Posted on 09 Mar 02:50 pm

Joey on NPR

Joey Cheek was on National Public Radio yesterday, if you listen to the show as you drive home from work, maybe you heard it. He says some fascinating things about athletes, selfishness, American media, and about his future plans.

It was a fascinating interview, only five minutes long too. Here is the link to the NPR page where you can listen to the interview. You will need Realplayer to listen to this. The way that NPR page link worked on my computer was that clicking on it downloaded a file to my desktop, which I then had to launch in realplayer.

Today was my LAST WORKOUT of this season. I skated my fastest 400m tempo lap ever too, a 26.13, and considering I technically screwed up the first corner, I am bummed I did not pop into the 25’s. Tomorrow and saturday will be my final races of this season!! wow… where did the time go?

And as for next year?? stay tuned….

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 07 Mar 08:12 pm

Eat hard, work harder, rest hardest!

Eat hard, work harder, rest hardest!
-NY mets 47 year old first baseman, Julio Franco
From the Salt Lake Tribune

These are good rules to live by. It took me many years of bicycle racing to realize that training hard actually makes you slower! It wears you out. Hard training, however, does create a narrow window of physiological possibility to become faster, but what actually makes you faster is recovering properly after hard training. Julio’s quote emphasizes this in his ordering of priorities.

There are so many people who take training & their equipment soooo seriously, but if you don’t take care of the recovery needs of your body, sleep-food-rest-etc, then hard work is often wasted.

I am very good about proper timing of food and workouts. I get enough sleep. Honestly I am still sometimes weak on my diet. I was eating a seafood salad sub with a chocolate chip cookie and a giant glass of water, when I was reading the above linked article.

Then the article, and Julio went on:

On willpower, Franco said: ”All the time people tell me that they shouldn’t eat something but they do anyway. They don’t need cake. They don’t have to have it. I walk by bakeries, see things that look good, smell good, but I know I don’t need that cheesecake. It’s not worth it for me.”

On his easygoing nature: ”If it’s hot outside, great. If it’s cold, great. If it rains or it’s windy, I don’t care. They’re out of my control. The things in my life that I can control - my diet, baseball, my interaction with friends, family, teammates - that’s what I can control, and that’s what enriches my life.”

On his predecessors: ”The smart ones were the old ones,” he said, between forkfuls of egg whites.

I stopped munching on my cookie, considered its half moon shape, and then finished it anyway.

There are lots of articles about Franco on the web right now, and the sudden plethora of professional athletes in their late 40’s

Here is a good one from the New York Times (you do need to register to read it, but the Times is a good read). Dr. Steven Foster, quoted in the beginning of this article, is actually a speedskater himself, and has written for many of the skating magazines.

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Filed under: Quotes

Posted on 06 Mar 09:08 am

The Perfect Race

“For me it was the perfect race…. I was happy before this medal, but to be able to come here and finish it like this is pretty spectacular… Emotion, so much emotion and passion, everything was running through my body. It was crazy.”

-Apollo Anton Ohno, reflecting on his gold medal 500m race.

I love this quote, Apollo talked in several interviews about “skating the perfect race” the internal focus it requires, and how hard he trained to make this happen. This guy could live however he wants, and supposedly lives a Spartan lifestyle at the US Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.

I came as close as I ever have so far to my own “perfect race” this past Saturday. All season long I have had the goal to skate a sub 37 second 500m, to see a 36 next to my name on the scoreboard, and I am almost out of time to do it. Busting the 37 barrier is a “line in the sand” that I need to cross. Warming up for this past Saturday’s races, I felt tremendous possibility in my legs, I could tell, technically and physically, that this could be the day.

I was paired with “start-line-rocket” Parker Vance, and he inspired me to blast off the line like a freak, to my fastest start ever (10.30), I hit the first turn well, made a tiny mistake exiting the turn, and then skated the finest last 250 meters I have ever done, every step was as perfect as I am capable of. I even include evidence here of both knees coming together as I drive that last 100. Bringing the knees together properly has always has been an element of technique that has always crippled my top end speed.

Every synapse was screaming, I could feel the pressure I was getting into the ice, I KNEW that this was the moment, that it could be right now!!!

Maybe I think too much, but today it was good fuel in the fire. I jabbed my blade at the finish line as I crossed, reaching for every possible hundreth, on fire!!

