<- Left Turns Only!

While this picture is not an exact representation of the last two weekends, it’s close enough. 

Ahhhhhh, the offseason is here and the weekend napping has commenced!

90 Miles - one trip from Chicago to Milwaukee, via I-94, and Rt. 41.  That’s the one way distance that I trek in order to skate Long Track at the Pettit Center during the season. 

 The road out of Chicago is not the most scenic drive, so don’t let that picture fool you (it was taken in Wisconsin).  About 15 minutes from my office at work, we hit the interesting part of the road…. Wisconsin!  The first sign - after the Welcome to Wisconsin sign (below left) you come across always makes me envision George Carlin asking something like: “If you were going to live in Wisconsin, where would you want to live?   I know where I’d live, in:  (below right)

 Pleasant Prairie….ahhhhh.

 Of course, as a speedskater you learn that the European countries really do love this sport.  And if you were hoping to add a little European flavor to the Pettit road trip you could always stop off at:

While we have a President over here in the U.S., they have Kings in Europe (well, they used to).  And where better to find a King, when near Little Europe, than at the:

Alright, I’m not sure the King is staying here.  I don’t think too many of his men are here either… but the horses might be down the street.  Here:

Now, maybe you’re not looking for a taste of (Little) Europe, maybe you have something more adventurous in mind, like a trip to Mars.  Well, you’ve come to the next best spot…. Wisconsin - here you can find the:

You might want to stop in, after all, they have a “Gallery of Art” - the sign is right there above the front door!  (Click on the image to get a larger view)  If Mars sounds to far, you could always travel down the road from Little Europe, to the:

Then again, you could always do both!!!  After you fill up on Cheese and Ribs, you may be in the mood for some recreational activity… then again you might be full.  So…. you could always kick back, relax and maybe have a smoke (if you do that sort of thing), here:

Or, would that be before you eat the Ribs and Cheese?  Oh well.  If that’s not your idea of recreation, they do have a place to go play with the dogs… well, sort of:

Gambling is a bad habit though.  You should save your money and go to school, at a place of higher learning, like:

If education doesn’t get you anywhere, you can always stop here to find a ride that will get you somewhere:

Eventually, you’re going to have to take the ride home… after skating a few laps of course.  Just try not to fall off your bike laughing at this sign (which could only be posted on the side of the road in Wisconsin):

I laugh every time that I see that sign.  Well, there it is, my scenic drive through Wisconsin - to and from the Pettit Center.  Hope you’ve enjoyed the ride…  we’re home (for now).      

What are the right words when you try to describe a difficult subject?  I never know.  Today, I received some horrifying news… someone that I talk to frequently during the course of doing my job, Katie MacDougall, was found murdered this past weekend.  I just found out today.  Katie was my contact for one of our accounts.  She was 23 years old, and pregnant.  The Worcester (MA) Police are holding her live-in boyfriend on charges of murder.  Apparently he strangled her last Friday night.  I never met Katie, but talked to her frequently, and she always sounded like she was smiling on the other end of the phone.  She made my job easier, and I appreciated that greatly.  There’s not much you can say about something like this, other than the obvious about it being a tragedy.  I can’t imagine what her family is going through right now. 

I don’t write about much on this blog, as it’s not a personal diary.  Mainly, I use it to share my speedskating training with family and friends that don’t live close by, or with those that ask about it enough that I felt a blog was a good idea.  However, this post was necessary - because even though I never met Katie, she had an impact on my life, and she will be missed.

(Edit - 3/12/07 - Up to date analysis and recent developments can be found here)

Below are two charts showing the results of my long track 500M and 1500M - race and time trial results, metric only, no pack results are included.

I’ve raced these distances the most over the three seasons that I’ve been racing long track.  Looking ahead to next season, I’d like to get my 500M time under 40 seconds, and drop the 1500M to a sub 2-minute finish.  But that’s next season… for now, I’m just looking forward to the official ”Offseason” to start in two weeks.   

