Time for fine tuning.....

Went into Costco to buy some coffee and came out with two guitars......the devil owns that place I'm telling you!! I've always wanted to learn the guitar and other instruments and since Aquarians are highly creative, I bought my daughter one too. It was a good deal for both and since I thought I would have some time on my hands if ever I move to Calgary, I figured I would learn pretty fast......now I just have to fine tune it.....
Speaking of fine tuning, I feel that I am beginning to grasp the speed skating techniques that I need to master to continue to progress in the right direction.
Last week, I 'self timed' myself with a stopwatch for the first 100m from a standstill start. Keeping in mind that I had an 11.24 at the end of the Masters Camp during my 500m race and that I have been skating twice a week for the past 5 weeks, and being on new equipment, I was really hoping to see some progress. I did 4 sprints with not much of a break in between, as you know now, I am a sadist that way.........always want to see what I am made of. Anyways, first one was a 10.70, second one, a 10.26, third one I messed the time, and fourth was a 10.98.....I was really happy with that considering that I started the stopwatch before I actually took off from the line.
This past week, I have to say that I just wasn't myself and felt very shaky. Usually I am very stoked when I arrive at the Oval but this time, my legs were like jello, I felt very light on my skates, my skates felt dull, I had choppy strides and cross-overs and I was burning out quickly.....overall, I felt like crap and thought I was coming down with something......and tonight was tempo night. That is a 400m rolling sprint.....the only one I ever did timed was again at the Masters Camp.....a 33.89. After having felt the way I did, and thought I skated like a 38 something, it turned out, that even feeling the way I was, I hammered out a 30.03.....so again, I was stoked....mind you, the National guys are hammering 25s and 26s.
So two small tests with improvements.....things are moving along well. Then we did 4 sets of 8 laps with a 40 second average per lap in less than 45 minutes.......and I felt great and wanted more....go figure. Maybe I just needed a kick in the butt...
I am looking forward to race maybe late October or early November.....I am actually starting to get nervous about that but in a good way.......I really want to move up to the next level of trainig at the Oval.....stay tuned!!

Peace.