mission.japan

Another twenty miles at my target pace went into the spreadsheet today. That’s the longest I’ve gone at that pace. If all goes well I’ll reach my goal of a marathon distance in a few weeks.

I’ve actually learned a few things about distance skating during these past few weeks of working towards a marathon. One is to watch what I eat in the 24 hours preceding my skate. Pasta, bread, and fruit work well, but if I eat something too heavy I’m guaranteed to burn out early. (Of course I knew this when I was involved in soccer, but skating has reminded me of this particular rule.)

Another is to alternate between resting my arms on my legs and putting them on my back in a more aerodynamic position. Aerodynamics probably has very little to do with my skating, but alternating seems to help my back last longer in a skating tuck.

Third is that a good arm wave can help to maintain cadence and shave seconds off without burning too much energy. I try to increase my pace over the last five laps and finish the last tenth of a mile in an all-out sprint, and waving my arm(s) helps with that. I have no idea how it works, but it does. Looks cool, too.

The fourth thing I’ve learned is that it pays to be more active when dealing with people. Since my last fall two weeks ago I’ve started using hand motions to tell people coming towards me where I want them to go (if they appear indecisive, that is). It also helps to shout, “Sumimasen!” (“Excuse me!”) if I’m coming up on a group of people who can’t see me and are taking up the entire road. So far I have a 100% success rate with these two precautions, and it makes skating in the Sports Park at moderately crowded times (such as Saturday afternoon) possible again.

Along the way I’ve actually made some friends. When I’m skating against the clock I always skate alone, but frequently there’s a group of skaters practicing off to one side—things like backwards skating, cone slaloms, and so on. I worked up the courage to introduce myself to them last Sunday, and since then I’ve seen them two or three more times. Mr. Miyake seems to be the regular, and there are several people (adults and kids) besides him whose names I don’t know yet. Tonight after finishing my twenty laps I skated with them for fifteen or twenty minutes before sunset. If I can find a good opportunity (like maybe tomorrow afternoon after lunch) I’d like to give them a church flyer and invite them to our next Sports Day on the 29th.

If that works out I can at least feel a little bit better about skating. With the number of hours I spend skating (along with prep and recovery time) it would be nice to have some connection with the ministry here. Now if only I could find some other speedskaters so I could have some drafting partners.