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Location

Having skated with Blake and many others last summer at so many outdoor events, I am always looking forward to somewhere new and different to skate. I ran across this marathon a few months ago and have gotten all the details. I thought I would share with everyone. It seems like the marathon is set up for the more adventurous of us who like to race, myself not included, than those that skate outdoors for the pleasure, relaxation, scenery, exercise, etc...

Event info can be found at the following link:

http://www.active.com/page/Event_Details.htm?event_id=1541333

To follow up on my previous post, earlier in the summer, after I had started my hill training for T2T and A2A (Tour de Kale and Tour de Lions too, for that matter!), here are my conclusions about how I should expect my hill training to progress, based on training, performance and perception this year.

I've never raced the St Paul inline marathon (August 19th). Does anyone have any advice or tips for this race? Is anyone else racing or going to be there?

http://www.roller-dome.com/spim/

Not sure yet if I'm going to be able to take part this year, but it's not because I'm not yearning to. Most years I try to find some safer, park-like hills to see approximately how fast I can charge up and down 6.2 miles of hills before I sign up, just because I want to have a hope of beating my best time. However, it's almost impossible to duplicate the effort because it's held on a closed-course road, devoid of toddlers and dogs. Stone Mountain Park, GA, offers the best, similar conditions to estimate how long it'll take you to complete the US10K course.

Wow... What do you say after skating for 24 hours? Well, first off I want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to our AWESOME support team! Andrea, Maria, Renee, and Dawn -- YOU ROCK! In fact, we need to create a whole new verb that adequately describes how much you rock. And another BIG THANKS to Brian Shicoff for organizing everything, and to Lawrence for really making me earn that silver medal, and to Bryan McKenney for rounding out our team of Americans determined to fulfill Brian's dream of sweeping the podium... (lol)

Before I explain the workout, I wanted to explain my reason for trying this: to get better at hill climbing!

The word from Dave W last night on the phone was that Mark placed second overall in the Solo division of the 24-Hour skate race in Montréal QC at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Way to go Mark! I can't wait to hear how many miles he logged! Congratulations to the other participants, especially Brian S. Please let us know your stats and experiences, guys!

I'd like to start getting an idea of how many people will be taking my next workshop. It will be held on Saturday, August 18th. The location will most likely be the same as last time -- Reedy Creek Elementary School. The feedback from the first one was pretty good. I'd encourage anyone that attended the first one to post their thoughts so that others might sign up...

Whilst snooping around the personal finance and get-out-of-debt blogs, I tapped into the personal weight-loss blogs. In following the ADHD links to the maze of other such webpages, I found some funny blog titles, like "Over 40, in debt and overweight". Yes, in 2007 there are countless people still struggling in vain to lose excess weight. They all seem to believe that food deprivation and other people's idea of exercise are the only solutions. Will this hopelessly cruel and debilitating cycle ever end?

If your old or present boots feel as comfy as a memory-foam mattress, would you still (or have you ever) shell(ed) out $500+ for a new pair, because you like how they look?

I hesitate to use the four-letter word 'diet' here, as that connotates restriction, sacrifice and misery. I also hesitate to call myself an athlete! However, in this bodyweight equation and given the unusually high number of skate-training hours, let the athlete = EB.

After several years of seeing the Tour de Kale flyers and jerseys out and about in Greensboro, I had the pleasure this year of finally taking part in this very well-run event. Denton, NC is a little town out in the country, Southwest of Greensboro, and a few miles southwest of Tour de Lions country, i.e., slightly more mountain-side, i.e., slightly hillier. Distance options this year were 120k, 110k, 60k (which Blake and I skated), and 25k (which Andy skated). Tour de Kale offers cash prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd male and female, spread over 4 categories for the 'Summit Challenge', which includes a Bubba division (male over 200lbs). Price is $35 for pre-reg., $40 the day of, plus a $10 deposit on the timing-chip, to be reimbursed after you turn it back in again. For this you get a bib #, meal ticket, event T-shirt & sponsor goodie bag, 120k of support vehicles & rest stops, and a beautiful country course.  

A couple of nights ago, we were talking about laps times and speeds on the 1.6 mile loop at Country Park and I remarked that you could find average speed in miles per hour just by dividing 96 by the time in minutes. But I guess this might not be so obvious if you haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it.

