Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Posted on 28 Dec 09:47 pm

Laps in Lake Placid

Since nationals finished a few days ago, I’ve traveled to rural New Jersey, New York City, Burlington Vermont, enjoying family, eating doughnuts & red wine (yes, together!) and not thinking about skating at all.

However, I’ve been out of touch with the east coast skate tribe for too long, so today I went up to Lake Placid to skate and re-connect with a whole bunch of good friends I have not seen in far too long.

While skating I shot some video of Saratoga spring skaters Andrew Hodor, Marty Haire, Andrew Abt, And Rebecca Hodor. Click here for the high quality quicktime video, or below for the YouTube.

Sure compared to Salt Lake, Lake Placid ice is frosted & slow, it was cold, snowing off and on, and one had to wrestle through headwinds. But the way that the light slants in through overcast clouds, the roar of the wind, the great folks & dear friends on the track: Priceless!

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Filed under: on the road

Blackbirds & Speedskating

The Paul McCartney song “blackbird” has always gotten to me. It’s one of those rare songs that’s depressive and uplifting at the same time. I have always felt it applied well to folks who throw themselves fully into the fires of their passions. People like artists, social activists, graduate students, & of course -speedskaters.

The song fits well with video clips I shot at US national speedskating championships.

Click here for the high quality quicktime, or just press the YouTube play button below. I’ve been posting video on the web for over a year now, and am always playing around with options.

Here are the folks in this, & what they were doing when I shot each clip.

Matt Plummer & Chad Hedrick, starting a 1500.
Maria Lamb & Catherine Raney, 700m into a 1500.
April Medley, 2 laps to go.
Donald Stewart & Michael Stein Stewart, 300m into a 1500.
Same two guys again, Donald skated the race of his life here, earning a World Cup spot.
A crowd of curious kids with noisemakers cheering on 2 skaters.
Justin “CoonPup” Stelly, in the final lap of his 1500.
John Loquai, midway through a 5k.
Kreg Greer giving the camera a grin in the first few laps of what became an outstanding 10k race.
Chris Witty & Beckah Bradford, starting a 500m.
Coach Mike Witty and a 2022 winter Olympic hopeful
Tucker Fredericks and Kip Carpenter, ripping out an amazing 500m start.
April Medley & Leah Lambert, 500m.
Danny Frederick & Matt Shannahan, halfway through a 1000m.
Jessica Smith (& that’s April Medley lying on the ground, she’s ok).
Shani Davis Passing John Loquai, & creating some SERIOUS 1500m corner pressure.
Anna Ringsred & Andrey Zhuikov.
Anthony Lobello & Andrew Love, 500m start & finish.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, on the road

Posted on 23 Dec 03:01 pm

Results from Day 4

Here are the results from the final and 4th day of the US national long track championships.

I am running to catch a plane, so I will sort throught the videos to grab pictures tomorrow!!

Women’s 500m

1. Elli Ochowicz 39.34
2. Christine Witty 40.12
3. Jessica Smith 40.93
4. Maria Lamb 41.00
5. Lana Gehring 41.28
6. Rebekah Bradford 41.35
7. Catherine Raney 41.69
8. Mia Manganello 42.06
9. Becky Lang 42.29
10. Ashlee Barnett 42.40
11. Leah Lambert 42.82
12. Netanya Mintz 43.49
13. April Medley 44.04
14. Anne Bruckner 44.30

Men’s 500m

1. Tucker Fredricks 35.31
2. Kip Carpenter 35.66
3. Christopher Needham 36.35
4. Shani Davis 36.38
5. Michael Blumel 36.83
6. Tyler Goff 36.98
7. Anthony Lobello 37.01
8. Brent Aussprung 37.13
9. Andrew Love. 37.47
9. Matthew Plummer 37.47
11. James (Clay) Cholewinski 37.48
12. Matthew Shanahan 37.61
13. Mitchell Whitmore 37.99
14. Ronald Macky 38.39
15. Nathaniel DeFranco 38.40
16. Matthew Hickson 38.59
17. Michael Stein-Stewart 38.68
18. Miles Ringsred 38.74
19. Daniel Beck 38.95
20. Daniel Frederick 39.20
21. Alex Ochowicz 39.33
22. Joseph Parrella 39.34

