Perception is different than the Reality

After teaching a fantastic class yesterday, I really felt like I had one of the very worst classes I've ever taught today. Subbed the 4:45 kickboxing class for Melanya at the Eaton Centre.

Everything that could go wrong, seemed to go wrong, including technical problems with my ipod. I don't know what it is about the Eaton Centre, the accoustics just don't seem right in there. I can't really "hear" or "feel" the timing like I should. I got nervous when I saw a guy in an LMI t-shirt and then I just got really self conscious and was thinking too much. Missed cues, tried to CRC and just didn't seem to be getting through, started getting paranoid that I was going to be evaluated. People left the class.

I just felt dismal after that.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Booster Juice, Pita Pit Gyros with all the fixin's.

Combat Class Kickoff

I felt very positive about my new kickboxing class this morning. About 18 people showed up which was quite astounding for me at 9:30 on Wednesdays. I'm hoping that they will continue to come.

The challenge for me was that most of them were new, so I tried my best not to overwhelm them with my usual over-the-top antics. There were some older women who needed low impact options, and I think many of them are stay-at-homes, so I pulled back on some of my energy and slowed things down a bit. I went to the low options often, so I wasn't completely wiped at the end of the class. I also stopped things between the tracks in order to show proper form and technique and offer the easier options and remind them on how to perform moves safely and within their abilities. I think I'm going to really enjoy watching this class develop both their form and technique, as well as thier fitness level. Most of the class did not doing the jump kick or the flying back knee, but I'm hoping that we can build them up to that level. I'll make sure I do the same routine for the next two weeks so they get the hang of what I'm doing, although I'll probably add in the Capoiera track just prior to the new release so that they are introduced to the concepts and motion.

I have to remember to go to bed early on Tuesday nights. Getting up with only 5 hours sleep to teach Combat is not the way to do this.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Bowl of Nature's Path Power cereal in Soy milk, banana, fruitopia, Filet O Fish, 2 Tuna Fish Sandwhiches, Hot and Sour Soup, pickle.

Steady as she Goes

It was cold and wet at the first outdoor TISC practice of the season. Some showed up to register and say hi, and it was nice to see folks like Mike and Richard that I skate with every week during the outdoor season, whom I haven't seen for most of the winter. I did catch Mike Lin at Around the Bay 30K last week and he did really well there.

It was just Kevin, Aaron, Peter, Sarah and myself who geared up and skated some laps before the harder rain hit us. I was definitely staying at the back of this pack. Kevin made me laugh with the comment "I miss indoors" as he shivered into the wind just before we started. We had just did indoors the night before. I have to say, I felt the same with with the cold and wet coming down on us.

Weather notwithstanding, it was actually a very good transition from the night previous indoors, to the outdoor track. We managed to get our warmup laps in at least, and like yesterday we were focusing on trying relax and get in less strides on the corners and the straights (like 3 and 3). I tried my best to think of the slower, longer, lower, stronger glides like we were doing yesterday as opposed to my usual choppier cadence. Not sure how successful I was. I tried my best to follow Aaron's cadence he was modelling at the front, but I was finding I needed to add in the extra stride or two as we began to pick up speed, particularly on the corners. I noticed that the others were also puting in the occassional extra stride, so I felt better about that, but as the drill continued I was obviously adding more and more extra strides as I fatigued and my technique fell apart.

The part of my technique that I was trying to keep in mind last night was keeping my toe turned in on the recovery. I also felt my balance was a bit off at times, and like yesterday I was definitely going wide at the corners and conscious of the edge of the track and rolling off of it onto the grass.

I think it's going to take me a while to get the feel of a 200 Meter track at Christ the King. I've never really skated on one, other than the one RSO last year and the Barry Publow clinic two years ago. I'm just so used to the 400 Meter Landsdowne track with it's longer straightaways. It is a bit more liberating than the indoor track, but again there is just so much crossing over. I'm hoping I am improving on my crossovers, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

I wish I didn't have night school on Thursdays. I want to get more TISC coaching during the week, but I guess I'll try to obsorb as much as I can with the drills and go to the track during the week, maybe on Fridays and try to reinforce it on my own.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Orange Juice, Hot and Sour Soup, Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, deep fried softshell crab, miso soup, ice burg lettuce salad with ginger dressing, sashimi, Kalbi and Bulgogi beef, green tea, noodles.

Morning spin Evening skate

I've been getting comments lately on how I've managed to keep off the extra 10-15 pounds this winter. I hadn't realized that it had become such a natural expectation for people over the past few years! I don't love indoor inline or ice short track speed skating as much as I love the outdoor trail inline skating, but hopefully it will have kept those muscles working all winter when they would normally atrophy. I've got my fingers crossed that I'm not starting out at square one in the outdoor season like I am usually doing at this time of year with four weeks to train for Ottawa. Unfortunately there is no Ottawa Inline Marathon to look forward to kicking off the season this year, instead we have Detroit. There is a half inline marathon in Ottawa in two weeks. We'll see how that goes.

Only got about an hour sleep last night. I'm bagged. Going to go have a nap.

Went spinning at Tanya's Spinning class at Mount Pleasant this morning. She was great today. My clocks were all messed up and I got there about an hour ahead of time... that means I could have gotten an hour extra sleep. Felt pretty energetic during the morning spin. I like the newer bike's at Mount Pleasant... they seem to be sturdier and feel smoother than the ones at St Clair.

