N08/tags/hamiltonbeachinlineskatesunapr22/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55871871@N00/sets/72157600111424752/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wscwong/tags/hamiltonbeachinlineskate/