photo by Steve Penland

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Oh, Yeah...THAT'S What I Like About Skating

I did my first-ever long track 10K this morning at the Pettit.  Mel and Sprinter Boy, my young and speedy friends, had talked me into signing up for it.  Mel was setting her sights on the women's track record, and Sprinter Boy likes to continually prove that his nickname needs to be changed from "Sprinter Boy."  I had no particular reason to do a 10K except that I like to think of myself as an endurance skater, and what kind of endurance skater has never done a 10K?  So I said sure, why not?

Doing a 10K seemed like a good idea when they first proposed it. It seemed like a good idea after I'd done a 10K in practice.  And it even still seemed like a good idea after I'd done a 15 lap mass start race last weekend.  By the time I got up at 5:30 this morning, though, a 10K was beginning to seem like a "what the Hell was I thinking?" kind of idea. My distance races so far this year--all one 3000 and one 5000 of them--have gone horribly; both were the worst times I've gotten in those distances in about five years.  So now suddenly I want to do a race twice as long as any metric race I've ever done?

But I was signed up, so I was going to do it.  And I decided that this would be another great opportunity to go into an event with no expectations and no stress, and with a plan to just have as much fun as I possibly could.

So I did.

The 10K was the first event of the day so there wouldn't have been a whole lot of time to stress and fret anyway--if I was into stressing and fretting, that is.  As it was, I just had time to do a quick but thorough warmup, and then they were calling us to the line.  Which was the first hurdle of the day--I've never done a 10K, and I didn't know where the starting line was.  Once we settled that little issue we were ready to go.  I was solo in the first "pair," with Mel and Sprinter Boy in the pair behind me.  I anticipated getting lapped by both of them, probably multiple times.

And then the gun went, and I was off.  I had no one giving me lap times, no clue how I was doing, nothing except the fun of skating.  And skating some more. And skating some more.  Mel passed me once and lapped me twice, and Sprinter Boy passed me once.  Other than that excitement, I just skated along, not minding how high the "laps remaining" number was, not working exceptionally hard (because I had no idea how hard I could or should work for 25 laps), not worrying about how much I had left to do.  Eventually, when I had 10 laps left and was still feeling really good, I decided I should try a little harder--so I did. And other than some PVC's with four laps to go, the remaining 10 laps passed as easily and enjoyably as the the first 15 had.  When they rang the bell for my final lap I started to smile, and I smiled for the whole last 400 meters--I was going to finish my first 10K, and it felt great.

And then I heard my time, and it felt even greater--18:14.13.

And that was when it dawned on me...oh, yeah...this is what I like about skating.  Surprising myself with a good event, loving the way a race went, feeling the "high" after working hard and accomplishing something.

Or, well, not working hard enough, apparently. Mel, who had broken shattered the track record by 40 seconds, filled me in on how painful her race had been; how much work.  Apparently you're not supposed to finish a 10K thinking "wow, that was fun."  Sprinter Boy had also had a good race, and was also thinking that his race wasn't, perhaps, quite as much fun as mine had been....further proof that I need to work a bit harder next time.

And yes, there will be a next time.  Maybe not until next year, but I'm pretty sure that if I train for it a bit, get someone to give me lap times, and prepare myself to work a lot harder in the race than I did this time--I can break 18 minutes.

That's another thing I like about skating...there's always something to look forward to.  Even if it's looking forward to skating a race that's not quite as much fun as this one was.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Random Stuff

I have a couple minutes to do a blog post on what is normally a skating night.  It's so cold (-25 windchill) that the oval is closed tonight, but even if it were open I wouldn't be out there.  Not because of the cold--last night's 2 degree workout was delightful--but because I'm doing my best get as much "taper" (that's athlete talk for "I'm sitting on the couch tonight") as possible before Saturday's 10K.

Yes, I caved to peer pressure-Mel and Sprinter Boy are not only fast, they're persuasive--and signed up for a 10K time trial in Milwaukee next Saturday.  And also for a 500 and a 1000 on Sunday, although I'm not sure what possessed me to do that since I'll be lucky to be walking, let alone skating, on Sunday.  Since I survived a 10K workout and a 15-lap mass start race in the past two weeks I figured I have at least an even chance of finishing the 10K, but I certainly will need all the help I can get and so last night was a short workout, tonight is no workout, and tomorrow is another extremely short skate.

