Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Today is the 3-year anniversary of starting this blog. It also happens to be my 500th blog post.

Wow…..

The blog now has 900-1000 visitors a day right now, and there have been 3,203 comments in the 3 years. This website will easily crack a half-million page views this year. There were over 1,000 incoming links last year from all over the world.

The total video views, when the YouTube, Hipcast, and the quicktime I host are all added together, its about 140,000+ views.

Wow…

Thanks so much to everyone who reads, and yes, this means !!!you!!! sitting at your computer screen!

Even if I’ve never met you, or had an opportunity to say thanks in person or via email.

My deepest thanks!

I never intended to create something like this. I just wrote & photographed what interested me, and the world showed up.

Last night I was in the hotel lobby, and a very sweet Norwegian speedskater comes up to me and she says “I voted for the trim, short beard, keep up the great website”.

When I was registering for the races here, the German man working the registration table said:

“You are Andrew Love? Yes? I am Danielle Anschutz’s husband, and I was Jenny Wolf’s manager, we like your website & your youtube videos very much.”

(Danielle Anschutz is an Olympic medalist, and Jenny Wolf just skated the women’s 500m world record. These are some of Germany’s best)

Creating something that people enjoy has been tremendously fulfilling. This website is a lot of work, the bandwidth alone costs me $350 a year (and I will need more soon) but when work is something you have a passion for, it’s a joy, when you can touch people, & share something with folks all over the world, it’s so worth it.

Thanks everyone!

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Filed under: on the road

I’m posting 3 things at once, so make sure to scroll down & check out the “Beard Poll” & “Masters in Calgary”.

I’m writing from the Cincinnati airport, on my way to Germany.

In an hour I will board this plane, and under the direction of a myriad of towers like the one in the background, will travel 5,000 miles in a bit under 9 hours.

Amazing. It’s equally werid that I have based my whole year of training thinking mainly about one weekend.

I’ve worked awfully hard on my distance skating, as this is an Allaround meet (500-1500-3000-5000), and anything over a minute of work is very difficult for my big legs & fast twitch muscle fibers.

Inline marathons & slideboard & laps & biking & lifting & more laps & racing & racing things that I’m bad at, & more laps & long long slideboard sessions, & more things I suck at, & pain & dryland till I crumble & more laps & crashing in short track & discouragement & exhaustion & questioning & determination redoubled & redoubled & redoubled until I can’t measure it anymore.

And then suddenly I wake up and the race is almost here—

In the past 8 days I’ve skated very satisfying personal bests in both the 1500m and the 3000m. I’ve removed the training stress, and am getting fast, right on schedule.

I am as ready as I will ever be.

This image was taken by Dan Barrett, at US Nationals this year during my 1500. Even during US nationals, I was looking ahead, practicing my 1500 for master’s worlds.

My goal for worlds is to make the top 3, as I was 5th last year. But there are some scary fast skaters in my age-group. There is a Dutch guy coming who could possibly lap me twice in the 5k…. yeeeooow!

Yet I can’t control how anyone else races, just myself.

Travel across the world to race other people, and just find a mirror staring back at you.

Speedskating is so weird… This is known as… fun…..

I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else…

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Filed under: on the road

There are several large meets I “missed” this year, one of them was the Masters international Canadian open in Calgary this past February 9th & 10th.

However Peter Haeussler & Tim Demerjian have sent me some FABULOUS images of these races. Looking forward to Masters world’s next week, this is some of the vibe that will be happening.

Getting ready for the ice-

Speedskater Kevin Frost, who is an amazing story due to his Usher’s syndrome, getting ready next to his guide dog, Nemo.

Several Norwegians who made the trip to race (as well as Russians and Americans). Here a Norwegian going very fast. It’s probable this is 50-55 year old skater Brynjulf Makestad or 60-65 year old Knut Nesse, who both set masters records during this meet.

This great image really captures how skating “feels”, thanks Tim!
Click on it for a “desktop-sized” version

Peter writes:
Cheering for everybody is part of the Masters racing scene. Here’s the ladies (who had finished their races), cheering on 78 year old Peter Blokker on his 3K race. Closest to camera is Kaari Cox, then Jan Zurcher.

Another picture of Peter Blokker and another athlete in the 75-80 age group. Peter Haeussler writes

I guess I’m just really impressed by their ability at that age. I’m 46, so I’m hoping I can perfect my technique in the next 34 years!

Canadian Brett Arnason chasing a fellow competitor in the 55+ age group

Just in case you didn’t know this, it’s a good tip! Ha!!

Warmup lane chatting… Catching up with old friends, and meeting new ones, is a huge part of masters skating.

Randy Plett and Pat Kelly were 1-2 overall. Randy is an “allskater” & does very well at both ice & inline. Pat was on 2 Canadian Olympic teams & lowered his own 1000m masters record at this meet (he was paired with me when he set his first 1k record, a loong time ago).

Here is Pat & Randy, going at it in the 3k, here is a link to the results.

There are many fun things about racing in Calgary; one of them is the food court within easy walking distance. You don’t even have to step outside! This is a poster from there.

Maybe skating is, in an absolute moral sense, like most sports & human trivialities, a stupid thing done very quickly and taking a lot of energy.

But like coffee, how wonderfully pleasant & rewarding the sensations…

Whoooosh!!!

Again, thanks Peter & Tim!

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Filed under: News

Katherine Reutter mentioned to me at the rink that she has not been able to find any videos of her races from the world cup on YouTube.

Ha! I have them, so here they are-

Usually I am much more able to just tape & not cheer so loudly, but for the women’s 1500m, I was a bit more vocal. Short track is exciting stuff, and Katherine had many freinds & family in the stands, so it was quite a rowdy crowd….

When I say, “just go” as I am taping, I am referring to something I saw in an earlier race when two Chinese skaters were at the front of the pack, and the skater in front took off, the skater in 2nd did not chase. A gap immeadiately formed & that Chinese skater won the heat.

There was a brief moment of this race where two US skaters were in the lead, and I was hoping they would do that.

Click here to start the QuickTime, or press play for the Youtube below.

In the result of this 1500m, Zhou Yang was first, with Katherine in second and Allison Bayer in third. A great result for the US women.

Also I have the 1000m race, it must give an athlete goosebumps to be out there competing, and to hear your hometown crowd start chanting “USA” “USA”.

Click here to start the quicktime, or press play for the Youtube below.

Meng Wang of China won this race. Katherine Reutter of the United States was second. Korean skater Shin-Young Yang finished third

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Filed under: Audio/Video

Video shot February 10th, of the 1000m final at the Short track world cup. This race has a lot of what makes short track exciting, crashes, contact, a fast, close finish, and one of the best skaters of our generation, Apolo Ohno, winning in front of the home crowd.

Click here for the quicktime, or press play below for the YouTube.

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Filed under: Audio/Video