Women’s 1000m

1. Elli Ochowicz 1:19.34
2. Christine Witty 1:19.59
3. Mia Manganello 1:21.08
4. Catherine Raney 1:21.71
5. Maria Lamb 1:21.77
6. Jessica Smith 1:22.12
7. Lana Gehring 1:23.23
8. Ashlee Barnett 1:23.59
8. Rebekah Bradford 1:23.97
10. Becky Lang 1:24.63
11. Leah Lambert 1:24.74
12. Netanya Mintz 1:25.58
13. April Medley 1:27.04
14. Anne Bruckner 1:29.79

Men’s 1000m

1. Shani Davis 1:09.91
2. Kip Carpenter 1:10.31
3. Tucker Fredricks 1:10.88
4. Christopher Needham 1:11.76
5. Michael Blumel 1:13.40
6. Anthony Lobello, Jr. 1:13.43
7. Brent Aussprung 1:13.57
8. Ronald Macky 1:13.77
9. Tyler Goff 1:13.80
10. Matthew Plummer 1:13.83
11. James (Clay) Cholewinski 1:14.54
12. Michael Stein-Stewart 1:15.07
13. Nathaniel DeFranco. 1:15.25
14. Liam Ortega 1:15.63
15. Mitchell Whitmore 1:15.64
16. Miles Ringsred 1:16.08
17. Andrew Love 1:16.51
18. Matthew Shanahan 1:16.53
19. Daniel Beck 1:16.71
20. Daniel Frederick 1:16.72
21. Matthew Hickson 1:17.42
22. Alex Ochowicz 1:17.52
23. Joseph Parrella 1:18.07
25. Charles Leveille 1:28.76

oh yeah, one more thing, a picture of me in my T-SHIRT!!!! WHOOOO!!!!! I AM CAT I NOW!!!

combining the times of the 2-500m races together, I just nosed into 10th place by .03!!! it’s a crazy story, and I will have time to write it on the plane.

With me in this photo is my good buddy Kip Carpenter, who also had a pretty good weekend, winning the overall US sprint championship.

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

Results from Day 3

Here is the Pettit ice center at sunrise this past Wednesday morning. Very pretty. Click on it for a bigger version (these are true colors too, no photoshopping).

However fast times often require different weather conditions (low air pressure). This morning it was pouring rain & inside it was quite fast. Over 90% of the skaters racing today skated at least 1 Pettit Center PB. Unfortunately I was not one of them.

Here are the results.

Women’s 500m

Image to the right is Chris Witty, at her first major competiton in quite some time. She’s Back!!!

1. Elli Ochowicz 39.50
2. Christine Witty 40.00
3. Jessica Smith 40.57
4. Lana Gehring 41.11
5. Maria Lamb 41.14
6. Rebekah Bradford 41.39
7. Becky Lang 41.95
8. Catherine Raney 41.98
9. Mia Manganello 42.03
10. Anna Ringsred 42.19
11. Ashlee Barnett 42.37
12. Leah Lambert 43.44
13. Netanya Mintz 43.74
14. April Medley 44.29
15. Anne Bruckner 45.38

Men’s 500m

1. Tucker Fredricks 35.48
2. Kip Carpenter 35.74
3. Shani Davis 36.31
4. Christopher Needham 36.53
5. Donald Stewart 36.60
6. Michael Blumel 36.85
7. James (Clay) Cholewinski 36.96
8. Tyler Goff 36.99
9. Anthony Lobello, Jr. 37.06
10. Matthew Shanahan 37.40
11. Andrew Love 37.51
12. Brent Aussprung. 37.65
13. Matthew Plummer 37.80
14. Nathaniel DeFranco 38.38
15. Mitchell Whitmore 38.43
16. Ronald Macky 38.46
17. Matthew Hickson 38.57
18. Michael Stein-Stewart 38.66
19. Joseph Parrella 38.73
20. Daniel Frederick 38.76
21. Matthew Hotchkiss 38.83
22. Miles Ringsred 39.03
23. Daniel Beck 39.23
24. Alex Ochowicz 39.58

Women’s 1000m

1. Elli Ochowicz 1:19.01
2. Christine Witty 1:19.86
3. Catherine Raney 1:20.10
4. Maria Lamb 1:21.12
5. Mia Manganello 1:21.54
6. Jessica Smith 1:21.74
7. Lana Gehring 1:22.33
8. Rebekah Bradford 1:22.64
8. Anna Ringsred 1:22.64
10. Ashlee Barnett 1:23.65
11. Becky Lang 1:23.97
12. Leah Lambert 1:25.16
13. Netanya Mintz 1:25.70
14. April Medley 1:28.18
15. Anne Bruckner 1:29.75

