Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Posted on 22 Dec 07:49 pm

Nerves & Joey

Even though I have been skating VERY well recently, off the ice I have become quite anxious about the upcoming Olympic trials. Almost reaching that mythical state of “worried sick”. I don’t listen to music anymore driving to workouts, if certain songs come on, it feeds the butterflies in my stomach, and they start acting up.

If you have ever met me in person, you know I talk a lot (and that’s an understatement), but when I am truly deeply upset, oddly enough I submerge & don’t say anything, and if I must speak, it’s in a monosyllabic whisper. In fact, last night, I was stressing out so badly, I even went stone cold silent on Jessica, she is a trooper for putting up with me.

A few days ago, Olympic bronze medalist Joey Cheek told me a story about one of his own experiences with pre-race nerves. It made me laugh at the time, and still does, humor can be a powerful antidote to stress..

At practice today, I asked him to repeat the story for all of you.

Take it away, Joey!

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Filed under: Audio/Video

Hello World! (again)

Who would have thought that racing 2 500m races, a bit over a minute of total work, could make a person “stuck to the floor tired”! But that is how I feel this morning (where is my coffee?? ugh!).

In racing yesterday, I was paired with good guy & Milwaukee skater Kirk Olson. He is a former division I hockey player, and dragsters the first 100m of a 500m race in a world class 9.9. I had a good start, but Kirk just crushed me off the line, and was a loooong way ahead exiting the first turn, but in my backstretch (pictured here) I began to catch him, and my final inner turn was super solid.

I exited the final turn half a step ahead, and we raced shoulder to shoulder all the way to the finish, and I arrived first by .01!! (roughly 1.3cm difference)!! I have now skated about 6 500m races that are all under 37.2, but I have not cracked into 36!! The results of this weekends races are here.

This race was another tiny improvement in my personal best, by .02 of a second, 37.06, and that makes me happy, even if that 36 barrier continues to dance just out of reach. I feel as prepared as I can be for trials, I am skating well technically and physically, in practice a few days ago I skated my fastest lap ever, 26.14.

The work I need to do between now and Olympic trials is all psychological & making sure that I am relaxed as possible (a tense sprinter is a slow sprinter).

In other news, I want to specifically welcome the members of the Yahoo groups speed skating mailing lists. Jim White mentioned this blog to the international readership over there, and suddenly the next day I have 328 visitors! Again, I am drinking a huge cup of “whoa”!

One of the exceptionally cool things about this international discussion list, is that there is a Dutch fellow who transfers the Dutch TV coverage of the world cup races to realplayer format, and posts it online, he announces it on this yahoo list. Here is the page he posts things on (these clips change every world cup). This last weeks races looked particularly epic, as it was blizzarding in Inzell, the women’s 1000m races reminded me of skating in Lake Placid! I once raced a 5k in conditions like this.

Peter, if you are ever in Salt Lake, I think there are a ton of us who would buy you dinner at the best restaurant in town, your hard work posting these clips is INCREDIBLY VALUED by those of us who would never otherwise get to see all of this world cup coverage.

After yesterday’s races, Bart Schouten’s team got on the ice for a workout, and I did some taping for both Chad Hedrick’s Journal, as well as for another website, offthepodium.com, that is doing a video feature on Chad. This morning Chad is appearing on the ESPN morning show “cold pizza” and last night I had a studio guy stop by my house and pick up a burned CD of some of the video I have taped of Chad. Studio guy was wearing a “saskatoon speed skating club” T-Shirt, and immediately we recognized each other as members of the “skate gypsy” subculture.

Here are some images of Bart’s whole gaggle of speedy folks zipping by. Gold Medalist Derek Parra is in the lead. Pretty much every single athlete in these images is going to be competing in Olympic trials that are now only 6 DAYS AWAY!! When a group this size goes by, it can give you windburn!

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 17 Dec 09:27 pm

Veritas

Whether you love her or hate her, Eva Rodansky is never boring, today she showed up at the rink with this new graffiti on her skates, is that her heart or someone else’s heart with that sword stuck through it?? Or both???

Veritas means “truth” in Latin, and is also the motto of Harvard University.

And it is getting closer to the moment of Veritas, Olympic trials are 10 days away. Oddly enough, it’s really only a moment of “Olympic” truth for about a 10 of the 50 athletes who will be skating Olympic trials.

Several of the top skaters have already qualified for the Olympics through placing top 5 in the world cup twice (an extraordinarily hard thing to do). And after a lot of racing this season, people have a pretty good idea of who is capable of what, and there are actually very few people who are legitimately in competition for those last few Olympic team spots.

