I've been writing my end of season summary, on and off, since my last post. In the last 24 hours however, my schedule has been turned upside-down and it appears I have more races waiting for me.
Sure, going to Montreal the weekend of Défi de L'Île de Montréal has always been in my plan...to cheer on my friends. And eat delicious food. And shop for more delicious food. And eat some more delicious food. Interestingly enough, a recent change of plan will land me at the start line at 6am on a Saturday morning. What can one possibly do in Verdun at that hour without a car though? After some serious considerations, the only logical thing is to enter the race. Fellow TISC skater AQ will be racing Defi for his fifth consecutive year. It will be a good pace so I just may end up doing a long morning fun skate. Obviously, if it rains, I'll make a beeline to St Viateur for morning breakfast instead!
Another race/event on my horizon is a bit further from home. Some convoluted logic involving frequent flyer miles, premier status, and postponing my India work assignment basically has given me an excuse to go to Houston on Halloween weekend. It's a busy weekend for sure. There's the Houston Inline Marathon and Tour De Donut both happening at the same time! It's a tough decision. On one hand, I would like to support an inline marathon race. On the other hand, I'm really not in racing mood anymore. Skating the Tour De Donut with a bunch of skating friends while munching down on sugary goodness seems so much more fun. I'll have to think about this one some more in the next few days.
If you told me you were going to do Le Défi a year ago, I would have thought hell had frozen over.
I'd recommend reading Francisco's Inline Planet article on preparing for an ultra, if you haven't already seen it:
http://www.inlineplanet.com/2007-08/ultra.html
I also found reading the Défi skater reports helpful, given the elements that are unique to Défi:
http://www.defimontreal.com/indexe.htm?reports.htm
My last piece of advice is to stick with someone who skates the speed you're comfortable going at for 128 km - who knows the route.
Go for it, Candy, and have fun!
Jay
P.S. Next year, you'll have to join us on the Niagara Circle tour...
Posted by: Jay Brown | October 11, 2009 at 08:25
Jay, thanks for the advices! This will be my third time this season to just go for an ultra distance skate without advanced preparation. Experience from P'tit Train Du Nord and NYC100k are useful indicators. Fitness and comfort were not issues in both cases. And I figured out how much and how often to eat and drink.
The best part is I have every reason not to go fast. :) Working at such low intensity means leg are not even going to be sore the next day. Woohoo!
Posted by: DessertByCandy | October 11, 2009 at 14:41
Two differences that you should plan for:
- It'll be colder so you'll need to wear more clothes and eat more to keep warm
- It's hard to get lost following a loop (NYC) or a point to point (P'tit Train). Navigating Defi is challenging, to say the least.
Posted by: Jay Brown | October 12, 2009 at 07:19