Gray

I felt a bit shakey in some poses at Frances noon hour Yoga class at Mount Pleasant today. I'm glad I took the opportunity to stretch things out. Even if I think I feel fine, I think Yoga is an excellent way to tell where your body is truly at in terms of fatigue, the ability to relax, flexibility, and any subtle injuries or strains you might have which you normally wouldn't notice.

I arrived at TISC practice tonight with tired legs. We got there just as the race group was winding down their warm-up. I was happy to see that one of my former Camaleon Inline Club coaches, Camilo was there! I had not seen him since he took off for Europe to skate ice last year. I'm glad to see him back on inline skates. I owe a great deal to Camilo (and his brother Leo and coach Andreas) for taking me to the next level as I transitioned into speed skating from the world of rec/fitness. He's a very supportive guy and very generous with his time and coaching in the two seasons previous that I trained with him. Hopefully we will be seeing more of him at TISC!

I suprised myself at practice tonight by sticking with the drils almost all the way through. Usually when you are tired and dropped by the pack, it can be a bit demoralizing and it's easy to slow down and stop. I tried my best to push through the fatigue and finish the drills... it's probably good training to do so given the fact that I often experience this partway through races. I'm going to try my best to not give up and see the drill through to completion in terms of the time on the track that the rest of the group is doing it. It's often hard to determine which is best for the intention of the drill and what we are working on... to stand up for a lap once you are dropped and wait for the pack to come around and jump right back in, or to continue sloughing it out solo. More often than not today, I'd try my best to latch onto a faster skater like Scott or Sarah and hang on for dear life by trying to match their strides.

We did 3 off/1 on as the first drill, with the powering out of the corner. Not sure if this quite works with the slower folks in the back of the pack however. Then we did the points race for a couple of dozen laps. I found it worked better if I tried to stay near the front each time... I was inevitably overtaken by all the faster people, but it forced them to go around me and allowed me to keep up with them in this format rather than hang in the back and constantly have the gap open up and inevitably get dropped. I managed to stay in for way longer than anticipated.

Kevin bought me dinner for the wheels I gave him, so I ended up overeating again after practice and before bedtime. The Thai food was really really tasty though.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Nature's Path Synergy and Zen Cereal in Soy Milk. Strawberries, bananas and omega 3 Yogurt. pita. Gazpatcho with hot sauce. banana, nectarine. Pad Thai. Hot and Sour Soup. green mango salad. white rice. Fish in spicy sauce. green curry chicken. mango juice.