PB’s + Germany!
I’m posting 3 things at once, so make sure to scroll down & check out the “Beard Poll” & “Masters in Calgary”.
I’m writing from the Cincinnati airport, on my way to Germany.
In an hour I will board this plane, and under the direction of a myriad of towers like the one in the background, will travel 5,000 miles in a bit under 9 hours.
Amazing. It’s equally werid that I have based my whole year of training thinking mainly about one weekend.
I’ve worked awfully hard on my distance skating, as this is an Allaround meet (500-1500-3000-5000), and anything over a minute of work is very difficult for my big legs & fast twitch muscle fibers.
Inline marathons & slideboard & laps & biking & lifting & more laps & racing & racing things that I’m bad at, & more laps & long long slideboard sessions, & more things I suck at, & pain & dryland till I crumble & more laps & crashing in short track & discouragement & exhaustion & questioning & determination redoubled & redoubled & redoubled until I can’t measure it anymore.
And then suddenly I wake up and the race is almost here—
In the past 8 days I’ve skated very satisfying personal bests in both the 1500m and the 3000m. I’ve removed the training stress, and am getting fast, right on schedule.
I am as ready as I will ever be.
This image was taken by Dan Barrett, at US Nationals this year during my 1500. Even during US nationals, I was looking ahead, practicing my 1500 for master’s worlds.
My goal for worlds is to make the top 3, as I was 5th last year. But there are some scary fast skaters in my age-group. There is a Dutch guy coming who could possibly lap me twice in the 5k…. yeeeooow!
Yet I can’t control how anyone else races, just myself.
Travel across the world to race other people, and just find a mirror staring back at you.
Speedskating is so weird… This is known as… fun…..
I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else…
Filed under: on the road
Go on, put a hurtin’ on the other old men!
Good luck on your races!
Best Wishes for all of your races!
–Lisa
P.S. The Marathon was a blast- perfect day for it.
I vote you keep your wife happy and DAMN aerodynamics!
Good luck Andrew!
Good luck, Andrew!!!
Yes, more PBs! Go Andrew! (How do you say “go” in German?)
Andrew,
KICK SOME A** MAN!!!!!
Pete
Good luck Andrew!! You’ll do awesome!!!
Go hard out there you know how to do that in the 500m…..1500 meter man now!…..use your strengths in the 3k for sure which is get some fast laps in early then WANK. 5k just figure out what you need to do to hold your top placings.
Good luck and have fun!
Don’t worry about getting passed in the 5K, just focus on your splits and good things will happen! At Calgary last year Brian Boudreau passed me twice in the 1500 and I still pb’d by 18 seconds!
Just work on the splits, …and techinque. Skate the way YOU want to!
Carla,
according to the German skater I just asked, instead of saying “go!” Germans say “Lauf! Lauf! Lauf!” or “hop! hop! hop!”
Lauf means “Run”, “Hop” I think is just an urging of tempo..
Bernie,
I’ve had some great races with Brian on the ice, he gets people going, and is a tremendous skater (and is missed by everyone here) so I am not surprised that You PB’ed. I was paired with him last week in the 1500m when I PB’ed.
When Brian says “WANK” that is referencing a skater named Brian Wanek. Who would, when exausted at the end of a hard race, would just throw in a lot of fast, sloppy, imprecise strokes at high tempo…
It was very effective for him, and was known as the “WANK”, it works when you are too tired to skate correctly…
I will try and keep everyone up to date on what’s happening.. They charge about $25 for a day for wireless internet at the race hotel so I am writing from the free computer in the Lobby…
I skated this morning, the Erfurt rink is beautiful, and the ice is thin and very hard… quite fast… and the lanes “feel” narrower and tighter than any other rink I have been in..
the 500 will be scary, but its a great rink for a 3k or 5k…
Erfurt is a beautiful, quiet town, I will write more & post photos later..
GO Andrew!! I hope you are super fast this weekend. Give a shout to Jim, Marty, and Eric also. Go USA!!
Amy
You know, if you keep telling yourself that anything over a minute of work is very difficult for your big legs & fast twitch muscle fibers it will keep being true.
You’re probably better at the long stuff than you think — you just have to release your inner “duer-lull”.
You might still be a guy who is better at the short ones, but probably not by as much as you think…especially after the right training, and the right rest.
andrew
looking at your inline-results : the 5K is much shorter than your inline marathons of last summer…. You can do it - relax but not too much. And go go hop hop go - i’m sure you ‘ll surprise us and yourselves too ofcourse.
jules
Andrew, I have always had a lot of respect for your focus on training correctly, and in this post, I don’t “hear” worry so much as interest and anticipation. At least for me - and I’m sure it’s true for a lot of athletes - having trained, rested, and overall prepared properly is more important than the amount of talking I might do about whether the race is too short, too long, too cold, etc. You have been doing all the right things all year, and it is working, so now you get to race…it IS fun.
Germany sounds fun, kind of wish I was there, but wish Kori was here more.
I am with Kraan in voting to make your wife and her mom happy. Best of luck to you man I am sure you will tear it up!
Hey Bernie, I passed you twice in the 1500m? I thought that would be impossible? I noticed you PB’d this year in Calgary….congrats. That race was weird I passed a few people and didn’t know the race was over at the line…..lol! I’d like to be in Germany right now but I’m going to lay down some PBs at the Chumps Challenge here in SLC March 14-16th.