Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Sorry for the quiet here…..

I’ve recently started an interesting new job with great people, but consistent 10 hour days in cubicle-land + my usual training load + my own independent web clients has emotionally left me microwaving the midnight oil candle at both ends. Physically I can handle a giant training load, but being back in cube-land adds not merely a time-limiter, but an emotional drain as well.

This past weekend, all the tiredness I have built up came pouring forth. I pretty much staggered around the house in a bad mood with a constant incoherent mumble going on.

a bit more than my usual constant incoherent mumble!! Jess is a saint to put up with me….

One of the things that I noticed immediately when I went full-time with skating 2 years ago was how workouts changed. The number and intensity of the hard workouts was the same, but the warm up and warm down time became essentially unlimited, Easy recovery workouts were always done with the proper timing. Stretching became not just a good idea, but also a matter of survival. Naps between workouts on 2 a days allowed for a new level of clarity to the second workout.

Every gram of physical and emotional voltage aligned itself towards one goal. Like wind driven waves marching to the shore. Wave built upon wave, week after week added up to months, then years, and I got a LOT better.

I miss it…

Life evolves and changes, I welcome it…. but I am bumping up against the fact that a human being is a finite resource, and what we consciously choose to pour our cup of life and moments into is what makes us human, and I have over-poured, spilled, -the cup does not runneth over, or is half-full, or a flower vase, I ran on empty for a while and paid a price…

(I can hear many of my friends chucking at me, thinking; “just wait till you have kids!”)

damm, even just writing this entry and now I am somewhat late for work… damm… But fear not, I will still be racing this winter… although I am in cube-land for 10 hours today, I will be at the gym for 2 1/2!!! whooo!!!

(re-reading that last sentence later in the day, do I ever learn?? apparently not, oh well, endorphins are quite the addicting drug…)

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Filed under: from home

I never thought I would find anything more painful than one of my coaches’ mid-summer 3 hour dryland workouts:

Until now…. I spent 3 days last weekend at every single minute of the US speedskating spring board meeting, wow… it was an amazing emotional spin-cycle of “the good, the bad, and the ugly”

It was painful to be there because of watching the clash of really smart & passionate people who have all dedicated much of their lives to this sport. There were moments of brilliance and moments of incompetence and disconnection.

Everyone REALLY cares, but due to their positions, experience, motivations, and “clue factor” ideas of what is “best” for this organization tend to differ radically.

Also I have never seen an organization who’s professional staff said as often to the membership “we need your ideas and help, come up with proposals & program ideas & sponsorship leads”-At least 3 different meetings, that was the recurring theme.

I have always argued that “US speedskating” is a misnomer, because it sounds like a singular item, like “US SPEEDSKATING” is one animal, or an individual.

It’s not, US SPEEDSKATING a beast with 1700 heads, arms, eyes, claws, teeth, scattered pockets of brain and stomping feet. And this beast frequently chews on itself, tears itself apart, and lurches about when the head tries to point it in a particular direction. It’s a beast to love, and to be deeply ambivalent about when it steps on your head.

There are several essential limbs of the beast in evidence at this meeting, and they all are pre-disposed to view this loveable & bloody creature from a different perspective depending on what appendage their life experience places them in. No group is unanimous, and there are people who have migrated between appendages (like there are 4 athlete reps on the board), but here are the essential rough groupings.

The board of directors
The 100 category 1 elite athletes
The half dozen professional salaried coaches
The paid staff at the national office in ohio
Officials (many with decades of service)
The HARDCORE club volunteers & coaches who come from all over the country
The business professionals who want to run this like a 21st century business.
Curious local skaters (I fit in this one)
Representatives: Facilities-Sponsors-USOC & Speed Skating Canada

I have struggled about how I should write about this meeting. Here is my take on the Good, the bad, and the ugly from my own impressionistic notes I wrote down as I watched the proceedings.

The Good.

• In the view of the general public, speedskating is often judged by our success at the Olympic games, to say there was interest and media coverage of US speedskating’s 10 medals is an understatement! 10 medals! what astonishing sucess!!
• There is a VITAL base of volunteers who REALLY care about what happens to this sport.
• There must have been 50 people at the meeting, all representing large numbers of members, who flew in from all over the USA. This passion will ensure a bedrock for this sport no matter what happens at the upper levels.
• There were some astonishingly good questions & concerns raised by the Elite Athletes in attendance, and what they had to say was honestly listened to. Derek Parra, Chris Witty, Catherine Rainey, K.C. Boutiette, Dan Jansen, Chris Needham, all were very active contributors in every meeting they were at. I have never seen an organization whose athletes were more directly involved.
• There are some people in positions of authority at US speedskating who are extremely competent, I was very impressed with Craig Wing, smart dude. Chris Needham & Scott Koons are going to be fantastic athlete reps as well. There are also some fearless & elouquent members of the volunteers, who were fun to watch & good to listen to.

The Bad

• In Canada, the provincial association pays the travel expenses of their top young athletes. Pretty cool!

  In the US, sometimes even the top skaters pay their own way to races. But hey, this is where Canadian tax dollars go! Essentailly taxes are the price of civilization, and I will refrain from commenting on where American civiliazation is headed!!!

• Some important political issues were obviously resolved in backroom closed-door meetings, not in front of the membership. If I were on the board, would I act differently? maybe, but maybe not, democracy can be a messy, full contact sport.
• US speedskating is cutting several regional development coaches; this is a BAD idea, as development is what this organization is all about. No money? There was practically a revolt in the membership about the elimination of these coaches. And it happened anyway. With an organization with a running budget somewhere over a million dollars, it seems silly to cut experienced human beings who don’t cost that much. Cut your altitude housing before coaching.
• US speedskating Membership has slowly declined over the last 4 years, but is has been in general decline for the past 100, so maybe that is no one’s fault but societal tectonics at work. However, with the popularity & availability of short-track clubs, it seems odd.

