Zen and the Art of Speedskating

In my last post, I said that my lack of writing here was due to focusing on my family. That is true, but I was skirting the real issue.

The truth is that Jessica has been terribly ill. Scary sick. Absolutely debilitating pain.

She was starting to get really sick when I wrote that post, and it has progressed so that the past several weeks have been some of the most awful either of us have ever experienced.

She is suffering from what the doctors call “Reactive Arthritis.”

In simple terms, she had an infection (we both got food poisoning about a six weeks ago, so that could have been it) and in the aftermath her immune system went haywire and attacked her own joints.

She has been in an incredible amount of pain, often unable to walk or use her hands, and the first drugs they gave her to treat it created a very bad skin reaction on top of her symptoms. Painkillers, even very strong ones, have provided minimal relief.

Jessica does not want any fuss made over her, that is not who she is. For a long time she did not want me to mention anything here (not that I had energy to do much but care for her & RZ). But this awfulness has caused us both to be very thankful for each other & our family/friends.

My beloved mother-out-law flew to Salt Lake a few days ago, and has been an amazing help. My own mom will come out & take over in a week.

Despite her illness, we feel so lucky our child is healthy. RZ is babbling & gurgling away happily, blissfully unaware of what is going on. She is a talker just like Dad.

The doctors say Jess will recover from this. It might be a few weeks, it might be six months, but eventually reactive arthritis does go away.

I can’t imagine how horrid this would be if she had something lifelong like this, or if it was terminal. My heart goes out to those who have had this experience. It is so awful.

Yes, I still sneak away to the rink now & then. And when I am there, I fully immerse myself in Speedskating, sinking into the baptism of focus that is such an essential part of the sport; to forget, to renew my spirit, to remind myself of health & what it feels like.

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Filed under: from the coffee shop

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.

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Filed under: from home

Here is a series of images from the talented Teri Willingham, this is the first corner of a 500m race this past weekend, in blue is National sprint team member Nick Pearson, in red, yours truly.

There was a time when I could give Nick a good race in a 500m, but that was some years ago. He was moving quite a bit faster than I was here; it made for some great pictures, but we tangled up in the crossover about 5 seconds after these images were taken.

I thought this was a fascinating series because Nick is a world class sprinter, and I am at the bottom somewhere at US Nationals during the sprint races.

So what is happening to create this difference between him & me? Dissescting our technique gives some clues.

1. When I am skating well, I’m a right leg dominant skater. What I mean by that is I get a better physical & technical push from my right leg. Nick has said to me when he is going well, he feels like he favors his left.

2. Ideally, one would be equally rockstar with both, and the absolute best in the world are. But in these photos it’s clear Nick is much more balanced than I am. You can see me in a slightly more dynamic right leg push in image 3, and Nick in a VASTLY better left leg position in 2 & 4. Look how high my hips pop during a left leg push. If you could “graph” our pressure into the ice, I’d bet he would be consistent; I’d be surge-release-surge-release.

3. This is why the really good skaters look stable & have “flow” in the turns. What you are seeing is consistent pressure from both legs.

4. Nick has a much better “Cat back”, my back is flat like I am still grabbing the handlebars of a bike. A “cat back” puts more pressure through the heel of your push, making more speed, it’s also more relaxed. You are more like a “spring”.

5. Nick’s shoulders are square in every image, my shoulders are rocking slightly. They are where they should be on my right leg, on the left leg they dip.

6. Check out the very subtle difference in the direction our blades are pointing. Mine are not 100% down the track, Nick’s are. This is clearly visible in image 4. That small difference makes more pressure.

Of course, not pictured in this is all the time I spend at work or changing diapers when he is training! But yaknow, the ice does not care about that, & the few times I’ve been in the gym when Nick was there, we lift about the same amount of weight & can snap similar amounts up in an explosive lift.

Technique, technique, technique. That is why Nick is an Olympian, and so many others are not.

