Dream Chaser On Wheels

End Of Training, Start Of Vacation

My training at Gerlev with coach Sooty, Sara, and the international crew has come to an end. Two nights ago, we drove over an hour to a road track for a session with the Sk8skool skaters. It was the first time I skated on an asymmetric road track. There were three left corners followed by a little chicane and another left corner with slight incline. What a fast surface and smooth surface!

Training intensity has really scaled back this week since most people are going to race this weekend. However, the accumulated fatigue in my muscles has finally made itself known. My shins locked up again when we began practice and it took a while before they relaxed enough for me to skate normally. It was too bad because it was such a fun track to skate on and we could build up some serious speed here.

Paceline warm up was followed by 2 sets of 10x half lap sprints with one and a half lap of rest in between. I focused on faster feet in the corners so I wouldn’t get gapped too much. Straightaway acceleration felt good and I could feel the difference driving the knees forward made. We then did 3 sets of second place race. For five laps, the pack skated like we were racing only that we had to fight for the second place in the pack. I tagged along at the back and took the chance to film a couple of laps. You can get an idea of the track from my video:

 

Yesterday skating was not on top of my priority because it was my long-awaited lunch at Noma. I have so much to share about this memorable meal but I’ll have to take time to write them down. I love how the food is full of creativity and playfulness. After JN and I returned to Gerlev, coach Sara took the three of us, including NCJ, for an easy roll near the school. It was mostly the stretch the legs before traveling to races. As for me, it was my last serious training in Denmark. I felt good on my skates and I think my cruising speed has increased a little since I came here. I look forward to training and racing when I return home so I can find out if I have really made some improvements.

I’ll be staying with a friend for the weekend. He promised me a whirlwind tour of Copenhagen but the piece de resistance will be a pastry showdown between us when we stop for sweets along the way. I only hope I don’t put on too much weight and will still be able to skate when I get on the plane on Sunday!

A Day At Gerlev

The official training camp wrapped up on Sunday and I’m a little sad to see new friends returning home one by one over the last couple of days. A small group of us international skaters are still training here at Gerlev. Most of us are here until end of week and then it’s off to races or home. Yesterday I enjoyed my first rest day since arriving here and what did I do? A day trip to Copenhagen of course to explore the city. Luckily, walking rarely tires me out. My legs feel fresh once again when I woke up this morning.

So what is it like to by a fly on the wall at Gerlev Sports Academy? The best way I can describe is like my days living in university dormitory from the accommodation arrangement (common bathroom!) to the structured meal times. It’s not easy to keep school life running smoothly for all these students so punctuality is of great emphasis. I don’t recall the last time in my life when I take my meals on such regular schedule every single day. Breakfast runs from 7:30-7:55 so I either wake up earlier to take my shower or squeeze it in before we begin our morning training session. After breakfast, it’s time for morning assembly with a bit of singing and perhaps a talk from one of the teachers. It feels a bit like Sunday church service.

While the students are busy with classes, we head off to our morning training session. What we do depends on the program that coach Sooty plans out but the intensity varies according what else we have on the schedule in the evening.

There are plenty of facilities at the school specifically built for the program they offer. There’s an indoor swimming pool, dance studio, gymnastics room, crossfit training room, gymnasium for basket ball, outdoor soccer field, running track, and parkour area in addition to the dormitories and lounge/common area. We often come across groups of students gathering together for their study activities.

Letters From Denmark

I’ve been excited about my trip to Gerlev International Skate Camp at Sk8SKOOL for quite a few months. Imagine spending two weeks at a sports academy in the company of skaters and living out the “sleep, eat, skate, repeat” motto! With a bit of lucky coincidence, my teammate NCJ and I flew out of Toronto Pearson International Airport yesterday on the same flight. The 8 hours flight felt short in the company of good friend and I barely caught a bit of shuteye before landing in Copenhagen early Sunday morning.

Sk8SKOOL is located just a short train ride from Copenhagen. You see that uneasy smile on our faces? We really weren’t sure we boarded the right train. I was a little disoriented from the unfamiliar language and lack of sleep. I sure was thankful to travel with NCJ since she already came here once last year. We did not fork out extra money to get reserved seats thinking it would be trivial to move from seat to seat when the rightful owner comes along. With our bulky and heavy luggage, it was not so trivial after all! I was glad when we finally set foot at Gerlev by noon.