Then it's down to Milwaukee to meet my doom experience my first (and likely only) 10K.

On a completely unrelated note, I should mention that I've started a masters (i.e., "old folks") speedskating club here in Minnesota.  Thanks to Inliner Boy's talent, we've got a really cool website at mnmastersspeedskating.com ; come check it out!  We've also got an open FB group "Minnesota Masters Speedskating" for anyone who wants to communicate with us.  Skating is absolutely the coolest sport there is (on a night like tonight it's downright cold!), and I'm hoping to help more people experience the joy of long track.  So if you're anywhere near Minnesota and want to skate...now you know how to get started!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Am Cup Day 2: Cold. And Slow. And Fun.

Day 2 of the Roseville Am Cup dawned just as early as had Day 1, but a lot colder--zero degrees, to be exact.  Actually, the cold was part of the reason that I got to the oval early again today.   I wasn't doing today's 500--500's are scored, in a single distance event, based on two races, but I, for reasons that are long and complicated and too boring to retell, typically only do one of them.  I wouldn't be racing until the 1500 at about 11:00.  So there was really no need to arrive at the oval at 7:30--except that I wanted to do a "real" warmup (as in, warmup before there are skaters in the race lane that I'm afraid of falling and wiping out) so that I could decide what/how much clothing I'd need to wear to survive the cold.

So I got there early and "warmed up"--trust me, there was nothing warm about the experience--and decided to forgo wearing my "fast but frigid" Mat 1 suit in favor of the much-less-dashing-and-probably-not-quite-as-fast-but-a-lot-warmer insulated marathon suit for my race.

And then, warmup and decision completed, I sat.  And waited.  And waited.  And sat.  Every so often one of my masters skater friends would don his skinsuit, venture out into the cold for his race, and re-emerge in the warming house minutes later complaining of frostbite and windchill and slow ice.

Eventually, of course, I had to race.  I have skated three 1500's so far at Roseville this year, and all have been dismal.  This fourth one was no different, so I'll skip the gory details and just say that it was slow and sluggish and completely lackluster.  In fact, the last lap of my 1500 today was 1.1 seconds slower than the last lap of yesterday's windblown 3000.  This, in skating, is a Bad Thing.

So the less said about the 1500 the better.

After the 1500, I had a decision to make.  When I registered for the Am Cup I had signed up to do the "for fun" mass start race.  The mass start is a new--and to me, disturbing--trend in metric racing.  At the end of a weekend event, skaters are offered the option of competing in a pack style (or "mass start") race of anywhere from 8-20 laps.  The skaters each pay a small fee for the privilege, and the men's and women's winners take home their competitors' entry fees as the prize.  Mass start events are not my favorite (hence the "disturbing"--I don't like any trend that indicates increasing popularity of pack events), but I like to skate and since I consider myself a "distance" skater, I feel I must uphold my honor by skating any laps that are offered.

So, windchill notwithstanding, I planned to do the 15-lap mass start race...until, about 30 minutes after my 1500, I developed a sudden, inexplicable, and extremely painful stomach ache.  I didn't feel sick, it just hurt, and it didn't seem to have plans to depart any time soon.  So every time an official came by with the rapidly-dwindling entry list for the mass start (a 15 lap race sounds much better when you're sitting on the couch filling out your registration form than it does when you've just come into the warming house from racing in subzero windchills), I had to reply to their "are you skating" query with "I don't know."

Fortunately, though, after an hour of pain--and just minutes before I had to make the final "skate or not" decision--the pain stopped, and so I laced up my skates and headed out of the warming house for the dreaded pack-style experience.

Initially we had been told that the men and women would skate separately, which, since there were 5 women skating the mass start and about 15 men, sounded like a great idea to me.  We were nearing the end of our ice time, though, so they decided to race us all together. This made for a tricky situation for the lap-counter-folks, though, since different classes of skaters had to do different numbers of laps--some 8, some 12, some (me) 15, and some 20.  Considering that there was  a vast speed differential among the skaters, it looked like things would get interesting, and even the "if you're lapped you're out" rule wouldn't help much because you had to be lapped by someone in your class for the rule to take effect.  So I expected chaos.

