.5

Yes, that's right.  .5   As in "point 5."  As in "one-half."

That's the rating I gave yesterday's workout on the "one-to-ten" scale.

I don't think I've ever had a "point five" before.

Yesterday, however, certainly deserved it. My workouts have been getting worse (i.e., slower and more sluggish) over the past week.  After last Friday's intervals and Sunday's trail skate with Energizer Bunny, I came home and took a nap. Without even changing and showering first. I was just too tired.

So I didn't have high expectations for Tuesday's endurance workout.  It was supposed to b 8x3k, with only 1.5 laps of rest between each 3k.  Last year Coach TieGuy reduced the workout to sets of 4-5 laps instead of the 3k's, so I figured I could do that if it didn't go well. I also figured I'd be taking longer rest breaks than the 1.5 laps, to take my skates off and give my numb feet a break.  So I was already planning to modify the workout slightly...I just wasn't planning to cut it by three-quarters.

My first 3k was horrible...slow, sluggish, my back got sore at 3 laps (when things are going well I can make it 8-10 laps before that happens).  My lap times were all over 50, and the last lap was 57...slower than my usual warmup pace.

Nice.

So I decided to reduce the workout to three sets of 4 laps/1.5 lap rest/4 laps, with a nice "take off the skates and rest" break in between.  This would only give me about half as many laps as the original workout called for, but I was OK with that.  So I did the first set, which, again, felt horrible, and which featured laps from 50-54 seconds.  Then I did the first four laps of the second set.  They sucked.

And then I quit.  And assigned the workout a .5 in my workout log.

I'm really hoping my thyroid levels are low again.  The way I feel when I'm skating is classic "low thyroid" for me, and some other symptoms have been creeping back (fat and cranky, if you must know).  So I'm anxiously awaiting the results of Thursday's blood test; if my thyroid levels are fine, then it's back to obsessive overanalysis of other possibilities (fat? overtrained? old?  all of the above?).  Hopefully the results will come in today's mail; we're supposed to have the Summer Inline Series oval races tonight (assuming the 100 degree heat index and air quality alert don't force a cancellation), and I'd like to know what I'm up against before I wedge myself into my skinsuit and drag myself through the races.

If they do have the races tonight, though, maybe I can shoot for a .75...

And Now for Something Completely Different

Yesterday, the Hubster had a Rally race.  Back in the day (2001, to be exact), when he started Rallying, I was his Co-driver.  Remember this post with an in-car video of our first (and, thankfully, only) rollover?  Yeah, that's why I'm now Wife In Charge of Sandwiches.  Well, when I'm not Wife In Charge of Staying Home Because I Need to Skate.  But yesterday I didn't need to skate, so Keira and I went along to the race.

We left on Friday, since the race started fairly early in the morning on Saturday up near rain-soaked Duluth, and thus we'd need to drive up Friday evening and spend the night in a motel.

Keira, as always, quickly detected the packing, and positioned herself in such a way as to ensure that she was not left behind:

Gatorade?  Check.  Helmet? Check.  Large hairy dog? Check.

Keira mildly enjoys riding in the car.  When she's awake, she prefers what I call her "Dog Is My Co-Pilot" pose:

"I'm pretty sure we should have gone left back there..."

The Hubster decided that a human co-driver would probably be preferable for the race, though (besides, it would be tough finding a fire suit, helmet, and HANS device for ol' Pointy Head), so he had procured the services of a friend who had co-driven for him in the past.  Co-Driver Boy met us at our house Friday evening, which allowed me to duck out of the tool-packing and race-truck loading because "you really only need two people to do that, right?"  I managed to watch the entire Friday night Twins game before everything was loaded up and ready to go, which was nice.