Thanks to the helpful and friendly staff at Gerlev, I made myself comfortable quickly in my dorm room and a nice lunch at the cafeteria. I’ll tell you all about the food in the next few days. It’s the most awesome menu I can imagine for feeding a school of hungry athletes! I was exhausted from traveling and jetlag so the afternoon nap was a much-welcome item on my agenda.

Fun In Pennsylvania

Last weekend was a weekend of firsts for me. Let's count them:

• my first solo road trip to the US
• my first experience with the Trexlertown venue racing second stage of Eastern Seaboard Series
• my first Philly Free Skate
• my first Philly Cheesesteak

Needless to say, I had a great time in every way possible. For that, I'm still in a very good mood.

The weekend didn't start off on quite a positive note though. Last Tuesday practice, I felt a slight pain in my right adductor during one of our acceleration drills at TISC practice. I didn't pay much attention to it and continued with my regular Wednesday and Thursday training. The discomfort became noticeable on Thursday morning and subsequently enough to alarm me Thursday evening. I quit practice early and on the advice of coach SZ, iced and ran out to buy compression bandages. I had my fingers crossed that my long drive from Toronto to Pennsylvania on Friday would give the adductor the rest it needed so I could race on Saturday morning.

Road trip on Friday was uneventful on a scenic route. Luckily, I had no run-ins with bears. What I ran into was a spetacular old-fashioned chocolate store in Buffalo, NY, also known as confectionary capital of the US.  Alethea's is not far from the I-90. I was so tempted to have an ice-cream sundae but I stopped short after getting a box of Charlie Chaplin, dark chocolate covered ginger, and dark chocolate covered molasses sponge candy. All road trip stops should be as sweet as this.

Rest and ice and compression worked their magic. I woke up Saturday morning and felt relief that adductor was not hurting. However, the ultimate test had to be done on skates. I wasted no time throwing on my skates when I arrived at Trexlertown and took advantage of every warm up opportunity. Body felt sluggish after a full day of rest but nothing was hurting. I just kept skating to make sure I didn't cool down too much and to find my line on this unfamiliar course. There are plenty of turns in both directions with some mild climbs thrown in for good measure. It's a fun course. During two of my warm up laps, I had a chance to skate behind Team USA skater CC. That was tremendously helpful because she knows the course well and gave me a good idea of how to approach the turns.

The race organizer decided to group all the pro women (freshmen to masters) into one race and we had the course to ourselves. Great idea. I was only a few hundred meters away from the start line when I heard the call to start. I turned around immediately and good thing that I did. Almost all the girls were there and they were ready to start the race. I parked myself at the front and tried to look like I belong. My start has not been great since last year and I needed all the help I could get to get into the lead pack. In a pretty casual voice, BA called the start and off we went. There were plenty of jostling and grabbing and I skated more aggressively than I would like. A couple of girls yelled at me but I shrugged it off...after all, I received just as much as I gave. Teammate NCJ was right up there fighting for positions but after a close call between the grass and the pack, she got dropped. The jostling went on for about two laps (stressful!) before the pack settled down and the lead pack was formed. At one point, the pack split and I was in the wrong half. I was very very lucky that the girl in front of me worked hard and bridged up.

The next four laps were business as usual. The pace wasn't particularly fast but the pack kept moving. Of course there were accelerations and people trying to move up in the pack. For the most part though, nobody was going anywhere and only a couple of skaters got dropped. I was a little surprised that the race lacked the typical stand-up-and-sprint routine in women races. Not that I'm complaining! We skated counter clockwise on the course and it did not favour breakaways. We saw it in the pro men and pro masters/vet men races. There were breakaway attempts but they all got reeled in within the same lap. At that point, I did a quick assessment of my situation. Moving up in the pack seemed rather useless since all the girls were very protective of their position and I was not at risk of getting dropped. I could continue to sit in the pack until the field sprint but that would likely mean I end up last anyway. Seemed like a good opportunity to practice attacks since I had nothing to lose! As soon as we came out of the woods at the end of the fifth lap, I attacked. I did not open much of a gap before the pack caught me and then I just ended up pulling the pack. Oops. Well, it was fun anyway. At the downhill, the pack started passing me and I did not recover to get back into the draft. I definitely need to work on that active recovery. I've seen myself in this same situation in training many times. I thought I would finish my race solo but a girl from team JKL caught up. Did I mention how much I suck at sprinting? Even though it was only one placement and we weren't even racing in the same category, I still wanted to beat her. I had to play to my strength and that meant pain. The last lap in the the woods, I attacked from the back and prayed that I could hold her off in that long stretch to the finish. It was way too early to count as a sprint but it was exactly what I intended. As long as she was not in my draft, it meant she had to work just as long and as hard as I was. I gambled with my fitness and my prayer was answered.