And, for the first few laps, I got it.  I followed my usual big-fast-pack strategy of "start at the back and stay out of trouble;" this seemed like an especially good idea because I had forgotten to put on my Kevlar ankle guards for the occasion.  So the first few laps passed with me hanging back a bit from a large and somewhat unruly group of 13 and 14-year-olds.  I was pretty sure that some of them were faster than I was and that there were a couple others who would start out a bit too briskly (youthful enthusiasm can be the kiss of death in an endurance event), so I was content to bide my time at the back, stay out of the fast ones' way, and reel in a couple of tiring young 'uns when the opportunity presented itself.  The wisdom of this plan was confirmed when I witnessed much shifting of places and a skate-click near-fall; I was glad I had hung back far enough from the pack that I was out of danger, even if it meant giving up the draft.

Eventually, though, everyone settled into their place.  I skated a couple laps at the tail of all the kids, and then passed the two who I had thought might flag.  After that I was on my own for a couple laps, until, after I thought I had probably skated 7 or 8 laps, I passed the lap counters and they yelled "12 to go, Kaari!"

What?! Since when does 8+12=15?!

I realized, of course, that they were giving me the lap count as though I were doing the men's 20 lap race, so I simply subtracted 5 from 12 and figured I had 7 to go.  Sweet--I'm over half-way.

Shortly after that, I looked over my shoulder to check the progress of the "fast pack" and saw that they were about a third of a lap behind me.  I figured I had time to skate the corner, then I should move to the outer lane to let them lap me on the inner.  They were closing much faster than I anticipated, though, and suddenly they were upon me.

In my dirt bike racing days I had plenty of experience with attempting to pull over to let someone pass on a narrow trail and instead pulling right in front of them as they pulled out to pass me; I knew that my safest option was to hold my line.  So I did, gasping an apology to the skaters who streamed by me on both sides like cars passing a vehicle stalled in the middle lane of a freeway.  They were there and gone so fast that I was unable to see if any of them were one of the two "fast women;" if I were lapped by a woman I would have to quit.  When I passed the lap counters, though, they assured me that the pack was all testosterone and I could continue skating.

Then, with four laps to go, I saw that I was gaining on another young skater.  I decided to do what I could to catch and hopefully pass her (the lower the remaining lap count the more courageous I am), so I put the hammer down.  By this point in the race, of course, it was a very small hammer--maybe one of those lightweight plastic things that babies use to pound plastic pegs into toy workbenches--but it was enough to let me catch her with two to go.  We battled back and forth the penultimate lap...and then the "fast woman" caught us right as we crossed the line for our bell lap and her finish.

Or right before the line. Or right after.  I wasn't sure and since no one was yelling at me to stop I figured "I'll be damned if I quit with one lap to go" and so I kept skating.  My young competitor, though, pulled up--and the lap counters immediately began yelling to her  "keep going, you're not out, go!"  She looked confused though, and didn't start skating, so I did the only decent thing and stopped skating to yell at her "we're not out, come on, skate!"

And then I waited until she started skating, and let her back in front of me where she had been before she pulled up. And then we skated the rest of the last lap.

So I finished the 15 laps, and it wasn't bad.  In fact,other than the 500 PB,  it was the most fun part of the weekend.  Which is good, because I'm planning to skate 25 laps in Milwaukee in 6 days.

25 laps is a whole lot of "fun."

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Am Cup Day 1: Wind. And Fun. Oh, and a PB.

(Before I begin my usual inane babbling, I want to send good thoughts to a fellow skater.  Just before the last race of the day, a skater who had just completed a grueling 5K was involved in a freak off-ice accident that sent him to the hospital with the paramedics.  I didn't see the accident and thus don't want to relate any second-hand descriptions of what happened, so I will just say that my thoughts are with the young man and I hope that he recovers quickly.)

Since my focus this weekend was on enjoying the American Cup event rather than stressing about how fast I might or might not be, I decided to start the enjoyment early--like at 7 am--by paying attention to anything and everything I encountered that could be or should be enjoyed.  So, by the time racing got started at 9, I had enjoyed: my McDonald's breakfast (the bacon, egg and cheese biscuit was particularly tasty today); the oval all decked out with US Speedskating banners and even a podium (it was a Junior World Cup race in addition to the American Cup so they pulled out all the stops); the fact that I was the first one on the ice for warm-ups; the "calm before the storm" perfect weather; the fun sayings on the scoreboard during warmup--my favorites were "tiny tots are not made of potatoes" (we love our Tator Tot hot dish here in Minnesota) and "judge not, unless there is also a timer" (which is only funny, I guess, if you know that skating officials include "timers" and "judges"); and the fact that I could not only get myself into my Mat 1 skinsuit, I could even get a thin layer of insulation on under it--and still breathe.