Men’s 1000m

this image is Shani & Kip, first 200m, then 825m into an incredible 1000m

1. Shani Davis 1:09.76
2. Kip Carpenter 1:10.29
3. Christopher Needham 1:11.35
4. Tucker Fredricks 1:12.07
5. Michael Blumel 1:12.36
6. Donald Stewart 1:12.75
7. Matthew Plummer 1:13.01
8. James (Clay) Cholewinski 1:13.19
9. Tyler Goff 1:13.47
10. Charles Leveille 1:13.69
11. Ronald Macky 1:13.99
12. Anthony Lobello, Jr. 1:14.00
13. Brent Aussprung. 1:14.15
14. Michael Stein-Stewart 1:14.27
15. Mitchell Whitmore 1:15.18
16. Matthew Shanahan 1:15.21
17. Nathaniel DeFranco 1:15.27
18. Liam Ortega 1:15.36
19. Daniel Frederick 1:15.49
20. Daniel Beck 1:16.26
21. Andrew Love 1:16.32
22. Miles Ringsred 1:16.79
23. Alex Ochowicz 1:17.45
24. Joseph Parrella 1:17.84
25. Matthew Hickson 1:18.37

Thanks go out to Ray Medley, I gave him my camera, and he shot the images you see here.

On a personal note, I am truly unhappy with both of my times. I am finding it hard to hit my normal top speed with this different bend & rocker. I’m just not dialed in, and racing with athletes of this caliber, you need perfection in everything. I don’t want to blame my blades, because skates don’t skate themselves, but crap!!!!!!!!

Surveying the 1000m times, fellow 35 year old Danny Frederick said “Wow, these kids are fast.” I agree.

Also worth noting in the results is Anthony Lobello, this Tornio Short Track Olympian, (and inline junior world champ) has been training on the long track for just a few weeks! Whoa!

p.s. welcome to all the Dutch speedskating fans from http://www.schaatsforum.nl
188 of you have visited this site in the last, ummm, about 16 hours!!!

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Filed under: from the coffee shop

Posted on 21 Dec 12:14 pm

Meanwhile, in Lake Placid

Back on the east coast, the ice Marathon season is in full swing with the well attended Dimon Sports Marathon in Lake Placid. You can see the full results here, and can find out more about Marathon speedskating and their points series at the tri-lingual marathonskating.org website.

There were many interesting names on the start list from both the inline and ice worlds, is that Olympic short track medal winner Cathy Turner I see in the results?

Here are some images from both Saturday & Sunday:

The start line:

Go!!!

The lead pack

My good friend Jim Cornell broke away in the final 9 laps of the 40k, and soloed in for the win. How hard do you have to work to be able to do this? Jim did an Ironman Triathlon this summer, as well as coaching and working a full time job! (he also uses Powercranks, one of my sponsors).

Here he is, leading the pack:

Pat Kelly won Saturday’s 10k, and inliner Sergio Almeralla the 25k. On the women’s side, Danielle Grey won the 10k, Sarah Kruger the 25k, and Suzanne Dionne the 40k.

-Winners are nice, and deserve applause, but if you race & finish an ice marathon in a blizzard/sleet storm/etc, you are also a winner in my eyes-

Thanks to Michigan skate tribe member Tom Cole & upstate NY-er Marty Haire for these pictures, seeing these images makes me miss racing marathons in the snow… Really, I have some fond memories of racing one on a beautifully foggy morning in Lake Placid (and having Bob Tysen rip my legs off via endless FAST laps).

Tom sent this final image to me with the caption “how do you intimidate a sprinter? Have them look at a lap card with 100 to go on it!”. As a sprinter, I can say that IS intimidating!!! To the right of that are some of the good folks who put on this race, John Dimon and Mike Miller.

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Filed under: on the road

Results from Day 2

Day 2 of US nationals, full of thrills, chills, and the effort of 1500m, 5K and 10k races.

Here are the results, & images of the winners.

