R and R

I just got home from a couple days of R and R with the family (well, most of the family--end-of-year is a busy time for the Hubster's business, so he couldn't go) at my parents' place.  There was a lot of looking at this...

Looks like the ghost of the Edmund Fitzgerald, doesn't it?

There was quite a bit of looking at this...

These are just three of my parents' four dogs.

Keira did a lot of this...

Small dogs, small beds...

I did a lot of sitting, and walking, and watching football, and eating.  Lots of eating.

I did have one workout--sister Energizer Bunny and Brother in law Sherpa Boy and I went cross country skiing.  It was a lot of fun, although honesty compels me to say that part of the fun was skiing faster than EB (who routinely beats me in inline marathons.). EB was not happy with this, of course.  At one point, while skiing down a long gradual hill, I succumbed to my usual lack of coordination and crashed.  EB caught up to me while I was still upside down in the snow bank.

Did she stop and inquire, with sisterly solicitude, whether I was all right?

She did not.

Did she pause, in her descent, to see whether I was injured?

She did not.

Did she even yell "are you OK?" as she skiied by? 

She did not.

No, as she passed she yelled, with great satisfaction, "good, now I'm ahead of you!"

And then, with a little kick-and-double-pole maneuver designed to increase her speed, she cruised away down the hill.

I'm happy to say that I caught her again within a mile or so.

Anyway, it was a fun vacation, and a nice rest before I start my taper workouts for the upcoming Masters Single Distance Championships this weekend.

Next up--goals for the masters race.

Merry Christmas, Times Two

I got two of my Christmas presents early this year.

The first one came yesterday: my last-ever skate at the RollerDome.  The dome will be torn down soon to make way for the new football stadium, so I wanted one last inline there for nostalgia's sake.  So last night, despite having done a squat-heavy CrossFit workout in the morning (that is quite different, by the way, from a "heavy squat" workout; I don't think doing squats with the 15-pound bar--no weights--counts as "heavy"), I decided to go to the Dome for my last hurrah.  And then Sprinter Boy emailed me a workout and Mel said she'd be there later in the evening, and suddenly my token "final Dome skate" turned into three hours of fun.

The RollerDome on a rainy spring day last year.

Several people have told me, recently, that I should focus more on technique this year, and I agree; so when Sprinter Boy explained that his "sets of three laps at negative splits" workout was to be completed as low as possible, with the best technique I was capable of, I was on board.  What I didn't realize was that I had just signed myself up for over 10 kilometers of super-low skating.  On legs that had just finished a squat workout four hours earlier.

Surprisingly, it was a blast. See? (no we were not skating "super-low" at this point).

I asked Sprinter Boy to take a picture because I'd forgotten my camera.  Shh, don't tell the Skate Police that he's using his cell phone while skating...

After four fun sets, Sprinter Boy asked a seemingly random question: "How many Christmas cookies do you plan to eat?"

I was pretty sure I knew where he was going with this as I answered "well, if you add how many I plan to eat to how many I've already eaten, I'd say it's somewhere in the range of a Metric Crap-Ton."

My suspicion about the reason for the question was confirmed when he answered "then we better do two more sets."

So we did, for a total of 6 sets, or the equivalent of 27 laps on the oval, as low as possible.  The middle sets of laps were enhanced by the person-in-charge-of-Dome-music switching from "pop" to what can only be described as "metal Christmas carols."  Personally, I thought the half-hour of "carols" made the evening. That, and the guy skating who was wrapped in tinsel like a Christmas tree.

Then Sprinter and Mrs. Sprinter left, and I wandered around for a bit waiting for Mel.  When she and Inliner Boy arrived, I joined them for four laps or so, then wandered off on my own when I realized that I couldn't keep up any more.  At one point, as I cruised along, my current favorite "play it on the iPod right before you get to the oval" song came on (OK, if you must know, it's "Timber" by Pitbull and Ke$ha.  Don't judge me.)  After all those slow laps I just had to do one fast, and it felt awesome, especially the one corner where, for a change, there was no one I had to dodge.  And since I had forgotten my stopwatch and so didn't time the lap, I'm quite convinced that it was blazingly fast.  After the fast lap I cruised along slowly again, remembering all the fun times at the Dome--the inline marathons, the workouts with sister Energizer Bunny, the winter when my thyroid first started tanking and I simply could not complete endurance workouts outdoors and Coach TieGuy and I came to the Dome every Monday night for some epic sets of laps.  Although the Dome was not a major part of my life the way it was for many inliners, I had a lot of fun there and I'll miss it.  So I felt that last night was a good ending.

Then, this morning, I got my second present.  

It looked like this:

Yes, after yesterday's "two a day" I decided to go to CrossFit today.  And I'm so glad I did--it was one of the funnest workouts I've done there.  And it took me 56 minutes to complete, so I had plenty of time to savor the enjoyment. Again, the music was a big part of the fun--nothing like doing Burpees to a backdrop of Heavy Metal "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  (We also got to enjoy Springsteen's classic "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" and Wham!'s "Last Christmas," the latter of which caused simultaneous groans of dismay from pretty much every male in the gym.)  Despite the workout being particularly long and difficult, I enjoyed every minute of it and often found myself grinning like an idiot at my fellow sweat-dripping CrossFitters as we went from exercise to exercise.  One of the best Christmas Eve mornings I've had in a long time!

So after yesterday's skate and today's CrossFit, I really don't need anything else for Christmas.

Oh, I do know one other thing I'll be getting, though.

A nice whole-body case of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.

Ass to Grass

My skating learning curve goes something like this:
1.  People tell me about an aspect of technique that I'm lacking
2.  I stare blankly at them because I have no idea what they're talking about and I nod and say "uh huh" because I don't want them to stop giving me technique tips just because I'm clueless
3.  Repeat steps 1 and 2 for up to two years for each technical point
4. Eventually, some of what they are saying filters through my brain
5.  I begin working on the aspect of technique
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for up to two years
7.  If I'm lucky, there will be an epiphany and I will suddenly be able to execute the aspect of techchnique--once
8.  I will then be unable to replicate the epiphany and will subsequently spend an indefinite period of time trying to recapture the technique epiphany

For the past couple months I've been on Step 8 with my cornering.  I had the epiphany in Milwaukee back in August, and I've been vainly trying to replicate it ever since.  Every so often--maybe once per workout, if I'm lucky--a corner will "click" and I'll feel the smooth power that was so thrilling in Milwaukee...but most of the time, the corners are just...there.

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I had thought that it was the "right side pinch" that had enabled me to get my left hip into the corner and properly execute the cornering technique.  But "pinch" though I might, the corners were just not clicking.  I finally concluded that perhaps the Roseville corners, with their wider radius, just didn't lend themselves to proper technique the way the Milwaukee corners did (What?  It couldn't possibly be me, could it? Must be the corner radius that's the problem.)

But then I went to Milwaukee last weekend, and the corners were still not feeling right.

Until, that is, I remembered something fellow masters skater Aussie Boy had said during practice the previous week (you have to imagine this being said with a faint Australian accent; Aussie Boy has been in the States for many years):

"Yeah, I finally figured out that I need to get my butt down before I enter a corner, and then everything is fine."

Unfortunately I didn't have this thought until after my two races; "unfortunately" because it turned out that the missing link to recreating my cornering epiphany was, indeed, getting my butt down.