Last season, I did not do well racing in all girls races. One of my goals this year is to prove that I belong in the lead pack. The Trexlertown race is enouraging in that regard. Compared to my performance at Texas Road Rash, I see more evidence that training is progressing well. My legs actually responded to accelerations and climbing. All those intervals training that I've been working on in the last two months are showing their results.

Naturally, rewards come after hard racing. B and I drove to Philadelphia for some fun with Philly Free Skate. This year I passed on Great EsSkate in Miami and since then I feel like something is missing from my season. Despite my less-than-stellar agility, I love touring around a city on these fun skate events. The Saturday evening Beer Skate took us to many famous landmarks in Philly with a refreshment break at a brewery. For me, the highlight of the event was skating through the zoo on Sunday morning. The zoo graciously allowed our group to make a quick in-and-out through their grounds and I got to see giraffes, polar bears, monkeys, rhinos, and many others. I can't remember the last time I was in a zoo and it really was a treat.

About that cheesesteak...can you believe that I actually never had a Philly Cheesesteak before last weekend? Call me silly but I've been saving that experience for the real thing. I must admit it did not disappoint. B and I went to Geno's and Pat's on Saturday evening for a side by side comparison. I had mine wit whiz at both places and my vote goes to Pat's. What a fantastic juicy steak sandwich. Besides cheesesteaks, Philly is a city of great eats. I love every bite including Bassetts Ice-Cream (Pennsylvanians sure know their ice-cream), CapoGiro Gelato, Fourth Street Cookies, soft pretzels, farm-fresh raw goat milk, sour cherries, cheeses, oh my! I hope that the Eastern Seaboard Series and Philly Free Skate will coordinate their schedule again next year so I have the perfect reason for a return visit.

Jetlag Sucks

I just returned from a week-long vacation in Hong Kong and Macau visiting family and friends. As a skater, it is certainly an awkward time to travel because we're at the height of training and racing season. My style of training depends heavily on regular routine, accessible venues, and strict diet, none of which is easily available when traveling to foreign places. During my time away, I remained active by running and plyos sessions. I had no access to gyms so they were all done outdoor. I'm no stranger to training outside but the climate in Hong Kong was especially tough for me to adjust. The humidity, heat, and poor air quality made even a leisurely 5k run into a chore. I watched in amazement at all the fellow runners moving along at a good pace while I huffed and puffed through my own workout every morning.

It was a very different change of pace for me last week. I woke up before 7 everyday, ate a small breakfast before heading over to Southorn or Happy Valley. I felt lucky to stay within walking distance to both locations. By the time I finished my workout, it was perfect time for a proper meal at one of the few breakfast joints I frequented because the crowd would be gone. I then had the rest of my day completely open for whatever activities I planned. On most days, that meant non-stop walking and plenty of stairs all the way until late in the evening. Despite being quite fit, I was surprised that my leg muscles were not recovering and the soreness never went away until I took a rest day in Macau involving no morning workouts (but still 12+ hours of walking). Umm, duh.

One rather interesting thing I noticed in Macau and Hong Kong is the availability of outdoor workout equipments. In addition to jungle gyms for the kids, there are usually a few pieces of permanent fixtures with accompanying workout instructions for adult. And get this: people actually make use of them! I had to wait my turn for the elliptical trainer because a lady was working up a sweat on it. I suppose these are probably one-time initiatives of the local parks and recreation department. Despite being a little comical and I question their effectiveness, I do think it's a nice way to encourage the public to be more physically active.

