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.
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