Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I do not have a helmet cam, I just have a small camera I hold in my hands as I skate. I can go around 28-30mph holding the camera, and if I do it just right, I can catch glimpses of amazing athletes launching themselves into astonishing full sprint velocity (33-36mph).

Here is Alex Mark (in back) Kreg Greer and Matt Shanahan getting up to warp speed.

A few moments later, hitting the turn. They were doing an 800m effort here.

Brent Aussprung, also accelerating up to a solid 800m effort.

His body position does not look quite as dynamic as the other 3 skaters, but his turnover was very high even with complete extention, and he was actually at a higher speed than the other 3.

Brent is just so controlled in his skating, the effort creates velocity more efficiently.

A few years back I followed world cup stud of all studs Jeremy Wotherspoon for a few warmup laps. When he finally stood up, I blurted out “wow, that’s smooth.” He laughed, grinned, and said in a self-effacing way “well, that is the trick, yaknow..”

Simple… Simple… I did some high speed efforts myself on this day, and although I was faster than expected, I’m still working on “the trick”. Probably always will be….

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