In just my own personal example, almost every 500m I have skated since early November has been between 37.08 and 37.40. Some have been great, some terrible and stumbling. But the times don’t vary too much, and I am not likely to suddenly shoot rocket flames from my butt and skate the high 34-low 35 necessary to earn a spot on the 500m men’s team. And if rocket-ass action did occur, I bet some doping control people, and a few sports scientists, would like to have a long conversation with me.

I raced again today, 37.29 was my 500m time. After all this hard work, I just can’t seem to break into the 36’s!!! Damm!!! Am I reaching the limit of what my body can do? No, there are still mistakes visible here. A Kazakhstan coach got my backstretch on videotape (no sound), and I added that into the video jess shot. A rare look at a 500m from start to finish.

One scary thing about this 500m worth noting, I was paired with my training buddy Marco (him on the left, me on the right). Marco lost his footing about 100m into the race, and came extremely close to sliding into me blades first. Immediately after my 500m, someone asked me “were you scared!” and I replied “Of what?” Thinking the question was more about the normal fear factor of the final inner turn of a 500m. Then I saw the video, and understood! I heard something happen on my left, but I was really focused on what I was doing, and had no idea it was the close call the video shows.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, sweat

Callis=Art

This photo is actually from last weekend, this is longtime national team member Chris Callis flying through the final turn of a 500m. Chris missed going to the 2002 Olympic games by a whisker, and then was ON FIRE during the 2003-04 season, skating well at the World Sprint Championships.

However the seasons since have been hard for him, and he has not been able to come back to that level, and is a longshot to make it to the Torino Games.

Take a moment and appreciate his lifetime of dedication, into this one skill, captured here in a moment, this beautiful moment of one man going 35mph balanced on a blade one millimeter thick!

Chris crashed extremely hard in practice this week; I heard him saying he feels more sore and internally ripped up than when he totaled his car in an accident this summer. He messed up his body and skates, and is still a bit woozy. But he is determined, and will be there on the start line at trials.

The Olympics can be wonderful, fate can be cruel, and may Chris find his path in life, no matter the result from trials.

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Filed under: sweat, from home

Posted on 15 Dec 02:07 pm

Happy Birthday Boris!

There is a rite of passage that many cocky US junior national team skaters have undergone out here in Utah, and I have heard this story from several different victims.

The story goes like this; a hotrod young gun signs up for a 500m time trial out here at the Utah Olympic Oval. They look at the start list and see that they are paired with a medium height, barrel-chested 50-ish fellow who speaks with a Russian accent and has just a touch of grey to his hair. They assume it will be no contest.

Once the gun goes off, they are shocked when the 50 year old blows them away in the race. Congratulations, you have just met Boris Leikin!

In fact, this happened just this past weekend, Boris was paired with a very good younger skater, Jeremy Cox, and here is Boris passing him in the final turn.

Happy Birthday Boris. You turn 53 today, and in the race pictured above, you skated a 38.72! only a few hundredths off of your all time personal best, and the next day’s 1000m you skated a very quick 1:17.58. I asked you how old do you feel, and you answered “hmmmm, about 35“.

You have qualified for, and will skate in, your 3rd Olympic trials twelve days from now, I wonder how many 50+ year olds are going to be competing in winter Olympic trials, in any sport? In the physical off ice tests we do, lifting or jumping, I can’t come close to what you can do.

And on top of that, you have an excellent brain, spot-on skating analytical ability, a unique approach to training, and even willpower to match mine! I was very lucky that last January you asked me to join the group of skaters you coach. I hope my technique doesn’t “hurt your eyes” as much as it did last year.

I wish I could tell a few more Boris stories here, as over the last year, I have amassed quite a few, I mean this guy has done things like building his own car from a pile of parts in a garage in St. Petersburg, but I do respect his privacy somewhat.

I will end this with a picture of Boris in his natural environment, an outdoor hot tub! Somehow I think there will be outdoor hot tubbing and vodka at the party tonight.

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Speedskaters International- Italy

For the third installment of the Speedskaters International Photos, I bring you some pictures that American Eva Rodansky took of Torino, both of the city and the new Olympic Facilities. Eva was just there competing in the speedskating World Cup, and even though she is no longer writing in her blog, her howitzer of irony and sarcasm comes through in these photos.

Here is the interior of the new rink, as the Italians would say “bellissimo!”. As usual, the huge interior of an indoor long track is a golden opportunity for an architect to get weird. That looks like Kip Carpenter walking along, and some Japanese skaters in the far distance.

