Dream Chaser On Wheels

The Most Brilliant Travel Plan In The Whole Wide World

I've been checking frequently for cheap flights to New York for the upcoming marathon in September. Even with seat sale, the final tally would come to around $300 for a return ticket. Not exactly small change.

However! If I fly to Hong Kong, I can make a stopover at New York with no extra charge if I fly United. What I can do instead is to race and travel a bit in NYC before heading over to Hong Kong to visit my grandfather and my aunt! It will be October, time to take a break from training anyway. Besides, since I will have my skates with me, I can probably pay a visit at the skate club in Hong Kong. I just heard from my aunt that she's planning for diving trip in Bali or Maldives and she invited me to go along. This is the most brilliant idea ever!

Alright, time to set things in motion. Now where's the phone number of my travel agent?

In Montreal

We arrived at Montreal in early evening. Fortunately, I already had my pre-race workout this morning before we left. From the fall yesterday, my knee and hip hurt a bit when I walk but not when I skate. Go figure.

I enjoyed a plate of seafood linguine for dinner. Oh how I miss eating pasta! It was delicious. Ì am really looking forward to the race tomorrow. Hopefully I can reach my goal of 1:33. That is the magic number to convince me that I can race in wave B in Duluth based on some convoluted calculation.

Hotel is fantastic...beats hostel anyday!

This Supergirl Wants Some Super Power

Invisibility to be exact! No, I am not trying to disappear into the background. Rather, I want to be able to draft well enough that you can hardly see me in the pack on race action photographs. Unless of course I was leading or it was a field sprint. Not being particularly tall, I should be able to use my size to the best advantage while skating.

In addition to my skating-related training, I began a twice-weekly workout session with my father starting this week. Our goal is to gradually work up to a 5km run by the end of summer and we will enroll in one of the many running events in the city. I think this is a great opportunity to spend time with my family and reintroduce my father to an active lifestyle at the same time. Through skating, I have learned much about exercising and its benefits to our health. I cannot imagine a better way to share this gift than with people who are important to me.

I was looking for information on inline speed skating in Japan today because I may have a chance to go to Tokyo or Osaka for a week in very near future. Unfortunately, most of the information that I found are from a few years back. Does anyone know of any speed skating clubs in Japan?

Here's a bit of nostalgia for you. My first inline skating race! Two years ago, I skated 55:17 for a half marathon in Ottawa after training with TISC for merely a month. Since then, I returned to Ottawa many times but something always went horribly wrong in those races. Fast forward to 2008 and two pairs of skates later, my time has improved to 45:52 and I had a fantastic race at last. I think I have finally broke my Ottawa curse. Photo by Michelle Foster.

Packing For Air Travel

CB has been packing in the last few days in preparation of his upcoming trip to Mexico. Packing for a skating trip involves a bit of planning but once you get the hang of it, I personally think that it is easier than packing for my "regular" travels (outfits and shoes for lots of different occasions!). Air travel always has the risk of losing your checked luggage so one of the most important piece of advice I received is to have your skating essentials in your carry-on. Based on my last few skating trips, my carry-on skate bag usually contains the following items:

• skates complete with race wheels and bearings
• 1 pair of skating footware (e.g. socks, Ezeefit)
• 1 skinsuit
• 1 pair of gloves / wrist guard
• 1 helmet
• 1 set of undergarment for skating
• 1 Clif Bar (my pre-race fuel)
• 1 package of Clif Shot Bloks (my race fuel)
• digital watch
• sunglasses
• [optional] cold weather layers such as tights, knee warmers, arm warmers, long sleeve Under Armor
• passport
• e-ticket
• address of hotel
• address and direction to race kit pick-up and start line
• mobile phone
• money
• compact camera

As you can see, it's not a whole lot of stuff so I can still run around the terminal with good speed in case I need to rush to my connecting flight. In my checked luggage, obviously there would be toiletries, personal items, and regular street clothes for my non-skating activity. As for skating-related items, here is my typical checklist:

• rain wheels
• rain bearings
• skate tool
• large ziplock bags
• extra mounting bolt
• skating apparel such as skinsuits, socks, etc
• race day breakfast (I hate running around the night before my race in search of breakfast food for next morning)
• 1 bottle of water
• [optional] rec skates (for fun-skate events only, obviously not for a race!)
• phone charger

Tomorrow, I'll write about my packing list for overnight skating road trips.

