Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Posted on 11 Aug 10:54 am

800m & Watergate

I have not posted in a few days, partially because I am “stuck to the floor” tired, partially because in my couch-bound-exaustion, I have just read the seminal book on the Watergate scandal, All the Presidents Men.

Skating is going VERY well. On Tuesday, for the first time in my life, I negative-split an 800m. What does that mean? well, you crank it up to almost racing speed for the first 400m, and then try to go FASTER for the second 400m. I usually can really fly for about 600m, and then I catch on fire like a blown dragster, and crawl the last 200m trailing parts, flames and smoke, usualy dropping several seconds. This Tuesday, for my first 800m, I was almost removed from myself, there was no pain, and I did not slow down at all. It was a sensation like I had borrowed someone else’s body. For the skate geeks out there, I was in the low 29’s for both laps, with low tempo straightaways, like 4-5 steps, I still had lots more speed in reserve. I happily informed a satisfied Boris that my fast splits were “all his fault”.

Maybe I did not feel anything because training now is just deferring the pain, like a credit card “charge now & pay later” and the pain that is usually concentrated during the 800 itself is spread around the day, as I stagger around my home, or can’t sleep because my legs are still stinging from the effort (maybe its also the 400+ lbs I am slinging around on the squat rack too, or the long hill runs, or the.. ..well you get the picture..).

As for the intellectual side of things, re-reading the account of Watergate, shortly after finishing the most recent Harry Potter Novel, and also the excellent read The Darth Side, Memories of a Monster (the best way to experience this is actually to download the .pdf, of the whole blog, its an amazing read, a whole new perspective on Vader). These reads fill my heart with the conviction that extreme danger exists in society when the desire for order & control outweigh respect/love for fellow human beings.

Now of course, 2 out of these 3 things I am reading are fiction, and fiction simplifies things; Watergate itself was incredibly complicated. But the essential truths behind why Nixon & “The Plumbers” “The CREEP’s”& the “Ratfuckers” acted the way they did is as simple/complicated as Voldemort & Vader’s own reasons. Fear, power, paranoia & loyalty lead people into believing that nasty wrongs are necessary to maintain a control/good/wealth/ etc. Destroy Alderaan, but save the universe!

This is not a blog about current politics; you can draw your own inferrences about current events & current crimes & scandals from these thoughts, but as I drive to & from the oval, pursuing my insular, selfish goals, the world is revolving in frightening ways. Maybe I find such peace in this drive for internal perfection & pain, because it is something I can feel hope about, and can say “yes, today was empirically better”.

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Filed under: from home

First Race of the Year

Who cares what Derek Jeter’s batting average is in spring training? Or how many passes Tom Brady completes during a preseason scrimmage? These early season endeavors are the chances to get an athlete back into the groove, before things get serious, and those numbers really matter. They matter only for analysis, & further preparation.

Yesterday was my first race of the season, the deseret classic (yes mom, thats the correct spelling of the strange mormon word deseret), and it had quite the early season atmosphere. No one was really prepared to race at 100%, in our group we have not really even skated at top speed this season, as we are still building the solid foundation and technique framing/wiring for the house of speed, but a pre-season race is a good thing.

My first 500m of the season is always a keystone cops on clap blades affair anyway, I stumble off the line, skate from my toes, rush the turns with my weight in the wrong place, and always engage in some very vulgar usage of American vernacular once I have caught my breath after a race. Better to get this out of the way early.

I raced 2 500m races, My first 500m was no exception to my usual ugly rule, I stumbled off the start, went down the opening 100m with my knees farther apart than a Paris showgirl and my upper body swiveling L to R like I had been drinking Jack Daniels instead of Gatorade, then in the first turn, my left arm, instead of nicely gluing itself to my back, hung out in a position halfway out there, not swinging, and not on my back either. Yeah, that ugly! The finish of the first turn was ok, once I sorted out my arm, the backstretch was nice, got a good draft off of my pair, tentatively took the final inner, and relaxed too much on the final 100m (and my relaxing did not lengthen my stroke! aaaagh!) and my pair, Michael Stein, caught me on the line, we both crossed with a 38.55. Once I caught my breath after the finish, I was swearing like a sailor. The overall results from this race are a .pdf downloadable file available here. Here is the webpage with all the .pdf file results from all the races available.

