Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I have had a very reliable alarm clock. Mark Chrysler is a USA speedskater competing here, a longtime friend of Boris’s, and we train together occasionally in Salt Lake. Mark works nights (he is an intensive care medical specialist), so Norwegian time is Mark’s normal workday. He has been my reliable knock on the door getting my sorry jet-laggin butt to breakfast, and has been great conversation as I slowly caffeinate myself towards reality (or at least as close as I ever get). He dragged me out of some really nice dreams this morning, but hey, there was racing to be done!

First of all, here is a picture of the outside of the Vikingskipet. Click on it if you want the big version (I have it on my desktop right now!) It’s truly huge, there are tiny cars parked up to the left of it. I debated photoshopping this a little to bring out details, but I left it true to the real Norway grey!

To my eye, this is not an upside down Viking ship, this looks more like a prehistoric sea creature, or maybe a shot from a Godzilla movie, as Godzilla’s new thickly plated rival scuttles across the Norwegian snows to do battle!

Anyway, warmup went well this morning, I had power, technique, but not much pop to my skating, and I am still somewhat numb after the emotional rollercoaster of Olympic Trials. It was hard to get myself “ready” to race again. But there are over 100 masters athletes from Norway, Germany, Italy, Holland, Romania and Russia here (As well as Mark and I, the lone North Americans). It’s quite a different scene from Olympic trials, and it took a while for me to get into it.

The speedskating records I am trying to break in the men’s 35-40 Masters International records are 38.63 for the 500m, set by Norwegian Ivar Njos, and a 1:18.31 in the 1000m by Dutch Skater Ledo Beeksma. I have skated much faster than both, but on the scary fast ice of salt lake, not on Euro sea level ice.

The IMSSC has put on many races over the last 9 years, and there have been some quality skaters who have thrown down good times. Not world cup times, true, but hey, we are folks with JOBS!!!

I had no pair for the 500m, but that’s fine. I was doing the “easier/less dangerous” 500m with the inner lane start/outer lane finish. The gun went off and I got off the line with a small slip, but I hit my stride quickly, and went 10.5 for the first 100m (should be faster…..), first turn was ok, but I nailed the backstretch with the afterburners raging and felt that sweet sensation and windroar of top speed. I had a shot! I entered the final outer turn, and made a mistake, in Salt Lake, since the speeds are so high on the world’s fastest ice, one gets in the habit of leaning very deeply.

Hamar is at least a second slower per 400m than Salt Lake due to the thicker & damper sea level air. So I entered the final turn a little close to the blocks, leaned over at my normal salt lake lean angle, and suddenly was millimeters from stepping on the inside lane markers and flying into the wall. I didn’t miss a step, but I cut off some of my power through the apex of the turn, barely avoided crashing, made it to the final 100m straightaway and tried to groove & drive. You can’t gain speed on the final 100, all you can do is not slow down, and today, I didn’t!!…. I crossed the line and saw 38.17!!!!!!!!!!

I felt happy in a calm, solid, full-meal kind of way. All sorts of European skaters came over to congratulate me on my age group WORLD RECORD! Here is a picture of the final results sheet.

Officially this is not a World Record, the ISU does not officially recognize masters “World Records” even though they are in negotiation with the International Masters Speed Skating Comittee to do just that, but they recognize the IMSSC as the people who should put on races designed to bring the best older skaters in the world together.

So I usually try to be cautious and always call this by the proper title, a “Masters International” record. But ALL the European skaters who congratulated me called this a “World Record”. So maybe, in my heart, I can let it be that, even if my mouth says something else.

After a round of conversation & back slapping, I got back to the business of warming up properly for my 1000m. It’s really easy to just sit around and chat, and after good races, that is what you want to do. But rinks are COLD, and the body needs to shake out the effort you have just made. So I like getting on the stationary bike, and doing 2-3 maximum RPM sprints & break a brand new sweat. Also it gives you a chance to do the mental visualization of seeing yourself execute perfect technique in the perfect race, over and over.

