All it takes is time... and practice

I’m not sure if I already mentioned it, but before the snow fell, I built a small rink for my kids in my backyard. By small I mean, 19’ x 40’. With the cold weather now upon us, they have been out on it several times, and all 3 keep asking to go out, even in -25o C weather.

Because of the rink, speed skating daughter learnt to do crossovers using hockey skates, only son has gone from barely walking on the ice, to full on strides and glides and oldest daughter states that she can now do crossovers using her figure skates even though I figured she could already do them (she argues no). So all 3 have become better in a short amount of time. That, in my opinion, makes building a backyard rink a HUGE SUCCESS!

Last night, at speed skating daughter’s first practice since before Christmas, she was able to do crossovers using her speed skates and now realized that she can maintain a good pace on the turns. With over 1 month before the club’s official meet, she has plenty of time to become better at doing crossovers and improve her 333m, 222m, and 111m times. Time will tell.

If only son continues at this pace of improvement, I will sign him up for the try-it-before-registering speed skating sessions, as he mentions he wants to do speed skating like his older sister. That means, I could have 2 kids, and possibly my Dad and myself, registered at the club next season. I hope they give family discounts. :)


 
BTW, that is me, speed skating daughter (bottom), only son (on knees) and speed skating daughter’s friend on the ice, with family dog just off the ice. Oldest daughter was away on a sleep over that night.

Dominated the Dojo

Yesterday marked the last day for the Fall Karate session. This meant that it was Test day for everybody who was ready to move up belt levels.

Since this is our first attempt at doing Karate, all 3 of my kids, and myself, are White belts. Understandable. For the past 6 weeks, the whole club has been working on getting ready to do this test. With the fact that the first few Kata’s are straight-forward and I’m athletically inclined, I’ve had a solid understanding of what to do for several weeks now. So much that, I’ve been helping the other White belts practice. This is not your typical scenario where a White belt is teaching other White belts the Kata’s to become a Yellow belt, but I had no issues with it and the other White belts didn’t seem to mind (probably because I was older that most, and the only man doing them). This left me feeling very confident that I would successfully pass my Yellow belt test. Having to do them in-front of the whole group left me a little nervous, but I completed the required 2 Kata's with only 1 minor mistake.

Leading up to the test, Soki and the other Sensei’s started commenting on how many push-ups, sit-ups and squats we would need to complete to pass the test. Originally I had heard that 50 sit-ups were required to pass your yellow belt, but now we were hearing that it was 100. Nice to know 1 week before the test, especially since I had never really gone past 50 in any class. I originally thought it was Soki and the Sensei’s fooling with us, since they did conflict themselves on several occasions (no it’s 150... no it’s 75... no it’s 100...).  Oh well, suck it up and move on. As for push-ups, the number 50 was correct, but this time you had to do them with a partner, where your partner would make a fist and hold it under your chest (on the ground) and you would have to lower yourself and touch it, to make it count. Again, none of this was relayed to us through the sessions, so this was a little harder than expected, but I managed to do it. After those were done, and my partner finished his, I did another 5 more on my knuckles for practice. Only Blue belts and higher are required to do their push-ups on their knuckles, but practicing now will only make them easier in the long run.

After all sit-ups and push-ups were completed, we moved on to techniques. Techniques are a series of moves (kinda like Kata's) where a fight situation is acted out and you actually throw your opponent around on a mat. The other difference between techniques and Kata's is that only those over 18 years of age learn them. In order to progress to your Yellow belt, 3 techniques must be demonstrated, which I did with ease. This was then followed up with several different kicks and finished off with 60 seconds of continuous punching (a mat held by your partner).

Our last test was to complete 100 squats. I heard on several occasions that we would have to do this as the last part of the test, but I never practiced them, nor did we do them during class. I figured I could muscle through them. Well, not so easily. I finished them, but my legs were done afterwards, so much, that it was difficult kneeling down as everybody was receiving their new belts.

Today, my chest and legs are sore, and I’m guessing that tomorrow will be more of the same (the 2nd day is always worse for some odd reason). In the end, my oldest daughter and I successfully completed our Yellow belt test, while speed skating daughter and son completed their ‘Peewee’ Yellow belt. The difference between a full Yellow and a Peewee Yellow belt is part age and only needing to learn 1 Kata. Speed skating daughter was not happy that she only had the opportunity to test for the ‘Peewee’ Yellow belt, as she learned the other Kata through me (at home) and was doing it fairly well. Unfortunately, Soki was not aware that she knew it and he felt she was not old enough to progress to the full belt, so in the end she will remain a half belt behind her big sister. Motivation for future belts I’m sure.

