Onward

Last night, realizing that the big lead up and adventure
of the BRC in Roanoke is one to put away in the drawer,
it occurred to me that Nationals is less than 4 and a half
months away.
Ichee Mama!
Our coach has ramped speed practice down several notches
and is turning us towards more technique and strength work
in preparation.
This includes beginning practice with new warm up exercises
off skates, and afterwards booting up and taking to the track in
the opposite direction.
Now indoor speedskating is all about, "go fast, turn left".
I've been going that direction for 3 years.
Changing is like going to Europe for the first time and
having to drive on the other side of the road.
Some habits are just hard to break.
Amazingly, it's not as difficult as I thought it would be.
Not like I don't stink at it, but considering it took me
years to learn how to scooter push with my right foot,
I'm shocked I can do anything close to it with my left.
Five or ten minutes going "right", works that quad big
time, and the right glute along with it.
Good stuff though.
For a switch we did 100 laps at the end of practice and
I thought our coach had lost his mind.
The pace was kept down so as many people as possible
could stay in for the whole thing, and I was happy that
one of them was me.
We each cycled through as leader every 5 laps.
Being the next to last person on the countdown,
I wanted my "5" of 95 to be strong, put my mind to it
and made it so.
Boy did my hamstrings feel it when we were finished.
I had a hard time standing up straight as we rolled it out..
Monday we start weight training in earnest.
Coach has put much work into buying and setting up a
weight room in his basement for the Team to use.
With my lower back on the fritz I wasn't able to participate
before the BRC.
It wasn't worth the risk of making matters worse,
but now I can get to work.

Spent almost 9 hours yesterday in the file room at the
Ford dealership whittling down the huge back log of RO's
that need to be sorted and put away.
Didn't have as much to show for it by the end of the day
as I would have liked, it's very slow going, and hell on your
hands.
By the looks of it I have several months of Saturdays ahead
of me to get caught up.