Dream Chaser On Wheels

Weekends No More

So that was it for my 2009 race season weekend training. Starting Labour Day, I'll be racing somewhere every weekend and the next time I return to my local training haunt (i.e. Hamilton Beaches Trail), it will be autumn when the leaves start to fall. I sure feel a little sad knowing that 2009 race season will come to close very soon.

That's enough sentimentality. It wasn't like I actually went to train with my friends in Hamilton this weekend.

Weekend training went very well though a little lonely. For the first time in two weeks, my WHR finally return to a more or less normal reading. That means I can take on full training work load at last. Apparently sleep is quite important. I've been sleeping a ridiculous number of hours this weekend and did not even bother with early morning training attempts. Since I knew my training would be done solo, I could afford some flexibility in my schedule. On Saturday, I didn't get out to train until late afternoon. When I arrived at the 200m track, I was greeted by more than 40 Canada geese. I was so obviously outnumbered. After 20min of futile attempt to chase them away, I finally gave up and went to the nearby 400m track instead. Coincidentally, JB was just warming up for his workout so we trained together for some sprint drills. I felt good in both the straights and corners, surprisingly. I think my recent changes to cornering technique is really making a difference. For the first time this season, I was skating a little stronger than JB on a 400m track without resorting to brute force. An improvement that came two weeks too late.

Sunday was once again more hill repeats. I'm actually starting to enjoy these sessions. Now that I do not panick as much, I start to tweak my climbing technique to climb more efficiently. The rough pavement interrupts my rhythm occasionally but it is also good practice for me to disregard them. Keeping my rhythm is so important when it comes to climbing. Another improvement is I get less stressed out about descending in traffic. Of course I still snowplough the whole way down the climb to control my speed. However, I have a pretty good idea of how much speed I can pick up while maintaining in control to bail myself out of trouble. I really hope my hardwork will pay off in upcoming races.

It's interesting how I have not been skating in a pack for any road/trail training since Minnesota Half Marathon. I miss skating with my friends and the reassurance of knowing how I compare to them. To a certain extent, I feel like I've lost my point of reference. Ottawa is shaping up to be an interesting race.

Training Galore

Things have been a little hectic in my personal life recently but that hasn't stop me from training. What did affect my training though was some consistently high waking heartrate. I had to dialed down the intensity here and there so as you can imagine, I was not entirely happy about it. I was super disappointed when I had to miss my first hill repeats session of the season.

Despite the little hiccups, there are some very encouraging things happening. First of all, some visible improvements! I used to dread going over race pictures because it's so humbling to see my poor technique captured for all eternity. However, things are gradually looking up. This season, I occasionally get race pictures showing outside edge setdown, recovery leg pointing at the right place, decent body alignment. These pictures were taken when technique was the last thing on my mind so they are probably an accurate reflection of the way I skate. Obviously it is a different story when you see me skating in motion but improvement of any kind is encouraging nonetheless. This photo from the Minnesota Half Marathon is a recent example of what I'm talking about.

You know how a good practice can be mentally energizing? I've been having a string of those, enough that I actually look forward to club practice on the 200m track. I'm in the middle of learning to skate the corners differently and those small changes are making a huge difference. AAC is a Spanish skater training with us for the summer. I had the opportunity to skate behind her for many drills and really benefiting from imitating her corners. I learn to skate a different line, sit lower, changing up my cadence. At last night's practice, we were grouped together for a points race with points on alternating laps. I just stuck behind her like glue and imitated her every move. I never skated a corner this fast before yet feeling so sure of my legs!  Too bad she's returning to Spain this weekend. I hope to remember these new skills and build on them going forward.

Who can forget hill repeats? Last Sunday I returned to my familiar training location. It prepared me well last year for the climbs at Prospect Park. However, I also remember how much I suffered during training. The hill kicked my butt as expected but I was pleasantly surprised to see how much progress I made since. Not only did I match the number of reps I did last year, I was also able to keep a consistent work/rest ratio. I am looking forward to more hill repeats in the next few weeks. Keeping my weight down continues to be on the agenda.

This weekend is going to be my last "free" weekend before launching into weekly weekend races in September. I don't feel entirely prepared but it's too late to cram anyway. I have to trust my training and all the work I invested throughout the season. It is of utmost importance to stay healthy, injury-free, and relatively stress-free. I'm eagerly awaiting for something to arrive in the mail. Big announcement coming up!

