Morning Glory:=>She's such a Tease! ;)

Woke up on the right side of bed today. A very good nights sleep followed by a wonderful start to the day.

Yoga at St Clair noon hour with Yvonne was wonderful. Did me a world of good to stretch and relax.

Now that night school is over and my other fitness obligations have been fulfilled, I'm happy that I can really start devoting some time to my inline training. I already feel like I'm behind since most people have been building up their "base" endurance over the past two months. From the way the Detroit race went, struggling through the final two laps and getting dropped at the final stretch to the finish line by my pack (usually I find it pretty easy to just sit in and wait for the sprint at the end) that I really need to start building on my base over the next month.

I'll also be able to go to both TISC practices on Tuesday and Thursdays as well as all the extra skating sessions that folks engage in locally. I'm signed up for the Eddy Metzger clinic in Ottawa in June, and I'll be signing up for the Barry Publow clinic in Toronto that takes place in a week and a half. I've taken the Barry clinic before and it really helped me out a great deal.

Very much looking forward to the first Friday Night Skate tomorrow night, and Sunday is my favourite local skating event, the Becel Ride for Heart which takes place on the Gardiner!!! Looks like rain though, and Richard just sent out an email saying it might be cancelled due to the rain. Given the amount of skating I've done in the Rain lately, I'd still like to get on the Gardiner even if it's raining. Hopefully it won't get cancelled.

I felt really bad to learn that the skate bag that I sent back to Toronto with Morgan after the Detroit race was starting to get extremely ripe. I guess I wasn't thinking about all the wet gear just sitting in his trunk for the past few days. I pulled my helmet and wrist guards out and they just reeked. I could barely stand putting my helmet on and Peter had to tell me to go put my wrist guards on. I generally don't like skating without them anyway, but they were nasty. Luckily he insisted however, because I did take a spill towards the end of the night during the "roughhouse" drill.

I was happy to learn that there was a pretty good sized "speed" group tonight, and Peter's coach Mike Murray (sp?) was running the practice. I'm definitely the slowest of that group, but I was quite happy stay at the back of the pack and try to absorb what was happening with the fast guys (and girl) in front of me. I also liked that we had some pretty specific drills.

I was getting dropped pretty easily, particularly on the corners, and had to keep in mind what Peter had mentioned at the beginning, which was to make sure I rest when i am supposed to rest instead of wasting my energy trying to keep up with the pack. As the pack got faster, and I got tired, I found my technique (What little I have) falling to pieces. I could hang in for the first few laps, but found myself easily dropped. Endurance and my Cardio are what I really have to work to build up before events like the Cambridge Canada Day Marathon and the 24 Hour in Montreal. I've got about a month to work on that.

Need to focus on getting low and getting a proper push/glide in. Hopefully it's something I can focus on specifically when I do the Barry and Eddy clinics.

I tried my best to focus on and follow the technique and strides of the better skaters in front of me.

I had two really stupid spills today. One was because I wasn't quite sure how to handle the "touch" handoff that was described during our standing start relays today and accidentally collided with Sarah. Luckily I decided to bail out on the grass. The second one was during the "roughhouse" drill which involved changing positions and forcing your way into the pack. I stayed at the back mostly to try and observe how they were getting in and out of the pack, but ended up with a small skate collision that sent me down. Luckily we weren't going very fast and it was only minor road rash. More an annoyance at myself for falling than anything else.

I noticed that my shin/ankle is still bothering me from the weekend.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
bowl of nature's path zen and power cereal and lucky charms in Omega 3 milk, apple, frozen fruit popsicle. tuna fish sandwiches on flax bread with pickle and light miracle whip, Booster Juice with Warrior Boost, Gazpatcho with olives and hot sauce, pickle. yogurt with banana, nectarine, banana, pita bread, orange juice with fruitopia, gatorade, frozen real fruit popsicle.