Nice banners!

And check out the podium

And then I skated the 500, and I had something even better to enjoy.

48.59 seconds of enjoyment, to be exact.

Considering that my old Roseville PB was 49.67 and that this year's 500's have been more along the lines of 52's, I was never expecting to break 50 at Roseville again and certainly never expected to see a 48 there. Ever.   Enjoy the weekend, indeed!

Coach TieGuy was at the race in the role of one of the starters, so I tracked him down in the officials room during the Zamboni break to get his opinion on the 500.  After listening to my enthusiastic retelling of my race in excruciating detail, and to my assertion that it "felt like my technique was pretty good," he affirmed that it had indeed looked decent...and then reminded me that I need to get closer to the blocks.  Damn,  I always forget about that!

By the time my 1000 rolled around, the wind--which was forecast to be epic by the end of the day--had begun to pick up, and conditions were no longer perfect.  Still, my 1000 was OK--at 1:40.52 it was (as Sprinter Boy's quick canter through speedskatingresults.com on his phone informed me) my seventh fastest Roseville 1K, and was 4 seconds faster than my 1K there last month.  Progress.

Unfortunately, photo evidence shows that I have not made as much progress in fixing my goofy start.  I look fine in the "go to the start" phase...

...but the "ready" still needs some work.  What am I doing with that right arm?
 Darn, I thought I fixed that
(photo credits Dan Barrett, the father of a very talented Minnesota skater)

Here's a nice photo of Mel and me post-1K (also by Dan).  I'm in my standard mid-nose-wipe pose (I even do this in the middle of races sometimes), and Mel is about 3.5 seconds away from getting busted for "coaching in the warmup lane."  I love it!

And then, on to the 3K.  By the time I skated, at 1:30, the wind had picked up to a nice 20 mph with gusts close to 30.  I was in a quad with PhotoDan's daughter--who ended up winning the 3K--and a skater behind me who I was quite sure would pass me.  Mel (who was not skating this weekend) and her dad were stationed on the backstretch to yell lap times to me.  I was ready to "enjoy" my last race of the day.

Unfortunately, "enjoyment" never had a chance.  I slipped on the start, slipped again on my first crossover, and by 100 meters into the 3000 meter race I was already tired. Cool.

So I did the only thing I could do--I tried to settle into a "keep the technique as correct as possible and just grit your teeth and get through this" rhythm.   (Except I don't really grit my teeth; I'm too busy doing the goofy "sip and blow" breathing technique that I need to do to keep my vocal cord dysfunction at bay.  See?)

I managed to get into some semblance of a decent technique, but I felt slow...really slow.  And then, as I skated down the backstretch, I saw the lap time board held by someone else's coach (this is a large board that shows the "ones" and "tenths" digits of your lap time to the tenth).  It read 9 something, and although I knew it was for another skater, the coach kept holding it where I could see it and then I remembered that Mel's dad had yelled something about "9" at some point and so in my oxygen-deprived confusion I thought I must be doing 49 second laps (because I knew damn well that I wasn't doing 39's).  I had been hoping for 42's or so, so you might say a 49 would be somewhat discouraging.  And then at some point I got passed by the skater behind me but she passed me in the other lane (which was good) but she had started in my lane so she should have passed me in my lane but I was now in the other lane so maybe I had forgotten to switch lanes...come to think of it, didn't I just skate the outer on the last lap, too?  But then I remembered that the pair behind me had false started so the starter had had them wait until we skated past them again before he started them so they actually should be in the "wrong" lane if they passed us...

Why yes, I often have been told I think too much when I'm skating; why do you ask?

Still, I kept trudging on, assiduously skating as close to the blocks as I could on every corner--not just because Coach TieGuy had told me to, but because I was having absolutely zero fun and wanted to make the damn race as short as I possibly could.  So I was quite happy to discover, when I finally crossed the finish line and looked up, that I had skated a 5:24.88...my fifth fastest outdoor 3K, and clearly one that did not contain any 49 second laps.