In CrossFit, this is referred to as "Ass to Grass."

(Technically this refers to going below parallel when doing a squat, and yes, I did run this phrase by Urban Dictionary to make sure it didn't have any other, um, connotations that I was unaware of, and it seems to be clean).

It turns out that if I get my butt down and tuck my hips under just before my corner entry, then I can successfully execute the "pinch," get my left hip into the corner, get a full left leg underpush, and just generally rock the corner.

Yay.

Of course, I couldn't do it in my time trials this morning, but the corners in the warm up and cool down laps felt good, and hopefully it's only a matter of time until I can execute the technique at race speed.

Henceforth, I shall be chanting "ass to grass" just prior to every corner entry.

Can I Blame the Cold for My Latest Brain Freeze?

My closest co-workers at school are the lovely ladies who are the paraprofessionals in my classroom.  They are awesome at what they do, and in fact just awesome in general--for proof of their awesomeness, go here. They are also all over 50, and they were delighted when I joined their ranks in October.

"Now," they said smugly, "you'll know what we're dealing with."

Well, I had already experienced the hot flashes, the weight gain, and the irritability that are reputed to come with 50 years of female living, so I wasn't sure what they were referring to.  Apparently, though, there is also a certain untrustworthiness of mental function that comes with the menopausal brain--as I discovered each time I forgot something, screwed something up, or just generally experienced a momentary lapse of cognitive function...and saw my co-workers chuckle with glee.

I'd like to think that it's this "menopause brain" that is responsible for my epic fail in Milwaukee yesterday.

I went down to Milwaukee this weekend for a couple of time trials.  My big meet of the season, the US Masters Single Distance Championships, will be in Milwaukee on Jan. 4 and 5, so it seemed like a good idea to get some racing on the indoor ice before that.

Turns out it was a very good idea.

The drive to Milwaukee Friday after work went surprisingly well. Due to illness, concussions, and general lack of skating, none of my friends were able to join me for the Milwaukee adventure, and a solo six-hour drive immediately after work is always interesting.  This one was actually fun, though, due to junk food, lots of diet pop, and some very loud and off-key singing along with my iPod.   So the weekend was off to a good start.

The "good" didn't continue when I stepped on the ice Saturday morning, though.  Maybe it was because, in my haste to get in a good on-ice warm up, I completely skipped any off-ice prep; whatever the reason, my first laps felt slow, clumsy, and stiff.  I couldn't at all recapture my cornering epiphany from my trip to Milwaukee in August, and in general I felt like my technique had taken a huge step backwards.  Oh, well...I had the 500 to skate before I did the real event of the day, the 3K.  I typically consider the 500 to be the final part of my warmup; true, this time I was thinking that it would be nice to achieve the American Cup qualifying time so I could stop worrying about whether I'd be able to skate the final Am Cup of the season, but in general I just wanted a decent 500, to set me up for the 3K.

I didn't get one.

My start was slow and clumsy; I got back on my heels and had a hard time getting going.  The first corner was OK, and then I crossed over to the outer lane on the backstretch and began counting my strokes to help set up the upcoming corner.  The final corner of the 500 is where you reach pretty much your fastest speed on skates, and therefore, of course, it freaks me out.  I had the last outer, though, which means I would do this corner in the outer lane and thus have a slightly less-tight corner to navigate.  So I counted along, 1,2, 3, waiting for stroke 10 (or 12--my straightaway stroke count is still somewhat variable) so I could initiate my cross overs.

Stroke 12 came...and my untrustworthy brain immediately sounded an alarm (seriously--I think I even heard a siren).

"Cornering sequence failed to upload.  Crossovers not commencing.  Initiate emergency coasting procedure immediately or prepare for crash.  Mayday!  Mayday!  Mayday!"

So I coasted into the corner.  And around the corner.  And almost to the exit of the corner--once you start coasting a corner when you're going fast, it becomes remarkably difficult to pick up either foot.  Finally, as I began the corner exit, I managed to get my right foot off the ground and begin crossing over.  But the damage was done; instead of the high 48-to-low-49 second 500 that I might reasonably have expected, I ended up with a 51.3.  Nice.

Now, of course, the real work began.  As bad as the 500 had been, it would be worse if I let the disappointment from the complete failure of skating ability color my upcoming 3K.  It was imperative that I, somehow, find a metaphorical Jaws of Life to remove my head from my butt before I went to the line for the 3K.

I decided to start over; to simply act as though I had just arrived at the rink for the day's races.  500?  What 500?  I don't know what you're talking about--I just got here.

So I did the off-ice pre-race warmup that I had skipped pre-500. I hung out in the Bronze Room and visualized my 3K (including very detailed visualizing of entering corners and beginning crossovers).  Then I got on the ice and did as much of an on-ice warmup as I could while people were racing.

And I tried very hard not to think about my 500.

And it worked.  My 3K, while not the best I've done, was solidly in the normal "December in Milwuakee" range at 5:01 and change.  My technique felt OK; true, I didn't really recapture the cornering epiphany, but the corners felt decent, and at least I crossed over in all of them.  And I had a decent 3K behind me now, to set me up for the January masters meet.

And, for at least one race of the weekend, I had conquered the "menopause brain."

Decembrrrrrrr

It's cold here.

Really cold.

"Get out the clunkiest Sorel boots and the snowpants and the Mad Bomber hat just to walk down the driveway to get the mail" cold.

"Put booties on the unimpressed dog" cold.

Yes, she's unimpressed...but at least her feet are warm.

It was 14 below when I got up this morning, and that was without the windchill.  American Cup racing started at 9 am, by which time the temperature had risen to a balmy minus 12.  As I may have mentioned once or twice, though, I wasn't skating the Am Cup.  Instead, I was standing on the sidelines, nicely bundled up, barely feeling the cold, and holding a stopwatch (I was timing the skater who starts in the second pair outer in quads, and was backup to the primary timer, who is backup to the electronic timing system--hey, someone's got to be bottom of the food chain).  It's always fun to time, and the cold really wasn't a problem for those of us who weren't wearing skinsuits and thin speedskates with no socks...but I would still much rather have been freezing my butt off out on the ice than standing on the sidelines in comfort.

So I guess I need to get faster so I can qualify to skate the Am Cup in Milwaukee at the end of the season.

I'll get right on that.

I Have Met the Enemy--and It Is ME

Or at least, it is my brain.

My brother-in-law likes to say "if you don't use your brain, your whole body suffers."  I've always thought this was mildly funny, and definitely true...but perhaps I've taken it too much to heart.

Back when TieGuy was coaching me, he often said "your main problem is between your ears."  Or sometimes he'd just look at me and tap his head.  What he meant was, your brain is getting in the way of what your body can do; your mental toughness is giving out before you're at your physical limit.  And I believed TieGuy, I just didn't (often) seem to be able to do much about it.  I had ample evidence of my "brain failure," especially in 3K races where my last lap would be a second or more faster than my next-to-last lap. Two laps to go?  My brain says "I can't."  One lap to go?  Brain says "oh, yeah, no problem...I can do that for one more lap."  When I only have one more lap to go I discover that I can, indeed, go faster.

In my brother-in-law's terms, I use my brain too much and my body doesn't suffer enough.