Here Come The Pictures...

Pictures from The Great EsSkate 2008 have started surfacing and I've been scouring them for Toronto area skaters. Here are some of my favourites so far:

Originally uploaded by ldskater. This is a picture taken during the Friday night late skate. I was chatting with Tommy from New York and skate patrol extraordinaire Bones.

Originally uploaded by ldskater. That's me in one of the Friday night skates. I'm not quite sure how I should feel about this...While checking out ldskater's (Lenny) collection of pictures from The Great EsSkate, I noticed that he has quite a few pictures of female skaters derriere. Perhaps I should be proud that I made it to his list? Haahaa.

Originally uploaded by ldskater. Poor ML...he had major skate problems/foot pain on Friday. Fortunately, he survived the weekend.

Originally uploaded by sk8nmike@verizon.net. This picture is a little blurry but it was neat to have a picture of ML and me actually skating during the Friday early night skate. I like blinky and turtle lights.

Originally uploaded by ms3675. This is another picture of me skating through the Miami street at night.

Originally uploaded by ldskater. This is RH, ML, and MW taking a break during one of the many water stops on the Saturday morning skate. Notice the cycling jerseys? Very few people actually worn skinsuits last weekend. Mental note: bring more "normal" clothes and fewer skinsuits next time. I ran out of normal skating clothes by Friday. Yikes.

Originally uploaded by ldskater. This picture was taken during one of the group ups during the Sunday morning skate. It features many Toronto area skaters including me, RH, RA, GS, and (I believe) ML's helmet.

Originally uploaded by ldskater. During the Sunday morning skate, the entire group came to a complete halt when we had to wait for the draw bridge to lower. There were many sail boats traveling across the bridge to get to the boat show so it was a long wait. I proudly wore my club colour so I was dead easy to spot out. Funny thing was, after the bridge lowered, we had to negotiate some hairy terrain. It was a downward slope, single file, and ending with a big piece of plywood at the bottom of the slope. And I thought MW was kidding when he warned me that there was plywood waiting for me.

Originally uploaded by The Life of Bryan. A great picture of RH, RA, and HG. Love the colour of their attire.

Originally uploaded by The Life of Bryan. Group picture time! This was taken during the Sunday afternoon Art Deco Skate. It was amusing to watch the photographers snapping picture after picture with everyone's camera until we were finally done (and kinda stiff).

Video From Day 2

This is a video that Michael Lin took during the day 2 23-mile skate. You can hear the sirens in the background with all the police cruisers making way for us to skate through the city.

New Member Of The Sockless Club

I've been experimenting with different choice of footware for my speed skates. I've been skating with a pair of thin socks for indoor since December but I wasn't so sure that's the best option available. Yesterday I tried ultrathin Ezeefit under thin socks for my first street skate in my speed skates but I wasn't too happy with that combination. There are just too many layers and my feet got pushed too far forward. Since today was already the last day of The Great EsSkate, I decided to take a chance and skated with only the Ezeefit. If I end up mangling my feet, I would only miss the last farewell skate...this was a risk I could afford to take.

As much as I feel icky about the idea of sweaty feet inside my skates, I must admit it was far better than skating with socks. I could feel the edges so much better but more importantly, the boots are so well-made that my feet did not get even a single blister, pressure point, nor hot spots. Imagine that! (Oh, I just realized that my boots have returned to its birth place...in Florida...awww)

With my increased confidence with street skating, I tagged along behind RH and got to the front of the group for the first morning skate. The pace was certainly very manageable and I chatted with a few of the speedskaters, including BS, a solo competitor at Montreal24. There were a couple of times when the road opened up and everyone began to take off. Interestingly enough, we would be stopped pretty quickly for a group up so everyone had to brake frantically. It was really quite funny. This was by far my favourite skate of the weekend.