Ok, my lunch hour ruminations are over, back to work! Good luck Nick & the rest of team USA in the next rounds of the World Cup!

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Filed under: from home

Let me be clear, Shani Davis is NOT RETIRING!

However after his success at US nationals this year, he is retiring his beloved Marchese custom boots that have seen him through 8 & 1/2 seasons. They are simply worn out.

These skates have won Olympic gold & silver, two world allaround championships, broken world records 5 times, taken 4 single distance world championships & 23 world cup wins. Add into that the astounding amount of hard work an elite athlete like Shani puts in; the endless laps, accels, starts, etc.

If these skates could talk, what would they say?

Elite skaters will often kill a pair of blades per year, so boots are the true & lasting connection to the ice. Shani now has a new, dark purple pair of Marcheses in hand. He and Paul Marchese were lacing them up & mounting blades on them for the first time after Nationals ended. (update, he broke them in a week, so back to his old skates!)

I don’t think I have ever read an accurate depiction of the Shani I have gotten to know over the years. He is a complex fellow, who has been through a lot in his life & stellar career.

You cannot describe him in a sentence, or a sound bite, or even a brief interview. It’s one reason I have never tried.

But I will say something I have never seen written about him; Shani is a true master of this extremely complex sport. If there is a speedskating PHD, he has it.

There are many athletes who could never manage their own equipment, training schedules, psychological preparation, discipline, and ways to be at peace with the challenges speedskating throws at you.

Shani knows the pieces of the speedskating puzzle thoroughly, and his understanding of technique, both his own & others, is very deep. It is one of the reasons he has been so successful for so long, no matter where he is living & training.

I ran into him & Apolo at an ice cream shop last summer (Hatch family chocolates, for you Salt Lake Locals); and the conversation turned to certain aspects of elite technique, and very quickly they were speaking at a level light years beyond my own understanding.

I might have felt “the force” a few times, but these two are Jedi.

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Filed under: on the road

Jeff Edwards was the chief referee for nationals this year. I asked him, “of the 50+ US national championships you have been to as both a skater & official, what memory sticks out the most strongly?”

Here is what he said:

It was National outdoor Championships, on lake Como, Minneapolis, the temperature was 30 degrees below zero.

It must have been 1965 or 67. Everybody showed up at the start line with their warm-ups on. And we took them off and we insisted that the gun go off the very moment the last skater disrobed. They did accommodate us, so off we went.

Yaknow how after you cross the finish line you are supposed to skate a little bit? When we crossed the line there, we immediately hockey stopped to get our clothes back on as quickly as we could.

If your forehead gets cold, it’s brain freeze, and you can’t even think, the signals don’t even get to your legs. Yeah, I was skating during that championship.

A few posts ago, I relayed the idea that I would love to have nationals outdoors on a lake, after reading Jeff’s memory, I think that like most nostalgic concepts, this one is less fun in reality.

I have a massive amount of images and commentary, so in no particular order, I might as well just jump in.

One of my favorite shots of the competition- this is Elli Ochowicz, coffee in hand & cheering on her younger brother Alex, during his 1500m.

There is a youth movement happening now, actually it is more aptly termed a youth earthquake. Alex is just one of many fast young skaters who are starting to skate MAN times.

The final Allaround podium has 2 juniors on it, Trevor Marsicano and Brian Hansen. Here they are flanking Chad Hedrick on the podium, and below, skating amazing 10k’s, a race that Trevor M actually won in an awesome distplay of focus & power.

I think the most exciting place to watch races is not at the finish line, it’s next to the coaching box. They should put the coaches on the homestretch and let the crowd see them urge their skaters on.

Coaches often wear in their expressions what the skaters are going through. In this pile of coaches you have Anglea Seulean, Paul Marchese, Nancy Swider-Peltz, Kip Carpenter, and Bart Veldkamp.

(This post is incomplete!! I will be adding more to it tonight… I am just nuts busy, posting what I have so far will make me finish it!)

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Filed under: from the coffee shop