Today is a day

Spinning followed by Yoga.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Zen and Granola Cereal, yogurt and strawberries, green goodness juice, 2 Lick's Homeburger's with all the fixin's on whole wheat, Booster Juice with wilderness Boost.

BAck to the Pump

Pump Today. St Clair 4:30 class. It was the new release. tougher because I've been off weights for a couple of weeks. Kept the weights lower. Feeling out of shape. Tired and sore.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Bowl of nature's path zen and power cereal with granola and soy milk, Gazpatcho with hot sauce, mixed greens salad with olives and grape tomatoes in fig balsamic, Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, chicken schwarma, portabello mushroom ravioli, ice cream chocolate brownie, ceasar salad, garlic bread, ice tea.

Launch Day!

Not a bad class today. Missed some of the choreography on the Muay Thai track and still working on some of the cueing. More people showed up today than last week, so I'm happy about that. Maybe it's all the rest days, but this new routine seemed easier, but I was pretty winded towards the end.

Shoulder is feeling a bit stiff.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Granola and Natur's Path Zen Cereal in Soy Milk, Yogurt and bananas, Orange Juice. veggie hotdogs and 12 grain bread, gazpatcho soup with hot sauce and olives, mixed greens salad with no fat california, pickle, grape tomatoes, green goodness drink. gummies. Booster Juice, bagel with light cream cheese, orange juice.

Combat Launch tomorrow

I'm a little nervous about my first solo Combat Launch in my new class at Victoria Terrace. I've been focusing on it for the past few days and hope I don't blank tomorrow morning. When I get nervous I tend to blank. Haven't really done any working out in the past day or two as I focus on the launch (and all the other things that are going on in my life).

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Flax Bagel with light creamn cheese, orange juice, booster juice high impact acai, apple, tuna fish sandwhiches on whole wheat, gazpatcho with olives, clamato.

WHAT I ATE YESTERDAY
Apple, Yogurt, bowl of cereal (nature's path and granola), ginger veggie chicken, carrots, pizza and wings. Orange juice and Fruitopia.

I got molded for my racing boots!

I just got my boots molded by Aaron. I'm very grateful that he was able to accomodate me because he's flying out to his European racing adventure this week, and we managed to get mold socks from Sergio at the 11th hour after a bit of a scramble. I've been really nervous about the whole process of getting custom boots because of the various people I know or have chatted with who had problems with theirs after paying a hefty amount for them. The worst thing for me would be to get these and then being in pain when I'm skating. I know I don't have stock feet however (flat footed!), so I knew that customs would be the route I had to go eventually. Fortunately both Travis and Morgan had theirs molded by Aaron and they had nothing but very positive things to say about their experience, so it was good to know I was in good hands.

The process was actually much simpler than I had imagined. For some reason I thought it would be more like the days back in the fine art studio in the basement of Ontario Hall at Queen's where we made body-casts out of bags of plaster and burlap. I honestly imagined that I would be sitting there for an hour waiting for plaster to set! Aaron wrapped my feet in seran wrap, and he rolled on the "mold sock" which he had heated in the oven, guided me into position on top of the footbeds which we pulled out of my rollerblades, sprayed it with water and held it in position while it set very quickly, and then cut me out of them (everyone who gets molded needs to have those plastic strips to make the slices easy and painless). I tried my best to keep my toes relaxed and not curled at all. The process wasn't stressful at all and actually kind of fun.

My molded feet are sitting on the table right now and I'm reminded of the joke about dirty socks that stand up on their own. That is what they look like to me. It's neat to look at your feet like that and it's cool to think that they will be making boots that are meant to fit me exactly. I've never had anything custom made like that before... I wonder if this is what getting measured and fitted for a custom made suit in Hong Kong was like for Mike when we visited there half a decade ago. Knowing that you are having something created specifically for you and your body's unique shape with all of it's individual idiosyncrasies.

The next step is contacting Glenn, putting the order in and then having them shipped to China! I will be getting the Bont Apache with 13" frame and 100 wheels.

I've been really wanting to get my racing boots for close to two years now, and I'm really happy to be finally taking the plunge and excited at the idea of getting them.

Boot Molds

Today the boot molds from Sergio are supposed to arrive and I'm going up to Aaron's to mold them before he takes off for Europe. I'm very excited about this. Joel was complaining about my squeaky skate again on Sunday, and I'm sure he will be really happy to not have to hear it in a few short weeks.

I need to practice Body Combat all day today.

The Great Outdoors

Gorgeous weekend. Blue skies not a cloud in the skies. Moderate temperature. A plus double good in the weather department.

On Saturday I ran a few K in the Oakville ravine trail system nice and easy with Jen. I am no where near ready for the Flying Pig Marathon. We saw some women with rubber gloves and Garbage Bags and realized it was Earth Day (or was it the day before Earth Day?) so we ended up picking up garbage for twenty minutes. Hopefully we'll get some more running in before two weeks from now.

I'm really nervous about the Combat Launch this week as well. Along with the Marathon, I'm worried that skating will be taking a back seat for two up to three weeks (as I recover from the Flying Pig Marathon). Hopefully I can get out and at least get my legs moving on the trails without burning myself out physically. Injury is my greatest concern this early in the season and I think I'm going to be pushing the bounderies a little bit.

I haven't been doing weights this week or as much as I should the past few weeks.

This morning (Sunday) felt like a pretty good skate. A good group moderate skate out in the Hamilton Trail. Nice to get back out there. It's my favourite stretch of trail to skate on, even if it takes a while to get out there when the Gardiner is closed. Didn't push the tempo up to the red line until close to the end, but we did do about 28K up and down the Hamilton trail at a pretty moderate pace. Managed to keep up with Kevin at the very last end of the lap after everyone else dropped back, but then I realized when he opened up at the end that he was taking it easy on me. I think I have a long way to go still to get back up to speed despite the winter training. I tried to be concscious of trying to bring my toe in on the recovery. Carolyn said my tempo was way too high when I was pulling her for the first lap... I actually don't know what that means relatively to everything else. Too fast for her, or should I actually be slowing down my cadence and doing longer recovery? She's much more technically minded than I am, and I don't know if too much thinking really works for me. I'm not very musical, but skating always seemed very musical to me in terms of the way folks skate together in a pack. Whether you are purposefully picking up the rythm in front of you of a better skater, or going counter to it and going "off rythm" because the person in front of you doesn't quite have their technique down... particularly if the accordian effect is happening where they let the gap open up, push hard to catch up and then let it go again.

I tried to slow down my cadence relative to everyone else in the pack today. I'm trying to keep in mind the "feel" of skating behind Leo or Camilo last season, there was a certain rythm that they had that I could pick up on after one and a half outdoor seasons skating with them.

Other things I was trying to be mindful of, last few skates I've had a sore lower back and it's because I'm hunched too far forward and not down low enough. I tried to be mindful of bending the knees more and saving my back, and also trying to get a nice full push out of it. Hard to break old habits.

If it's as nice as today, then it will be a pleasure to be skating outdoors this season. Here's hoping we have plenty of days like today.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, apple, banana, gatorade, 2 double junior whoppers,