Then we drove to the hotel, which Hubster had ascertained, before-hand, to be pet-friendly.  Since we arrived after midnight we had to ring a bell to get someone to come out and sign us in, which we did sans hound.  By the time we paraded our large and hairy pet through the lobby, no one else was around.  So it came as a bit of a shock when we entered our room and saw the large "NO PETS" sign stuck on the mirror. I, of course (suffering from Obsessive Compliance Disorder), had to fight the urge to immediately go to the front desk, ring the bell, and confess.  The Hubster talked me out of that insanity, saying that it was likely that the website had been updated more recently than the mirror, but I did manage to make sure that Keira slept on her bed from home instead of her preferred hotel accommodation--the bedspread on the floor at the foot of the bed:

This is a photo from a previous (pet-approved) hotel stay, at a skating race in Milwaukee.

I figured that, if the mirror was correct rather than the website, the hotel probably would not appreciate  having to deal with furry bedspreads .  Fortunately Keira is completely silent and virtually immobile once she gets into a hotel room, so we were able to conceal her presence all night and then smuggle her out in the morning.  Whew--how stressful!

After a short drive, we arrived at the race start.  Here's the rally truck, ready to unload:

The race was headquartered in a tiny town that consisted of a bar, a town hall, and a General Store.  The store, fortunately, had lots of tasty treats:

I sampled the ice cream cones and sandwiches, but decided to forego the leeches and nightcrawlers.

The Hubster and Co-Driver Boy unloaded the truck and began preparing to race.  They hydrated,

prepped the truck, and attended the driver's meeting, which was also attended by the local RallyCat:

Finally, they lined up in preparation for leaving for the race stages (the race is held on gravel roads out in the woods, so there's no opportunity to spectate).  

Keira was not pleased to see them go...

After they left, Keira and I had a couple hours to kill before they would return (briefly) before they set out again for the second race. I read and napped in the truck, while Keira wandered about detesting her harness (you can't use a collar to tie out a dog who has a large neck and a tiny head) and staring hopefully at RallyCat, who insisted on doing her washing juuuuuust out of Keira's leash range...

And then the rally boys were back--no crashes, no rollovers, no mechanical issues.  Second place in class in the first race, and first place in class in the second--a successful day at the races.

Short Track!

Sort of.  (Don't get too excited, Sharon!)

One of our local ice rinks has a good deal on Wednesdays--for 5 bucks, you can skate for 90 minutes, and if you show up with speedskates they'll give you a rink all to yourself.

The catch?  The 90 minutes are between 5:30 and 7:00 a.m.

Clearly this is not an option for me during the school year; even if I could do it logistically (which I can't; I need to be at work by 7:00, and the rink is over 30 minutes from my house), I can't imagine trying to complete a full day's work after having gotten up at 4:30 and skated (I know, I know, figure skaters and hockey players do it all the time.  And that's one of the things I like about speedskating.)  But during the summer, I sometimes try to make it to the "early bird" skate.  Last year, I think I just went once or twice to break in my new long-track boots, having lent my short track blades to Sprinter Boy--who was likely to put them to much better and more frequent use than I would.  This summer, though, I've got my blades back, some of the other Masters long-trackers are short-tracking regularly at the early bird sessions, and so I thought I'd re-assemble my short track skates and give it a whirl.

The re-assembly proved to be somewhat of a challenge, since I couldn't find the bolts that hold the frame to the boot.  When I did find some bolts, in a baggie with a Sharpie scrawl that seemed to indicate that they would be the ones for fastening Bont Pyro skates to short track blades, the bolts were much too long.  I finally managed to scrounge some bolts and washers from the Hubster's rally-car stash (gosh, hope he doesn't need them during his race this weekend!), stuck the blades back on the boots, and figured I was ready to go.

The alarm, at 4:50 a.m., launched me out of bed and into a frenzy of clothes-gear-and-food assembly.  I was planning to go to the Oval for an inline workout immediately after the short track, and thus needed what we sometimes refer to as the Ba Ba Blacksheep package--yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full (OK, actually we only use that to refer to those occasional walks when Keira-the-poo-machine is unusually prolific and the doggy poo bag supply gets a workout).