At this point, we have decided to take a 3-month break (length of the next session), but fully plan on returning in the spring. Having a few less activities during the months were getting out is not always the easiest and/or quickest thing to do, is a good thing.

More to follow in the spring.

In the meantime, enjoy the true meaning of “Dominating the Dojo” as brought to you by Kramer.

Kramer Karate Sessions

She might be getting it

With my work schedule and the fact that we live 1 hr from the speed skating club, we don’t always make it on time to do some off-ice training before the practice session begins. This past week was one of those weeks, I knew that beforehand, so I asked my daughter, last Monday, if she wanted to go do some off-ice training to make up for it. She was eager to do so, and her brother and sister wanted to join us. I tried convincing my wife to walk while we did our thing, but she made other plans. Maybe next time.

The location we went to is frequently used by people for indoor walking, so I expected some people to already be there. I informed my kids that they need to pay attention to the others around, and to stay on the outer edge of the walkway when running, and on the inside edge when walking. The walkway is marked accordingly, but it doesn’t hurt to re-iterate the fact to the kids. Show respect, get respect.

We started off with 1 lap walking and the followed it up with 1 lap light jog. During the jog, speed skating daughter stayed in front with a faster than I wanted pace. Her older sister had problems keeping up, and I had to keep calling out to her to slow down. My son would start off in a full run and then stop after about 20 seconds, so I would walk with him until he was ready to start up again. We did that until the lap was complete.

We followed that up with crossover runs, 1 full lap. I made them face one way for half the lap and then face the other way for the second half, so to work both legs evenly. For those that don’t know, a crossover run is when you face 90 degrees from the direction you are going and you start running sideways. Instead of side stepping, your back leg crosses over in front of your front leg and then behind your front leg. Essentially your hips are doing a twist while you run. It really teaches balance while improving your push-off strength. The point of this one is to start off slow and increase your speed as you become comfortable. Speed skating daughter is getting pretty good at this one, while the other 2 kept getting confused on their stepping.

After that, we did a 3 step kick drill. I encouraged my kids to start off walking and once they got the motion, to try it while jogging. Speed skating daughter took this as more of a jog with the occasional kick, and since she was too far ahead (due to me sticking with my son),  I could not correct her. Oldest daughter was getting it while walking, but had some difficulty doing it while jogging. With time they will all get it.

Next up was stairs. The good thing about where we were doing our exercise is that in each corner of the “track” there are 2 flights of stairs. My suggestion was to walk to the corner, do a flight of stairs and then continue walking, repeating at each corner. By the time my son and I reached the first set of stairs, speed skating daughter was done (she kinda ran to the stairs), so I told her to do a 2nd set, which she did happily. On the following corner set of stairs, I suggested she try to do them using crossovers. I also asked that she hold on to the railing so to no fall. Again, she did them two times and only commented that it was hard, but she was still happy. For the 3rd corner set, I ask that she hop up each stair with both feet at the same time. Again, two times with a smile. The last set were done normally and again she wanted to do them two times. It’s hard to say no when she asks if she could do them again.

By this time everybody was getting tired, but I didn’t think we were done, so I asked if they could do 1 more thing. Other than speed skating daughter, a few groans came out. This time I suggested a slow jog around the track with each step over extended to the side. This drill really works on your push off as you focus more on going side to side instead of directly forward. I have to say, this was much harder than expected.

At the end of that lap, speed skating daughter wanted to do a fast lap, while the other two were getting tired. I said OK and told her to keep going until the lap was done, but I would stay with the other 2. Oldest daughter tried to keep up with speed skating daughter, but you could tell that that wasn’t going to happen. Speed skating daughter was becoming faster and had more endurance than her older sister. When I commented on that a little later on, at home, speed skating daughter was all smiles (yes she is very competitive with her sister and brother).

We finished off the training with a cool-down walking lap, and all 3 mentioned that their hearts were beating fast, but all still felt good. My heart rate was definitely up as well.

If anyone is interested in some off-ice training exercises, the Midland Speed Skating Club offers some good ideas, with training videos. Check them out.