We returned to the hotel shortly after noon and there was only less than 30min before the Art Deco Skate began. GC, RA, RD, ML, and I grabbed a quick bite and off we went. This was a sightseeing skate with various stops to admire the Art Deco buildings in South Beach. Unlike the other skates which I constantly concentrate on the pot holes, road hazards, change of terrain, and other skaters around, I learned a bit of history and actually got to see the city. That was rather nice. My favourite part was weaving between predestrian traffic on the Espanola Way and Lincoln Road Mall. That was quite a unique experience. ML took some video when we skated along Ocean Drive. You can see that I was in my most rec skating outfit possible...

We returned from the Art Deco Skate with less than 45min to spare before grouping up once again for the last skate of the event. My legs were rather tired by that time but I changed back into my skinsuit and speedskates nonetheless. Instead of staying in the front, I took things easy and hang out in the middle fo the group. It was fun because I got to meet yet another different group of skaters including two from Seattle and tagged along the paceline of the Pegasus Flyers. Some of my pictures from today are available here.

I really did logged some serious distances this weekend. 165km in three days. Amazingly, I also spent 7.5 hours in my skates on Sunday. That number alone was already something that I did not imagine I could do. I'm really glad that I came to Miami for this wonderful event and met so many wonderful skaters.

Here's My Proof

Photo by Michael Lin.

As promised, I skated on Miami streets on my speed skates today without relying on brakes! The original route aimed at skating 42km today but the actual mileage was closer to 35km. No matter...I was still really happy with how my skates lasted through the entire skate without hurting my feet despite some rough pavement. It was another hot, sunny, and humid day here in Florida. The pace was relaxing but it was a very good chance for me to practice street skating. Although I am still lacking in agility, my confidence with negotiating curbs, slopes, different surfaces, and various little obstacles on the road has greatly increased. Oh, and I had some good practice with T-stopping!

I really enjoy the social aspect of The Great EsSkate. Similar to Northshore Inline Marathon, I get to meet skaters from all over. However, the atmosphere is just so much more relaxed. It does not have the stress related to a race and I get to meet the same group of skaters over the three-day event. Faces that were unfamiliar on day 1 soon became easily recognizable by their names, their home club, or their gears. It is truly a great way to meet skaters outside of my local area.

After the morning skate, it was time for a picnic by the beach and of course group photo. RA suggested that we strolled back to the hotel along the beach. It was such a fantastic idea. The coolness of the lapping waves washed away much of the fatigue from my tired feet. I cannot imagine a better way to spend a winter getaway. You can check out pictures from today here.

Saturday night was of course the big party of the weekend. We went to a fancy night club with an open roof which really intrigued me...whose hometown is not condusive to outdoor living most time of the year. It was fun to see the skaters letting loose and without helmets. Of course, it was also a little challenging for me to figure out who's who without the help of colourful helmets/skates/jerseys...heh. It was a good day and my accumulated mileage is now up to 105km. You can check out today's pictures here.

73km In One Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Miami

It's hot and a little humid here in Miami but I've been very lucky since I actually escaped that huge dump of snow back in Toronto in one piece! I left home at 3:45am in a airport limo which miraculously did not get stuck in the knee-deep snow outside my house. We drifted/floated to the airport by 4:30am and I went through line-up after line-up before barely getting on the plane on time. Since I stayed up all night, I pretty much lost consciousness the minute I sat down in my seat. The flight to Chicago ended up delay by an hour so I only had less than 30min to make my way to my connecting flight. Good thing I've been doing cardio training all winter!! I ran like you wouldn't believe and didn't even lose my breathe. I just have to brag, don't I?

My first day here have been rather uneventful, skating-wise. I have yet to meet up with any of my friends so I took the opportunity to wander around South Beach, eating and shopping along the way. You can check out some of my pictures here or browse directly in the following slideshow.

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 Possibly Jetsetting Lifestyle?

As I approach the end of 2007, my travel plan for 2008 is already taking shape. One of the benefits since I took up skating is the opportunity to travel. In addition to traveling to out-of-town races, I also travel to cities I've never been before for fun skating events. Let's take a look at some of my upcoming trips:

January: A few friends and I have been thinking of making a weekend trip to Ottawa. Let's be honest: we are all curious about the floor which the Ottawa Inline Skating Club practices on for indoor. Since they have changed their guest skating policy, it looks like we can drop in and skate with our friends in Ottawa! If the weather holds, the plan is to take to the outdoor long track oval on Sunday or perhaps even some fun skating on the canal. Just think, a car with four people and packed with at least eight pairs of skates...

