Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Posted on 29 Feb 02:51 am

Erfurt

The clouds crack open at dawn, a whole planeload of travelers sit blearily upright, and suddenly the density of Europe sprawls underneath.

European trains rock! This is the futuristic ICE train from Frankfurt to Erfurt. ICE= Inter-City-Express. It looks more like a gleaming rocket than a train.

To the right is the tattoo of the engineer. I don’t know why I found this so funny, but I did.

I have comfort in a high-tech train being piloted by a huge man with a big tattoo.

When the train started moving, it was so gentle & silent, that I did not realize we were moving for about 30 seconds, then I looked out the window and saw the world whooshing by.

Immediately to the ice in Erfurt..

Here is the live webcam link to the rink. You can see the feel of the place… As the cam refreshes every minute.

Here is the outside of the Hall, it’s actually not that huge, as facilities like this go, nothing like Hamar or Salt Lake. Erfurt blends gently into the hillside.

The rink is quite good, the lanes are narrow & tight & the ice is very hard. It will be a challenging place to rip a 500m, but a great place for distance races.

There are many good folks here from many nations; we are having a lot of fun… for example. Here a is a quote from Star Wars & following goofyness.

Ben Kenobi: I suggest you try it again, Luke. This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. (Ben puts a helmet on luke)

Luke Skywalker: But, with the blast shield down, I can’t even see. How am I supposed to fight?

Ben Kenobi: Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them. Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.

Actually, this is not a blast shield, it’s a Delta airlines eye cover that I was given on the flight over. It matches my suit perfectly.

And one must certainly feel the “force” flowing. Even if it is just the force from your body through the skates & into the ice. Try too hard and you go really slow..

Here is part of a mural in the hallway underneath the ice rink. There is lots of Graffiti in Europe, very, very weird.

Lest one thinks that this is just a blog about old folks, I have a thought for the junior skaters out there. After the master’s sessions, I see groups of young Germans (top) and Romanians (bottom) take the ice, and they are quite serious & focused in their training.

Train hard, dream big! and junior skaters, if you ever make the world cup level, the focus and intensity you “put in the bank now” it will help you compete better.

And even more importantly, if you make it to that level, these folks might be your friends someday.

Americans NEED to travel, we need friends from other countries, we are so isolated! (physically, media-culture, and psychologically. Yes we have neighbors, but they are very quiet, or maybe we are just too loud to listen to them.)

I’ve greeted many old friends here, people that I met for the first time at Master’s meets 4 years ago. Travel is a gift of skating, as are the people.

I had dinner with the Italian team a few nights ago, what wonderful people, what a family of sportsmen!! They have 4 Olympians in their group of 13, and 5 time Olympian/world champion Roberto Sighel is one of them.

The draw was held in a huge, ornamental hall filled with 200 athletes of all ages, from 12 different countries. I wish I had panned up to get the multiple chandeliers. Masters worlds are a big friggin deal.

They have a supercool computer program that randomly picks names on the right, and fills in the pairs on the left. I think “wunderbar!” is the right term in German.

I was relieved, with the tightness of the track, to have the inner start/final outer in the 500m

Travel is great, but we are here to race, and I have a job to do..

I race the 500m in a few hours, and when I think about it, my insides start shaking, and I must repeat to myself, over and over.

YOU PRACTICE THIS ALL THE TIME, YOU WORK HARD, YOU ARE 100% READY.

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Beard Poll

When my wife first met me, I had an “Eric the Red” beard. However I’ve been clean-shaven for the past 8 years, and have come to honestly prefer it.

But both Jessica and my awesome mom-in-law Peg miss my fuzzier state & vigorously lobby for me to grow it back.

On a whim this year, I did grow a beard again, aerodynamics be dammed! (and yes, it does matter at top speeds).

A beard is nice & warm, and it’s low maintenance, even if you need to be a bit more careful when you are eating to not wear your food. I’ve even got some grey mixing in now.

