Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Here are the results from the final and 4th day of the US national long track championships.

I am running to catch a plane, so I will sort throught the videos to grab pictures tomorrow!!

Women’s 500m

1. Elli Ochowicz 39.34
2. Christine Witty 40.12
3. Jessica Smith 40.93
4. Maria Lamb 41.00
5. Lana Gehring 41.28
6. Rebekah Bradford 41.35
7. Catherine Raney 41.69
8. Mia Manganello 42.06
9. Becky Lang 42.29
10. Ashlee Barnett 42.40
11. Leah Lambert 42.82
12. Netanya Mintz 43.49
13. April Medley 44.04
14. Anne Bruckner 44.30

Men’s 500m

1. Tucker Fredricks 35.31
2. Kip Carpenter 35.66
3. Christopher Needham 36.35
4. Shani Davis 36.38
5. Michael Blumel 36.83
6. Tyler Goff 36.98
7. Anthony Lobello 37.01
8. Brent Aussprung 37.13
9. Andrew Love. 37.47
9. Matthew Plummer 37.47
11. James (Clay) Cholewinski 37.48
12. Matthew Shanahan 37.61
13. Mitchell Whitmore 37.99
14. Ronald Macky 38.39
15. Nathaniel DeFranco 38.40
16. Matthew Hickson 38.59
17. Michael Stein-Stewart 38.68
18. Miles Ringsred 38.74
19. Daniel Beck 38.95
20. Daniel Frederick 39.20
21. Alex Ochowicz 39.33
22. Joseph Parrella 39.34

Women’s 1000m

1. Elli Ochowicz 1:19.34
2. Christine Witty 1:19.59
3. Mia Manganello 1:21.08
4. Catherine Raney 1:21.71
5. Maria Lamb 1:21.77
6. Jessica Smith 1:22.12
7. Lana Gehring 1:23.23
8. Ashlee Barnett 1:23.59
8. Rebekah Bradford 1:23.97
10. Becky Lang 1:24.63
11. Leah Lambert 1:24.74
12. Netanya Mintz 1:25.58
13. April Medley 1:27.04
14. Anne Bruckner 1:29.79

Men’s 1000m

1. Shani Davis 1:09.91
2. Kip Carpenter 1:10.31
3. Tucker Fredricks 1:10.88
4. Christopher Needham 1:11.76
5. Michael Blumel 1:13.40
6. Anthony Lobello, Jr. 1:13.43
7. Brent Aussprung 1:13.57
8. Ronald Macky 1:13.77
9. Tyler Goff 1:13.80
10. Matthew Plummer 1:13.83
11. James (Clay) Cholewinski 1:14.54
12. Michael Stein-Stewart 1:15.07
13. Nathaniel DeFranco. 1:15.25
14. Liam Ortega 1:15.63
15. Mitchell Whitmore 1:15.64
16. Miles Ringsred 1:16.08
17. Andrew Love 1:16.51
18. Matthew Shanahan 1:16.53
19. Daniel Beck 1:16.71
20. Daniel Frederick 1:16.72
21. Matthew Hickson 1:17.42
22. Alex Ochowicz 1:17.52
23. Joseph Parrella 1:18.07
25. Charles Leveille 1:28.76

oh yeah, one more thing, a picture of me in my T-SHIRT!!!! WHOOOO!!!!! I AM CAT I NOW!!!

combining the times of the 2-500m races together, I just nosed into 10th place by .03!!! it’s a crazy story, and I will have time to write it on the plane.

With me in this photo is my good buddy Kip Carpenter, who also had a pretty good weekend, winning the overall US sprint championship.

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Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

Back on the east coast, the ice Marathon season is in full swing with the well attended Dimon Sports Marathon in Lake Placid. You can see the full results here, and can find out more about Marathon speedskating and their points series at the tri-lingual marathonskating.org website.

There were many interesting names on the start list from both the inline and ice worlds, is that Olympic short track medal winner Cathy Turner I see in the results?

Here are some images from both Saturday & Sunday:

The start line:

Go!!!

The lead pack

My good friend Jim Cornell broke away in the final 9 laps of the 40k, and soloed in for the win. How hard do you have to work to be able to do this? Jim did an Ironman Triathlon this summer, as well as coaching and working a full time job! (he also uses Powercranks, one of my sponsors).

Here he is, leading the pack:

Pat Kelly won Saturday’s 10k, and inliner Sergio Almeralla the 25k. On the women’s side, Danielle Grey won the 10k, Sarah Kruger the 25k, and Suzanne Dionne the 40k.

-Winners are nice, and deserve applause, but if you race & finish an ice marathon in a blizzard/sleet storm/etc, you are also a winner in my eyes-

Thanks to Michigan skate tribe member Tom Cole & upstate NY-er Marty Haire for these pictures, seeing these images makes me miss racing marathons in the snow… Really, I have some fond memories of racing one on a beautifully foggy morning in Lake Placid (and having Bob Tysen rip my legs off via endless FAST laps).

