Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Hazy, but clear blue skies over the Salt Lake airport, another beautiful day in the west with a salubrious hint of fall in the air. If you look closely in this photo you can see the buildings of downtown Salt Lake in the distance.

Luckily the plane I was flying to Milwaukee in was bigger than this puddle jumper.

In Denver on my layover, the same gentle western mountain air and blue skies. The Denver airport would win the “P.T Barnum on Acid” award if there was one. It’s wonderful inside, but from the outside it looks like a circus tent that has added several unnecessary time-space dimensions to its existence.

Arriving in Milwaukee & straight to the rink, 35 degrees, biting cold, clouds cold as stone, snowflakes horizontally skittering along in gusty wind. WELCOME TO THE MIDWEST! There is something about low altitude damp cold that just claws its way through your jacket.

Inside the Pettit center was bustling with activity, and warm with the smiles of many good folks I know. Here are some of the young and the fast, in their US Junior National team blue & red. Mathew Shanahan and Connor Slivocka saw me wandering around with my digital camera. They said “hey! Your blog rocks! Can we be on it!”.

Sure, here ya go guys. That is Matthew Hickson sitting on the pads, grinning at their goofing.

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Filed under: on the road

When the light comes slanting in the outside windows, it can be very pretty view down the straightaway as you step to the starting line at the Utah Olympic Oval. Unfortunately just before a 500m race, I am far too psycho-focused to really notice.

Ya’know the intense emotions when in a roller-coaster click-click-clacking up & up & up before the first big terrifying drop… Stepping to the start of an important 500m race kind of feels like that…

Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day” where Bill Murray keeps waking up to the same day over and over again? I love that flick, even before I read this fascinating moral deconstruction of it.

It’s been feeling a lot like Groundhog day at training recently; Show up, see the same exhausted faces, & skate that same frozen circle over and over.

However this Thursday I fly to Milwaukee to prepare for Fall World Cup trials, and that will be a welcome change. I have come to love that gently rolling landscape of beer, cheese, Packers fans, & the moody waves of Lake Michigan.

My mom called me and said: “you haven’t blogged! other than being tired, how is the racing going?”

Ok, my starts continue to improve, I clocked my 2nd fastest opening 100m ever this Saturday, a 10.25, and that will only get faster as I rest more. However I have somehow lost consistent body position entering the corners, so even though my starts are getting faster, I am still stuck in 37.1-ish time-land. If I can put it all together, I could pop off some scary fast racing in Wisconsin over the next 2 weekends.

However if the upcoming World Cup trials become a disaster of floppy technique & choppy skating; on the afternoon of October 20th, you will be able to find me at the Milwaulkee Krispy Kreme store, crying face down into a boxful of hot ones.

Some might drink, but I have always found that molten sugar mixes best with tears.

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Filed under: from the coffee shop