So now its time for the 1000m, They call myself and German good fella Jens Kroll (I know him from my first trip to Europe) to the line. There is a lot of oxygen in this lowland atmosphere. It’s time for another try at the “skate-to-die” maximum effort!

The 1000m is simply a sprint that is just a little too long, like the 400m running race in track and field, you have to start super hard, and then maintain maximum speed as your legs explode into a thousand flaming bits, it usually hits me about 200 meters to the finish .

When the gun goes off, I get off the line well, hit the tricky first corner and snap through it perfectly. Two arms till 250 meters, then one arm and drive, second corner goes well. I am at maximum speed in the backstretch, in the third corner it starts to hurt. The picture here is from my fastest 1000m at Olympic trials, but at basically the same moment.

Unusually early pain! crap! When I feel it in the 3rd corner, that is not good. I make myself sit lower and drive. I get the bell for the final lap. The 4th, and second to last corner is crucial in the 1000m, spectators can’t see it, but a radar gun would tell you this is where most skaters begin to slow down. So you have to really nail this turn like the race ends right there. I try, and it’s a ragged effort that somehow gets power into the ice.

There are so many masters racing here, they have had to run another pair of racers at the same time. It’s called a quartet start. I come out of the turn, and I am already catching the quartet who 200 meters behind me! My legs are cooked, I miss full weight shift on a few of the strokes, the final corner is completely ugly, and tunnel vision is taking over for the final 50.

I cross the line and there is no time on the scoreboard!! They are not running electronic timing for the 1000m! It is many long minutes till someone announces the time 1:15.71!! Another record, and this is 2.9 seconds faster than the previous record! I am thrilled! And happiness floods me in a much stronger way than after the 500. This truly has been the season of the 1000m for me. Here is the final results sheet. Mark Chrysler had an excellent 1000, super solid technique, and finished first in his age group, and 3rd overall. We Americans are pretty good sprinters, at all ages. I am coughing from this effort for the next several hours, it always amazes me how much you can wreck your body in a shade over a minute.

A European Master congratulates me and says “Your first 200 was very solid, but you were somewhat stiff in the last 200.” Ha! Every 1000m is like that for me!!

Oddly enough, this very respectable Hamar time would have landed me 12th of 19 in the 1000m Norwegian Single Distance Championships, very similar to the 12th of 17 that I was at the US Single Distance Championships in Milwaukee this October!

Thanks for reading, I race again tomorrow, and since this is a single distance competition, tomorrow I am simply gonna take ever risk I can in that 500m final inner turn, and try to go faster!

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Filed under: on the road, sweat

I am not a superstitious person, however I do place some minor stock in personal symbolism. Here is an example of what I mean; during the hour that I was born on January 5th (roughly 1pm) I have a tradition of doing something connected to how I want the next year to proceed. It means nothing really, but it has become symbolically meaningful to me.

In past years I have done all sorts of things during this hour, riding my bike, hurtling down mountains on skis, doing the books for my business, etc. etc, and a few things that I REALLY should not discuss on this blog, fun though they were. This time last year, I was in Lake Placid, and I went to the 1980 “miracle on ice” hockey rink to do an hour of hard dryland, as that was what I really needed to take my skating to the next level (and it still is).

But this year, during the hour I turned 35, as I am in Norway to speedskate, I was on the ice at the Norwegian Vikingskipet long track rink (I accounted for the time difference). This rink is called the “Viking Ship” because from the outside, it resembles the hull of a ship. I will get a good outside picture eventually (maybe when its not so cold, damp and grey outside, I might have to wait till spring!) but here is their website if you want to see it, it’s stunning! This is the rink the 1994 Olympics were held in, and where Dan Jansen finally won his gold.

However my pictures today are from the inside. As usual per most long tracks, they have very strange internal architecture. I like the internal struts, they are wood, and certainly feel like the inside of a boat. Click on the picture for a larger & desktop friendly version of it.

