photo by Steve Penland

Sunday, October 2, 2011

A Few Random Things...

...because I'm too tired to form a coherent post.


  • Winter must be approaching.  My feet were cold twice yesterday (I know it's Minnesota, but it's only October!).  The first time was when I skated my workout yesterday morning...in shorts...in the 43 degree sunshine.  The second was when I went to watch the women's broomball team that the Hubster coaches (I played broomball for over 20 years, until I hurt my back.  The back injury is what got me back into speedskating again in 2001, after a few years off, so I can't complain.  I CAN complain about the ice arena, though...it was COLD in there!)
  • I think I have my Annual Fall Sinus Infection.  I'm leaning towards that as the reason (not excuse, reason) that I only did a quarter of my workout this morning.
  • Well, that and my leg pain are the reasons.  Not sure what's going on with the leg; I'll have to run the symptoms by Coach TieGuy--who is a Physical Therapist in real life--and see what's up.  Yesterday the leg hurt after I skated but not during; today it hurt during but not after.  I like to be unpredictable.
  • I had fun this weekend meeting a new master's skater from Iowa.  He and his wife were at the oval both mornings.  It's always fun to talk to new people and to encourage them; I remember being new and somewhat intimidated, and always looking for helpful tips, so I always try to help out new skaters (I also met a new masters skater on the ice in Milwaukee when I was down there a couple of weeks ago, and sharpened his skates for him).  I'm always a bit concerned about giving people technical advice, though...despite having been on the receiving end of hundreds of hours of excellent coaching by TieGuy, I'm not that good at figuring out what other people need to work on. There's a talent to figuring out which technical issues to tackle first--which ones will, if corrected, automatically correct other issues--and it's a talent I definitely lack.   I just hope I don't steer people in the wrong direction!
  • I didn't make it to Milwaukee this weekend for the first Time Trials of the season; being sick and having a ton of stuff to do for work made it seem like a bad idea.  My friend Melissa did her first 5k, though, and did awesome!  I like to think that her doing the TieGuy-planned workouts with me this summer helped (my main focus this year is the 5k, so the workouts were designed to maximize performance in that distance).
  • You know how they say people and their pets look alike?  Well, Keira and I apparently share clumsiness...she did a complete somersault at the dog park the other day, when she sprinted at top speed off the mowed trail and into the tall grass.  All I saw was random dog bits flying up above the grass--tail, leg, leg, head, tail, head.  Fortunately she was OK, if a bit grass-stained.
  • My technique is feeling pretty good, but my lap times are horrendous (although worse when I venture back into the old technique, so I know that the new technique is not the problem).  I feel horribly out of shape--I'm hoping it's just the sinus infection slowing me down.  In the past, I've had more fitness than technique; right now, I appear to have more technique than fitness.  It would be nice if the two could get together sometime...
  • I need a nap and possibly some more Sudafed...

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