Zen and the Art of Speedskating

for every picture in this post, click it to see a larger version

This is the central station in Milan. I think this train looks more like a rocket than a train. I rode it for several hours from Milan to Bolzano, and although we did not leave earth’s atmosphere, it was quite comfortable and fast. The passenger car compartments seated 6 people facing each other. I felt linguistically inept for the hundredth time since I arrived, as I was with 5 other people with whom I couldn’t communicate at all.

And here is a better view of the really cool roof.

Boris on the small commuter tram in Collabo/Kobelstien, we took this to a gondola that rode down the mountainside into Bolzano. It was not really for tourists, it was for people commuting to work.

The view down the tracks in Collabo/Kobelstien, complete with a very old man in a stained work apron walking down the tracks. As he shuffled by me, I showed him the picture; he gave me a huge toothless smile from under his green felt fedora, and said something to me in German. A person is faced with choices in life, places where tracks diverge, and sometimes when you choose one track, you can’t go back.

I like the view from the track I have chosen; this is Austria, just outside of Innsbruck. Innsbruck was the site of the 1976 Olympics, and the physical outlines remind me oddly of Salt Lake; a fairly large city in a wide valley, surrounded on two sides by gargantuan mountains.

A whole bunch of VW’s & Audis blasting by waiting commuters in the Austrian Town of Rosenheim. This train was quite long, it could have stopped and picked us all up, each to our own new car.

Me on the train, hiding my “travel hair” under a baseball cap that probably identifies me as an American from 100 feet away. Gosh I have a huge chin.

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Filed under: on the road

I am in Northern Italy for a few days, training with a gaggle of Russians & Boris on the high altitude, very cold, fast outdoor ice in Collabo. The lesson I just learned is that you can discover a lot about yourself getting lost walking home in the dark from the rink to the hotel.

Especially if it’s brutally cold, you are extremely tired, sweaty & cranky, the streets are badly marked and twistier/odder/narrower/steeper/older & stranger than staircases at Hogwarts.

I did finally make it home, after turning a 15 minute walk into an hour long frozen shuffle through this tiny mountainside town called “Lengmoos”. You probably won’t find it on a map, but nearby Bolzano is big enough to appear. Even though I am in Italy, they speak German here, as this was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until WWI. European linguistic identity & cultural grudges run quite deep.

It’s beautiful here in the Dolomites. Cold, forbidding, stern, Tyrolian, but beautiful.

I can’t understand how I went 35 years of my life without traveling from Bolzano at sea level, through endless terraced vineyards and 20+ winding switchbacks, to these Dolomite mountain hamlets at 4,000 feet.

The only problem is, now I want to come back in the summer and ride my road bike up the steep switchbacks, when its warm, the vineyards are green, and the sun is brilliant. I want to feel that endless out of the saddle cycling strength I used to have living in Ithaca, where your lungs, heart and legs can hammer an endless, sweaty, excellent, unstoppable, altitude gobbling rhythm.

It is winter, but imagine the vineyards green on this road winding up from Bolzano. Every inch of the hillside on the right is vineyard!

I probably will never come back in the summer, but I am glad I found an excuse to visit here anyway. Why is it in life that this overwhelming urge to be “practical?” is so strong. Speedskating, or following most intense passions, is totally impractical, expensive, crazy, but seeing new places, even if it means being lost in Lengmoos on a freezing evening? Priceless!

Why do I need “excuses” to travel? I never would have come here if not for this odd sport as my excuse.

Quite a few of the Utah speedskating tribe, who were full time skaters through Olympic trials, have ended their seasons and returned to full time jobs or school. I will return to a somewhat more practical/normal life when this season ends as well. I will both welcome it and regret it.

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Filed under: on the road

The ice in Davos is a unique surface. It gets incredibly cold at night, so it’s really hard, yet once the mountain sun hits it in the morning, the top softens over a hard bottom layer, so combines grip and excellent glide. The air is also 5,000 feet thin… Combine this with some pretty decent ice techs, and this can be an awfully fast place to race.

During training, it felt like the top speeds were higher than Hamar, but its still outdoors, and so you don’t coast as well, and even slight winds can slow times dramatically. So I was unsure what to expect.