Below is a series of emails about various helmet lights, in reverse order of posting date:

Huston: Bob's inquiry & my recent ventures in solo nightskating re-stimulated my search for lighting. Here's what I found:

From: Huston Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 3:12:02 PM Dave/Barry, thanks for the update. I was going to check out the road section on the Covenant Christian Century on Sat., but a big dog rudely jumped in front of me before I got there. I had no choice but to hit him, which propelled me over the handlebars & onto the pavement. So I spent the rest of the day at Floyd General being treated for a broken collarbone & rib. So no skating, cycling or dancing for me. So, I'm entertaining offers for my registration. Huston

What another satisfying, smooth and sufficiently challenging Tour de Lions event! We arrived for registration at 7.30am, grabbed some bananas and other carbs, plus coffee, all provided by the event and its volunteers. The weather was sunny but brisk at about 50 deg F.

Please register for my Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser...

Roadskater.net's Marcia Woodfield Inline Speed Skating Workshop, June 2, 2007 in Greensboro, NC.

Skate of the Union half marathon was my second outdoor race of the season. The race was held at a police driving training course and had one of the best surfaces I have ever skated on. It was such a smooth blacktop that my green Matters felt just a little bit too soft for it.

Here's a book to collect what we remember about Inline Speed Skating drills from Eddy Matzger workshops and other places (Barry Publow workshops, elsewhere). Please contribute! Feel free to ask questions.

After spending time with other skaters in speed boots lately, I have been feeling very fortunate to have a favorable foot-to-boot relationship! I spent probably 3-4 years putting my ankle bones through agony, purely so that I could skate in speed boots as opposed to rec boots (worth it!). So my feet have paid their dues and done their time.

 I've been knocking these rather trivial, large-scale thoughts around my head for some years now and wanted to write something about them. Last night, whilst watching 20/20, was the final straw! This post might complement KJG's questions in Monotony of Training.

The Triangle Skating community (and beyond) have been invited to participate in the OCS Bicycle Time Trial Series http://www.fsseries.com/time_trial_osc_bicycle.html The course will be at the Orange County Speedway (OCS) located in Rougemont, NC about 20 minutes north of Durham off 501. The course length will be 8 miles or 24 laps (but we have the option of doing a shorter distance). The track is .375 mile paved oval with 16 degree banking on the straight aways and 19 degree banking on the corners. The track is also 50 feet wide and with low banking will allow riders to ride anywhere on the track.

One of the participants of the Greensboro Eddy Matzger Roadshow, who was well on her way to getting the hang of the classic stroke, mentioned to me that she'd like to be able to do parallel turns, instead of A-Frame turns. I was an IISA certified beginners inline skate coach, so I helped her out. I wanted to post it somewhere so that she and others searching might see it.

Had a great time Sunday skating the Disney Marathon.  I'm disappointed in the Atlanta turnout though.  Only 3 ATL skaters that I could see.  We all skated in the same pack after a bit.  We had a bit of a problem getting a group organized, and didn't really have a cohesive group until almost the halfway point, when a group of people with St. Paul Marathon jerseys caught up to us, and we jumped in.  It probably would have been even better time if everyone was cooperating better.  The "St. Paul people" kind of just rotated among themselves, and we rarely got the chance to pull.  A leader would peel off, then insert themselves in the middle of the pack, trying to squeeze in.  I think we would have done better if we were able to do 1 or 2 minute pulls and rotate everyone.

It looks like a blast and I wish I could have been there. I found some photos and think I see Artem in some of them, but wasn't sure as I didn't know if he was going to this event...

http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2578809320054477580GGhCtF

I saw pics of Brian and Andrea, too.

And I love this one of deep, meaningful tunes in front of the porta-potties:

This weekend we had absolutely perfect weather for the first "Skate Strong" workshop here in the Triangle.  Partly sunny and 82 degrees made for a very comfortable day, if not a bit warm at times.  Smiles abounded at the end of the day, along with some mild sunburn...  :)

Alright, it's shaping up to be a fantastic weekend in the South, weatherwise. Temps up to 85 Deg F in the Atl., and Raleigh might see 80 on Saturday. Although there may be rain for New England and the mid-Atlantic states, Lansing should be a balmy 60 :-).

Hi to all. Some have asked about the workshop in Greensboro and I wanted to share some brief details.

We don't publish locations in advance publicly for several reasons, mostly so the workshop can maintain a bit of privacy. We'll almost certainly be at our previous location but I'll be checking that site and some others as traffic patterns and building zones have shifted somewhat.