Lots of thoughts today.
About my push and technique. The realization I have is this. If I’m lifting something with a lever and put the fulcrum close to the load it’s an easier lift but I can’t lift it very far. To lift the same load farther and faster I’d move the fulcrum closer to me. I’ll have to push harder but I’ll get more lift.
That’s what’s different between my old push and my new one (which is getting closer to a normal speed skating push). My legs are more under me than out to the side and I’m emphasizing the high leverage part of the push. It requires more effort, but the result is more speed compared to the amount of movement.
Speaking of more effort; I need to redefine my goals (down there at the bottom of each skatelog post). For one thing, it’s the ninth of June and I’m nine miles short of my distance goal for the year. So, while I’ll still track distance, it isn’t very important to me right now.
My new priority is going fast. I’d like to get my marathon time below one hour forty minutes, i.e.; at an average speed of at least 16 m.p.h. Right now I can do 26 miles at an average speed of 14.5. I think I’ll pick one place to time myself and skate it once a week as a progress indicator. I’ll still track mileage, cause I’m anal like that, but I’ll be working more on drills and exercises than straight distance. Of course the definitive metric will happen while I have a timer chip around my ankle.
My current achilles heel is the hard part of a course. The part where I have to work. I can do 19 m.p.h. with peaks of 22 or 23 on the downhill side with a breeze behind me. But uphill or into the wind or on really rough road I fall apart. Instead of dropping back to 14 or so m.p.h. – which would be just fine with me – I pretty much die and drop down to under 10. My brain is saying: “Go legs, go!” and my legs yell back: “No, no, no!” Some of this is strength, some of it is stamina. I know there are exercises that will help, and also lots of interval workouts are in my near future. When I’m skating with the Texas Flyers on Tuesdays, I’m good for three or four laps. Then my legs turn to jello and I have to wait 15 minutes before I can even jump back in to the pace line.
Timo (God bless him!) will keep the speed down if he’s pulling. He aims for a pace that’s as fast as I can go but no faster. Casey is pretty gracious too. Tuesday nights will be a good indicator of how I’m doing developing stamina: when I can hang with the pace line for the whole hour I’ll officially consider myself not slow.
And while I’m revisiting goals, let’s talk about weight. I haven’t lost any this year. In fact, I’ve gained a pound or two. On the other hand, the reason I wanted to lose weight was I could reach down and pinch an inch on my belly, sides and back. I’ve lost some of that. Last summer I lost about two inches, going from a 33 or 34 waist in jeans to 31, and this summer 30′s are getting loose. The place I’m gaining is in leg muscle. I have bumps of muscle that didn’t exist before.
I realize this is an area that takes time too. Muscle doesn’t grow overnight and I need a lot more strength supporting my push.
I guess an easy-to-measure objective metric will be to get a tape and wrap it around my middle once a week. I have an inch or two more I’d like to lose. How about a goal of fitting comfortably in 28-inch waist jeans? That would be about the waist size I had in grade seven! Or I could go for the vanity goal of getting rid of the little pad of fat on my abs so you can see the muscle. (I have to insert a hahaha or lol here, cause that really is funny).
6/3: 28
6/6: 21
6/8: 21 on Katy + 7 with the Texas Flyers + 12 with Pegasus
6/9: 21
1985 km / 1234 miles YTD (goal: 2000 km / 1243 miles)
76.2 kg / 168 lbs (goal: 70 kg / 155 lbs)