Traffic, as you might expect at 5:20 on a Wednesday morning, was light, the McDonald's bacon-egg-and-cheese biscuit was fresh and tasty (be quiet, I had two workouts coming up), and soon I was lacing up my skates and preparing to shove off onto the empty rink.

Here's the only photographic evidence of my departure from long track:

See?  Those are my legs, and those are my skates (they even have my name on them!).  Proof positive that I did, indeed, brave the short track ice.

Anyway, my first step onto the ice was anticlimactic and almost disastrous, as my slipping and lurching stopped just short of a crash.  I was pretty sure that one of three things was wrong: a) I had set the blades at the wrong angle; b) I hadn't sharpened my skates properly; or c) I had completely forgotten how to skate.  Since there wasn't much I could do about b or c, I decided to address a.  This required removing my skates again, and looking at the blades to see if I could figure out which way to move them. I eventually decided that the front of both blades needed to move in the only direction that they were currently, due to the interference with the head of the fastening bolt, prohibited from moving.  So I removed the washer that I'd put between the bolt head and the frames--the Hubster has frequently emphasized the importance of washers--and then moved the blades a bit and re-tightened.

Out on the ice again, things still weren't smooth, but I felt comfortable enough to skate.  Since the rink has no pads (organized short track practices always include nice thick padding along the boards, for those of us who lose our footing), I was very cautious.  Soon, though, I was having fun--doing gliding drills, skating one corner and then coasting a lap until I slowed enough to feel comfortable skating again, and doing some crossover drills in the faceoff circles.  When you're the only one on the ice, short track can be fun!

After the short track, I headed to the oval for an endurance workout--the oval and the rink are fairly close together, so it just made sense.   Mel and another young long tracker were also there, so I had the unusual fun of doing an inline workout with (or, more accurately, behind) two other long track skaters.  The workout itself--another German Endurance--was lackluster, to the point that I'm getting my thyroid levels checked tomorrow, but it was great to have other "ice people" out there!

Finally, at 10:30, I headed home.  Thus, I spent the first 6 hours of my day on skating...what better way is there to start a Wednesday?

Oh, and because we just got back from my parents' place, here are a couple gratuitous Min Pin pics...

I can't seem to get Belle oriented properly, but she's cute no matter which way she's pointing!

Race Report and Skate Test

I had managed to resist the urge to have their inaugural skate be the Baxter Inline Half Marathon, but these beauties

were begging for a skate.  I had an endurance workout planned for Tuesday and then the Summer Inline Series (SIS) races for Wednesday.  Being the Data Geek that I am, I decided to do a skate test on Tuesday, comparing my three different skate setups, and then use the winner in the SIS races the following night.  So on Tuesday morning (ah, the beauty of being off work for the summer--the ability to skate early in the morning to avoid the late-rising Teenage Mutant Skate Park Punks!) I packed up the above skates-- stock Bont Cheetahs with 4x100mm wheels--as well as my "usual" skates, custom Bont Apaches with 4x90mm wheels,

and then my "old setup,"

custom Bont Vaypors with 5x84mm wheels (pardon the crap in the photo, and actually I had different wheels on for the test--Hyper +G's rather than the Bank Robbers pictured--but I couldn't find the camera and this is the only photo of the Vaypors that I could find).  My workout called for "German Endurance," 5 sets of 2 minutes hard/2 easy/2 hard, with a 5 minute rest break between sets.  Since I time every lap and that pretty much consumes my "man the stopwatch" capabilities, I usually do German Endurance by laps rather than by minutes, so 2.5 laps hard, 2 easy, 2.5 hard.  The pace was supposed to be 80%, which in past years would probably mean 43-44 second laps, but these days (what with being slow and all), who knows?  I figured I'd do the test in this order:
1.  Current setup, Apaches with 4x90's with the bearings I've been using all season and, um, some wheels.  They're blue.  That's all I know about them.
2.  Vaypors with 5x84's, using an old set of the wheels I always used to use for oval workouts (Hyper + Grip) and the bearings that I would remove from the Apaches
3.  New Cheetahs with 4x100's and new bearings
4.  Apaches again, with 4x90's, same wheels but new bearings (the door prize ones from Baxter)
5.  Cheetahs again

Granted, there are still a lot of uncontrolled variables in there, most notably the "declining performance due to fatigue" factor.  But this is a good as I could get it, in terms of controlling for bearings, etc.