I re-discovered this fact a couple weeks ago, when my first 3K of the season featured a fourth and fifth lap that were way slower than the sixth and seventh laps.  So last week I decided to work on my "mental toughness" by finishing my multiple 3K endurance workout by turning the fifth and final 3K into "as many laps as I can do before my back gives up."  Turns out I could do 9 laps, one-and-a-half more than the 3K I set out to do.  So yesterday I decided to try this tactic in my 2x5K endurance workout.

As it turned out, I probably could have picked better weather conditions for a 2x5K (if I had a say in the weather, which of course I don't).  It was warm, windy, and snowing/raining, which led to extremely slow ice.  But still, it was endurance night, so 2x5K it was!   I picked what I thought would be a reasonable lap time for the ultra-slow ice--50 seconds--and decided that, rather than do 12.5 laps (a 5K), I'd just keep going until I couldn't keep my laps under 50 any more.  Usually I count down the laps in an endurance workout and feel like I'm just trying to hang on until the final lap.  By continuing on until I actually couldn't make the lap times any more, I hoped to prove to myself that I had a lot more "in the tank" than I thought.

Which, it turned out, was correct.  I didn't do 12.5 laps at the sub-50 pace.

I did 18.

And then, after a rest break, I did another 14.

So I think I'll be doing quite a bit more work on the "mental toughness" thing.  Because if I can do 18 laps at a pace I thought would be decent for 12.5...maybe I can do 12.5 laps at a faster pace than I think. And, since I haven't improved my 3K or 5K Personal Bests in almost 2 years, a faster 12.5 laps, or a faster 7.5 laps, sounds pretty good right now,

Thanksgiving 2013

In a nutshell:  went to the cabin.  Big Thanksgiving dinner with family.  Awesome food.  Ate too much.  Hung out with parents and their four small dogs.  Walked, ate, watched football, stared at Lake Superior.  Didn't take pictures because I forgot my camera.  Came home.  Went to work.  Came down with the Hubster's cold.  Skipped CrossFit today.  Ate some more.  Hoping to recover from the illness in time for 5K endurance sets tomorrow night at the oval.

All in all, a very successful and enjoyable Thanksgiving (except the getting sick part today).

(On the American Cup racing front, still no reply from US Speedskating to my questions about when/why the qualifying standards were applied to Roseville.  On the plus side, I'm sick and it's going to be about five below zero this weekend--conditions that make standing on the sidelines covered in down and polar fleece and holding a stopwatch a much more attractive option than skating one's lungs out in, essentially, one's underwear.  So at least I have that consolation).

Well, That Came as a Surprise to No One

I skated my 500 time trial this morning, in an attempt to make the now-required qualifying time for the upcoming Roseville American Cup meet. (See previous post for a rant on the subject details).

It came as no surprise to anyone, least of all me, that my three days of "make me a sprinter" workouts didn't, and I failed to make the time.

Actually, not only did I fail to make the time, but my 500 was about a second and a half slower than my 500 last week.  I'm blaming the conditions for the extra slowness, though...between the strong north wind that made two of the three 500 straightaways "into the wind," and the 10 degree temperature at start time (cold ice is slow ice), everyone was slower this week.  And since even last week's slightly faster time was miles away from what I needed, I wasn't surprised to not make the time.  But my 3K went quite well for a second-week-of-the-season effort; my goal was sub 5:30, and I came in at 5:28.  I had struggles with inconsistent lap times (my fifth lap was almost two seconds slower than my seventh and final lap); cascading snot that threatened to choke me and required several mid-race swipes of the glove; watering eyes that almost filled up my glasses; and a zipper on my skinsuit hood that begged to be pulled down just a little bit but which I couldn't get a grip on with my "it's cold out here" insulated gloves.  Between all those challenges and the wind and the slow ice, all in all I was pleased with my 5:28.

I'm still beyond furious with US Speedskating, though (as anyone who has had the misfortune to talk to me at skating this past week can attest).  Not only did they change the rules at some point and fail to make a decent attempt to notify people, they have not responded to my email about the change, which I sent six days ago.  I didn't email to ask to be allowed to skate; merely to ask when the rule change was made and why.  Even if the person I emailed didn't know the answer, I would expect the courtesy of a reply email stating "I don't know but I'll look into it."

So, that's that. I'll help time the upcoming American Cup rather than skating it, and I'll shift my focus, training-wise, to the Masters Single Distance Championships the first weekend in January in Milwaukee.

But I'm still cranky.

Well. That Didn't Last Long.

The "normal," I mean.

After writing the previous blog post this morning, I went to the US Speedskating website to register for the upcoming American Cup race in Roseville.  It's a two-day "official" meet, and one of the few non-masters metric meets that I can do.  It's always fun, and since it's Dec. 7 and 8 this year it's a nice start to the season.

But when I got to the registration page, I found...a statement about the qualifying times for the meet.  A 48 second 500 meter race time is required for "senior" (over 19, so I'm definitely in that category) women to race the event.

Now, this is a problem for several reasons: 1) I do not have a 500 time under 48 yet this season.  In fact, I only have one 500 time for this season, and it's a 50.84.  And, in fact, I only have three sub-48 500 times ever--all from high-altitude "fast" ovals.  I'm pretty close to a sub-48 in Milwaukee so I have a decent shot at making the time there...but Milwaukee doesn't have time trials this coming weekend and then I'm up north with my parents for Thanksgiving weekend and then I'm out of weekends.  None of which would be a problem except that 2) when I first checked the long track regulations in the early summer, the Roseville American Cup was not listed as having any qualifying times.  The other two Am Cups--in Salt Lake and Milwaukee--were, but not Roseville.  So I wasn't worried about  making the time early in the season; I figured I'd see how I did at the Master's Single Distance Championships in January in Milwaukee and if I didn't make the time then, I could go down and try again later before the final Am Cup in Milwaukee in early March.  So when I got sick before the two weekends that I had planned Milwaukee trips this fall, I cancelled the trips without a worry.

Now, however, I appear to be somewhat, um, screwed.  I need to make the time, and I only have one attempt at it--on outdoor ice this coming Saturday.  My outdoor PB is a 48.59, so it's not completely out of the question...but it's quite the long shot.  I've asked Coach TieGuy and fellow skater Sprinter Boy for advice on what to do this week to give myself the best chance possible at making the time, and both were kind enough to offer suggestions.  So I'll do what they say, and I'll get out there Saturday morning and do my best...but I have to admit that I'm cranky.

Really cranky.

Does anyone know, does skating cranky make you fast?  I certainly hope so, or I'm going to be spending Dec. 7 and 8 standing next to the oval holding a stopwatch instead of skating...

Normal. It's "The New Normal."

For my skating thus far in the 2013-14 ice season, that is.  "Normal" seems to be "the new normal."  Which, compared to last year, is definitely not normal.

And I couldn't be more thrilled.

The season started last weekend (I can't believe I've made it through a week of skating without blogging!).  Saturday's endurance and Sunday's intervals were...normal.  Decent lap times for the conditions. Felt good, but not "wow I've never been this fast this early in the season."  Got tired at the appropriate point in the sets (which, in the first week of the season, seems to be "at two laps.").  Tuesday's endurance and Thursday's intervals followed suit, despite the two CrossFit workouts that I managed to work in around the skating. Nice; normal; decent lap times.  Decent technique; my "cornering epiphany" from August in Milwaukee seems to be sticking around and occasionally I'll just nail a corner and it will feel fabulous...but most corners felt...normal.