Since our off-ice training session, I’ve been encouraging speed skating daughter to work on doing crossovers. She said to me that she wants to wait until next year before trying, but last practice found her giving them a try on several occasions.

I think she is getting it.

Inspired to blog again

After recently reading speedskatingmom.com, I have been inspired to start blogging again. This time, instead of blogging about me, I am going to blog about my kids activities. At the moment, my oldest daughter is involved in dancing (ballet and tap), my other daughter (middle child) is involved in speed skating, while my son (youngest of the 3) is involved in hip-hop dancing. All three take swimming lessons and all three, including myself, are involved in Karate. My son talks about how he wants to play football when he’s old enough, but that is not for another 4 years, so we will cross that bridge when we get to it. During the summer months, all three are involved in soccer. For this post, I will focus on the middle child and speed skating, because that is not your typical kid sport

A brief history on how my daughter, and eventually I, became involved in speed skating. First off, my daughter just celebrated her 7th birthday, so the fact that she wants to do speed skating blows all our minds.

Back during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, speed skating was on TV a fair bit. I, being the athletic type, was very interested in all of the Olympics, but speed skating really caught my attention. Because of this, I made a point to watch as many of the races as possible, and having only 1 TV in the house, my kids also sat through many events. At some point during one of the events the idea of her (and her brother and sister) doing that came up.  I’m not sure if she said she wanted to try it or if I suggested it to them. Either way, she seemed interested, even though she had barely been on skates to that point in her life (she was 5 at the time).

The fact that she was interested stayed with me after the Olympics were done and I began researching speed skating in general and what option we had in our area. It turned out that within 1.5 hrs there were 3 clubs that offered speed skating for all ages. With the end of skating season almost over, I let that information go until after the summer months (really, who wants to think about skating when it’s sunny and warm outside). The following fall, my wife and I registered all 3 of our kids into the local CanSkate program (geared towards basic skating technique all the way to figure skating techniques) so that they could all learn to skate properly. It wasn’t speed skating, but it was skating none-the-less.

On the first day of the CanSkate program, my daughter (the one who said she wanted to speed skate) refused to go on the ice. My wife (I was already on the ice with our youngest son in his program) spent about 15 minutes (out of a 30 minute class) dealing with her crying and refusing to go. Through much of my wife’s frustration and finally physically putting her on the ice, she finally began skating with her group and by then end of the session was grinning from ear to ear (which we figured she would do). Keep in mind, this wasn’t my daughter’s first time on the ice as I had taken them several times during the winter months before to public skating events, so nothing should have upset her. Then again, she is a little girl, and girls have a tendency to be over-emotional (just my opinion). From that point on, there never was an issue getting her on the ice, and with each passing week, she became a better skater. By the time the mid-season progress reports came out, my daughter had already achieved her Level 1 AND Level 2 badge, while her older sister and younger brother had not yet reached Level 1. She was starting to show some skating talents and a month later, she received her Level 3 badge, while her older sister finally received her Level 1 badge. Progress was being achieved all around.

During each skating lesson, I was on the ice with my son who was in the Parent and Tot program. This program was taught by the club’s head coach, so I had plenty of opportunity to talk to her and at various times, she would approach me and comment on how my youngest daughter had great form, always wants to go fast, and how I should look at getting her into speed skating. Now, as parents we all think our kids are the next best thing at what ever they do, but in reality, that is not always the case, so we don’t always act upon it. When an impartial person suggest something other than their program (or something that benefits them), it is something to consider.

With this new enthusiasm about speed skating and talking with my wife and daughter about it, I restarted my search for a club for her to try it out. As it turned out, all the clubs in our area offered some type of try it out session (for a minimal fee) and the club we were interested in was having a upcoming race meet (competition), so we (the whole family) decided to go and check it out to see what it was all about. At the time, our Saturdays were already busy with all 3 kids involved in some sort of dance class, so although we wanted to go, we knew we would be limited for time. On the day of the event, we all woke up early and made the 1 hr drive to the club/arena to watch the race. We arrive shortly after it started and only had time to stay for 1 hr before heading home and getting the kids to dance lessons. During that time, my daughter could not keep her eyes off the ice and my wife and I decided right then that we would look into signing her up as soon as possible. After talking to the club secretary, we were able to register our daughter for 4 try-it-before-joining classes, that included skate rentals. All we needed to purchase/pick-up were cut-resistant gloves, glasses, helmet (we were told her other skating helmet would do fine), knee and shin pads.