And this is the outside of the Torino Long track facility, there is a dark side to this gorgeous building, I hear that after the Olympics, it will simply become a convention center, and never have ice again!!!

Here is the building they will have the short-track and figure skating events in. Eva is a surfer as well as a speedskater. This large swooping structure reminded her of a cresting wave just before it really mashes you. It gave her nightmares, as this view was from her hotel room window.

Urban Torino was a very pretty place, supposedly this city has 18 kilometers of colonnaded walking like this. Wow.

Outdoor ice, Italian style. Now seeing this, I only have one question, why didn’t they schedule at least one short track event to be around this thing? Maybe the B relay final or something. Do it at night, big floodlights, half-drunk crowds jamming the streets & lining fire escapes & rooftops, snow lightly sifting down, and incredible athletes going blade to blade under the watchful eye of a bearded hero & his anguished horse. It would be epic.

There was this gruesome statue right in the middle of town, it was a memorial to workers who died in an industrial mining accident. Eva said that the foot of this crushed figure seems to be pointing right down the street in the background, and what is at the end of that street? The Medal awards stand!

And here is where the doomed foot was pointing, the Piazza where they will be awarding the Olympic medals, its….. it could be really nice looking, but….. ummm, it’s still under construction. Deadlines anyone? You have known this party was gonna happen for the last decade!

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 12 Dec 11:57 am

A great weekend after all

After all my Friday-post workout irrational fear, this weekend I had some of the most solid technical and physical races I have ever skated. I feel things are coming together at the right time, my fear is being replaced by cautious optimism (just wait, next weekend I will probably yo-yo back to fear again!!).

I raced my finest 500m ever on Saturday: off the line like a relaxed rocket, great first corner, fantastic draft chasing my pair John Loquai down, I slammed through the final corner as cleanly as I am capable of, terror and lean like I was skating short track, and crossed the finish line in 37.1 seconds

I still can’t bust into the 36’s! and this great feeling race was not even a personal best! It was within .02 of my PB on that crazy fast ice just before the world cup, but still…. I was happy simply because it felt great, and that is enough. After the 500’s were over, I looked at the scoreboard, and was 5th of the 42 skaters who raced that day, I finished in front of some really fast guys who I respect tremendously, and who have beaten me all year. Although this shot of the scoreboard only shows the top 8, there were 12 of us who finished all within 37.1 and 38.1. One misstep in this tough group… I have never finished in front of Donald Stewart before, ever, he says according to his most recent x-rays his foot is “still quite broken, and only hurts in the starts and turns, but it hurts a lot!”

On Sunday, I iced the cake with a 1000m personal best, 1:15.08. Ya’know the feeling when you have a hammer or a tool with a handle that just fits so perfectly into your palm, heft is pleasure? I felt that “sweet spot” on my blades this whole weekend, especially in the straightaway, and I have built that feeling, that handle on my blades, simply through hard work, it’s a nice feeling. Here is a sweet spot moment 250 meters into my 1k PB. It’s really difficult technically to drive that support leg forward aggressively and also keep the pushing leg’s blade pointed straight down the ice, but I am slowly and surely getting it.

I don’t hope for a miracle during Olympic trials, just to be the best Andrew I can be, that will feel miraculous enough…

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Filed under: sweat, from home

Speedskater International -Russia

Russian skater Daria sent me these cool pics from Chelyabinsk in the 2nd installment of the Speedskater International Photos (more installments later this week!).

This is the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the president of Kazakstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, hanging out with skaters at the opening day of the new oval in Chelyabinsk. Very Cool! The funny thing about this pic, is that I have met the skater in the yellow/black/red skinsuit, Lena Rudina. I am not surprised Putin is appreciative of small sports, did you know he has a 6th degree black belt in Judo? See if you can spot Daria’s smile in this photo….

Here is everyone gathering for the first laps on the new Oval. It looks like you have former Olympians/celebrities in old classic skates in their blue, then you have the “current practicing athletes” in the latest equipment in the middle, and one lady in figure skates in the very back!! Oh, and notice something else about this pic, that is markedly different from any long track in the USA, the STANDS ARE FULL!

This looks like the opening lap, wow, look at all the honorary skaters in blue in the front. Boris said to me that a lot of Russian rinks have solid ice in the center (like Roseville Minnesota does), or at least a place where you can do circle drills on your long track skates. It looks like this rink has one. Also a unique thing about all long tracks facilities are the interior roofs, it presents designers with a chance to do something cool, as they are so big. Every one is radically different.