And then yesterday was the first time trials of the season.  A normal early November day--drizzly, windy, and warm. Slow ice, which is normal for the first race of the season.  I did a 500 and a 1000 (remember that "getting tired at 2 laps" thing that I mentioned?  Two-and-a-half laps seemed just right for my longest race.)  And my results were...normal.  50.84 in the 500, 1:41.71 in the 1000.  Right around where my first attempts of the season usually land.

And considering how things went last year, this year's "normal" is actually "fabulous."

Last year's first 500, in similar conditions, was almost two seconds slower.  Last year's first 1000 was almost four seconds slower.  Last year's early season workouts were marred by slow laps, incomplete workouts, and PVC's (heart arrhythmia).  This year, thanks to doing 2007's easier workouts rather than 2010's more challenging ones, I'm able to complete the workouts as written, which should allow me to train more consistently.  The PVC's seem to be losing their "triggered by exercise" pattern and settling back into their normal "triggered by post-exercise and a couple other things, but not by exercise" pattern, which is absolutely fine by me.  My thyroid is behaving itself, and I'm back to my normal med timing.

So now, with, finally, a "normal" start to the season, I can focus on normal stuff: when should I go to Milwaukee for a time trial?  How will I integrate CrossFit workouts with skating?  How will I schedule my skating around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays?  How are my lap times and what should my goals be and how fast will I be this season?

All nice normal questions for my somewhat abnormal skating obsession, and I'm very excited to be, finally, in a place where I can ask them again.

So, How are Those Goals Coming?

Back in March, I wrote a two-part post about my goals for the summer pre-season and the upcoming 2013-14 ice season. Since the oval opens for ice next weekend in an hour (life got busy and this post took a backseat for a week!), I think it's time to review my progress on the pre-season and "process" (as opposed to "progress") goals--the ways I wanted to improve how I trained, rather than the goals for the outcome of my training (that, of course, will be another post, at the end of the ice season).  To save you from skipping back to last March's post, here are my "process" goals.

• Execute a good dryland season before the oval opens again May 6 (for inlining)

• Be consistent with warm up and cool down routines

• Do core work and yoga at least twice a week

• Follow the workout plan once the ice season opens

And now (drumroll), let's look at how I've done on the first three:

• Execute a good dryland season before the oval opens again May 6 (for inlining) 

I'm happy to say that I did this.  Mel, Sprinter Boy, Inliner Boy, and a couple others started a group dryland thing, and this enabled me to get all the way to the inlining season without giving up on dryland.

• Be consistent with warm up and cool down routines

I'm getting better at this.  Warmup is still sketchy; I've got some things I want to incorporate into my ice season warmup, since our ice time is limited and it would be good to do off-ice warmup first.  In the inline season I pretty much just skated to warm up, which is fine since I have all the on-skates time I need in the summer to warm up.  I have to say I'm rockin' the cooldown, though--or at least, the stretch/mobility part.  Thanks to CrossFit (which is where I met the PT who introduced me to foam rolling and a good hamstring stretch), I now have a nice routine for mobility and rolling, and I do it at least after every workout and sometimes more often.  This has led to my chronic hamstring pain almost disappearing, and my creaky legs feeling a lot less creaky.  Yay!

• Do core work and yoga at least twice a week

Again, thanks to CrossFit I'm doing great with this one. It's not yoga, but it does involve mobility.  It involves core work, and it also gets me doing some upper body work with weights, which is highly recommended for (ahem) women my age.  I've been doing it twice a week, which will be a bit more difficult now that I'll be skating four times a week, but I'm committed to doing it and (this is the big thing) I love it!  Finally, a core/mobility/upper body workout that I love!

• Follow the workout plan once the ice season opens

Well, I get to take my first crack at this one in about an hour!  I have the November workouts all written, and I'm ready to go.  I really feel hopeful that this season I'll be able to execute the workouts properly and that I'll see the benefits from that in some new PB's.  Time will tell.

And now...it's time to skate!

Fifty: The Review

Since I'm now a week into being 50, I figure it's time to give it a review.   I'm not usually someone who pays a lot of attention to age, but the idea of turning 50 really freaked me out.  So I spent a couple of months freaking out and then, last spring, decided to get my act together and see if I could change and improve some things about myself before I turned 50.  Here's how that turned out...compared to a week after turning 49, I am:

• Lighter.  I had gained about 6 pounds from my normal weight at this point a year ago, and went on to gain another 9 by the end of last spring.  I am happy to report that all 15 of those pounds are now gone (well, they were gone before my 50th birthday celebrations; due to stuff like this

          a couple of them have returned.  They will be dealt with appropriately.)

• Less moody.  Well, mostly.  I do have to admit that the last song I put on my iPod is Get Set Go's "Die Motherf@#ker Die," but it's nicely counterbalanced by American Author's "Best Day of My Life."  Never mind that I can play one right after the other and identify equally with both.  For the most part, my anti-cranky supplement is working well.
• Way hotter.  Well, at least 30 times a day or so I'm hotter (and yes, data geek that I am, I have counted).  Yup, hot flashes.  Whee.  I'm trying some supplements for those as well, but with limited success thus far. This past week, although it was in the 30's, I had to put the air on in my car on the way to work four out of the five days.
• Slower.  At least on inlines; I haven't yet hit the ice since turning 50 (I still need to do my 50 birthday laps).  I had a nice interval workout at the Dome last night, my first intervals there in years.   I was quite pleased that I surpassed my time goal of 1:10 (the laps are 600 meters) for all 12 laps; three laps were 1:09, one was 1:07, and the rest 1:08.  However, these were one lap on/one lap rest.  Back in 2008 I could do 1:10's for five straight laps.  Oh, well.  And anyway, my inline times have been getting slower for the last five years, but my ice times have been getting faster. I think maybe my technique improvements are relevant only to ice, and they're making me faster than my age is making me slower.  And since I think I made another huge technical leap during my visit to Milwaukee this August, I'm hoping for even more speed this winter.
• Just as clumsy as More clumsy than ever.  Yesterday, when skating at the Dome, I needed to use the bathroom.  I've gone into the bathroom with my skates on probably a hundred times with no problem, but this time, well...while standing up, my skates rolled out in front of me and I fell over backwards, which made my legs fly up and bash both shins on the underside of the stall door.  I suppose it could have been worse: I could have fallen into the toilet, or hit my head on it (I did have my helmet on).  Or, worse yet,someone could have come by and asked if I was OK.
• Fitter. In another post I'll do a review of the goals I had set for myself last March, but in general I've had a better preseason of workouts than last year, I'm now foam rolling and stretching for recovery, and I'm going to CrossFit twice a week, which is way more core and upper body work than I've ever done.  As a CrossFit T shirt that I covet says, "Strong is the New 50,"
• Happier.  Back in early October of 2012, I wrote this post.  As far as skating went, I was burned out, unenthusiastic, and slow.  I had had a bad summer thyroid-wise, which contributed to a bad summer of skating.  I was feeling unmotivated and in danger of losing my skating obsession--and since I'm one of those people who is happiest and functions best when in the grip of an obsession, this was a bad thing for my happiness in general.  Now, though...well, now, I've had a good summer season; I've found a way to work on core, flexibility, and upper body strength that I actually enjoy (in fact, the Hubster recently accused me of becoming obsessed with CrossFit as well as skating. Yay!); and I'm feeling excited about the upcoming ice season.

