I’ve been excited about my trip to Gerlev International Skate Camp at Sk8SKOOL for quite a few months. Imagine spending two weeks at a sports academy in the company of skaters and living out the “sleep, eat, skate, repeat” motto! With a bit of lucky coincidence, my teammate NCJ and I flew out of Toronto Pearson International Airport yesterday on the same flight. The 8 hours flight felt short in the company of good friend and I barely caught a bit of shuteye before landing in Copenhagen early Sunday morning.
 |
 |
Sk8SKOOL is located just a short train ride from Copenhagen. You see that uneasy smile on our faces? We really weren’t sure we boarded the right train. I was a little disoriented from the unfamiliar language and lack of sleep. I sure was thankful to travel with NCJ since she already came here once last year. We did not fork out extra money to get reserved seats thinking it would be trivial to move from seat to seat when the rightful owner comes along. With our bulky and heavy luggage, it was not so trivial after all! I was glad when we finally set foot at Gerlev by noon.
Thanks to the helpful and friendly staff at Gerlev, I made myself comfortable quickly in my dorm room and a nice lunch at the cafeteria. I’ll tell you all about the food in the next few days. It’s the most awesome menu I can imagine for feeding a school of hungry athletes! I was exhausted from traveling and jetlag so the afternoon nap was a much-welcome item on my agenda.
 |
 |
Being one of the first group of skaters to arrive, a small group of us including head coach Sooty and assistant coach Sarah went for an easy evening road skate, just to loosen up the legs. I had been off-skates for a whole week due to the uncharacteristically wet weather. Guess what? Rain followed me to Denmark! It was light drizzle and the pavement became increasingly slick. However, while it was relatively dry, we enjoyed a nice tailwind and a good stretch of pavement for 6.5km long. Sooty gave each of us some useful feedback on technique and we returned to the starting point working on various technique drills. The drill I find most effective is skating with our arms clasp in front of the body like we’re praying. With each push, we drop the shoulder slightly to exaggerate the weight transfer aspect of our movement. I’ll have to share this with skaters at my club when I return home.
There’ll be more skaters arriving in the next few days and skate camp will officially kick off on June 1. I’m really looking forward to training tomorrow. Motorpacing is on the agenda!
Comments