Obviously I ate plenty during my vacation...very very very delicious food. I was mindful of my eating time though and avoided big meals late in the day. The first thing I did after coming home was to step on the scale. My weight has gone down as expected. This is consistent with my previous travel experiences because of dehydration, I think. If I'm not incorrect, the numbers will go up in a couple of days and I am actually dreading it a bit. I did make a point of staying hydrate and avoiding sugary drinks. The latter part was especially difficult not because I crave sugary drinks but because they are so readily available with so many dizzying choices! A favourite treat was Gong Cha's signature tea with a cap of rich creamy milk/cream foam. They encourage customers to customize their drinks with the amount of ice and sweetness level. I always got the one with little ice, unsweetened. It was still very satisfying because what I really like was the milk foam anyway. The next few weeks will involve lots of discipline in terms of my eating habits, unfortunately.

I really hope that my jetlag will go away soon. I have trouble getting a good night's sleep (last night I started redecorating my bathroom because I couldn't sleep a wink) and dozing off during the day. Being sleep deprived makes me unmotivated to resume my regular training. I missed my skates while I was away but now that I'm home, I'm not exactly dying to put them on. I guess it'll take a few days before I settle back to my regular routine. Grumpiness aside, it feels good to be back home.

Warm But Not For Long

Talk about traveling in style! I'm chilling at a very posh hotel room (ahem, Le Meridien) the night before a race. For my pre-race dinner, I had a delicious warm salad of grilled eggplants, zucchinis, portobello mushrooms, red onions, goat cheese fondant, and salmon filet at a cozy little neighbourhood bistro. I even found time to visit an artisanal candymaker out in Laval and tried on some dresses while shopping on Rue Sainte-Catherine (girls, the dresses at Boutique Razberry are adorable and affordable!). Am I really here in Montreal for a race?

I am not feeling terribly stressed out the race tomorrow. The weather forecast is calling for temperature of 4C with windchill of -1C. It will be windy with wind coming NW at 30km/h. High chance of mixed precipitation...that's weatherman's talk for rain with snow thrown in for good measure. I stopped fretting about the weather a few days ago because it really couldn't get any worse! I am feeling an odd sense of calm because I have no choice but to trust my training. All spring I've been training in cold and windy condition. When I step up to the start line tomorrow, it will not be comfortable. However, I only need to hate it a bit less than my competitors do and that will already give me a small advantage. This race will be as much about mental toughness as fitness. Coach SZ specifically trains me to have oodles of both.

I expect to doubt myself during the race when it will be at its coldest and windiest. I know that I will be driven by the promise of a hot shower and a visit to Marche Jean Talon. I get my motivation from all the fun I will enjoy in Montreal when the skating is done! An unusual priority perhaps but I suspect tomorrow will be an unusual race.

See you at the start line.

A Road Trip & A Training Break

I spent the holidays in the laziest way possible, relaxing and eating comfort food that I deny myself most of the year. I did some sightseeing, ran a little in warmer weather, some spinning, and ate more fried chicken and biscuits and dessert than I really should. Ah, the holidays.

First let me reminisce a little on my indulgences and what I learned from my road trip between Virginia and South Carolina.

1. I brought the Canadian winter with me. Instead of warm balmy weather, I got to experience one of the coldest winters in the south. I now have a new found appreciation for double glass windows and high efficiency gas furnance.
2. I am allergic to cats.
3. Mac & Cheese is considered as "vegetable". It certainly is yummy though I miss my steamed seasonal produce even more.
4. Fried chicken, biscuits, and gravy are good for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.
5. I miss training but not enough to rouse myself to face the cold temperature everyday especially when I had the option to curl up toasty warm under a blanket with a mug of cocoa and a cat. Exactly how do I motivate myself to train outdoor in Canada is a mystery to me.
6. Training is very time consuming. I didn't realize that until I break out of my daily habit. During vacation when every hour counts, there's always something better to do.

I'm lazy just like everyone!