After my 3K I hung out at the races for another couple hours, even though I was done skating.  Hawkeye Boy, Sprinter Boy, and Canada Boy (fresh from Winnipeg) were in the last quartet of the day, a 3K, and needed someone to yell lap times, which I was happy to do.  Standing out on the backstretch in the now-40-mph-gusts, I was glad I had raced earlier in the day before the wind really picked up--in the conditions the guys raced in I think I really would have done 49 second laps.  They managed to turn in some pretty good times despite almost being blown off their feet at times, though.

And finally, after nine hours and three races, the Day 1 Enjoyment was over.

I can't wait to see what Day 2 will bring.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Next Up...Am Cup

This weekend I'll be racing the American Cup event here in Roseville.  Minnesota is really pulling out all the stops, weather-wise...we've got 40 degrees with a chance of rain and 45 mile-per-hour wind gusts predicted for Saturday, followed by a 10 degree high and 15 below windchills on Sunday; all we're missing is a blizzard or a tornado.  The "Milwaukee climate-controlled-skater Facebook whining" has already started; it will be fun to see how some of the indoor folks dress themselves for the Sunday chill (neoprene facemasks and hats over skinsuit hoods are popular).

I'm racing the 500, 1000 and 3K in the Saturday wind, and the 1500 and perhaps the mass start event in the Sunday fridigity.  I have no idea how it will go; last week's workouts were hard but went well, while this week has been, um, less than stellar.  I'm comforted by the fact that my faster-and-fitter friends who skated the same workouts are also feeling it; when I asked Hawkeye Boy, mid-Tuesday-night's "Tornado" workout (don't ask) how his legs were feeling, he replied with a grimace and a terse "poopy."

I can identify with "poopy."

Still, I didn't skate yesterday and I'm not skating today, so we'll see what two days of rest can do.  And, just like when I went to Milwaukee for the Masters Single Distance event a couple weeks ago, my focus is more on enjoying the event than on hoping to set Personal Bests (which is a good thing, given the 45 mph wind and the slow below-zero ice forecast).  So I'm thinking that if I emerge from the weekend with nothing frostbitten and no injuries and with the memory of two days of fun, I'll be satisfied.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

10K Saturday

We did 25 laps in practice yesterday. That's a 10K.  I've only skated 25 continuous laps three times before, and this year the most laps I've skated in a row in practice has been 10.  The forecast was for cold (15 degrees) and windy (20 mph), which is a bit daunting for any workout but especially for one that features lap after lap after lap after...  Still, my previous sets of 25 laps have been completely solo--no draft, no one to share the work with or commiserate with as the laps tick slowly by.  This time would be different.

This time I had help.

10K Saturday was the brainchild of Mel and Sprinter Boy, who last month concocted the plan of skating a 10K time trial in Milwaukee at the end of January and then convinced me that it would be fun for me to do a 10K time trial, too.  Since we're planning to race 10K in two weeks it would probably be a good idea to skate the distance at least once in practice.  (Or, in my case, since I'm planning to skate 10K in two weeks; I have no illusions about actually racing the distance.  I had asked Coach TieGuy last week what he thought about my doing a 10K time trial, and it was clear he thought I'd lost my mind.  "I remember every one of my three 10K's," he said, "and I never want to be in that much pain again.  And when I was training for a 10K we did a 100-lap workout every Monday."  "Oh," I said, realizing his error, "I don't intend to actually race the 10K; I just want to skate it."  There's a big difference).

So anyway, we decided to do our 10K workout yesterday.  Me, Mel, Sprinter Boy, and Hawkeye Boy, and anyone else who wanted to join us.  Unfortunately the weather and a hard week of workouts combined to convince the Boys to skip the workout (yes, they will be given the appropriate amount of grief for that at Tuesday's practice); fortunately Mel and I convinced Cross Boy and Inliner Boy to join us, so we still had a nice pack (Aussie Boy joined us for the first few laps but he's not a big fan of sustained endurance work).  I am definitely, by far, the slow one of that group, so my plan was to stay with them as long as I could and then finish the laps on my own.

A 5-lap warmup had shown us that the conditions were actually not bad; 15 degrees is quite pleasant, especially if you wear boot covers, and the west wind meant that we had a cross wind but no horrible, strength-sapping headwind.  We had no specific plan for lap pace, but I had my trusty stopwatch (remember, if you don't have a lap time it didn't happen) so we'd be able to keep track of how we were doing.

