Dream Chaser On Wheels

Chicagoland Inline Marathon

Finishing Time: 1:28:28 (official results available here)

Overall Placement: 95/198

Category Placement: 11/13 (female elite)

My result from the Chicagoland Inline Marathon leaves me feeling disappointed though not discouraged. Racing-wise, there are some noteworthy highs and lows that make this race rather memorable.

The day before race day, I got stung by a wasp before embarking on an epic road trip to Chicago with MW, SaH, and EL. Since I had to drop by the doctor's office to check out my wasp sting, I did not have a chance to eat after my morning workout. Luckily, our departure time got postponed and I grabbed a veggie burger to munch on the road. Hmm...that was a late lunch around 15:30. We encountered some massive traffic jam before we reached London which kept us on the road for an extra hour and a half. Dinner was a grilled chicken burger around 21:00 (OMG, my first two-burgers-day for as long as I can remember). After spending way too much time in the car, we finally arrived at the hotel at around two in the morning. Suffice to say, my eating and sleeping schedule were totally messed up.

I woke up at 6:00 with plenty of time to prepare for the 8:00 start time. I took the time to skate a long warm up so I could get a feel of the course. This is one of the most technical courses for me this season with plenty of left & right turns, 180s, climbs, and descents. I was very nervous before this race for many different reasons. One of which is the fact that I was skating in the elite wave for the very first time. Dealing with pre-race jitters is something I have not experienced since last season and I was noticeably uncomfortable.

Being rather unsure of where I belonged, I parked myself at the back of the crowd close to JoS and BH whom I skated with in previous races. However, as soon as the race began, all bets were off and I was sprinting to move up as much as I could. The packs settled down quickly enough and I found myself skating with BH in a pack of decent size. Going into the first 180, I suppose it caught a few skaters by surprise. A guy behind me exited the turn on the inside of everyone else but he did not skate tight enough. As a result, three skaters including BH got pushed to the grass and the pack scattered all over. Luckily for me, I stayed out of trouble and was caught by a pack of little girls with their group leader TJJ from Detroit soon enough.

I tagged along the back of this team for over two laps. It was not the ideal pack to skate with as there were lots of surges in speed when they slowed down to regroup. However, TJJ always managed to motivate/pull the group to keep pace so it was not such a bad deal for me. At one point, their supporter called out from the sideline to let them know that we were 40s behind the next pack and that was enough to keep the pack moving at a good speed. However, it was far from a walk in the park for me. By the end of lap one, I started to feel tingly all over. I thought it was the intolerable heat so I did not pay much attention except to rehydrate. Unfortunately, it was actually the first sign of hitting the wall. Memories of Ottawa!

Part way through lap three, BH and JoS's pack of over ten skaters caught up to us and I hopped on without a second thought. I tried my best to hang on but the sugar from my BLOK were not acting quick enough. I was getting progressively weaker. I got dropped in a right hand turn and was on my own for over one lap. The thought of quitting crossed my mind many times but when it did, I reminded myself to keep putting one skate in front of the other. One step at a time. I was slow to a crawl at this point and I could only watch helplessly as the pack of little girls got ahead of me. Fortunately, in the last lap, my energy returned and I managed to pick up the pace once more. I latched onto a pack of five skaters. By pure good luck, I was sitting in second when we went into the climb leading to the finish line and was sufficiently well rested. When we almost crest the climb, I was perplexed that nobody had any intention to sprint. Well, someone had to start so it may as well be me. I got myself up to speed and quickly surpassed three stragglers ahead of our pack. That was my best finishing sprint this season.

Checking on my GPS data, I realized that before I hit the wall in lap 4, I was on pace to have a 1:24 finish. That was definitely a positive sign along with a good sprint in the end. Mentally, I have also made some improvement as I managed to recover from bonking mid race and have a decent finishing time. I would have given up long ago last season. I learn the importance of eating enough the day prior to race day. I did not start the race hungry (my breakfast did its work) but I quickly used up my energy store mid race. I had the chance to race with my competitions in Duluth and I was diappointed that I finished about 5 minutes behind them. However, I know that this 5 minutes is not an impossible gap to close by September. In fact, assuming that I eat and rest properly, I am confident that I will be skating with those girls until the field sprint when we race together in Duluth.

Coming soon: keep your eyes on Dessert By Candy to see my more food-centric adventure in Chicago!

Photo originally uploaded by Tom Dell’Aringa.

A True Test Of My Toughness

Finishing Time: 1:27:59 (official results available here)

Gender Placement: 5th

Day 4 of Nationals continued today with the Canada Day Marathon in Cambridge. After three days of track racing, early morning wake up call, traveling, and insufficient rest, I was not in the best shape to race to say the least. However, I was not at all stressed about this race because I was not out there to prove anything. With my two previous early season marathons in Montreal and Detroit, I already gained the confidence in my road skating performance. The significance of today's race was the fact that I got to compete with many of my friends in the club, people who routinely kick my butt on the track twice a week, every week. Personally, I want to know whether my track skating skill is the issue or is it my overall skating in general.

GN, JaS, and I were the first skaters to arrive at the registration today. I had plenty of time to socialize, eat my pre-race snack, had an off-skate warm-up, put on my gears, and capped off with a good on-skate warm-up. There was a bit of confusion at the start line when WB told everyone to re-pin their race number from the belly to the back. Good thing I did not listen to direction anyway and already had my race number on my back. The fun thing about racing with your clubmates is that we already have a good idea of who we each want to skate with. At the start line, GN, ShH, CC, PP, and I all clumped together and ready to skate in the same pack.

Weeks before the race, we were already speculating who would skate with whom and how the race would turn out. My guess was JaS would be a pack ahead of me, GN and ShH would start off fast but fall back to my pack, CC would start with me, and I would skate the whole race with PP. Of course, things rarely work out the way we hope or plan for.

The start signal came somewhat unexpectedly and before you know it, everyone whom I planned to skate with were behind me and I was hanging on to the tail of the lead pack right behind DL. It was a fast start coming to a downhill and I started getting speed wobble. I tried hard to stay relax though I could feel a gap opening in front of me. Post race GPS data showed the speed was 48.8km/h...no wonder I was nervous! As the downhill came to an end, it brought us to a slight climb over some really rough pavement. JaS got between me and DL and we clicked skates. Luckily neither of us went down. I knew something wasn't right when I was able to drop him in the climb but there was no time to think. The pack was getting away from me and I was in no man's land. I kept skating while constantly checking back for skaters coming up from behind.

Fortunately, GN caught up to me and BL from Calgary not long after. BL peeled off to chase DL who got dropped from the lead pack so it was just the two of us. Race mistake #1: I should have at least try to chase with BL. No offense to GN but I've always had a very hard time skating behind him even though he's a big tall guy to hide from the wind. He couldn't get much draft from me either so it was a pretty bad pack partnership all around, heeheehee. I dropped him sometimes and he dropped me sometimes but we ended up skating together if for no other reasons than moral support. Now that I think about it, it was actually quite amusing.

At this point, I already knew that I was not on pace to bring home any personal best times today. So it was a matter of placement and bragging rights. We knew that the pack behind was gradually gaining on us. Based on what I thought I knew at the time, that pack was probably pulled by JaS with a whole bunch of well-rested skaters. Once again, I was wrong but the fact remained that a pack of well-rested skaters were gaining on us. That information alone was enough to motivate both GN and I to keep working hard. For the entire duration of the last lap, we did everything we could to keep the distance. As soon as we hit the smooth pavement, I picked up the speed and was very surprised to see that I was pulling at 33km/h. Woah. GN and I sprinted for the finish line and I sent him off with a "It's yours. Take it." I crossed the line at around 1:27:59.04, faster than what I expected under the circumstances.

I came in 5th overall in the women category and achieved most of my placement goals. I am most proud of the fact that I came in under 1:30 based on my own effort, unlike my last two races where I just sat in the pack. It definitely gives me confidence in my own ability knowing that I can generate some speed on my own. However, going forward, I want to challenge DL at the Ottawa Festival and that means I need to be able to hang on to the lead pack for a longer period of time.

Sprinting for the finishing line. Photo by Peter Doucet.

The Nationals That Never Ends

I woke up on Sunday morning tired and exhausted after only four hours of sleep. A 15k elimination and the 500m heats+finals were on schedule so obviously I felt sufficiently not ready. The 15k elimination race happened first thing in the morning. My game plan was simple...sprint as fast as I possibly could to hang on to the pack and sprint as fast as I possibly could to delay elimination. Well, things worked according to plan though of course it was not a great feeling knowing that I was the first skater to get lapped out so quickly (and thus eliminated).

The rest of the day was just a waiting game. We ran a bunch of distance races before the spitting rain finally materialized into a downpour. With the track soaking wet, all the 500m races had to reschedule to the next day. Of course, typical of the way weather has been teasing us all weekend, by the time we all finished cleaning bearings, it was sunny outside and the track dried up.

We returned on Monday for the 500m heats and finals and the relays. Only half of the senior men showed up but for whatever strange reason, all the senior women were at the ready. I was in the first heat racing with SaH, LK, and ShH. Since the beginning of last season, my 500m time has somewhat plateaued at the one minute mark. Even at Provincials a month ago, I was not able to break one minute. Before coming to Nationals, I promised JaS that I will get to 59s at last so that thought was on my mind when I rolled to the start line. I was at the outside based on my placement in the 300TT so definitely was at a disadvantage.