My road trip diet started innocently enough with a sensible boxed lunch from Sally Bell's Kitchen in Richmond, VA. Although B & I arrived at 10am on Christmas Eve, the line up was already hour-long with eager customers waiting to pick up their famed potato salad and pies for Christmas feast. I love boxed lunches. There's something so cute about multiple food items packaged neatly to fit inside a box. Mine contained Smithfield ham sandwich in house-made roll, potato salad, devil egg, cheese crisp, and an almond cupcake. It was worth the wait.

After cocooning in the house for a couple of days for Christmas celebration, a visit to historic Charleston was a welcomed change. This Canadian girl got her first taste of soul food at Jestine's Kitchen. Both B & I had fried chicken and I finally realize what KFC aspires to be all these years. Sorry Colonel, there's no comparison. I enjoyed mine daintly with knife and fork while B went with the hands-on approach. The waitress promptly asked B to show me the proper way, heh. I also discovered the goodness of banana pudding.

I had my first encounter with PRAH-line in Charleston. It was freshly made (still warm!) and handed to my greedy little hands as a sample at Market Street Sweets. Oh wow. So buttery. The sweetness reminded me of condensed milk. I still have a small stash in my kitchen. Dangerous.

I don't understand the prominence of pineapples in Charleston but they seem up show up everywhere I looked. This is a fountain by the waterfront which is a very pretty area with a nice long path. Not skateable terrain but can be a picturesque location to run. While strolling on the streets of Charleston, we noticed lots of (serious) runners.

After a few days of light activities, I craved for a nice run. It was just a short hour-long session but I felt good. I must admit though, the drivers in Columbia were not particularly friendly to pedestrians. For post-workout fueling, I enjoyed a meal of chicken fried steak with creamy grits and steamed squash. I learned that chicken fried steak is actually not chicken. It is a hamburger steak deepfried in fried chicken batter and smothered with white gravy. Delicious in a very very VERY guilty kind of way.

On our way back to Virginia, we stopped at Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen in Chapel Hill, NC. It is a drive-through joint but I didn't see why I couldn't walk through, so I did. If only I had my skates on so I could do a skate-through! Their fried chicken biscuit was a revelation. Juicy chicken in a tender buttery biscuit. I literally felt my waistline expanding as I ate my sandwich and weeks of dieting effort went to waste. I would still do it all over again.

Once back in Virginia, I had an interesting dilemma. On one hand, I was in such a festive mood that I had to cook and bake. On the other hand, I only had access to a minimalist bachelor kitchen that any real cooking effort would require tremendous amount of creativity and resourcefulness. Yet somehow, I prevailed. I managed to make monkey bread (seen above), quiche, eggnog with farm fresh eggs and cream, bread pudding, and hot cocoa. What was that I hear? Oh, that's the sound of my diet going down the drain.

When I was not hugging a blanket on a couch, I ventured out for a bit of sightseeing. The official Peeps Store in National Harbour, MD was one of the places B & I visited. Of course I had to give a big hug to a big Peeps.

My holiday was not just about food. I kicked off 2010 with an American history lesson in Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. The education centre was most excellent with very interesting presentations on the life of Washington, the Revolutionary War, and the birth of the US capitol.

No trip to Washington DC is complete without a visit to the iconic Ben's Chili Bowl for a chili half smoke. Apparently B & I picked the coldest day for our walking tour of DC. With wind chill, it was something like -10C for our day of out and about. Eventually, we both grew numb of the cold and our footsteps covered Eastern Market, Barracks Row, Dupont Circle, U Street, and Georgetown. The most memorable experience was our vist to Anderson House of The Society of The Cincinnati. We literally got pulled into the building by one of their very enthusiastic volunteers. The guided tour of this very beautiful museum was informative and educational.

Vacation's over. Time to get back to serious training and serious dieting!

Post-NYC Meli Melo

My 2009 race season officially wrapped up last Saturday at Prospect Park. I want to take my time to write a summary so that will come in a few days. Right now, I am just enjoying some hard-earned R&R and a more relaxed approach to diet and weight management. I haven't taken a break from training since this time last year so I'm definitely in the mood for holiday, both mentally and physically.

