A Cologne race summary: good end to a bad season
On the basis that: I had a cold, I hadn't skated seriously since, uh, Goodwood, and I hadn't skated at all in speedskates for about six weeks (except for the LFNS two days ago, when I skinned my knee)[*], my game plan was "don't louse up the start quite as badly as last year, but then let's just go round quietly at the back and stay out of trouble". So I guess I was quite fortunate that the line I was following round came in at ~1.17 and put me within 30s of my PB. Finished a fairly disappointing season on a cheery note.
Short race report: started about four rows back, maybe: most of those ahead were teams. Start itself was one of those "tiptoe over the line" experiences, then up the bridge where I found I didn't have quite the gojuice that I usually look forward to on uphills, then reattached myself hear the back of a big line. Stayed there for the duration. It was surging a lot on corners (slow right down to go round then accelerate out again) so a bit of concertina effect which I added slightly to, but I wasn't feeling aggressive enough to push up into the gaps in front: it was easier to push the skater in front into them. Paid the price for my laziness on the approach to the end when I was boxed in by too many people to sprint up the hill (though see excuses above: wouldn't have been going much faster anyway if I had had the space)
Still, best time (1:17:28) of all my races this year. All, er, four of them. And in the aftermath, I'm actually interested in skating again, which is a first for any time in the past six months or so.
While catching up on Andrew Love's blog, I found this , which is great
[*] "A friend came in from out of town! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! It wasn't my fault!"
