26.41!!!!
Liberally compressing a whole weeks worth of conversations between coach Boris and I into a paragraph, roughly the following exchange occurred:
Andrew: I am going faster and faster doing our workouts/drills, and am getting close to my all time fastest lap (27.01), can I please go all out just once! and try to go really fast!
Boris: No, you are not technically ready yet.
Andrew: Pllleeeeeeze!!!Boris: No, Why are you so intent on going fast right now? Its coming together well, You will go really fast this year!
Andrew: I have done every step of every workout you have assigned since march (exception: august 21st). I been suffering like a sled dog, I want to go faster than I ever have before, not for physical reasons, but for psychological ones, to feel that all this sacrifice is really getting me somewhere. I know intellectually and even physically that I am improving, but I want the stopwatch to tell me as well.Boris: There is this old Russian saying, “If something is prohibited, but very desirable, it is probably a good idea to do it”. Ok, you may try.
Result: Even though I am extremely tired at the end of this training cycle, and skated rushed and sloppy when I turned on the turbos, I pounded out a 26.41 for a flying 400m!!! (33.9mph/54.5kph average speed-figured out here-, and thanks to Dimon Sports for the fast suit) The whole rink heard me howl when I saw the time, Kirk Fogdall, skating behind me, also did an all time best, a 29.2 with both hands on his back!
How much has a whole year of soul-crushing hard work earned me?? So far, its .6 of a second improvement from my fastest lap last year.
Boris is heading to Russia for business and to meet with one of his speedskating yodas. He did some taping of the team to show yoda, and recorded my 26.41, click on the picture to the right to see/download it, its only 1.3mb. When I look at this, I see my usual technical flaws, they are all evident in the video: in the straights my left knee follows an inefficient arc compared to the right one, in the turns my left elbow sticks out like sail, and under the high pressure of the turn my rhythm is powerful but choppy & without flow. However there are numerous things I am doing so much better than in the past, and I can happily blame Boris for most of them.
I begin to rest now, I feel a huge psychological pressure fall away, and in a week or so, all this fatigue will be shed like old skin too. I will emerge as a new, faster self, to race better vs myself & this new, higher standard. Right now it hurts to walk, but I am smiling everywhere I go.
Filed under: sweat, from the coffee shop
You make me tired just reading this. Was up most of the night pushing Katrina South to Miami. No damage here. Had call from Pat.Looks like he has got himself a good one. He needs a web site Know anybody to do the job? The pic of Edie is going over big time Thanks T>O>M>
congrats on your p.r., andrew! you’ve done your homework! i look forward to seeing you reap the benefits this winter!
see where I get my strength, my grandpa pushes around hurricanes!! Grandpa also references the fact that my cousin patrick just got engaged, and also I sent him a picture of my recently deceased grandma… T>O>M is a nice local fellow who helps grandpa out, and I think he actually types these comment entries…
T>O>M is grandpa TOM stands for “The Old Man.It is how he signs himself. I believe it is army lingo. There is no local person helping grandpa with his computer. He reads your blog every day.
wow, learn something new every day… TOM is grandpa, and yes mom, I think you are right in that is WWII terminology…… so if T>O>M is grandpa does that make me “T>F>M” as shorthand for “the fast man?”, “the freaky man?”, “the frivilous mutant?”, “the flippant muse?”, “thoughtfully flavored mustard?”