Zen and the Art of Speedskating

1. Here is a photo I took at the oval a few days ago of a Japanese university team skater training at the Utah Oval-

They love their speedskating! and I really enjoy watching them train. I wish there was less of a language barrier.

2. For a project I am working on (unconnected with this website) I followed the national allaround team for a lap as they wound up to speed. They were doing multiple 29-30 second laps, that’s roughly 30-32mph (50+Kph), and I shot some interesting video.

This is the closest I have ever come to visually documenting what long track at speed feels like (a 25 second lap is quite insane from this perspective, someday I will capture that on video, if I can ever go that fast again!).

This was in the middle of a long set of these fast laps, so the skaters were already tired as the clip begins. I added in a slow-mo bit of the fast parts, so you can really see the push direction, corner rhythm flow, and control. These guys can REALLY skate!

It’s worth noting this is not even close to their top speed. Liam Ortega is leading, then Pat Meek in red, Chad Hedrick, John Loquai, and Ron Macky is last in line wearing all black & enjoying the considerable draft created at this speed.

Start the YouTube below, or click here for the quicktime.

I really need a helmet cam, going this fast his while handholding a camera is difficult, and frankly, a tad bit dangerous. Also I tend to not breathe as I try & hold the camera steady.

It’s hard to skate very far without breathing (even for an already distance-challenged sprinter!).

3. I’ve got a nasty “owie” that hopefully does not develop into an “injury”. And it’s in an interesting spot.

First of all, I hurt this muscle doing VERY intense off-ice turn simulations, & the muscle that I hurt performs this function according to wikipedia:

The action is primarily to lift the upper leg towards the body when the body is fixed or to pull the body towards the leg when the leg is fixed.

that second half sounds like a turn, doesn’t it?

Can you guess what muscle I hurt?

Here is a hint, I’m quite sure speedskaters have VERY developed versions of this muscle compared to the rest of the population, and in average people it’s about the thickness & length of your forearm.

Guess again…..

Scroll down for the answer

Ok, I admit it, this is a trick question, but a fascinating muscle to understand. I am fairly sure I hurt the upper part of my Psoas major. It lies inside the ribcage, and connects from the inside of your spine into the lower pelvis.

This is a trick question because despite its size, you can’t see the Psoas, at all, it’s completely internal.

I never knew about this muscle until I looked at the actual human dissections at the Bodyworlds III exhibit in Portland. The Psoas is HUGE, and so essential to what we do on ice or wheels (or standing up, for that matter) -when it’s hurting, skating in a powerful position really stings.

The quadriceps get all the attention, but just like the unheralded & virually unknown Piriformis, the Psoas is one of those little essentials in the magical symphony of hip flexors that keeps a skater going.

note: this feels like an “owie”, not a true injury, a bit of rest, minimal intensity, and I should be ok in a few days.

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Filed under: Audio/Video

This past weekend, the Utah Oval ran some low-key time trials. Only a few skaters were racing, most were just training & enjoying the irrepressible optimism of the early season, when a summer of hard work starts to become competition speed on the ice.

What better way to spend a Saturday?

It was gorgeous weather outside, everyone seemed in a good mood, the folks who were racing were mostly very happy with how things were going.

The U2 song “beautiful day” kept running through my head, and that became the theme for the latest of my speedskating videos. Click here for the high quality QuickTime, or press play to start the YouTube below

Special mention in this video should be made of Chris Creveling, the skater in the blue skinsuit with the red arms.

Chris is one of the elite inline skaters training in Derek Parra’s WHIP program, his 1000m race shown here qualified him for US national championships!

The first time an individual skates a qualifying time, it is a worthy cause for celebration. I can still remember the first time I skated one of those times. Congratulations Chris!!

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Filed under: Audio/Video

I will probably be out of blog-touch for a few days, I’m heading to California in 15 minutes to race my first inline marathon in quite a few years. I could skate really well or really badly, there will be no middle road.