February: It's confirmed, I'm going to Great EsSkate in Miami. This will be a true test of how comfortable my Simmons really are and a great chance to log some miles! Despite of my friends' objection and teasing, I will order the brake attachment for my Cado Motus frame. Yeah, you heard me, I want a brake on my fancy speed skates. I would rather endure the teasing than to be covered with road rash.

March: It's still tentative but some skating friends have expressed interest in organizing a skiing/snowboarding trip. We may end up going to Sugarbush or Smuggs. We'll see how that goes.

April: Outdoor season kicks off with Run For Reach half marathon in Ottawa! Granted, it's likely going to be a day trip for me.

May: Provincials?

July: Nationals?

September: In addition to the Ottawa Festival, there's no doubt in my mind that I will be heading back to Duluth. I have set an ambitious goal next year which is one of my motivations in the off-season.

Last but not least, I have just received a super exciting piece of news. I don't have any details yet other than the fact that my work may take me to the southern hemisphere. I don't even have a clue when and how long that is going to be. If it's summer over there, I will bring my skates. If it's winter, I will bring my snowboard. I can't contain my excitement though at the same time, I do wonder how that is going to affect my training. However, since I have so little information at this point in time, I will just savour the anticipation and worry about the logistics later.

California Dreaming

My custom boots are estimated to be done in three months so that means they should be available some time in December. Shipping cross border would likely cost me extra money on custom, tax, shipping, and quite possibly handling fee. So I thought it may not be such a bad idea to ship them to my friend ML in California. Since a few of my friends will be visiting ML around that time of the year, I can probably ask them to take the boots back to Toronto.

Wait a minute, what if I go to visit ML myself? It would be a great opportunity to visit my favourite puppy Momo and ML's baby. Besides, I have enough mileage points to get myself a free flight. Most importantly, the weather will still be nice enough to skate outdoors over there in December! ML told me that it's a quiet neighbourhood with little traffic and a speed limit of 30km/h. Doesn't it sound like a perfect solution to cure mid-winter blues?

Skating In Hong Kong

A few months ago, SF asked me if I know of any good places to skate in Hong Kong. As some of you may know, I spent the first 12 years of my life living in Hong Kong and I still go there occassionally to visit family. However, I haven't really pay attention to skating back then so the only information that I could offer was some popular cycling and multi-use trails.

By some coincidence, I stumbled upon the website for Checkers Sport Club, the largest inline speed skating club in Hong Kong. Not only do they have regular practices, they also have their very own indoor rink, pro shop, and private speed skating lessons! Many of their coaching staff are also members of Team Bont Hong Kong. Looking at their many club pictures, Checkers has a large kids program too with the young club members racing in many regional meets. Now I have one more place to visit next time I go to Hong Kong!

In Europe...

I'll be in Barcelona and London for the next two weeks for vacation. If you like to read about my travels and food-related adventures, keep your eyes on Dessert By Candy! I'll return to regular training schedule mid June.

(Not Really) Mega Miles Training Camp

EG had been planning for a week-long Mega Mile training camp at Rondeau Provincial Park for a while. As much as I enjoy skating, I knew that it would simply be painful for me to match him mile by mile. Instead, I came to the training camp with a rather lighthearted attitude...in fact, I was more excited about the camping part than the skating part of the trip!

After an easy three hour drive, KN and I arrived at the campground on Sunday morning in good spirits. We immediately threw on our skates and the four of us skated a lap on the very smooth and quiet road in the park. I love how the road goes right between the marshes and the trees! The guys kept me in the pack for the first lap but the speed inevitably picked up in lap two. I dropped out of the pack and skated back to the campsite and it wasn't long before everyone came back anyway. After a leisurely lunch, we explored a bit in the park. I particularly liked the beach which stretched on and on in the distance.

One of my favourite pictures from this trip: The TISC Kung Fu Masters

KN enjoyed a quiet moment at the beach.