So...fifty is looking mighty good so far!

Fifty!

I turned fifty two days ago. It wasn't as traumatic as I feared it might be.

In fact, it was a whole lot of fun.

The Hubster kept asking me, in the weeks leading up to my birthday, what I wanted to do.  I always said the same thing: be at the cabin with him, my parents, my sister Energizer Bunny and her husband Sherpa Boy, and also my best friend from college.

Since this is exactly what had been planned for my birthday for, oh, the last six months, I figured this should be quite a clear direction, and easy to accomplish.

So, we went to the cabin.  We hiked.  We ate.  We laughed.  We hiked some more, ate some more, and laughed some more.

Oh, and we did Burpees.  Lots and lots of Burpees.

It started with this email from CrossFit SISU:
Happy birthday Kaari, SISU has a special gift for you. A Birthday WOD, 100 Burpees for time. 3 2 1...GO!

Make it great day!

PS- Don't forget to record your score as a Thank YOU!

The CrossFit Sisu Coaching TEAM!

And it ended with, well, I'll copy the email I sent back:

Dear CrossFit Sisu Sadists Coaches,

Thank you so much for the lovely birthday WOD gift. While it was a bit large--"50 Burpees" is a better size for me--I do appreciate the thought.  And although it's likely that it was intended to be a gag gift, I can't resist a challenge--even one that may have been issued in jest.  Besides, what better way than 100 Burpees to ensure that I start the next 50 years of my life off on the right foot (or, more accurately, face down on the ground)?

So October 19, my 50th birthday, we held the inaugural "Burpees on the Beach Burpday Challenge" at our cabin on Lake Superior.  Unfortunately, inclement weather forced the competition off the beach and into our half-renovated sauna, but the view out the window was spectacular nonetheless.

 (BTW, there is no view fabulous enough to make up for the fact that Burpees Suck).

My family rocks.  Not only did my husband, sister and brother-in-law cheer me on—they did the 100 Burpees with me!  In fact, you may want to consider trying to recruit my sister to CrossFit; she’s 52 but beat my time of 12:15 by almost three full minutes—then after completing  her 100 Burpees she did 20 more with me as I finished mine, to “keep me company.”  What a bitch supportive sister!

     

          100!

Post Burpee Euphoria

We all enjoyed the “Burpees on the Beach” so much that we’re planning to do it again.

In another 50 years.

(Thanks for helping me in my quest to “Unsuck Myself” as I enter my 50’s.  And remember—“Strong is the new 50!”)

Kaari  

So fifty was fun; a lot of fun.  And there's more to look forward to: I haven't done my fifty laps yet (maybe Milwaukee in a couple of weeks?), and I want to review some goals I wrote in the early spring, when the 2013-14 preseason was just starting.  And maybe I should wax eloquent about the marvels of living for a half-century, and what it means and what I've learned and what I hope to accomplish in the next 50 years.

Or, I could go eat another piece of cake and plan my workouts for the week.

I Dew Realize...

...how fortunate I am to have the co-workers that I Dew!

I'm a special education teacher. Ten kids in grades K-5, all with varying but fairly significant needs. I can't do it alone--and I've been blessed, for the 15 years I've had my classroom, to work with some of the best paraprofessionals there are.  These women are smart and funny.  They're incredibly good at their job.  They make my life easier and the kids' lives better, and I absolutely could not (nor would I want to!) do my job without them.

They also throw a killer birthday celebration.

I think it started ten years ago, when I turned 40.  One of the paras managed to convince about half of the staff in our school to celebrate me by donning my then-frequent-fashion-statement: plaid (oh, hush up.  I'm fashion-impaired).  Such is my oblivion to clothes, of course, that it took me at least two hours to notice what was going on--but it was fun.  Subsequent years have seen a "Playmate of the Month" calendar--featuring my "playmate" cooler lunch box; an "All the Hotness" theme the year my thyroid meds made me heat up (given my current rate of hot flashes, they could have used that one again this year!); and an epic "KU" fest where they celebrated me as the head of the mythical "Kaari University" (complete with school song.  These women are creative.)

So I knew something would happen this year as I brace myself for look forward to turning 50.  My actual birthday is on the weekend--and a long weekend at that--so Wednesday, yesterday, was "Birthday Day" at school.

And once again they outdid themselves.  Having astutely noticed my on-again, off-again affair with Diet Mountain Dew, they crafted a Mountain (as in "over the hill") Dew birthday.

There were sherpas...

Notice the Dew oxygen bottle

...and a sign.

Dew gear...

 Yes, that's a Dew hat, too

...and balloons.

Notice the "case o'Dew" balloon anchor

And best of all...

A really, really cool cake!

So thank you, ladies.  As I walked out of school at the end of the day, carrying my Dew gear and "Mountain" treats and trailing my impressive clutch of balloons (one of which was playing a cheery birthday song), I couldn't help smiling.  Fifty isn't looking so bad.

And I Dew know that I am truly blessed by the people in my life.

Damn Germs, and Other Bullet Points

(I seem to be gravitating to the bullet point format lately.  I think this means that I either don't have much to say, or I can't stay focused long enough to write a "real" blog post.  Oh, well).

• I am now officially sick for the second time since school started Sept. 3.  I almost always get sick sometime in September or October, but I think this is a record for me.  The first one was a mild, fairly short cold; this one has a bit more sinus punch.  Both chose to show up the week before I was planning a Milwaukee skating weekend, resulting in my not having been back on ice since my cornering epiphany in August.  I need to get back down there soon and prove to myself that my improved technique was not just a fluke (the better cornering technique doesn't seem to have the same impact when inlining).  Maybe the first weekend in November...if I'm not sick again by then.

• Between illness and parent/teacher conferences, I haven't skated again since my really successful endurance outing on Tuesday.  I hope to get to the oval today or tomorrow, though, to do my interval workout for the week, since tomorrow is the last day of the oval inline season.  That means that ice can't be far off!

• The loosely-organize MN Masters Speedskating club has now officially joined the Plymouth Wazata Speedskating Club, which is soon to be re-named Twin City Speedskating (yes, the one I wrote about coaching with here).  After US Speedskating sent me an email asking for our club's non-existent officer's names, plus minutes from our non-existent meetings and a copy of our non-existent bylaws, I realized that turning "loosely organized" into "official club" was a lot more work than I was ready for.  So when the guy from TCSS who talked to me about coaching also mentioned having our club become a group in their club, I thought it was a fine idea. MN Masters officially joined Twin City Speedskating last Sunday, and I am the masters liaison on the board.  Check out TCSS at their website  (still with the old name), and if you're a skater over 30 in the Twin Cities area who wants to do either long or short track...this is the place!

• I'm still loving CrossFit (yes, I did just notice that the "F" should be capitalized).  In fact, the other day Hubster accused me of becoming "obsessed" by it.  Good. That obsession is what keeps me skating, so if I also get obsessed about something that gets my abs and upper body working...so much the better.  And I did a skating dryland workout last weekend for the first time in several months and was way less sore than I usually am from "first dryland" workouts--so there seems to be some carryover of CrossFit workouts to skating.

• In other news, I turn 50 a week from today.  I'll wait until then to convey my thoughts on the matter...

Short Track and Handstands and Thyroids, Oh My!

