Chicks Ahoy Attack!

I thought i gave myself plenty of time today to get to the TBN Monthly Marathon out in Hamilton Beach, but with all the road closures in Toronto on the weekends, needing to get gas and then getting stuck at the Lift Bridge, we still had to rush a little bit. Although it's such a casual event that folks were good about waiting for us.

Given the fact that it's August and people are generally away at the cottage or on holiday or off to the cottage, there was a smaller turnout, particularly for those doing the full marathon. I figured rather than have everyone skating alone, it might be better to try and pack up and see if we could do some prep work for the upcoming races in Ottawa and Montreal.

As the TBN Marathons are generally friendly and not hugely competitive events when you have so few people spread across abilities, the challenge is to try and keep everyone together for as long as possible but make sure that the faster guys can be sufficiently challenged as well. Typically, you try and stay in the pack as the faster guys do most of the work and slowly over three laps the speed picks up and people drop out of the pack. Once dropped, you tend to skate alone, and I know I find it a bit harder to get motivated skating by myself... the Garmin helps if you are fighting for time, but I don't think there is anything better to push you to work harder than the energy that comes with group skating, not just for the drafting in a pack, but that infectious energy of enthusiastic skaters that are having a good time.

I've heard a great deal of discussion and debate around the "value" of keeping slower skaters in with you, particularly in competitive racing situations. Certainly is is a social sport. I think the situations will always vary. On the one hand, I think we've all encountered a racing scenario where you have someone who tells you that they can't pull uphill or into the wind, only to show you that they have enough sprint at the end to beat you to the line. LIve and Learn. I certainly found it helpful at the Montreal 24 hr to allow skaters I was passing to jump on board if they could hold the pace once in my draft. Even if I was doing the Lion's Share of the pulling, I could occassionally pull off and get in their draft. We'd certainly slow down a little bit but even a short break to stretch my back out and take a quick drink is appreciated and energizing for me. I've also heard arguments on both side of the fence about the "wind tunnel" effect. I think the great thing about skating within a small community of folks is that you do know what each person can contribute and in a fun and social situation, everyone gives what they can.

Today, it was evident that Kevin would probably be doing a great deal of pulling as the fastest guy there. I'd probably put in my fair share as well since I was feeling pretty strong and there was plenty of opportunity to rest. The others could put in whatever they had in them, but we were setting a goal to try and hold the pack together as much as we could.

The first lap tends to be a warmup lap anyways, so we decided to try and keep Carolyn in for as long as possible in order to give her the experience trying to stay in with a slightly faster pack and to adjust for the surges in speed that are experienced in a racing environment. We lost her on an uphill as we approached the turnaround on the first lap, but it was evident that she still had some fight in her as we saw her coming up behind us on the turnaround. She managed to stay with us for a good part of that first return lap before another uphill took her out. I'm proud of the fact that she managed to stay in for so long given the speed and endurance of the guys in our pack today. Carolyn also managed to shatter her pervious PB for a 42km run on Hamilton Beach Trail today as a result!

With Kevin, Jacky, Jay and myself in the pack, I suggested a good training excercise for us to do as a group would be to simulate attacks that the rest of us would have to chase down. Someone would sprint off the pack and the everyone else would have to give chase to the best of our ability and then we would regroup. It appeared that the first round was just Kevin and I attacking (although I know I tried my best to make sure everyone got back into the pack and rested), and that was fun, but for part of the next lap we made sure that it was just Kevin and I pulling and we would give Jacky and Jay a chance to experience what it was like to attack. I know that for most of their marathon and racing experiences they are generally used to hanging on, so I imagine it was fun for them to see what it was like to take control of the pack. Of course I didn't anticipate the sheer joy and madness that they took to this... attacking at every opportunity they could, including when they have just caught back up to the pack when they should have been resting! I was a bit worried that they were burning themselves out, but the beginning of the third lap proved to be a good opportunity for them to take a bit of a break as Kevin had to adjust something that was loose on his skate. Kevin hammered it out to catch back up and I caught a ride behind him. Once we were back together we opened it up so anyone could attack, and once more some fast and fun chaos ensued which unfortunately left Jacky behind us as we headed for the final turnaround. We slowed the pace down and rolled slow for a few minutes, but it was obvious that he was done for the day as the gap opened up wider despite our efforts to allow him to catch back up. Jacky put in 100% effort as we were attacking and chasing, so I give him huge slap on the back for sticking with us for as long as he did.

At that point we decided to try and keep Jay in with us and just do speed work on the final half lap back to the start. I'm always in awe of just how strong a skater Kevin really is when he's given the right amount of challenge. He took long pulls into the wind and still managed to pass me like I was standing still as we sprinted for the finish. Jay also finished quite strongly given the fact that he had done an extra lap earlier in the day to sweep the coarse for major debris, as well as all the insane sprint intervals we were doing. All together, I think everyone had a great morning out at Hamilton Beach.

