Forecast: Ice
The violent thunderstorm hammering on the roof of the Utah Olympic Oval, sounded like a jet plane roaring down an endless runway, stuck in that moment before liftoff. The rain has finally broken the scorching Utah heat, and as if in sync, inside the oval the staff is LAYING DOWN THE ICE!!!
Ice is better if it’s applied in repeated thin sheets, instead of flooding all at once, so it takes days & days of work. Folks were also painting in the lines with a precision that required surveying equipment, blueprints, laptops, plumb lines, repeated measurements, and a ghostbusters backpack.
I am glad to see this happening. On the running track, myself and several other skaters were preparing ourselves with equal effort, although instead of using precision measuring instruments, we are trying to become precision instruments of technique & strength.
Ice speedskating is, fundamentally, a simple sport.
1. Start
2. Go straight
3. Turn left
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until the finish line (dodging around other skaters if you are a short tracker).
One of the best ways to get better at step 3 is with a turncable. Swimmers actually first used a version of this medieval torture device for arm workouts, then some speedskater got it into their sick minds to practice turns with it!
I seem to have the same relationship with the turncable that I do with the squat rack in the gym. They hurt, but I keep coming back for more, after all, isn’t “pain just weakness leaving the body?”
I really don’t agree with that, but it’s fun to imagine when your legs start buckling underneath you.
Its easier to see a turncable in operation than it is to describe how one works. So here is Nick, thrashing through 80 steps (he had done a lot of one legged stuff before I started taping).
What does this feel like? Get into the skate position, and try to push a big couch around, or maybe a small car, with your shoulder…
Press the play button right here to start.
Filed under: Audio/Video
I think you guys have been saved by the need to have ice for Oquirrh Park Fitness Center’s Fire, Water, and Ice Festival, which takes place on August 12…They could just call it the “Fire and Water Festival,” but that doesn’t have the same ring to it.
If anyone else knows of any other reason why the Utah Oval’s 400 meter ice is going up now (such as, “The USOC and UAF think USSPEEDSKATING has gotten their act together,”) please share your knowledge!
Eva
I read somewhere that the decision was made on the thought that it was good to give the Elites’ more ice time before the season, but i can’t remember where i read it..