photo by Steve Penland

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Pack Attack

This weekend, defying my better judgment and my usual phobia about pack skating, I did the US Speedskating National Age Group Long Track Speedskating Championships.

See?


To save you the suspense, I'll cut to the chase: I won the women's 40-49 age class (yes, I'm 50, and in international meets I'm in the 50-54 class. US Speedskating uses a different cutoff and so I'm still in the 40 class this season).  My team won the women's (not-for-points) team pursuit. My club, Twin Cities Speedskating, won the Club Championship (and all of the TCSS skaters except 3 were masters!)

I'd say it was a successful weekend.  Of course, there were high points and low points...

Some of the lows:

  • It was cold.
  • And windy.
  • And cold.
  • Due to another epic snowstorm on Thursday the roads were still heinous for my 25 mile commute to the oval each day, which meant I started out the day of racing a lot more tense than I'd like.
  • My legs were apparently protesting the huge carb reduction they've undertaken (despite my continually raiding the dried fruit jar) since starting the Paleo diet in conjunction with the CrossFit SISU challenge.  I remember the feeling (and the lovely calf cramps) from when I used to low carb, but I had thought I was eating enough fruit to combat it...but the 3K was definitely a long and painful slog.
  • I don't know exactly how long the 3K was--although I do know exactly how painful it was--because, due to the final hours of our ice time being usurped by a Minnesota Wild event on the oval, the officials combined pretty much every women's class over age 12 in the 3K, and thus we had 14 people on the starting line.  This led to much confusion, including (I'm convinced) us being required to skate an extra lap; me getting a time only 14 seconds slower than Mel's, even though she lapped me; and no one being truly sure what their final time was (or, for that matter, how far they'd actually skated).  Oh, well...it's pack. Only the finishing order really matters.
  • I'm pretty sure that, in addition to my bad legs, I got my heart arrhythmia (PVC's) 300 meters into the 3000 meter race.  This did not help my "good lord, this hurts" feeling.
  • Due to the youngest class of skaters being called "Ponies," and due to hearing "Pony boys to the heat box" over the loudspeaker multiple times, I had the Bruce Springsteen song "Pony Boy" stuck in my head throughout much of the weekend.  Let's just say it's not one of his big hits.
On to the good stuff:
  • Lots of my friends did really well, including: Melissa setting a new Senior division record in the 1500; Sprinter Boy and 60's Boy winning their divisions; Hawkeye Boy and Cross Boy coming in second in their division; and a lot of others doing great and getting places I can't remember.
  • I didn't succumb to my usual pre-pack freak-out.  Partly this was because I actually practiced starts with many people on the line during workouts the week before; partly it was because there were less people in my age group than the last time I did this.  Until they started combining age groups, anyway.  And by then I was kind of used to it.
  • I won all my races. That's always fun!
  • Three separate skaters told me I "looked like a different skater"--in a good way. This was awesome to hear, especially since I felt like I was flailing around and completely forgetting all my new technique skills.
  • One of these skaters was Coach TieGuy, who was one of the starters for the meet and who I hadn't seen since last year.  Praise from him is high praise indeed, so I was thrilled that he thought that my skating had improved.
So all in all, a great way to spend the last weekend of racing for the season (well, the last weekend for those of us too slow to qualify for the final American Cup, anyway).  Just two more evening workouts and two weekend workouts left for me this winter.

So this is a good way to end the 2013-14 racing season.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Body That PopTarts Built

Today is Day 4 of my CrossFit gym's six-week challenge. They started by calling it a "nutrition challenge," then switched to simply "challenge" because they're also incorporating factors such as workouts and sleep.

I, however, like to refer to it as my "Stop Eating Like a Ten-Year-Old" challenge.

So as of Monday I said goodbye--at least temporarily--to poptarts, Diet Dew, cookies, cinnamon rolls, peanut butter, and McDonald's. In the challenge, we can get points for eating either Paleo, or Zone, or both.  I know a fair bit about Paleo, but knew nothing about Zone.   After briefly investigating the Zone--and being turned off by the low calorie level and by the fact that the Zone website's "calculator" decided, based on my weight and measurements, that I was 32% body fat and obese--I decided Paleo it is.  The main thing I know about Paleo is that, if you make a list of all the things that you're supposed to avoid on Paleo, and then make a list of all my favorite things, the lists are the same. It's going to be an interesting six weeks.

At least it started off on a good note, though.  One of the things included in the challenge is "Bod Pod" body composition measurement...in other words, body fat measurement.  Since I'd had my body fat measured in 2004, when I had just turned 41 (using the highly accurate but highly unpleasant underwater method), I thought it would be cool to see how I was doing almost 10 years later.  I would undoubtedly have been less enthusiastic had I not recently lost the 15 pounds I gained last year, but now, at what is a relatively "normal" weight for me, I was keen to check it out.