Women’s 1500m

1. Catherine Raney 2:04.07
2. Anna Ringsred 2:04.63
3. Maria Lamb 2:06.07
4. Mia Manganello 2:07.68
5. Jessica Smith 2:08.45
6. Ashlee Barnett 2:11.69
7. Ericka Hawke 2:13.99
8. April Medley 2:14.99
9. Netanya Mintz 2:16.11
10. Heidi Shockley 2:17.28
11. Lisa Hambly 2:17.40
12. Melissa Dahlman 2:17.42
13. Rebekah Dyrud 2:18.90
14. Hannah Dyrud 2:23.18
15. Carla Langenthal 2:26.12

Mens 1500m

1. Shani Davis 1:47.12
2. Chad Hedrick 1:49.88
3. Donald Stewart 1:52.6
4. Charles Leveille 1:52.82
5. John Loquai 1:53.05
6. Matt Plummer 1:53.36
7. Paul Dyrud 1:54.17
8. Ron Macky 1:54.56
9. Brent Aussprung 1:54.77
10. Michael Blumel 1:54.79
11. Daniel Frederick 1:55.43
12. Kreg Greer 1:56.39
13. Michael Stein-Stewart 1:56.51
14. Nate Defranco 1:56.74
15. Liam Ortega 1:56.81
16. Mitchell Whitmore 1:57.09
17. Eric Cepuran 1:57.22
18. Matt Hotchkiss 1:58.54
19. Justin Stelly 1:58.64
20. Daniel Beck 1:59.85
21. Brandon Andrews 2:01.09
22. Brian Hansen 2:02.01
23. Keith Carney 2:03.03

Women’s 5000m

1. Catherine Raney 7:20.02
2. Anna Ringsred 7:32.29
3. Maria Lamb 7:39.76
4. Mia Manganello 7:44.46
5. Jessica Smith 7:56.69
6. Ericka Hawke: 7:57.08
7. Carla Langenthal 8:06.75
8. April Medley 8:08.04
9. Ashlee Barnett 8:16.49
10. Netanya Mintz 8:29.22
11. Heidi Shockley 8:29.96
12. Hannah Dyrud 8:36.1
13. Lisa Hambly 8:36.55
14. Rebekah Dyrud 8:56.80

Mens 10000m

1. Chad Hedrick 13:38.22
2. Shani Davis 13.40.43
3. Charles Leveille 14:12.12
4. Paul Dyrud 14:28.51
5. Kreg Greer 14:32.87
6. Justin Stelly 14:36.49
7. Liam Ortega 14:40.71
8. John Loquai 14:45.87
9. Daniel Frederick 14:49.72
10. Mitchell Whitmore 15:16.32
11. Eric Cepuran 15:23.03
12. Keith Carney15:27.30
13. Ron Mackey 15:45.78

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

Posted on 20 Dec 07:26 am

Olu times 3, music video

I shot a video of Olu playing the National anthem, and had the idea of blending some of the videos I shot with his playing.

As I was working on this late last night, I looped Olu’s playing 3 times, so really you are hearing 3 Olu’s playing over the top of each other in unique harmonies. Some folks get offended when they hear the national anthem played in semi-arty ways, but as I look at the dedication of these Olympic hopefuls & the challenges they face, somehow lonely, atonal, patriotic music oddly fits.

Here it is in an easily accessible flash video. If you want to see a much nicer high quality Quicktime version, Click here.

The skaters pictured in this video are

Danny Frederick (fastest man in the world with 3+ kids)
Paul Dyrud
Matt Plummer
Liam Ortega (in white)
Jessica Smith
Nate Defranco (in red)
Mia Manganello’s feet
Catherine Raney
Mia Manganello
Anna Ringsred & Maria Lamb
Shani Davis & Chad Hedrick (in the last 500m of a crazy-fast 5k)

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Filed under: RACE DAY, Audio/Video, on the road

Results from Day 1

Here are the raw results from the first day of US national Championships. In the order the races happened along with pictures of the winners. Today and tomorrow are the Allaround, sprinters race Friday & Saturday.

Women’s 500m

1. Jessica Smith 41. 04
2. Maria Lamb 41.12
3. Anna Ringsred 41.67
4. Catherine Raney 41.82
5. Ericka Hawke 42.43
6. Mia Manganello 42.58
7. Ashlee Barnett 42.6
8. Netanya Mintz 44.43
9. Rebekah Dyrud 44.72
10. Heidi Shockley 44.82
10. April Medley 44.82
12. Lisa Hambly 46.27
13. Hannah Dyrud 46.62
14. Carla Langenthal 49.26

Mens 500m

1. Shani Davis 36.52
2. Chad Hedrick 37.6
3. John Loquai 37.77
4. Kreg Greer 37.83
5. Ronald Macky 38.2
6. Nate Defranco 38.62
7. Michael Stein-Stewart 38.63
8. Daniel Frederick 38.72
9. Mitchell Whitmore 38.76
10. Paul Dyrud 38.9
10. Liam Ortega 38.9
12. Eric Cepuran 39.0
13. Charles Leveille 39.09
14. Matt Hotchkiss 39.11
15. Daniel Beck 39.46
16 Justin Stelly 39.70
17. Brandon Andrews 39.75
18. Patrick Meek 39.97
19 (reskate after fall) Matt Plummer 40.57
20. Keith Carney 41.22

