Morning Crunch
5:30am the alarm goes off… Sore from a Sunday of riding+lifting+yard work, I don’t want to get out of bed….
but for some, weird, irrational, psycho-driven reason, I do.
45 minutes later, coffee in hand, my car murmuring down the highway, the sunrise over the Wasatch hits me like a hammer….
Is this is why?
or maybe it’s that after 3 months away from the ice, I just had to get back, to put blade to ice; to again feel this:
I usually associate summer training with hill running, lifting, dryland, and sunblock/sweat mixing into a goop thick enough to leave a snail smear across anything touched
I’ve never really done much summer short track, but for those who do, I imagine that the unique sound of blades crunching during early mornings, steel chewing through soft ice corners, this “morning crunch” becomes the sound of summer.
Such choices, hill running or short track?
or other choices like Gasoline or Gatorade for your morning beverage?
(I am not sure who uses this gas can for their water bottle, but I thought it was hilarious.)
Here is Cory Williams, a typical member of the international skate tribe in Salt Lake. He is Australian, but is aiming to race the world cup circuit for New Zealand.
He just arrived in Salt Lake, and was skating all morning with a big grin on his face, hoping to get stronger & skate the world cup this winter.
I was smiling too. I’ve simply forgotten how much fun short track can be. I felt surprisingly good, and did some relays in the big group that were simply wonderful corner-bombing fun.
And as I was leaving, (my warmdown a fast jog to my car to get to work on time), I noted the various long track teams, all collecting for dryland.
And the morning light slanting across the empty concrete that will be ice in about a month.
I can’t wait for more morning crunch.
Filed under: from home
I’m pretty sure that gasoline “water” bottle is ryan wheeler’s. I saw him drinking out of one at nationals.
I don’t think it’s really all that safe for drinking water out of though…
-the crash
Waking up at 5:30am for drills and relay aint too bad……
Waking up at 5:30am and having to do 4 x 5×5 lap Relays is…..
I want to cry just thinking about it..
It’s good to see that sunrise again. I was on my way to work and I saw that! First thought was *picture* but no camera, so I just enjoyed it.
You should come out to our short track sessions again. They are Fridays and/or saturdays. It’s pretty darn fun.
Teri,
isn’t the Wasatch beautiful.. it’s like the ocean, or lake michigan, a different mood every day…
my work schedule makes it impossible for me to get to the weekday club time …
but saturdays are a possibility… and the club is so much fun… for me to improve at all in my long track, I need to do lots of short track, as it works on my technical weakness in the turns…
Is there an anternate place to do some (on ice) speed skating in Salt Lake City??? 3 or 4 days a week isnt enough. An extra 2 would certainly help.
P.S. I survived today’s workout..
The Park City club is really quite nice, and the coach Tim Hoffman is excellent…
That is a beautiful picture. Don’t tell anybody, but I had to go to your blog at work so I could see it on the nice monitor
And that is a very funny idea for a water bottle. I really enjoy being in a sport that requires so much cross training - long track, short track, inline, cycling, dryland…
[…] Posted on June 18, 2008 by peterdoucet Andrew Love put up an entry called Morning Crunch- he wrote ‘I’ve never really done much summer short track, but for those who do, I […]
Gosh, that’s a fantastic Wasatch picture. I miss the mountains terribly.
I was there a little earlier than you, when the sun was just coming up over the mountains, and the sky was like orange fire. I tried to take a couple pics but they weren’t very good…
i read “morning church” ennnyways what’s the difference? isn’t this sunrise a perfect excuse to go back to the basics of life? how do the short tracks skates sound in comparison to inlines/or clapskates…
enjoy andrew
Wow, Andrea, you’re already skating after being there for like what 2 weeks???
Also, I missed Corey when I moved down there, reckon his plans didn’t put him in SLC at the same time as me. Oh well.