Port Credit and Back

Jen and I hit the "snooze" button a few times this morning. Woke up relatively early (for me) and headed down to the gym to do weights. Only ate an apple, should have had something more substantial for fuel. Weights felt tough, again I don't know if it's just the extra psychological factor of using the slightly weighted bars at Mount Pleasant. I'm trying to figure out if I should be putting weights on my lunges, my thinking is always to save my legs, but perhaps I should be "shocking" them more?

Went for all you can eat tempenyaki/sushi across the street with Mike. Tried to at least eat some spinich and fresh fruit to balance out the fried stuff that was not-so-good for me.

Kevin Noh coined a new term today... "Mouse Potato". Like a Coach Potato, except that you spend all your time in front of the computer instead of the TV. So to avoid being "Mouse Potatoes" on such a fine day as today, we went for a skate out to Port Credit and back. This would be my first official Long Slow Distance (LSD) this year and it was tougher than I anticipated (or perhaps it was the fact that I did weights this morning?).

Kevin gave me a gift of a set of wheel covers today! I thought that was extraordinarily kind of him. They are essentailly kind of like an inline skate "cozy" to cover your wheels and frames to keep them protected and out of the dirt. Given my tendancy to haul my skates around with me everywhere and on public transit and particular, it's a very useful pair of items to have. He also showed me the other usage of stuffing my shoes/sandels in them when I stuff them into my bag while I've got my skates on. Saves me from bringing along a plastic bag!

We took the subway down to Union and then the streetcar down to Bathurst where we bladed up and did a warmup from around the Tip Top lofts, past the CNE/Ontaria Place and down the new stretch of beautiful new recreation path heding east towards the West Beaches/High Park/Etobicoke Bridge stretch of the MGT. Kev tightened up his laces at the tennic courts and we zoomed down the hill and on our way out to Port Credit. The weather was perfect, not too cool or warm. According to my Garmin, we did a total of 44.58km from Port Credit and back, although I would place that at a little over 46km including the warmup.

Towards the end, Kevin mentioned that he's always amazed that I can go as fast as I can given my incredibly bad habit of setting down my wheel way too early and close togehter... it's a continuing problem area of mine. It means I'm not getting my full push in. Someething to try and work on. Lately I'm been trying to keep my toe from pointing out on the recover. I'll need to work on getting the full benefit of the push as something major to focus on and correct. I should try and follow skaters who get that entire push in to try and follow the full rythm of that push.

I had the best Creamsicle ever afterwards. Just after we stopped at the Tip Top Tailor lofts the Dickie Dee guy came by. Those guys are awesome. They bring large boxes of frozen treats right to you one the rec trail! The Miracles of Modern Technology. 8)

There is moldy stuff growing in the tube of my camelpack which I will be needing to clean out better.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Apple, tempenyaki beef, miso soup, salmon sushi, crab sushi, white rice, mango, chicken yaki tori, 1 chicken wing, fried chicken bits, spinich, pineapple, kiwi, creamsickle, dried fruit strip, gatorade, fried dumpling, mixed chinese greens, veggie curry "chicken", white rice, 1 piece of fried veggie "fish", small spring roll, tea, coke, veggie "beef" rice noodles, hot and sour soup.

I have an Eye Infection!

Best of Luck to my friends and team-mates headed to Provincials this weekend out in Harriston.

Didn't sleep too well last night. Kind of stressed about some stuff. Woke up with my eye really red and swollen, my contact lense was really uncomfortable at practice last night.

Went pretty intense at Tanya's Kickboxing Class today. I pushed the envelope a bit and suprised myself, even though I was so tired.

I went and got a massage and that was just heaven.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
2 Lick's Homeburgers with all the fixin's. Strawberries and yogurt, nature's path cereal in light soy milk, Booster Juice with Warrior boost. Jugo Juice Power Zone, Chocolate Milkshake. pickles.

Perfect Makes Practice

I skipped night school in order to go to TISC practice. It was really nice to see so many new faces showing up. Hopefully we will continue to attract more people to the sport and community, which is a good thing.

The practices will be at Christ the King until further notice so I will really have to start getting used to the track. I have to admit that I'm missing the feel of a 400 meter track which I have gotten so used to skating on. I think I still need to get into the groove of TISC practice structures and the larger group skating rythm on the track compared to the workouts with Camilo and Travis last year at Landesdown.

The intensity wasn't too bad, although I really was feeling out of shape from being off the wheels for so long. After the warm-up, the "speed" group covered starts and then did three easy laps followed by a fast lap at 85%. I managed to hang in there on a few of them until the second corner where the gap would inevitable open up. I was really physically exhausted after practice.

Starts are a mess. I didn't realize how important it was not to roll on the front wheel while pulling the back leg back for the "daylight" style of start. I will definitely have to be doing some serious work on those. We also practices the start steps by doing this kind of Charlie Chaplin walk... kind of looked funny as those not practicing starts laughed at our Python-esque silly walk.