This past weekend was the final American Cup meet, held at the Pettit Center in Milwaukee.  I signed up for the short allround competition - which consisted of 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000M races. 

The first day was like every other day that coupled a 500 and 1500 race this season.  I arrived at the rink just in time for races to start, got a few warm up laps in, and proceeded to treat my 500M race as a warm-up for the 1500.  It will be such a beautiful thing next season when I no longer live 90 miles from the rink and I can get out of bed and get to the rink in time to warm-up properly.  I digress…. I skated my 500 Saturday at what I thought was about half speed.  A less than stellar opening 100M, coasted around the backstretch, and cruised to the finish.  Anticipating a slow time, somewhere around 47 or 48, I was somewhat surprised to see a 45.32 when I crossed the line.

In the 1500M, I was hoping to keep lowering my Pettit personal best, and see if I could match my Calgary time of 2:08:72 (or be remotely close).  Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen.  Since there were a lot of skaters at this meet we were forced to skate some of the races in quads.  What that means is that one pair goes to the line and starts on the command.  Then about 15 seconds later they send another pair off the line.  If you are in the second pair, it becomes a problem if the first pair is slow, or if they fall.  Well, that’s what happened on Saturday.

After a good opening lap, I caught up to the guy in the opening pair in my lane.  Unfortunately I caught him just as we were entering the outer turn.  Not wanting to pass him on the outside, and go extra distance, I decided at the last minute I would just try to draft off of him until the backstretch and then pass him.  Well, that didn’t work either.  In order to get a draft I had to slow down considerably.  As I was putting on the brakes, he was just beginning to build some speed after getting up from his fall.  So the end result was that I killed all of my momentum and lost the draft, as he pulled away by a few meters and I completed a terrible outer turn.  I had to try to regain my speed in the straight away, and manage another outer turn at less than top speed.  The end result was that my legs were cashed by the time I made it to the final lap.  I’m not sure what my time was - since they only announce the first pair (the Pettit clock isn’t capable of timing quads so the second pair is done manually).  I’m sure it was no where near a 2:08, or 2:13 for that matter… so I’m not too worried about it.  The first lap and a half were solid, too bad the knucklehead in front of me didn’t think of other skaters and get the hell out of the way.  Some people don’t think…. what can you say… next time I’ll scream at him! 

Sunday, was the final day of the competition.  However, I decided to call it a season - as far as racing goes.  The combination of no rest the previous night, some left knee pain that’s been slowly building (remnants of chronic tendonitis I’d get playing basketball years ago), and general fatigue after three weekends of racing - all combined to lead to a needed day of complete rest.  So, for now I have a few short track practices remaining this season, the last of which we record our flying one lap times (next Thursday).  A good season, next season will be even better…

Here are a few pictures from my travels in Calgary… most of these were taken either on way to the Oval, or on my way back to the hotel.  I didn’t take as many pics as I would have liked to.  Mainly because my camera isn’t very good at taking action photos, and in part because I kept forgetting to take it out of my bag (what can I say, I was too focused on skating).  :)

For a good review of the event, visit my friend Andrew Love’s blog… he was all over the place with his camera.  He did a great job of putting together a summary of the event.  He currently has a post showing all of the jackets of the masters skaters, pretty cool.

Pic Notes - 1. Foot bridge over the highway, towards the Olympic Stadium, on my walk from the hotel to the Oval.  2- Olympic Stadium, site of Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the ‘88 Calgary Winter Olympic Games.  3- Olympic Stadium, just beyond the Mindr League Baseball Field (what? I see a baseball field, I take a picture….geez)  4 - Structure and Flame outside the Olympic Oval.  5 - Olympic Oval looking like a spaceship at sunset (not to Milwaukee organizers: on my way to the rink to race at SUNSET, not SUNRISE!).  6 - World Cup time trials, start of a women’s 500M.  7 - Joe McDonald (USA), oldest competitor at the games.  85 years old and going strong!!!