I pulled up out of my skating position, looked at the clock, and see

37.00

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The howl that escaped my body was full of the joy of a personal best, joy of almost a perfect race, blended with frustration, with feeling every millimeter of distance from 36.99 to 37.00

I always believed that athletes need to focus & try as hard as they can every rep, every step in training, because that is where you earn tiny amounts of speed like this. Where did I fail? What is this supposed to teach me?

How far is .01? at my lap time of 26.70 (that is 33.5 mph/53.9kph average speed for 400m) using the socal speed calculator, that is 14.9 meters a second, so I missed that 36 by 14.9 centimeters.

Such a tiny distance to have so much of my self-esteem poured into.

14.9 centimeters… .01 of a second… How far is that? 1/3 of a blade length, half the width of the ibook I write this on. My hand, wrist to fingertip is even 19 cm.

John Loquai said to me afterwards, that after seeing my race, now he understands exactly how much .01 of a second can mean. I am swirling about in a mix of happy and sad, almost the perfect race, the best I can do, but it’s not enough.


p.s. John himself skated an amazing race worth mentioning, a 1500m paired with Ron “glidemaster” Macky. (life experience on speedskates? Macky=17 years, Loquai=1.5). There was lots of friendly betting & trash talking going on, lots of speculation on who would win. Ron & John train together all the time, and knew it would be very close. Boris & I got into the fun too, Boris picked Ron, I picked John. The actual event was fun to watch, with John’s opening 300m a bit faster, and he then increased his lead a tiny bit every lap, skating a 1:50.99 (with a last lap of 29.87!) to Ron’s 1:52.25 -these guys are true artists of pain!).

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Filed under: RACE DAY, from home

Posted on 05 Mar 12:34 pm

Faces & Vibe -Masters International

As I have said several times, the Masters International race this last weekend’s exemplifies the best that there is in speedskating.

I had a post that focused on the race, and now here is one that is about the faces & vibe. I should have posted this earlier this week, but better late than never!

First of all, a recording of the national anthem, as played by Olu. I think every time a race director asks him to play, they should wave his entry fee as a thank you. You can hear a hockey game going on in the background, and the buzz of the massive fluorescent lights at the Pettit. But it’s still Olu, and he can REALLY play.

Every time I hear the anthem, I think of our armed forces in the Middle East. It’s easy to forget that there is a war going on right now. Much of America has effectively closed its eyes to the men & women in uniform who are serving & sometimes dying in Iraq. It’s important to remember that for every death we hear about, there are also roughly 4-5 catastrophic injuries where the soldier lives, but loses arms/legs/eyes/hands/mobility. How many souls & families have been scarred by this war? There are people now on their 4th & 5th combat tours!! (also there are possibly 100,000 Iraqi civilian dead, mostly from US firepower).

Agree or disagree with our current foreign policies, it’s important to remember what is happening in the world right now, and to live life in context, not as a “head in the sand” Ostrich.

Ok, enough politics, back to skating (see, I too am guilty of exactly what I just complained about above).

Here are a bunch of folks, lacing up for warmup, at a scary early hour of the morning.

The inline to ice movement does not just happen at the Elite Level; Glenn Corso is a member of the NYC area Empire speed inline team, and came out from Long Island to race. He does short track ice, and has a handful of days on the long track clap blades. He was right in the mix in the toughest category, the 40-44’s, had a blast, and says next year he will bring a pile of folks from that very talented club. Fantastic! There also was a skater from the very active Team Caravan/Capitol racing group in Virginia, but I did not get a chance to chat with him.

One of the growing traditions of The Masters International is the Saturday night party at Olu’s. This year was it’s biggest and best ever. 40 of the 70+ competitors showed up for a huge dish-to-pass buffet, and Olympics watching. I wish I had a tape of the ‘hollerin during Apollo Ohno’s gold medal short track race, and shortly thereafter, the relay.

The fire was nice, also in fine form was Mary O’Donnell, The US rep to the governing body of International Masters skating, the IMSSC. Here she is, making some noise during the women’s Olympic 5k, wearing a crazy Dutch hat she bought during a world cup at Herenveen. The little spikes & bells are like a dragon tail, and hang all the way down her back. I hear Mary’s other sporting passion is rowing! Now that is quite the doubleshot of summer and wintertime lactic acid fun!

You can always tell when the Indy speedskating team has arrived at a race. Their towels, chairs, luggage, and full skinsuits are all Cheetah print!