All Over The Place

Training has been a little topsy-turvy in the last week. Since coming back from Chicago, I took a couple days of forced rest for the knees to heal. Of course, volume and intensity had to adjust accordingly as I slowly eased back to training. I rode easy on the bike on Wednesday and finally started skating again on Thursday at club practice. Boy, did that practice suck (not the program, just how I felt). I was sluggish and got tired quickly. Friday is typically a rest day for me but I decided to stay on skate with an easy roll on the trail. It worked out well because that heavy feeling in the legs was gone and I got to enjoy some nice weather by the lake. Oh yeah, drafting an SUV and subsequently pushing on it to slow down when he slammed on the brake was kinda fun.

Saturday was my first serious training session in a week. A large group of us skated the Hamilton Beaches Trail at the ridiculously early hour of 7am. That meant 5:30 wake up time for me! I skated at race pace for 30km with a bunch of 1km accelerations thrown in for good measure. It was the first time I felt fast again since Chicago. However, the stress of race pace skating also put a lot of pressure on my still-very-bruised knees. All in all though, I felt good and was glad that I still remember how to skate at race pace.

Aside from training, there have been lots of things going on in my life recently. Adding to the stress of injury management, it is fair to say I have been pretty frustrated with things in general. We had a local meet at the 200m banked track at CITC on Sunday and I had every intention to attend that race. Since the track has been coated, I haven't had a chance to skate on it yet. Last year, I set a number of personal bests at that track during Nationals so I always have very fond memories of skating there. The sensible thing to do was to rest easy on Saturday afternoon in preparation for racing the next morning. However, I was just fed up and desperately wanted to do something fun. My idea of fun? Put on my running shoes and keep walking. I left my car in downtown Toronto and walked and walked and walked for 21km. I love to play tourist in my hometown and stopped at whatever places that striked my fancy. By the time I got home at 11, I was exhausted.

When I woke up the next morning, it was already an hour before the first race. No way would I get there on time so I just went back to sleep. I got out of bed at 1pm and realized I slept for 12 hours. Every part of my body was aching and I was not at all motivated to train. I thought perhaps I was just being a whimp from finally getting back to normal training on Saturday so I dragged myself out to our local 400m track for some 30/30 intervals. The intervals felt very hard and I had to reduce the number of repetitions. Hmm. To add insult to injury (figuratively speaking), an over-enthusiastic puppy ran loose during my very last sprint and wouldn't leave me alone! It kept criss-crossing right in front of my skates, close enough that I didn't even have room to brake. I could only roll and pray to my favourite deity that both of us would come out of this ordeal unscathed. Fortunately, no crashes but it was not exactly how I wanted to end practice.

Within an hour post-practice, I felt sick. Fever hit me like a ton of bricks and I was weak and achy all over. I dragged my feet slowly around the grocery store and simply couldn't stand the thought of even coming close to the freezer aisle. I hadn't felt this sick in a very long time. At least that explained why I slept for 12 hours, my lack of motivation, and the aching. I'll have to take another forced rest day as I try to recover. This stop-and-go training is incredibly frustrating.

Unexpected

In the last three months, I put on some weight much to my dismay. Still okay by race season standard but it was definitely visible compared to how I was back in March. It was not necessarily a bad thing as proven by my performance at Montreal 24 Hour Inline. However, my climbing ability was definitely affected. I remember some early season training sessions when I challenged guys like HG and EL on climbs without even a second thought. However, in recent months, even that little "climb" at circuit Gilles-Villeneuve felt much harder than I expected it to. At the time, I did not relate the weight gain to my climbing ability. I was just bummed out that I had not feel good on skates for way too long.

The last week things happened that put an interesting twist to my season. First off, I've been taking training easy to recover from Montreal 24. Leg muscles were tired for days even though my cardio was back to 100% almost the next day. My first serious training sessions did not come until a whole week later when I took to the trails for some long intervals and some race-pace training with the guys. On Saturday, my hour-long interval session at the Martin Goodman Trail was alright except for the fact that I took a fall in my second last set. The trail was of course busy with families and kids and such...it was a warm sunny Saturday after all. A family spreaded across the entire width of the trail with a kid on his bike on the left. There were still a bit of interlock-paved section to his left so I called out "passing on left" a few times. The boy swerved for a bit but the net result was that the more I called, the more he swerved to the left until I got squeezed out to the grass. I guess the ground was uneven so I landed on both of my knees. No road rash but my bad knee took the blunt of the impact and it swelled up very quickly. I was a little annoyed but finished my training nonetheless. Icing the knee kept the swelling down but I was worry about the more intense training session the next day.

