Keeping Busy Kinda Rest Day

Did another car load of moving. Yvonne's Yoga class tonight felt really good. It was nice to take a mostly rest day after such a hard workout day yesterday. My body is definitely stiff and sore. Yvonne sang to us which was nice.

Ed Duncan mentioned how well I did in his Blog. That felt good.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Strawberry Yogurt, Woodland Berry Granola Cereal with Soy Milk, Orange Juice, 2 Lick's Homeburger with the works, 1 strip of Fruit to Go, Beef Cambell's Soup, Gazpatcho Soup with Black Bean.

Working Out Hard

Pump today noon hour Manulife with Jacob. Biceps and lunges remained at 7kg, everything else the same.

Combat tonight at Mount Pleasant with Tanya followed by Spinning with Duff. I was starting to feel physically very tired doing Combat today in addition to Pump. During Combat I could feel odd things going on in my legs, small injuries? Spinning I took it relatively easy.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Tomato Pasta Bean Sausage Soup, Woodland Berries Granolo Cereal with Soy Milk, Salmon in Dill sauce, small O Henry Bar, 3 Fruit To Go strips, Whole Wheat Pasta with sauce and salsa and veggie parmisian. Tomato Pasta Bean Sausage Soup.

Sorting and Packing

I did half of Yvonne's Yoga Class this morning, it felt good to get some more stretching and deep breathing in. My body still is in recovery mode it would seem. Stiff neck and shoulders.

I went down to the track and did a few laps as it was getting dark. Back was strained pretty early from even the warmup pace. The boy from China, Frank was there at the track after it got dark. I asked him why he was there so late, and he had to do his homework first. I skated some warmdown laps with him.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Granola Cereal with Soy Milk, Tomato Pasta Bean Sausage Soup, apple, banana, Whole Wheat Pasta with sauce and salsa, Booster Juice High Impact Acia, Sour Fruit Berry Gummies, banana, four slices of Pizza. Tomato Pasta Bean Sausage Soup, Mango Jugo Juice with Power shot, four little chocolate bars.

Heavy Lifting

Did some more moving today, the TV stand was really heavy. I will count that as a workout.

I did half a Pump Class at McCaul in the evening, and then Sharon's Yoga Class. The clean and press was 10kg as a warmup and I went down to 7kg for the biceps and lunges. Still feeing pretty tired from the weekend. Stretching felt good.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Woodland Berries Granola Cereal with Soy Milk, Strawberry Yogurt, Gazpatcho, salmon in dill sauce, chocolate peanut butter cup, green goodness juice. Gatorade, Lentil Soup, Cornbread (vegan), Soba Noodles with tofu steaks, grilled zuccini and tomatoes in spicy peanut sauce.

Have Skates. Will Travel.

I've never had to do much in the way of travelling to participate in Skating events in terms of flying somewhere and booking a hotel. This season is pretty much a first for me in that I went to Duluth and will be going to Athens 2 Atlanta specifically to participate in two of the most popular and challenging events in inline skating. I was going to do the New York 100K, but opted out of it at the last minute. It does seem odd to me that I am spending that much money to go somewhere for the weekend just to skate and not even make a bit of a vacation out of it.

Jen and I have travelled to Disney World two years in a row to do the Disney Marathon and then the Goofy Marathon Challenge and a Half. We stayed a few more days to enjoy the theme park. We'll be flying into Chicago for the last weekend in October in order to run the Marathon there.

Up until this year, I guess there have been enough Inline events in driving distance that we did not have to travel too far to participate in them. I have friends and Jen has family in Montreal and Ottawa that we can stay with, so that is never a problem. The first Inline Marathon I ever did was the Niagara one which started in Buffalo on the US side of the border and ended in Canada at the Horseshoe falls. It was cancelled as of the following year. This year we lost the Rolling (AKA Falling) Rampage 10K around Queen's Park, the Toronto Inline Race Weekend usually held in an industrial park in Mississauga, as well as the Inline portion of the Montreal Marathon held in September. Now my favourite race of the year, The National Capital Marathon that usually kicks off the inline season in Ottawa in May, has removed the Inline races as well.