Tonight was the last night of indoor inline for me and I'm glad I ended up dragging myself out there... I was waffling a bit since outdoor practice starts tomorrow (although it looks like rain). Luckily Kevin called me back and we drove out there. Not as many people tonight, but we had a good group in terms of folks who I could skate with close to my level like Bruce and Morgaine, Peter's girlfriend from Montreal (who was often in my pack in marathons in previous years).

Practice felt really good, probably the best one I've had in a while in terms of what I was able to absorb.

The first thing Aaron demonstrated was the stride on the straight... it was a subtle difference between a slower, lower, longer and more deliberate push versus a "clunkier" quicker push from what I could see. I tried to keep it in mind as I skated.

Today we were focusing on technique and a more defensive track pattern, and having much fewer people there really "clicked" for me. I think the biggest issue with the track patterns when we do it in such a big group is a kind of "broken telephone" occurs, particularly when we line up in order of speed. The people up front model it well, but as it goes down the line down to the slower folks, you don't have as clean a model to follow down in the back of the pack. Particularly if we are trying to follow the slow, deliberate two strides on the corner and two strides on the straights that we were doing today. Luckily you could see the track pattern that they were doing at the front of our eight person pack, and it started to click sooner for me, particularly once I started following behind Aaron at one point.

I definitely still need to work on getting closer to the cones, I'm still working on my balance and probably a little nervous about tripping over them if I get too close. But I guess it's more likely I'll knock the cone over than anything else. There is more power the closer to the cones I get and lean in with that hip. Exit and Enter closer to the cones on the Defensive track pattern.

I think I have three pieces of technique that I need to think about from today's practice. The first was that my lower back was really feeling it towards the end of our warmup round... and that was because I needed more knee bend. I started being more conscious of getting lower with the knees and less lower in my back and it seemed to make a difference immediately. Peter had a good anecdote... "People usually complain about sore backs, but not sore quads at the end of a race."

Peter's observation was that I seemed to be just gliding on the recovery. Instead I should bring the knee together and push out with the "fall".

Aaron took me aside at the very end and pointed out that I was toeing out on the recovery and losing quite a bit of power. I'm going to try and be conscious of keeping the toe in, particularly as I skate the trails this summer.

I'm really tired as I type this out... hopefully all of this will make sense to me when I reread it in the morning.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Apple, small Cliff Bar, C-Boost Smoothie, Natuer's Path and Granola Cereal in Soy Milk, Orange Juice, Bagel with light cream cheese, pickle, hot and sour soup, chili, choclate donut, ham and cheese sandwhich on whole wheat, Frutopia, ice tea.

Weekend at a Glance

FRIDAY
I taught half the combat class with Tanya at St Clair noon hour. It felt pretty good. Still obviously recovering from the 30k Around the Bay run last weekend.

Kevin and I went out on our rec skates in the early evening to explore the Don Valley trail. Bad idea. Sticks, gravel, and a deadly sand traps tripped me up and had my smacking down on my behind. It's sore. There was also no access down to the Martin Goodman Trail, it was blocked until May, so we had to detour around. Once we got out to the new trail out to the East Beaches, it was lovely. Clear and smooth pavement. We ended up skating about 13km for about 1 hour and 16 minutes. I wanted to get a better workout in, hopefully we'll strap on our speed skates and do the MGT with some distance during the week.

Kevin and I ended up going out for Sushi with Tara and eating more of the bad stuff.

I went to bed pretty late and only got about five hours sleep.

WHAT I ATE ON FRIDAY
Booster Juice, banana, flax bagel with light cream cheese, 2 Lick's Homeburgers with all the fixin's, gatorade, KFC snacker sandwhich, sashimi, deep fried softshell crab, beef, edamame, scallop with cheese, tempura fried noodle shrimp, maki rolls,

SATURDAY
I taught Combat up in Markham first thing in the morning followed by Flow. I was pretty beat teaching the class, had trouble cueing as I was catching my breath at time. The battery died and despite getting another one from Rosa, that died too, so I ended up yelling more than I should have. I'll have to make sure I pick up a pile of fresh batteries.

A nice woman by the name of Megan taught flow after my combat class. My backside just right of the tailbone was really sore from the fall yesterday.

Jen and I attended another vegetarian nutrition seminar put on by the Toronto Vegetarian Association. Again, there was quite a bit of informative stufff to help folks make the transition to eating healthier.

I went out to Oshawa to ref Women's Roller Derby. It was a pretty casual workout. I don't think i broke a sweat. It's fun though. I felt a bit like a wuss at my fall on Friday, given the fact that these women are constantly falling on their asses every round as they knock each other down.

Jen and I went to bed pretty early and ended up sleeping something like ten hours.


WHAT I ATE ON SATURDAY
Banana and Yogurt, Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, Fried Onion and pork, fried mashed potato patty, Lick's Nature burger on whole wheat with all the fixin's. Booster Juice, Monster energy drink.


SUNDAY
I wanted to go work out in the morning, but Jen and I did chores instead and it ended up being quite the workout as I went up and down the stairs numerous times hauling boxes and garbage.

We went to All You Can Eat with my family.

I did Pump and kept all the upper body weights, went slightly lighter for squats and no weights for lunges.

I stayed up all night and messed up my sleep pattern again.

WHAT I ATE ON SUNDAY
Apple, Green tea, Mango Freeze, Booster Juice, mashed potatoe bun, beef, chicken, sushi, general tao chicken, broccoli, green beans, hot and sour soup, jello, cake, ice cream, olives, mushrooms, shrimp har gow, salmon, grape tomatoes, potatoe salad,