All digital evidence of my first race has been destroyed; it was so ugly it would have damaged my computer’s hard drive to remain there.

However I had another chance, and my second 500m of the day felt much better, and Here is a movie of it.

the previous file is a pretty small, easily digestable movie with both start and finish, but if you want it crystal clear, here are the larger, high quality, native video formats… these are both 26mb files, so don’t try this without high speed!!!
here is the start and first 100 meters
and here is the last 200m and finish.

The pictures to the right here, grabbed from the video of my 2nd 500, make me happy, this corner was very solid. But at the beginning of the video I see my left hand moves in the wrong direction when the gun goes off, & my hips are too high for the first 100m, I wanted to drop my tempo just before entering the first turn so I could set up the turn perfectly, and I dropped my tempo about 50m into the race (you can see me kick it back up just before the turn). Mistakes, mistakes, but my final outer turn felt extremely solid! One of the best I have ever skated, and in the final 100m my right leg is following my new patterns of knee and ankles passing close together, my left leg is still in the old habits.. so I am half better. Neither skate is set down pointing directly down the track, but that will come as I get more used to managing & maintaining top speed.

Its funny, but my finishing time was 38.44, only .12 faster than the race before that felt sooo ugly. If both races were raced at the same moment, that’s maybe a 1.8 meter difference at the finish, as I am moving about 15 meters a second. Speedskating is such a strange sport.

But there is an important pattern that emerges from the stumbling and swearing of a preseason race; I very predictably improve from my first race to my season personal best. Last season, 2004-2005, from my first 500m race of the year to my PB the difference was 1.6 seconds, , 1.4 seconds the year in 2003-2004, and a whisker short of 2 seconds in 2002-2003. So if my physical personal mathematics remain constant, my guess is that after skating a 38.44, my best races this year will end up in the mid-36’s. I am aspiring to bust out a 35 this year, but time will tell, I have never have had the coaching before that I do now, but also every .1 becomes harder & harder to earn as the windforce you must overcome cubes in resistance.

Every step I take that shows improvement makes me happy, the 2.5 to 3.5 seconds that I am slower than the National Sprint team studs is still a huge mountain to climb though. I have the willpower, snap, and strength for this mountain, but do I have the time to learn what I still need to know? And I don’t mean learn it intellectually, but learn it in the fibers of my body and the ingrained movement patterns within my mind?.

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Filed under: sweat

Posted on 05 Aug 12:12 pm

Oval News

In the news today, an article in the salt lake tribune about my fellow high 5 team-mate Eva Rodansky. (and I need to give full attribution to the photo here, its from the article, that is Boris right behind Eva, followed by Nate DiPalma and Kirk. )

And a week ago, there was an article about Kim and Eric Kraan, and their skating school.

It’s interesting to see something in the Salt Lake tribune. The oval is full of Japanese media, taping & interviewing the large numbers of Japanese skaters training here, as well as some of the well-known American skaters.

After years of training on my own, It’s pretty cool to be at one of the international intersections of speed skating. Here in this picture below, A Japanese skater is followed by a French skater, who is then followed by good guys/phenomenal US skaters KC Boutiette and Chris Callis.

and here are some Japanese sprinters going fast.

The Japanese skaters all have excellent technique, but there are often visible differences in style between them and European/North American skaters, one thing you can see in this photo is how the back 2 skaters in line have their shins almost vertically straight up and down, with the knee even with the toe. Lots of Asian skaters seem to do this, whereas a Dutch skater is the polar opposite often bringing the knee waaay forward to create the same length & pressure push,

as you can see this is picture of super-stud Gerard Van Velde.

Some say there is a different femur/tibia length ratio between many Asians & Europeans, and that accounts for differences of technique. I am not so sure, I think this might be a case of both approaches being sound technically in creating pressure into the ice, but just a different stylistic approach.

I race for the first time this year tomorrow. I am just doing it for mental training, my first race of the year is always horrid, better to get it out of the way as early as possible.

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Filed under: from the coffee shop

4th Anniversary

This is not a blog about my marriage, it’s a blog about other things, but it’s worth saying that the smartest thing I have ever said was asking Jessica to marry me. Today is our 4th wedding anniversary!