In other words, I have a lot of random crap and no coherent idea for a blog post...so bring on the disjointed three-part post!

1.  Short Track (hi, Sharon!).  Yes, I'm trying short track again...sort of.  Last winter I took US Speedskating's Level I coaching course (taught by none other than the fabulous Coach TieGuy).  One of the requirements for completing the Level I certification is to do 25 hours of coaching.  I mentioned this to a fellow masters skater at an an association meeting a couple weeks ago, and he suggested I help coach short track for Plymouth-Wayzata Speedskating, now renamed Twin City Speedskating.  Well, that sounded like it was right up my alley--or, more accurately, right in my neighborhood.  PWSS trains for short track just a few miles from me, which is a refreshing change from the 30 mile jaunt to the oval.  So I said "sure."

Only problem is, I know squat about short track.  Oh, sure, I tried it a few times--at PWSS, actually, back when TieGuy did some coaching for them--but I never got good at it and never got to enjoy it.  Too many people, too short of a track, too rutted ice and the walls way too close when you crash--which, by the last couple sessions, I was doing at least twice a night.  My short track since then has been limited to a once-or-twice a year slow session with fellow long-trackers at a rink without pads.

But this time I'd be coaching rather than skating, so what the heck.  So last Sunday I grabbed my short track skates and my kneepads and headed to the rink.  After a dryland warmup, one of the "real" coaches filled me in on my task.  She's a very knowledgeable person who has been around skating forever, and she's seen me on the long track ice for years.  Which is why, when she informed me that I'd be watching three skaters and giving them feedback on technique issues, she reminded me that "you know what to look for, even if you can't do it yourself."  This was followed by a very meaningful look, which nicely forestalled my "but I can't skate short track" whine.

So I helped coach.  It was fun, and it did involve some skating, which I survived (well, OK, I did crash once).  I do feel a bit lost when looking for technique issues in short track, but I'll get there, and I'm going again tomorrow.  This means that I am now at three to four skating workouts,  two Crossfits, four or five foam-rolling and stretching sessions, and a coaching session per week.  Oh, yeah, and a job.  Anyone want to take bets on how long I can keep this up?

2.  Handstands.  In Crossfit they do all kinds of crazy things, including handstands.  Now, I was never one of those little girls who goes around practicing handstands and roundoffs and cartwheels on any flat stretch of lawn they happen to come across.  No, I was a clumsy little thing who hated being upside down or sideways and who liked to keep one foot firmly planted on the ground at all times.  So when I saw handstand pushups (HSPU) on the WOD (Workout Of the Day) on Thursday, I figured it could get interesting.  Especially since it was following up the Clean and Jerk Debacle of Monday (those Olympic lifts are tricky for a "motor moron!"). So as soon as we were sent off to practice our handstands in preparation for the WOD, I headed straight for the coach.

"I've never done a handstand," I confessed.

Two minutes later, after some brief instruction and a bit of help to get my feet all the way up, I was standing on my hands with my feet against the wall.  Then the coach moved my feet slightly away from the wall, exhorted me (repeatedly) to tighten my abs...and then removed his hands.

Five seconds later, after he had helped me return to a right-side-up position, he proffered his knuckles for a fist bump (which, in a display of my typical inability to keep up with popular culture, I initially attempted to high-five).

"There," he said, "you just did a handstand."

And, like a five year old whose dad has just let go of her "big girl bike" for two seconds and then assured her that she "rode a bike"--I beamed with pride.

3.  Thyroid.  Well, the tweaking of the meds seems to be working.  On Tuesday I re-attempted the 3x5K endurance workout which had ended so horribly--and so quickly--the previous Tuesday.  This time it went much better: my slowest lap of the 37.5 was a 53, which was, coincidentally, my fastest lap of the six I had managed to complete the previous week.  I consider that progress!  In addition, a quick flip through my data notebooks showed that I haven't done 5K's in an inline workout in a couple years, so just completing them feels like a victory. So once again, I can say "so far so good, and bring on the ice!"

Apparently I Spoke Too Soon

My last blog entry ended with a happy little "so far, so good."  And it was good...right up until I tried to skate this week.

Both skating workouts I have attempted this week have ended early and ugly.  On Tuesday my 3x5K at 50 second or so laps ended on lap six, which took me exactly one minute.  I felt horrible, and in just those six laps my lap times had increased seven seconds.  I really wasn't up for doing the remaining 30 laps, the last of which would likely need to be timed with a calendar, so I bailed on the workout.

I figured there were four possibilities for what was going wrong:  either 1)I hadn't recovered properly from the North Shore Marathon, or 2) my cold was affecting me more than I thought it was, or 3) my thyroid meds were not properly adjusted, or 4) I had eaten the wrong thing before my workout and was having blood sugar issues (what, two blueberry poptarts and a Diet Mountain Dew isn't good pre-workout food?).

I suppose there's also the possibility of 5) some combination of all of the above.

So I decided to try to eliminate as many possibilities as I could before I hit the oval again.  For the recovery, I'd take Wednesday and Thursday completely off from workouts before trying skating again on Friday.  For the cold, well, I'd just have to take vitamin C and hope it got better.  I thought I may have taken too much of my fast-acting thyroid med before skating (although still less than what I've typically used over the past three years), so I decided to adjust my timing a bit to address number three.  And for number four, no poptarts...although the Dew got to stay.

So I did all that...and Friday's intervals sucked harder than Tuesday's endurance.  My lap times were a bit better (for the 3.5 laps I managed), but I felt absolutely horrible.  Lightheaded, wobbly, sluggish--in fact, I wanted nothing more than to pull off the track, curl up on the concrete bleachers next to the oval, and take a nap.  Needless to say, the interval workout did not get completed.

Still, I think the abysmal workout gave me some important information.  The "I need a nap in the middle of a workout" sensation is something I've really only felt when my thyroid levels are high, and the "wobbly" feeling correlates pretty well with high thyroid as well.  Add in the fact that I am almost always hot (even when I'm not having a hot flash), and the fact that, despite being hungry all the time this week and eating like a truck driver, I've actually lost over a pound this week, and you've got a pretty good case for "perhaps we need to cut back on the thyroid meds a wee."  So even though I had adjusted the timing for Friday's workout, I don't think I adjusted it enough.  Time to try again.

Of course it rained today, Saturday, so I couldn't try skating with new thyroid med timing--so I decided to go to my Crossfit gym's Saturday "Bütt Camp."  I've never done the Saturday workouts before, and I'm not exactly a Crossfit veteran anyway, so a Crossfit workout is not the best way to evaluate how well my thyroid is adjusted, but it's all I had to work with.

Turns out that Bütt Camp workouts are...interesting.  This one was a partner event, and a long one:  "Annie" (which is 50-40-30-20-10 double-under jump ropes and situps, except I had to do three times as many jumps because I can't do dubs), then two rope climbs, then some toes to bar, pushups, and air squats, two more rope climbs (don't be silly, I can't climb a rope; I had to scale to three "pull yourself up off the ground" things for each climb) and then another workout named for a woman (unfortunately I can't remember which one)--3 rounds of 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pullups.  Oh, and a 45 minute cap to the workout.  Which, due to my inability to do more than five rope jumps in a row, my poor partner and I needed almost all of.