Evidence that I enjoyed my kir so very very much. (photo by Peter Doucet)

As soon as I crossed the finish line on Saturday, I ate every piece of food I had with me. Granted, they were merely leftover CLIF Shot Bloks and an extra CLIF Bar I carried so obviously it was not enough. I didn't even bother to shower before dragging B to Junior's for a slice of New York style cheesecake. Did I mention that I've been dreaming about a bite of that cheesecake since last year? From that point on, the eating didn't stop until I returned home Monday night. In less than 60 hours, I indulged myself with kir, duck confit burger, fries, Mint Oreo Express from Serendipity 3, sage scone, country breakfast from Clinton Street Baking Co, Kossar's bialys, creme brulee doughnut from Doughnut Plant, gelato, Katz's pastrami sandwich, pinkberry frozen yogurt, hot chocolate, a whole basket of breakfast pastries from Balthazar, and of course a generous plate of steak tartare. I think PD said it best. I ate my way around NYC like a little ant going from one destination to another!

A rare photo of me from last weekend (taken in Lower East Side) that did not involve any food. Oh yeah, that pink dress is the tennis dress that I've been coveting for a while.

First thing I did after coming home? Stepped on the bathroom scale, of course. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the 120lb reading. After all that I ate, I did not gain a single pound! You all have my permission to be jealous now.

I'm going to meet with coach SZ this weekend to review my season and set goals for next year. I think we'll probably run some tests to get a more accurate picture of my fitness level as well. For the time being, I get an opportunity to enjoy some non-structured training just to stay active. As much as I enjoy skating, I really need a break from training and racing. Last night, I did an easy 45min run on the treadmill. I can't tell you how much I miss running. My heartrate easily remained in aerobic zone. I got into the groove feeling like I could keep running forever. I look forward to running in the snow again this winter.

A funny post-race moment. Finally someone clues in on the purpose of my signature Magic Doodle board attaching to my skate bag! See what the legendary Eddy Matzger had to say. (photo by Peter Doucet and Candy Wong)

From One Capitol To Another

Since last Sunday's Ottawa Inline Festival, I've been going non-stop between racing, training, traveling, and lots of sightseeing. The race itself was much better than I anticipated though my placement certainly doesn't reflect it. I raced exactly the way I was trained to race and it was truly the indicator I need to know that I am on track for Northshore Inline Marathon in less than two weeks. The start of the race was incredibly fun. There was lots of movement in the pack and people constantly jostling for position. All I focused on was to stay closely behind my teammate SL. It was so much easier than to navigate the pack all by myself! Up to the first turnaround, I felt absolutely comfortable in the main pack but of course the turnaround was bane of my existence. I got dropped at that point and rolled to group up with SB (Cado Motus) and TS (Schankel Canada). We were eventually joined by a few other skaters to make for a decent size pack. I was very active in the pack and initiated plenty of attacks during the first half of the race. At the second half, when our pack was caught up by AM (Pyro Apparel) and he launched attack after attack, I was right there on his wheels every time. I came last in the field sprint but it did not bother me much. I now know that I have what it takes to respond to multiple attacks during a race and recover quickly enough for the next one.

Team Asphalt Beach at Ottawa Inline Festival! (photo by Wilby McKnight)

Of course bonking at Ottawa has somewhat become my "tradition" by now. This year was no exception. Ten minutes before the start of the half marathon (last race of the day), I decided to skate it just for fun. Obviously I did not eat enough between the two races nor did I have enough sense to carry food with me on the course. So as tradition would go, I got extremely hungry before we even finished a quarter of the distance. I thought I was simply DNF at the half way point and call it a day but DL (Ottawa Inline) saw that something was wrong. She called out at me and I told her that I was bonking. Next thing I knew, she handed me a gel pack and I was munching fast. Well, at that point, I had no excuse but to finish the race...yup, all for tradition's sake.

The excitement did not end there. Immediately after the race, BO and I started our road trip from Ottawa to Washington DC. It was not a short journey so we took a break at Watertown, NY before continuing the next day. It was my first time road tripping through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. When we passed through Pennsylvania, a road sign for Hershey's Chocolate World caught our attention. Next thing you knew, we were busy planning a side trip! "The sweetest place on earth"? Not quite. But it was incredibly fun nonetheless and I bought a whole bag full of goodies!