Monday was a rather uneventful day as EG and I woke up to the sound of falling rain on the tent. It kept on raining and raining until early afternoon. Luckily, EG planned for a recovery day anyway. When the sun finally came out, we went out for an easy skate which turned out to be a useful one-on-one coaching session for me. I worked on correcting my problem with weaving and EG asked me to setdown along a straight line. Upon the setdown, head/sternum/knee/foot should align vertically. In addition, I should drive my knee forward as if I was kicking a soccer ball. This additional forward thrust should allow me to add more power without doing more work. I still have problem with coordinating between delaying my setdown to avoid two-footing and minimize weaving. It was almost as if I could only do one but not both at the same time. Hmmm...

Tuesday was EG's big day of 10hr skate. I had no intention to skate with him for the entire duration anyway so I slept in a bit and had a good breakfast. By the time I was ready to skate, he had already skated three laps. It was a little windy but tagging along behind EG made it easy for me. Somewhere along the way, it occurred to me that I only learned to stay in the draft since last August's Support Your World Team Clinic. And it was really since the beginning of this outdoor season that I am finally comfortable to skate close enough to feel the benefit of the draft. I skated with EG on alternating laps so by the time he completed his 10 hours of skating, I skated 75km. I think this is the most distance I've ever skated in a single day.

Post-Race Overeating

I realized today that post-race overeating is a bit of a problem for me, especially when I travel out-of-town for competitions with friends in the club. After the marathon in Duluth, we had a big Tex-Mex lunch at Little Angies (oh the fat) followed by an encore barbeque dinner at Famous Dave's (yet more fat). Breakfast on the next morning for an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet at the revolving restaurant in the Radisson Hotel. A little excessive, don't you think? We really didn't exercise all that much to justify burning off all these food...

ML and I drove to the Thunder Bay airport for our flights back home immediately after brunch. The weather was not great and we were running late with merely minutes to spare before last call for boarding. I didn't want to be delayed by another 10 minutes of security check by my cargo pants so I came up with the bright idea that I would wear my skating tights under my cargo pants and start stripping at the security check. Of course, that also meant I had to change at the back seat of the car while ML continued to drive. I don't know if it was intentional but ML decided to make a sharp turn while I was fumbling with my clothes. I slid across the back seat from one end to the other and slammed my head against the door. OUCH!!!! Nobody ever told me that I need my bike helmet here of all the situations...

As soon as we arrived at the airport, I took off to the check-in counter while ML returned the rental car. Just like contestants in Amazing Race, he came back just as I finished checking-in. Unfortunately, since we were so late for the check-in, we were told that our seats were given away so worst case scenario was we need to board the next flight instead. No big deal. We breezed through security (my little tactic worked well) only to discover that ML left one of his bags in the rental! He ran back to pick up his bag while I waited anxiously at the gate. As soon as he left, Air Canada told me that they had seats for us on our original flight. Luckily, ML made his way back on time and we returned to Toronto as planned.

Unfortunately, our luggage did not arrive. Air Canada apparently did not load our bags so we have to rely on their luggage track service. Sigh, I am now left with no bearings. Practice on Tuesday ought to be interesting.

Shopping At The Expo

We arrived in Duluth today after a flight to Thunder Bay and a drive across the border. It was rather uneventful except for the fact that I was wearing my favourite cargo pants (aka road trip pants) which set off the metal detectors left right and center. I ended up being frisked for over 10 minutes...

As soon as ML and I met up with GC at the Hawthorn Suites, we made a beeline to the expo to pick up our race kits and some serious shopping. Although this is not my first time competing at a large inline event, it is definitely my first time visiting an expo. At the National Capital Marathon, I arrived the night before the race and received my race kit from friends at the club. This time around, I had no intention to miss the great shopping opportunity! I tagged along with ML and checked out some new skates. I ended up with a new skinsuit, a set of Hyper Mach 2 wheels, spacers, and a skate tool.

We were going to have a carb-loaded dinner at an Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, that was also the idea of half the town...so we ended up hunting for all the measly carb options in a barbeque restaurant. Of course, being the good student that I am, I tried my hardest to follow coach EG's order of drinking 2L of Gatorade on the evening before race day. I ended up with about 1.5L of ice water before calling it quits...I hate Gatorade.