After trying on some skates, she got dressed and made her way to the rink. On the way there, she commented on how the skates hurt her ankles, but she would still try it out. For the next 45 minutes (out of a possible 60), she slowly moved across the ice smiling from ear-to-ear. There was also two very proud parents in the stands smiling from ear-to-ear. As the class progressed, although still smiling, you could tell she wasn’t happy. As it turned out, the skates were causing a blister on one of her ankles. So here you had a girl crying due to pain and smiling due to the sheer enjoyment of being the only person her whole family knew on speed skates. She almost made it to the end before finally giving in to the pain and getting off the ice. Although her first experience wasn’t the best, she wanted to come back the next week, so I spoke to the equipment manager and we picked up another pair of skates. The next 3 sessions were awesome and without pain compelling us to sign her up for another 4 more sessions, taking her to the end of the season, while still working with the CanSkate program. Her ice time went from 30 minutes a week to 90 minutes a week. During this time she managed to achieve her Level 4 CanSkate badge and was selected as “CanSkate Skater of the Year” for being the youngest to work through 4 Levels during one season. At the same time, she managed to complete the first 2 levels of the Speed Skating program. That is quite an accomplishment for someone who was 6 years old and only learnt how to skate within the past year. Now don’t get me wrong, she may never become the next Marianne St-Gelais, Kristina Groves or Christine Nesbitt, but this girl loves to skate and everybody comments on how she is always smiling when she is on the ice. As a parent, when your kids find something they are passionate about, you let them follow it and see where it takes them.

Fast forward to September past and we are back on the ice. This time she is registered for the full year, has a new proper helmet, gloves that fit, and better shin and knee pads, to make everything look and feel right. The only thing she doesn’t have is a skin suit, and one has been order (albeit too big because she is small, but it will hopefully last her 2-3 years). Right from the first class you could tell that this year would be different. Gone was the slow moving girl and found was a girl who was showing skills at this sport. What wasn’t lost was that huge grin. It is amazing on how just a few months of natural growth can make a difference in a person’s ability. Add to that the fact that I convinced both my girls that training for and running a 5k race will help them with their other activities (the oldest does ballet and tap dancing, while this one chose skating over dancing). For a 6 and 9 year old, running (and partly walking) 5k with 11 thousand people is an accomplishment, and when you do it in 43 minutes, it is a big accomplishment (I did get a little chocked up when we crossed the finish line together)! Her potential to do well this year looks promising and that makes me happy that she decided to commit to it.

A few weeks into the season and the coach sends out a request for a parent to help out on the ice with my daughters group. Now even before my daughter became interested in speed skating, I wanted to try it out. Having spent many years of my youth playing competitive hockey as a goalie, I figured I could pick it up quickly, despite all the comments I have heard about how different a skating motion it is. In reality, goalie skates are not much shorter than speed skates and they both use a crosscut pattern to sharpen. This opportunity was exactly what I was looking, so I contacted her and have been skating with the club for over a month and a half now. For the record, the motion is different but I have yet to fall, and I can maintain a decent pace while doing crossovers, so all is good. Maybe in a few years, I may actually become a club member and compete, but for now, helping out the coach on the ice is fun for me, especially when I’m already at the rink.

So that is how my daughter, and I, have become involved with speed skating. In the posts to follow I will talk about her first meet and any other interesting things that come up.

Here’s a video I made of her speed skating. The first few clips are from her 1st session (before the crying started), while the remaining are from a month and half ago. Ignore the iMovie comments, as this was originally made to share with family members. Notice the improvements she made over the summer. I would say she is even faster now. 

Back for more

Wow, it sure has been a while since my last post. Many things have changed, while some have stayed the same.

Since my last post, all three of my kids have celebrated a birthday, as has my beautiful wife. I've also traveled to the Baltimore-Washington area, San Diego and the Galapagos Islands. The latter was an amazing experience. If you ever have the opportunity to go, GO! Due to my extensive traveling, my running was non-existent for 3 months, but in the past week I've started up again (and that hurt, but worth it). Another thing to note is that since my last post, I've managed to gain all the weight (and more) that I tried so hard to lose, so I'm working on removing it again (no one to blame but myself).

As for work, I've changed jobs, but am still working in the same area. I'm very happy about my change, as it was much needed, and I feel in this position, I'm able to contribute more to the company's goals.