I asked them about this, and they said at one of their earliest races as a club, they showed up to the meet with each member having 2 suits, they wore cheetah print on Saturday, and american-design motif suits on Sunday. Everyone asked them on Sunday “hey, were are your cool cheetah suits!”. Since that positive feedback, the theme has grown and taken over.

Indyspeed skates inline all summer, short and long track ice in the winter. They are excellent examples of “allskaters” who participate in every kind of speed skating there is. I strongly believe in the “allskater” concept as an individual & club philosophy. It is a path for all-skaters to follow except for a tiny number of people trying to specialize in elite ice sprinting (I really miss being an allskater).

Check out the Indy speed website, their skating technique & annual peridodization plans are quite interesting. Also I LOVE THIS PHOTO, of several of them at the start line of the world team time trial championships (cycling).

I can see why their Coach, Cindi Hart, just won US speedskating volunteer coach of the year! I want to do a ZEN 10 interview with Cindy, as the first interview I ever did was with last year’s volunteer Coach of the year, Jim Cornell. Hmmm, maybe this blog has been around long enough, I can start “traditions”!

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Filed under: RACE DAY, Audio/Video

Posted on 02 Mar 02:37 pm

Eat your Wheaties!

I don’t really like breakfast cereal that much, I far prefer a coffee & protein centric breakfast.

But Wheaties just announced that Joey Cheek & Apollo Ohno are going to be on their boxes!!!! So I will become a Wheaties customer, good for at lest several boxes. (here is sports illustrated’s story)

Who knows, maybe I will like cereal again. I wonder if Wheaties are good in coffee? Hmmm.. Probably not, but I bet there is someone in the General Mills R&D trying to create “Eggies” or “Meaties” or something equivalent.

What a wild ride the Olympics were! Is anyone out there also suffering from post-games-burnout/withdrawal? I am still catching up on my sleep.

Its easy to castigate NBC for what they could have done better in their coverage, as we are not the people who have to actually DO it. We are not the people whose jobs actually depend on the ratings, and I bet some heads were chopped off due to the poor ratings.

But one thing that could have been easily done is simply make high quality internet streaming feeds available of events LIVE! and CHARGE for them, I would have paid $20 to see every speedskating event. They had this in Europe, why not here as well? Imagine how sucky the coverage would have seemed if your sport was Biathlon? Curling? Ski Jumping?

The mass market gets smaller & stupider by the year, what matters now is an aggregate of micro-markets, and reaching them.

How cool is it that Joey’s face is now gonna be in SUPERMARKETS!!! I wonder if they give him a few boxes of it for free? And will he someday sit down for breakfast with his own face on the cereal across the table? That would be a surreal moment, and one surely not lost on a smart guy like Joey.

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 01 Mar 09:06 pm

Loquai

I found treasure not where I thought
-Peace of mind can’t be bought-
Still I believe

Just hang on – Suffer well –
Sometimes it’s hard – its hard to tell

Depeche Mode –from their latest album “playing the angel”

At practice today I took a few pictures of John Loquai doing a 3 lap fast tempo through sunlight spattering across one of the turns (every lap under 30 seconds! Wowsa!).

Later this same evening, Jessica bought a just released Depeche Mode album, these lyrics were playing, and I thought of John.

John originally was a hockey player, but had to give up that sport after SIX CONCUSSIONS!

Certainly John has “found treasure not where he thought” because after a year and a half of switching to speedskates, he earned category 1 status at Olympic trials (basically, one notch from national team, and that earns him the right to wear the USA). As my buddy Kirk says “John gets faster ever time he touches the ice.” Its true, he has even improved since trials.

However now the real work begins over the next 4 years. John has the raw talent, the feel for the ice, the internal drive to train hard, all the pieces are there. But now the specter of money suddenly raises its ugly head. How to eat? Pay rent? Have a life? This sport demands total commitment to reach the top level, and no guarantees of anything but memories. It’s a very hard choice to make.

He is looking for sponsors, some way to not starve while training full time. I can totally empathize. This is a hard spot to be, to be so close to the full national team ride, but still one step away.

If there are any good corporate sponsors out there, jazzed up about the Olympics, and looking for a dark horse with talent and a good story, John might be your guy. It’s a hard, but rewarding path he sees in front of him. Suffer well John, I wish you luck.

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 28 Feb 04:05 pm

The Races -Masters International

“Watching a Masters 3,000m race is as much fun as watching paint dry.”