There were several records I had shots at during this race weekend, the two I set in Hamar last week, 37.93 in the 500m, and 1:16.11 in the 1000m. Dutch Skater Ledo Beeksma has the 1500m record at 1:58.9, and he also has the small allaround samalong record

Translation for non-speedskaters: a samalong is basically lowest elapsed time over 4 races, but it’s a weighted time score where 1 second in the 500 = 2 seconds in the 1000 = 3 seconds in the 1500 = 6 seconds in the 3,000. They never do this in the Olympics, but it’s important in many meets.

Since Hamar I have been changing some of the mechanics of my arm swing, and I am very happy with the slight timing changes I feel. You don’t skate with your arms, & you don’t need arm strength to be a good speedskater, but the path your arms travel impacts how your legs transfer power into the ice, and more importantly for me, it affects your timing of how fast you step from foot to foot.

So I go to the 500m start line happy, confident. There were a few Swiss national team skaters before me, in addition to the masters racing. One of the Swiss skates a 38.12 500m, supposedly a new Swiss national record (he was very happy), hmmm, cool. I roughly expect a 38.4 from myself, as I have never gone faster than 39.01 outdoors. Soon it’s my turn to be called to the line.

I bust off my best technical & physical start in weeks, 10.44, I have a minor slip in the first corner. I hit a very high top speed in the backstretch, you can see that I have picked up some jedi skills and briefly turned my skate blades into a light sabre! (it’s just the sun, but quite cool looking!).

Finally I skate a clean final outer turn! I focus on the new arm swing in the last 100m, and I feel excellent pressure every step of the way.

I cross the line and see 37.81 !!!!! FASTER THAN HAMAR! AND A NEW RECORD!

I do a little celebrating of my own, as I was quite surprised. I don’t hide my emotions too much when I am on the ice. Jessica gives me some good natured kidding afterwards “Too bad you are not Swiss!”. As an added bonus, my time is .2 faster than my lake placid Yoda, Pat Kelly’s time of 38 flat. Pat said he slipped awfully at the start. He still opened in 10.31 though! I wish I went that fast when I slip.

The less that is said about the 1500m I raced later that afternoon, the better. I really have not trained for that distance at all, and have not raced one this year. My plan was to start slow and work the corners after 800m. What happened was I went very fast for 700m and built up a lethal dose of lactic acid, and was utterly shattered with 500m still to go. I faded by 5 seconds in the final lap, only slightly faster than if I had simply coasted along, and finished in 2:02, well outside the record. Pat skated a great looking, controlled race to just nose under the 2 minute mark. 1:59 something, a new age group record for him.

In the overall classification for all the masters racing in Davos, Pat and I were #1 and #2 in the standings, even though we are in different age groups, as I am 35 and he is 42. So we would definitely be paired together on the next day. I must admit to being a little intimidated. After all, the 1000m tomorrow is Pat’s specialty, he finished 6th in the 1994 Olympics the year Jansen won his gold.

Tomorrow seemed like it arrived in no time (even though Jessica, Becky and I had a fantastic party with our new Italian friends, they deserve a whole blog post of their own one of these days).

Sure enough, on the start list, there are Pat and I set together for the 1000m. The ice is still good, not quite as fast as yesterday, but smoother. By the time the 1000m came along, the sun was quite hot & beginning to soften things up a bit.

Pat has his game face on, they call us to the line, Him on the inner, me on the outer. BANG! I shoot off the line very well, but part way through the first turn, Pat comes sailing by me with a world-class sub 17 start. Grrrrr! I hit the first straightaway absolutely raging, in dramatic contrast to Pat’s control & smooth tempo. He is faster than me to 200m, but I pass him before the second turn, and accelerate the turn crazy hard.

A huge thank you goes out to my italian buddy Paolo Gemme for this fantastic shot of this moment. You can see Pat’s hips really in the turn, and I am not so precise.

Coming into the backstretch, I see the perfect draft! Starting on the outer in the 1000m often sucks, except when you manage to get that perfect draft at that perfect moment, like right now.

