Dream Chaser On Wheels

Brain Buckets

These are my Giro Atmos helmets. I had been searching high and low for a helmet which doesn't make me look like a mushroom-topped dork and I think the Atmos is stylish enough to escape that fate. Unfortunately, it also comes with a hefty price tag.

The one on the left I purchased at regular price earlier this season. I have been seen in many inline skating pictures with it. The blue and silver one I bought yesterday because there's a 2007 inventory sale at Curbside Cycle on Bloor. At $120 (GST included), it is a reasonable deal. I bought the last medium size but there are still a few small and large available. Not that I'm vain or anything but I can now colour coordinate my skating outfits (helmet+skinsuit+skates). On a somewhat unrelated note, I always suspect that coach AA colour coordinates his helmet and skinsuit though of course he would never admit it...

Since plyos on Thursday, I've been hobbling around much of the time because I was sore all over. I went to watch some local short track races at the Brampton ability meet on Saturday. It was really neat to see many familiar faces. Some of the adults I skated with last year are racing this year and all the kids are so much taller (and faster) now! I missed indoor practice this morning due to some mix up on Saturday night which dragged into the wee hours. I enjoyed a rare morning of sleeping in and ended up logging some time on the stationery bike at the gym. All in all, not a bad weekend and it's nice to be away from my skates for a little bit after a week's worth of bad practices. Let's see what Monday brings.

OMG, My Boots Are Famous!

Umm, well, not really. But still. It is super cool that they are featured on the Simmons Racing website!!! You can find pictures of my boots here (second row from the bottom left of the page). How do I know they're my boots? I think the "Candy" "Supergirl" are obvious giveaways. Heh.

There is actually a reason behind why I wanted to have those two words embroidered on my boots. You can see for yourself...

First Impression

Have I fallen in love yet with my new skates? Well, not quite. More accurately, I'm still in the process of learning how to use them. The combination of new boots, new frame, canting, bigger wheels, and a brand new set of wheels proven to work well on our practice floor made for a very different skating experience than my last practice. Everything was new except for my dirty bearings and spacers!

I spent my warm-up in the middle of the floor trying to figure out how to control my skates. Basically, I could not get them to go where I want them to go. When my body did what it thought was enough to make a tight turn, I ended up swinging out wide. After some frustration, I settled on doing simple drills such as single-leg gliding along the small oval so I could get a better feel of how the skate behaves.

Just as I suspected, my frames were not in the right place. Coach SZ adjusted them and the difference was day and night. During the acceleration drill, I was finally traveling down a more predictable path both in the straights and the corners. The bigger wheels felt weird at the corner...I felt like I was leaning more without extra effort. Good thing that these new yellow Matters are working well! For the first time, I felt secure in the corners. For the first time, I know exactly how much I was not trusting my old marshmallow-y wheels!

We did a couple sets of 5+5+5 laps drills. Coach AA put in a new twist and asked us to skate 5 laps neutral, 5 laps aggressive, and 5 laps defensive to practice our track patterns. In reality, the whole drill turned out to be just a straight race with a speed too fast for me to follow. No matter, I just took the opportunity to skate on the track by myself to get more comfortable on my new skates. I tried to skate the track patterns to some degree. Coach SZ told me afterward that I looked good in my aggressive laps because I really picked up the cadence to power out the corners. These custom boots do feel better when I picked up the cadence. They ran with me like an extension of my legs, for lack of a better description.

By the time we started relays, I was already a lot more comfortable on my skates than an hour ago. I did not miss any of my exchange and that is saying a lot considering all the chaos around! I came out of the relay box with JS, EL, and L. I was frankly a little scare when I had to do my exchange beside L because he did not stop skating during the exchange. I had this fear that after I get my push from JR, I would run right over his outstretched legs [shudder].

At the end of practice, I was noticeably more tired than usual. I felt more clumsy as well, though not in a oh-my-god-I'm-tripping-over-my-skates kinda of clumsy. I felt that I was slower in reacting to any change of pace. As soon as the pace of the pack picks up just a tiny bit, I was too slow to react. However, I was able to do more.

As far as boot fitting goes, I'm quite happy with the result. The boot feels very stiff compared to my old Bont ZX-5. The carbon comes up higher around the toes so I doubt that I will go barefeet in these boots (that feeling of toes scraping carbon is kinda icky to me). It fits well around my ankle, side, and bottom of my feet. The tongue is heatmoldable so I may need to work on it a bit as I feel the top of my feet being pressed down by the boot. However, of all the places that I may have potential fitting problems, the top of the boot is probably one least damaging. Haahaa.

All in all, I still have adjustments to make to both my technique and my boots before I feel entirely comfortable in these new skates. I can't wait to skate in them again!

Mystery Solved!

Busy setting up my new skates. Check out some drool-worthy pictures here in the mean time.

And to answer your question, no, I don't plan to skate in my Storm Surges anytime soon. They look good with the colour of my boots though.

Scooby Doo And The Case Of The Mystery Package

I'm not feeling that great after practice on Monday. I had a couple of falls, one of which had my head hit the floor hard. I was alright after the initial shock worn off. Now that it's been a couple of hours, I'm slowly getting a mild headache that's not unlike the onset of a cold/flu. I don't know if the two are related but needless to say, I've had better days. I'll write more about the practice when I'm feeling better.

When I got home from practice, I had a surprise waiting for me in the form of a yellow and brown UPS InfoNotice. Apparently I have a 2lb package from Florida with those infamous C.O.D. charges waiting for me. I checked the tracking number but I cannot find out who the mystery sender is. I haven't actually heard from Simmons recently though the date does correspond with their original estimate time of completion for my boots. Does 2lb sound right for a pair of boots plus one frame? I guess I'll find out tomorrow with delivery attempt No. 2.

