Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Here are the raw results from the first day of US national Championships. In the order the races happened along with pictures of the winners. Today and tomorrow are the Allaround, sprinters race Friday & Saturday.

Women’s 500m

1. Jessica Smith 41. 04
2. Maria Lamb 41.12
3. Anna Ringsred 41.67
4. Catherine Raney 41.82
5. Ericka Hawke 42.43
6. Mia Manganello 42.58
7. Ashlee Barnett 42.6
8. Netanya Mintz 44.43
9. Rebekah Dyrud 44.72
10. Heidi Shockley 44.82
10. April Medley 44.82
12. Lisa Hambly 46.27
13. Hannah Dyrud 46.62
14. Carla Langenthal 49.26

Mens 500m

1. Shani Davis 36.52
2. Chad Hedrick 37.6
3. John Loquai 37.77
4. Kreg Greer 37.83
5. Ronald Macky 38.2
6. Nate Defranco 38.62
7. Michael Stein-Stewart 38.63
8. Daniel Frederick 38.72
9. Mitchell Whitmore 38.76
10. Paul Dyrud 38.9
10. Liam Ortega 38.9
12. Eric Cepuran 39.0
13. Charles Leveille 39.09
14. Matt Hotchkiss 39.11
15. Daniel Beck 39.46
16 Justin Stelly 39.70
17. Brandon Andrews 39.75
18. Patrick Meek 39.97
19 (reskate after fall) Matt Plummer 40.57
20. Keith Carney 41.22

Women’s 3000m

1. Catherine Raney 4:14.46
2. Anna Ringsred 4:19.84
3. Maria Lamb 4:22.06
4. Mia Manganello 4:28.93
5. Ericka Hawke 4:34.92
6. Jessica Smith 4:40.57
7. Ashlee Barnett 4:42.55
8. April Medley 4.43.66
9. Melissa Dahlman 4:48.75
10. Netanya Mintz 4:52.08
11. Heidi Shockley 4:55.8
12. Hannah Dyrud 4:56.97
13. Lisa Hambly 4:59.59
14. Carla Langenthal 5:09.77 (fall)
Rebekah Dyrud (dq)

Mens 5000m

1. Shani Davis 6:24.93
2. Chad Hedrick 6:25.47
3. Charles Leveille 6:46.51
4. Paul Dyrud 6:49.21
5. John Loquai 6:57.85
6. Justin Stelly 6:59.46
7. Daniel Frederick 7:01.43
8. Liam Ortega 7:03.02
9. Patrick Meek 7:09.54
10. Kreg Greer 7:09.83
11. Eric Cepuran 7:18.09
12. Nate Defranco 7:19.4
13. Ronald Macky 7:19.45
14. Keith Carney 7:19.57
15. Matt Plummer 7:19.67
16 Mitchell Whitmore 7:19.99
17. Michael Stein-Stewart 7:21.96
18. Daniel Beck 7:30.53
19 Matt Hotchkiss 7:31.63
20. Brandon Andrews 7:52.41

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

Thanks to everyone who has commented & written…. Thank you so, so much… I still feel pretty crummy, but it’s in these moments when the good people in your life shine through like the ship of reality to a wave-tossed man swimming alone in his own misery ocean.

actually, this image is a fella having a great time surfing in lake Michigan a few days ago, but you get my point.

But my story is only one of the 38 athletes competing here over the past few days in 126 different individual races. When I was done with my own time on the frozen 400m hamster wheel, I grabbed my camera, headed for the stands, and enjoyed being a fan of this wonderful sport.

Here are some images.

John Loquai made his father & whole family so proud as he earned his 2nd world cup spot in the 5k here. He did it suffering through a below average day (I have not asked him, but it looked that way). His spot came at the expense of Liam Ortega, who skated a personal best in the 5k. Over 5000m, the difference between these two for that spot was .34 of a second!!!

Here is John at 400 & 100m to go in his 5k. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

Catherine Raney. The working title for the photoshop document that became what you see here was power is beauty, I think it fits this Torino Olympian quite well.

Liam Ortega and Nate Defranco 100m, and then 500m into a 1500.

In a huge surprise, Mike Blumel won the 1500m, its even more impressive since he has not had a lot of ice time this fall. Here he is blasting off the line in that race with Brent Aussprung. One of the tricks of starting on blades as opposed to sprinting in running shoes is to drive the knee straight forward yet keeping the ankle turned out ready to land on the ice. Many skaters don’t do it that well, but the best sprinters are fantastic at it. Mike does it like a rockstar.

