The road to Sochi 2014

Ahhh its so hard to catch up to the present! When I'm not training, I'm sleeping. When I'm not sleeping, I should be practicing the cello (after all, i must keep it warm if i want to earn money with it). If none of the above, i'm sharpening my skates, going to the beach with people, eating, stretching, showering and reading. I fell that the more i can stay productively busy, the clearer my head will stay. Already, i'm expereriencing some mental drag during trainings - especially the ones at SIX IN THE MORNING!!
Anyway, the tuesday after beach training last week (I'm exactly a week behind now), I think we did 4x15 laps at 11.0 secs per lap until 7 to go, then negative splits to the end. 11.0 is a moderate pace for sure but it isn't so slow and then to excellerate steadily to the end....well, i guess that's why I'm here. I dropped out early in the first, then finished the rest, only once staying with the group till the end. They would be around 10.0 by the end usually. We always do lots of relays and we always finish up with a different kind: Either 2-man 4/5lap, 3-man 3lap, or 4-man 2lap relays.
Also, in the morning sessions when we have two ours of ice ($10 an hour - ya, it gets super pricy) we often do belt on the ice. This is sooooo hard. I was completely lost doing it for the first time tuesday. Also, we do drills where we wind up around one turn and down the straight then hold either on the left or the right around the next turn and cut inside the track to do a whole circle. Then we did an office workout but i cannot remember what it was - something excruciating, I'm sure. Instead of doing weights like the others straight off, Wilma told me to go for an hour run later in the day so i did.

Wednesday: The whole club is on the ice wed and sat. nights and its only an hour long. Fear not, this was the most grueling day so far. In the morning, after an hour drive to Culver city, I had my first taste of what the skaters were unonimously warning me was the worst (or best, depending on how u look at it) workout. No matter which accent it came from ( many Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, or Bosnian, ) all were in agreement that the stairs were death. Arriving at the site early in the morning, the top of the hill the stairs mount was covered in clouds. As I looked up the formidable hill, black clouds gathered with gulls circling madly, cawing and crying out "go back home and live like a normal human". Lightning bolts thrashed about and thunder shook my boots, but I pressed on... well, that scene would not have surprised me. :)
We started at the top of the 300some odd jagged stone steps with a light jog. Then we did some sprints and accels and went over to some stone tables. We used the tables for jumps of all sorts - one legged onto the bench, power jumps up to the table top and jumps descending from the table to the ground which ended with an immediate explosion up, tucking the knees... My legs were already protesting and we hadn't even begun the stairs. We finished with the table jumps and walked, or rather bounced to the bottom of the stairs. Will told me i only had to do 4 sets instead of six.
The stairs are completely uneven and vary in steepness. They are steepest near the top and also thicker so at the end one is basicly jumping straight up to reach the top. In the first set, we had to sprint up the first "flight" (On the way up, there are two little intersections of where the winding goat path crosses the stairs and Wil calls the stairs in between flights). We had a minute of rest befor frog leaping up the second flight and again a minute before sprinting up the steepest and final third. I thought my heart would literally burst through my chest at the top, my pulse was so strong and fast. But nonetheless, I had about three minutes before descending for rounf two, which consisted of sprinting up the first flight, then, alternating legs every 10 steps, we had to jump sideways, one-legged, from the base position from stair to stair up the second flight, and sprint up the third flight. On the way down, the second time i realised the descent was certainly no rest. Every step is so large that there's no avoiding the blunt compression one's back suffers. I tried going down the skinny dirt area on either side of the stairs but it was to dangerous and not much easier because it was so steep and slippery. It was cool the way so many people came to these stairs and used them as a workout, many parents challenging themselves to just make it up once. The third set started and ended the same and I forget what the middle exercise was, but I think it was something like holding one foot in base postion and the exploding onto the other - I can't remember. I sprinted up the final third and had to consciously tell my legs to keep lifting from the hips, though they were not complying very nicely. I was worried I would trip and bang my shin just as many had done before apparently, the proof being the dents in their shins which they made sure to show me. The fourth set and I finished strong! I sprinted up to the second flight as usual and hopped forward on one leg for ten each then with hardly any rest, took off up the third flight after one of the dutch guys and passed him at the top. I was proud of myself but they still had two more sets.
-Something else of note: After the second set, every time at the top, if I took a little weight off one leg it would start to compulsively shake - like a tremelo, but uncontroled. It was quite amusing watching it go. Many others were experiencing the same phenomenon.
