Need to work on core muscles.  They were hurting some on the last lap.

460 km / 286 miles YTD  (goal: staying alive through 2011)

375 km / 233 miles YTD  (goal: staying alive through 2011)

I am essentially doubled-up on work this year, with two major, simultaneous projects.  I’m still skating a little, but nothing like the last couple years.  It’s the middle of March and I’m still working off fat from last year’s holiday season (I’m taking that as motivation for moderation in this and subsequent years).  It may be my best year ever financially – which is much needed after the giant sucking sound of the last 10 years.  On top of all that I have some personal issues that I won’t dump on you, but which will mandate reorganizing some of my time.

Let’s see.  I did the finish 2010 by doing the Houston Marathon, with substantial help from Bill-from-Houston.  Bill pulled, cheer-led, and cajoled  me through the second half of the race after he finished his half.  The rest of the Texas Flyers did the donut event – I hear Johnny Chen can consume substantial quantities of donuts – and I’m thinking I might do that event this year too (sorry Justin!).  Unless they’re on different days – which would be cool!

I doubt I’ll make the Roundrock Road Rash this April.  I’m too young to have a 21-year old daughter but, in fact, I do have one and she’s getting married on April 15.  My other  thought is that I may need the relaxation of subjecting my out-of-shape body to 26 miles of humiliation two days after sending my firstborn on her honeymoon.  If so it will be a last-minute decision.

I suspect that going dark for several months has lost me the regular readers I had, but thanks for hanging on if you’re reading this!

185 km / 115 miles YTD  (goal: staying alive through 2011)

2546 km / 1582 miles YTD  (goal: 2000 km / 1243 miles – kinda blown out of the water, eh?)

78.5 kg / 173 lbs  (goal: 70 kg / 155 lbs – not gonna happen this year)

10-12 – 12 miles  – Pegasus Flyers Tuesday Downtown Skate.  Beautiful weather so we had 23 skaters and 2 cyclists.

10-8 – 21 miles on Katy Trail

May try the Thursday Night Downtown Skate tomorrow.  Still 12 miles but a different route and a faster pace.

2501 km / 1554 miles YTD  (goal: 2000 km / 1243 miles)
79.4 kg / 175 lbs  (goal: 70 kg / 155 lbs – not gonna happen)

I need to get in a rhythm of skating and working out on alternate days.  A day is coming – probably in the next few weeks – when life will settle down enough that I can actually have some rhythm and normalcy to it.

I have – or at least, had – a handful of regular readers and only get a lot of hits when I write something of interest to the search engines.  At least a couple of you regulars pinged me to ask if I’d dropped off the face of the planet or something.

No, but almost.  Life just got really busy.   And , though I hate to admit it, there are things in life other than skating. I didn’t stop, it’s my major form of exercise, but I cut down to once or twice a week.  And this blog went wanting, as did several others I write.

Anyway, I’m back.  I’m trying to get enough legs under me to do Houston next month. The same busy-ness that caused the drastic cutback in my skating provoked an eat-whatever’s-handy diet that put on a bunch of weight.  I’m hanging just below 180 where I was about 10 pounds lighter the last year and a half.  I know the diet-and-exercise combination that works for me, and I know I need to do it.  Probably in two more weeks I’ll start that in earnest.

If you happen to be one of my regular readers, I apologize for being gone so long.  I’m starting back into regularly chronicling my skating obsession and it’s effects on my life.  I hope you’re doing well too!  If you’re a skate-blogger I’ll get caught up on my reading pretty soon and probably leave you a comment.

9-30 – 21 miles on the Katy
10-2 – 32 miles on White Rock Lake
10-5 – 12 miles  – Pegasus Flyers Tuesday Downtown Skate
10-8 – 21 miles on Katy Trail

2449 km / 1521  miles YTD  (goal: 2000 km / 1243 miles)
80.7 kg / 178 lbs  (goal: 70 kg / 155 lbs – not gonna happen)

You can tell a lot about how you’re skating from your wheels.  I rotate mine every 50 to 75 miles, and these are just before rotating.