Start of the senior women heat 1. Photo by Peter Doucet.

The start signal went off and I just ran like I have so many times at indoor practices. Before we hit the apex, I realized there were only blurs of blue in front of me...meaning I got in front of LK who was in her red and black skinsuit! How did that happen? Well, who cares! All that mattered was I stay ahead of her. I gave it all I could but she finally passed me in the last corner. As soon as I got off the track, PD told me in excitement "100m opener was about 13s, 300m was in the 33s, and the final time was 54.76!". OMG, could this really be true?! After the race, coach AH told me that the reason I lost to LK was because I got timid as she closed in on me with much shorter strides. This is one very important lesson to learn.

Start of the senior women B final. Photo by Peter Doucet.

In my 500m B final, I got the 3rd lane from the inside with LK and CP on my left and DL on my right. When I raced DL at Provincials, she was so much stronger than me that it was not even a race. However, I had a great start and got in third again. From then on, it was a matter of delaying her from getting in front of me. I tried to make it difficult for her to pass me especially in the corners but it finally happened with one lap to go. I was still very proud of my 55.35s finish time.

A very cool shot of me during the open women relay. Photo by Peter Doucet.

The weather was definitely joking with us because it rained again before relays. How frustrating! We had the medal ceremony and luckily the track dried up. I was on the Toronto Inline team with SaH and ShH. We were up against Team Canada with MC, ME, and CP....a very strong team. Our goal for the race was to stay on the same lap with them and just skate as hard as we could. And we did it. Team Canada posted a record time but unfortunately, due to an error with the lap counting (they made us skate one extra lap!), their time could not be counted for record. However, all of us were just so tired from this long weekend of racing that nobody wanted to race anymore. So the records that ShH, CP, and I posted at Provincials will stand for another year. Heh.

Team Toronto Inline. Photo by Peter Doucet.

My first year racing as Senior Women in the Nationals has been a very positive experiece overall. I posted some very significant personal best times but more importantly, I was out there racing. Before the weekend, I had a strong impression that I would be very out of place but turned out it was not the case. Sure I came in last in every distance (haahaa) but I was right there in the mix of things for the sprint races. More importantly, I learned to manage a more demanding racing schedule and how to warm up properly before each race. I see how my weaknesses are magnified in race situation and it motivates me to improve my track skating technique.

On Cloud Nine!

15k Elimination: first one being lapped out

500m heat: 54.76s

500m final: 55.35s

More information to come...I have to get ready for the marathon tomorrow morning. Another early day for me!

Thanks to GN, he captured a series of photos from my 300m TT.

Seriously, I Never Skated This Fast Before

300m TT: 00:34.89

10k Points Elimination: first one being lapped out

1000m: 01:52.29

Glass Half Empty: I came in last for every race in my category today.

Glass Half Full: I far exceeded my own expection in terms of speed.

Coming into Nationals, I have already given much thought about my race strategy. In a nutshell, I only have sprint races. I treat all my distance races as sprints as well to delay my elimination as long as possible. The weather forcast today was absolutely miserable. For the first three hours of the day, we hung out at CITC hoping/watching/waiting the track dry. For old time's sake, we resurrected our scooters and wheel barrel racing from two years ago, followed by a long jump contest. I guess the moral of the story is don't leave a bunch of skaters sitting around with nothing to do....

My day began with the 300m TT. Coach AH gave us some last minute pre-race coaching, specifically telling us to grunt. Then he walked over to me with a few choice words:

AH: Candy, I know this is an embarrassment for you...

[I stared at him incredulously...what kind of pep talk this is?! Telling the slowest skater in the club that skating the 300m TT would be an embarrassment?!]

AH: ...but the grunting would really help you to skate harder.

[Oh, okay. Oops.]

Other than getting called a false start, my 300TT went almost as well as I could hope for. Remember my idea from a few days ago of getting Mr. P to yell at me in the first corner? It worked like a charm. Everything was fantastic up until the third corner when my left leg gave out under me and I stood up to regain balance. Alas, that mistake cost me my leg speed and power. However, I am ecstatic about my results because I had never skated below 36s before, even during practice. To do so in such convincing manner, I was over the moon.

The 10k points elimination race was a learning experience. The start was very fast and I was quickly gapped by a quarter lap. I was not able to close on the gap at all and well, that was pretty much it. However, knowing what I know now because of the 1000m race later in the day, I have a bit more confidence going into the 15k elimination race tomorrow. I hope that history will not repeat itself.

1000m is a tough distance to race because it is an all-out sprint for 5 laps. My previous PB for this distance was 2:13.88 so you can imagine how proud I am of cutting my time by 20s. Similar to the 10k, I got gapped quickly during the first lap. However, I just kept pushing hard because I wanted a new PB! With two laps to go, LK got dropped from the pack and I just knew that she was within reach. I caught up in the last corner, went wide, and we fight for the finish. Unfortunately I missed her by a few milliseconds. However, knowing that I have the ability to challenge her, I know that I will skate more aggressively in the 15k tomorrow.

RSO Championship 2008

My 300m time trial. Check out that outside edge setdown even though EVERYTHING else looked weird! Photo courtesy of l3xh2k.

300m TT: 00:36.29 (previous PB was 00:39.21)

500m: 1:00.15 (previous PB was 1:00.56 at a banked track)

15k: time not available

So the long awaited racing finally happened today in some fiercely windy condition. After fretting in the last two days how I was totally not stressed (isn't that somewhat ironic), the butterflies visited my stomach for about 5 brief minutes when I arrived at the track this morning. I don't even know what happened but they were all gone by the time I got into my pre-race routine. I must have done something right to keep my nerves so well in check for this competition.

We had a very short warm up before the 300m TT and frankly, I did not have time to do any of the things I planned to do. Accel? Nope. TT start? Nope. However, knowing my own propensity to fall over in my first few TT starts, I went through the motion of balance-daylight-load-but-no-explode a number of times while I was waiting for my turn to do my time trial. When my turn came, I was calm, collect, and solid. My time was in the range of what I expect based on my normal speed on this track so I don't have much to complain. Barring comparison of my own performance to those of my clubmates, I would say I am happy with my 300TT. We'll see if I'm going to change my mind after reviewing the video that coach AH filmed. :D

The 15k was slow and painful. My legs felt like lead and I didn't even have the strength to hang on to DL every time I was lapped. This race will forever be my reminder that I need to improve my corners. Because of my weak cornering technique, I had trouble hanging on to the pack even early in the race. I'm still trying to figure out what I can learn from this race so some serious thinking are in order. All those training for mental toughness that I've done came in handy though. As painful as it was, I just kept pushing myself to put one skate in front of the other. Giving up was not an option.

The 500m was so-so. I had an awkward start when I nearly slipped in the corner. I was dropped right off the start so it was yet another solo effort for me. I was really hoping to go under one minute and I was disappointed that I could not do it. However, it was still a decent improvement from my consistent 1:03 time on this track last season.

Senior Women sprint podium. More pictures available here.

The relay was what I had been looking forward to. CP, ShH, and I practiced our exchanges all week last week and when we got onto the track, everything went like clockwork. I was the starter for my team and DL was on the line with me. She had about 25m ahead of me when we hit the exchange area but the exchange did not happen for her team. ShH quickly made up the gap and got ahead of her. Just to make sure, CP stepped on the gas pedal and our team was in the lead. After the race, I found out that they missed another exchange which later led to a DQ. Since there isn't any one skater in either team who is significantly faster than everybody else, missing any exchange is a costly mistake. Our team won with a comfortable lead. Oh, and we have our names on the record books too!!

Posing on the podium...there were many other poses but this is probably one of the less silly ones. I found it rather funny how we each wore something borrowed during the relay. CP had TS's skinsuit, ShH had LF's helmet, and I was wearing one of SaH's sock. Long story there.

Congratulations to all my friends for some good racing this weekend!

"Rained Out"

This is what it looks like outside my house at 9:53am today. It's all sunny outside and as I was eating my breakfast, I thought of how silly that we had to cancel day 1 of our provincial championship because of weather. However, it's humid like you wouldn't believe and there's no way the track will dry up before the "thunderstorm" rolls in around afternoon (that is beginning to sound like....like Snuffleupagus). Weather can be most frustrating sometimes.

[editted 20:02: Yeeees! The thunderstorm did materialize in the afternoon. Now I feel much better.]

My pre-race workout last night went as well as I could expect. I did a relaxed warm up before throwing in a few 200m sprints. It was very windy yesterday so speed wasn't really my concern. I just wanted to get my legs warm up. I also did five TT starts which progressively went from yikes to hmm-not-bad. Honestly, it was as well as I can do given the effort I put into practicing my starts so nothing much to complain here. I just have to remember my composure when I get called to the start line tomorrow.

Here's an update to my competitive season. A couple of days ago, I completed my registration for four marathons (Cambridge, Chicago, Ottawa, Duluth) so I guess the pressure's on now. I have been automatically slotted to wave 1 in Duluth so in the next couple of weeks, I will sort out my wave change request. As for Montreal24, I will likely arrive for the beginning of the event. I plan to hang out for a few hours (perhaps find a team who will take me) before making the drive back to Toronto in the evening. This way, I can have a normal sleeping schedule and not totally missing out on the fun.