Weather's looking iffy for tomorrow morning, I hope it's not going to rain.

One Step Forward, Many Steps Back

Just got back from a weekend of racing in Ottawa with the RSO race on Saturday and Ottawa Inline Festival on Sunday. I am happy with my results at the track which has shown significant improvement since my last RSO race. However, my first attempt at a marathon on Sunday was also my first DNF. Long story short, I did not eat enough and basically couldn't skate after the first 21km. Between the rain, wind, and slick road, I was soaked, cold, hungry, and miserable. I'll write more about the details of the weekend in the post tomorrow.

As soon as I got home, I had to lay out all my stuff to dry and clean the bearings. That took a long time and I was dozing off as I swish the bearings in the cleaning solution.

I'm seriously worry that I will not be able to skate 42km at Duluth in less than two weeks. Although my legs are tired from two days of racing, I will drag myself over to Hamilton Beaches tomorrow for some skating. I need to know that I can skate 42km before I get on the plane. This is a confidence issue that I must sort out.

Clinic Recap Part 1

What a great weekend I enjoyed at the Support Your World Team Clinic! Let me first recap the serious stuff we did and then I'll fill you in on all the hijinks that happened in between.

Friday was informal skating sessions around the beautiful banked track as we please. I was still recovering from two late nights on Wednesday and Thursday so I didn't skate as much as I would like to. However, it was good to refresh my memory on weight-transfer and leading with the shoulders.

Saturday we began with jogging around the track for a brief warm-up and then we did some stretching. AJP led the first half of the stretching session with some static stretches which we held usually to a count of 20 (of course nobody counted seriously except for Mr. Pauley, as people yelled out random numbers/colours/names of fruit/names of soft drinks ...this pretty much sums up the tone for the entire weekend). Next, PD emphasized the importance of dynamic stretches. Some typical moves include side way kicks, ankle roll, and front/back kicks to ensure the joints are properly warm up.

Our first exercise of the day was to practice skating on different parts of the banked track. There are three paths on the track: low, middle, and high. Due to the different elevations, it feels totally different to skate low as oppose to skate high. This drill segued perfectly to the next item on the agenda which was passing. When the pack skate low, we pass from the middle. When the pack skate high, we pass from the middle. When the pack skate in the middle, we have a choice of passing low or high where each requires different timing and effort. In general, passing low is easy because a skater only needs to skate a shorter distance to overtake the pack. We can start to pass as soon as we enter the corner. Passing high is trickier because the skater needs to cover a longer distance than the pack. This is where the banked track comes in handy. The skater can take full advantage of the downward slope of the banked track if he starts to pass just before the apex of the corner. When done correctly, he should be ahead of the pack in the straighaway. Note that a skater does not need to open up too large of a gap between him and the pack after he made the pass.

Next, coach AP wanted us to practice duck walking around the track. We lift one leg with bent knee to waist level, open up the hip, and set the foot down with toes pointing out. As one gets more comfortable with this exercise, he should be able to increase the pace from walk to trot to run. This is an important learning drill for starts. During time trials and sprints, the ability to accelerate holds the key to success. The next drill was learning how to do starts. Coach AP and PD explained many common mistakes that inexperienced skaters make during formal time trials starts and the proper technique for doing starts. I'm afraid I can't adequately explain this in words so I would suggest you to check out Barry Publow's Speed On Skates instead. We practiced our starts over and over with coach timing our starts. Hmm, it was my first time doing starts and I did on average 3.10s. For comparison purposes, the faster skaters were putting in 2.08s times. I will come back and compare my time a year from now.

After lunch, we did 300m time trails using the start technique that some of us just learned. My time was under 45s. Pictures of our time trails are availabe here. Relays are also an important aspect in speedskating. After my crash in my first relay race way back in June, I'm still not comfortable with the relay push. On a banked track, the relay happens while exiting the corner in a downward slope for even more speed. I opted to sit out in this exercise.