Well the stairs sure did live up to their painful name but my body reacted surprisingly well. I was back on the ice that night for a relay workout which as usual left me completely drained and exhausted. Also, we did dryland based on the tape ladder before the ice training. With three people to a team, each team member did 5 laps, then 4, 3, 2, and 1. As the amount of laps decreased, the speed would obviously increase so that by the end, I had to sprint two laps after going hard for three and then almost instantaniously get ready for a push from Edyn, the Bosnian beast, and a mad one lap sprint. Then I would push Ingmar, and he would begin on the 5lappers again. After three cycles the set was over and we did two sets.
Thursday: Morning ice from 7:05 to 9:05. We did 4x 20 laps at 11.5 with negative splits the last 5. I think this was the workout - can't remember exactly. Of course, there were many other drills and relays thrown in. I was already doing better than monday. After ice was updowns with the belt connected to a pole. 10 each leg, then 20, 30 40, 30, 20, 10 - each leg. Then we did explosive bench jumps inside. We put one leg on the bench and one on the ground and trying to follow Wil's "HUP"s we did 12 jumps, pushing off with the leg on the bench and landing with the other on the bench. We did 3 sets and were done. Again, i was supposed to do weights but I met up with Julie Deisslin, my cello teacher and had a nice time with her and her fam. the whole day and night. I conked right out in a chair at her aunts
's house and woke with a start, for i had been dreaming that i jumped into the tracks of a metro. I slept like a baby in another room for an hour and a half and didn't recuperate from the training until much later. I ate the most i've ever eaten that day, possibly. We wen't to a friend's house at Sunset beach, a beautiful location and went to the beach and dinner.
Friday: In the morning, Miss deisslin dropped me off at practice on her way to the airport. We did a fulfilling ladder, something like: 4 laps at 9.4, 6 laps at 9.8, 9 laps at 10. 5, 13 laps at 11.0, and 20 laps at 11.5. Then the after-ice workout was one of those "are u kidding me?!" exercises. We did the turncable (belt) two sets each - regular;power;regular;power in each set. Then we did six sets of the following torture: With one partner holding, the active partner does around 20 seconds of running in place bringing the knees as high as possible, the belt around his waste for a little tension. Then, one partner sprinted as best he could while the other held him back with the belt tought. Then the partners switched. Then without the resistance, each partner sprinted the same distance. I was so tired after this, that space between my neck and shoulders was throbbing. In my opinion, this was harder than the stairs.
Saturday: Saturday morning I was utterly spent and I didn't do weights again. At skating that night we did 27 laps at 11.5, building speed the last 5. Then 20 laps at 11.5, again with negative splits the last 5. Then we repeated both. That was soooooo hard, but i guess i should learn to expect that with Wil's training program. I guess "I made a real statement" in the second to last set as I was the only one left with Edyn, the 3k machine, at the end. Wil came up to me after and compimented me, so did Anamiek, an older dutch girl, and so did my host parents, who were super impressed and Alexandria was who made that quote. Though i died and dropped off the last lap and a half, I was able to stay on longer than anybody ( Jeff Simon is not here right now) and it definately showed how far I had come come in less than a week. I died in the next one, but almost stayed on the whole time and made sure I finished the 20 laps. That is my goal - to finish everything instead of dropping off when my legs are burning to much to keep the pace up. I feel that is what really builds the stamina and muscle more than anything. It also builds mental strength to fight through the pain.
Sunday: Ahhh the precious off day. However, the action did not cease, for the Netherlands was in the Soccer World Cup Final and with the club having so many dutch skaters with their parents too, it was a passionate day indeed. We all met at a pub, after having all bounced away from the scheduled pub due to it being full, and watched the game. I had my money( or a dinner, as it were) on Spain and i won a lasagna from Alexandria because Spain finally scored a goal in overtime. After, I went to the beach with some people and had a good time.
Monday: We had a relatively easy session in the morning. We did nothing but relays the whole time. All sorts of combinations. Then later in the day we had beach training. The same training as last monday. I was so much better this week than last week with this training, it was amazing. I was able to do all 60 meters of the regular/power turn cable, though it was a struggle. The loop up the hill and around x 6 was so much better aswell. We did two sets of this then moved to the deep sand. We did suicides but with all kinds of jumps, then regular running - 4 in all. Then a bunch of us went in the ocean, which was soooooooooo nice.
Today: Tuesday - finally caught up. We did drills and exercises as usual for morning sessions then did 10 laps at 10.5 followed by a 5lap accel and did that 3 times I beleive. I was having a real bad day today and got a burr (blade trouble) in the beginning. That was real frustrating but I fixed it and led the last 10 lapper way to fast, starting out at 9.7 by accident, as Wil was not calling out lap times. However, I finished at 10.5 the last 3 laps. No one stayed with me except for Edyn. I messed up for sure but it was inspiring how I skated. What's more, i still do not feel whatsoever good on my skates. I feel rocky and unefficient and tired. So, can't wait to get those new skates.