Tom Cushman urging Torino Olympian Charles Leveille onward in the 1500m. I think a lot of the coaches completely blew out their voices urging their skaters onward.

Roughly 29 seconds after the previous picture, 300 meters from the finish of the 1500m, the sound track for this image is Ryan Shimabukuro screaming for Chris Needham “USE THE DRAFT! USE THE DRAFT” Chris did, took a long walk through lactic-hell, and missed 3rd place (and the final world cup 1500m spot) by .03 to Kip Carpenter.

One of my training buddies, Michael Stein-Stewart, 350m into his 1500m… when folks talk about “blade direction in the turns” & pushing to the side, not back, this is how it should be done, Maple gold blades also catch the light nicely.. whoosh…

Anna Ringsred is one of a handful of Americans training up in Calgary this year. This is the last few meters of a fast 3000m raced step for step with Maria Lamb. Her technique looks quite a bit better here after 7.5 laps than I do staggering to the finish of 2.5

Matt Plummer has several Junior National Short track championships in his background, he is also a talented cross-country runner as well, so this season he is trying Long Track. As he lined up for his 5k, he drew a fairly intimidating pair in Torino 5k Gold Medalist Chad Hedrick.

Ron Macky & Mitchell Whitmore sprint shoulder-to-shoulder for the finish of a 5,000m race. Ouch. Exciting racing to watch, but as Ron told me afterwards, sometimes it’s not a lot of fun to do.

As I was leaving the rink, I heard an athlete who had a disaster of a weekend announce loudly that the Jagermeister shots will be in his hotel room tonight & everybody come on over! It was tempting, but I have dealt with my own disappointment in other ways.

Skating is not life or death, it’s not as important as your family or other loved ones. Those things, and MANY others are far more important. But for pretty much everyone on the ice at this competition, it’s our absorbing passion, and what we spend the majority of our lives doing. When its good, its really good, but when things don’t turn out well, it can make for a long plane trip home.

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

5:45am, I am awake before my alarm goes off, alert & focused, rested and super ready for possibly my most important race of the year.

In a few moments I am warming my hands on a race-day sized mug of coffee. My laptop screen glows to life, and I get a message from my brother-

Rock like never before.

Coming from a professional musician, who rocks for a living, these are strong words, and it’s in my mind all through warm-up. I feel super strong, solid in the turns, and even when my left skate blade comes loose, and I have to futz around with it, I keep repeating this.

I have an ambition of being top five here in the 500m. It’s one of the reasons I kept skating this year. Choosing the World Cup team is not up to me, and I am probably too old to be picked even if I did make that top 5 (it’s better to spend the money on an up and comer, not a 35 year old). But I want to know in my heart I belong in the top 10 sprinters in the US.

My pair is Donald Stewart, he starts on the inner, and I am on the outer. I never quite got my loose blade exactly back to where it was, but no time to worry, confidence is everything, I tell myself this new feel might even be more pressure into the ice! I used to call Donald my “barometer”, as I have raced him repeatedly over the past 5 years. He is very talented, and usually crushes me by over a second.

I ignore the commotion and times being set as the races start. I don’t look at the scoreboard as standings accumulate. The pairs count down, and now it’s our turn. Donald and I wish each other luck, and go to the start line.

GO TO THE START…. Relax, loosen upper body, hips narrow every step…
READY…. weight on front foot… exhale,,,,,,,,,,,,,
BANG!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

I get a fantastic jump off the line, by 40 meters in I have passed Donald. I skate deep into the first turn before I lay it over and start crossing. I get good pressure the first few steps, Donald comes by me on the inner lane. Something’s not right in how my body is set, and my left foot slips on the exit and I pop momentarily out of skate position. I snap back into motion entering the backstretch and chase Donald down as we switch lanes, I briefly feel a draft behind him, lean hard into the final inner turn, fighting the swirl of G-forces and fear. I pass him for the final time, nail the exit, sit low and drive the final 100m. Boom! the finish rushes past at 33mph…

37.21, another Milwaukee personal best, and I beat my long time “barometer” (to be fair, his right skate blade is FUBAR). My opening 100m was a 10.12, FAR and away my fastest ever, and absolutely in the ROCK LIKE NEVER BEFORE category.