We went to the Circle Lounge in downtown Salt Lake, told the sushi chef it was our anniversary, and just be crazy creative, we will eat whatever you make! We experienced giant roses made of sashimi! Succulent grilled whitefish collarbone meat! Rice in wild flavors & shapes, perfect asparagus… mmmmm!!! What you see below is the peanut butter chip covered chocolate cake finale to one of the most amazing meals I have ever eaten! And of course, the company was wonderful.

Thanks Jess, for everything. I know a lot of words, but none that clearly says how much I love you.

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 02 Aug 01:07 pm

Knees

Some of the readers of this blog have seen me skate in years past, and understand that I am fundamentally a bulldog in lycra. For years I have scampered down the track with my knees far apart, relying on strength & quickness to go fast instead of actually skating with the proper physical geometry. In short, I skate ugly, sometimes a fast ugly, but still f-ugly.

Bringing my knees together, and having patience during the weight transfer to create proper pressure into the ice has always been a huge weakness of mine, so you can understand how this series of images from today’s practice makes me incredibly happy.

By no means is this perfect technique, I will never reach that, (who will?), but this truly is a vast improvement, and proof that a summer of dryland is the forge of good technique in the winter. Now if I can just do something about that left elbow sticking out unnecessarily into the wind…..

I need to sleep, 3 hours this morning, lifting this evening.. oh joy!

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Filed under: sweat

The Fogdall Express

Coach Boris called me today, asking me if I was ok, if I have been sick or something, since he has not seen a blog post for a couple of days!! (3, in fact). I am fine, but I certainly have been lapping up this rest week like a hot and thirsty dog standing in the middle of a snow-fed mountain stream.

The house is clean, the laundry is done, my bike is fixed, the dog is hiked, it doesn’t hurt to stand up, and my body and soul is now ready for more hard training! yes, the rest week has accomplished its goal. If you imagine that a rest week for a full time athlete is just sitting on the couch relaxing, you would be half right, for a rest week is around half the training volume of a normal week. I will not reveal the secret blend of training that Boris prescribes for the other half of the time, but suffice it to say like most of my fast-twitch sprinter brethren, I improve dramatically with rest! So the few times I have gone hard this week, I have felt very good!

One of the workouts assigned was a 3-hour bike ride, and I had this crazy idea of riding out to Antelope Island & meeting my wife & car there. Antelope Island is a brown, scorched mountain arising out of the middle of the Great Salt Lake, quite dramatic in its barren lifeless bulk. My companion for this adventure was the qwadzilla himself, Kirk Fogdall. Kirk found a map/route from a local century ride that went out to the island. So we followed their table-top-flat prescribed route along gentle country & cul-de-sac roads, deftly avoiding the myriad of Utah roads that would be courting death-by-SUV.

This route was also liberally painted with directions & indicators from the century, on the biggest climb in the whole ride (where the route crossed I-15) we found BASSO painted in the road. It was such a wild thing to discover the name of the 2nd placed finisher in the recent Tour De France painted on a Utah overpass, that I just had to take a picture of it! I think this is the true sign of bicycle racing’s arrival as a mature American sport, that an Italian bike racer who has probably never stepped foot in the US has his name painted on a rural overpass!

2:15 into the ride, just as my fast-twitch fibers were starting to fatigue, Kirk’s bundled cables of mega-wattage slow twitch power began to kick in, To ride mano-a-mano with the “Fogdall Express” is a wonderful, painful thing; Kirk’s chain began relentlessly marching down his cogset till he was spinning his biggest gear. Kirk sustained over 30mph for much of the way across the final 7 mile long causeway to Antelope Island, displaying the reason he has Colorado State time trial championship medals on his desk. I stuck in his draft with my heart thrashing about in the upper 190’s, happy and determined. I tore my eyes away from his wheel long enough to glimpse the beauty of the glass-calm Salt Lake (and take these the pictures).

As we zipped along at racing pace, we thought of our wives & Kirk’s 2 kids waiting at the end of the causeway with lunch, and the upcoming promise of swimming/floating in the brine shimp saturated soup of the Great Salt Lake. There are a lot of reasons to do hard things, there are a lot of reasons to challenge yourself & discover strength in surprising places. Kirk is as fond of mentioning his beginnings of grey hair as I am fond of reminding him of moments like this, where 35 years olds like us simply do outrun any hints of age in completely consuming moments spinning big gears stupid fast in outrageously beautiful places. What a life!

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Filed under: sweat