The last few days I've been training hard in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland. Aside from my regular workouts, BO and I have been making best use of our time to do lots of sightseeing. Training with the Skater's Quest team on Tuesday and Thursday at Hains Point was a highlight. I haven't really had a chance to train with these guys before. We did some steady pace skating as well as sprint intervals. I've been skating really well recently so it was very encouraging to see that I was right up there battling with the guys at the sprints. I also really enjoy finding how different skaters train. At the same time, I am getting a new appreciation of the coaching we receive at TISC as well as from my coach SZ. Here are some highlights of my vacation so far:

Tough training requires proper nourishment. Ray's Hell Burger really hit the spot. The best part was the juicy pink beef patty but the topping of bone marrow, congnac sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and gruyere cheese are not bad either! Don't forget to wash it all down with their draft root beer.   Hill repeats at Greenbelt Park in MD with Skater's Quest.   A day trip to Kent Narrows in Eastern Shores. Of course there was more specific purpose for the trip...   ...for some of the best Maryland crabcakes and cream of crab soup at The Narrows Restaurant! I will never order crabcakes anywhere else again. It was so good that the taste memory will forever ruin other lesser crabcake experience for me.   My legs were so sore after a morning plyos session but we managed to check out the Lincoln Memorial.   BO's cat really really likes me despite the fact that I'm drugged up on antihistamine. Apparently I am allergic to cats, a fact that I found out after day 1. But she's so adorable and doesn't hesitate to curl up on my lap at every chance.   Berger's Cookies is a Baltimore specialty. BO & I were on a quest to locate these elusive cookies which took us to various convenience stores and supermarkets. It was incredibly funny to hear the reactions of the locals when we inquired about the cookies. The best one was "OMG, they're soooooo good. But no, we don't have it at the store." All the more motivation for us to track them down! The equal thickness of cookies and fudge topping meant these cookies are super rich but also super tasty. BO & I have been diligently limiting ourselves to only one cookie a day...so far so good.

Stop And Go

After another extended period of forced rest, I finally resumed training yesterday. I was still weak from that bout of fever so I only wanted an easy roll on the trail to get my legs moving again. Much to my dismay, it ranked right up there as My Worst Skate Ever. I did a little sprint to chase ML and that short effort made me want to hurl. Definitely a session I would like to forget.

Recent correspondence with a friend have me reminiscing about my Paris Night Skate experience back in October 2005, before I started speed skating. I remember grumbling to myself how much precious real estate my bulky rec skates took up in my luggage (c'mon, I was vacationing in Paris. Of course I needed room for my purchases). Today, I cannot imagine traveling without my skates. I smile as I revisit my own words. That feeling of entrancement is still fresh in mind after all these years. Enjoy!

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You know how at the end of a long day of activities, it’s hard to bring yourself out of the comfort of your couch and head out the door again? Well, this was exactly how I felt before getting out for the famous Friday Night Inline Skate. With a little trepidation, I followed other fellow skaters to the meeting point at Montparnasse Bienvenue. I was really impressed by how some skaters were comfortable navigating around the metro on their inline skates! I emerged from the subterranean to find myself surrounded by the largest crowd on skates EVER. There were people in Halloween costumes, people with boombox strapped to their back, people with flashing lights on their wheels, and best of all, a person with a customized backpack with music blasting and lights flashing.

I quickly changed into my skates and moved carefully towards the middle of the pack. Before I realized it, we started moving forward. What a thrill it was! It felt at the same time like a carnival, a marathon, a party, and a pack of juvenile delinquents about to descent upon the city of lights. Police on skates as well as volunteers were blocking off traffic and pedestrians so we could tear our ways through the streets. Onlookers from building balconies were cheering us on. People at the side of the streets were giving us high-fives. It was unlike absolutely anything else I’ve done before. Experiencing the city while sceneries were flying by was liberating to say the least. Getting to know Bastille by my dislike of its cobblestone surface was a totally unexpected encounter. Of course, crossing the Seine while taking a hurried sideway glimpse in fear of tripping on potholes was also priceless.

By the time we arrived at the Republique, it was already past eleven. Hoping to return home in time for the last metro, I decided to call it a night and found my way back from a strange neighbourhood. This is definitely one of the highlights of my trip.