Onward to Salt Lake

We are heading out to Salt Lake City today for the first World Cup of the season. After two days of racing on Friday and Saturday here in Calgary, it is good to get on the road again. I did the 1500 and 500 this weekend at Octoberfest as a tune up for the World Cups and it was alright. The only really bad thing was that I broke one of my blades yesterday in a kind of fluke crash. Obviously its not optimal to go on to new blades the week before a world cup but I’m confident that we’ll be able to dial a new pair in before Friday. I already have all of the specs on paper so its just a matter of putting the right rocker and bend in. For those of you that don’t know what that is, in short track we have a fairly round rocker (not as round as a hockey skate but with the same principal of adding a better ability to turn and be agile) and the blade is also bent so that we can make a 180 degree turn at speeds of up to 50km/h without hitting the boards. Each skater has a rocker or bend that he/she prefers and each is a little bit different depending on the skater. Some like more turning ability and thus more agility so they might have a rounder and more bent blade. Someone else might prefer to be able to glide more and carry speed more efficiently and thus they would have a flatter rocker with less bend. Ideally though, you want the combination that gives you the best of both worlds and that plays to your strengths.

Look for updates regularly this week and next about the WCups, results and potential replays of the intense euchre action that normally materializes on trips. Unfortunately my euchre team mate Liam will not be there to lay the smack down on the Jesses but I’m sure I’ll find someone that can help me beat them. I mean its not that hard to beat them anyways…