Okay, I'm still not feeling stressed about Provincials. Being too relaxed may not be such a good thing.

Yay Me!

Mike Smith posted his pictures from last Saturday's Wolverine Marathon. I'm so happy to find non-dorky pictures of me!

Skating in my pack. I've been trying hard to figure out why I always have my face tilted up in all my race pictures. It just occurred to me that because of my height, I would not be able to see what's ahead of me otherwise. I notice a similar trend in coach AA's race pictures too. Haahaahaa.

I have no clue why we scattered all over the place like so. Possibly I was trying to drop back while EL wanted to move to the front of the pack from the back.

This picture features two skaters that I would like to have in my pack in the next few upcoming races though for very different reasons. I will explain more in the next few days as I finalize some details.

I can tell you exactly what was going through my mind: why the heck did I not start my sprint earlier [SMACK]!! There goes four placements down the overall, argh! Well, actually, I got ahead of the skater with the blue Bont Vaypor a few meters before we reached the finish line. On the bright side, now that I can see from the picture, I think my non-aerodynamic hairdo (pigtails sticking out from both sides of my helmet) is very flattering. :D

All smiles as I received my first place medal for the women 30-39 marathon category. Before I went up the stage, there was a bit of kerfuffle as MW quickly took off his Toronto Inline Skating Club jacket and lent it to me for the photo-op. The organizer asked if I was sponsored and I proudly replied "no but I'm racing for my club".

Updating My Race Calendar

Back in February, I already had a pretty clear idea of my 2008 racing calendar. We are now approaching end of May and once Provincials wraps up this weekend, the first of my two busy racing months this season will be over. Basically, I will not be on a weekly racing schedule until Ottawa Fesitval kicks off at end of August.

There will be a lull in July and August when there are only local track races to fill the void. In light of my performance in marathons this year, I am seriously considering adding at least one more marathon to my calendar. In short, I want to get more racing experience before Duluth. Chicagoland is one obvious choice. I get to compete with skaters in the US and it will happen in late July, smack in the middle of this "quiet" time for me. I'll be paying close attention to airline seat sales...I already missed one last week. As soon as I secure my flight, this trip will be a go.

Montreal24 is an event near and dear to my heart. It is such a fun event (read one big skating party) and it would be a pity to miss it this year. However, gearing up for Duluth the weekend after makes it not feasible for me to race at this event in 2008. I am quite disappointed honestly. It will be the weekend of a close friend's wedding in Toronto so even getting there to be a cheering spectator is not looking too bright either. Hmm, if the wedding happens on Saturday evening, perhaps I can manage to drive overnight to Montreal?

NYC Skate Marathon is going to be my "fun" race of the year. Yes, I know there is nothing fun about those climbs (nine times). In my mind, my season really ends at Duluth so I'm not racing in NYC anyway. The reason I'm so looking forward to this race is because I have never been to NYC before (I know, country bumpkin that I am). It will be a vacation for me to celebrate my birthday with some skating thrown in. Besides, end of season means I can probably indulge a little. There are a few dessert-centric restaurants that I plan to visit in New York. I'm excited just thinking about it!

Learning To Time Trial

I couldn't quite make of my results from the Detroit marathon soon after the race ended. It was a significantly slower time than my Montreal result (by 5 minutes) yet placement-wise, I did very well. Of course I know that results are not really comparable when gathered from different courses and different conditions. However, what is comparable is how far behind I was from the main pack. Minus the winning breakaways, the main pack in Montreal finished in the range of high 1:14 and the main pack in Detroit finished in the range of 1:19. That means I actually remained approximately 14 minutes behind the main pack in both races. Okay, now I feel much better.

Coach AH scheduled a supplemental practice session today for us to focus on our 300m time trials. With already an hour of recovery ride in the morning and legs that needed more rest, I showed up with my skates but without my skating apparel. AH worked with CC on the mechanics of starts from the very basic so I gladly joined in. The more I practice the motion of a start, the more natural it would become (I looked ridiculous in my T-shirt and jeans though). By the end of the session, I was noticeably more confident at the start, especially with controlling the balance of my body. AH gave me some useful feedback so I'll make a note of them here so I don't forget:

• only stretch my back leg far enough so I can align my body on top of it when I rock back.
• I need to lean forward when I run. Think forward motion. This is not a generic comment about running but to fix my natural tendency to stay too upright when I run.
• start in lane 2 so I do not need to go wide before entering the corner.
• fast legs! Drive my leg speed with arm swing to keep the tempo up.
• once transitioned to crossover, think left leg push instead of bringing my right leg over. Turn my shoulder in. That should generate enough speed to continue crossing over the last 2/3 of the corner without resorting to cross-stride-cross-stride.

Wolverine Inline Marathon

Finishing Time: 1:30:10 (official results available here)

Gender Placement: 4th

To say that my confidence was shakey before this race is a bit of an under-statement. I was sick on Wednesday and practice had not left me feeling good about my skating recently. In fact, I was considering not racing as late as Friday morning because my limbs were feeling so weak. Thanks to the support and encouragement of JaS and coach SZ, I managed to calm myself down. Oh, and a regiment of rest-water-food didn't hurt either to speed up my recovery.

While I was swinging back and forth between racing or not racing, SZ and I had an interesting exchange:

CW: Well, if I don't feel well enough to race, I can always go and skate easy.

SZ: You know as well as I do that there's no such thing as "skating easy" in a race. You either go to the race and give 100% or you stay home.

All I can say is SZ knows me well. :)

On race day morning, I got up at 5:20am for a quick breakfast before driving over the border from Windsor to arrive at Detroit before 7. There were plenty of time for me to get ready, including a warm up lap over the entire course loop. I asked many friends for reports on the course condition but obviously no description compares to skating the course myself. The surface was not as rough as I anticipated. The turnarounds and turns were not as tight as I feared either. I think my choice of well worn yellow Matters training wheel was a good decision.

I met up with CC at the start line and introduced her to BrS and BrO. I met the guys previously at The Great EsSkate so with a combination of recent race results, I was aiming to be in their packs. CC and I discussed the night before and the plan was for us to skate in the same pack so we could have a teammate in the pack. I positioned myself behind MS (from Montreal24) at the start line with BrS and CC on my left and right, just one level deep from the pros. As soon as the start signal went off, I was moving up and up in the sea of arms and legs. It only took a few seconds before I lost sight of any of the target skaters in "my" pack. All I could see was two packs skating side by side and I had to pick one quickly. I chose to stay on the left and before long, skaters from my pack merged into the pack on the right one by one. I was among skaters of all abilities but the front of the pack with all the pros were in clear view. At this time, I spotted BrS not too far ahead of me and he was moving up the pack. A gap was starting to form and there was no time for hesitation. I jumped out of the pack and worked my way up.

When I finally rejoined the pack, the pros were already pulling away and I was near the front of, well, everybody else. Still not quite the front yet but luckily, with the help of B and LX, we caught up to the first pack behind the pros. I was pleasantly surprised to be skating with BH and BrO. My effort felt laboured because I was still weak from my cold and the cadence of some skaters I was following. I quickly found out that I could only rest when I skated behind BH or BrO because their skating style helped me to maximize my weight transfer. With that in mind, our little pack of 6 ploughed through about two laps in the most coorperative manner.

Just as we reached the rough pavement around the fountain, BH and another skater attacked. I was already redlining for far too long so chasing them was not something I intended to do. The rest of the pack was in agreement but the fatigue was getting to us and for about 500m, we scattered all over the place with only me and B working together. B mentioned that a big pack was about 100m behind us and gaining steadily so we might as well wait up for them. I was hoping it wouldn't come down to this but the fierce headwind was chipping away at my determination.

"Candy, pick up your pace! I need your help!"

With almost perfect timing, my knight in shining armor appeared. Umm, actually, it was not a knight but Spiderman with his hands covered with blood. EL apparently had a crash early in the first lap which put him far behind the lead pack. He probably was in a good deal of pain but with his signature brand of limitless energy and positive attitude, he steadily made his way past one pack after another. Things got a lot more organized and our little pack of four caught up to LX. BrO caught up to us shortly after. We were moving like a train powered by EL. The goal was to chase down BH!

The next two laps were pure determination. EL cheered us on but my breathing was becoming less regular. We lost LX when he sprinted for his 21k finish. Later, B dropped off out of fatigue. I fought hard to hang on, partly because I didn't want to disappoint EL and partly because I wanted to escape the fate of the lonely skater dropped from a pack. When we started the last lap, BH was finally within reach but I was also tired beyond believe. I skated on my own for that last lap, fighting to stay ahead of that big pack behind me. Singing while skating was something I used to do long time ago to distract myself from the pain. I used this old trick again today...I was desperately in need of distraction. As I navigated around the fountain, I was still in the clear. However, just as I started to make the right turn towards the finish line, four sprinters from the pack caught up to me. Only then did I started to sprint. I was swearing at my own stupidity and managed to overtake one guy, fortunately. Lesson learned.

Sprinting for the finish line. Photo by Stephen Fisher.

This was a very hard race for me. I don't recall at any point of the race when I could just sit in the pack. Even when I was resting in the pack, it was brief and I was at risk of getting dropped anytime. However, my hardwork was rewarded as the first skater in the open women category to cross the finish line. I earned it.

