It's My Turn

After a whole season of benefiting from JaS's (training partner extraordinaire btw) draft on the Hamilton Beaches Trail, I have my chance to repay him today. It was a windy morning with a tailwind one way and a headwind the other. Since it is a long weekend and Saint Paul Inline Marathon, not many of my skating friends are in town. It was just the two of us training for the majority of the session except for having ML and RH joined us briefly.

JaS had a long day yesterday and he was noticeably tired. No matter, I was more than happy to pull. With my wave change official, I will be racing in the A/B women combined wave at the Northshore Inline Marathon. It will be the first time I race in a women only race and I need to be strong enough to hold my own. Racing with guys often means I just need to worry about hanging on to the pack.

I was not too happy with my effort in my first lap. My strides were quick and a little panicky. I was well aware of it yet I couldn't seem to slow down my cadence. Lap two was a vast improvement as I was less excited. We were joined by ML and RH so I started the lap a little more relaxed. I put more power into every push and consciously lengthen my strides. When we skated into the headwind, I tried to pull for as long as I could. Once I got tired, I took a breather behind JaS and accelerate to pull again when I recovered. It was a good drill and by the end of the lap, I was exhausted. For the last lap, both of us were tired so our speed did drop a bit. However, it was still a good workout.

I am very proud of myself today. It was a long sustained effort of skating at race pace and I pulled hard at every chance I got. By the time I got home, my knees were so weak that I could hardly make my way up the stairs!