Daddy-O's

Today was supposed to be a Full Rest-Day, but Kevin talked me into going skating on the west MGT with him and Benji. I probably would have ended up sneaking out to do spinning anyways.

Despite what we generally seem to do when we train around here, which is chase faster skaters, it's also a good benefit to skate with slower skaters. I know my technique just falls apart horribly when I'm maxing out, red lining and fighting to hang on. Today, I tried to focus on slow skating today and think about technique. I could follow Kevin's rythm well when I was drafting him, but kind of lost it when I pulled. It's so easy to slack off at a slower pace, particularly when you are tired from the week's cumulative workouts. I focused on trying to keep my upper body still, not toe-out on the recovery and bring the knee behind. Easier said then done and I think I often mess myself up more when I'm thinking about it too much. Eric mentioned that the rec/fitness group is doing video assessment this week, so I'll have a look to see what I'm doing wrong.

I finally tried out Morgan's killer hill sprint with Kevin on lookout, and it actually wasn't as scary as it looks. With the new pavement, there is plenty of rollout and space to do the merge as well as a good view of the trail on both sides. So as long as we're careful, there should be no mishaps. However, we had Benji with us, and given the "curse" of the past week with Carolyn and Jay going down while skating with Kev and I on the MGT, I figured it would be wiser to just do the Legion Hill today. I'll do more of the other hill later. The Legion Hill might better simulate the long slow climb I'm expecting to encounter in New York.

It gave me a chance to play with my stride as Kevin and I took turns pulling up the Legion Hill. Kevin makes it look so easy with his long slow strides. I find I can follow that stride up to a point and then I have to revert to shorter choppy strides in order to keep up. I know my cadence was definitely quicker and shorter when I was up front. This is going to be a problem... it might keep you in and in fact give you an edge if it's just a short burst like at the end of Duluth, but as I discovered in A2A, it's going to just burn you out in an endurance event with sustained and continuous climbing. Long. Slow. Use the arms.

I can't remember if we did six or seven of them, but that pretty much wiped me out for the day. Looking at my Garmin, I was suprised to see we actually did do a little over 20km today... almost a half marathon.

As luck would have it, we got a little turned around and ended up on Roncesvale, which is where my old friend Cristian has opened up a 50's style theme diner called Daddy-O's. We had a nice post-skate lunch there. Ate too much again, and then followed that up with a lobster dinner with my parents up in Markham.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Apple. Banana. Granola Bar. Gatorade. Crepe with asparagus, ham and cheese. Panini with Prosciutto cheese and other stuff. Chocolate Waffle with Brownies, ice cream, marshmellows and chocolate syrup. Broiled Lobster. Lobster Bisque. Mango Mousse Cake.