So, (insert drum roll) here are the results, by average lap times (note that the average lap times are sadly discrepant from the 43-44 seconds that I would have hoped for in the past, pre-slow, days.  Oh, well...)
1.  Apaches 4x90--47.4
2.  Vaypors 5x84--49.7
3.  Cheetahs 4x100-48.6
4.  Apaches 4x90--49.2
5.  Cheetahs 4x100--48.2

So it would seem that the 5x84 setup is clearly the "dog" of the trio--not to mention that the boots, which I used for long track as well as inline for 4-5 years, are now worn out to the point of being uncomfortable.  The scary part of the "5x84 is the slowest" conclusion is that all my best times in inline workouts and races are from when I was using the slowest skates.  Clearly, I suck even more now than I thought I did!

Second place is harder to define precisely.  The 5x84's position as second set in the workout means that their slower time is quite significant--my second set in workouts is often my best (due, no doubt, to my habitually not warming up enough).  So that makes it easier to determine "dog" status.  The Cheetahs are both slower than the Apaches and faster, though, and their place as third and fifth-set skates makes the fatigue factor more significant. I confounded the results somewhat by using different bearings in the Apaches in the fourth set than in the first, but that was a decision born of laziness--the old bearings were now in the Vaypors and would require removal if I wanted to use them in the Apaches again, while the Baxter bearings were ready to pop into the wheels.  So  I took the easy way out.  Still, I think the Cheetahs are faster.  And, subjectively, I was surprised at how good the 4x100's felt in the corners.  I was afraid that the taller wheels would mess up the corner feel (what little feel I have, anyway), but they felt very solid and confidence-inspiring, not only in the actual corner but in the corner entry as well, which has been the bane of my existence for many years.

With those results in mind, I decided to use the Cheetahs in the SIS races the next night.  The stock boots were pretty comfortable in the test workout, so I didn't think I'd have trouble (i.e., pain) in the races, and I was curious to see if I was any faster in the Cheetahs than I'd been in the Apaches two weeks ago.  What I didn't count on was others' reaction to the skates.   As I sat on the concrete steps getting ready for the races, no fewer than 5 racers paused, observed my new skates, and said "oooh, shiny!"  Now, this is exactly what I posted in my previous blog entry under a picture of my skates, but I'm quite certain that these people had not read my blog because, um, almost nobody reads my blog and it would be pretty remarkable if the 5 people who read my blog were the same 5 people who were commenting on my skates.  So I'm forced to assume that my skates are, indeed, shiny.  Really shiny.

So, the races.  We women (both of us...there was just me and RollerDome Girl, a teammate who had also been the only other woman in the first SIS races two weeks ago) were scheduled for a 4 lap and an 8 lap race, which sounded fine to me.  Local SkateShop Boy has turned over the running of the races to Columbian Flash, a very talented inliner, and I was afraid that, being a marathoner who probably considers 15 laps a sprint, he'd up the race distances--but he was merciful and kept them within my range of "I can do this without having to stand up to rest my back.  Maybe. Just barely."

