Steady as she Goes

It was cold and wet at the first outdoor TISC practice of the season. Some showed up to register and say hi, and it was nice to see folks like Mike and Richard that I skate with every week during the outdoor season, whom I haven't seen for most of the winter. I did catch Mike Lin at Around the Bay 30K last week and he did really well there.

It was just Kevin, Aaron, Peter, Sarah and myself who geared up and skated some laps before the harder rain hit us. I was definitely staying at the back of this pack. Kevin made me laugh with the comment "I miss indoors" as he shivered into the wind just before we started. We had just did indoors the night before. I have to say, I felt the same with with the cold and wet coming down on us.

Weather notwithstanding, it was actually a very good transition from the night previous indoors, to the outdoor track. We managed to get our warmup laps in at least, and like yesterday we were focusing on trying relax and get in less strides on the corners and the straights (like 3 and 3). I tried my best to think of the slower, longer, lower, stronger glides like we were doing yesterday as opposed to my usual choppier cadence. Not sure how successful I was. I tried my best to follow Aaron's cadence he was modelling at the front, but I was finding I needed to add in the extra stride or two as we began to pick up speed, particularly on the corners. I noticed that the others were also puting in the occassional extra stride, so I felt better about that, but as the drill continued I was obviously adding more and more extra strides as I fatigued and my technique fell apart.

The part of my technique that I was trying to keep in mind last night was keeping my toe turned in on the recovery. I also felt my balance was a bit off at times, and like yesterday I was definitely going wide at the corners and conscious of the edge of the track and rolling off of it onto the grass.

I think it's going to take me a while to get the feel of a 200 Meter track at Christ the King. I've never really skated on one, other than the one RSO last year and the Barry Publow clinic two years ago. I'm just so used to the 400 Meter Landsdowne track with it's longer straightaways. It is a bit more liberating than the indoor track, but again there is just so much crossing over. I'm hoping I am improving on my crossovers, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

I wish I didn't have night school on Thursdays. I want to get more TISC coaching during the week, but I guess I'll try to obsorb as much as I can with the drills and go to the track during the week, maybe on Fridays and try to reinforce it on my own.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Orange Juice, Hot and Sour Soup, Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, deep fried softshell crab, miso soup, ice burg lettuce salad with ginger dressing, sashimi, Kalbi and Bulgogi beef, green tea, noodles.