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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
24 Hour Race (2010)-Montreal For this race I usually compile my weblog entries as a summary of the race and the events leading up to the race. Unfortunately I have lost the first entry or two because I inadvertantly erased the entire month of April from this file on my computer. Here is the short story: I told my fellow Flying Fossils that I would not be able to participate because of my back was too sore to skate and needed an operation. However I slowly came to the realization that it was rowing and not skaing that was preventing my back from getting better. In April I started to skate. . . May 31/10 Part of End of the Month Skating Report: Back in April, I told the Flying Fossils that I would not be able to participate this year but now I regret it. A few days ago I told them I would be a sub if anybody needed one. My guess is that, in the end, I will get to take part. It could be a fast year for the Fossils. There are a couple of recruits who are faster than me (by all reports) and last year I was the 3rd fastest. I am not sure about any other events because longer races hurt my hip so much. So far, the hip pain has been tolerable –in part because I found a good stretch. June 13/10 It is starting to look as though I will not be competing as a Flying Fossil this year. The roster is full and the likelihood that a position will become available is not that great. I can’t complain because at the time the team was looking for a commitment I had not skated in 7 months and not had any real exercise in several weeks. I suppose I should be happy that things have turned around so quickly. It would be nice if I could simply enter some other races but the marathons kill my hip now and I can’t put in the long skates that you need to get ready for them. That is why I like the 24. You skate your butt off for 8 minutes –but then you get a long rest where you can attend to any problems that arise. The event just perfectly fits with what I can still manage to do (skate fast –but only for short periods). June 22/10 I should thank Candy Wong. She invited me to join the TISC team for the Montreal 24 so I decided that it was time to see if the Fossils wanted me or not. . . I’m in with the Fossils –but I would have skated proudly for TISC if things had somehow worked out that way. The TISC skin suits look really good. It would have been nice to have one of those. June 30/10 Part of the End of the Month Skating Report: The big news for the month is that I will be back with the Flying Fossils this year. The 24 Hour race will be held on the Civic Holiday weekend. The team would seem to be about the same speed as last year –except that we are all a year older. Eight of the 10 skaters will be holdovers from 2009. An interesting addition will be Roger Olsen from California. July 21/10 It is getting close to the 24 Hour Race. This event will probably be my only competition this year –and it will mark only my second competition in the last 3 years. I was absolutely ecstatic after last year’s 24 but the vertebral compression fracture I suffered 2 weeks before the race eventually put an end to the 2009 season. I will never know for sure how I managed to muster such a good performance in such difficult circumstances but certain things are clearer now – more than a year after the injury and race. The compression fracture itself is not normally a problem with respect to skating. However, if the injury is acting up then it is hard to skate because it is very painful to go from skating position to vertical. I believe it is rowing (my new passion) that delayed the healing of my compression fracture for so long. After 7 months, (when I finally got an MRI) I still had a herniated disk at the site of the fracture. During this entire time I plugged away on my rowing machine 4 or 5 times a week. But, as soon as I stopped rowing the herniation started to heal itself and I have been feeling progressively better since February. This year’s 24 will be great from the viewpoint that my back will be in better shape but there is a downside as well. I have not been cross training on my rowing machine. Last year I expounded on a long list of things that made me skate so well. It may turn out that the cross training was one of the most important. This year’s results will be an indication. I intend to judge my results in comparison to the other 3 top skaters among the Flying Fossils -Alan, Cale and Larry. I would love to be as close behind (or ahead in Larry’s case) as I was last year. I will announce the results after the race. July 23/10 Last Monday, getting out of the truck at the end of the day to skate was the hardest thing I did. And I skated poorly (although this was almost a given at that point). I must have been sick because I certainly wasn’t over trained. Thank goodness my Wednesday workout was a good one. After 10 years I understand that there are high and low points in the training cycle. This is the case whether you follow a very scientific program or just wing it (I’ve done both). In any case, it seems to me that this is a pretty good time to be struggling (2 weeks and a few days before a big event). It is now time to do a psych job on myself. I am about to put on a new set of wheels. With the new wheels will come faster route times and extra confidence that my preparation for the 24 Hour Race has been adequate. July 30/10 Part of the End of the Month Skating Report I’ve only been doing 3-4 workouts per week but at least 2 of them will be pretty intense (for an old guy). I seem to be doing about as well as last year before the 24 Hour Race