I ate too much again afterwards at the Buffet at Emma's BackPorch. Jen made a nice healthy dinner that night, but I also couldn't resist getting a hot dog at Gillian's Roller Derby Game that evening. I'll have to eat better in the next two weeks.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Flax Bread. Banana. Apple. Cliff Bar. 2 Croissants. Eggs. hash browns. Pile of Bacon and Sausage. Cantelope. Pineapple. Ice Tea. Icee. 4 Chocolate Cupcakes. Pasta. Salad. Hot Dog. Slushee.

TBN Marathon: "Your Knee Looks Like Hamburger!"

Peter Doucet's video of this Weekend's monthly TBN Marathon.


Mike Garvin dropped me an email after seeing this and commented about how my knee looks like Hamburger!

TBN MONTHLY MARATHON: STICKS and Stones

So, What happened to your knee Ed?

Despite the Barry Publow clinic being cancelled for this weekend, at least it freed me up so that I could do the first TBN Monthly Marathon of the season down on the Hamilton Beach Trail which generally draws a good crowd.

It's funny how things can turn on a dime when it comes to inline skating.

I woke up feeling really awesome and energetic this morning. I put on my brand new Fantastic Four Bicycle Shirt, Switched to a better set of wheels and bearings while we were driving out to Hamilton, and it looked like the weather was absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for better skating conditions. Not too warm. Not too cold.

In the past I've found that I'd often end up skating these things solo, so I was really happy to see Ed Duncan in the parking lot when I arrived at Hamilton Beach with Morgan and Sarah. Someone I could hopefully skate with!

I was also happy to see many of the Hamilton "regulars" as well as TBN folks I hadn't seen since last season. There was a good crowd out to support this event.

Sticks were the main problem today. The storm the previous day had knocked quite a few sticks onto the trail. There were quite a few fat ones, which made things a bit hectic. Particularly when they are so hard to see with your head tucked in the pack. Generally the big 100 wheels will roll over sticks and twigs, but every now in then we'd encounter some really fat ones that could trip you up and throw you off balance, as I discovered when I hit one or two (managed to recover).

Out of the start line, we turned out to have a very good pack, the sticks kept us from going at a ridiculous speed and it turned out that Sarah and Peter were going to be taking it easy today as per their training program. There were six of us, and it was awesome to see jay sticking in with us, here's hoping we see him in the racing group soon! At one point as well, I realized that Kevin was not with us! I knew he was there at the start line and thought for sure he would have been easily in this pack.

The first lap was really nice and friendly. I decided to do my best to make sure I was trying to follow behind either Morgan or Peter so that I could try and work on trying to copy their technique and mimic their relaxed style. I find that one of the things I really have to work on is to not panice with the surges in speed and the when the gap starts to open up. Having been conscious of "the gap" in many of my distance pack skates lately, I also wanted to try and stay tight in the draft and not let the gap open up. I set an A-goal of staying with this pack as long as possible, and I could only hope that I lasted to the final sprint of the 3rd lap if they kept up the pace they were at and I could try and stay relaxed and conserve my energy so that I wouldn't get dropped. I was feeling very positive at this point. I'm generally very good in a pack this size. After Jay took a good pull on the way back from the last lap, we started to lose him. I suggested to him that because we were a friendly pack and had strong skaters like Morgan, Peter and Sarah, that he allow them to do most of the pulling and just focus on hanging in for as long as he could. I was really proud of the fact that he stuck with us for this long, Jay has come a long way this year!

On the second lap, I tried to be conscious of who was pulling and next in the lineup to start pulling and anticipate the surges in speed that would inevitably come when Peter and Morgan were at the front. I also decided to start following behind Sarah, so that she wouldn't have to get around me when Peter or Morgan inevitably decided to open up the throttle. Given that she has far better technique than I do, I could also be trying to follow her stride and mimic her form. I planned on trying stick for as long as possible, but knew that when Peter and Morgan decide they want to go, it's a lost cause for me to keep up that pace. I set a B-Goal to try and keep up with Ed Duncan so that I wouldn't be skating by myself. I don't know Whipper very well, but I would guess that he could probably stick with the fast guys longer than I could.