More pictures available here.

Revising My Goals

When coach SZ assigned me a goal setting exercise at the beginning of off-season, I only knew where I stood and where I wanted to be in five years. However, goal setting is about breaking down my dream goal into smaller milestones so I can have a clear road map of reaching the ultimate goal. As I improve my skating from season to season, I can compare my progress against what I have planned.

It only makes sense that my road map evolves to reflect my actual progress and in the last month, I have given much thought about revising some of my milestones. The majority of my milestones are finishing time for various distances. However, racing is as much about measuring against other skaters as about challenging my own personal bests. Naturally, I do have some placement goals along the way.

When I finished my season last year, I started to "dream big" (that's my lingo of goals that are beyond my reach now but may not be entirely unrealistic). One of them is to crack top 5 in my age category (30-34) at Duluth in 2008. I was 11th last year so given a higher starting wave, top 5 in my category is a reasonable goal to strive for. In light of the improvement I made since off-season, I am dreaming big again. I did a bit of analysis of the results from last three years and I want to really challenge myself. I am aiming to place top 10 in the open women category, not just my age category.

To get there in September, I have a few intermediate steps to take, of course. Let's work this out backwards. Cracking top 10 means I need to finish the race at JoS's pace or faster.  For that to happen, I need to qualify for wave A. My finishing time in Montreal is enough to do that. However, I need to know that it was not a lucky coincidence. So, I will have to prove to myself that I am capable of a sub 1:30 finishing time in Detroit in less than two weeks.

But there is a twist (of course there is a twist)! Both CC and ShH from my club are planning to race in Duluth this year. I have yet to race either of them in a marathon this season but based on club practices, I am currently slower than them. However, there is a good chance we will end up skating in the same pack. There are two sides to this equation. I would like to think that it means I will have teammates which is a novel and exciting idea to me at this point of my skating career. On the other hand, it also means I will compete with them for that top 10 spots.

As of today, I have my eyes set on Detroit on May 24. That will be where everything begins.

Exceeding My Own Expectation

Finishing Time: 1:27:18.065

Best Lap Time: 8:11.314

Overall Placement: 38/72

Gender Placement: 5th

Coming into the marathon at Montreal this weekend, I have set some expectation for myself. I know that I made improvement based on my performance in the Run For Reach half marathon but could that possibly be a fluke? After some consideration, 1:33 is to be my goal finishing time. Frankly, it is a tall order because my finishing times for a marathon last season range between 1:43 to 1:50. Pressure? You bet.

Before the race, I talked to many skaters, trying to find out what their own expectations are. I figured if I hang on to skaters who expect to finish around the 1:30 mark and those who have the results from previous season to back those expectations, chances are I have an easier time finding my pack. I did a relatively long warm up with two laps of skating (around 8km) with a few sprints sprinkled in. I was preparing myself for a fast start.

At the start line, I kept my eyes on RV but at the same time, I knew that I wanted to aim for the next faster pack. You never know, right? Bang! went the start signal and I was on BX's tail who was in turn pulled along by another older skater. We were flying and weaving in and out of the hectic traffic down the straighaway leading to the paddock! It was nuts and I had a few close calls for collision. During one of those, I got gapped and was on my own. I continued skating at an easy pace by myself but keeping a close eye on the packs coming up behind me. It seemed like forever and I started to worry perhaps I already missed RV's pack...that would be bad. Luckily, about 3/4 way of the first lap, LM caught up along with everyone in the pack including RV. Phew! A huge sigh of relief.

We had a pretty coorperative pack of about 6 or 7 skaters. The pack got a little bigger as we picked up a few skaters for the 21km race as well. With so many people in the pack, I did not feel bad for taking shorter pulls at all. However, it was quickly apparent who the stronger skaters in the pack were, who were willing to work, and who were conserving their energy. I stayed near the front of the pack most of the time so as a result, I did my fair share of work. I would definitely prefer to work less and probably should. :) However, I have my reasons. I was definitely not one of the stronger skaters in the pack and if I get stuck behind skaters who get gapped, it would really drain my energy to repeatedly play catch up. A more steady pace at the front with a bit of work thrown in definitely beats getting dropped any day!!

So it went rather uneventfully for lap after lap. At the end of lap 8, I was very very alert. I fought to stay behind JSB from Roller Montreal (that's him in the picture flying down the straights in awesome long strides), probably the strongest skater in my pack. I did not want to get stuck pulling the pack and everyone else had the same idea so there was some dillydallying. Unfortunately, I did get stuck before leading up to the right hand turn and incline. What I did not expect though was a truck pulling out from the parking lot across the beach and onto our track! I was like "oh sh!t", stood up, slowed down, before getting caught by a FORKLIFT on the opposite lane. What's going on?! As a result, I was pulling far more than I really should in lap 9 because of all the commotion.

As soon as we started the last lap, the pace picked up and was I ever glad that I stayed in the front! BY told me afterward that we gapped him and he had to play catch up for over half a lap. With about 250m to go, the sprint began and HX took off. I made a crucial mistake at this point. My legs started sprinting but my heart really wasn't in it. I watched as RV and BY sprinted ahead of me and I was thinking "forget it, I'm done". With 100m to go and a hairpin turn approaching quickly, I suddenly realized "I can't let BY beat me! What was I thinking?!". That's when I started picking up my pace for real, quickly overtook BY, and closing in on RV right at the hairpin turn. He took the inside and I carried my speed on the outside, all the while scootering with my left leg to lose as little speed as possible. I remember my lesson from indoor racing! It came down to a jab at the finish line and with the official result still pending, I'm very curious to see which of us crossed the line first (the results are out, he did).

According to RV's GPS, our finishing time was 1:27. The offical results are available here. That would be a 16 minute improvement from the same race last year. I think I will go register for Duluth wave B as soon as I'm done celebrating. Yay for me!

Photo courtesy of Heather De Garis and Cor Beattie.

Coming Out Of My Relay Hiatus

I had my rest day yesterday to recover those jello legs. It's amazing what a day of rest can do. I felt great on skates today at practice. All those sluggish feeling on Sunday? Well, they were replaced by much snappier strides and I was able to pick up my tempo without feeling like I was lifting two blocks of lead! How cool is it?

We skated two 3k pieces with alternating "medium" and "hard" effort. Considering that my pack has a bit of discrepancy in speed and I was right at the bottom of the totem pole, they felt more like "hard with no arm swing" and "harder with arm swing" to me. However, unless I skate by myself or if I am smack in the middle of the speed range in the pack, this is something that I'll have to learn to handle anyway. At the end of the day, I would rather push myself harder to stay with faster skaters than not be challenged enough by the drills anyway.

In between the 3k pieces, coach PD had us practice some half lap and one lap accelerations. Perhaps I misunderstood PD's direction but I was under the impress that he did not want us to begin the accels with any running. Honestly, I was at a lost of getting myself up to speed from a standing start in a gradual manner. We began at the start of the straightaway and for the length of that straightaway, I stumbled and fought my way to stay low, maximize weight transfer, drive my knees, etc. Suffice to say, it was not pretty. Luckily, by the time I hit the corners, my arm swing felt natural and it really drove my tempo up. My push was devoid of power though. See what I meant by not having everything coming together yet? I am confident that it will eventually happen.

We received the details for provincials today. I am soooo excited! I'll be racing in the senior women category this year and the distances are 300m TT, 500m, 1000m, 10k points and elimination, and 15k elimination. Well, my long term goal is still the masters women category so I was of course curious with their distances as well. 300m TT, 500m, 1500m, and 2k points?! That really put a twist in my plans...looks like I'll need to specialize in shorter distances! The most exciting part though is the open relay races. These are single gender teams with three skaters in each team. By the end of practice today, there was already lots of buzz of who will be forming a team! Of all the TISC girls, SaH, ShH, and me will be racing provincials for certain. If MM also races, they will probably form a TISC women's team (watch out Ottawa!). But if she doesn't, it means I better get my butt in gear for outdoor relays. I've actually been avoiding relays since the beginning of outdoor season because it caused me so much grief and falls in indoor. Now I have no excuse to avoid them anymore...

Post Race Picture Round up

Lots of pictures have been surfacing in the last 24hr for Run For Reach. Here are a few featuring yours truly.

Sprinting for the finish line. Photo by Peter Doucet.

How to roll over a timing mat in a remotely cool manner...it's a mystery to me. Photo by Cor Beattie.

Toronto Inline Skating Club in size small, medium, and large. Photo by Peter Doucet.

Tale of the Faceless Supergirl: trying to unpin my race bib. Photo by Georg Nikodym.

Socialize over pizza. I miss pizza. Photo by Cor Beattie.

Butt Kicking And Butt Braking

My first outdoor race of the season is now out of the way and I am very pleased with my race at Ottawa's Run For Reach half marathon. My time is 45:52 and I came in 4th overall in the women category, only 1:24 behind the second runner up. What a way to start my season!

The weather was cold and windy but nothing out of the ordinary considering all those crazy outdoor practices I've already done in April. In fact, I had to ditch my fleece sweater after warm up because it would get too warm during the race. My pre-race routine went like clock work including carefully timed feeding (breakfast 5am, bagel 8am, muesli 10:30am, lots of water in between) and a warm up (including three sets of 30-30) that worked well for me last season. I was as ready as I could be when I rolled to the start line.