Sunday was race-pace training on the Hamilton Beaches Trail with JaS, GN, EL, SF, and JC. It seemed like an eternity since I last trained here with the guys! This season, due to a busier racing calendar, I'm often away for the weekend so Hamilton training became less of a norm for me. You cannot imagine how much I miss training here with my friends. For the first time in a month, I felt really really good on skates. I initiated the first attack on the pack and that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the training session. I was right there in the middle of all the actions and not letting the guys go. Something that I would never imagine doing last year. It was a very productive session and a real boost to my confidence.

photo by Stephen Fisher

An unexpected turn of events has occured since and now I am faced with some interesting issues. I've always had a love-hate relationship with eating and in times of distress, my reaction is to switch off my appetite. Within the span of a couple of days, my weight plummeted and now I am close to my all-time low. Those excess weight that had been bothering me in the last few months were gone just like that. Obviously this is neither healthy nor permanent. I expect that once my appetite returns, I'll be back to my natural weight. In the mean time, all of this is strangely fascinating in a way. As athletes, we constantly push our bodies to test our own limits (in a constructive way). This same attitude applies. Unhealthy as it is, I am curious to see where my limit is. My skinsuit is now actually loose around my waist and climbing has never been easier. The downside, of course, is that I have little strength to keep up a high intensity. It will be interesting to see how I can regain strength without regaining all that weight.

Back From A Long Absence

It's been a while since my last update but things certainly have been busy at the home front. My journey back from Pune was an over 26 hours ordeal involving 8 hours layover in the Mumbai airport at night. As much as I enjoy traveling, I am happy to return to the comfort of my home.

Training-wise, my India detour can best be described in two words: plyos and bike. It was a grueling trip because of the long working hours and the intensity of my training. However, as I gradually settle back to my daily routine at home, I think I am already seeing rewards of those hardwork.

Getting back on skates has not been easy. Despite my effort in weight control and keeping up my fitness level for the duration of my trip, time away from skates is still time away from skates. There are things that no amount of off-skate training can compensate. My first on-skate training session last Saturday was less than satisfactory. Everything felt so laboured and inefficient. I worked hard just to maintain any decent amount of speed and my accelerations were non-existent. My leg muscles complained of fatigue quickly. Skating competitively at Montreal 24hr Relay the next weekend seemed unrealistic.

Things improved a little on Sunday. It was a solo effort at the Hamilton Beaches Trail battling some serious windy condition. My technique was less laughable than Saturday but I still felt slow. The lack of speed could partly be blamed on the weather condition but without a more objective point of reference, it was difficult for me to know exactly how slow I was. On the bright side, muscular endurance returned.

Last night's TISC practice was the confidence boost I've been looking for. Track skating has never been my forte and the last time I skated on a 200m track was three weeks ago. I totally expected my cornering technique to fall to pieces with unstable shin/edges to boot. It couldn't be further from the truth. Coach PD started practice with a few of my favourite crossovers drills. Those drills always help me to recalibrate my direction of push, timing, and body alignment. As a result, during the hour-long workout, my corners felt solid and my shins never once fail me. I am happy to see the benefits of returning to plyos. My core felt stable. My legs were able to maintain a deeper angle without succumbing to bobbing up and down. I felt confident on the track and that shone through in my skating. I found my skating legs at last!

Busy Days

In case anyone is wondering, I have not fallen off the face of the earth (just yet). The last few days have been hectic in more ways than one and I had barely any energy left to recap what happened by the time evening rolled around.

Plyos Resumed

What a difference a month away makes. I started the competition season phase of plyos last week and all my skating muscles screamed loudly in protest for days after. Having said that, I'm quite happy to do plyos again for a very specific reason. Unlike being on skates, I move with confidence in everyone of those drills, looking very much like a speedskater. I feel that by continuing with these plyos drills, I reinforce good muscle memory. The hope is to eventually transfer this feeling of confidence and muscle memory when I get on skates.