  Speedskating will never be a “major sport”. But it should be larger & better known than it is

The Ugly

• US speedskating has pissed off its sponsors royally. In the direct words of a budget committee member, they are facing “The Perfect Storm” in the next few months, here are the elements of said storm:
• US speedskating “got in the door” with Qwest as a potential sponsor because the idea of Shani Davis wearing a Qwest logo was incredibly attractive to this company that claims diversity as a core value. Shani never wore a Qwest logo, in fact, there was a picture of Shani on the front page of USA today with Qwest logo painted over by DSB (you could just barely see Qwest). The CEO of Qwest was PISSED, and not only is canceling their sponsorship, they are about to sue to get their money back from last year!! That would be crippling organization-wide if they do.
• ADT is furious as well, mostly due to the Olympic media firestorms. Why no one in authority in US speedskating did not step in to calm the waters is beyond me. It could have been a one or two day media story, not almost two weeks.
• Losing these two sponsors adds up to MILLIONS of dollars.
• The USOC demands that US speedskating has a new athlete agreement (the source of much of this friction) in hand, or they will not approve their 1.1 million of funding per year. So there MUST be some kind of a peace treaty, and right now the athletes who have outside sponsors seem still quite pissed off. (in the spirit of disclosure, I do work for one of them, so I can’t take too public a position on this).
• Essentially, every major source of funding in jeapordy, not good. It takes some real talent to piss off EVERYONE all at once!
• There was far too much, from people who should have been be better prepared: “we need ideas & proposals from the membership, we need help& proposals from the membership, since we don’t have a firm suggestion of direction” At several different meetings, this was a recurring theme.

Bonus Ugly: Yesterday the executive director of US speedskating resigned! why after the meeting? and not before? during? so there could be discussion/member input about what to do next, & who might replace her? or maybe so that people could simply say either “thank you” or “go away” depending on their feelings about her. Odd timing… very odd… Again, we were in her shoes, would we have handled it differently?

It’s unfair of me to point out issues, and not offer constructive solutions, or take the “walk a mile in other moccasains” thoughtful approach. My own small ideas, will come in another post (and maybe something about my own small innefective contribution to the meeting itself).

(right now I need to get to work, I am back in cube-land, I have a contract IT job at a cool company, and I am late for work)

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Filed under: from home

This is something I am putting in Chad's site that is worth republishing here as well.

It's a good interview, he talks quite candidly about his Olympic experience. This interview was taped just before a Houston Aeros minor league playoff hockey game where Chad dropped the puck to start the action, and also where Chad headlined a fundraiser for special olympics.

You can still find news articles talking about the Chad-Shani feud during the Olympics, but nothing about the $70,000 Chad has helped raise for Special Olympics…

friggin media!!!

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Filed under: Audio/Video

The world is in bloom, green, lush, budding tress and blossoms everywhere. Spring is wonderful, and renews the spirit.

Riding my bike home from the gym yesterday, in shorts and a tank top, I feel in bloom myself, physically “home” again in the rhythms of hard training, and happy to be riding my bike in 70-degree spring sunshine.

Shortly thereafter, the temperature drops 40 degrees and snow comes blustering in, cold slop pours from the sky, and walking to the coffee shop this morning through piles of slush, I see garden after garden looking like this.

A close friend of mine, who happens to be an excellent photographer, is in the hospital today, so I stop for a few moments in the sleet, and take a few pictures thinking of him.

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Filed under: from the coffee shop

Sitting in the coffee shop this morning, swimming my way to alertness-

My motivation is low for much other than drinking coffee. –A half dozen things are muddling their way through my mind, lyrics to old Pink Floyd, the project I am finishing, emailing clients, prototyping a new site, I have some bills that need paying, endless etc etc etc…

I start training again for real today, my break is over, in the past I used to be excited about this, today I am blah blah, blah—-

and then this bird comes zipping along and CRACKS into the windowpane next to my keyboard at high velocity!!!

It spins in the air for a few seconds, a confused ball of wings, and then darts off in another direction at top speed, it NEEDS TO BE SOMEWHERE RIGHT NOW!!!

This bird has goals, and even though it smacked into a window, I admire the intense pursuit of flight across the species line. Like an ant to his task, I will go through the motions of training today, but I don’t feel all that inspired to pursue my goals right now.

To attain a goal, you have to state your goal, and then state the concrete things you need to do to accomplish it. Here is the question I am tossing out to this blog reading crowd:

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THIS UPCOMING YEAR?

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL THINGS/SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO DO/GET BETTER AT, -TO ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS?

You do not have to be a skater to answer this question, some of my goals for this upcoming year have nothing to do with skating. I talked with a fellow last night at a dinner party who lost his home to hurricane Katrina, his goals all changed in a few days.

A goal is a goal, but one thing that is true about goals, is that stating them, and then being “process oriented” gives you a better shot at achieving. For example: Last season it was a huge goal of mine to skate a sub 37 second 500m, but I tried hard not to think about that number, instead I obsessed on aspects of skating technique, especially my last 200m, to attain that goal.

Also, imagining your process to reach goals is like creating your flight plan: it’s looking where you are going. Although I admire the drive that bird had, it’s flight plan was not too well thought out. How many people & athletes are like that bird…. trying hard and flying blind….

So now it’s your turn—- So what are your goals?

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Filed under: from the coffee shop