It was a mass start and I parked myself directly behind GN. He is faster than me but just enough so that I could hang on as long as I draft well. We stayed with the main pack for, oh, a few seconds before getting dropped. GN was working hard and I could potentially stayed with him but I decided to slow down  to wait for the next pack instead. Skating with a pack was the way to go in that windy condition. Soon enough, I hopped on to the pack and we moved along at a good pace. This is a pack consisting mostly of big guys. I was at first a little hesitant about drafting really close but I quickly found my comfort zone so drafting was a piece of cake (that's one skill I learned well last season). Conserving my energy was the theme of the day. We caught up with GN and LF before the first turnaround.

I must admit the first turnaround caught me by surprise and I went into it with more speed that I should. I hit the curb and did my best rendition of butt braking as I saw skaters scattered around me, one even jumping on the curb. It was a minor fall (nothing compared to the falls I endured indoor!) and my first reaction was "Geez! I hope I didn't rip my skinsuit". Of course the pack was pulling away from me so I had no time to mull over my fall. I knew that I had less than one km to chase up to the pack before we got hit by a brutal head wind. I could see that GN was pulling and he was keeping the pace in check. I calmly pick up my speed, remember to have big recovery and drive my knees with every stride. I rejoined the pack without much issue.

Leading the pack. Photo by a Leesh.

The rest of the race was rather uneventful. Everybody skated quite coorperatively and we did not really drop anyone. There was a couple of places on the course with a slight incline. It was important that I keep my climbing cadence to make my way up in the most efficient manner. With all these big guys around me, they tend to have a slower cadence and bigger strides when going uphill. That would totally interrupt my rhythm and I would need to spend more energy than necessary. So I pulled out of the pack and climbed at my own pace with no intention of breaking away. At best, perhaps I could drop a skater or two from the pack or just make them chase me for a bit. However, at one of the inclines, "my own pace" was fast enough to get pass the leader of the pack and most of the pack got stuck behind him! LF followed me up the hill and the two of us made a successful break away. I was quite amused by that but of course with that wind, it wasn't realistic for the two of us to keep the gap anyway. Now that I think about it, if we had communicated better, we could have a chance had GN came with us too (team skating!!). Oh well. LF and I got reeled in back into the pack.

Towards the end of the race, people were visibly restless in the pack. I was paying very close attention to everyone around me. As we came around the last bend, the acceleration began. Obviously it was way too early to start the sprint yet I had no choice but to follow. I stuck closely behind GN, still trying to conserve my energy. When GN slowed down and the two guys in front did not yet show signs of fatigue, I continued the chase on my own. It was a sprint about 200m too long! I tried my best but that 50m between us was too much.

First runner up in the women 30-39 category and fourth overall in women! See other podium shots from my camera here. Pictures from GN are available here.

Weekend Potpourri

I didn't seriously train this weekend though it was a weekend filled with skating and skating-related business.

On Saturday, I woke up nice and early to get some club pamphlet printed. I then spent the entire afternoon in the Ricoh Coliseum watching championship games from local children hockey teams. Now that's a high concentration of active kids on skates! In between each game, I talked to the parents to promote inline skating as an alternative to their children's off-season training. The games were very exciting and the atmosphere was great. I hope that some of these kids will check out our club this summer.

Since I had all my skating stuff with me, I hit the Martin Goodman Trail after the games and skated a bit. Well, to be more accurate, I didn't have ALL my stuff. I had skates, wrist protection, helmet, and leggings. So it was "civilian disguise" time! I skated in my mini dress and cashmere sweater with a little purse slung across my chest. Not exactly how I would picture a speedskater for sure. The trail was very busy with rec skaters and bikes but the weather was so beautiful I didn't mind the traffic too much. It just felt nice to be skating without thinking much about effort, technique, and keeping up.

Sunday was the last of the 2008 RSO Indoor Points Series. I decided not to race in the last minute. It was an unfamiliar decision for me though it makes sense, in a way. I already did my mandatory three races and I knew that my standing would not change even if I raced because my competitors would surely garner enough points to surpass me. Besides, after a few outdoor practices, I really feel a huge discrepancy between my indoor and outdoor skating. In a way, it is a little discouraging to know how much I am not skating to my potential indoor. I had a feeling that I would not be breaking any PB...so I decided to sit out of the racing action for once. I took the chance to video the time trials for my friends as well as the 500m race for group C. You can watch them here.

Club open house went well with old and new faces. It was good to catch up with AP and I look forward to skating on his track again at nationals. I brought a rum cake and a loaf of banana cranberry walnut bread just because. I skated the indoor practice including the elimination race. It confirmed my decision not to race...it's not like I skated horribly (trust me, I skated waaaay worse). In fact, I kept up with the pack longer than I expected but that fire to compete just wasn't there. It was fun nonetheless.

A few of us went to the Hamilton Beaches Trail in the afternoon. I know that this is a "boring" trail to some skaters but it serves its purpose when I want to work on technique. After coach AA's clinic last weekend, I have a few key things that I want to work on for my straights. The lack of obstacles on this trail may not be challenging but I can concentrate my attention on technique. A few things that I worked on includes a more pronounced outside edge setdown, turning out my knees, more exaggerated recovery (especially my left leg), locking my knees at the end of a push, and driving my knees forward. I skated 23km in total so it was a rather short session. However, it was enough to give me confidence for my first race of the season next weekend, a half marathon in Ottawa.

JeP fell in Hamilton and got himself a new road rash. Mr. P tried to clean up his wound but JeP put up a good fight. In the end, we had to wrestle him and pin him down before successfully cleaning him up with a good dose of batine. There was some squealing but I guess that video is best left for friends to enjoy. I'm not mean enough to post the video for the world to see...

Unexpected To Race

300m TT: 41.79 (see video here or click below)

500m Group Race: 1:08.36 (a new personal best)

1000m Group Race: 2:19.39 (a new personal best)

I originally made plans with AH to carpool at 7:45. When I woke up by my ringing phone at 7:45, it was AH who tried to tell me that his plans changed and found a ride. All I could think was there's no way I could arrive at the race on time. Since our club's annual general meeting would be held after the race, I made my way out the door as fast as possible anyway.

When I set foot at the door, I was surprised to see GC still at the registration table. "I guess I'm not late enough to skip the race?" "Nope you're not." I even had enough time to put on my gears without feeling rushed. Strange.

Overall, I felt good on my skates for all distances today. I did not make any glaring mistakes, just skating relaxed without much pressure. For my time trial, I rushed my start and did not get in a decent acceleration. It was too bad because I did not slip or glide any corners. I took a close look at the video and one thing that really stood out was the absence of any sense of urgency. This is actually something that DA said to SZ before about my skating though in a different way. He said that I never push my limit when I skate. After watching this video I have to agree. This is a 300m TT! I should be going full out! I may feel like I was, but it certainly didn't look like it. Hmm.

I had good starts for both group races and was right in the mix in the first half lap (haahaa). For reasons unknown, I was placed in the middle group today with MM, JS, AM, and GN. There was enough speed discrepancy in this group that there wasn't too much passing happening at all. I have a new personal best for the 1000m but otherwise my times are quite consistent for this season. Good thing was even though I got dropped early on in the 500m and 1000m, I still kept up my pace. In the first RSO this year, I totally lost track of how fast to skate when I was by myself. Heh, that was bad.

We ended the racing action today with a 50-lap elimination. I was hanging off the back for the majority of the time though it was funny how when skaters near me started moving up, I just stuck close behind them and ended up back in the middle of the pack. After the race, coach AA advised us to broaden our attention so we are more aware of what's going on around us in the pack. This is a very important because the earlier you become aware of the potential threats, you have more time to react. Wise words indeed. For someone like me who doesn't have a good acceleration, I can't rely on a strong acceleration to compensate for slow reaction.

Okay, That's More Like It

Another Sunday, another RSO Indoor race. My results are as follows:

300m TT: 00:42.89

500m Group Race: 01:08.61

1000m Group Race: 02:20.21

Alright, now I'm finally convinced that I've made some solid improvements over last season. Let's take a closer look. My 300m TT was over a second slower than my last RSO result. I did not feel good on the track and I stumbled in my second last corner. I was lucky to stay upright. My 500m time is a new personal best (previously 01:14.58) and so is my 1000m (previously 02:32.91). The two group races unfolded almost in the exact same manner. AM took off from the start line, opened up a gap, followed by me and EkM. EkM would be on my back, sometimes closer than others. I just skated my track patterns being mindful not to glide too much in the corners and kept my speed.

I must admit that I did not play nice with the kids (yes, I was racing the kids). I did not want to get stuck behind any of them because A) I would have to react to their track pattern and sometimes excessive strides B) if I cause them to crash during passing, I would feel horrible. So from start to finish, I skated in such a way that made it difficult for EkM (and potentially JM at the start) to get in front of me. Does that make me a bad person?

Me during the 1000m group race. Picture by Peter Doucet.

Planning For 2008 Outdoor

A couple of days ago, BS asked me which races I plan to attend in 2008. I already had some ideas but that got me thinking more seriously. One of the things I plan to do differently than last season is a stronger focus on marathons. Marathons were not particularly my favourite distance, many of which plagued by boot problems and nutritional issues. However, during this off-season, I have gotten a pair of custom boots and put in lots of hard work on plyos. In addition, I settled into a very different diet which has a significantly greater portion of protein and less carbohydrate. I hope that all of these changes will result in a very different marathon experience (no more I-just-hope-I-can-finish-this-race).