To Think Or Not To Think About Technique

A weekend clinic with coach AA had been a very productive experience. My "before" and "after" video for technique analysis confirmed one thing: I'm camera-shy. With the camera pointing at me, my skating was labourious and unnatural. In my attempt to skate with technique in mind (in particularly finishing my push with frame parallel to direction of travel), I just ended up looking all tensed and uncoordinated. AA pointed out that my early setdown can likely be traced back to skating with my knees turned in. When the knees already came together while the foot is still hanging out, it creates an unbalanced body position such as I have to setdown to prevent falling over. However, that issue can only be resolved in the long run by strengthing my glutes. Something that SZ already had me working on for a few months.

Confidence and posture go hand in hand. My skating form certainly does not convey confidence. This is a variation of what SZ said to me last Tuesday. She wants me to skate like the way I move in plyos because it all boils down to confidence. In response to that, I made a strange request to AA during the time he asked us to skate on the track practicing our form. I asked him to critique the way I skate for a couple of laps when I specifically did NOT skate with technique in mind. Lo and behold, it was the best I skated all weekend. Funny how things work sometimes. If I can only do that consistently.

Crossovers have been a glaring weakness of mine and I was glad to receive some feedback from AA who's worked with me since the time I could not even pick up my right skate. Overall, I've made good improvement with the flow and timing of my crossovers. Body position is alright as well. I still revert back to old habits of lifting my right foot too high (utilizing my knee joint instead of initiating from the hips) when I don't pay close attention. A new item on my to-do list is to broaden my range of tempo (i.e. crossover at different foot speed). At my natural cadence, it is probably good for longer distance skating at steady pace. The trade-off is that the lower I skate, the more taxing it is on the muscles. However, in order to respond to acceleration, I must learn to crossover at a faster tempo. The trade-off here is on cardio. AA gave me some drills which focus on being light on my feet, gradually building up my foot speed cover one corner.

Another topic related to crossovers is learning how to negotiate the wide corners of a 400m track. AA suggested that I can shorten the learning curve by doing crossovers down the straights. If I can crossover down the straights, the wide corners will be much easier by comparison.

Armswing is another elusive skill that I have yet to master on skates. When I swing my arms in plyos, the movement assists the rest of the body. However, that feeling simply has not translate on skates. My armswing on skates gets in the way more than anything. Incorrect timing is the culprit. Unfortunately, it is also tightly tied to my early setdown. Without correct timing in the legs, it's no surprise that armswings feel all out of sorts.

Passing & Race Strategies

Coach AA explained in detail on setting up passes on an outdoor track and how the track pattern relates to our indoor skating. I'll have to practice them more so it becomes natural. It was very educational to listen to AA's description on some race strategies at work. It may appear as simple chit chat but there are many things to be learned.

WOW!

The last few days have been eventful to say the least. Montreal 24hr Relay is upon us and we're moving into the final stage of preparation for this race. There are still a few things to finalize but I hope to have some resolved in the next few days. I just received news that our team uniform will be shipped in the morning. I can't wait to try mine on!

A Technique Check Up

In recent weeks, I feel like my technique is slowly unraveling. When coach SZ told me that she would drop by club practice last night and offered to take video, take lap times, or just to watch me skate, I jumped at the opportunity for some technique feedback.

It has been a couple of weeks since I last skated on a 200m track. When I first took to the track, the corners felt so unfamiliar. I even cut my warm up short to check that my frames were indeed in the right place because nothing about my crossovers seemed right. The first half of practice were drills involving slalom around cones down the straights and some push & glide balance drills. Although I looked less clumsy than last year, I still struggled with most of the drills. Well, if it's easy, it's not a drill isn't it?

The remainder of practice was lots of steady pace skating with the occasional 90% effort thrown in. After we completed the first half, I went to coach SZ for some feedback. She pointed out that I bend my knee/ankle after setdown and I was losing much power because of this inefficiency. She reminded me that I have the muscle strength to maintain a bent knee/ankle upon setdown since she saw me did it all winter at plyos. For the second half of practice, that was what I worked on. My legs certainly did not like the change but the improvement was clear. While skating down the straights, I kept on running into the skater in front of me without even trying to pick up any speed. This will be my focus for the next little while until muscle memory is ingrained.

