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!