Chicks Ahoy Attack!

I thought i gave myself plenty of time today to get to the TBN Monthly Marathon out in Hamilton Beach, but with all the road closures in Toronto on the weekends, needing to get gas and then getting stuck at the Lift Bridge, we still had to rush a little bit. Although it's such a casual event that folks were good about waiting for us.

Given the fact that it's August and people are generally away at the cottage or on holiday or off to the cottage, there was a smaller turnout, particularly for those doing the full marathon. I figured rather than have everyone skating alone, it might be better to try and pack up and see if we could do some prep work for the upcoming races in Ottawa and Montreal.

As the TBN Marathons are generally friendly and not hugely competitive events when you have so few people spread across abilities, the challenge is to try and keep everyone together for as long as possible but make sure that the faster guys can be sufficiently challenged as well. Typically, you try and stay in the pack as the faster guys do most of the work and slowly over three laps the speed picks up and people drop out of the pack. Once dropped, you tend to skate alone, and I know I find it a bit harder to get motivated skating by myself... the Garmin helps if you are fighting for time, but I don't think there is anything better to push you to work harder than the energy that comes with group skating, not just for the drafting in a pack, but that infectious energy of enthusiastic skaters that are having a good time.

I've heard a great deal of discussion and debate around the "value" of keeping slower skaters in with you, particularly in competitive racing situations. Certainly is is a social sport. I think the situations will always vary. On the one hand, I think we've all encountered a racing scenario where you have someone who tells you that they can't pull uphill or into the wind, only to show you that they have enough sprint at the end to beat you to the line. LIve and Learn. I certainly found it helpful at the Montreal 24 hr to allow skaters I was passing to jump on board if they could hold the pace once in my draft. Even if I was doing the Lion's Share of the pulling, I could occassionally pull off and get in their draft. We'd certainly slow down a little bit but even a short break to stretch my back out and take a quick drink is appreciated and energizing for me. I've also heard arguments on both side of the fence about the "wind tunnel" effect. I think the great thing about skating within a small community of folks is that you do know what each person can contribute and in a fun and social situation, everyone gives what they can.

Today, it was evident that Kevin would probably be doing a great deal of pulling as the fastest guy there. I'd probably put in my fair share as well since I was feeling pretty strong and there was plenty of opportunity to rest. The others could put in whatever they had in them, but we were setting a goal to try and hold the pack together as much as we could.

The first lap tends to be a warmup lap anyways, so we decided to try and keep Carolyn in for as long as possible in order to give her the experience trying to stay in with a slightly faster pack and to adjust for the surges in speed that are experienced in a racing environment. We lost her on an uphill as we approached the turnaround on the first lap, but it was evident that she still had some fight in her as we saw her coming up behind us on the turnaround. She managed to stay with us for a good part of that first return lap before another uphill took her out. I'm proud of the fact that she managed to stay in for so long given the speed and endurance of the guys in our pack today. Carolyn also managed to shatter her pervious PB for a 42km run on Hamilton Beach Trail today as a result!

With Kevin, Jacky, Jay and myself in the pack, I suggested a good training excercise for us to do as a group would be to simulate attacks that the rest of us would have to chase down. Someone would sprint off the pack and the everyone else would have to give chase to the best of our ability and then we would regroup. It appeared that the first round was just Kevin and I attacking (although I know I tried my best to make sure everyone got back into the pack and rested), and that was fun, but for part of the next lap we made sure that it was just Kevin and I pulling and we would give Jacky and Jay a chance to experience what it was like to attack. I know that for most of their marathon and racing experiences they are generally used to hanging on, so I imagine it was fun for them to see what it was like to take control of the pack. Of course I didn't anticipate the sheer joy and madness that they took to this... attacking at every opportunity they could, including when they have just caught back up to the pack when they should have been resting! I was a bit worried that they were burning themselves out, but the beginning of the third lap proved to be a good opportunity for them to take a bit of a break as Kevin had to adjust something that was loose on his skate. Kevin hammered it out to catch back up and I caught a ride behind him. Once we were back together we opened it up so anyone could attack, and once more some fast and fun chaos ensued which unfortunately left Jacky behind us as we headed for the final turnaround. We slowed the pace down and rolled slow for a few minutes, but it was obvious that he was done for the day as the gap opened up wider despite our efforts to allow him to catch back up. Jacky put in 100% effort as we were attacking and chasing, so I give him huge slap on the back for sticking with us for as long as he did.

At that point we decided to try and keep Jay in with us and just do speed work on the final half lap back to the start. I'm always in awe of just how strong a skater Kevin really is when he's given the right amount of challenge. He took long pulls into the wind and still managed to pass me like I was standing still as we sprinted for the finish. Jay also finished quite strongly given the fact that he had done an extra lap earlier in the day to sweep the coarse for major debris, as well as all the insane sprint intervals we were doing. All together, I think everyone had a great morning out at Hamilton Beach.

I ate too much again afterwards at the Buffet at Emma's BackPorch. Jen made a nice healthy dinner that night, but I also couldn't resist getting a hot dog at Gillian's Roller Derby Game that evening. I'll have to eat better in the next two weeks.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Flax Bread. Banana. Apple. Cliff Bar. 2 Croissants. Eggs. hash browns. Pile of Bacon and Sausage. Cantelope. Pineapple. Ice Tea. Icee. 4 Chocolate Cupcakes. Pasta. Salad. Hot Dog. Slushee.