Yesterday, as I was packing for Germany and Masters worlds, I shaved it off. Ahhh… my face felt free again.

But I will lay a question out to the public THAT YOU CAN VOTE ON!

(I want to test blog-polling technology, so this is a good excuse).

What should I do?

Should I return to the Full beard?

Should I do a halfway, urban-professional vibe?

Or should I be clean-shaven? Cool in those scorching desert-hot summers, and faster in the winters?

let your voice be heard!

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If your vote is not recorded, or if this poll does not work. Please let me know in the comments & what browser/OS you are using.

I will try to abide by the wishes of the voting public.

This is a year of intense politics in the USA, so admittedly I am trying to split the “pro-fur” constituency across two candidates, and Jessica’s vote is a “super-delegate” vote, because she does count more.

p.s. Jess & Peg, you can’t vote 1000 times in a row, only one vote per I.P. address!

I want to mention that my oldest friend, someone I’ve known since I was 3, Nathan, is now blogging himself. I can’t wait to see how his blog evolves over time.

Nate is a man of many beards, and a great fellow, so I am very interested in his opinion.

(I think I know what nate’s vote will be, he is a Vermonter, & those folks prioritize warm equipment…)

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Posted on 18 Feb 12:38 pm

Rideau Canal

My friends Eric and Kim are lifelong skaters; they met at a speedskating race, and were married wearing their skates in La Vegas. They currently run the Skate Now Shop & Eric coaches speedskaters & Roller Derby

So it is only natural that for a romantic weekend getaway to celebrate their deep bond, what better place for this couple to go than the natural ice heaven of the Rideau Canal in Ottawa?

Here is the Canal at night-

And later, during the day-

Eric says that skating on true natural ice, he sees why “old school skates had short blades and very round rockers”.

There were lots of cracks & Eric did several “superman” crashes.

Ready……

Kim, happily goofing around, the thing I love about this photo is the smiling Canadian in the background in a T-shirt!!

The high on this day was –3 C/26F

Of course for Ottawa, is that t-shirt weather?

I have great affection for my many friends north of the border, and have raced ice & inline in Ottawa several times.

I can honestly say that one of the coldest days I have ever experienced on skates, was in Brewer park, Ottawa’s long track. I remember after the races I had plans to go skate the Canal for fun, but I was so cold after the weekend, all I did was stop briefly and look at it.

Next time I will bring my T-shirt.

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Tony’s Art

Trying to become a national caliber speedskater is a tremendous challenge. I tend to write a lot about the physical, technical, mental, & emotional challenges in this blog.

But there is a a 5th challenge, financial. Sometimes that is the one that can prove the hardest. It certainly hurts in a way that feels worse to me than normal training pain.

Athletes who make the commitment to optimizing their athletic potential often need to become VERY creative (+ incredibly hardworking) in how they also earn a living in addition to full-time training.

One of the “new faces” at the Utah oval this year, Tony Sargent, has one of the most interesting ways of earning a living I have ever heard of.

Here is Mike Kooreman, holding the result of Tony’s unique skills. (click the image for a larger version):

Yes, Tony is an artist, and does commissioned portraits of athletes/families/etc.

Notable clients include pro golfers (Charles Howell III), pro football players (Barry Sanders) & pro basketball players. I’ve seen several examples of his work, this guy is really amazing.

I asked him how he got started in this, here was his response:

First of all, my dad has worked for the Oklahoma State Athletic Dept. for like 25 some years, so I have always known alot of the OSU athletes. In the summer of 2005, one of our players died in a car crash. I knew him pretty well, he was a great guy, but all I could think about was his dad and his family.

So I found some pics, locked myself in my room and started drawing, not really sure what the final picture was going to look like. After about 4 months and about 50 hours I finished it, and I wanted to give it to his father. I showed it to the coach and he came up with the idea of reproducing it and presenting the original to his dad at the opening game.