Cross Boy led us out on a nice 47-second lap.  Then Mel took over and threw down a 44 and a 43.  Now, I have no problem doing 44 and 43-second laps--if they're in a set of 5 laps or less.  As lap 2 and 3 of 25, I found the pace a little alarming, and after the 43 I gasped over my shoulder to Cross Boy "I can't hang with this pace; I'm pulling out."  He yelled back, "no" and cruised effortlessly past me to settle in in front of me at a more reasonable pace.  Mel, who could likely cruise the whole 10K at 43 or less by herself, decided to stick with us slower folks rather than haring off on her own, and she eased back to just in front of Cross Boy.

The rest of the laps, for me, became an exercise in mental fitness.  The pace--usually 46's--was something that was within my physical capability, but mentally I had to fight the urge to think "sure, you just did a 46...but can you do 20 more?  19 more? Why not just ease up now?"  I'm happy to say that I didn't give in to the negativity.  I did get gapped a few times; most times I mentally smacked myself upside the head and closed the gap again on my own; a couple of times Mel provided a helpful push to get me back into the draft.  I only pulled two laps; the other times it was my turn to pull, Mel would cruise past from the back of the pack to the head of the line and take my pull for me.  Before I knew it, I was announcing "three laps to go" to my fellow sufferers, and it was clear that I would make the whole 10K without bailing out.  Sweet.

So 10K Saturday was fun.  Next up is the American Cup race here in Roseville next weekend, and then the 10K time trial in Milwaukee the following weekend.  Fun, fun, fun!

Friday, January 11, 2013

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

(Before I finish that thought, I have to announce:  My friend Mel broke the Masters World Record in the 30-34 age group in the 5K in Milwaukee last weekend!  Actually, she didn't break it, she smashed it--the old record was 7:58 and change; Mel skated 7:41.  Unfortunately no one knew that she broke the record until after the weekend, so Mel had to settle for a congratulatory package of PopTarts on Fast Tuesday and this announcement today.  Way to go, Mel!!)

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger--I hope.  Because the workouts I'm doing while trying to keep up with my speedy friends are either going to kill me--or make me really, really fast.

So far, I'm leaning towards the "really fast," but the jury is still out and tomorrow is "10K Saturday" (what the heck, we have "Fast Tuesday" so tomorrow might as well get a name, too.).  10K Saturday might just tilt the scale to "kill me," especially after what I've already done this week.

On Fast Tuesday, the plan was to do 2x5x400 meters at 1500 meter race pace, which for the others (Hawkeye Boy, Sprinter Boy, and Mel) is about 36 second laps.  My 1500 meter pace is more along the lines of 39-40 second laps. For me, 36 second laps are...well, they're not 1500 meter pace.  They're more like "maybe I can do a 36.  One 36.  With a good draft.  And maybe a push."    So I had a choice: try to get as close to 36's as I could by using 100% effort to stay in the draft as long as possible; or do the laps on my own, at 39's or whatever I could do.  Maybe it was the influence of the FRS energy shot I had taken on the way to the oval; maybe it was the fact that Hawkeye, Sprinter and Mel are a blast to skate with, even though I can't keep up; maybe it was a glimmer of intensity returning to my skating.  Whatever it was, though, I decided to go with the 36's--or however close to 36's 100% effort would bring me.

And, to my surprise, I got pretty close.  Actually, I skated two 36's and one...wait for it...34.  I had some draft for parts of these laps, but not for the whole way because I got dropped pretty quickly. The other laps were 37's or 38's, which were still under my projected 39-40's and were achieved with even less draft than the faster laps because as I got slower Hawkeye Boy, Sprinter Boy and Mel got faster and I got dropped sooner.  So it was a great workout--oh, except for the cinnamon roll.  I've become a bit complacent about what I eat before workouts because I haven't been skating hard enough to need to worry about it--but Fast Tuesday reminded me that cinnamon rolls are not the best idea before an intense workout.  Between the cinnamon roll and the fact that I was skating faster than I have in, oh, ever, I ended up doing only 8 of the 10 laps--but I was damn proud of those 8 laps!

