Zen and the Art of Speedskating

To my former co-workers/friends who read this, somewhere in your Cornell office cubicle (or any other office-bound job), please do laugh at me and my “job” every time you get your paycheck (and with as hard as my training is, it’s really a full time job), but I can tell you, the view from my “cubicle” is pretty hard to beat! Check out the mountains behind us! This is just a few of the skaters who were at a recent 3 hour pylometric practice at a high school track; I am standing next to my coaches Rex Albertson & Boris Leikin, Kirk, my brother-by-another-mother, is kneeling in front of me.. Eric & Kim Kraan are standing in the back row on the left, Paul & Arnim are kneeling in the front next to Kirk. Good folks all…. The cool thing is that some of the strongest members of our group, Eva Rodansky, Marco Bucci, and Nate DiPalma, we training elsewhere/out of state that particular day.

As I indicated before, my recent “days at the office” have felt quite good. This time of year, speedskaters are lifting in the gym, running/hopping/jumping/pylometrics, and doing hard bicycle rides. Speedskaters have been cross training for as long as there has been the sport of speedskating (late 1880’s), because there was no ice in the summer until recently!

A few days ago our group rode up big cottonwood canyon outside of town, it’s a pretty nasty 14 mile climb. Eric Kraan is an excellent cyclist (and a world cup skater) he and I rode off the front of the 7-person group as the incline began to bite. We spun easy & chatted on the gradual bits, and hammered for all we were worth on the steep parts (that is what the coaches wanted, big gear hard efforts on the steep stuff). I took the lead about 1/2 of the way up the pass, and started hammering out of the saddle around switchback turns and increasing grade. My heart was redlining along nicely 194-196bpm, turn after turn I kept going, then finally, wham, done, I was toast, Eric floated by me (I outweigh him by a good 40+ pounds of sprinter muscle) saying “only 10 more minutes of climbing till this steep part is over” ugh!!. Eric disappeared up the hill. I backed off the intensity for a few minutes, recovered, then cranked it up again, earning tenths of seconds in my legs for the 1000m races I will do this fall.

In wonderment, I was approaching the snow & treeline when I came across Eric relaxing outside a mountainside restaurant. We turned around to zip home, I thanked him for pushing me on the climb, I actually like being passed by people, if in my efforts to catch them, I improve my own abilities. I earned something on this climb today. Over and over I have chosen training partners who are good at things I am really bad at. It helps if they are friendly & a little crazy too. A lot of people dislike being competitive & competitive situations, but I usually thrive in them, especially competing with good fellow like Eric.

Just another day at the office!

Filed under: sweat