Getting Things Done.

I had no juice at practice tonight. It looked like everyone else was in the same boat. I don't know if it was the humidity. A very small group tonight in the TISC racing group. It actually gave me the opportunity to skate behind Jesse, Scott and Sarah tonight, which was a good excercise in trying to synch up with three very different strides and techniques that I am not as accustomed to skating behind since I'm usually following Travis, Kevin or Mauricio when we are ordered from fastest to fast.

It felt like a great deal of effort tonight. Even the warmup was straining my back and my legs performed like they were filled with lead. We did one minute on and one minute off, and I had to skip a couple of laps towards then end, but I forced myself to jump back into the pack. I was really wiped by the end of the warm-up and started to regret not leaving with Morgan to go do some trail skating around the Western MGT.

We did a pyramid drill next. 2 laps on up to 5 laps and then back down again. I managed to catch a draft just once when Scott and Sarah were slowing down and I managed to anticipate the start. I discovered that the key to the ordered standing start is not to focus on the person in front of me (in this case Sarah), but the person in front (or a few positions ahead of me, in this case Jesse). The wind on the back stretch was particularly strong tonight and skating solo into it just slowed me to a crawl. Given how tough I found the wind tonight and at the 24 Hour, I really need to force myself to do much more solo skating into the wind. At a certain point of fatigue, my technique once again started to go out the window (if I even had any today to begin with!).

We also worked on the drill that Peter did on Tuesday, the "offensive" pattern, except this time we added in the passing aspect. Jesse explained that one of the keys to doing the "offensive" properly was to utilize the push to your advantage... so that as soon as you get that push, use that energy to surge ahead when you are in front, or to push you ahead to pass. He also mentioned to me that I should be trying to change things up slightly everytime so that the person behind me (in this case Sarah), could not start anticipating when I am going to surge. Jesse pointed out that since I was making my move at the second soccer post every single time, Sarah was not watching me, but simply anticipating when I was going to "go". He went in front of me to demonstrate and it was clear what he meant when the large gap opened up in front of me every single time.

We finished off with ten laps cool-down reverse-direction at my suggestion. There are often times when I'm slowing down around the right hand turns in certain races. I had not done reverse direction in quite some time. Scott and Sarah were quite strong on their crossovers going the other way and it forced me to work a bit harder to keep up.

Even though it had been such a tough practice for me, I felt quite good about it afterwards. A practice with fewer people can have it's benefits, and it's a bit closer to what I was used to when I was practicing with Camilo, Leo and Travis last season. For whatever reason, it always feels a bit more like a team effort with less of a mob to get lost in the shuffle.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Nature's path Zen and Power Cereal with Omega Soy Milk. Banana. Gazpatcho Black Bean Soup with hot sauce. Picke. Gummies. Peach Yogurt. Peach. Banana. Whole Wheat Pasta with spinich, frozen veggies, onion, zuccini in Ragu and Salsa.