Napa Valley bound!

After majorly falling off the workout wagon - I didn't work out the week prior to Apostle, the week after Apostle; or last week - (I did one painful 25 mile skate, a 6 mile bike ride, a few short walks and that's about it) - I think I'm getting back on track. I guess I hit some sort of plateau or something; or I just got burned out - with a little post-race letdown thrown in there for good measure. The key is to get BACK on the wagon and not get too used to being a lazy bum... That is where I am at right now.

I skated yesterday, for the first time since my disastrous outing last weekend. I did a full heat mold on my skates Friday night and that seemed to help a bit. I am thinking I'll do one more full mold and try to press the two pressure points on the ankles out some. I skated just over 27 miles without any major pain in the toe box area; I just had some issues w/ my left inner ankle and just a touch on the right outer ankle. I will do one more heat mold tonight focusing on those areas and then [hopefully] skate 2 more outings before Napa. The weather here has NOT been skate-friendly; it's either blazing triple-digit hot; or violent thunder storms.... I should at least get in a 10-15 mile skate on Wednesday morning, since it's the 4th of July and I'll be off work.

So if you've been following my blog for any length of time, you've probably figured out that I tend to share - a LOT. Blogging is therapeutic for me, and I also hope that following my journey might help any other skaters with theirs. If you hit a wall, or experience a set-back - you're not alone. I thought I was alone with my custom boot issues but I've discovered that I'm not. It's a bit disheartening, the whole reason I sprung for customs was so that I WOULDN'T have to tweak then nine ways from Sunday to get them to fit. I don't understand why I have to. It's frustrating as hell but I am determined to figure out a way for my boots and I to skate in harmony. I refuse to give up.

The Napa Valley inline marathon is exactly one week from today; and I have set a time goal just to keep me from dogging it. Don't get me wrong, dogging it was kind of a nice change of pace in Apostle; but I do need to push myself. My time goal is 1:35 - hopefully that is realistic without having any idea what the course is like. Having that number in the back of my mind should help keep me from getting too lazy along the way. I'm really looking forward to the weekend, we have a lot of really fun things planned! The race will only be part of the whole package. I'm really excited!

It's so funny, the only time I ever traveled prior to participating in the inline marathons was to visit family. We never really went anywhere. I love that I get to see new places and make new friends. That is as much fun to me as the skating! I will be skating with a whole new group of skaters in California and I cannot wait to meet them. I know that this event is smaller, and there is a good chance I'll be doing a lot of the race solo. I think I would rather do that than get in a slow paceline. Just my feeling. I know that many of my skater friends would disagree. But by tagging along in a slow paceline in Apostle, I dogged it. Big time. *shrug*. Every race is a learning experience. I just don't want to repeat the mistakes I made in Texas or at Apostle. Learn and grow... But first things first - get these damn boots to stop hurting me!