On Sunday, we began the day with a road skate on a newly paved asphalt road. Since I'm the slowest skater in our pack of 10, the faster skaters took it down several notches to make sure we all stayed in a pack. Everybody told me before that to make the best of the draft, I need to skate close enough to the skater in front of me so that I can touch his back with bent arm. Well, it never made sense to me before until now because I usually can't even keep up to stay close enough for the draft. During our skate, the pack was going just fast enough that I could barely keep up. Whenever I skated close enough, I could at last feel the pull of the draft. It was awesome. AH was skating behind me and giving me pointers on how to skate in a pack. It was immensely useful.

After 7km of skating, we began the echelon drill. This is an effective way to share the work load between skaters in a good size pack. We basically have two lines of skaters where each skater travel into different positions of the pack in counter-clockwise manner. The key to safety is for everybody in the pack to synchronize the push. Since everyone skates so close together, an out of synch push can easily turn into a fall which I experienced first hand.

I was skating behind SZ for much of the road skate. It was absolutely wonderful because it was a great learning opportunity for me. Like coach EG said, one of the best way to improve your skating is to mimic better skaters by skating behind them.

We also did some acceleration in pairs. I partnered up with JS since we're most similar in speed. However, even so, I was still slower than him. This drill was hard as the speed of the pack eventually picked up and I couldn't keep up anymore. All in all, it was a really great session.

After lunch, I attended AJP's spinning class. Quite a good workout, I must say but I was distracted my the road rash on my left knee. This pretty much sums up all the training I did this weekend. I'll come back with another post on the silly stuff we did as well.

Thank you to all the world team members and the volunteers who made this event successful!

Support Your World Team Clinic

A friend of mine told me recently that practice doesn't make perfect--practice makes permanent. Well, I'm heading off to the Canadian Inline Training Center in Harriston now for a weekend full of skating. I'm hoping that all these practice will reinforce good techniques so that they will stay permanent.

See you on the banked track!

That's Three In A Row...

Weather has not been kind to us here in Toronto. Outdoor practice at TISC has once again been cancelled due to rain. That's the third consecutive practice that's been cancelled. I'm hoping for good weather this upcoming long weekend so that I can get in some good training.

My accomodation for the Ottawa weekend has been sorted out at last. Thanks to the help of ML and WB, I have a place to stay and a roommate to share the cost of accomodation. I'm very much looking forward to my first half-marathon.

My original plan this season was to simply train and get a feel of what it's like to skate with the people at TISC. The goal was to improve my technique and speed until I can keep up with the fitness group during practice. However, as the season unfolds, I can't help but be attracted to all the races. I know that my (lack of) speed probably means I'm not going to do well in the races. However, I would like to immerse in the atmosphere of competiting with all these skaters from starting line to the finishing stretch. Since I don't have any expectation from my performance other than completing the course, I think this season is a great opportunity for me to participate. Besides, the inline skating crowd is a closely knitted community and I'm getting to know lots of great people. I'm loving every minute of this.

Technorati: Ottawa Race Weekend

July Is All About Montreal

I'm going to spend two weekends this July in Montreal for races. For the weekend of July 15, 2006, I'll be skating with CS and JS's team for the 24hrs Inline Montreal race at Parc Jean-Drapeau. As the name suggests, this is a 24 hours relay race. One skater from our team of ten will be skating on the track for the duration of 24 hours. Our goal is to have fun and do our best to skate as many laps as possible during that time. I'm so excited that I'll be taking part in this event!

The very next weekend, our dragonboat team daBoat will be racing in Montreal for our end of season regatta. This is going to be tricky in terms of scheduling. This means I'll be driving or carpooling to Montreal on Friday July 14. After the race is done on Sunday July 16, I'm not sure I'll be okay to drive back to Toronto on the same day. Let's say I stay the night in Montreal to recuperate, that means it's highly likely I wouldn't be back in Toronto until late Monday. Our dragonboat team will leave for Montreal four days later on Friday July 21. The regatta will be on July 22 so I suppose I'll be back in Toronto either on the same day or on Sunday.

You see, with only three days home between the two events, it seems a little silly to do all these traveling. If it is not for the last on-water practice on Thursday, I think it would make a lot of sense for me to stay the week in Montreal and take a vacation. It's been years since I last visited this beautiful city and there are many places (okay, I really mean restaurants) that I would like to try. What to do?

Technorati: 24hrs Inline Montreal, Montreal