25.9
I am blessed (or spoiled, depending on your point of view) because slowly and surely I keep improving. I know so many rockstar hard workers who get stuck at on speed plateaus that last whole seasons, or who have health issues that take away the accomplishments they karmically have earned.
Yesterday I skated my fastest lap ever! a 25.9 second flying 400m. Just before my PB 500 last march, I skated a 26.19, so hopefully, technically and physically I am picking up where I left off last year. If I can keep improving on relaxing the upper body while at top speed, good things will continue to happen. Technique, technique, technique.
I could have been even faster if I had not kicked my right skate during the entry to the final turn. Luckily duct tape is the most powerful force in the universe, and the piece I had in place to try and protect this oft-kicked area kept the cracked shard of carbon fiber from disappearing forever. So it’s nothing superglue & nail polish can’t fix.
Some who have known me for a while might note from this picture that after my last 3 season using Viking blades, now I am on Maple steel blades. I don’t think there is truly a “fastest” blade, any more than there is a “fastest” material for a bicycle to be made out of.
But certainly, like bicycles, different rides/blades “feel” different, and I like how these groove. They are also longer & rocked flatter (a 26) than what I was skating before, so the effective “gear” I am pushing is bigger.
I race Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend, so hopefully I can translate good practice speed into race day velocity.
Filed under: from home
Maybe its the new maple blades that are faster? Or maybe its Koons’ finger that is faster? Or maybe the blades and Koons’ finger are both slower and YOU are truly much, much faster? Feel is so important, and, damn! - skating is such mental sport isn’t it?
speedy,
you have obviously been around this sport for a LOOONG time to understand this at such a level….. thanks.. this made me smile…
I have popped off a good number of 26.3 to 26.6 laps this past week, and this one did “feel” quite a bit quicker, especially in the last 100m I carried the speed well..
So given all of these are timed off of the same koons finger, that time felt about right… I still need to get about a second faster than that if I want to skate like the big dawgs…
mental mental mental…
when I look in the mirror I see a few wild gray hairs showing up in my sideburns, but mentally, I don’t feel them at all… they just are growing out, not into the brain, as it happens to some when they get their first gray highlights..
I myself think I am incredibly spoilied because every year I have skated I have taken at least 3 seconds off my 500 PB. I have people tell me that it’s just cause I have just started and that happens to everyone, but I think it’s like you guys said mental. Every year I get a new outlook on the sport and I get more of an understanding of what I need to be thinking abou because if you’re not thinking about the right stuff you won’t get anywhere.
nice dramatic image! didn’t realize that your skate boots have sparkles in them - like magical ruby slippers, eh? Or at least I hope they have the same effect, a boost from energies even beyond your own.
Nice!!!
that’s because Andrew’s skate-slippers cost more than Don Corleone’s hand-made-by-by-an-Italian-gnome tassled penny-loafers, Kate!
In case you’re wondering
I found some nice black nail polish to fix a kicked spot on my viking blade, and I saw black with sparkles in it, too. (I thought very briefly about buying it just to wear it once, but…no.)
Yes, you may be blessed/spoiled, but you also have a good combination of awareness of what you need to do in training and to keep healthy and a lot of determination to carry it out.
I’m not sure I get the whole “mental” thing, so I just won’t think about it too much
I think I’m spoiled, too, even with my PWs, because I like training and pretty much get to do what I want!
there’s nothing like the feeling of sucess in training to give you huge mental boosts…and a real “can do ” attitiude. You’re on the right track, Andrew.
Starting out this season, I dreaded the flying laps because I had high expectation coming off a strong end of the season last year. Somehow, the technique wasn’t quite there, after inlining in the summer kinda changed my style. It took a while, but the times are coming back, as well as the feel of what I need to do to be faster on the ice. I can’t make my style look like someone else’s, which I had been trying to do. Today, I timed my season best flying lap, and it barely felt like any of the others I’ve done thus far-it actually seemed easier! I’m wasting less energy and getting the pushes more correctly. There’s the mental sport we love.
Duct tape, nail polish, and super glue - I guess some things are good for anything!
Great job on the times and the improve technique. That must have felt great to be skating so freely.
Congrats Andrew. I would have thought you had broken that before but I guess your rocket start is what makes your times fast. I had done a few sub 26s last year in practice. it’s fun and fast. I just started skating last night for the first time. You heard anything about Master Worlds. The website doesn’t have an application. I’m thinking of doing that this year but I need to do a bunch of 5k’s. Fun times.