73km In One Day

I have a confession to make. After all the hoopla about me getting a brake attachment for my speed skates so that I can skate on the street at Miami....I left my brake at home in Toronto. I realized that as soon as I arrived at the airport but well, I can now chalk another one up to my stupidity. Today, I logged a lot of distance on my trusty old rec skates. 73km to be exact.

The day started off nice and relaxed with breakfast at Raffi's for some sandwiches. My knack of picking the thing to order from the menu hasn't vanished. Despite it was 9:30 in the morning, I decided that a Cuban sandwich with melted cheese, ham, grilled pork, pickles, and mustard was exactly what to order. The girl who took my order stared back at me wide-eyed in an are-you-kidding-me sort of way but I was determined. The sandwich was very delicious and I was smug that it was far tastier than the breakfast sandwiches that my friends ordered. Heh.

Turned out my choice of a ridiculously big breakfast was a correct one because it provided me with lots of energy for a 30km skate at noon without having another chance to eat. It was an unofficial skate so there were no patrols nor police escort. Well, I was glad that I had my rec skates on (no skinsuits please) because there was lots of tricky terrain to negotiate. I was a little amused that a few people asked me if I am an indoor skater...which makes me wonder, what are some giveaways of an indoor skater?

After a brief break, the whole Toronto group went out for a snack before the first official skate of the weekend. MW and I shared a Moqueca (thanks to JC's recommendation on Flickr!) which was like a paella made with coconut milk. It really hit the spot. The night skate was a lot of fun and in hindsight, I should have skated on my speed skates sans brake. I had to work extra hard on those tiny 80mm wheels. I missed my regular skates so much!! It was really exciting to skate through the streets of Miami under the protection of so many police escorts. It reminded me of the Paris Friday Night Skate I did years ago. That was another 15km but there were so many stops so the whole thing took a long time.

Originally I wasn't planning to skate the 11pm night skate. Think about it, I'm not all that confident about my street skating ability and it would be a faster skate at the end of a long day. I was understandably quite undecided until MW, RH, and RD convinced me otherwise. I'm all the way here in sunny Miami and I pass on a chance to skate? Heh, that certainly doesn't make sense. It was rec skate time for me again because we would be skating among traffic. It was a real workout at last. I had to really mind my technique and work hard to keep up. It was tough but very satisfying. I'm so glad I did not chicken out.

Tomorrow, I will skate on my Simmons for sure. I don't think I logged as many miles as today on my rec skate since I bought my first pair of speed skates. I can't wait. You can check out today's picture here.