Well, that is about it, but I will post soon as I have another Run Challenge to start.

Amazing

I just had the opportunity to meet Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield. I brought my family, including my mother and 2 of my daughters friends along, and we listened to him speak about the Canadian Space program and what it's like living in space. He had a slide show with incredible pictures that just added to his speaking. My son even had the opportunity to go up on stage with him as Chris did some weightlessness demonstrations.

That was an experience I will keep with me for some time. If you ever have the opportunity to meet an astronaut, do so, as they have amazing life experiences to share.

ARHM Challenge - Run # 9

Made it out today with my buddy JGiles for our LSD run. My family (including my wife) was also out on their bikes while we ran.

Here are my numbers:

		My results	Comments
Type of Run	LSD	10:1	good
Distance	9 Km	9 Km	total: 43.9 km
Pace	6:48-7:48	7:23	OK
Average HR	149-167	139	low
Max HR	180	159	OK
Calories Burned		1103	total: 5263

Because my buddy recently had heart surgery and he's just getting back into running, we tried to keep our pace slow and his HR under 110. For the most part, that was fine, but there were a few times where it did get up. Overall, it was a nice easy run.

ARHM Challenge - Run # 1

Started training today for my next Half Marathon challenge, the Army Run HM, which will take place in September.

Here are my numbers

		My results	Comments
Type of Run	LSD	10:1	good
Distance	7 Km	7 Km	total: 7 km
Pace	6:48-7:48	7:37	could be faster
Average HR	149-167	145	too low
Max HR	180	161	OK
Calories Burned		783	total: 783

This was my first run in a week, and over the past month I've gained some weight from all the eating in restaurants I've been doing lately. I also went running with my kids, where I was pushing my son in a running stroller, while my girls biked. Put these things together and my results were a bit slow. That also meant my Average HR was lower because I didn't have the energy to go faster. I know I have some work to do to get back into shape, but at least this is a step in the right direction.

1st run...

... since the Half Marathon (NCHM) and it was OK. I went out with my daughters on their bikes and did 5k. My pace wasn't fast and there was a few times that I had to stop to either help one of my girls, or we were at a traffic light. All in all, it was a decent run, but it won't be counting towards my training for the Army Run Half as I won't run again until next Sunday.

Timmins Road Trip Recap

Spent the past weekend up in Timmins ON with family. I've never been there, so it was nice to get away and see a different part of this province/country.

Before we got there on Friday, they had a pretty big forest fire nearby where the water bombers were picking up their water on the lake right in front of my relatives house. My uncle had several videos of the planes going right over his house that he showed us when we got there. On Friday afternoon, the fire had sparked up again and a few of the water bombers made a few passes over the lake to get some water for the fire.

I have some videos of the planes on the lake, but not sure how to upload it. Here's a link of someone's video from the day before.

Water Bomber over Porcupine


On Saturday we went up to Cochrane ON to see Polar Bears at an exhibition. On our way we saw a bear cub on the side of the road. We also say another on the way back at a different spot. Cool to see live bears on the side of the road, but no way was I getting out of my truck for a close up.

At the Polar Bear site, there is a wading pool that you can go into and "swim" with the Polar Bear while he/she eats. The pool is separated by a thick glass, so there is no danger of being attacked/eaten by the bear. It felt pretty amazing being inches from a polar bear.

Then on Sunday, we went out the the Timmins Airport and since my uncle works there, we managed to get right on the tar mat to see the water bombers.

And my kids and I went up into the plane and saw all the controls.

They also had an opportunity to see the "Bird Dog" plane, which is the lookout plane for the bombers at the fire site.

Later that day we went to a Provincial park for the rest of the day and enjoyed the beautiful weather we had.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, full of life experiences for everybody.

Meet the kids

A couple of weeks ago, the family went out to get pictures done so that we can give them out at Christmas. This is something my wife started many years ago and has now become a tradition. This year, instead of going to the typical studio, we asked my buddy to take our pictures at a nice scenic spot. Now don't get me wrong, my buddy is an excellent photographer and has aspirations of doing this semi-professionally. You can check out his work on his website and judge for yourself.

Over the course of about 45 minutes, he managed to take well over 300 pictures, and then sorted through them, giving us the top 75. Here is one of just my kids that I really like, as my son's expression (while he is trying to catch the falling leaves) is priceless.