The Bonts w/ the 105 87A Mayhems. My new favorite set up!
Ah, the Northshore inline marathon. The biggie. The race that all of the other races have been leading up to. Northshore also marks the end of my 2012 season - it's my last race of the year. (I was going to try to do Houston, but financially it just isn't going to happen.) I am very excited to skate Northshore again - it will be an excellent cap to my skate season...
And what an interesting season this has been... It started out with me so fired up about my new boots; only to discover that there would be a very brutal period of those boots breaking ME in. (They almost broke me PERIOD!) Blood, sweat, tears; weird bony knobs on my feet where there were none before; scars from the boots wearing through the skin, excruciating foot ball pain so intense it gave me nausea, having to re-train my muscles to skate in a lower crouch; moments of feeling like giving up, chucking my skates into a closet, and switching back to the comfortable, reliable K2's....
But I didn't do that. I kept skating. I did 2 full heat molds. I kept skating. I struggled with some anxiety and confidence issues; things I attributed back to not having a heel brake and the fact that I skate on a highly congested bike trail. I'm finally feeling confident again and not so focused on every single possible 'what if' scenario. I'm learning how to stop even at the higher speeds and that has increased my confidence. I'm feeling more comfortable in the boots and that too, has increased my confidence. I tried 105 wheels again and actually had success with them, so I will be training and racing on 105's next year. (I'm doing Northshore on the 105 Mayhems as well.)
Over the past couple of weeks, skating has become fun again. I am extremely aware of my form and when I get tired and start skating sloppy - things start hurting. I have to be diligent. It's like negative reinforcement designed to keep me in good form! But I have relaxed again. I smile a lot when I'm on the trail. I pass a lot of bikes and I get a huge rush out of that. (I especially love it when I draft a bike and the cyclist keeps looking back in disbelief.) Luckily most of the cyclists I encounter are very cool with that and with me - I've had negative experiences in the past with cyclists who do not like skaters. I guess giving them a run for their money earns me some respect or something. Ha!
I've also finally managed to get socks to work - HALLELUJAH! I will say that I so do not like skating barefoot. I sweat way too much. Even though my feet don't have much room to move around, they still felt like they were sliding around and it was disconcerting. The socks keep my feet more stable and that makes me feel like I can dig in more when I push out. I'm waiting on some new socks to try from the Skate Now shop (I'll blog about those once I try them out, I have high expectations of them!) That was the last piece of the puzzle as far as getting me to a point where I feel comfortable and enjoy skating again. I currently skate w/ the ultra thin Ezeefit booties and the dry max ultra thin running socks. I think I can actually go back to the thicker Ezeefits because there is some sloppiness around my ankles. If that makes sense. That is probably due to the heat mold - I did that with the thicker booties as well as a pair of socks. Either way - almost there...
I'm skating Wave B and I'm feeling pretty confident. I'll probably skate 4-5 more times before leaving for Duluth; one more long one (even though I totally have the distance down) and some short ones with a focus on intervals. I've been managing to average 14 mph on my outings - last year my average was 12. My goal for Northshore is to beat my time from last year (1:34). I'll be happy with anything faster than that....
For my skater friends who are going to Duluth - I will see you all in 10 days! Can't wait!! For everyone else - here's hoping my Northshore follow up is all good!
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