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.

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.

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!

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...

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:

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.

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.