All seriousness aside, I had a little showdown before practice began with the resident groundhog at our track. I was chatting with friends at one end of the track when I noticed the silhouette of a furry little creature on the grass across. It sure seemed too big to be a squirrel so I sprinted after it at full speed. By the time I reached the grass, it was nowhere to be found. It's only the beginning of spring so the grass can't be that tall yet. I stood very still until finally, the groundhog poked its head out from its hiding (a hole in the ground, obviously). I did the only logical thing...I jumped in hopes of scaring the beejeesus out of the poor creature. The groundhog did not disappoint and indeed scurried back to the hole. This was too much fun and I just had to do it a few more times. I think we developed a special bond. Just let me come up with a good name for it...

Cruised With My Camera

I had an easy day scheduled yesterday so instead of participating in regular TISC practice, I rolled around the track with camera in hand. The complete photo album can be found here. Bulky frilly dress coat was indeed very non-aerodynamic and it sure didn't help to have a little purse slung across my body. But with the burst function on my pink camera, I managed to capture some decent photos at our club practice. I also took a video skating behind my training partner JaS for about two laps around the track. In case you are curious what our new practice venue is like, you can check out the video too.

Time to gear up for Run For Reach this Sunday in Ottawa.

Focus And On Track

Last night's club practice on the 200m track left me with a good feeling after a discouraging Sunday group skate. I need that confidence boost as it was my last workout before tapering begins. As an exercise in positive thinking, let me count the things that I felt good about.

• I feel fit and in good shape. During our regular warm up run around the track, my pace felt effortless (as it should be) and easy...like I can out-run everyone else in the group. Those winter outdoor running sessions sure come in handy!
• Coach PD set up a slalom course with sharp corners that he wanted us to round each cone on one skate followed by a corner accel. This kind of drill used to give me nightmares but not anymore! It was no different than what I've been diligently plugging away at the neighbourhood tennis court.
• The physical portion of practice was 4 sets of 8 laps on at 80% and 2 laps off at 60% for my pack. My pack swung between having 2 to 4 skaters so I had plenty of opportunities to pull. I did not experience any shin or ankle fatigue! I was happy to complete my workout to specification.
• I can now skate clockwise...who would have thought?! When coach PD asked us to skate 20 laps clockwise, I was skeptical at first. My right crossovers have always been iffy but strangely enough, I noticed some real improvement last night. I haven't develop an underpush yet but at least I was shuffling my feet enough so I wasn't losing much speed.

• I actually remember what coach AA taught me about setting up an attack on a track. The last drill of the evening was a breakaway-chase drill. I was grouped with a couple of not-as-experienced skaters and I found myself regurgitating all the stuff coach AA taught me long ago. "You want to plan your attack such at the pack is forced to accelerate into the headwind. That means you should already be at full speed when the wind hits. Stay in the protection of a draft for as long as possible and when you're ready to accelerate, open up a small gap in front of you. Accelerate into the draft before pulling out of the pack." Good memory is most useful when I just file away things I may not even understand at the time and retrieve them as needed.

Ready Set Go

The last few days have been busy with training of various forms so blogging has not been on top of my priority list. The only invariant was the windy condition. Thursday was Toronto Inline Skating Club's first outing at our new training venue, a glass smooth 400m track. The track felt fast but as can be expected, the corners were challenging. I did not do any crossovers yet my left shin continued to be troublesome due to track skating. I had some decent accelerations because of the long straights. I was a little distracted by the administrative work but I'm sure I can learn to focus on training soon enough.

Saturday was a scheduled easy skate. I decided to do some downhill repeats to get myself comfortable doing proper pushes downhill. I had a lot of problem with this last season and it caused me some placements in races. I went round and round the 1km loop, resting in the uphill and headwind sections. I had a productive session doing some technique work going downhill with a nice tailwind. By the end, I was comfortable doing proper pushes with big recovery and effective weight transfer. As a bonus, I also got to practice right turns. Both of these skills will come in handy at Texas Road Rash.

I was looking forward to the group skate on Sunday morning with SaH, MW, GN, and JaS after last Sunday's awesome practice. Unfortunately, it was not to be. My legs felt like lead even before we started skating. Hanging on to the pack for 4k was all that I could muster. To add insult to injury, I was scared of going fast after tripping (and recovering)on a twig early in practice. All that confidence from yesterday's downhill repeats evaporated into thin air. I was afraid of the speed that we were traveling. I skated solo for the majority, doing some interval work into the headwind. My legs felt so dead that walking up the stairs was not at all fun. I'm a little worry about the upcoming race. Obviously, 6 days are plenty of time for my legs to recover. I can't let one bad practice eat into my confidence.