-some dork masquerading as a speedskating official

I believe this was actually said at a US speedskating board meeting, so I could find out who said it, but I don’t want to use this blog as a weapon. Besides, I don’t need to argue with such inanity, it speaks for itself well enough.

However, I invite him to change his opinion by officiating the incredible metric/pack competition at the Masters International. We are the most exciting paint imaginable! I promise it will be the most fun he will ever have at meet..

Here are some pictures (paint?) from the finish of the 40-44 category 500m. This is my proof. From L to R we have Olusegun Sijuwade (with perfect corner exit hip/blade position!), Matt Trimble, Randy Plett (with the good “race face”) & Steve Desotell.

The margin between these 4 at the finish line was .2, with Olu winning it by a skate blade. EVERY SINGLE race this group did had a finish like this one, The pic below is the 800! Almost a dead heat between Trimble & Desotell!

And in that “paint drying” 3k? Steve Desotell & Tom Cole finished within .05 of each other at the line after a very fast race! I have made my point, and I will now climb off my soapbox.

But skating is not just about winning; it’s about persevering for the pure love of this bizarre sport that seems to often reward dedication & devotion.

Here is someone who truly loves his skating, Tony Marchese (yes, this is boot artisan Paul Marchese’s dad) Racing in the 65 & 69 category, he still hauls! He used to be a professional boxer. He says that in terms of training, speedskating is MUCH harder, and that most of the time, speedskaters work far harder than the boxers he has trained (actually, the precise linguistic terminology he used describing most boxers was “wuss”).

If there is a “bionic skater” award, Tony wins it across all age groups. I had heard about this, so I asked him for the full list. He has faced the knife more times than a turkey on thanksgiving, and the list went something like major heart surgery, 3 shoulder surgeries, gastric blockage surgery, a steel plate with 6 big bolts in his back, then he breaks one of the bolts -so he had to go under the knife AGAIN! Does he make the six million dollar man sound when he skates? Nope, but he has a lot of fun. Tony, did I leave anything out?

Tony has had every possible reason/excuse to “go gently into that good night”, and he still keeps on keeping on & doing what he loves. What is your excuse?

From left to right, in a 500m women’s heat. Cindi Hart, Carla Langenthal, & Karla Cybulsky.

Another Women’s 500m race blasts off the line, from near to far, I think we have Leela Braun, Karri Cox, Alice Hagen, and Melissa Koenig.

Steve Gunther Traveled from Maryland to do this meet, and raced very well. Here he is in the lead of a 500, flanked by Dave Montgomery and Al Harding, but I am not sure who is who of those two. Steve set several age group records at North Americans this past year, and was the happiest man I have seen in a long time! Do Masters records matter? I point to Steve’s smile & satisfaction, yes, it can matter A LOT!

Bob Lawrence has competed several times in the Masters World Games, and shows excellent form here winning a 500m final right in front of fellow fast Canadian Mickey Kupchyk. I got to know Bob during a ferociously cold event in Ottawa several years ago. Bob has had several injuries this year, and is not in his usual stud form. In fact this is only his 3rd time this year on the long track. But the lure of the Masters International drew him to Milwaukee. During the awards ceremony, he said some really nice things on behalf of the 10 Canadians who came to race. He said he will return with many fast friends!!

More Carla, this time in the 3k where they threw several of the women’s categories together. Carla simply took the lead at the start and went fast. Here is Karri Cox trying to stay with her. After 4 laps Carla was alone & metric raced it all the way to the finish.

When people talk about the “fall” into a skating stroke, you can see it here if you draw a line directly down from Carla’s chin, she is leaning into the push, and this moment is when she actually starts her push, so a skate stroke is a lean-push, lean-push (beginners usually start out with this exactly the opposite, pushing into their lean). This happens very subtly on inlines too, but you can’t (or at least I can’t) be nearly as aggressive or powerful with it as you can on ice, or the wheels slip right out from under you.

As for yours truly, I had some great racing with Danny Frederick on Saturday (he was not able to make it on Sunday). Danny is a good fella, and was 6th in the Olympic trials in the 10k. We were extremely closely matched, so it was that perfect blend of searing speed and pack tactics. Danny beat me in the 1000m, I won the 800, and also won the 500m metric race with a new Pettit center personal best of 37.66, and my fastest opening 100m ever, 10.32! yeah!

At the end of everything, they always have a big group 5k. This does not count for anything other than pride, just throw everyone together on the line & have a wild salmon run mass start race with a huge pack. That’s me in the fire truck red skinsuit in the front row.

