The clinic with Joey was the result of a lot of work by local one-man inline skating enthusiast/promoter Chris. Chris was formerly known as "Ole Skater" here at LongTrackLife, but he contributes so much to the local inline scene that he needs to be known by his real name. He's taken on running the Wednesday night Summer Inline Series; he sends out weekly emails about upcoming trail skates and other inline events; he's the man behind Project Skatelove; and he singlehandedly brought us the clinic with Joey. So from me and all the other Minnesota inliners: Thanks, Chris!
Back to the clinic. Chris, being the thorough guy that he is, had set up a rain venue in case the oval was too wet to skate--which turned out to be a good thing, since it pretty much poured all day Saturday. So I got my first experience with indoor inlining, in an elementary school gym. It actually worked out fairly well (and of course I'm completely comfortable in elementary school gyms, and it was nice to be in one without being responsible for anyone's behavior except my own), except that the small size pretty much precluded anything but drills; no straightaway skating practice or paceline work, and we couldn't even really do corners. But there was still plenty for us to work on, so it turned out fine.
We spent quite a bit of time on off-skates drills. Joey was very good about going around and giving everyone individual comments about their technique; I was pleased that he didn't have to give me more than a couple suggestions (Coach TieGuy had spent a lot of time, in the five years he coached me, drilling me on dryland basics, so it was nice to see that most of it had stuck). Here's Joey, checking out my knee-nose-toe lineup.
You can't really see them here, but Joey is known for his epic quads.
After the dryland, we did a lot of on-skate drills; again, these felt fairly familiar and comfortable to me, although it was also clear to me that I don't do these nearly enough--my knees weren't nearly as stable as they should be. I found it interesting how much time Joey said the long track national team devotes to such drills--it's a lot. I've never spent much time on on-skate drills for a variety of reasons; sadly, the main reason is simply that they're not as much fun as actual skating and I've always been guilty of only doing the stuff I enjoy. The clinic not only gave me some good drills to do, though, it also gave me a little push to perhaps devote more time to them. Hmm, maybe a weekly open short track skate drill session (short track is only good for drills, as far as I'm concerned; too scary to go at speed and actually try to do a workout) will be in order once school gets out.
After lunch and some more off-skate drills, we got down to the real entertainment: working on double-push skills. Double-push is a techique unique to inine skating; you can't do it on ice. It requires setting your skate down on an outside edge, then pushing the skate to the inside, under and past the center of your body, rather than pushing out away from the body. Once the "under push" is completed you roll to your inner edge and do a standard outward push; hence "double push." It looks something like this:
See how far under his body his right foot is? That's the under push.
Well, double push is simply not in my repertoire. Not that I haven't worked on it; I have, back in 2005 at another inline clinic. The end result of that effort was a lifetime, two-country ban on ever trying to double push again (the clinic coach was Canadian; I think he wanted to ensure that I wouldn't sully the fair trails and streets of his native country with my flailing attempts at double pushing). Actually, what he actually said upon observing my double push efforts was "Well, you've got the basic idea, sort of. But the band is playing a Barry White song and you're out there on the dance floor doing the robot. I think it's best if you never try to double push again." I'm no dancer, but I got his meaning--just a fancier way of echoing Coach TieGuy's statement that I'm "all force, no grace." And I had to agree with him that it didn't seem that the double push was something I'd likely be successful with. Which I was fine with; I really use inline skating as training for long track ice, so I try to replicate long track technique on my inlines as much as possible. In that context, double push doesn't matter.
But yesterday we did double push drills (and anything that improves my ability to control my skates is a good thing, whether or not I need to perfect the actual skill we're working on), so I did double push drills. Or at least, I tried. However, I've spent the last 15 years of learning to speedskate focusing on pushing away from my body. There was simply no way my limited motor planning skills were going to allow either foot to push under my body. So the drills were a (no doubt entertaining) exercise in futility...until I remembered Coach TieGuy's "drunk skating" drill. Drunk skating is simply executing a series of alternating crossover strokes down a straightaway--and it requires somewhat of an under push. So I started drunk skating, and by reducing and finally eliminating the actual cross-over, I was eventually able to do a very tiny semblance of an underpush. Success! But I was very glad that we ran out of time at that point and had to stop our double push efforts...I like to quit while I'm ahead.
The last part of the clinic was the Q & A session with Joey, and I found this extremely interesting. Along with the usual questions about skating technique and Joey's Olympic long track experience came one that was right up my ally: what, someone wanted to know, did Joey eat?
The answer? Paleo.
Actually, Joey's answer was that he used to do Paleo, and he tried to do Paleo (based on the book The Paleo Diet for Athletes, which I have and have read multiple times). He said that he's never felt better or performed better than when he was eating Paleo--but that it was simply too hard to consistently eat that strictly.
Well, I was dying to know more. What was his version of Paleo? How strict was "strict?" What did he find hard about it? Did he eat "Paleo substitutes" for things like pancakes and muffins, or was he a "meat fruit veggies eggs nuts only" guy? But I was pretty sure that the other 29 clinic participants wouldn't have nearly as much interest in this topic as I did, so I (uncharacteristically) held my tongue. Still, I thought it was cool, and very validating of the soundness of eating Paleo as an athlete, that a top-level competitor in the sport that I love (oops, sorry CrossFit...one of the sports that I love) wholeheartedly endorsed a Paleo diet as a way of enhancing performance. As I sit here typing this, very full from a breakfast of Paleo pancakes with raspberry-blueberry-rhubarb sauce and pure maple syrup, with a side of bacon--this makes me extremely happy.
And then it was time for a group photo...
Trust me, I'm in there somewhere!
...and autographed photos of Joey and his iconic quads...
So a fun day, complete with a lot of good information, a gentle reminder that drills aren't just for beginners, and a confirmation that Paleo is, indeed, the Holy Grail of diets. What more could I ask for?
My big shock, he doesn't lift weights. Seriously? Legs like that and no weight training?? I would have liked to know more about the diet portion, also, but some crazy athlete nerdage would have taken over and all but 5 of us would have remained interested. He did eat a Chipotle Burrito Salad for lunch, though, if that gives you any insight.
ReplyDeleteWell, Derek Parra didn't do weights either; I guess it's whatever works for each individual. I didn't do them until I found a fun way to do them, but of course I don't have thighs like Joey's--nor do I skate like him. :-)
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