In the mean time, I hope this headache goes away soon. AA, with any luck, I think I need my set of yellow Matters 100mm wheels. I sure hope you have them ready for me!

California Dreaming

My custom boots are estimated to be done in three months so that means they should be available some time in December. Shipping cross border would likely cost me extra money on custom, tax, shipping, and quite possibly handling fee. So I thought it may not be such a bad idea to ship them to my friend ML in California. Since a few of my friends will be visiting ML around that time of the year, I can probably ask them to take the boots back to Toronto.

Wait a minute, what if I go to visit ML myself? It would be a great opportunity to visit my favourite puppy Momo and ML's baby. Besides, I have enough mileage points to get myself a free flight. Most importantly, the weather will still be nice enough to skate outdoors over there in December! ML told me that it's a quiet neighbourhood with little traffic and a speed limit of 30km/h. Doesn't it sound like a perfect solution to cure mid-winter blues?

Custom Casting By David Simmons

After much contemplation, I took the plunge to get a pair of custom boots from Simmons Racing. Last Friday in Duluth, I went to the Simmons booth at the vendor expo to get my feet custom cast by Mr. David Simmons himself. I talked with many of my skating friends and the overwhelming response was the quality of the cast can really make or break the boots. That was why I ended up ordering my customs sooner rather than later so I could be casted by the bootmaker.

The casting process was much quicker than I expected. I had my right foot done first. My foot was first smeared with Vaseline and then Mr. Simmons wrapped my foot with one roll of water-soaked wide-width plaster bandage. The wrapping was done in a very efficient manner with emphasis on the ankle area. My foot stayed relax while he wound the bandage around.

It was interesting to note that he used paper towel to soaked up the excess moisture from the plaster bandages while he shaped the plaster more closely to my foot. Next, Mr. Simmons asked me to put my foot on top of a soft fluffy foam pad and stood up with my knees bent. He adjusted me stance for a bit and held me knee while I carefully sat back down.

He shaped the cast a bit more while we waited for the cast to harden a bit. In the mean time, I voiced some of my concerns about my skating in general (knees turned in and having a really difficult time with pronation especially when I'm tired). He took a look at my ZX-5, noted how I already have the frame moved to the inside, and explained that he has problems with pronation himself too. Mr. Simmons recommended that he would build in 10 degree canting to my boots. I was a little skeptical about the built-in canting because after all, this is permanent....however, he is a very experienced bootmaker and I trust his judgement. I hope that this is a right decision.

It didn't take long for the plaster to harden just enough. Mr. Simmons proceeded to make a vertical slit on the plaster directly on top of the metal strip and the cast slipped off my foot easily. It was still soft enough to press the slit shut. I signed my name on the bottom of the cast and that was basically it. Picking and choosing the colour for my boots was pretty quick as I have already given my custom boots some thoughts previously. I ordered an extra set of mounting bolts because, well, you never know when disaster strikes, right?

It will be exciting to receive my boots in 3 months! Haahaa, this is probably as good an excuse as any to go to the Great EsSkate in Miami comes February next year. :)

Off To Duluth

I'm suppose to be sleeping at this time in anticipation of my early flight to Duluth. Since this is not my first time traveling out of town for competitions, I'm not really feeling nervous. From last year's experience, I know better now to pack some non-perishable food for breakfast on race day. Rushing around town the night before race day looking for suitable breakfast food just adds unnecessary hassle to my schedule.

I don't expect anything out of my performance other than making my way across the finish line. My ramp-up days in tapering are working as expected but I lose energy very quickly during a workout session. On the bright side, I'm now more used to the effects of exercising while bordering on sugar low symptoms. It's a little annoying but I can mostly get through it somehow. Unfortunately, club practice is becoming more and more uncomfortable due to various reasons so I'll be glad when the season wraps up in two weeks. I feel the need to hibernate (in a gym) for a while.

On a more exciting note, I made my casting appointment at Simmons Racing for tomorrow afternoon. According to the very helpful Jennifer, David Simmons will be doing the casting himself. Getting these custom boots will be a very heavy financial commitement. However, when each marathon is a gamble to see how many kilometres my feet can last, these custom boots may not be such a bad idea after all.

One Man's Garbage Is Another Man's Treasure

I went looking for a phone book in AL's basement today and I accidentally stumbled across a box containing a brand new Bollinger Aerobic GlideSlide, complete with VHS instruction video. It was one of those fitness fad that AL's sister bought years ago and had been sitting in the basement gathering dust ever since. The saying on the box cracks me up:

The fat-burning, low impact workout. Glide into leaner hips, thighs, and buttocks. A fun way to lose inches and build endurance. No sweat, it's an easy, natural exercise anyone can do. Includes super slick sliding surface of 6 feet/1.8m and shoe covers. Rolls up for easy storage.

Granted, 6 feet is a little short for a slideboard but since my friends don't mind giving it to me for free, I'm quite happy to be this slideboard's new owner. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. It's been rolled up for so many years I need to flatten it on the floor for a few days first. What an unexpected gift!

My New 4x100 Frames

These are my new 4x100 frames. They are Cado Motus Pro db III 12.0 inches, probably one of the shortest 4x100 frames on the market. As you can see in the picture, they are just slightly shorter than my current Bont Sniper 4x90 so with the addition of the 100mm wheels, I hope that the transition will not be too painful. Unfortunately, I am not able to try these frames yet because I do not have a pair of 195mm mount boots. My plan is to get molded next weekend at Duluth for a pair of Simmons boots but of course it's not exactly spare change so I'm still a little uncertain. Foot pain and boot problems had been a recurring issue for me ever since I got my Bont ZX5 last August so perhaps it is time for me to splurge.