So when I got on ice last week Thursday in Vancouver I didn't feel quite like myself, something was throwing me off. But I set it in my head that it had more to do with adjusting to the ice rather than anything to do with my equipment.
Apparently I was wrong.
My left blade was 1 mm too far to the left at the toe - in other words the offset (angle) of my blades was wrong. Seems like a weird mistake to make, but I'm dealing with new cups and it's made traveling with my equipment a little different. As soon as I changed back to what it should have been I could do little to keep my teeth (sans one) from showing. The comfort was back.
1 mm doesn't seem like a lot, but in speed skating it is. It could mean the difference between 1st and 2nd (referring to Dustin's and my 1000 m final yesterday, guy tried to sneak me at the line after I had lead 9 out of 9 laps, haha - 1 mm difference) or it could mean the difference between feeling comfortable or not, especially leading into the 2nd round of 500 m's. I needed that comfort back!
But it definitely helped me out in my performance yesterday in the 500 m. The little slips seemed to have vanished.
Apparently a lot of people have already seen the article, many way before I was aware of it. But here is a link to the Vancouver Sun:
Enjoy.
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