Here is a photo of Sergey Kornilov going really fast during the Russian National Championship. An outstanding photo of a very fast friend. This photo even “feels” fast.

Again, skaters send me your pics!! Email to: spdsk88er (at) yahoo (dot) com

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Filed under: from home

Posted on 09 Dec 03:57 pm

Fear, Failure, & RODNEY!!!

Walking away from the ice today, after a good race-prep workout, that 18 wheeler of reality suddenly blindsided me. Olympic trials are 18 DAYS AWAY!! I race both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, but trials is all I could think about.

I feel great on my skates, this Wednesday I skated my fastest lap ever (a 26.29, for you skate geeks), yet thinking about trials, fear hit my stomach like a thousand butterflies flying fighter jets through my gastrointestinal tract. I thought about failure, failure in front of my wife, mother, father, brother, best friends, coach, in-laws, and some dear friends of the family flying thousands of miles to cheer me on!

Failure at what I have focused much of my life on, and sacrificed so much for, over the last 4 years. All of this started on January 5th, 2002, what was I thinking in the pic below, flailing down the ice in my first 500m race ever in Lake Placid, that sent me down this path..

I could make a tiny split second mistake in one of my 500m races during trials, and that could send me crashing into a wall, or, almost worse, just skate a crummy time as nerves torpedo my technique. It happened in my first 500m at nationals last year, and the year before that too!

There is no answer to this fear, other than to dredge up a quote from skating mythology:

Dan Jansen’s Father once said to his young son, who was angry about not winning a race:

“Dan, there is more to life than skating around in a circle”.

He is right, I keep reminding myself, it’s the path, it’s the friends, it’s the experience, it’s what I see in the mirror each morning…. Well, its what I see in the mirror after a cup of coffee has opened my eyes, before that I am a sleepy, blind, stumbling mole.

When I talk about these things here, I am trying to convince myself they are true, argue with that hyper-competitive part of myself vs myself that simply wants to #!@$#!@!! win, no matter how unrealistic.

And what is winning anyway? Would someone explain this to the butterflies tearing around my stomach!

On a much happier & less stressed note, a fellow who has sacrificed a lot too, Rodney Kopish, finally qualified for Olympic trials after being frustratingly close all year. Check out his update on his website, and also, he put together a fantastic quicktime movie that rings a bell of truth as to what this experience is like.

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Filed under: from home

Speedskaters International

I know I say it a lot, but I started this blog for family, friends, and to help myself think actively about the life I lead. Somehow as I was blogging for this small audience, the world showed up on my doorstep!

In November there were 1514 unique visitors to this site, making a total of 4,180 visits! an average of 139 a day. But here is the thing that really blows my socks off, there were significant numbers of visitors from 25 different countries! Mostly the skating nations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. I just can’t quite wrap my mind around the fact that there are people on the other side of the planet reading this.

A couple of them have emailed/contacted me, and I have gotten to know a few. Some have sent me pictures of skating in other places, and those images deserve to be posted here.

Franklin is a South African living in Norway, he skates both ice and inline, and runs a blog in both Norwegian/English. He is a really nice guy. He links to fun stuff like the AK skate videos (I LOVE the South Bank Skate, wow) Franklin sent me the image below of natural ice Skating in Norway.

I have spent my share of time on lakes and rivers, skating natural ice, (I even raced a 100k once! Oucharama!!) but this astonishing pic makes part of me want to trade my aerodynamic skinsuit & performance oriented skates for a pair of warm boots, thick jacket, and endless straight-aways full of incredible scenery.

Latazza is a Russian who skates in their brand new covered oval in Chelyabinsk. She sent me this picture of it.
I think she is pretty young, but one can’t tell over email. The funny thing is, you can see several top Russian skaters in their blue & red team jackets lacing up here. I bet I have met a few of them at Boris’s house.

The important thing is this; skating is a worldwide sport that has as diverse a following & practice as one can imagine, but we are all still skaters, and have more in common than we think.

It does not matter if the 400m long track thing is your obsession, or a short-tracker defying g-forces, an indoor inliner rumbling across the hardwood, a canal/lake skater thoughtfully amassing the kilometers, or a marathon inliner whirring past the miles/kms on bike paths or quiet roads, skaters are a funky family, and I am glad so many have shown up here.

Although I personally have had to specialize in the ice 500/1000m in the last few years, I have enjoyed every kind of skating there is, and its all good fun.

P.S. any other pictures out there from the wandering tribe and the places you skate?

International or North American, feel free to email them to me: spdsk88er (at) yahoo.com -when I get another handful I will post them.

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Filed under: from home