Nice to be back skating. We're planning on heading out to Hamilton Beach on the Holiday Monday, and there is also the fireworks skate in the evening out at the beaches.

I don't feel anywhere near prepared for Detroit.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Sashimi, Bol Golgi beef, rice, shredded turnips, apple, Nature's Path Cereal with light soy milk, Booster Juice, strawberries.

rain rain go away

Small class today, but I think it went pretty well. Everything felt pretty on in terms of my form and jump kicks etc. I'm enjoying the interactions with the regulars I am teaching in my kickboxing class. Did part of the Cardio Salsa class that is on after my class... it's a good workout all right. I'm pretty unco-ordinated, although some of my rusty Salsa moves came back after a while. Other movement was just beyond my ability.

Lots of Rain Today. Weather looks promising for tomorrow. I am ahead on my night school course on Tuesday, so if it doesn't rain, I'll be skipping class to inline practice out at Christ the King. I should go do some Yoga tomorrow at noon.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Nature's Path Zen and Power Cereal in light soy milk. Gazpatcho Soup with hotsauce and olives, BK Whopper, Booster Juice with Warrior, strawberry yogurt with strawberries and bananas. Flax Bagel with light cream cheese.

Spiderman Skinsuit!!!

I've been wearing a Spiderman Cycling Jersey to most of the inline events I attended last year.

My friend Kevin Noh just sent me the link to a Spiderman Inline Skinsuit



Also the Black Spiderman Costume variation!


If it comes in adult sizes, I am totally ordering this.

I liked 28 Weeks Later

Jen and I are all signed up for the Eddy Matzger clinic in Ottawa June 22nd weekend. What a nice way to spend a birthday weekend out of town! I also received a nice invitation via email from Mike of Ottawa Inline to skate with their 24 Hour team in Montreal in July, so I think I will push off doing the Napa Valley Inline Marathon to next year. I've never done the 24 Hour event because we've always had some scheduling conflict in the past couple of years. I'm really looking forward to finally being able to participate, particularly since the folks at Ottawa Inline that I usually skate with in the local races are such friendly and good natured people. Hopefully I can keep up on my end given their fast lap times! Luckily as this weekend in Montreal has proven, I am generally capable of falling asleep anywhere which will probably be useful for a 24 Hour event like this.

Today was a bit of a dissappointment. I planned on skipping night school because I really need to get some mileage and practice on the Skates before Detroit in less than two weeks. Unfortunately, after some Keystone Kops type antics catching a ride with Carolyn to practice (my helmet was still in her trunk from two weeks ago), the sky opened up and it just poured buckets. I quickly phoned around to confirm that it was raining out by Christ the King as well, and we managed to abort our drive out to the wilds of Etobicoke in time to get off at the Spadina exit. So I didn't get in a workout today, other than a short skate down Eglinton alongside Rush Hour traffic to hook up with Carolyn. I've been feeling a bit out of shape in the past couple of weeks. I really need to jump back into the game and quick. I will probably skip night school on Thursday so that I can go to practice.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Nature's Path Zen and Power Cereal in light soy milk, gazpatcho soup with hot sauce and olives, flax bagel with light cream cheese, pita bread, apple, 2 bananas, 2 peanut butter sandwhiches on flax bread, orange Juice, grape tomatoes, BK Chicken sandwhich.

How do I manage to lose so many hours in bookstores?

Spinning this morning at Mount Pleasant with Tanya, followed by Pump at noon. Pump was a truncated 45 min class minus the biceps and triceps. Left ankle and bottom outside of my right arch are still acting up. Pump felt a bit tough to get through... might have been the fact that the bars at Mount Pleasant are all weighted.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Nature's Path Zen and Power Cereal in light Soy Milk, fruit strip, pickle, gazpatcho with hot sauce and olives, 4 soy hot dogs on three slices of flax bread, frozen green beans. ciniman rolls, natcho chips and mixed snax (cheetohs, sun chips, pretzels), tea, root beer, booster juice high impact Acai. french fries, Burger King burger.

Arcade Fire Montreal Roadtrip

Another "Lost" weekend. No physical activity and too much junk food.

Two weeks to get into shape for the Detroit Inline Marathon (including the taper). I have to get my act together this week.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
whole wheat bagel with light cream cheese, orange juice, pineapple, cantelope, Strawberry kiwi juice, Booster Juice with Warrior Boost, strawberry frozen fruit bar, prossuito, salami, pastrami, tomatoes, lobster, crab, scampi, shrimp, omelette with mushrooms, ham, onion, and lost of cheese. Mixed veggies: carrots, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower. bacon, tuna sushi, smoked salmon, cantelope, strawberry, lasagna, strawberry short cake, mousse cake,

WHAT I ATE ON SATURDAY
Booster Juice with wilderness boost, nature's path zen and power cereal, apple, Wendy's single hamburger and jr bacon cheeseburger, hot dog, ice tea, Montreal Smoked Meat on a Montreal Bagel, Poutine with bacon, sausage, and ground beef. Green salad with black olives tomatoes and pepper.