The four lap race was first.  It went fine--no heart arrhythmia this time--if slowly; my total time was 2:56.7.  This is a rather meaningless statistic on its own, so I offer up this: in 2009--the last year that I did a race of similar length at the same time in the season--my time was 2:45.6, and my notation in my skating log says "Bad.  Slow, no snap, no foot speed."  Hmm, if 2:45 is "slow" and "bad," what does that make my current time of, oh, 11 seconds slower?!  That's almost 3 seconds a lap...and I'm wearing skates that my test would indicate are probably 1 second per lap faster than the ones I did the 2:45 in.  Ouch--I'm a slug!  Ooh, if I go back further in time the slugdom gets worse: in 2008, there were at least two occasions when I skated 5 laps in 3:21...in other words, 5 laps at a 40 second average lap pace, versus yesterday's 4 laps at just over 44 seconds per lap.  And the 5 lap races were in my "slow" skates, the 5x84's.

The eight lap race was similar to the four: no heart arrhythmia, no problems, no speed.  My final time of 6:10 was, again, dismal in comparison to the past--a 5:23 and a "slow, bad" 5:41 in 2009, and a 6:50 10-lapper in 2008.  Yes, that's right...2 extra laps in 40 more seconds.  That means the 10-lapper averaged 41 second laps, while last night's 8-lapper averaged 46.2 seconds.  Gaaaah.

Then, after the 8 lapper, as I was lounging on the concrete steps warming down from the race, Columbian Flash announced that there would now be a 1-lap race.  So I hauled my butt to the line one more time, and threw down a 42.39 lap...versus 2009's 41, so that wasn't so bad.  And it was better than the result experienced by poor Skater Dad (a teammate who, along with Skater Son, frequents the oval races); Skater Dad crashed in the final sprint of one of the races--after he hit the pavement I closed my eyes in horror and I swear the awful "flesh meets concrete" noises continued for at least 3 seconds.  Fortunately he was only scuffed, not broken, and even more fortunately his scuffed bits didn't include the leg which had only recently healed from a previous scuffing (I'd imagine that road rash on barely-healed road rash is an unhappy thing).

So it was a mixed-bag kind of night.  Fun, but slow.  New skates that are faster and feel better in the corners, but that I decided I don't like at speed on the straights--too hard to do the "proper" technique.  Unhappy with my performance, but happy I didn't crash.  Glad I went to the races, but just as glad that I have an "easy week" coming up (which, in this case, means "head to the cabin and do no skating whatsoever for five days").

And left with plenty to ponder during said "easy week," including "which skates should I use on the oval?," "why am I so slow?" and "what should I eat next?"  Come to think of it, there may be a causal link between those last two...more food for thought (pun definitely intended!).

Baxter Half-Marathon Race Report

Yesterday afternoon, my sister Energizer Bunny and I set off for the Baxter inline half marathon.  Despite the fact that we would be gone for less than 24 hours, and there were only two of us, we managed to fill my little Subaru with a massive Pile-o-Crap:

Backseat...

...and trunk.  Yes, that's two full-sized coolers.  For two people.  For one day.   Don't ask.

The drive went well, as did dinner.  EB has a fondness for Culver's, but since I've spent the past 11 years avoiding sugar, I've never had their frozen custard.  Now that I'm off the wagon, though, I figured we could kill two birds with one stone by having our night-before-the-race dinner there.  I'm happy to report that Culver's vanilla with crushed Oreo's is every bit as good as you'd think it would be (I had two scoops, just to be sure.  I'm racing, you know...).

Once back at the motel, we proceeded to transfer the Pile-o-Crap from the Subaru to the motel room.  Most of it went in the refrigerator...

...although some of it went in EB...

That's probably some super-duper-extra-strength energy drink she's sucking on...see, it's so strong it's glowing...

After dinner we drove to where race registration was being held and picked up my friend Mel, who was sharing our motel room (and who has, for some reason, the distinction of being the only one who appears on my blog without a dorky blogname.  I'm not sure how that evolved, but she hasn't complained yet...).  She had ridden up to the race with some teammates (see photos of overstuffed Subaru, above.)

Once we settled in, I spent a few moments admiring my new skates, which would make the trip to the event but would never actually see pavement on race day.

Ooh, shiny!