Of the 17 men competing today, only one (Tucker Fredricks) went quicker down the 100. But its not a 100m race, it’s a 500m, and my slip cost me dearly. Overall I am in 6th place. But there pretty much is a 3 way tie between 5th, 6th & 7th, as we are separated by only .1

Later in the day I PB’ed in the 1000m as well, 1:16.19, even with another left foot slip, but was quite far down the results list. Tomorrow will be quite interesting.

Sorry no photos, I was a little busy…

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

(the following words have NOTHING to do with speedskating)

Yesterday my wife did the Ogden Valley Triathlon. I try not to blog about her out of respect for her privacy, but she was quite proud of doing her first triathlon, so I was given the go-ahead.

The day started with a moment that I will remember till the day I die. 6am; I am monosyllabic/brain dead & fussing with my morning coffee. Jessica is out walking the dog. We will be on the road driving to the race in minutes. The wind is rattling the house. Jessica comes in the door with a sly smile and smacks me in the chest with A SNOWBALL!!!

Its frigging snowing/sleeting outside! A perfect day for her first triathlon!

Here is the view as we were driving to the race. Not a lot of accumulation, but it was sloppy & NASTY out there.

After we arrive at the race site, we discover the triathlon has been changed to a Duathlon. A run-bike-run instead of a swim-bike-run. This is because even with wetsuits (mandatory for this event, Jess had rented one) the 35 degree air would freeze athletes after the swim if they started the bike ride soaking wet.

So a slight change of plans, and one that bummed Jess out a bit, since she likes to swim, is good at it, and had trained for 10 weeks (on a plan I designed) to do a TRIATHLON. But I guess now one should call this a “multi-sport” event.

In bad weather it matters a lot to be mentally positive, and as the weather did the western boomerang from snowing one minute, to sunny the next. Jess reformulated her pacing plan, and executed it very well. She went easy for the opening 1.25 mile run. For a nearly 2 hour event, it can be awful if you rocket off the starting line.

Jess then turned on the power on the bike. On the 18 mile windy & rolling course she moved up 100 places in the overall classification, happily passing many “skinny runner types” who have karmically passed her countless times before.

Here she is, spinning into the transition to the final run. Smiling after an excellent ride. For the sake of both warmth and aerodynamics (she goes fast enough for aerodynamics to matter) I put my LAS short track helmet on her. For her dad, she competed in one of his old bike Jerseys. I suffered through so many time trials on these vintage 1991 scott areo bars, I think she is having more fun on them than I ever did.

She charged onto the final run course, cramping in her right calf, headed right at the snow capped mountains (that is Jess in the orange hat). She discovered in that incredibly experiential way, what makes triathlons/multi-sport so hard. The final run can be an absolute monster as the body rebels against what the brain asks.

She did a lot of hard work to be prepared for this moment, and had reduced her training volume in the final week leading up to the race.
She was ready, and through some serious ouch, ran that final 5k within 15 seconds of her 5k personal best running time!!! She was happily surprised to finish smack-dab in the middle of the women’s overall results, and the middle of her age group.

Walking through this world always on the prowl for interesting contrasts, here is a fun pair of images.

The transition area, full of bikes. All the athletes are on the course doing the opening run. (click for a full sized image)

Less than a half hour later, here is the same area, all the bikes are now being ridden.

There is some metaphorical truth here in this pair of images.

Much like long track speedskating, for most participants, Triathlon is a preparation sport, and athletes are really racing against themselves in the company of others. Jessica felt like, on this day, she won.

I am so proud of her.

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Filed under: RACE DAY

5am, still dark outside, the air coming in through my open bedroom window is not cool, it feels like that ticking, seeping heat rising from underneath car hoods after the engines have run all day.

I start the coffee maker; step on the scale and through my pre-dawn blear see 195, yuck. It’s a bad day to feel fat, I’ve gotta race today.

Racing? July? It’s been 3 years since I have raced inlines, but The Draper Days 5k is put on by my friends Kim & Eric Kraan from Salt lake City’s Skatenow shop. These two have worked hard to create a community of inliners in Salt Lake, this is the 3rd edition of their race, and I want to support this fun event.

Jessica is doing the concurrent 5k run, and the two of us arrive at the event location by 6am with a solid 45 minutes before the inline start. It takes a while to find out where to park, hobnob with folks we know, & locate registration. So by the time I am wriggling into my red & black Dimon Sports skinsuit & pinning my number on, there is barely 10 minutes to the start! Crap!!

Physiologically speaking, the first time your body deals with a significant lactic acid charge, it takes quite a bit longer to recover than normally. Therefore I am hoping for a gentle start, so I can work into the race.