I am able to pick up a ton of speed as I get a beautiful draft. You can see here the subtle contrast in body position between his top speed relaxed groove and the intense effort of my style. I shoot through Pat’s draft, pass him, hit the fast inner turn and can barely hold the corner I am going so fast. Even though I can toss 450lbs around on the squat rack, it’s hard to extend my legs against the intense pressures of this speed. I get the bell for the final lap 15 meters ahead, I feel good today, and hit the crucial second to last turn pretty well.

My legs begin to lock up in the backstretch in the same old spot, in the final outer turn, I slow down dramatically, exiting the turn, I can hear the clap-clap-clap of the Pat Kelly tractor beam chasing me down. I drive with everything I have over the last 50 meters, my mouth hanging open in a desperate attempt to suck oxygen to my screaming legs.

I barely beat Pat to the line by a few meters, Again I am faster than Hamar, 1:15.95!! Pat right behind at 1:16.52. Our splits were a contrast in style I skated like a 17.14, 27.0, then a 31.81! an ouchy 4.8 second fade! Gotta love racing outdoors! Pat was something like 16.97, 29.3, 30.12.! Totally different approaches to a 1000. I am always faster when I just burn everything I have in the first 600m, as much as it looks bad on paper.

Later that day, we are paired together again for the 3k. Pat is already thinking ahead to Masters world allaround champs in Finland later this year, and needs to test himself by skating a fast 3k, as that will be the make or break distance for him. I just want to survive the 7.5 laps without puking on myself!! As this is a distance I REALLY don’t train for! Distance racing is its own unique beast. I can hear allarounders & marathon skaters laughing at me for fearing a 3k, and this fast-twitch fella deserves every bit of it!

Pat takes off hard from the gun. With Jessica yelling lap times and encouragement to me, I skate my own, much slower race, and manage consistent 36.9 second laps. That was as fast as I am capable of going. I tried to build the corners hard on the last 2 laps, but the legs started locking and I slowed down to 38’s. Final time of 4:44, and I was satisfied, as that is 18 seconds faster than the last 3,000 meter I raced over 2 years ago.

Pat beat me by quite a bit in the 3k, and won the overall masters’ samalong. We are in separate age categories though, and both set new samalong records in the 500-1000-1500-3000 combinations in our age groups. Yay for us!

Ugh, its late, I need to go to sleep. Thanks for reading.

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Filed under: on the road, sweat

I made it to Switzerland without any trouble (the Swiss trains do run on time), and for the first time in a week, I see the sun! Yay! Lugano has a mild winter climate, and it’s as beautiful as one could imagine, hilly too. Click on the image for a larger one

After a few days recovering from travel in Lugano, my wife, Becky and I drove through the Alps to Davos, where my next race is. We got to see a good deal of the mountains and Switzerland as we drove.

My overwhelming impression of the many small mountain towns I saw was that the Swiss reputation for being tough and resourceful is well deserved, because this must have been an awfully difficult place to live in until fairly recently. This part of Switzerland is vertical in nature, and there simply is very little room for ANYTHING between the towering mountains on every side. Livestock or agriculture must have been a huge challenge, and the population that could be supported on postage stamp sized agricultural plots must have been quite small.

However, it is beautiful, and I imagine generations of invaders must have found the narrow Swiss valleys with plentiful castles & natural defenses about as much fun as swing dancing with a porcupine.

We arrived in Davos, and the next morning, after Jess and Becky left for some downhill skiing, I walked the 800 meters to the rink for a warm-up skate. A large crowd of skaters is here from all over Europe. Here is a Norwegian and a Dutch Skater chatting about equipment. For you equipment-obsessed skaters, I see the Euro-Masters skating overwhelmingly on Vikings, with a smattering of Raps. The Germans are the only ones I see using custom molded carbon fiber boots like most US skaters. Especially a brand called SEUSS. I don’t think I have seen a single skater on the maple aluminum tube blades that are so common in the USA & Canada.

If you want to see the view of Davos from the top of the mountain, click here for a pic Jess took while skiing. The rink is barely out of view under the lip of the hill.

Davos is an interesting place. I have heard elite world cup skaters talk in reverent tones about “A Davos Day”, and now I know what they mean.