Then we got ready for bed.  Due to my need to take my thyroid meds 4 hours or so before I skate, I needed to have an alarm set for 3:15.  Then we set another one for 5:45 because that's when we needed to get up, and then another for 5:45 "just in case."

Thyroid meds (in contact case), water, and three alarms.  Ready for bed!

Fortunately, my 48-year-old bladder spared my roommates the 3:15 am alarm by waking me up at 3:06, and it turned out to be a good thing that we had a backup for the 5:45 alarm--the cute little pink clock provided by the hotel had its a.m.'s and p.m.'s confused, and thus the alarm will be going off later this afternoon.

We decided that since the race was at 7:30 and motel checkout was at 11, we could just leave most of our Pile-o-Crap in the motel, take only what we needed to the race, and come back to the motel to clean up between the race and the awards presentation.  

Remind me not to do that again.  (We did end up making it back in time for the awards, but just barely).

Once at the race, EB began the process of transforming the Pile-o-Crap into stuff we actually planned to wear/drink during the race...

She appears to be very excited by the task

Meanwhile, I tracked down the guy who had my new "Max Muscle" skinsuit and jacket.

I was delighted to find that the skinsuit fit.  However, although I am clearly displaying "max" something, I don't think I can claim that it's muscle.  Something else to work on this summer...

The next few minutes were taken up with last-minute dashes to the bathroom, last-minute pinning of almost-forgotten numbers to skinsuits, and last-minute warnings from the race director about various course hazards.

Then, finally, we were off.  

It didn't take long for my lack of (recent) experience in races longer than 5k to show up.  I tried to set off on a pace that I thought I could sustain for 13 miles, since that's how I race my long track races.  However, I really have no idea what I can sustain for 13 miles, so I think I was a bit optimistic.  Still, I was feeling good the first mile.  EB was right on my heels, and a quick glance over my shoulder confirmed that I also had four men enjoying my (generously-sized) draft.  Our friend  "I've Only Skated About 3 Times This Year and Yet I Will Kick Your Butts," had told us at the last minute that, since the half marathon "wasn't a real race" (she was clearly steamed about that terminology), cross-drafting was allowed, so I wasn't concerned about the testosterone in our pace line. In fact, I was quite happy to have some testosterone in our pace line when the men passed me and provided a nice draft.  But then my inexperience showed up; although I know that it's rarely wise to abandon a paceline because it "maybe feels a little slow" and to strike out on one's own, that's what I did.  Well, except I wasn't really on my own, because EB was still right on my heels.

As were the four guys.

Soon they re-passed me, and EB and I skated along behind them for quite a while.  So I might just as well have saved myself the effort of passing them and skating harder for those minutes--as it turned out, I had plenty of other things to expend my energy on.  EB has a bit of trouble with corners, and there were a lot of corners in this race, as well as one 180-degree turnaround, so we got gapped and had to fight our way back up to the pack several times.  We got dropped pretty thoroughly by the guys when EB navigated the turnaround, which necessitated my employing all my long track sprinting skills in order to bridge back up to the pack (I'm pretty sure that's where my heart rate hit 199, its max for the day). Shortly thereafter--maybe around 8 miles, but I don't know for sure because I didn't see any mile markers--I suddenly got both very tired and a bit queasy (apparently a peanut butter and jelly sandwich 1.5 hours before the race is not prudent).  So, just as I did in my last inline half marathon, I told EB to carry on without me, and I let the pack skate away from me.  I eventually caught up to another Max Muscle teammate and he tried to let me draft off of him for the rest of the race, but I just couldn't keep up.  I finished in 54:13.6, exactly one minute behind EB.  "I've Only Skated" ended up first overall woman, EB was third, and I was fourth.