Since details of the Harriston Race that they intend to hold on the weekend of the National Capital Race Weekend have not been firmed up, off the top of my head, that leaves the 10K in Mount Forrest, The Canada Day Inline Marathon in Cambridge, the Ottawa Inline Festival at the beginning of September, and the Montreal Defi in October. I have never done the 24 Hour Relay in Montreal or the Inline portion of the Out Games in Montreal which started this year, but I will have to make a point in supporting these events next year. I'm also not that fond of skating around and around a track but my one experience doing an RSO race makes me want to at least give it another try next season. I don't think they have announced where Nationals will be held next year (it was in Montreal this year, and the previous two years it was held as the Cambridge July 1st Marathon).

So I might have to make a point of doing more travelling in order to participate in Inline events. I hear great things about Long Beach, The Big Apple Roll, The Philly Freedom Skate, Skate Boston, and many others. I'll have to do some research and see what events some of the Toronto Skaters will be participating in. I really want to do much more of the fun skating events next year where we aren't being times and there isn't a finish line.

As a preliminary goal for next season, I would like to try and achieve the triple crown of the three big Ultramarathon Endurance events: the New York 100K, A2A and the Montreal Defi. Hopefully circumstances would allow this to happen. I was thinking that this year would be a good year to achieve it, but we're running the Chicago Marathon the weekend of the Montreal Defi. Jen has been so supportive the past two years driving support for the Defi in the rain that I figured it's only right to let her have a go at running a major Marathon event like Chicago.

State of the Union

Sigrid wrote an entry in her blog that really resonated with me, particularly after the race in Duluth this weekend.
http://www.sigridziegler.com/?p=23

I know I have good cardio and endurance, but after all these years of inline skating I still have very little technique or control, which is particularly evident when I'm skating in a pack during a race these days. In fact, I think I'm even worse off than someone starting from scratch given the fact that I have a great deal of bad technique that I developed over the dozen years as a self-taught rec/street skater to unlearn.

I've picked up bits and pieces over the years from various places, including Kevin Smith's Marathon Dynamics course, TISC practices with Eric Gee, Barry Publow's clinic and I know I've grown in leaps and bounds this past season and half of last season skating with the Camaleon Club under the guidance of Camilo, Leo and Andres. However, the fact remains that I don't feel like i've ever really learned to skate either.

Cornering, crossovers, skating in a Pack, uphills and downhills, starts, hawking at the finish are just some of the things that continue to elude me. I feel like I have a great deal of power when I skate, but very little control over it.

Something to be working on for next season for sure. Many are suggesting I go do indoors during the winter, which will help me develop my technique due to the small space I would need to be maneuvering around (about a 100 foot rink). It would be constant crossovers, which doesn't sound very fun to me, but necessary at this point in my inline racing aspirations. It will also keep me in shape so I am not starting from scratch again in the Spring trying to rebuild my base in April and May prior to the National Capital Marathon (which has cancelled their inline portion as of next year).



Something else to think about as well is my tendancy to Reward myself after a big endurance event by eating whatever I feel like. I really need to stop doing that to the Extremes that I am currently indulging myself. Like all things in life, MODERATION. Which seems to be a foreign concept to me. I only skated 42K on Saturday, which doesn't counter the HUGE feast at Famous Dave's in the evening and the giant All You Can Eat breakfast I ate the next morning. Particularly since I worked so hard to drop the ten extra pounds I gained this winter. As I'm getting older, my metabolism is changing and I can't eat anything I want anymore. It's just not healthy.

I should be eating more throughout the day and they should be healthier snacks. More vegetables. I probably drink too much fruit juice and consume too much salts.

Recovery Day

I did 1/2 of Tanya's Combat class and it was tough. Losing my voice a bit.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Apple, Green Goodness Juice, salmon in dill sauce, pickles. whole wheat pasta with salsa, sauce and veggie parmisian cheese. Gazpatcho Soup. Smores Chocolate Square.

The Joys of a Podium Finish!

I'm back from Duluth, Minnesota and I feel really good about how I did in the Northshore Inline Marathon, despite the slippery rain conditions.