but the event is later this year and I was hoping for some “breakthrough” performances by now. A possible reason that it has not happened may be the fact that I have not been able to do anything on my rowing machine. Perhaps the main reason I did so well in last year’s 24 was the cross training. This year’s race will tell the tale. I will probably not skate at all on the long weekend. This will be part of my taper for the next weekend. As always, I want to be properly rested but at the same time –well tuned. After a few days off I will skate somewhat less intense workouts than normal in the few days before the big event. Aug 4/10 The hardest thing I do in inline skating is to taper before an important race. I really want to get out and hammer a couple of workouts beforehand. This is always good for the self confidence but not so good for the legs. I seriously feel that I may have overdone my taper for the 24 –so I am probably fine and will not be able to blame under training or overwork if I do not perform up to my own expectations. Montreal 24 Hour Race I had a great time at the Montreal 24 Hour Event this year. This was my first inline competition of any sort since last year’s event, 14 months ago. It was great to renew acquaintances with a multitude of skaters aside from the Flying Fossils. I followed my regular routine of driving most of the way to Montreal on Friday and driving in to the race track on Saturday morning. I got a bit stressed out when I sat on an expressway for almost an hour and only moved about a mile. I bailed out and ended up lost in Montreal but I got back on track by following the signs to the Casino. At the end of the race I had a similar (construction related) issue where I tried to follow a detour and ended up coming to a place where detour signs were pointing in two completely different directions. That pissed me off. I was lucky to find my way through that mess. I arrived to find that the course this year was to be partly on the narrow, rough and hilly path through the woods. We did this in 2007 and it is not fun for anyone. Oh well, I reasoned that it is the same for everyone and there was no point getting upset about it. However I think that some of my teammates may have had more difficulty with the change. The skating conditions were pretty good but not quite as ideal as last year. I can’t say the wind was strong but it was annoying and at times it seemed like a gale force wind coming home along the straightaway. This is the place where your legs are really starting to burn and where a wind in your face is devastating. One of the Fossils (Ken) was pointing out that last year the wind was helping everyone up the straightaway and this may partly account for last year's fast times. [Now that I am thinking about it, I remember doing a really fast lap (solo) last year and wondering if the wind had shifted at the exact right times to always be at my back]. As a team we stuck to our 10 man skating order for 5 rounds before breaking into 2 teams for the night. Like last year, I slept the early shift but unlike last year I ended up on the same sleep shift as Cale. Because Cale is willing to skate all night without a rest some Fossils benefit from being part of a 6 man rotation for 4 hours instead of a 5 man rotation for 4 hours. I was really happy to see the other guys starting to appear at 6am. My times were getting steadily worse by then. Being a “numbers guy”, I was interested in everybody’s lap times –not just my own. Without getting out a calculator, it seemed that Alan and Cale were struggling compared to last year and that Larry was skating really well. Since it was Larry, among all of the Fossils, whose times were most similar to mine in last year’s event, I had the feeling that I was not skating particularly well. In fact, I was skating well and edged out both Alan and Cale to end up posting the second highest average speed among the Fossils. Of course, Cale would have been faster if he had not done so darn many laps. I had one disastrous lap. A light rain shower hit at the very worst time for me. I rushed to put on a set of rain wheels that I had purchased years ago - but had never tried. They are only 100mm and I have been on 110s for 3 seasons. Between the slick track and new wheel size, I lost concentration on skating fast and posted a time of 10:11. My next worst time was 9:44. Right after my worst lap, I did my second best one: 8:52 (with some help) –on my final turn. My first lap was 8:47 (a straight pull). The rain came and went quickly and only hampered half the rotation. Peter and John skated as I would have expected from their efforts in previous years. Stephen and Ken showed up a little out of shape; Stephen because he is battling injuries and Ken because he has been too busy to train much. Brian, a new Fossil, did really well and could easily beat me next year. Roger Olsen, the other new guy, did a fantastic job –especially considering his 68 years. Roger posted an average lap time of 9:39 and narrowly beat out Peter as the 6th fastest Fossil. -- August 11/10 I have had some time to reflect on the 24 hour Race. With all things considered I did very, very well. I really can’t figure out how I could manage to post a faster overall average speed that both Cale and Alan. I could explain one by assuming that they had an off day but to surpass the results of both these superhuman skaters can only mean that I did really well. As I have said before, I thought I was not doing so great because Larry was doing so well. I am already looking forward to next year’s 24 Hour Race. I think I will volunteer to be the team leader.
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