My time was way slower than what I used to do when I skated half-marathons and marathons more regularly, but since road racing is not the precisely-controlled entity that metric long track racing is, I really don't know how to evaluate that information.  I, of course--being, ahem, somewhat data obsessed driven--find this a bit frustrating.  I want to know exactly how today's effort compares to my previous races, and that's simply not possible, given the differences in courses, amount of draft, etc.--but I managed to have fun even without my precious data.  

After we half-marathoners finished, we got to watch the marathoners cross the line.  Man, am I glad I did the half--the full looked like a lot of work!  Mel did great--despite getting lost (many people had difficulty following the poorly-marked course) and skating an extra mile and a half or so, she ended up second woman overall in the marathon.  

After we'd all finished our respective races we had a quick dash back to the motel to check out, a quick "wedge-the-Pile-o-Crap back into the Subaru" and then a quick "somehow find a space to shoehorn Melissa into for the trip back to the race for the awards." I scored a set of bearings in the door prize drawing, so that was good.

And here we all are, post-race and pre-long-drive-home.  It was a fun day (strange how we can honestly say that about something that was actually quite painful!), with fun people.  I'm not ready to convert from long track ice to inline or anything, but I think I'll definitely be doing a bit more inline racing this summer than usual...I need all the fun I can get!

Race!

In a couple of hours my sister Energizer Bunny and I will head north to Baxter, Minnesota.  Bright and early tomorrow morning (as in 7:30 am), we'll be racing trudging our way through the Baxter Inline Half-Marathon.  There's also a marathon, but we thought it would be prudent to do the half.  I'm in the midst of training for long track ice, and EB has some foot issues, so 13.1 miles sounded a lot more attractive than 26.2.  Since this is a small race, and cross-drafting (drafting off of the other gender) is not allowed, EB and I plan to stick together and take turns leading.  This way, we're at least guaranteed a "pace line" of two!  I've got my new skates--Bont Cheetahs with 100 mm wheels, which should be good "open road" setup--but since I just picked them up last night and haven't skated an inch in them, I don't plan to use them in the race tomorrow.  I think I'll bring them along, though; you know, just in case my other skates catch fire just before the race or something and I need a backup.  I'm also supposed to pick up my skinsuit with my new team colors--Max Muscle--before the race, but I'm bringing my old Media Machine skinsuit along, too; you know, just in case my fat ass extemely well-muscled thighs don't fit into the new skinsuit and I need a backup.  Should be a fun event!

In other news:  School's.  Out. For.  The.  Summer!!  As much as I like my job, I am also a big fan of sleeping in (well, as much as I can with morning workouts), sitting around surfing the net, getting to watch entire Twins games on TV without having to go to bed right before the ninth inning, and hanging out with the Hubster and the hound.  I do plan to work on a few things for next school year, clean and organize a few things around the house, and work on a few personal improvements this summer.  So I'll have to figure out a couple of "behavior interventions" for myself, to make sure I stay on track.

Back with the race report soon!

Best. Roller Derby Name. Ever.

Seen on the back of a T-shirt on a roller derby guy at the oval last night:

BUSTIN MORENOSE

OK, the humor in this relies on you understanding that a) roller derby names attempt to take a common name or phrase and imbue it with a tinge of mayhem and malice; and b) that I live in Minnesota, where one of our Minnesota Twins baseball team sluggers is Justin Morneau.  Even knowing a) and b), I guess, does not guarantee that you'll find the name funny (the Hubster was unimpressed), but I thought it was hilarious.

Of course, my humor could have been helped along by the fact that I was in the middle of a pretty good interval workout when I saw the shirt.  That's right, the intervals went well (well, except for the one 600 meters where I got the heart arrhythmia).  I felt good, I skated hard, my average lap time was faster than it was for this workout last year at this time.  In fact, the only tiny fly in the ointment was the earworm  I inexplicably developed--the old Air Supply tune "All Out of Love."  I haven't heard that song in years and wasn't particularly fond of it when I did hear it, so I'm not quite sure where it came from or why it got stuck in my head...but if that's the worst the workout had to offer, I'll take it!