We made 1000 copies to sell at multiple stores in Oklahoma, with all the proceeds going to his scholarship fund. I presented it to his dad the first game of the year, and let’s just say that when the game was over we had made about $10,000 for the Vernon Grant scholarship fund.

I couldn’t believe the lines in the store with everyone buying my art. The drawing got pretty good publicity, It got in all the Oklahoma papers, news stations, and even was on sportscenter.

I am working on building a web page for my art, but probably won’t have one till summer. You can contact me at theartofchampions@yahoo.com

Since leaving Oklahoma and moving to Utah, throwing himself headfirst into elite training commitments, Tony has improved dramatically.

I wish him all the best, and success in skating & his art.

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Posted on 03 Feb 02:37 pm

Right Now in Lake Placid-

Right now in Lake Placid, the final races of the 2008 age-class nationals are happening.

This image on the right is from the ORDA cam, it’s refreshed every hour, and conditions look challenging. At the start line, or maybe in full throttle 3000m final sprint, is a group of skaters.

Gotta love outdoor skating! I could not make it to this race, and it hurts to miss pack nationals on my “home track”.

But an athlete must pick his battles; I’m focused like a bullet in flight on master’s worlds, in Germany, 4 weeks from now.

There have been several comments this week on a post I made almost exactly 1 year ago, discussing the Rink at Petosky, Michigan.

There is power in that primal spot where a curious athlete first feels that amazing, addictive feeling of skating. It can almost be as powerful a memory as recalling the moment where you gave/received your first truly intense soul-burning high-school kiss.

Sigh…. (sound of memories rushing past)

I sent my camera to Lake Placid along with my friend Brian Boudreau, and so although I might not be there, my “electronic eye” is in Lake Placid. In a few days I hope to have pictures.

Till then, here are a few more “Desktop Friendly” images I have taken of this rink.

This is a view snapped December 22nd, 2002. The clouds, the Adirondacks, the steely colors of winter, yeah!

The skater is marathoner Bob Tysen, who was scary strong at this time. Bob recently had surgery on his left knee, and he can’t crossover anymore. It sucks…

Looking in the other direction, this is Jessica on classic Vikings, skating down the finishing straight.

The building on the left is the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey rink, just behind it to the right are the rinks from the 1932 games.

I asked Jessica what she remembered about this day:

I hadn’t been to Lake Placid before, but I had heard of how horrible the weather usually is in the winter.

The oval was a pleasure to skate on, and though I hadn’t skated on a long track before, I remember thinking- this isn’t so bad. All these people are exaggerating.

I grew up messing around on figure skates on frozen New Jersey Lakes, skating with friends in Wollman rink in Central Park, and inlining in Liberty State Park. I have a slight clue about how to skate.

At Lake Placid, I remember feeling my legs burn and feeling kind of foolish for bending my knees so much and sticking my bum out. But then that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re speedskating, so I figured, whatever.

Then I saw the picture, and I was shocked. It looks like I’m barely bending my knees at all.

The people I met on that trip were lovely and very friendly. I’ve made enough trips to Placid since that I can’t remember who I met on that particular one, but I’m sure John Dimon was part of the group, and possibly Peter Doucet and Eric Gee.

Good people, good times.

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Mexico City’s Mayor

I awken from the daily daydream, and am in one of those moments where every second is as shockingly alive as possible.

I am back in Mexico, on the stage at a press conference for the closing ceremony of the Pista Del Helio (I think my powerslide last time I was here got me invited back).

The mayor of Mexico city, Marcelo Ebrard, sits down next to me, and a phalanx of cameras start chittering like a swarm of pixel devouring insects.

How did this my life place me here? What???

I’m invited to be one of about 8 people to say a few words, including Eric Kraan, a figure skater from Russia, the Mexican National Figure skating champion, and the Mexican hockey player who won the Red Bull crashed ice qualifying round.

All of us speak, then the Mayor takes his turn addressing the crowd. I don’t understand Spanish, so I watch his body language. This guy is smooth, engaging. I’ve seen a couple of top politicians up close, this guy is a true pro.