But still, I did it all.  A little PVC action in the 400 meter runs, but otherwise I felt OK (well, as OK as you can feel doing all that stuff).  So hopefully I've got the thyroid going in the right direction.   I won't really know until I skate...but--and this has a warmly familiar ring to it--so far so good.

How Did My Legs Get to SLC Without Me?

This weekend (as in, right now) is the Masters Long Track camp in Salt Lake City.  I went last year and the year before and had a blast, but the timing this year is not good for me; it's hard to take two days off so early in the school year.  So I regretfully decided not to go this year.  I was sorry to miss it--two ice workouts and  two "learn the technique but you're gonna do some work in the process" dryland, slideboard and turncable workouts a day for four days, led by ever-enthusiastic and energetic Olympic Gold medal winner Derek Parra.  A great time and a great learning experience--but also an event guaranteed to leave you sore as heck by the time you get back on the plane on Sunday.

However, after last Saturday's North Shore Inline Marathon, Crossfit on Monday, a 13-hour work day on Tuesday that precluded working out, Crossfit again Wednesday and Thursday (rain kept me off the oval), and an endurance oval skate on Friday followed by a hockey game Friday night, by the time I got out of bed this morning my legs were convinced that they'd just spent the last few days doing Derek's workouts.

Yup, sore and tired.

But a good sore and tired.  Workouts are going well, I'm getting stronger, and I'm thinking about going to Milwaukee next weekend to try a Time Trial.  So even though I didn't make it to the camp this year, things are going well.  So far, so good--and only seven weeks or so until the ice season!

Sail, Part 2

So, when we left me I was four miles into a 26-mile marathon, with no draft, a near-max heartrate, a huge headwind, a nice case of heartburn, and a strong sense of foreboding.

It seemed that "Sail" was about to become "Fail."

And then I heard a glorious sound; the sound of skaters approaching from the rear.  It seems that the paceline had indeed broken up, and a perfectly sized--and paced--faction was now approaching from behind to save my sorry butt.

So I happily jumped into the line, and there I stayed.  I took my share of pulls, and enjoyed the draft when I had it.  Things seemed to be going well as we neared the halfway point--even my heartburn was beginning to behave itself.  So when we passed the "13" mile marker, I looked confidently at my watch, expecting to see a fairly good time.

52 minutes.

Wait...what?

Last year I was at 44 minutes at the halfway point; I knew we had a headwind this year, but 52 was ridiculous!

Still, there was nothing to do but "keep on keepin' on."  So I did, but it was getting harder--harder physically, but mostly harder mentally.  My little friend "Nagging Self-Doubt" had turned up again, and began whispering sweet nothings in my ear.  Stuff like "This is hard.  You can't do this for 13 more miles.  Why don't you drop out of the paceline and take it easy?"  Stuff that I did not want to hear, yet that was strangely seductive.

But I fought it.  I reminded myself of just how many tough things I have done, from marathons to a 10K on ice to brutal Crossfit workouts.  And when that wasn't enough, I reminded myself that, with a headwind like this, dropping from the pack and going solo was likely to guarantee me another two hours of skating.

That was enough to keep me going.

Then, somewhere around mile 14 or so, things improved considerably.

My happy paceline of five or so skaters had been occasionally overtaking single skaters, presumably those poor souls unfortunate enough to be dropped from the previous wave.  Most just looked forlornly at us as we sailed past, but one group stuck.  In fact, they did more than stick.  One, a fellow a bit older than I am, hopped briskly to the front of our paceline and offered to pull.  His daughter, he said, was skating with him, and he wanted to get into a good paceline and pull for her.

And pull he did.  For the entire rest of the race, right up until the final sprint up the exit ramp hill, he pulled us.  In fact, he pulled us so well that we had to ask him to slow down a few times.  He was, in short, a machine.  Since I, happily drafting in third place behind a teammate and not having to take the occasional pull anymore, now had more breath to work with and was feeling quite grateful, I asked our orange-clad workhorse a bit about himself.  His name was Nick, he said, he was 58, his daughter was 18, and they were from Canada.

Apparently they grow them strong in Canada.

And so we followed our Canadian Savior for the second half of the race.  I felt bad when we hit the uphill exit ramp and the paceline from behind us began sprinting past on both sides.  I jumped in front of Nick and offered to pull him up the hill--it seemed the least I could do--but he declined, saying he'd done his job getting his daughter to that point and was happy with where he was.  So I went as hard as I could, up the hill, down the hill, around the corner, and down the final straightaway (finally, a tailwind!).  When I crossed the line I looked at my watch.  1:47 something.  Lovely, I thought.   A Personal Worst.

As soon as I coasted to a stop I began looking for our Canadian Savior.  Here I am, to the right in this picture, shaking the hand of the fellow in orange and thanking him profusely for the pull.

Thanks, eh.

And then EB and I wandered the post-race scene, eating free food, chatting with fellow racers, and waiting vainly for results.  I joined in the Max Muscle post-race picture...

...and then it was time to leave.  We hadn't seen results yet, but we were heading up the shore to EB's and my parents, and we needed to get there in time to make dinner.  Besides, the Hubster was completely worn out from dealing with all of Keira's admirers all morning; apparently every dog lover in the twin ports had mobbed her while I was wandering around drinking chocolate milk and waiting for results.

So we headed north.  Finally, at about 8 o'clock that night (after a fabulous steak dinner topped off with cupcakes in honor of Sherpa Boy's birthday), I remembered that I hadn't yet checked the results online.  So I pulled out my phone and looked them up...

...and found that EB had come in second in her age group!

And then I looked further and found that I had come in second in my age group as well!

Apparently the head wind was so hideous that my time--21 minutes slower than my time last year--was actually not bad.  Second is my highest place ever in the NSIM, so I was thrilled.  EB beat me by seven minutes, though, which doesn't bode well for next year, when we'll be in the same age group.

Still, if I remember not to attack at three miles and if I find a nice Canadian to draft off of, maybe I'll be able to keep up with her...

Sail

Years and years ago I heard "Bad Time to Be in Love" as I milled around the starting line for the North Shore Inline Marathon, and the song chased itself through my head for the entire race.  Every year since then, I seem to get a song stuck in my head for NSIM.  Last year it was "One More Night."  This year, it was "Sail," a song I first heard in a video about wingsuit pilot Jeb Corliss.  (Go ahead and check it out on Youtube--it's pretty cool.  I'd post it but we have a data limit on our computer and there was this Shutterfly incident and, well,  now I'm a bit gunshy...).

Anyway, given the conditions for the 2013 NSIM, "Sail" turned out to be a fitting song.  If I'd had a sail when I skated this year, I'd have gone really fast.

The wrong way.

That's right, we had Headwind from Hell this year.  But despite that, it turned out to be a pretty darn good race and, while not as much "just plain fun" as last year's, it had its own high points.

So here's the race report:

At 4 am on Saturday, my first task was to wake up this...

And this...

That hurdle cleared, we hit the road.  I had my blueberry poptart (not poptarts--I was kind enough to share one with the Hubster) and coffee right after we left the house, and then topped it off with McDonald's further down the road.  We made it to Duluth without incident, and I picked up my race packet.  Because it turned out that they didn't have my shirt set aside, I got distracted with ironing out the shirt-picking-up details and didn't really look at my packet or the bib number scribbled on it.  Once in the car, I reached into the envelope and pulled out my number...and burst out laughing.

If you get in trouble during the race, just call me...