April: Run For Reach half marathon (Ottawa)

May: Montreal Festival (Montreal), Wolverine Inline Marathon (Detroit), Provincials (Toronto)

June: Nationals (Harriston)

July: Canada Day Marathon (Cambridge)

September: Ottawa Festival (Ottawa), Northshore Inline Marathon (Duluth), NYC Skate Marathon (New York)

In addition, I also have monthly local track races. I was actually playing around with the idea of going to Texas Road Rash in April but I think it will be too early in the season for me. One of the reasons that I can commit to so many races this year is because I will only train with my dragonboat team but not going to any regattas. I am still a little tentative about going to Montreal24 just to hang out. Perhaps I should start advertising my service as a support crew? Heh.

This is going to be one very busy season!

One of my favourite pictures from The Great EsSkate. I was so excited before the start of the big skate on Saturday!

Looking At The Bright Side

300m Time Trial: 00:41.41

500m Group Race: 01:15.73

1000m Group Race: 02:36.03

Fantastic numbers? NOT! However, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the way I skated today both during the RSO and practice. First of all, I made a four second improvement over my PB from last season's 300m TT. So I am still far from breaking 40s but it is not necessarily unreachable this season. For my 500m, I fell coming out of the corner in lap 3 and my time was still comparable with my PB from last year. Thankfully that I had my kneepads on because I landed squarely on my knees. Had they not been there, I would not be able to finish the race and the remaining session today. As for my 1000m, that was just embarrassing. I have no excuse for that one except that I was slooooow. In fact, I was dead last in that race. It was so bad that I'm finding it comical. Overall, I really don't have much to complain about though.

What the numbers do not reflect is how good I felt on the track today. I was relaxed (probably too relaxed in the 1000m!) and I skated the neutral track pattern with confidence. I did not miss my crossovers in the corners and I skated two straightaway strides in almost all of my laps. My knees flexed comfortably in the corners so I was not forcing any of my strides. However, I actually saved my best skating at the hour-long practice after the racing wrapped up. We did some dropback drills on the neutral track pattern which was alright. After that, it was an intense workout in the form of relays. We first did 20min in teams of two exchanging every other lap. I was paired with MW and my exchanges were less than ideal to say the least. After a bit of rest, we did 10min in teams of three exchanging every lap. I was pushed by SH and I pushed MW. I was having a lot of trouble giving even a half decent push. When MW stood up before the push, I just wasn't sure what to do. This set was not as tough as the previous and I was becoming more sure of my corners and I was more comfortable with leaning. For the last set of relays, we did 5min in teams of two exchanging every other lap. I had a chance to team with TS. This set was definitely the highlight of the day for me. We hit most of the exchanges reasonably well. I skated hard but under control and I made a few smooth passes which I was pleased with. Coach AA said that I have the power to make the drill as hard as it needs to be. I was well-aware that I was getting the floor time that I needed so although I was tired, I pushed through til the end. My shin did give me a little trouble during the 20min set but overall, I was very stable. Definitely my best practice in a very long time.

On a not so good note, we had lots of crashses today, some more serious than others. I really hope everyone's alright.

A Race And A Trip

This Sunday is going to be the first of four RSO Indoor races this season. Under normal circumstances, I am quite enthusiastic about racing and supporting our local races. However, I am not particularly pleased this time due to the timing of which the races are announced. I was under the impression that the race series would not take place this year until it was recently announced otherwise. Of course I will be racing because it's nice to have someone time my TT. However, at the same time, I'm a little miffed that there will be four fewer Sunday practices. At my speed and ability, I get to have more floor time on Sundays than the weeknight practices. It is a good opportunity for me to actually skate with better quality than just worrying about hanging on. This means there will only be four more regular Sunday practices before end of indoor season. Hmm.

On Thursday, I will be flying to Miami for the Great EsSkate. I can't wait! I have never participate in any of these weekend fun skate events before. I've heard lots of positive recommendations from friends though. This will be a great chance to see how well my new skates hold up in prolonged outdoor skating. Besides skating, I haven't been to Miami before so I'm already putting together a shopping list and possible foodie destinations. Wow, a winter getaway! This is especially exciting in light of the inches of fresh snow we got this weekend in Ontario.

Showing off my skate. Picture courtesy of Francis Roque.

A Most Frustrating Race To End My Season

After the rain race last year in Duluth, I had high hopes for the fabled fastest marathon course in North America at the Northshore Inline Marathon. Unfortunately, weather played tricks on us again and we had a massive headwind combined with unusually cold weather. Let me just start with some facts about my race this year:

	2006	2007
Time	1:57:25	1:48:36
Overall Placement	1094	469
Division Placement	29/141 (25-29)	11/115 (30-34)
Gender Placement	242/940	68/1063

The reason I brought up last year's result was to compare my overall and gender placement. Since the weather for both year was atypical and I have since moved to a different age category, I think overall and gender placement probably are the only valid comparators of my progress. Thinking on a positive note, I'm pleased to see that I made huge improvement in my placement. I think my result this year will help me to move up the ladder on my starting wave placement at next year's race. Racing in wave 6 was not such a huge issue last year. However, I've made improvement in my skating since and starting in wave 4 this year turned out to be a mistake which I will elaborate below (in short, I came second in my wave and the next person in wave 4 to cross the line was a minute and a half behind).

I had a breakfast of banana and raisin bread at 6am (exactly 2hr before the gun). We arrived at the starting area 50 minutes prior to my start time. That was plenty of time for me to carry out all my pre-race preparations. GC, CC, and I walked up to the start line and the bag check area before finding a spot to set our bags on the ground. While CC and GC made a beeline to the port-a-potty, I had a nice jog in lieu of skate warm up. I put on my gears, packed my pocket with water and CLIF bloks, ate my CLIF bar, and checked my bag without any hurry. Everything went like clockwork and I was not at all jittery about the race. After retying my laces (so they are just tight enough), I skated over to the wave 4 area, snaking my way through the crowd to the very front. I sized up the skaters around me, looking for people to draft. I introduced myself to TD from Team Rainbo and hoped that he would be of some help.

When the countdown began, I knew in my mind that I wanted to be the first one off the line. I always have this image that I would fall flat on my face on the timing mat so I wanted to get in front of everyone to avoid the sea of arms and legs. As soon as I got on the asphalt, I found my skating legs. TD packed up with me and wave 4 was quickly far behind us. We moved at a good easy pace, passing countless skaters with ease. It wasn't long before a girl from wave 2 joined our pack. As it turned out, her shuttle bus got some issues and she arrived late to the start. Although her cadence was quick and she's tiny, she was moving at a faster speed than TD. I didn't try to match her stride but still managed to skate close enough to her to get a good draft.

Our little pack of three kept moving along without too much excitement up until the 30k mark. However, I got increasingly restless as the race dragged on. There were no packs of any decent speed to hop on. We picked up an odd straggler here and there but were left with the three of us soon enough. TD's pull got increasingly slower and often cut short when the other girl decided to take over out of impatience. On such a windy day, we really need everyone to work hard. I thought of dropping TD countless times but in the end, decided to keep him in the pack. My reason being he's big and he was keeping up the pace. I could get more rest drafting him and he could push us a bit going downhill.

When we almost reached the end of the house-lined street, there were finally some good paceline to work with. I hopped in and out of a few but the pace was still a bit too slow. It took me a while but I finally found a group of four guys (really tall guys!) to draft. I rested as much as I could to prepare myself for the two highway ramps. Unfortunately, all those hardwork in the race took a toll on me and I had a hard time dragging myself up the hills. On the bright side, I did not lose the pack and was myself again once we went on the highway. When we were done with the tunnels, TD was still hanging on but we lost the girl from wave 2. The off ramp was another brutal climb but this time, TD took off on me and hit the downhill. With his extra weight and bigger wheels, I simply couldn't catch up to him. I so desperately wanted to out sprint him but it was just not my day.

After the race, I found out that most of fitness skaters from TISC clocked in 1:47 in earlier waves with much bigger packs. As it turned out, I was one minute and one placement away from cracking top 10 in my category. I was disappointed at first but in retrospect, I am not ashame of my result at all. I believe I skated a strategically excellent race, making best of the circumstances. I skated to the best of my abilities and I did not regret any decisions I made during the race. This year is the year which I pay my dues to work up the wave placement ladder. I am sure that I will be more competitive next year.

Off To Duluth

I'm suppose to be sleeping at this time in anticipation of my early flight to Duluth. Since this is not my first time traveling out of town for competitions, I'm not really feeling nervous. From last year's experience, I know better now to pack some non-perishable food for breakfast on race day. Rushing around town the night before race day looking for suitable breakfast food just adds unnecessary hassle to my schedule.

I don't expect anything out of my performance other than making my way across the finish line. My ramp-up days in tapering are working as expected but I lose energy very quickly during a workout session. On the bright side, I'm now more used to the effects of exercising while bordering on sugar low symptoms. It's a little annoying but I can mostly get through it somehow. Unfortunately, club practice is becoming more and more uncomfortable due to various reasons so I'll be glad when the season wraps up in two weeks. I feel the need to hibernate (in a gym) for a while.