As he returns to the line, I ask him, “You spend much of your life in front of cameras, in events like this, do you get less nervous than you used to?”.

He replies:

Yes, it has gotten better over time, but the problem is, those cameras keep chasing me.

We looked back out towards the swarm of hungry lenses, and the open mouths of TV cameras & newspaper reporters scribbling furiously in notebooks.

Eric Kraan leans over to me and says, “hey Andrew, I just wanted to let you know, the translator introduced you as an Olympian.” Eric winks & says “congratulations!”

Oh… my… god….

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Posted on 24 Dec 12:34 am

ST nationals 1000m

The men’s & women’s 1000m races at short track nationals were oddly similar, the strongest skater in each field just took the lead & said “here I am, try and pass me” cranked their speed up to maximum, and no one could pass.

Here is the men’s 1000 final, Click here for the high quality QuickTime, or press play for the youtube

Here is the women’s 1000 final, Click here for the high quality QuickTime, or press play for the youtube.

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Speedskaters International –Photos

Thanks to Antonio Cobo Garcia, for sending me this awesome image from the first day of short track in Mexico. Sebastian leads Chris, Eric, & the blur at the back is me. If you click on the image, you get a full size desktop friendly one.

I was talking to my friend Brian about how nervous I was to be skating in front of 50,000 in mexico. He said:

“50,000? I was one of the performers at the opening ceremony for the Olympic games, try skating in front of a couple BILLION! I almost had a complete panic attack. After that, the pressure of Olympic trials was nothing.”.

Point taken! whoa!!

Pat Meek is on the USA allaround world cup team, and he just sent me some images of the new indoor track in Kolomna, Russia. It looks simply amazing, check out the roof! can you look up & see yourself?

Pat writes:

I know you always like to see new pics from people skating around the world. Here are some pics from the World Cup in Kolomna. The ice rink there was actually one of the nicest ones I have ever been to. Pretty interesting town.

Apparently Kolomna was not open to foreigners until 1991, after the Iron Curtain fell, because the town is 20km away from the plant with MiG fighter jets are made. Definitely an interesting place with some history from a era not far enough behind us.

-Pat Meek

I echo Pat’s sentiment, especially the last sentence. Check out all the Russian army guys in the crowd-

I’ve corresponded with a few blog readers for whom Kolomna is their home rink, so it’s neat to be able to show it again.

As winter is now in full swing, a lot of ice-projects are brewing

Several Dutch readers have tole me that a 5km natural ice loop in Holland has just opened. THAT sounds like it would be amazing to skate. I picture it like a frozen version of the Veloway in Texas.

And in the comments from a recent post, Swedish skater Erik Rosengren writes that the natural ice in Copenhagen is excellent, here are his pictures, and a youtube.

This shot he took is simply amazing-

Eric, you are a very talented photographer! And I hope you realize that skaters all over the world see your images and dream of someday gliding through sunrise lit natural ice!

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Posted on 04 Dec 08:46 am

AMAZING MEXICO!!

I’m back. This Mexico trip was 48 of the most amazing hours I have ever experienced, including one of the happiest, most purely joyous moments of my life!

I have a massive amount of material I need to sort through.

On Saturday night 4 speedskaters +yours truly were the opening act in a massive gala, we skated in front of 50,000+ people (+???,??? via TV to 3 countries!). We were the first speedskaters EVER to take the ice in Mexico. There were 10-ish acts. Somehow the speedskating was what the newspapers & TV focused on.

An absolutely incredible, unbelievable feeling! I was so awed/amped up/travel-tired I skated like total crap!

You can see the AP news video here, gving a good idea of the scale of this including me tripping off of the start of our “demo race”

(note to self: don’t crash in front of 50,000 people & live TV to 3 countries).