After Fast Tuesday I planned to do a recovery skate on Wednesday and then endurance on Thursday.  Things didn't go as planned, though.  On Wednesday I got sucked into Cross Boy and Sprinter Boy's draft and ended up doing 8 and then 5 laps behind them; easy laps for them, a bit of a struggle for me.  And then Hawkeye Boy led some "relax the straights hammer the corners" laps and, well, I got caught up in those as well.  The end result was that, by Thursday morning, my legs felt like they hadn't felt since the first season  TieGuy coached me, and by Thursday evening I was glad that the unseasonable rain made skating a bad idea and I could skip the workout with a (mostly) clear conscience.

So now it's Friday, I've had two days of rest, my legs are still stiff and sore, and tomorrow we're planning to do a workout that includes a 10K--25 laps, which is exactly 2.5 times more continuous laps than I've skated in a workout this season.  And I can't wait.  So "makes you stronger" just might win out...


Monday, January 7, 2013

Surprise!

Last weekend was full of surprises, not the least of which was my inability to figure out a simple Android tablet so that I could blog about all of the surprises that last weekend was full of while the surprises were still actually happening, rather than on Monday evening when it's all just becoming a dim memory.  So, now that I'm home and somewhat rested and have a nice,  easy-to-use desktop computer at my disposal, here are, more or less in order, the "Surprises from the Masters Single Distance Meet 2013:"

Surprise #1:  Leaving work at 3:30 and driving almost 6 hours to Milwaukee is often a recipe for disaster.  In the past I've tried massive amounts of caffeine to keep me awake, but this time I found something better--FRS energy shots.  I had one that I had gotten in the goody bag (from Kim and Eric Kraan of SkateNow) at skate camp, but given my obsessive insistance on rigidly adhering to my rituals understandable caution about trying new things before workouts or races, I hadn't tried it yet.  About an hour into the trip suddenly seemed like the perfect time to break open that bad boy, so I did--and let me tell you, I was one happy camper for the rest of the drive.  By the time I hit Milwaukee four hours later I had decided that every song on my iPod was my favorite and was worthy of being sung along to at top volume--and that I really needed to find some more of those FRS energy shots.

Surprise #2:  My NeverGonnaHappen WayTooSmall skinsuit--my suit from making MAT 1 in 2010-2011--actually fit.  Not because I lost any weight, but because those babies can s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

Surprise #3: The second 500 meter race.  The surprise of the first 500 meter race was that I actually got a somewhat decent time.  See, here I am leaving the line (thanks to Steve Penland for all the photos):
The surprise of 500 meter race #2, though, was...500 meter race #2.  I hadn't signed up for the second 500 meter, and wouldn't have known I was expected to race it if a friend hadn't told me we were paired together.    Good thing she did, too...500 meter #2 was even faster than #1.  See, here I am going reasonably fast (ignore the chicken wing, and don't tell Coach TieGuy):

Surprise #4:  The 1500.  I had done three 1500's up to this point in the season, and they had ranged from "dreadful" to "sluggish."  So I wasn't expecting much, and I was put into a quad (four skaters race at once; one pair goes first and the rest follows after 15-20 seconds) that reflected my early-season times.  I found an unexpected--and very welcome--bit of speed in the 1500, though, which resulted in me getting my second-fastest Milwaukee 1500 time ever--and catching the person in front of me just before the finish line.  See?
Surprise #5: The 1000.  Like the 1500, the 1000 surprised me by being one of my better times for the distance.  Sweet.

Surprise #6  The 5K.  The good surprises run out...just in time for my big race.  I kind of suspected it might not go as well as the others when I found myself thinking, for the hour before the race, "twelve and a half laps is one heck of a long way" (or thoughts to that effect).  That is not how one should think before a race.  I think I was, for the first time since my first 5K, kind of afraid of doing a distance race. So, in hopes of avoiding major pain, PVC's, and general mayhem, I started slow and skated around at a rather, um, relaxed pace...until I heard my time for lap three (Mel's dad was kind enough to yell my lap times to me).  It was a 42.5, and I suddenly realized "hey, I don't need to be going quite that slow."  So I sped up.  I held 41's through lap 8, then the last 4 were 42's for a final time of 8:48--my worst since my first-ever 5K, by almost 10 seconds.  Still, I made the MAT 1 qualifying time, and I didn't get any PVC's, so I count it as a victory.