The mood at the start is friendly, relaxed, communal, maybe 25 skaters, mostly on 5 wheels, I see many people I don’t recognize, a half dozen with sharp looking skinsuits on. Arnim Ruleas and Eva Rodansky are here representing the ice world, as well as Jamie Cowen (regular commenter here) and others.

A skater comes up and says, “hey, you wanted to meet folks who read your blog, I am Steven, great to see you in person” Great meeting you Steve! We chat as things cohere, and the pack gathers. A few minutes to the start…. I am bouncing and stretching and feeling truly unprepared. I see a young man with an old school USAC/RS blue skinsuit on. Indoor inline speedskaters are usually scary fast, and Eric mentioned there are skaters from California, Oklahoma and Wyoming at the race today… hmmmmm…

Pre-race instructions begin, notes on the course, scary downhill corner, manhole covers, etc, etc, warnings about an orange sponge glued in the road (?!?!?!?,). The runners are milling about, they start their 5k 15 minutes later than us, and some have drifted forward to watch us go.

A matching duo of pearly white police Harleys, with matching pearly white cops astride them, thrumps into life, and rolls down the road to clear traffic.

Ready, set, GO!

Right away, experienced marathoner Uel Archuletta initiates maximum warp speed, like he is racing 500m, not 5k. In no time he is 50 meters ahead of everyone, Former Mexican National team inliner Arnim shouts to me from the other side of the pack “go get him or he is gone!” So I set off in pursuit, cranking my own effort level up to maximum.

Warmup? Schwarmup!! It’s a downhill start, and quickly we are cooking along in the high 20’s & full tucking through 30+ mph.

Uel flies through the scary down hill turn using every inch of asphalt, gaining ground on me, He overtakes the police bikes, skating like a man possessed. We know each other, and he wants to drop this sprinter right away.

I throw as many hard strokes as I can, worn wheels uncertain on the asphalt at this velocity, but after 1500m of all out effort I finally catch Uel. When I make contact, we are both audibly gasping. I glance back and see individual skaters scattered behind us, and no coherent chase pack. Thanks Arnim! I might not have made this move if not for your tip!!

We share the pace making equally through the flats, although both of us are tired from our all out start. This course is slightly downhill most of the way, and we are able to keep up a nice speed.

A kilometer later Eva Rodansky catches us, smoothly turning over powerful strokes on her new 100mm wheel skates. A 5k is about the limit of what I can do, Eva is training for the 82 mile Athens to Atlanta ultra-marathon! She takes the lead on a gentle uphill and begins to nudge Uhl and I further into our own personal pain caves.

We cross hard through a few corners, the final turn is clogged with cars, the motorcycle cops honk and wave. I fix my gaze on the flashing skates in front of me, and numbly thread my way through.

I realize again with the muddled insight of lactic acid intoxication, why I left inline racing for ice. I love all kinds of skating, but was born to excel in the power & precision centric nature of ice speedskating, not this cardiovascular roller-coaster.…

My eyes aren’t focusing, I think I see the banner & finishing chute waaay up the road. Eva and Uel both have raced this course before, and start to kick up the pace. I’m in 3rd, “Is this the finish?” I gasp, Uel gives me a thumbs up and accelerates.

About 300m out I launch my finishing push. Normally I can do a double push sprint while swinging both arms, I try, but am too tired,.. After 200m of ugly thrashing that really has no technique worth a name attached to it, I dare a glance back and see a solid gap. That’s a good thing, cause rigor mortis has fully set in. Leg-locked I cross the line first in 8:24 for the 5k/3.1 miles. An average speed of 22.2 mph/35.7 kph.

Eva, Uel and I high 5 afterwards, an excellent race. Skaters zip through the finish banner in ones and twos, and some younger skaters have thrilling sprints to the line. Everyone stays at the chute and cheers others on, you can see full results here.

The great thing about this sport is that as intense as it can be on the course, afterwards we are all chatting & trading stories. In her 5k running race, Jessica cut 2 minutes off her own PB time, so it was a good day all around!.

Thanks Eric and Kim & the SkateNow shop for putting on a great event for the local skate tribe! In the post race raffle, everyone walked away with prizes! I promoted inline races in Colorado for 2 years, and I understand how much work goes into putting on events.

So I have one thing to say as I end this entry: “Never forget to thank, and hug, your race promoters!! They deserve it.”

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Filed under: RACE DAY