SATURDAY

The Northshore is known as the biggest inline race in all of North America. People have been telling me for years that I have to experience this race, and it's the first time I've done some serious travelling to do an inline race. Even with the rain, I could see what a great course it was and I would love to do this again under more optimal conditions.

Overall I placed 15th in the open divison (Non Pro) in a field of 1336 men.

I got a podium and a medal in my age group (35-39): 3/164

My time is now a new Personal Best:
1:21:29

It's the fastest course in all of North America and usually people really shave some serious time off of their PB's. I probably would have had a sub-1:20 without the rain. I tend to track PB's for each individual race course rather than an overall PB given the fact that the conditions of each race course are pretty unique in many cases. Duluth is a point-to-point net-downhill with relatively straight, smooth road conditions. Which is ideal for me given my weaknesses in cornering and crossovers.

I stuck with Travis and Brian Joulbert (until Brian had to drop out due to equipment failure) pretty much to the end. Travis did really well in the sprint coming 2nd overall and 12 seconds ahead of me. Morgan and Aaron ran through the finish with us the night before and I'm really glad we did because it became a bit technical with an uphill on the ramp from the highway, a sharp turn followed by a downhill and another sharp turn at the bottom of that hill and a sprint to the finish with one more turn. On a straight away I have quite a bit of power, but I tend to lose ground when hills and corners play into it, and even more so when the pavement is wet.

A few things I would do differently next time. I was quite a ways back in the pack when we hit the tunnels and the concrete there was impossible to get a good grip. For the most part I found I could put myself where I needed to be in this pack during most of the race, but I couldn't move up once we got in the tunnels. When we hit the uphill ramp, I was boxed in pretty badly at times. I followed Danny from OISC as we weaved around people up the hill. At the top I gained some ground on the corner and tucking down the hill before losing that ground at the turn on the bottom of the hill to a half dozen people and spent the last sprint and corner chasing down.

Morgan and others suggested that we race in the Pro division next year. We'll see how my season progresses next year. I have to admit that it feels rather good to be in the front pack like this.

Overall a great way to end the marathon race season (other than the big A2A Ultradistance in two weeks). Spending all season chasing Camilo and Travis around the Landesdowne track definately made me a better skater than I thought I was. With Camilo gone to train on Ice down in the US for the 2010 Olympics, it looks like I will train with TISC next season, which I think should be really good for getting the fundamentals of pack skating which I've been missing this season. I should also start exploring options for the off-season now as well. Whether I try ice, attend indoor practice at Scooters or do cross country Skate-skiing.



SUNDAY
Jen and I did an easy 10K run on Sunday morning just to loosen everything up.



WHAT I ATE ON THURSDAY
Korean BBQ Kalbi Beef and Rice. Kimchee and appetizers, Soba Noodles, fried spicy chicken, Mussels.

WHAT I ATE ON FRIDAY
Jen's Whole Wheat pancakes and Orange Juice, Banana, Apple, Chicken Noodle Soup, Turkey Sandwhich on whole wheat, a few French Fries, a hot fudge Sundae, Foccocia Bread, Mushroom and Greens Salad, Ravioli and some of Jen's pasta.

WHAT I ATE ON SATURDAY (RACE DAY)
Foccoccia Bread, Orange Juice, Apple, Cereal Bar, 2 Cliff Blocks.
POST RACE: Apple, Banana, yogurt, 1/2 pound Pastrami Subways, Orange Mountain Dew, Famous Dave's BBQ platter with Ribs, Chicken, Beans and Sausage, Coleslow, Fries, Georgia chopped pork, corn bread muffin and corn-on-the-cob. Cherry Coke, Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade.

WHAT I ATE ON SUNDAY
Omelette with the works, Pasta with the works (in a rosa sauce), bacon, sausage, Pineapple Juice, Waffle with cream and berry sauce, pineapple, strawberries, cantelope, pickled herring, oreo cheesecake. Strawberry shortcake Dicky Dees Ice Cream bar, Berry Cream Doctor Pepper, pickles, Pizza Sub.