<- Left Turns Only!

Yesterday morning they had time trials for World Cup skaters that are here to compete next weekend in the final WC event. They were held at 9am, before the Masters Competition resumed. I made my way over to the rink, not expecting to compete - as they are limiting the number of skaters for the 5k races, and I was one spot out of the cut off (so I thought). Well, as it turned out, I made the cutoff and was due to race the 5k later in the day. Thankfully, not until 7:40pm.

12-1/2 laps is a good amount of skating, let me tell you. Especially when you have been focusing your training on a race that is only 3-3/4 laps. Everything was running smooth for about 10 laps, then my thighs decided they were tired. The last two laps were a struggle, and not exactly a model of technical proficiency. Still, I finished in 8:16, which is not a super fast time, but it’s good enough to get a baseline for next year… when I plan to do more of these “fun” races.

Day 2 is over and we are now on the verge of Day 3 of the competition (starts in 1/2 hour). Yesterday we skated the 1500. I had an excellent race, with no glaring mistakes. I finished with a time of 2:08:72. That’s 5 seconds better than my personal best of 2:13:90 set last week in Milwaukee. Today is the last day of the competition for my age group, we skate the 5000 at 7:40pm. I’ve never skated a 5000, for that matter I’ve never even done a series of 12 consecutive laps in practice yet…. it should be interesting (and painful!). Keep your fingers crossed!

Day one, a very long day one, has finally ended here in Calgary. Actually, they may still be skating (it’s 9:54pm, I left the rink at 8:25 and they were still skating 3000M races). Racing started today at 1:00pm, which is the way it should be! None of this 8am stuff, like they do at every event in the U.S. Although, tomorrow I only have one race and it’s not until 7:40pm. I’m not sure how I feel about that… yet. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Cutting to the chase - because the Super 8’s internet connection is less than super - my results for today:

500M - 43.22 (previous personal best of 44.73 in Milwaukee)

3000M - 4:46 (previous personal best of 4:56 in Salt Lake City)

Tomorrow I skate the 1500M. I’ve taken a bunch of pics, but unfortunately left the camera cord at home, so I’ll be downloading and posting them once I get back to Chicago early next week.

After 2 days, 12 races, and a lot of skating at the Pettit National Ice Center, a day of rest is more than welcome today.  It was a lot of skating, and as I sit here thinking about it, I don’t recall ever having that many races in a two day span.

I went all out in my two metric races on Saturday morning (500M and 1500M), and as of today they are the only races I have my finish times for.  The West Allis Speed Skating Club’s website will be posting the results soon.

In the 500M race, I ended up skating a 45.17.  Not a personal best, but only .4 seconds off.  I tried to focus on staying relaxed and not rushing the push.  I have a tendency to rush in the 500, which takes away from being able to fully load on my push leg.  Well, in this particular race, I was so relaxed that about 3/4 of the way through the backstretch I found myself only swinging one arm.  Imagine if you will a sprinter running while only swinging one arm, while the other is placed so their hand is resting on their lower back.  Yeah…. not the way you’re supposed to sprint.  Guess I was a little too relaxed!

In the 1500M, I had a four second personal best.  Dropping my best time from a 2:17:90 to a 2:13:92.  I missed warm-ups before the races started on Saturday (as usual - can’t wait to move closer to the damn rink!).  Thus, like the rest of the season, I treated the 500 as if it were my warm up for the 1500.  After the 500, I did several warm-up laps to stay loose for the 1500.  I felt good and low in the warm-up laps, felt like I was getting good pressure throughout my stroke.  I was hoping to put up about a 2:15, which would give me a shot at a 2:10 in Calgary this week.  Well, after 3 3/4 laps, with only one bad slip, in the final 50M as I was exhausted and had little left in my legs when I finished, I crossed the line in 2:13:92.  A 3.98 second personal best!  Now, the focus moves to duplicating that effort on Friday in Calgary.

We’ll see how it goes… stay tuned.

As for the other 10 races this weekend (4 heats, 6 finals) - two words sum it up for me: Pack Racing.  To say that I mildly dislike pack racing would be like saying Britney Spears has a small need for attention.  I only had one person in my age group (30-34) we raced with the next age group as well (35-39).  I ended up winning 9 of 10 races against the one competitor in my age group.  On Sunday, I treated the last race (the 1500M super final) as though it were a cool down, not wanting to overdo it before the Calgary meet.  I’d be shocked if I finished in under 2:30.

I’m not here to voice my opinion on politics, I tend to think both sides are corrupt (and somewhat inept) but vote Republican nonetheless.  Anyway, I saw this bumper sticker while sitting at a red light on my way to work today.  Are the Republicans trying to bring down Harry Potter?  Or, are the Democrats going after the younger vote by brainwashing kids, by claiming Republicans would vote Voldemort into office?  I’m not sure… maybe it’s just that this poor guy has the same name as the dark lord from the Harry Potter movies.  Appropriate name for a politician.

This weekend is the Masters International Competition in Milwaukee.  It’s a two day competition, yet they have 8 races on the schedule.  We are scheduled to race metric distances of 500M and 1500M, along with six pack races - 300, 500, 800, 1000, 1500 and 3000.  I don’t recall how they fit all of this into two days last year.  I think they skipped the 300M pack races.  Either way, it will be a full two days of racing.

The Masters International Games will be held next week in Calgary.  I’m scheduled to fly out on Wednesday.  There are over 300 skaters registered for the event.  Canada, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Russia are where the majority of the athletes are from - along with the U.S.  The Masters skating group has been getting larger in recent years, and there seems to be a strong push for it to continue to grow.  I’ve been getting emails from my friend Andrew (he is the U.S. Representative to the International Masters Speed Skating Committee) about future events that the IMSSC is looking to put on the schedule.  Next year, they are hoping to have single distance championships, held during the week of the Olympic Oval Finale in Calgary, in addition to the regular the International Games that will be held in Berlin.  We’ll see how it goes.  Berlin sounds like a place to go do a little speed skating!   

