Wow, Was That 20km?

Thank heavens practice was a lot less hectic for me today! I was able to concentrate on the tasks at hand and it was amazing how much better I felt on skates. During the technique hour, I was quite tentative and was almost afraid to push on the ground. However, once we settled into fitness portion of practice, I felt like a totally different skater.

There was plenty of skating today and I completed every part of the drill without missing even one single lap. The first 5km was skated at approximately 26-28s lap. It felt the hardest because I was skating in a pack of three and two skaters hopped in and out of our pack to catch their breath. It was a pleasure to skate behind MG. All I had to do was mimic the way he skates and not worry about anything else. The second 5km had a slightly faster pace (consistent 25s lap, the pace for a 1:28 marathon) but since we had a decent size pack, the increased intensity was not bad at all. I did not feel like I would fall off the pack at any point in time. Our last drill of the day was 10km of skating at 28s lap but passing up from the back of the pack to the front for some acceleration. The thought of skating 10km on a track intimidated me a little but it was not as bad as I thought. 28s lap was a pretty relaxed pace so even when there were some jamming up in the pack, it was not taxing at all. I think all the cardio and plyos I did over the off-season are indeed paying off handsomely.