Here it is, the secret to Norwegian Speedskating sucess, this is the actual turncable Johan Olav Koss used to use before his 3 gold medals in the 1994 Olympics. Actually not, I don’t think any human could pull this rusty, Greyhound bus length piece of psychotic anchor chain. Why is this hanging on the wall?

This size 798 skate (rougly a 3443 in euro sizing) is hanging from the roof. You can see it at the end of the straightaway in the big photo. It supposedly once said “Coca-Cola” on the side, but since Coke stopped paying their sponsorship bills, they taped over the logo, but left the skate cause it’s just odd.

Top Norwegian Speedskater & 3k world record holder Eskil Ervik was staying late after the Norwegian National team practice, and did some media photo sessions with these two adorably attired kids. What unimaginable sufferings these professional athletes must endure!

I am feeling good, and enjoying myself here in Norway, its 11pm right now, and it somehow feels strangely like late afternoon, and I could just party & drink all night to celebrate another year! am I now in my mid 30’s or my late 30’s??

Yeah, right, party & drink.. not this fella, I think I will go back to my hotel room, watch more ski jumping on TV, and go to bed early, visualizing the perfect 1000m race in a few days.

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Filed under: on the road

It’s 6am, and I have already been up for 4 hours. Why? Well I am trying to get myself converted early onto Norwegian time! Tomorrow I leave for 3 weeks of racing in Europe

Now that Olympic Trials are over, and my worldview is only slightly less myopic, here is my racing schedule for the rest of the season.

• January 7th-8th Hamar, Norway, Masters International Single Distance Races
• January 14th-15th Davos, Switzerland, Masters International Davos Meeting
• January 21st-22nd Inzell, Germany, Masters International Sprint Classic
• January 28th-29th Salt Lake City, North American Long Track Championships
• February 4th-5th Roseville, Minnesota, National Long Track Championships
• February 18th-19th Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ADT Long Track America’s Cup Final

• February 25th-26th Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Masters International Long Track

• March 11th-12th Salt Lake City, World Record Challenge

• March 21st-25th Calgary Olympic Oval Finale (maybe, I might be burnt out by then)

If you see a talkative redhead in ugly sunglasses at one of these races, it’s probably me, come on over and say hello!

Why am I going to Europe? Well, it’s very possible that I might never again be as fast as I am during this very narrow window of time, and there are several international/world Masters 35-40 age group records that I have a good chance of breaking, especially the 1000m. Also I have a dear friend in Switzerland, who I am so happy to go visit.

It’s worth mentioning that I could not even BEGIN to think about this much travel without the generous support of my sponsor, POWERCRANKS. Andrew Weber and Frank Day have been terrific. Powercranks are an incredible training device that I use all the time in the summer and fall. Almost ALL of the top cyclists and triathletes use these ego-crushing additions to normal bicycle. They have been my secret hamstring and hip flexor weapons for the last 2 years. Need a pair? Shoot me an email: spdsk88er (at) yahoo (dot) com, and I can get pretty good deals for speedskaters, as it’s a new market Powercranks is interested in. I know a half dozen ice skaters & coaches who use them & love them, inline superstar Kalon Dobbin also has a set. (sorry for the commercial here, but I do believe in these odd cranksets as a device to make cycling much more skate -specific training).

Ugh, The sun is not even up, and it feels like lunchtime. Several well-traveled skaters have given me recommendations on how to prepare optimally for the dramatic time change I am going to experience. So I have them to thank/blame that two hours ago, at 4am I was driving around Salt Lake looking for a good cup of coffee, it was a futile expedition.

Many people dream about winning, some have the will to try and win, but does one really have the will to prepare to win? That is the really hard part. I find it hard, yet vitally important to do the things like making every rep as technically perfect as I can, refueling my body immediately after workouts, not partying to all hours-or even at all!, working obsessively on weaknesses, and today -waking up crazy early so the euro-time change is less of a shock to my body.