The front wheels, at the far end, still have a lot of wear.  This is partly from pushing, but I also have to brake with my wheels a lot when I skate Katy Trail, so I’d attribute some of the front wheel wear to that.

The thing that has changed as I’ve improved my push is the rear wheel.  Notice the broad lower-angle wear on them, especially my right skate (on your left)?  That’s a good thing!  It is not so good that my left skate isn’t as evenly worn though – a sign I’m relying on my right leg strength and giving lefty a free ride.

I wonder if there’s a good drill or exercise to help even those out?  Should I skate a whole workout on my left leg once a week to remind him he’s part of the team?  Idk.  Maybe one of you smart people has an idea?

My favorite part of Tuesday night is the two and a half mile sprint up Katy Trail, toward the end of the skate.  This week Timo was pulling, I had the tail, and Elizabeth was sandwiched in the middle.  She did an amazing job of hanging on and skating well for almost two miles at about 15 m.p.h.  (I’d never seen her skate that fast).  Then she was dragging and Timo was looking impatient so I followed him for a half mile at 17 m.p.h.  It was as good as it gets for me.  Smooth pavement.  I had a good low skating position and was pushing strong.  I know Timo could have bumped it up 2 or 3 m.p.h. and dropped me, but I appreciated his grace.

I could really feel how important ankle strength is.   It’s one of the things I’d like to work on at the gym.  Even when my legs have more to give, I’m hosed if my ankles won’t hold me up!

I’m joining 24-Hour Fitness today, btw.  I want to work on leg and core muscle strength and (this is the biggest benefit) they’re all over town so I’ll always have a place to shower up after a skate!

Short intervals tonight at RTP, probably around 7:00.

6-15: 12 miles at Los Colinas with the Texas Flyers
6-14: day off
6-13: 14 miles at Rockwall Technology Park

avg. speed for 26.2:  (goal: 16 m.p.h. – a bit unrealistic, really)
2070 km / 1286 miles YTD  (goal: 2000 km / 1243 miles)
76.2 kg / 168 lbs  (goal: 70 kg / 155 lbs – not gonna happen)

• I was out of energy (all I’d eaten was a cookie in the morning)
• my average speed was below average (13.4 mph)
• I had emptied a 1.5 liter CamelbaK
• my shirt and shorts were soaked like I’d just been swimming

It wasn’t all that hot (80 F / 27 C), but the humidity was around 75% – more typical of Houston than Dallas.

In other news, I had a good idea about a more local place to skate.  Rockwall (where I live) has pretty much nothing.  There is a trail at Harry Meyers park, one over by the Y, and one on Horizon and 549 – but none are very adequate, especially for real training.  Duck Creek (in Garland) is nice – something like White Rock Creek trail – but again it’s better for a casual skate than heavy wheel burning.

I was thinking about the spot in Las Colinas where the Texas Flyers practice.  It’s in an all-business area.  Several major corporations have offices on both sides of the street, but almost everyone has left for home at 6:00 p.m. when we skate.  I was trying to thing of a comparable location in or near Rockwall.

The idea came to me of the Rockwall Technology Park at State Highway 276 and FM 549.  It’s almost the same sort of deal; all business, no  retail or residential.  And except for the morning and evening “rush hours”, there is hardly any traffic anytime.  I drove it this afternoon and the easiest loop is 0.9 miles.  If I had my choice that would be 3 or 5 miles instead, but the concrete looks good and it’s 25 miles closer than Katy Trail.  So I plan to skate it soon – maybe as early as tomorrow morning if I don’t go on the Pegasus or Texas Flyers’ skates.

Now I’m off to make a vege shake (a.k.a.: blended salad) so my body can recover for whichever form of abuse I decide to throw at it tomorrow.

avg. speed for 26.2:  (goal: 16 m.p.h.)
2008 km / 1248 miles YTD  (goal: 2000 km / 1243 miles)
76.2 kg / 168 lbs  (goal: 70 kg / 155 lbs) [I've given up on this.  I'm gaining weight overall as I put on muscle.]

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)