On a more exciting note, I made my casting appointment at Simmons Racing for tomorrow afternoon. According to the very helpful Jennifer, David Simmons will be doing the casting himself. Getting these custom boots will be a very heavy financial commitement. However, when each marathon is a gamble to see how many kilometres my feet can last, these custom boots may not be such a bad idea after all.

Montreal Rollerblade Festival

So what happens when I skate a race without a racing mentality? Apparently, judging by my finish time of 1:43:26, that fierce "want it" attitude may not be necessary given my current circumstances.

I was pretty bummed out by last weekend's marathon in Ottawa. Combined with other things going on in my life, I was in no mood to race this Saturday at the Montreal Rollerblade Festival. My goal was simple: cross the finish line. I repeated my warm up routine from last week though the delayed start time kept me idle for longer than I would like. At the start, I took it easy--no chasing or getting into packs for me this time around. I was entirely prepared to skate my ten laps without benefit of a draft though that was of course foolish. As pack after pack skated by me, I just hummed along with oblivion. The strong head wind did not work in our favour today and before I finished my first lap, I began to tag along the back of a pack of VRL skaters.

Sitting in the pack behind skaters from VRL. Picture courtesy of Peter Doucet.

Unfortunately, my freeride did not last long when the two skaters in front of me stood up and slowed down. I got the message that it was time for me to move on so I was on my own again. Fortunately, I caught up to a skater from the states and the two of us worked together to move at a good pace. Well, to be honest, he was doing most of the work, especially since he kept himself 3 feet behind me when I pulled. I wasn't even sure he got much draft from me being so far away. Before we hit the half way point in the race, we caught up to the pack in front of us and I was happy to be in a pack of eight skaters. I sat in the pack and did my share of work but all in all, it was break time. I diligently ate one CLIF blok every two laps to keep my energy up but was close to hitting the wall a few times. Fortunately, I did not bonk this time. We dropped a couple of skaters here and there but nothing really dramatic happened.

With four laps to go, GB made an attack on the hills and I followed up. I didn't even know why he made the attack but what the heck, if he goes, I go. A few skaters chased after us and caught up quickly. I overheard the comment "well, that was an exercise in futility" and had to laugh despite of myself. I dropped out and regrouped with LM. The two of us worked together for the remainder of the race. Unfortunately, boot problem striked again in my last lap and LM easily dropped me.

Silver medalist (women 30-39 42k). Picture courtesy of Peter Doucet.

I'm not sure I learn much during this race except for the fact that it is not always a wise move to follow when the guy in front of me makes an attack. Given there are enough experienced skaters in the pack, I can more than likely follow their lead to reel in the attacker. It's kinda neat that this is the first time I skate in a pack where there is actually some action, instead of cooperation all the way.

Next up, rest days until Tuesday in preparation for Duluth.

Jinxed In Ottawa

Since I started competing, I somhow manage to always perform poorly in Ottawa. It started last year with a DNF'ed rain marathon at the Ottawa Inline Festival 2006, another rain half-marathon at the Run For Reach where I finished in the last pack, nationals 2007 which I skated slower than my rec skates days, and now another marathon at this year's Ottawa Inline Festival which everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

Unlike last year, the weather was beautiful and the course was brand new smooth pavement. I was very much looking forward to the race. However, with a start time in the early afternoon, I simply couldn't figure out an adequate feeding schedule. I knew from last year's bonking (hence the DNF) that I needed to be very careful with my food intake. I had a decent breakfast at 7am consisting of 2 slices of white bread, peanut butter, and a glass of milk. During the drive to Ottawa, I had half a bagel at around noon. Half an hour before start time, I began my warm up. I skated at a moderate pace for about 10 minute, did 3 accelerations of 30 seconds each, and skated another 5 minutes at a moderate pace. I had a CLIF bar and was ready to go at the start line.

As soon as the gun went off, I stuck closely behind JB. I knew that he's much faster than I am but since he gives a good draft, I wanted to find out how far that can take me. I thought to myself when I get drop, I can just tuck in with the next pack anyway. I followed him all the way up to join the main pack which had at least 25 skaters. SF came up to us shortly after and called out "Hey Candy, you're flying! We're at 38km/hr!!". Well, good to know.....I guess. All I was thinking was to hang on for as long as I possibly can and worry about the rest later. I think I stayed with the pack for about 2km before getting dropped. I joined with the next pack and kept up at a good pace. I was feeling good. The hairpin turns was a problem though. Not being very confident with my ability, I pulled out from the pack, did the turn at my own pace, and had to chase to catch up. That was very tiring but as soon as I got back in the pack, things were okay.

Unfortunately, about half way through the race, things began to go wrong. Although I had been eating CLIF blocks to kept up my energy, I started to break into a cold sweat and my whole body felt cold. I was seriously low on sugar. My breathing was laboured and my feet were in pain. I warned ML that I might drop out any time and be ready to move up. I tried to hang on for as long as I could but the combination of all the pain was just too much. I dropped out from the pack and just rolled for a while. I crawled along at an exceedingly slow pace while I waited for the energy to return to my body. Luckily, the cold sweating subsided and I was able to move again. However, the ankle pain was getting worse and it was all I could do to stay upright. Every setdown was painful and I just wanted to quit. With about 10km to go, I persisted against my better judgement and kept rolling. It was no longer about time but a battle to escape another DNF. I did not want to face the humility of not finishing the race like last year. This race was suppose to build my confidence for Duluth, to know that I am indeed capable of finishing a marathon. I must cross the finish line. I kept rolling with tears running down my face...the pain from my feet were unbearable. I crossed the finish line after what seemed like eternity and all I could do was to sit on the ground and cry from the throbbing pain. My time was 1:52:54.

Thinking back, would I have chosen to start with a slower pack in hopes of conserving my energy? Would I have done things differently? I don't think so. Up to the point where I bonked, I was feeling good. In fact, there were things that I did right in this race. I was properly warmed up at the start and had it in me to stay with the main pack even just briefly. Just like SZ said, it felt like doing intervals. The speed of the pack did not stay consistently fast, rather, there were bursts of acceleration. I eventually found "my" pack and instead of just tucking in anywhere, I picked and chose a position in the pack which I could draft close (woohoo, chin almost touching their back!). I fought my way to stay in the pack until the very last minute when my body simply wouldn't coorperate.

There are much to learn from this race however. Food is a big problem. Even though I tried to resolve my food issue, it is still not good enough. I have already spoken with coach EG and he gave me lots of pointers on how to eat right in preparation of my next two marathons. The prospect is grim (argh, protein and complex carbs and eat more?!) but I think I can deal with it for two weeks. In terms of my training, I need to include longer sessions on skates without breaks. I need to condition my feet to function in these boots continously.

Time to put this behind me and be ready for Montreal on Saturday.

PB-rrific!

It's hard to believe that we're already approaching the end of outdoor season this year. We had the last race of the RSO series today at CITC, one of my favourite places to skate. Incidentally, this is also the start of my crazy race schedule. For four consecutive weekends, I have out of town races (track racing and three marathons).

I'm still on a high of skating personal bests in every distance yet again today. This is a sure sign of my continual improvement this season. My times are as follows:

1500m TT: 3:18.50 (almost 2s improvment)

500m: 1:00.56 (almost 2.5s improvement)

10K: 23:30.59 (almost 40s improvement)

EG and I arrived at the track on Saturday afternoon after picking up AH at the train station. As I have learned this season, I need to skate the day before a race so I did a long warm up and 5x30/30s. It was very windy and I found out that my crossovers were not powerful enough in the corners, so much so that I was better off doing regular strides.

Fast forward to Sunday morning and I had the luxury of "sleeping in" on race day. I spend quite a bit of time on warm up because my body just didn't want to work. I was out of breath after merely two laps of skating during warm up so I grew a little worry. How would I survive the seven and a half laps of my time trail? Fortunately, the extra time I spent on warm up paid off and my TT was alright and I was only less than one second slower than LP, a huge improvement from my last RSO race.

I was slotted in the slowest group for the 500m group race and I had the fastest TT within that group. I knew that as long as I skate aggressive enough, I should be able to win this heat. Sure enough, I came out first at the start and I kept my lead til the finish line. What I did not expect though was a personal best of 1:00.56, practically one stride away from breaking one minute! I've been somewhat on a plateau this season for my 500m with a consistent time of 1:03. I was very happy to see this improvement.

Me and GN in the 10k. Photo courtesy of Georg Nikodym.

The 10k race has always been one of those distances which seriously test my mental toughness. When I stood at the start line, I decided that I would hang on to GN for as long as I could and not settle to skate in a pack with a slower pace. My reason was even if I get dropped by GN sooner or later, I still have plenty of chance to pack up with a slower pack anyway, being on a 200m track for 50 laps. I stuck to my plan for over half of the race. Funny thing was, in the first several laps, GN and I were skating behind PP's pack and GN decided to pass so for a brief while, I was actually in second place! Heehee. I was mumbling to myself in dismay when he made the pass because I really wasn't sure if I had it in me to keep up with the faster pace but in the end, I clenched my teeth in desperation and did not give up. For me, that was a pivitol moment in the race because I fought to hang on instead of my more typical approach of dropping out. If I had given up so early in the race, I bet my time would have been much slower.