But Sunday was better, we skated in front of 15,000+ and it was 70 degrees!! Short track? Outdoors? In T-Shirt weather? It was HOT & the track had about 3 inches of water on it. I was ON!

Here I am leading Jessica Smith during our relay “race”. Check out the water splooshing off her hand. (technique note, Jessica’s upper body angle is correct, mine is it’s usual incorrect).

But as to that happy moment!

After our final “race” we were doing an easy lap waving to the crowd. I had a moment of insanity/inspiration. I skated to the far end of the rink, waved to the crowd, and then did a full power acceleration that became a deliberate face first slide into the water!

I traveled a good 40 meters through the best, coldest, wettest slip & slide EVER!

15,000 people went nuts. I stood up, water pouring off me & felt all that cosmic YEAH! from all those people electrifying neurons in my brain never before touched (or maybe it was the cold water).

I went to step off the ice, when the PA announcer said “Andrew!! Andrew! Another!!!” He started the crowd chanting.

The other skaters Eric Kraan, Jessica Smith, Chris Creveling & Sebastian Cano all did powerslides too into the water!! It was LOUD!

And I whipped around, picked up more speed, and did another. Now that I knew what it felt like to do this & not paste myself into the wall, I added more speed, + twist & spin.

I had handed my camera to a random spectator before we stepped onto the ice, he started the video literally at the moment this crazy idea occurred to me, whoever you are, THANKS!!

Press play & check it out (or click here for high quality quicktime).

If some measure of weighing one’s life is bringing joy & happiness to as many people as you can touch, then I might never top this moment.

Certainly I will never forget it.

MUCH MORE, VERY SOON!!

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World Cup Images

Exhausted after watching 3 amazing days of world cup racing, I have few words in my rink-addled exhausted brain right now, just images grabbed from the 11.29GB of video I shot.

Enrico Fabris 5k world record!! Fantastico!!! It was a thing of smooth beauty for 10 laps, he sped up slowly & relentlessly.

His last 2 laps were incredible, as he knew what speed he had to skate to beat Sven Kramer’s time & get the WR. It looked like it hurt quite a bit too.

Fabris was not the only Italian success of the weekend, Chiara Simonato won the women’s 1000m. Fortza Italia!

The most exciting race I have EVER seen live, Wotherspoon vs Davis 1000m, incredible speed of Jeremy at the opener, and the incredible stamina of Shani as he came roaring back in the final 200m (this image is from the last turn). At the finish only .01 separated these two amazing athletes. The top 4 men all went faster than Shani’s world record from last year.

German Jenny Wolf & Chinese Beixing Wang were in a class by themselves in the women’s 500m. Every men’s race broke or tied the previous world record. However no records were skated in any of the women’s races, odd.

Wolf looks stronger than last year though, and even though her races contained a few technical stumbles, she skated the fastest opener ever for a woman, a 10.18

In his first solo world cup race, Trevor Marsicano skated a new US junior National record. Here he is blowing past veteran German skater Jan Freisinger on the backstretch during the last lap of a 1500m.

I wish I had images of it, but the next day he annihilated the US junior 5k record by 19 seconds.

I’ve been in this very cheap plastic chair before, focusing & stressing like Kip Carpenter is, waiting for his 500m start. Or maybe Kip is calm? Probably not. I find the moments before they call you to the start line for a sprint race gut-wrenchingly horrid.

Because you must explode off the start line like a rocket, and then calm down to a smooth aggressive control for that last turn

-or it can get very scary, very fast.

As Joon Mun of Korea finds out here, it’s amazing he did not crash, even with a totally out of control final turn, he STILL managed to still go 34.7

The Koreans all looked amazingly strong in the sprint distances. Although they did not win a race, I’d say their male sprinters, as a group, have the most depth of any nation.

Many of my friends volunteered to get an front row seat on all the action. Matt Plummer’s lifetime of skating ability makes him quite overqualified to be a block chaser. A few small things being different, & he could have been out here as a competitor. Someday I am sure he will be.