Women’s 3000m

1. Catherine Raney 4:14.46
2. Anna Ringsred 4:19.84
3. Maria Lamb 4:22.06
4. Mia Manganello 4:28.93
5. Ericka Hawke 4:34.92
6. Jessica Smith 4:40.57
7. Ashlee Barnett 4:42.55
8. April Medley 4.43.66
9. Melissa Dahlman 4:48.75
10. Netanya Mintz 4:52.08
11. Heidi Shockley 4:55.8
12. Hannah Dyrud 4:56.97
13. Lisa Hambly 4:59.59
14. Carla Langenthal 5:09.77 (fall)
Rebekah Dyrud (dq)

Mens 5000m

1. Shani Davis 6:24.93
2. Chad Hedrick 6:25.47
3. Charles Leveille 6:46.51
4. Paul Dyrud 6:49.21
5. John Loquai 6:57.85
6. Justin Stelly 6:59.46
7. Daniel Frederick 7:01.43
8. Liam Ortega 7:03.02
9. Patrick Meek 7:09.54
10. Kreg Greer 7:09.83
11. Eric Cepuran 7:18.09
12. Nate Defranco 7:19.4
13. Ronald Macky 7:19.45
14. Keith Carney 7:19.57
15. Matt Plummer 7:19.67
16 Mitchell Whitmore 7:19.99
17. Michael Stein-Stewart 7:21.96
18. Daniel Beck 7:30.53
19 Matt Hotchkiss 7:31.63
20. Brandon Andrews 7:52.41

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

Posted on 18 Dec 10:06 pm

Nationals start tomorrow

It’s late, I’m tired, this will be brief….

You could just feel that something was in the air at the rink today. There was an energy, a focus, a quality of movement & intensity during training today, appropriate to the fact that tomorrow is the first day of National Championships.

The allarounders are racing Teusday & Wednesday, Thursday is a rest day, then the sprinters like me have our fast fun on the ice Friday and Saturday. I will try and do reporting from the races when I can grab a moment or two.

It’s funny, the first time I skated nationals, I knew only a handful of the athletes, now on my 4th trip here, there are just a few I don’t know.

I’m glad that I am not first up to race, because I stepped on something nasty skating this past weekend and it took me 3 hours of sharpening before I repaired the damage to my edges. When I stepped on the ice this morning, my skates felt awful, I had screwed up my rocker taking out the nicks & scrapes & inches of destroyed edge.

Lest you think that being an elite coach is all wine, women & song, (or beer, men & classic rock if that’s how you roll) here is Mike Koorman re-rockering my skates. I was one of many pairs he rockered, sharpened, bent, or troubleshot today.

What you can see in this photo is his attention to detail as he guides the grinding wheel to very carefully re-shape my FUBARed blades.

What you can’t see in this photo is his patience & calming words of experience as he reassures a flipping out athlete (me) that everything will be fine!!!!

I normally skate on an extremely flat rocker of 26-27m, all this rockering machine had was a 24, so that will have to do.

Modern coaching seems to be a wild soup of technique analysis, equipment evaluation, scientific physiology knowledge, and a healthy dose of psychology & understanding how to fire up or soothe the athletes in their charge. Mike does a great job.

P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement on the t-shirt post! I will do my best to live up to all the good vibes sent my way…

There are many exceptional skaters at nationals this year, one wrong step by any of us, and whoosh! Right to the bottom of the standings!

It’s a little stressful…. but in a good way…..

4 Comments »
Filed under: on the road

You know you are in Milwaukee when:

The Whole Foods supermarket announces over their loudspeaker that the Packers game has just started, the Pack is ALREADY losing 3 to 0, and that you can go over to their lounge where the games is on, have some organic bratwurst and beer, and watch.

I am working at the free wi-fi in the whole foods market coffee shop, and am pretty much dying with laughter as I write this. There are SO many interesting contradictions in this!

I wonder if they will give score updates on the store loudspeaker as the game goes along… hmmmm.

Maybe I will just have to go buy some Green Bay Packers Gorp, and check out the modern & unique convergence of “health food shoppers/harcore Packers Fans.”