We were just about at the half way point when disaster struck. Sarah was pulling and went down. I thought she had hit a stick, but later found out that she was trying to double push and tripped herself trying to cross over. I was tucked in tight behind her and she started to barrel roll. Under regular circumstances, I would have tried to jump over her, but the barrel roll meant that she was still moving. Thoughts of landing on her with my wheels, or even worse tripping on her mid leap (given Travis' bone breaking fall this winter) flashed through my brain and I opted to go down instead and hope for the best. I felt both my calves knot up and seize as I tripped over poor Sarah and the painful impact of my knee slamming into the pavement. I'm not sure why this happens, but there have been falls in the past where my calf muscles get pulled. I wish I knew how to prevent that. I lay there and had the embarrasing spectacle of passer-byers gather around me as I had to wait a few moments for my two calf muslces to un-knot themselves before I was able to get up. Peter kind of freaked me out when he pointed to my knee and said "I think I see bone". My water bottle had emptied out on impact, so I borrowed some from Peter's camelpack to try and clean it out a little. I noticed some scrapes on my elbows. It looked like Sarah had a few scrapes and road rash on her legs and elbows as well. Morgan suggested I skate back and call it a day and he handed me the car keys. The pack reformed and continued on their way.

I stood there for a moment to assess myself and started feeling very dissappointed that this wasn't the way I had pictured ending my marathon today. My calves were tender and my knee was pouring blood. Then my inner voice kicked and basically told me to "Stop Being Such a Whiny Bitch. You can still finish this." There was no way I could keep up with the pack now, and I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to keep up with any of the packs that were behind me. At the very least I could do is finish this full lap, and perhaps even get the full workout in at a moderate pace. So instead of skating back, I headed for the turnaround. I must have been quite a grusome sight with my leg covered in blood. Just before I hit the turnaround, the pack zoomed past and I heard a few of them asking if they should wait up for me. I waved them on and told them to go. Past the turnaround it was quite a distance before I saw any of the other skaters behind us. Looks like I'd be skating Solo after all!

I finished off the second lap and hoped that the bathrooms were open since they had been closed before we started. Luckily they were open now. I cleaned up as best as I could and picked out the larger chunks of gravel. I decided to tough it out and finish the marathon off. I thought for sure that while I was cleaning off in the bathroom that some of the other skaters behind us would have caught up so that I would have someone to skate with, but it turned out not to be the case suprisingly. So I set out on my final lap, which turned out to be much tougher than I anticipated. My calves had begun to seize up and it wasn't long before my leg was covered in blood again. The wind didn't help either. I started to hear the negative voices creep into my head, so I just focused on one stride at a time and tried not straining my calves or knee too much. This is just a nice leisurely fun-skate I told myself... enjoy the view!

On my first lap and a half with the pack, as I usually do on our skates out at Hamilton Beach, I had been trying to remain friendly and upbeat with the other cyclist, skaters and pedestrians on the path. I'm always conscientious of keeping up some good PR with the people we share the trail with as we yell "PASSSING!" "ON YOUR LEFT" while we thunder past them. All it takes is a few people to start complaining and next thing you know, they start enforcing the speed limit on us skaters, or even worse, banning speed skating. I had no such energy to give on this last solo lap as I struggled to keep it together long enough to finish. I kept telling myself to "Suck it up" and I gritted my teeth. After the turnaround, it was nice to get some encouraging words from the groups of skaters behind me as I passed them from the other direction in the home-stretch. The return trip on this lap went better for me since I was now skating with the wind. In the last 1000 meters, I spotted Peter standing on the side of the road with his camera. It was so good to have a friend cheering me on just before the finish, and it gave me the energy I needed to open it up a little and try and finish strongly.

I headed for the bathroom to clean up again and noticed that my brand new Fantastic Four Jersey was scuffed up. Ah well, I should be proud of those, it's like the road rash sacrs we skaters have... they are a badge of honour!

There was a nice gentleman in the parking lot who's name escapes me, but I was really thankful he had some alcohol wipes and bandages since the TBN first aid kid didn't seem to be readily available. I knew Mike Lin would be fully stocked with the "hospital grade stuff" in his trunk, but he hadn't come in yet.

After Morgan and Sarah dropped me off at home, I took it easy in the afternoon and went to an Argos game with my buddy Jason. It was just nice to sit outside in Skydome with a cold drink after the events of the morning.

Jen examined me when I got home and noticed that my hip was scraped and swollen in addition to the elbows, knee, and calves. She pulled out that various disinfecants and bandages, and cleaned and dressed my wounds. I'm very lucky that she likes doing this kind of thing. My shoulder is also a bit sore, it must have suffered some damage in the fall as well.

Sunday is definitely a REST DAY. Let's see how I am feeling tomorrow.

WHAT I ATE TODAY
Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, Cliff Blocks, gatorade, 2 curry beef buns, Booster Juice, Icee, six inch Subway Club with all the fixin's, steamed Bak Choi, Veggie Noodles with curry tomatoe sauce, hot and sour soup, veggie soft rolls, fresh mango/cranberry juice, rice and veggies.