All in all, I am very pleased with my performance today and it really helps to boost my confidence of the upcoming races. More than anything, it feels great to know that slowly but surely, I am getting faster.

Podium

I raced today at the Mississauga Criterium women's 10k (more accurately, 9.8k). Truth be told, I think I really should skate the fitness category but since we are short on girls, it makes sense that we put all the female skaters in the same category. As a result, we had skaters of varying abilities vying for the podium. Since we all know each other, we have a pretty good idea of our "pecking order" and for me, it would be a fight for the third spot on the podium with CC and GC.

This road course was smooth and was divided quite evenly into half downhill and half uphill. It's actually not at all steep judging by the fact that I could comfortably skate through the downhill portion without feeling scared of the speed. However, the long uphill climb was grueling in this heat. When the starter siren went off, SH and KS took off and I skated with CC. We skated together for about three or four laps, changing leads on every lap. Eventually, I dropped her in the uphill and I just kept my pace steady. Instead of skating down the downhill, I took the opportunity to stretch out my back before getting ready for yet another uphill climb. 10k seemed much longer than I thought! SH lapped me when I was on my second last lap but I managed to stay ahead of CC and not be lapped by KS. I came in 3rd with a time of 21:30, still far from breaking 20 minutes.

Even though this is not the first time I stand on a podium, I felt absolutely fantastic for the very first time because I earned my way there. In all my previous podiums, I was there by default, regardless of my performance. This time, as small a field as it may be, I raced and came out ahead. I'm very proud of myself. :)

Pb and PB

Despite my ongoing whining about being slow, I must admit that, objectively speaking, I'm making steady improvement since I started skating with TISC last season. Last night, as I was entering my latest race result into my spreadsheet, I took a good look at my times for various distances for the 2006 and 2007 outdoor season. In 2006, my time improved dramatically at the end of the season when I got my first pair of speed skates. In 2007, other than my exceptionally bad performance at Nationals (lol, which I have yet to blog about), I had new personal bests in every distance and in every race that I participated. Although my progress is slow compared to friends I train with, I'm certain that I must be doing something right.

Due to a combination of general fatigue, lots of driving on Friday & Saturday, and a messed up week of training (thanks to food poisoning), I did not even want to wake up on Sunday morning for the RSO race. However, since I was to carpool with KN, I dragged myself out of bed and arrived at the track with snow shovel in hand. It's the dreaded Canada geese pooping season and our track was covered with bird droppings.

I helped with cleaning up the track and registration. Luckily, WB left me enough time to have a proper warm up. On the not so fortunate side of things, my legs felt like lead (or Pb, heehee, for those familiar with the periodic chart). They were so heavy and so sluggish that I couldn't really accelerate. Oh well. I figured there are good days and there are bad days and obviously it was a bad day for me. I was the first one to skate the 1500m time trial in my group and LP caught up to me with a couple laps left to go. It was rather uneventful for 3:20.59 but it was actually close to 4 seconds faster than my last attempt a month ago when I was feeling good.

Start of the 500m race. Photo by Peter Doucet.

Before we took to the start line for the 500m group race, I noticed MC was wearing his GPS on his arm. I told him that he don't need a GPS for a track race and besides, it would get crushed if he crashes. 500m is one of those races where everyone skates more aggressively anyway. He took my advice and handed over his GPS to AP for safekeeping. I guessed I jinxed him because half a lap into the race, he clicked skates with GN and down he went. Sorry MC...I came in second in my heat after LP and I felt good about the way I skated. As you can see in the picture above, I was the second skater to cross the start line. Unfortunately, I did not have good enough acceleration to close the gap behind LP. I finished the race at 1:03.03. That's 38ms faster than my last PB. It's getting there...I'm hoping to break the one minute mark by next season.

Half way through my 500m race...my push actually looked somewhat decent! Haahaa. Arm swing was total garbage though. Photo by Peter Doucet.

I dropped out of my 10k race after about a dozen laps. My legs felt so heavy and I just wasn't up to it. Not exactly one of my prouder moments but...

I'm very much looking forward to the next RSO meet at CITC! It's always fun to skate on a banked track. Hopefully I'll be well rested for that meet.

A Busy 24 Hours

Last weekend's Montreal 24hr Relay was a very different experience for me than last year. I was a member of the TISC T'Recs, an 8-person team which was down to 7 people 13 hours into the event. As expected, I got to skate quite a bit more than last year. I skated a total of 14 laps for my team with my fastest lap time of 10:21 in the 4.7km course which beat my best time from last year by over a minute. Although I still cannot skate a sub-10-minute lap (that would be an average speed of over 30km/hr), I was pleased with this improvement. I think it will happen next year if I keep training hard. What was even more exciting was that at around five or six hours into the event, our team (which had no intention to be competitive) was 21st overall! I was so surprised and so proud of our team.

Yours truly, support crew extraordinaire (picture by Peter Doucet)

Now, the busy part. Skating for my team itself was not at all stressful because we took a pretty laidback attitude. However, I was part of EG's support team in his quest to break 500km skating solo for 24 hours. Equiped with a race schedule and a radio, there was a lot to take care of including fluid/gel handoff, towels, ice packs, food replenishment, wheel changes, equipments for night skating, monitoring his competitors, etc.

While I was checking the standings, I first noticed that he was down by two laps from the first place skater of 11 laps. No matter, he probably let them go and just stuck with his race plan. A few hours later, I got very concerned when he was down by 10 laps. I checked the lap times on the computer and to my horror, there were lap times of 45min, 50min, and even over 1hr! I knew that he was not taking breaks so it could only mean that his timechip was defective! That was absolutely the last thing I needed to know. After speaking with the officials, I was given a new timechip and they reassured me that they would correct the lap count. During one of EG's scheduled breaks, I recorded his GPS distance/speed and reported back to the officials that the new timechip was now in use. You can imagine my frustration when I found out that the corrected lap count was adjusted based on estimation and some of the estimates was up to 23 minutes per lap. Knowing his average speed in the first segment, the numbers just didn't add up. It took us a while but we eventually got all the lap counts sorted out. However, the confusion didn't end here. Apparently, other solo competitors also had timechip issues. For the longest time, the second place skater was someone who we suspected was absent for the competition as NOBODY had seen him all day. In our stressed out state of mind, it was tempting to start speaking of conspiracy theories. After much investigations by RA, we finally found out that the timechip was given to another skater. As a result of all these timechip mix up and issues, during the first 17 hours of the competition, nobody had any ideas of the current standing.

With two hours left to go in the competition, EG was barely rolling and I got increasingly concerned. I decided to skate with him (only trailing behind because I didn't want to get him disqualified) to keep him company.  At that point, we were cruising at such a slow pace that even runners got ahead of us. Finally, with only one hour to go, EG had to take a break once again in the paddocks. He was exhausted and in pain and he wanted to rest until the last 30 minutes of the competition to skate the one lap that was left in him. Although he was in the lead with laps to spare, it was still a risky move. With much persuasion/threats, we finally got him back on the track and I skated behind him to make sure he gets in at least two laps. To everyone's surprise, his legs came back and started at a good pace, fast enough to drop me! I chased him for two laps before deciding that he probably wasn't sitting somewhere on the side of the track crying. The clock was ticking and excitement was in the air in the finish area. We cheered as one after another skaters came through the relay zone for "just one more lap". Finally, we spotted EG and he racked up four more laps since his last break. By the official count, he skated 103 laps in total and defended his title from last year.

Congratulations Single Speed!!

Finally, it was over! (picture by Peter Doucet)

Canada Day Marathon

Woohoo! My first dry marathon!

Going into this race, I had absolutely no confidence of finishing all 42K despite what everybody's been reassuring me. The reason is quite simple. Based on my experience with marathons and half marathons since I got my speedskates last August, I honestly believed I would either DNF or cross the line in a slow and painful manner. Fortunately though, it turned out to be a much better day of skating than I anticipated.

It was very cold and very early in the morning when we arrived but I needed the extra time to get ready without rushing myself. I took my time to pin my race number, put on my gears, sip on water, and eat my pre-race energy bar. From last year's experience, the time between my breakfast at home and the start time was way too long so this year I learned my lesson to fuel at proper times. I skated to the start line as my warm up though as SZ pointed out, it was far from enough.

Due to my lack of confidence, my original plan was to skate this race at training pace with GC and just "get it over with". However, when the gun went off, GC was way behind me and I would need to slow down to pack up with her. It did not seem like a sensible thing to do so when MF and LP caught up, I hopped in the back of their pack. Apparently they were chasing JS's pack and I felt that I just wasn't up to skating at that pace. I slowed down and decided to just skate at my own pace--big mistake. All this dillydallying in the first minute cost me my chance of skating in any packs.

About 3 or 4km into the race, I caught up to CC who got dropped. We skated together for another 4km when GC caught up to us with a skater from the KW short track club. I took the opportunity to rest up my back and when it was my turn to lead, we hit the smooth pavement. It felt so nice and I was finally warmed up at this point. Feeling good on my skates, I picked up the speed and it was me and CC in a pack of two again. The distance went by rather uneventfully until we passed the water station in our second loop. I looked at my watch and to my horror, 50 minutes already went by! In my state of panic, I thought that at that rate, we would not finish in under two hours...so I let CC know that I would pick up t