The Bod Pod, once I finally located it in the "Wellness Center" of our local University, turned out to be a little white egg-shaped container with, mercifully for us claustrophobes, a window. Compared to the underwater weighing, the Bod Pod was a piece of cake (Paleo cake, of course.)  All I had to do was sit in it for about a minute, and then I was presented with my results.

18.6% body fat, just .7% more than when I was 41, and with almost six more pounds of "lean body weight" now (I'm assuming this is muscle, since I don't think I've grown any additional bones or eyeballs or anything in the past nine years).  This information nicely answered the question "how much of the weight I've put on since 2004 is actually muscle?" with "some, but not all."  So there's still room for improvement, but in general I'm pretty happy with the current state of things.

So then I had the Hubster take some "before" photos, so I'll have some visual data to go along with my Bod Pod information.  No, you're not going to get to see them.  Mostly, I want to see if I can detect any upper-body muscle change in six weeks.  I definitely see more muscle now than I did pre-CrossFit, but I'm curious to see if there's any change during the next six weeks when, once the skating season ends March 2, I can do a bit more CrossFit than I do during the racing season.

Anyway, now I have a complete picture of "The Body That PopTarts Built."  Let's see if and how it differs, in six weeks, from "The Body That Paleo Built."

Sunday, February 9, 2014

The "Body by Crap" Tour

Yes, you've seen a title very close to this before, here. Clearly my skating has improved more in the past two-and-a-half years than my eating habits have.

On Friday morning, Mel, Sprinter Boy and I set off for Milwaukee on what I like to refer to as the "Body by Crap" Tour.  Our goal:  to skate a 10K Saturday morning. Our fuel: pretty much any junk food we could find between Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

Unfortunately, while we were only marginally successful in the "goal" department, I must say that we performed admirably in the "fuel" area.

The wheels started to come off the 10K plan when I woke up Friday morning.  I had tweaked my lower back and left knee on Thursday and my back was pretty sore Friday.  A properly-functioning low back is critical to finishing a 10K so I was starting to rethink my race plan.  And then when I picked up Sprinter Boy he said "Do you have your iPad?"  (which has a nifty "lap board" app on it, for giving skaters their lap times).  When I affirmed that I did, he said "good, then I'll give you your lap times."

Say what?  It's awfully hard to give someone lap times when you're skating in the same race.

Turns out Sprinter Boy had come to his senses and decided to go with his strengths; he'd signed up for the 500 and 1000 instead of the 10K.  So, although I planned to wait on my decision on the 10K until I'd had a chance to skate Friday evening and see how my knee and back felt, it was looking likely that it would be up to Melissa to uphold the honor of the Minnesota Masters skaters in the 10K. Which is fine, since she's by far the fastest of us in that distance.

So we picked up Mel and headed East.  First stop: Kwik Trip for gas (and, as it turned out, 4/$1 cookies, and a donut, and I think maybe a couple other things), and then McDonald's (since I couldn't find anything I wanted for lunch at the Kwik Trip).  The journey was uneventful, the cookies were good, and the 12-pack of Brown Sugar Cinnamon PopTarts took a couple of hits.  By 4:00 we were walking into the Pettit National Ice Center, ready to turn our sugar calories into some fast "day before the race" laps.

But first, when I signed in and paid I mentioned to the woman behind the desk that I might need to change which race I was in.

"Go, go," she shrieked, "you have to go upstairs right now and tell the officials."

So much for waiting until after I skated to decide whether I wanted to do the 10K.

So I made the snap decision to switch from the 10K to the 3K--and I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much relief I felt after I made the decision.  Last year's 10K was one of the most fun things I've ever done on skates, but I'm well aware of the fact that this is not how 10K's are supposed to feel, and that this year's would likely have been a whole different ball game.

My day-before-the-race workout went fairly well, except for one tactical error: I did my warmup laps behind Sprinter Boy.  This is a problem only because he's a very smooth and controlled skater--adjectives which have never been used in conjunction with my skating--and he likes to do "gradually increase the pace" warmup laps.  I can't skate smoothly or with any semblance of my new technique at anything below about 75% effort so the slow laps were a clumsy fest for me and so I never did get a grip on my new technique and consequently felt out-of-synch for most of the workout.  Note to self: do not do your warmup laps on race day behind anyone!

Then it was off to a local skater's house for the night--the evening featured pizza at Whole Foods for dinner, and watching the Olympics opening ceremonies.  The next morning the Body by Crap tour continued with an extensive exploration of Milwuakee in search of Sprinter Boy's and my pre-race prerequisites: Starbucks for him, McDonald's for me.  Twenty consultations with Google Maps, two (legal?) U-turns, and ten miles of pre-dawn Milwaukee streets later, we arrived at the oval properly fueled and caffeinated.

