Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?
-Jack Kerouac

I think I have published that Kerouac quote here before, but there is so much inside those few words, it’s worth repeating.

And where are we going in those pre-dawn hours; In this long night of individual and national awareness, in our overly technological, sealed & car-encapsulated life?

Fall is in the air, frost is starting to glitter in the grass, the mountains are touched with snow, and in my own thoughtful car I drive to the Utah Olympic oval for a long weekend of racing.

Arriving at the parking lot & looking into the lit windows of this crazy building, I can see Canadian, Japanese and American national team skaters jogging & stretching; shiny cars from all over the world, many nights.

My weekend of racing went well, when all was said and done, you can see the results here.

In the past two seasons, I have consistently started the first month of racing with 10.5 to 10.7 for my opening 100 in the 500, and the first 200m of my 1,000’s in 17.8. This weekend I did 10.32 and 10.31, 17.47 & 17.35. If I follow my usual freakish consistency with skating, I should drop both of those times (or maybe I am already at my physiological & technical maximum already, just earlier in the year.. hmmm..). My final times were 37.39, 37.14, 1:15.14, 1:15.21. I am pretty happy with that, especially considering that both 500m races had significant corner mistakes that cost me speed.

Here is my 17.35 1000m start, paired with the previously mentioned “gentle giant” Nate DeFranco.

When you are doing it, a 1000m start feels as rushed & hard as sprinting up a staircase. But with the stop motion of video, one can see so many small (& not so small) correct & incorrect bits of technique.

Nate’s back curl, leg extension, driving the knee forward in front of the ankle, and arm swing are miles better than mine. The things I have going for me is my skate blade direction is a little better, and oodles of fast twitch fibres snapping me around that first turn very quickly.

It’s easy, so easy, to nitpick, but judging by our split times, the two of us accelerated from zero to 32mph/50kph within 200m, so we are doing something right…

‘Doing something right, in that shiny car in the night…

Filed under: RACE DAY