Even though it was wet for most of the race, and the rain really came down hard for a few laps, I had a really fun race. Doing the full 100K actually felt easier (and was actually faster) than the 70K training skate that I'd done a week prior to the race ( Read more... )

Prudence or lack of will? I was halfway into a planned 80K skate today, when I decided that I was starting to feel pretty cold, and that my boot -- which is brand new and not broken in -- might end up bruising my foot. What went through my mind was: "I don't want to get sick again" (I had a cold over the weekend, which I'm just about over) and "if ( Read more... )

Body image: The way I feel about my body's aesthetic depends a lot on what I'm doing with it. I hadn't trained athletically much between may and September, and as a consequence, I started feeling pretty icky about my body. It felt (and looked) frail and too thin. To add a strange bit of insult to that injury, I don't have much body fat (usually a ( Read more... )

Inertia is more exhausting than actively moving forward. This is clearly true phsychologically, but as far as climbing hills on inline skates is concerned, I experience it at a very real physical level; if I decide I'm tired and need to slump down and take it slow up the hill, that takes way more energy than actively skating up the hill either by ( Read more... )

Did a single 9.6K lap today, 25'30. Slower than last night's 24'54, and much slower than my P.R. of 23'32, set on 6/16/08, when I was training more consistently ( Read more... )

I'd rather be as I currently am: a skater and involuntarily celibate, than the other way around, *that's for sure*. Learning to spin and jump on ice -- it's every bit as thrilling and fulfilling as good sex (and far more reliable). As good *vanilla* sex, that is ( Read more... )

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Dear friends,

It seems insanity has finally caught-up with me. I've registered to in-line skate the GodFather's 100K Challenge in California ( Read more... )

I'm posting a link to this video again, since I think it's sooo good. Really well edited to U2's "Beautiful Day", and the combination of the lyrics and the visuals are especially meaningful to me right now. Among other things, it perfectly expresses the idea: "this is why I skate", for whatever kinds of skating I do, and indeed the larger ( Read more... )

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2007/04/25/cate-blanchett-bob-dylan/Read more... )