Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I want to take a moment to recognize a few Speedskaters who have done awesome things on the bike this year. But first, here are some opinions of mine. Speedskaters tend to make fantastic cyclists– Why?

1. Raw anaerobic power & crank cracking strength are very important in most American bike races. These are the qualities that speedskaters train every time they step on the ice, and can train more easily than a cyclist. Just being IN the skating position is an anaerobic power based activity
2. Due to the static-explode-static-explode nature of the skating motion, it puts the muscles under terrific stress, much more than the constant circle of a cycling stroke.
3. For the same perceived effort, a speedskating effort will generate 3 times the wattage of a cycling effort. It might only be a split second of that extreme pressure, but it’s there. This is also why speedskaters excel at Track cycling, where maximal power counts.

Cyclists tend not to do so well at Speedskating, Why?

1. Those little stabilizer muscles for balancing on one leg take years to develop.
2. Ice is brutally unforgiving of anything but perfection.
3. Being crazy strong on the bike still might not be crazy strong in a weight bearing sport. A bike race involves a huge number of sub-max revolutions while the bike supports your body. This is why if you are moving your house, you need Speedskaters to pick up & move the furniture.
4. Speedskaters are athletes who must have phenomenal Proprioceptive ability. Often cyclists don’t. Speedskaters won’t drop the couch when walking backwards.

Make no mistake, I love my bike(s), cycling is a phenomenally interesting sport, with the greatest “variety” of training scenery imaginable. Road, Mountain, Track, Cyclocross, it’s never “hamster wheel” stuff.

But I often feel like skating helps my cycling more than the other way around. After regular ice time, I feel like I can tear the cranks right off the bike. The reverse is not true, just riding a bike is not skating preparation.

I want to send a few shout outs to some skaters I know, who have been excelling on the bike this year.

Melissa Dahlmann has been part of the skate tribe for years, here she is racing in Calgary.

and in one of those pre-race moments before stepping on the ice in Salt lake. This is the only photo in this post that is my work-

She has turned her prodigious gifts towards cycling, and has worked extremely hard. Her facebook updates are a litany of scary long rides.

Here is how her year has been, in her own words:

Speedskating this past winter was very difficult, as the times when I could get out to train were mostly late-night, below zero. Didn’t get to race the weekend time trials after GMSA said non-members couldn’t participate, and Heidi did not have the time/I did not have the money to join. But I did manage to come within a few seconds of my Utah nationals PB in the 3k, at the Pettit one weekend, so that was rather cool! I would love to race more this year. I’ll have to optimize my ice time and train hard off the ice…

Cycling was a looonnnggg season this year, I started racing in April already to try to get ready for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. I needed to upgrade from a cat 4 from last season and get to be a cat 2 if I was to be included, so I had a prolific career as a cat 3: in one race! With a lot of rallying and support from my team (Flanders/Minneapolis Bicycle Racing Club) I was able to get the upgrade approved. Whew!! This was the first time I ever belonged to a team before, so the whole summer was a great big learning experience. Really. On the track, I was more laid back this summer than last, since more of my focus was on the road. having been “Track Rider of the Year” last season at the National Sports Center Velodrome in Blaine, MN, I was more than happy to help my sister Heidi achieve that spot this year and take second, myself.

Melissa did not even mention, she had a huge triumph in winning one of the pro 1-2-3 women’s races at Superweek. I love this photo. That crazy amazing moment, of “win”!

Another Speedskater who has been rocking, is Colton Barrett, shown here on the left, racing national team Skater Paul Dyrud in Minnesota (thanks to his family for the photos).

The strength that Colton built skating in Roseville (mental and physical) came in handy at track nationals this year, as he won the junior national cycling championship in the match sprint. Go Colton!!!

This is the “glow” stage after a win-

It’s just amazing, so many cyclists out there, so few speedskaters, and we do pretty dang well!

(I’ve been looking for some of the newspaper articles I know were written about Colton, and can’t find them, anyone have a link?)

Filed under: from the coffee shop