And then we drove to Two Harbors and picked up my sister Energizer Bunny and her husband Sherpa Boy at their motel, and then we all drove to the race start.  The men (and a still-groggy Keira) accompanied us down the road to the "staging area."  Keira fended off dog-worshippers and tried to keep her exceptionally long toes out from under skate wheels, while the husbands milled around handing us caffeinated Gu packages and holding our gear bags while we went to the Porta Potties.  Canadian/American Hubster was appalled to hear the anthem singer forget the lyrics to "Oh Canada" not once but at least three times (I had to fight hard to not have Oh Canada chase Sail right out of my head; I didn't think it would be a suitably motivating song) and Sherpa Boy had to deal with EB's unwisely tucking a half-eaten Gu into the waistband of her shorts and then complaining about having "sticky fat."  Just another morning at the races!

And then it was time to line up.  Due to her four-minutes-faster-than-mine 2012 NSIM time, EB was in the wave ahead of me.  My wave seemed quite small--maybe 30 people?--but I did find some teammates and a guy from the Wednesday night races, so I figured I'd start next to them.  I tried to focus on my two most important pre-race tasks: think about having fun, and pop that final caffeinated Clif Shot at just the right time.

Turns out I may not have exactly nailed those two tasks.

First, when the "time to go" airhorn sounded, I apparently forgot that "having fun" was linked to "starting easy."  I hopped into a pace line that seemed to contain all 30 skaters from our wave, and although I was near the front and was taking my turn pulling, it seemed that the paceline was just too slow, especially on uphills.  So (completely forgetting that "too slow" in mile one of a marathon may well turn out to be "just right" another few miles down the road), I devised a plan.  I'd wait for a likely-looking uphill, then I'd make a break for it and hope that a few of the faster skaters would go with me so we could form a smaller, faster paceline of our own.

So I did.  I picked a nice uphill, pulled out of the line, and exhorted my Wednesday-night-race-pal to join me as I sprinted ahead of the paceline.  And my little attack worked splendidly; we dropped most of the line, and about five guys and I formed our own paceline   It worked, that is, until the guys that had gone with me continued to skate at my "surge to lose the pack" pace--and dropped me.

Well, damn.  There I was, three miles into the marathon, with no paceline and my heartrate at a near-max 198.  

Oh, and some lovely heartburn.  Turns out that, while a caffeinated Clif Shot right before racing might give you a nice lift, it might also give you a nicely smoldering esophagus for the next ten miles or so.

And this seems like a suitably suspenseful place to leave y'all for the night.  Besides that, it's my bedtime and I'm still making up for Saturday's 4 am start...

So back with Part 2 tomorrow.

NSIM in the AM

Tomorrow morning (very, very early tomorrow morning) the Hubster and the hound and I head north so I can skate the North Shore Inline Marathon.  Last year's NSIM was one of the most fun things I've ever done, so I'm hoping for a repeat performance.  To increase the odds of having an incredible amount of fun, I figured I should look at last year's detailing of how I prepped (in other words: ate and dressed) for the race. Thankfully I was nauseatingly detailed reasonably thorough in my recounting of my previous pre-race preparations, so I am now properly equipped for tomorrow with blueberry poptarts and softball sliding shorts in my gear bag.

I've also packed enough caffeine to wire the crew of a battleship.

Although my main goal is to have fun, I'll admit that secretly I'm hoping to turn in a relatively good time, as well.  My training has gone much better this year than last, my thyroid has behaved itself all summer, and I've had a couple of really good trail skates recently, where I've gone faster than I thought I could.  Maybe, just maybe, this will translate into a good race.

So bring on 4 am... good race or just fun race, I'm ready!

Caffeinate Me

I've been a big fan of caffeine ever since I cracked open my first can of Tab in college (yes, for you young 'uns out there, I did just date myself).  Over the years I've bounced from Tab to Diet Coke to Diet Dew to coffee; I currently have a nice regimen of coffee in the morning, Diet Coke at lunch, and Diet Dew on the way home/pre-workout.  (Yes, I'm trying to quit the diet pop.  No, I haven't been successful--and I've been trying for 30 years.)

Anyway, despite all this daily caffeine I've never really tried a "performance enhancing" dose immediately pre-workout.  My sister Energizer Bunny, though, is the queen of the pep-up juice; she manages a GNC nutrition store and loves mixing and matching their energy products before lifting or skating.  A 300-milligrams-of-caffeine "pre race" drink makes her happy and peppy and hell to try to keep up with on the trails (and she's too short to provide a good draft!).  Still, despite her enthusiastic (and somewhat hyperactive) endorsement of energy products, I'd never deliberately timed and dosed my caffeine for a workout or race.

Until last week.  On Labor Day, EB and I did a 25-mile trail skate to prep us for the upcoming North Shore Inline Marathon (next Saturday).  I felt decent the first two 6.2-mile laps of the trail, but was becoming very hungry.  So we stopped after two laps and I had a Clif Shot--with 100 milligrams of caffeine  I didn't think much about the caffeine dosage, I just wanted some calories.

What I got was more like a turbo-boost.

When we hit the trail again, I was energetic.  I was strong.  I cruised merrily along behind EB (I always used to "pull" when we skated together, but in the past few years I've had to go behind when we go fast, and often I can't keep up even with a draft), singing out loud to my iPod and occasionally charging past her yelling "c'mon, let's go!" I felt awesome for two full laps--or, well, almost two laps.  My heart arrhythmia kicked in a couple times in the last 400 yards, and EB dashed past me to win the unofficial sister-fest. (And no, I don't think the caffeine precipitated the heart arrhythmia; I still get it occasionally, and the only triggers I can identify are drinking cold liquids and lying in certain positions.  Fortunately, it happens less during workouts than it did last year at this time).

Anyway, that was a fun skate.

And definitely worth seeing if I could replicate, especially since I have a marathon coming up.  I've always been very cautious about what and when I eat pre-workout or race, and now I'm beginning to think I've been shorting myself on energy--or at least, energy enhancers.

So I decided to try the experiment again.  EB and I were planning another pre-marathon trail skate for yesterday; she was going to do four or five hard laps of a 3.5 mile course, and I planned to do three or four "recovery pace" laps.  Then a friend of EB's and a couple friends of the friend decided to skate (and bike) too, and suddenly we had a group.  A very fast group, that I was not planning to try to stick with.

For my experiment, I had my usual coffee about an hour and a half before the morning skate.  Then I had the only energy product I've been using, an FRS energy shot (these have about 35 mg of caffeine, but are mostly other "energy ingredients" and an antioxidant).  Then, about 10 minutes before we skated, I added the finishing touch--a 100 mg caffeine Clif Shot.

And then we skated.

EB and I headed out before the rest of the pack got there, to get in a warmup lap before the hard stuff started.  I felt so good in the warmup lap that I decided to go hard with the group and see if I could stick with them.

And I did.  For two fast, fun, flying laps.  Just like last time, I felt marvelous--skating hard, digging deep to keep up and loving it, and even singing occasionally (quietly, though--I know better than to inflict that on anyone).  After the two fast laps--the second of which was the fastest I've ever gone on that trail--I was cooked, and I did a fourth lap as a cool down, accompanied by the Hubster on his bike.

So. I seem to have learned something.

Caffeine before workout=good.

Can't wait to try it in the North Shore Marathon.