My 500 was first, and my goal was simple: to skate faster than 48.0 seconds and thus qualify for the upcoming American Cup race.  Long story short (yeah, like I ever do that): my race featured no major problems like slips on the start or botched corner entries, but also featured no major ability to execute my new technique--and ultimately ended up taking .22 seconds longer than I wanted it to.  Oh, well...at least it was my second fastest Pettit 500 ever, and just .02 seconds off my Pettit PB.

On to the 3K.  My goal here was to keep my lap times under 40 seconds as long as possible, and in this I was fairly successful:  I started with a 36, then three 38's and two 39's before finally finishing on a 40, for my second-best (third best if you count the "continuous tailwind fans are turned on" 3K I did in 2009) 3K at the Pettit.  Finally, a good race!

Sprinter Boy had skated moderately successful races except for breaking off the little plastic heel stop on one of his skates in the middle of his 500, which his pair promptly stepped on and then crashed.  That's one way to beat your opponent!  So now there was nothing left but for Mel to skate the 10K.

And it was pretty impressive.  It started with her skating a 35-second lap (yes, just .5 seconds slower than my one lap in my 500) and then holding 36's until the eleventh lap.  It ended with what looked like some mighty painful last laps, a final time of 15:58.31--and a scene reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz.  As I coasted around the corner after cheering Mel through the last lap, I saw two feet sticking out onto the ice from behind the infield pads, looking much like the Wicked Witch of the East's feet poking out from under Dorothy's lethal house (although fortunately clad in a skinsuit and skates rather than the witch's signature striped socks and red pointy shoes).  It was Mel, flat on the floor and surrounded by her family, who were offering blankets and assistance in regaining her feet.  

Damn.  I simply can't imagine being able to push myself that hard; that close to my physical limits.  A truly impressive and gutsy performance by a truly amazing skater.

The homeward leg of the trip featured Qdoba with "magical cheese sauce," another round of Kwik Trip cookies, some Mountain Dew, and a few more poptarts.   And so the Body by Crap tour ended, with some satisfying races in the bank and a whole lot of junk food wrappers in the Subaru trash bag.

What better way to spend a weekend?


Sunday, February 2, 2014

Race Weekend Report

No, not the 10K report.  Yes, that had been scheduled for yesterday, but it got rescheduled to Feb. 8, giving me the opportunity to do a full weekend of metric racing at Roseville yesterday and today--and also giving me an opportunity to train hard-ish for an extra week before starting my 10K taper.

My legs did not appreciate this opportunity.

So my week went like this:  CrossFit Monday because that's when I usually do it; CrossFit Tuesday because the oval was closed due to cold (that was the previously-written-about "pullup and dub" Tuesday); Wednesday was a short but fast tempo workout; Thursday was a short "pre-race warmup" workout plus a few extra laps; and then Friday was, thankfully, a rest day.  My legs have suddenly remembered that they are 50 and that they've recently been subjected to a rather intense ramping-up of the number of workouts they're required to participate in per week, and they're currently just short of mutiny.

So I went into the weekend's racing with a bit less than full enthusiasm.  I had initially signed up for the full women's short all around program: 500 and 1500 on Saturday, 1000 and 3000 on Sunday.  The weather forecast Friday night inspired me to switch my 3K from Sunday to Saturday--Saturday was supposed to be a bit windier, but I figured that the 20 degree high would beat Sunday's 4 degrees in the "which would I rather skate 7.5 laps in?" contest.

The 500, usually my nemesis, actually went pretty well.  Thanks to my attempts to incorporate my new knee-drive technique into my starts, my opener (the first 100 meters of the 500) was actually my fastest ever outdoors, and my fourth fastest of all time--which led to my overall time in the 500, 49.68, being my third fastest outdoor time ever (see why I keep all my skating stats?  How else would I know such things?).

I had hoped to use my new technique to keep my speed up with less effort in the 3K, and I was successful--for the first 700 meters.  After that I hit a very large wall and the remaining laps were extremely painful and increasingly slow, although my final time of 5:24.43 was in the top third of my outdoor 3K's which is actually amazing given how awful I felt. This 3K was one of those races that almost make me wish I were a sprinter.

Given all that, I approached Sunday's races with even less enthusiasm than Saturday's.  And the 1000 did not disappoint--at 1:43.27 it was one of my slower outdoor 1K's, and felt just about as bad as the 3K had, although mercifully a lot shorter.  I had died pretty extensively between the first and second laps, so I decided that my goal for the 1500 would be to try for fairly even splits for the three laps, however slow they might be.  And I actually succeeded--my laps after the opener were 39 something, 41 something, and 41 a little less something (no official lap times yet).  I was quite pleased with my final time of 2:35.65, and Sprinter Boy and Hawkeye Boy said my technique looked a lot better throughout the race.

Still, happy as I was with the 1500, I'm very glad that the races are done and that I have minimal skating planned for this week.  I can't imagine skating 25 laps on legs that feel the way mine felt this week, so bring on the couch time, foam rolling, and short taper workouts!