Surprise #7:  I decided to participate in the 12-lap "for fun" mass start race that was held about 20 minutes after I finished my 5K.  I figured that I need to start skating more laps if I want to get in shape to do a faster 5K later this season, and there's no time like the present. The little group I ended up skating with got lapped, but we maintained our dignity by skating the final lap anyway, even though we were supposed to be done when the leaders crossed the line.

Surprise #8:  Despite having done 5 races in two days, I'm already looking forward to "Fast Tuesday" tomorrow.

And there you have it...the surprising Masters Single Distance 2013. I'll leave you with a final photo from the 1500, just to prove that I can sometimes skate without the chicken wing:

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Update...Sort of...

So I made it to Milwaukee and I raced on Saturday and by Saturday evening I had a nice blog post in my head, all ready to type out as I watched the Vikings/Packers game in my hotel room.

The game was only one of many things that went wrong.

I hadn't brought my usual laptop, but a tablet that my brother in law had given us.  I hadn't used the accessory keyboard with it before, but I figured "how hard can it be to figure out?"

As hard as it was for the Vikings to gain any passing yards, as it turned out.

I managed to find my blog and get the "web view" that allowed me to log in, and got to the "new post" page.  And then when I started typing I realized there was no cursor, which caused all sorts of confusion, and no way to skip a line (as in, when I hit "enter" nothing happened) and no way to move back through what I had already typed, short of deleting everything I'd already typed.  This meant that there was no easy way to edit anything. I was also going to say that there was no way to indicate paragraph changes, either, since I couldn't skip a line...but I just realized I could have used "tab," like in the old days.  Clearly I'm not qualified to be driving the tablet.

So, since the Vikings were sucking and I was losing the battle with technology and I had to get up at 5:30, I did what any rational person would do.

 I gave up on the game and the post and I went to bed at 8:30.

So I didn't post Saturday, and I raced again today (Sunday) and then jumped in the car for the five-and-a-half hour drive, and now I'm home and it's late and I'm too tired to do a proper post.  So y'all will just have to wait until tomorrow to see how the weekend of racing went.

Ooh, the suspense.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Milwaukee, Here I Come...

...ready or not. (Me, that is, not Milwaukee.  I have no idea whether Milwaukee is ready or not.)

I leave for Milwaukee tomorrow after work, for the Masters Single Distance event.  It's the big meet of the season for me (and the only masters meet I'll do this year), and I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for it.

Sure, I've been skating.  And I tapered this week.  And Coach TieGuy even came out to the oval tonight, to give me some help with a leg pain issue I've been dealing with for the past month (he's a PT) and to check out my skating.  And, once he'd reminded me that I need to actually DO something with my abs when I'm skating (I mean, something other than continually adding to the nice layer of padding I'm growing on them)--something like, say, actually engaging my core muscles while skating (that reminds me, I need to start doing my core exercises again)--well, once I did that he said my skating actually looked pretty good.

Well, pretty good apart from the fact that I got really tired and my technique went to heck after just a lap and a half, that is.  Which is, of course, the part that has me wondering if I'm ready for this.  I'm doing a 5K this weekend--twelve and a half laps--and that's a mighty long way when you get tired after a lap and a half.  So, call it maturity, call it pessimism, call it realism, but I'm setting a much more modest goal than usual this year.

This year, my goal is simply to make the Masters Category 1 (MAT ) time in the 5K.  MAT 1 is an elite designation for US masters skaters, and it's achieved by skating a race in 108% of the world record time for that distance in one's age group.  I've made MAT 1 all three years that it's been in existence, but this year is looking a bit iffy.

The MAT 1 time for the 5K in my age group is (if I've done the math correctly) 8:57.79.  Now, normally I wouldn't worry about making that time; I haven't skated an indoor 5K in slower than 8:39 since my first one (a 9:04) back in 2007.  But...this is my slow year.  My times in shorter distances thus far, if I extrapolate the "slowness factor" to the 5K, leave me thinking that my chances of skating the MAT 1 time are about 50-50. So it should be an interesting weekend.

Still, whether I'm having a "slow year" or not, masters events are always fun.  It's nice to see friends from around the country that I only see at masters events; to skate indoors with no wind and no frozen toes; to hang out with skaters my age for a change.  So even though my times could be dreadful, I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Ready or not.