Lest I sound holier-than-thou, in some aspects of willpower I utterly fail. Cruising Salt lake at 4am looking for coffee, I saw the Krispy Kreme truck restocking this shelf with new, warm, delectable Krispy Kremes. My willpower completely crumbled, and I ate one. Sigh… Maybe the victory was that I didn’t eat 12!!!

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Filed under: from home

“I really went for it in that race, and I was really deep in the pain cave.”

Brain Boudreau, talking about his 1000m on day 2

I overheard my friend Brian saying this, and it just stuck in my head. The PAIN CAVE!!

That so wonderfully describes that deep place where focus and determination meet searing agony. In most sports, especially team sports, the objective is to either dish out pain, or avoid it. In metric speedskating, often the objective is to find the deepest pain cave that you can, and enter it willingly, as the more pain you can absorb while keeping the technique together, the faster you go.

Here are some beautiful Pain Cave moments from the 1500m on day 3. This is Chris Callis & Derek Parra, two experts of pain cave spelunking, 350 meters from the finish of the 1500. Ouch. Parra, against all odds, threw down a fantastic race, passing Chris on this moment, and grabbed that last Olympic team 1500m spot. Chris poured his soul all over the ice this week, skated with class, and just missed another Olympic team.

On day 4 Chad Hedrick set a world record in the 10,000m. Skating his 25th and final lap at 28.9!! That is faster than many peoples last lap in the 1000 or 1500!! What a mutant! Here is his final step through the longest of speedskating’s pain caves.

My friend Carla Langenthal continued her excellent trials, skating a fine 8th place finish in the 5k. Here she and Heidi Miller-Shockley are being urged on by their coach on the final lap. Note the fine technique of all three of these people!

I had my own lovely moments in the Pain Cave myself. My wife, brother, mom, and many friends are all sick, and I am slowly catching it. From the exciting stuff I was hacking up from my lungs, I knew before my 1000m race that I would have to have to be really fast through 600m, because after that, it was going to to be a deep trip into the lactic underworld.

I practiced my first 300m over and over in warmup, checking every aspect of technique that could launch me into top speed. I resolved to simply make this 1000m a maximum effort from start to finish. This is often called “skate-to-die”. When it works, it can really work, but when it goes bad, rigor mortis sets in and the finish line is an eternity away.

When the race began, I scorched the first 200m in 17.19, and my first lap in 26.44, both splits were my fastest ever. For one of the first times, I could hear my coaches screaming my lap spilts at me, so I knew I was on fire before I felt the flames. It started to get truly ugly in the final backstretch, and by the middle of the final corner, where this pic is from, I had locked completely up. However the ice was so fast, and I had such velocity, I slowed down to a 29.59. A new fastest final lap too.

I risked, and it worked! a fantastic new PB, 1:13.22!!! 1.2 seconds faster than my previous 1k at trials! I let out a howl of happiness, and then just about collapsed (well, coasted around with my head between my knees). I do have an image of my face from about 30 seconds after the finish, but its so horrible looking, it doesn’t look real, and people would think I was mugging for the camera if I posted it. I kind of looked that that villian from the horror movie “scream” but with a reddish tint. It was almost 10 minutes before I could move easily again.

This has been the season of the 1000m so far, I have improved almost 4 seconds from last year’s 1000m PB of 1:17.10. And my 500m only by .35

This past August I asked Boris, in a joking fashion, “what do you think my best 1000m time for this year will be?” After a short and intense ponder, he said “Oh, probably a 17 opener, 27 first lap, 29 second lap, a 1:13 final time” I looked at him like he was nuts, but that dude has a skating magic-8 ball that speaks truth somewhere in his mind, and he has been eerily right over and over (and not just about me, he has done this accurate time prediction numerous times).

It has not really emotionally even registered at all within me that it is 2006, even with the nice party I went to this evening… Other things have been taking all my brain cells, I think I burnt them all up lighting my way through the pain cave.

Happy new year… (what year is it again?)

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Filed under: Olympic Trials