Zen and the Art of Speedskating

After last night’s minor league baseball game filled with skate-talk, the next morning, I’m at Sugarhouse park for an easy inline skate, who should I see also there training but the US national sprint team!

It’s hypnotic to watch elite skaters on the ice during the Olympics & world champs, to see their seemingly effortless application of power.

However, it’s brutal hill runs like what these guys were doing today, that creates foundation that the illusion of effortless flight is built on.

The fellow in the blue shorts is Joji Kato, a Japanese skater who until this march held the world record in the 500m. In the white T-Shirt is Tucker Fredericks, who won the world cup overall in the 500 last season.

This is about as serious as fast twitch skating firepower gets!

But that does not mean much, when it’s you, the hill, & knowing the guys you want to beat are all training as hard as you are, on other hills, all over the world.

Here is Beckah Bradford. Just her, the hill, & lots of explosive, intense low-walks on today’s menu.

On this sprint, young gun Mike Blumel leads the group, then Tucker, Joji, Tyler Goff, and on the far right, out of retirement, Nick Pearson. Chris Needham was also doing sprints, & I could feel him whoosh by on my left, as I took pictures across the right side of the hill.

I wanted to run with them, to match them fast twitch fibre-to-fibre. But I did not have real shoes with me, just bike shoes & my inlines. So I was a just spectator. As an extremely competitive person, I could say it was harder to watch them run than to be running with them,

but as much as these guys were hurting by the end-

That would be a lie.

One my favorite posts I’ve ever written is called “Find Your Groove” & it’s all about hill sprinting. These guys have groove.

I have not done hill running sprints once so far this year. Will I ever get my groove back?

As I rode home & left the park, just as the sun was turning it’s rays to “fry” intensity, I cross paths with a very fit looking Chad Hedrick, in his own inline groove, doing some seriously fast hill stomps with a friend on a bike.

We are all drawn here to Salt Lake, like bees to a hive, for so many reasons. Tomorrow I race a 5k on inlines, then afterwards, am going to go to the oval & skate ice for the first time this year.

Filed under: from the coffee shop