Run Fatboy Run

Today was one of those days where I did nothing right nutritionally. I woke up and we didn't have soy milk and I dwaddled about without eating, then I rushed off to Yoga after having pickles and a cookie for breakfast.

After Yoga, we ran off to see a movie and I only ate pretzels there and had a C-boost Smoothie.

I saw Run Fatboy Run and enjoyed it a great deal although it really seemed to hit close to home. I've never seen a better cinematic metaphor of what hitting "The Wall" feels like and what it takes to get through that wall mentally.

It seems to be the movie that I needed to see at this particular time when I'm feeling so out of shape and The Wall seems to be something I have tremendous trouble overcoming. The Wall these days can be something as minor as getting up the willpower to actually go to practice, or finishing the race after equipment failure and/or injury.

I managed to conjure up the drive to get out to practice on my own today, although Rush Hour traffic had me stressed out, which probably isn't the state of mind you want to be in when you arrive at practice. Skating is about learning to skate in a relaxed state and not hit the panic button when things change-up. Whether it's someone going on the attack or anything beyond your control like equipment failure. Panic tenses you up and fills you full of lactic acid and seizes up your muscles and joints during the Big Race.

Eric once again went through technique drills and it was pretty obvious my balance is waaaay off (it was obvious in Yoga earlier as well). I tried my best to follow the form of the better skaters like Eric, Jesse, Jade, Morgan and Camilo during the drills.

When it came time to do the drills, it was suggested that I start off with group 1 and hang in for as long as possible and then drop back to group 2. We were supposed to be doing about 26 sec laps, but the pace was higher than that, and I dropped out after 5 and skated in with group 2 (which was going faster than their recommended 28 sec lap).

When Andrew got there, we went to interval drills. My ongoing inability to comprehend the description of the drill before-hand kicked in and luck would have it I was pulling at the front when the whistle blew to start the hard skating... I thought we were doing 1 lap "on" and it turns out we were doing 1 minute "on"! It was a really tough drill. I noticed that the back half of group 1 would stop skating before the second whistle blew and would stand up and coast. At one point as we were standing up and coasting I heard Andrew at the sidelines telling us to keep skating.

I decided to take some inspiration from Dominique of Ottawa Inline. In Mexico, I noticed that no matter how often she would get dropped, she never stopped skating. She would finish the drill. I remember what that used to be like... particularly the first days that I arrived at speed practice a few years ago, I would just keep going until they told us to stop. I guess it's kind of a Wall in it's own way once you get dropped.

There is a fine balance I guess... in pack drills you need the pack so you stand up and let the pack lap you and jump back in. But that is if you can even hang onto the pack for any length of time. It seems like a pointless drill if you can't even hang on for a few seconds before the pack pulls away when you are "on".

So I basically decided to just keep skating and to try and get in a pack with the others that were getting dropped whenever I could. I think Jacky, Jay, Chelsea, and myself only managed to pack up together for a couple of laps before we dissolved into individual skaters again. I just decided to keep going. Skate hard when the whistle blew and then relax and keep on skating when the whistle blew again. Andrew later suggested that since it was a pack drill, to try and hang on during the "on" and let the pack lap me and jump back on after resting briefly (or dropping down to group 2).

Post practice it was interesting to listen to Andrew discuss what he's hoping to accomplish with his coaching program this season. Looking forward to seeing what it can do for us at TISC this year. Hopefully the Hard Skating will kick my ass in gear and get me back into shape again.

I asked Andrew about my crossovers and he mentioned the bobbing up and down that wastes energy. Every outdoor season, I almost feel like I have to relearn how to skate in the beginning.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Pickles
C-Boost Smoothie.
Chocolate Cookie
Apple
pretzels
chips
Chicken Souvlaki Mister Sub with all the fixin's on hearty whole wheat.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Ice Tea
Frozen Fruit Orange Juice Smoothie with Vega Powder and vitamins.