The rink is a huge expanse of ice, bordered by tasteful hotels, and then surrounded by the Alps. Davos is at roughly 5,000 feet, so it has the same thin air of Salt Lake. The Swiss take good care of their ice, so when you combine thin air and good ice, this can be a very fast place to skate. Since Davos is at high altitude, the nights are very cold, so the ice is extremely hard, but once the sun rises, the mile-high radiant heat from the sun makes skating very comfortable, even if the air and ice stay cold.

Here is the view looking one direction (click on these pics for larger versions)

And here is the view looking back at the rink building itself. There is a nice restaurant with outdoor tables to the right of the deck, under the word “DAVOS”. You can drink good European beer, eat steak, and watch speedskating!

Today was a textbook Davos Day. Sunny, highs in the mid 30’s, but it felt at least 15 degrees warmer. I chatted with my Italian friends from Hamar, made some new Dutch friends (including a Dutch skater who is 84!!!) and then unexpectedly saw my Lake Placid skate Yoda, Patrick Kelly, walk in the door.

Pat is a great guy, and a technically outstanding skater. Here he is enjoying the sun during a textbook Davos day. He has some really great memories of competing here during his time on the world cup circuit. His wife was an Olympic figure skater, and as Pat and I were zipping around the track, Karen was doing jumps and spins on the inside. Skating is such an addictive sport.

It’s great to see him, and I hope they pair us together tomorrow, as Pat is a 2 time Olympian, and can really motor. I feel quite good on my skates, and technically solid in my turns.

Speedskating is a preparation sport; what I mean by that is that ice speedskaters work crushingly hard for summer and fall to create physical capacity, and now in the meat of the racing season we relax, focus on technique, and rest so that we can be physically fresh to race fast. As Boris says “sleep, race, and celebrate life”. This is the fun part, and I plan to enjoy every moment of these “Davos Days” as much as I can. Maybe I will even get some sleep tonight, as the Italians have invited Jessica, Becky and I to a party at their hotel!

Thanks to everyone who reads & comments on this strange life I am leading. This experience could be kind of lonely, especially in Norway, as I spent a lot of time by myself. But I have not felt alone for a minute, because of all of you (and that is roughly 220 of you every day!!). Thanks.

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Filed under: on the road

Lest you think that I overly dramtize my bad airport karma, today is a perfect example, and the reason that SAS (Scandinavian airlines) has earned my business from now till the day I die!!!

I stayed last night in Oslo with a Norwegian/South African that I met through this blog, the all-weather natural ice skater Franklin Eekhout. It was snowing pretty hard this morning., Franklin asked me, “when does your flight leave from Oslo, and where is it going?” I told him, it’s the 12:05 flight to Copenhagen. He checked it online, yes, the 12:05 flight is still going, and from the main Oslo airport. Great.

Franklin and I have had a great time hanging out, and in the morning he puts me on the bus the Oslo airport. I get to the airport. I look at the departures board, yes, there is my 12:05 flight to Copenhagen listed.

So I go to the self-service kiosk to get checked in. The computer says I don’t exist, can’t find my reservation. I find a real person and ask for help, I open my laptop and show her my .pdf copy of my reservation… All looks ok, she types me into the computer, can’t find me. She looks closer at my reservation number,

“oh, Mr love, here is the problem, your reservation is for the 12:05 flight to Copenhagen flying out of the Oslo Sandefjord airport, this is Oslo international, and yes, both airports have a 12:05 flight to Copenhagen. You need to go talk to the special ticket agent.”

AAAGGGGHHH!!! NOOOOO!!!!!

I go to the person specified, with a sick feeling in my stomach, and terrible worry about how to tell Jessica I won’t meet her in the train station. Mrs Ticket agent, even though my Orbitz ticket is non-changeable, and non-refundable, and involves a straightjacket of rules, she bends the rules, gets me on the flight from this airport (even though I am sure it was more expensive) and I am ok, and on my way…

SAS, thank you!!!! I owe you guys big time!!

So here I am, eating my egg and salty salmon breakfast baguette (I love this country!!) drinking my Kaffee Go-Go… and breathing a huge sigh of relief…

Now if I can just make it to Lugano….

I have a lot more to post about the first leg of my trip, including many pics of other master racers, and some observations about Norway. I have written the posts, but I need to select what photos go with them, and have a little more charge in my laptop too! The battery warning lights are flashing at me!

ONWARD!

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Filed under: on the road