Zen and the Art of Speedskating

The oven has finally turned off, the 100 degree days seem firmly behind Salt Lake City now, and the western climate is entering that period of the year that resembles my favorite time of autumn in the northeast; sunny, warm, dry days, and nights with a tiny chill hinting of what is yet to come. In another month or two, and the sweaters will come out of the closet, the half-dozen deciduous trees in salt lake will turn a color or two, and it won’t seem so ridiculous anymore to be speedskating.

I enjoy the fact that the mountain west doesn’t get the week long chilly fall drizzles of New England; here it’s replaced by ferocious displays of atmospheric indigestion/Zeusian rages, providing the same rain in one hour that the sodden sky over Massachusetts dribbles upon you over a whole week. I like Massachusetts a lot, but I am happy to be here now.

My brother is back in Ithaca, (after his recent on stage encounter with a giant stuffed catfish) and I will be back in Ithaca for a wedding and a brief vacation as well in two weeks. Super intense training also demands occasional periods of super intense rest so the body can heal. I talk a lot about rest/work ratios, but that is the KEY to getting better.

Until the mandated rest begins in a few days, my focus on tiny moments of technical precision continues, despite fatigue, here is some evidence;

Presently I am working hard on driving my knees forward hard at top speed, its starting to work, as you can see here. Depending on the speed, sometimes you drive side to side, sometimes you drive forward, maintaining absolute top speed is a weakness of mine, and driving my knees aggressively seems to help, although my hands are still describing too big an arc sideways, especially when I am on my left skate.

The coaching brain trust talks about “restoring normal hormone level function”, as I am not the only one here who is exhausted. Psychologically I find myself also like a first grader, watching the clock and waiting for each day’s school lessons to be over. I LOVE to work hard & skate, I really do. It completes me in a fundamental psychological way, & I truly enjoy the company of the other questing pupils in this twisted schoolhouse (as evidenced below) it’s almost harder for me to rest than to work, but if flying across the country, going out to dinner with friends, and not thinking about skating for a few days will make me faster the day it counts to be fast (December 27th, 500m Olympic trials), dammit I will do it!

p.s. as tired as I am, I still went REALLY fast in practice tonight, dang, I never thought I could do that many laps that fast without dragging my tongue on the ice from exhaustion. The speed felt easy tonight, This training program is hard, but its opening up new horizons of strength, hmmmm, maybe these factors are linked!! Ha!

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