After spending three days in Miami, at the Great EsSkate (http://www.skatemiami.com/), where the view was something like this:

I’ve returned to Chicago, to work, and the wonderful office view that I have today - of this:

Not exactly the same weather!

I know this much, there will definitely be more February trips to Miami in my future!

For now, back to the ice. No, not the ice that I’m going to have to scrape off of my windshield later… the icy smooth skating surfaces that you don’t find enough of when inline skating. Tonight it’s back to short track, weather permitting. If it’s still really bad out later I may opt for a workout here in the office on my slideboard and rowing machine, along with some dryland sets mixed in. Hopefully it’ll clear up soon.

Update - for those that were keeping up with my blog before I moved it over here from the Yahoo 360 page, our office version of “The Biggest Loser” is still going strong. After four weeks, my 10 co-workers, divided into two teams of five (red team and blue team), have lost a combined total of 75 lbs. Almost 8 lbs each!!! The leader has lost just over 5% of her starting weight, and three people are just tenths of a percentage point behind her! It’s fun to be the judge, do the weigh-ins, provide the motivation, and watch them compete.

The two pics below are from the 3000M race, a couple of weeks ago, during the American Cup meet that was held in Roseville, MN.  It was cold (really cold) but I felt a lot better about my choice of racing that weekend - since it was even a tad worse (with subzero windchills) two weeks later, during LT Nationals.

Sometimes you have to be able to see the improvements when you aren’t able to see the results.

Yesterday was just such a day - in my 500M race. The first 50M were the best part of the race. It all went downhill from there, or at least that is what I thought. I got off the line and was about 30M from the end of the straightaway when I had my first slip. I still haven’t found a groove in being able to transition from my opening sprint into a skating motion. I’ve focused on my first 30M of the start a bit in the last couple weeks, and it’s starting to feel a lot better (sans the spill I took in the 1500 two weeks ago!). Now, I need to work on transitioning from my initial burst, and run, into a skating motion so I’m ready to enter the turn.

Speaking of turns… after I slipped before entering the turn yesterday, I lost some momentum and entered the turn anxious. I was skating, but I know that I can skate through the turn faster. I know I have skated my turns faster in practice. That anxious, hurried feeling kept burning in my head throughout the race. It’s like you are trying to catch yourself. As if there is an imaginary version of you, skating just a few meters ahead… the “you” that didn’t slip. That has raced the a solid race to this point. I think that is the hardest part about the 500M, because a single slip can mean you are not going to get that next PB, and in your head you know that as soon as there’s a small bobble.

I chased the other me the whole race yesterday. Slipped on the backstretch. Slipped in the final outer turn. And slipped again in the final 100. Small slips, but ones where I knew I lost some momentum. lost some power. As I reached the line I was already beginning to feel the frustration of what I thought was going to be a race that landed somewhere in the high 46 second range. 46.8, 46.6… something about two seconds slower than I’ve been doing. Somehow, it ended up being a 45.21. Initially I was still aggravated about the time as I coasted for a lap. However, after a few moments to cool off, it dawned on me that I just raced a terrible race (at least it felt terrible compared to how I’ve been skating) and I was only .5 off of my PB. The only way I could describe it later, when asked how my race went, was to say “Well, it was a horrible race, but it was a good horrible!”

Redemption came an hour later in the 1500. I took two more seconds off of my Pettit PB, and .08 off the PB that I set in Salt Lake City. I finished in 2:17:90, and posted my fastest times for the last two laps. The goal now is to hit 2:15 in the Masters competition in two weeks, and then to go sub 2:13 at Calgary in three weeks.

Slowly getting FASTER!

Wednesday night further reinforced my desire to remain a long track skater. While I do enjoy short track practice (more specifically, practices where the ice isn’t overly crowded) it’s too chaotic when there are too many skaters on the ice - of varying levels of ability. An accident waiting to happen. The problem often lies in someone not paying attention, not listening to coaches’ instructions, or not being able to control themselves. That said, when half of the people on the ice are under 12 years old. It’s hard to tell the faster skaters to slow down when you only have an hour of practice time - especially the younger ones that want to let it rip.

Either way, Caleb Drew, our best short track skater - although he wants to be a long tracker (smart kid) - took a spill exiting a turn. He ended up crashing feet first into the boards - a dangerous proposition, I have a 5 stitch scar on my ankle as proof. We were in the midst of doing two person relays. I was building speed to get ready for Caleb to give me a relay push when he came around to finish his lap. When I last looked into the corner I saw a bunch of skaters in front of him, but figured he would pass them easily which meant we’d have open ice for the exchange.

Unfortunately, he never made it through the turn to pass everyone. I didn’t see what happened, and haven’t been able to talk to Caleb about it yet - as he was taken to the ER after leaving the ice. I have my own idea, but speculation isn’t going to solve anything or heal the fractured tibia that Caleb has. The one thing I do know, at 32 years old, my desire to skate short track, and risk serious injury, lessens by the day… especially since I enjoy long track skating soooo much more.

Which brings us to tomorrow… 500m and 1500m time trials on the slate. Sunday’s time trials have been canceled (not enough skaters) so I’m taking that as a rest day, and will make the trip to the Pettit to practice on Monday instead.

P.S. For those of you not in the Chicago area, in case you couldn’t guess, it is all Bears, all the time here. The media and fan noise is almost deafening. A shame that the Colts are going to beat them on Sunday… well, a shame if you’re a Bears fan.