Anyway, Marion Wohlrab is a german coach who has worked in the US for some time, and many skaters know her well. She is back coaching in Germany and just sent me a fascinating email that I will reprint in full-

See, even hard core ice-teams like those Marion coaches do fun inline skates!

The second thing I am mentioning is that I was an “early adopter” of video on the internet. However he company I originally went with has lost out to YouTube, so I am transferring a whole pile of videos from them to “the Tube”.

Here is one of the very first videos I ever did on this blog, and even though I am a lot better now (and have more bandwith to play with too, thanks to many of my readers), it’s still one of my favorites.

So many athletes in this, who went on from this race to the Olympics, retirement, or are still flying blade-first down the ice.
This was the US single distance championships, October 21-24th, 2005.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, from home

I caught up with Tucker Fredricks during the Champions Challenge, and he took the time to give me the “inside look” of what he was thinking and experiencing during that historic race.

This is the same video I published earlier with Ryan Shimabukuro’s comments on it.

Tucker has had an incredible year, he was the 500m world cup champion, and finished 3rd at world single distance champs.

There are all sorts of fascinating tidbits in this video. For example, Tucker was probably the possibly the first person in the building to realize that Kang–Seok Lee was about to skate the world record!!!

Click here for the high-quality QuickTime, or below for the YouTube. Enjoy.

I am sitting here in my favorite coffee shop, working on numerous client & skate projects. I dislocated a small bone on the outside of my left foot stumbling off the stands during world championships (ask Keith or Irene Postma how much I howled when it happened).

In a hard skate boot, skating was only mildly uncomfortable, so I just toughed it out for the final race of the year.

But since my 10k, walking hurts a lot, and it’s just not healing well. The past few mornings have been extremely painful.

I ended last season with ankle pain that took a full month to heal. So I am thinking “poor ol me & my gimpy feet”.

However, next to me in the coffee shop, I overhear a man in aqua-blue medical scrubs speaking with a woman, obviously someone he knows from his hospital job..

They are talking about chemotherapy, radiation, and he is asking her how she is doing, how she feels this morning.

She very thin, she is wearing a University of Utah baseball cap, and I realize she has no hair under the cap.

My foot suddenly hurts a lot less, because it will heal.

The wonderful thing about health is when we USE it, APPRICIATE IT, & CHERISH IT.

I think that is why, when we see athletes & artists do extraordinary things, like the races on this video, we celebrate & recognize them.

They are examples of perfect health in motion, of the complete application of focused mind & prepared body. They are excellence & achievement that we share emotionally when we watch, and what we hope to experience in our own lives & unique personal ways, for ourselves.

These reasons, are also why Lance Armstrong’s book (and the man himself) “It’s not about the bike” is so extraordinary. He has been to both poles of experience, and tells about it.

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Filed under: RACE DAY, Audio/Video, from the coffee shop

Late in the evening on Friday, the day the men’s 500m-world record was set, there was an open speed skating session.

I had my camera with me, and my buddy Keith was skating very well that day, so I said “hey, why don’t I follow you for a few laps”.

This might be some of the best footage I have ever shot while actually skating.

If you are a speedskater, you see this all the time in practice. If you aren’t, welcome to our world.

Keith is a distance skater, and is just skating steady at 5k-10k pace, cruising at 25 & 26mph (his first lap was 35.1, the second 34 flat).

It’s hard to skate holding a camera steady, much more tiring than normal!

Click here for the high quality quicktime, or below to start the YouTube.

Watching this, can you understand why this smooth sensation of flight is so addictive? & why people move to the Utah oval from all over the USA (Keith from Alaska, myself from NY).

I do this all the time, even so, looking at this video, I just wanna GO SKATE.

It’s worth noting that the pads on the Utah oval are not usually slathered with ads (they are part of the world cup).

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Filed under: Audio/Video, from home