(thanks to Kathy Stutz for this pic, she also captured some start line goofing around, to see it click here).

Even standing at the start, eventual winner Matt Trimble is shadowing me (he is directly behind me). Matt saved his energy through the whole race, and made a very impressive move right at the bell. After 11 races and 15,500 meters of racing, my fast twitch fibers were completely twitched-out, and I could not match his acceleration.

Its worth mentioning that my fellow Powercranks racing team member Carla Langenthal pulled many of the 5k laps, and was leading the whole pack at a ferocious clip when the bell rang. If Powercranks are useful for two speedskaters as radically different in body/muscle fiber types as “last-lap” Langenthal and “fried after 600m” Love, then they probably are useful for everyone in between, as that is pretty much everyone. (ok, commerical over.. sorry! but they have been great sponsors for myself & Carla, and I want to thank them every opportunity I can)

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Filed under: sweat, from the coffee shop

Posted on 26 Feb 02:17 pm

Group Photo Masters Intl

I said I would post this group shot of the competitors from this weekend’s masters international, and so here it is.

Click on the image itself to see a bigger one:

I have a lot more to say about this weekend’s racing, but I wanted to post this ASAP, and before I pass out with happy exhaustion from a weekend of 11 (!!!!) races totaling 15,600 meters (!!!!).

It has occurred to me that there is a real “masters movement” across many sports. What is beginning to happen in speedskating simply reflects the cultural shift already visible in cycling, running, triathlon, etc. The difference is that in Europe masters have been organized for quite a while. Now the moment has come for North Americans to work together, hand in hand with US Speedskating & Speedskating Canada, to organize a cohesive voice & organizing committee to promote Masters speedskating.

And yes, yours truly will be a part of it, I volunteered to build the website!

Oh, and to all my European skating friends, look closely at this picture. You will get to know many of these smiling American and Canadian faces in Calgary next year, at Masters World Championships!

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Filed under: on the road

Posted on 24 Feb 10:53 am

Chad KPRC Interview

Chad Hedrick talks with KPRC in Houston about:

  • The conflict with Shani Davis
  • How the media attention ultimately will help speedskating
  • His upcoming 10,000m race
  • What the whole Olympic experience has meant to him.

In the middle of the interview, note that Derek Parra passes by, on his way out for a night of fun, and “The Exception” is staying in, resting before he faces the 25 grueling laps of the 10k. Press the play button to listen.

Sometimes when you see an athlete being interviewed, you can tell that they are in “professional media mode”. To me, this interview sounds like Chad simply being himself. He is intensely confident, and when he loses, he blames himself for not skating to his potential.

Some call that approach cocky or brash, but if your life experience included 50 inline world championships and multiple ice championships, you could internally be a dour pessimist and come to the same conclusions & approach. This is how Chad looks at the world, and for his whole life the world has confirmed this view.

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Filed under: Audio/Video

Posted on 23 Feb 08:31 pm

Mendota Black Ice

Earlier today, I posted a picture of the snow-covered ice of Lake Mendota. This evening I recieve an email and pair of amazing pictures from Alice Hagen.

Here is the first pic, her description of this day, and then a second picture. Clicking on both pics gets you larger & differently cropped versions:



I first joined the skate tribe as a member of the Madison clan! Skating on Lake Mendota is hard to come by. Most of outdoor skating in Madison is done on the lagoons at Vilas Park which are groomed as the weather allows. Skating on Lake Mendota takes the right combination of a hard freeze, low wind, and no snow to make for decent skating.

On January 1, 1999, I was fortunate to experience such an event with fellow skate tribe members Amy Fuelleman and Dave Evans. The lake froze solid pretty much in one night. We braved sub-zero temps to get out on the ice, and it was worth it - it was pretty much glass.

The ice was about 5 inches thick and crystal clear. The craziest part about the whole thing was that as you were skating, you could see the lake bottom about 10 feet below - this caused some vertigo while skating - especially when a fish would swim by!!!!

-Alice Hagen

Thanks Alice!! Many times, I have seen beautiful pictures of Europeans on natural ice that simply makes me sooo jealous! Thanks for helping show that we have great black ice here too!

A Dutch sports scientist once said “A winter of natural ice skating is worth more than all the scientific papers & physiological analysis of speedskating ever written!” Looking at pics like this, one can see why!

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Filed under: on the road, from the coffee shop

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