Tom sent this final image to me with the caption “how do you intimidate a sprinter? Have them look at a lap card with 100 to go on it!”. As a sprinter, I can say that IS intimidating!!! To the right of that are some of the good folks who put on this race, John Dimon and Mike Miller.

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Filed under: on the road

I shot a video of Olu playing the National anthem, and had the idea of blending some of the videos I shot with his playing.

As I was working on this late last night, I looped Olu’s playing 3 times, so really you are hearing 3 Olu’s playing over the top of each other in unique harmonies. Some folks get offended when they hear the national anthem played in semi-arty ways, but as I look at the dedication of these Olympic hopefuls & the challenges they face, somehow lonely, atonal, patriotic music oddly fits.

Here it is in an easily accessible flash video. If you want to see a much nicer high quality Quicktime version, Click here.

The skaters pictured in this video are

Danny Frederick (fastest man in the world with 3+ kids)
Paul Dyrud
Matt Plummer
Liam Ortega (in white)
Jessica Smith
Nate Defranco (in red)
Mia Manganello’s feet
Catherine Raney
Mia Manganello
Anna Ringsred & Maria Lamb
Shani Davis & Chad Hedrick (in the last 500m of a crazy-fast 5k)

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Filed under: RACE DAY, Audio/Video, on the road

It’s late, I’m tired, this will be brief….

You could just feel that something was in the air at the rink today. There was an energy, a focus, a quality of movement & intensity during training today, appropriate to the fact that tomorrow is the first day of National Championships.

The allarounders are racing Teusday & Wednesday, Thursday is a rest day, then the sprinters like me have our fast fun on the ice Friday and Saturday. I will try and do reporting from the races when I can grab a moment or two.

It’s funny, the first time I skated nationals, I knew only a handful of the athletes, now on my 4th trip here, there are just a few I don’t know.

I’m glad that I am not first up to race, because I stepped on something nasty skating this past weekend and it took me 3 hours of sharpening before I repaired the damage to my edges. When I stepped on the ice this morning, my skates felt awful, I had screwed up my rocker taking out the nicks & scrapes & inches of destroyed edge.

Lest you think that being an elite coach is all wine, women & song, (or beer, men & classic rock if that’s how you roll) here is Mike Koorman re-rockering my skates. I was one of many pairs he rockered, sharpened, bent, or troubleshot today.

What you can see in this photo is his attention to detail as he guides the grinding wheel to very carefully re-shape my FUBARed blades.

What you can’t see in this photo is his patience & calming words of experience as he reassures a flipping out athlete (me) that everything will be fine!!!!

I normally skate on an extremely flat rocker of 26-27m, all this rockering machine had was a 24, so that will have to do.

Modern coaching seems to be a wild soup of technique analysis, equipment evaluation, scientific physiology knowledge, and a healthy dose of psychology & understanding how to fire up or soothe the athletes in their charge. Mike does a great job.

P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement on the t-shirt post! I will do my best to live up to all the good vibes sent my way…

It’s a little stressful…. but in a good way…..

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Filed under: on the road

Dawn in Salt Lake

Lunchtime in Minneapolis

Afternoon in Milwaukee, praying my skates will arrive undamaged at the baggage claim.

(they did, every time I travel with them I fear the worst)

For the 4th time, I am on my way to competing at US National Long Track Championships. I am in the best shape of my life, and have prepared to the limit of my physical and mental ability.

But really, in some odd part of my soul, all I am racing for is a T-shirt that I bought three years ago, and never have worn. Yes, that sounds strange, let me explain.

It’s been a goal of mine for the past 5 years to earn “Category I” status. This is a national team/development team designation. To earn “Cat 1” you need to do 2 things.

1. Place top 10 at US nationals, in the 500m, that’s a top 10 with your two race times combined.

2. Skate a qualifying time that varies according to the distance. In the 500m, it’s 37.75 (I’ve been regularly faster than this time for 3 years now).

When you earn category I status, US speedskating gives you a skinsuit with the USA on it, and other things, like paying for ice time & coaching.

Earning the right to wear the “USA” is an honor. Many National team guys & Olympians told me how they felt the first time someone handed them their “USA” gear.

So what does this have to do with a T-Shirt?

Before the 2004-2005 National Championships, I bought a shirt that says “USA” and told myself I would not put it on unless I earned it. I thought that was my year to crack top 10 in the US.

In 2004-05, I ended up 12th overall in the 500m.

Last year, I poured my soul into the fires, had an off day at Olympic trials, and was 11th.

The T-Shirt has hung in my closet now for 3 years, tags still on it. Never worn, as I was packing before my flight, I put it in my bag.

To me, it’s not really a simple T-Shirt anymore, it’s some strange totem symbolizing me vs myself. It’s a symbol of perseverance, persistence, execution under pressure, and illogical-insane-irrational dedication to this sport.

It’s just a T-Shirt with three letters on it, but it’s become much more.

Every single skater in the field is talented, dedicated, intense, and full time; each has their own story, desires, intensity.

It’s going to be a very interesting week, nationals always is. I have a feeling it’s my last time competing here.

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Filed under: on the road