Road less traveled
Pat Meek, dragging a nasty weight sled around at the Utah Olympic oval on Saturday–
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference
-Robert Frost
My wife keeps joking with me “how about for your next sport, take up something with upper body, like rowing or shotput?”
I have never managed to create a coherent reply, except something along the lines that this is the road less traveled, this is the hardest sport I have ever found; and traveling it makes you freaky strong, in multiple physical and emotional ways.
It’s one thing to look at a pair of ripped legs like Pat’s here, and see them as existing in one moment, it’s quite another to contemplate traveling the painful roads that created them.
Even a road that is frozen, circular, and does not go from point A to B.
Oddly enough, it’s the rare skater these days who actually seems to have the T-Rex syndrome. Precision, endurance and muscles that can “crack like a whip” are more important than simple blade crushing power in this era of indoor skating.
Sure big legs look nice at the beach, but it’s more tissue to power with your heart, and more weight to accelerate & haul around the track.
Pat did not make the world cup team for the spring races, so right now he is on an intense training rebuild. The road is pointing straight uphill.
Filed under: from home
[…] Road less traveled […]
I love this sled exercise and those are some great looking quads. Keep training hard and working towards your goal.
Good to see this young man on a mission to re-build NOW, with the kind of work that will be the most important when it counts………SPECIFIC Training
Proper dosing of this into the “Training Bank” with little or no setbacks, will yeild a nice “Withdrawal” on that big race Period when it is so needed, for “Sustained” performance during a “Competition Cycle”
Tough lessons learned this past summer period, and next season I wish you a HUGE “Training Bank Account” from which to draw upon
Go get it………..
To those that want to skate fast and are looking at things to strengthen. The most specific muscle/movement that you can look at strengthening is the movement between pictures 2 and 3.
Power does not come from Godzilla legs, rather from strong core. The ability to initiate your push from the hip is essential. This particular motion is reserved to skaters and that particular muscle is seldom used at the same level in any other activity. So, you can bike all you want, you can run all you want, you can lift weights all you want. Chances are that if you are still struggling on the ice is because your ability to maintain and/or bring your hips to level is sub-par. Next time you are looking at the great skaters, look at their hips. Besides, that is the most impressive look of a skater (even better than the quads) has. Hint… Sablikova, Fredericks (not lately, but a few years back he was just like it), Kemkers, Zandstra, among many others that had skinny legs (in comparison) but could put an amazing performance on the ice, had that look of hips of steel.
Smart words Eric,
If you could imagine a pair of infinitely strong quads, calves & Hamstrings, but hooked to a “normal” remaining body, the limiter on speed would be that hip stability & core strength..
The body would “collapse” under the powerful push, and not only would tecnique suffer, but the athlete would probably hurt themselves in fairly short order…
Power is nice, but without stability, it’s just a lot of wasted effort..
(and I do understand this in a very personal way!!!!)
ok, it is February 21st. what is this?
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
Was it good or a death march to the end?
BTW… what is this?
46×100 = ~1:18 (and it feels like a death march at the end.)
Ahh!! Speedskating riddles?