<- Left Turns Only!

While I take a break from speed skating for the next month, and look forward to the Yankees next championship season opening up in two weeks (that’s right, they’re bringing the title back to where it belongs), the next few days will be clouded with the likes of ”bracket busters”, “cinderellas”, “office pools” — that’s right, the NCAA Tournament is here!!!

As a Temple University graduate, I’m proud to see that my school is back in the Tourney!  After winning the Atlantic 10 Championship, the Owls enter the tourney with a seven game winning streak and they’re poised to take down Michigan State (and believe me, watching anyone beat a Big Ten school is music to my ears…)  I understand that I live in the heart of it, but one can only listen to Big Ten babble so much… 

Below are two good articles about the tournament.  Dan Wetzel is one of the better writers for Yahoo! Sports (in my opinion).  He’s rarely biased and usually gets creative with his writing.  First article, talks about ”The Boss Button” - I have to find this thing!!!  The second article hits on a topic that should be screamed out loud during every game of the tournament… college players that leave school with no education, and no hope for a job if they don’t make it in the pros.  The TV stations get rich, the schools get rich, the coaches get rich… the players - well, hope you make it kid.  The NCAA preaches about student-athletes, yet very few graduate with an education.

The Boss Button

Hypocrisy 101

My predictions:

Final Four: Kansas, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA

Championship:  Kansas beats UCLA 

Go Temple!!!

Well, now that the season is over I can reflect on what I did right, what I did wrong and what needs to be changed heading into next season.  There was a definite lesson learned with respect to summer training and the importance of speed skating specific dryland training (versus the combination of biking/running).  Granted, the change in my summer training last year was brought on by an injury, still, it made me realize what the proper training does for one’s season.  As I suffered in several of the 1500, 3000 and 5000 races that I had this season.  And it wasn’t a struggle because I was breathing heavy, or becuase I was not in shape so to speak.  It was because my legs weren’t in shape for speed skating, and they didn’t want to finish the race… it’s a bad feeling when you don’t think your legs are going to hold you up anymore… and you have a few hundred meters to the finish line.  A bad feeling.

Anyway, this last meet was a success in that I ened the season with three personal bests, missed a fourth by .8 seconds, and missed a fifth best when my legs collapsed and I went sliding into the mats with 100m to go in my 1500 (it was looking like a pb by about 3 seconds according one of the guys I practice with).  I did get to reskate it, and finished with a season best, but reskating the 1500 is not a good idea… I learned that the hard way.  The times are not where I want them to be right now, not too ecstatic about that.  The upside is that one month ago I honestly didn’t think I was going to match my times in Calgary from last season…. my legs just felt that bad.  But with a good hard month of training, and a few pointers, I was able to lower my times to the point where I feel like I can at least take something positive from this season into next season. 

 Now, time to take a month off… and to stop giving all my money to those crooks at Mobil.  A couple of weeks to veg, couple of weeks to plan.  Then, to string together 11 months that are just as productive as the last one… next year the results will be there.

American Cup Times:

500M #1 - 43.16, 1500M - 2:13:14

500M #2 - 43.07, 5000M - 8:17:09

1000M - 1:24:96

Well, the end is near for this season. Not a moment too soon. The environment in my office has started to take time away from working out. Luckily, it’s only been this way for the last two weeks when I’ve been tapering as I prepped for this weekend’s competition. It’d be one thing if I actually felt like my boss supported my efforts, but I know he doesn’t care - make money, make money, make money…

The goals for this meet are pretty simple - end the season with four personal best times. We’ll see how it all goes. Will try to get a post up after the first couple of events, but it won’t be until late Friday or Saturday.

In other news, how about that Eliot Spitzer? Nothing like being the high and mighty one day, then at the bottom of the barrel the next…

Last week an old roommate forwarded me a link to a great article about Dallas Robinson, a sprinter and Olympic hopeful. 

This is the type of story that makes the sports world so great. People that compete because they love sport.  Because they want to do their best.  Because they want to do what others may tell them is unrealistic, not possible.  Most of these stories won’t end with gold medals, or world championships, or glorious victories… heck, I might be one of them.  Some might call that a failure, or a waste of time.  Those folks just don’t get it. 

To the person on the journey — the people they meet, the places they go, and the experiences they gain along the way — it all makes it worth every second. 

Every workout.  Every race.  Every drop of sweat.  Every setback.  Every sacrifice.  All makes you realize what hard work is, and how you define success for yourself… which is more important than how someone else defines success for you.  With that said, here is the article:

Great Set of Wheels for Olympic Hopeful 

Last weekend, short track nationals were held at the Pettit Center.  I got a couple of workouts in on the long track, before spending most of the afternoon (both days) sitting in the stands watching.  There were some great races, which goes without saying as short track is a world of chaos.  There were also some horrific crashes… again, short track = world of chaos.

I read this on a packet of oatmeal this morning:

Question: In the U.S., how much is spent on golf balls each year?

Answer: $630 Million

That is a lot of bad golf! 

 To illustrate I did some simple math… I took the cost of a decent pack of golf balls, bought online and figured out how much $630M gets you.  There are probably a lot of variables that you can add to the equation (types of ball, used/range balls, balls bought at a country club, etc.).  Hence, I’m calling this simple math using the one brand/ball.  Anyway, you can get 36 Pinnacle Gold golf balls for $22 online at a golf ball specific website (they don’t sponsor me so I’m not mentioning the site).    

At that price, $630 million would buy a total of 1,030,909,090 golf balls.  One billion golf balls!!!!  I don’t even want to imagine the size of the cumulative crater that all those hackers have collectively made…. and that’s just in the U.S.

The end is near, and not a moment too soon. It’s been a long season, and I really cannot express how much I’m looking forward to the end. April 1st is going to be like a second “New Years Day” for me. After two weeks of doing nothing, following the American Cup Final in Salt Lake City next weekend, it’ll be nice to sit down and plan out the new season. If I could fast forward and just get to that point, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Becuase this season has just been a mess… and my mind is turning to mush.

It sucks to go into a race feeling like you are not ready, but I haven’t been “ready” all year. From the first day of summer dryland, I’ve been behind. And now it’s just too late in the season to try to play catch up. Even though I’ve been getting the ice time in, and I’ve put up personal bests (for my Milwaukee times), I’m still not quite where I want to be. It’ll be nice to start off on the right foot come April, and to avoid any injuries. It’ll be nice to get the proper summer workouts in, instead of trying to substitute running for workouts - because my knee won’t let me squat. If nothing else, it definitely has been a learning experience.

As a speedskater, you always hear how important summer dryland workouts are. I think that I’ve taken them for granted the last few seasons, because I’ve done the workouts. I’ve been out sweating and panting in the hot, humid July and August weather. Doing the low walk sets, sprints, and hill workouts. Endured the days where you go through several t-shirts because the humidity is so high that you are drenched after warm-ups. You don’t realize just how much those workouts will translate into better strength, endurance… AND SPEED when you are on the ice in January, February, March… That is, not until you haven’t done them for a summer, and then you feel your legs fall apart in a 3000M race after 4 laps.

So, here is to the final meet of the season. The fast ice of SLC. The opportunity to finish an aggravating season on a high note. 4 races. 4 times. Then - two weeks to veg, before planning next season. Planning to finish on a much higher note.