<- Left Turns Only!

No big news on the season so far.  Still in early stages of my season, pretty much hitting the ice for practice time.  First time trial of the season is a little more than two weeks away now.  I will most likely be skating a 500M / 1500M combination that day.  Although they’ve had some strange race/distance pairings at the Pettit recently (requiring you to do certain distances, as opposed to choosing the two races that you want to skate that day).  I believe it was last weekend that they only allowed people to do a 500M / 3000M combo….. I suppose I will have to see what they allow on December 6th.

Until then, it looks like I’ll probably get two more short track workouts in, as we have no short track ice time next week and go to Thursday nights only in December.  However, the long track is open, with less short track time on the schedule I’ll be able to get up there for more long track workouts.  Hoping to get up there at least 8 times in the next two weeks.  Add in a couple days at the gym, and any sprint work that I can get in, and you can see that it’s starting to ramp up… thankfully, gas costs are coming down. 

We are back at.  The new season started on May 1st, and workouts are under way.  Thursday and Saturday we did our workouts at the Pettit Center.  This early on it’s about building our conditioning.  Then, in the weeks ahead, we work on strength, speed and technique.  For now, our the two workouts were very similar:

4 x 60 meter sprints, followed by 26 min run (the run was at a mild tempo, with 1 min faster tempo runs at the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th minute).  We repeated that set - sprints, run - then finished with one more set of 4 x 60 sprints.

Saturday, it was the same workout, except after the sprints we added two sets of continuous broad jumps.  The first set was 30 seconds, next set was 45 seconds.  So, the workout went - sprints, jumps, run, sprints, jumps, run, sprints, jumps.

Between each set we would take time to stretch, get water and recover.

I felt alright Friday, some leg soreness and some good ab/lower back soreness Sunday from the jump routine.  Was pretty sedate during the month off.  I was trying to get as far ahead as I could at work (which doesn’t seem to happen) and set up my schedule to keep my mind on training hard this season. 

To that extent, I’ve sold almost all of my Cubs tickets for the season - should keep the distractions at a minimum… being around Wrigley during the summer turns into a giant, two-day, distraction.  The second day is usually required to recover from the game… but I’m not sure if it’s the pain of watching them lose or the beer that eases the pain that makes the recovery necessary.  Anyway, had to sell the tickets even though they might actually be good this year, but then again, they are the Cubs.  :)

Got an hour long spin in to get the blood flowing on Sunday.

  In the truly important baseball news, the Yanks have started to wakeup finally.  Although Posada and ARod are on the disable list, a three game sweep of the Mariners seems to have the offense coming to life a bit.  This series against Cleveland should be interesting.  There are some good pitching matchups in all three games.  With a record of 17-16 they are 2 1/2 games ahead of last season’s abyssmal 13-15 start.   And by the end of this month they were 22-29, so they’d have to go 5-13 to be in the same situation.  Hopefully, the warm weather brings out the bats the same way it did last year.  The pitching will be interesting all season long.  Mussina has looked good - hopefully he keeps it together.  Rasner could be a pleasant surprise.  We’ll see if they’re able to get anything out of Igawa (now that he’s been called up to replace Kennedy).  Disappointing start for Ike and Hughes, but they’ll be back… I have no doubts about that.

 Yes, you read that right.  Time to turn over a new leaf.

After 16 years of school, work, and weekends - where in most cases I did not have to be out of bed before 8am… it is time for a change.  

In college I quickly learned 8:30 and 9:30am classes on M/W/F, or 8:40 on T/Th, were not something I had a great desire to attend.  I think my professors learned that too.  You could say that I sometimes spent a little too much time hanging out with friends or roommates into the wee hours of the night (or early morning hours, depending on how you see it).  For the most part, after graduation, the past ten years in Chicago have included a lot of commuting to work.  I prefer to live in the city, but as things have played out, the office has been in Schaumburg or Lake Forest.  Luckily, both jobs let me wait out traffic, and stroll… ahem, report into the office after 9am.  The current routine gets me here more like 10:30 or 11, on a good day.

I’ve been paying the price for it at the rink over the past few years.  How can I put this…. to say that I’m a regular at 7am warm-ups would mean you’d probably have to call everyone else a warm-up addict.  That is going to have to change… the clock is ticking, I’m not getting any younger (so help me if one of you smart asses comments on that) and Olympic trial qualifying times aren’t getting any slower.

The change is in progress.  Today was actually day two of the new routine.  Out of bed, into the gym and done with my workout by 9:30.  We’ll see how it goes… still in easy workout mode.  Physical therapy exercise routine, light weight lifting and a quick spin this morning.  One more week of easy stuff, then slowly start to build the intensity, without group workouts starting on May 1.

 If you haven’t been paying attention, baseball season is under way!  The Baltimore Orioles are in the lead in the AL East.  Mark it on your calendars O’s fans… it ain’t gonna last.  The vaunted Red Sox (3-4) are in the cellar, but leading the lowly Detroit Tigers (0-6) today, 5-0 in the 8th inning.  While the Yanks (4-3) are battling the - again, get out that calendar - first place Kansas City Royals.  To think that the Tigers could be 0-9 at the end of this series… that’s gotta hurt.  We’ll see how The Captain bounces back from the strained quad he suffered last night. 

Over in the NL, the Cubs have bounced back from a shaky first two games (although almost losing, while blowing a 7 run lead yesterday was less than inspiring).  We’ll see if the Cubs fans are once again saying “Next year is the year”… well, I don’t actually think they say that anymore, after 100 years of… being the Cubs.  Keep your fingers crossed, I want playoff (hysteria) tickets. 

Finally, if you’ve got five minutes more to kill… check this link out, pretty amazing.

Although our season training doesn’t officially start until May 1st, today I started my own “spring training” so to speak. Although, it’s the bare minimum… and probably barely qualifies as working out (compared to what we build up to by summer’s end).

I worked on some stretching and flexibility stuff this morning at the gym, also did the strength exercises that I was doing while I was going to physical therapy in Oct & Nov last season. I finished with a very light core and upper body routine (two areas I neglected last season while I tried to keep my knee from barking at me too much) and a slow 2 mile jog on the treadmill. Overall, enough to break a small sweat without doing much leg work.

The biggest part of my prep work for next season is going to be in the change in my eating habits - and the need to follow a more strict, healthier diet this season. I will openly admit that I neglect this aspect more than anything, because for my entire life I’ve never had an issue with food or gaining weight. I also tend to forget to hydrate and drink enough throughout the day. So I stocked the shelves in my office this afternoon, and overloaded the refrigerator in the break room with fruits and vegetables. I’ve been telling everyone in the office that I’m going on a two week “detox”… especially after I’ve eaten pretty much everything in sight while we’ve been off the last two weeks. I won’t list the details, you don’t want to know. Let’s just say there was fast food, Ben and Jerry’s, and Oreos. We’ll leave it at that… now that I’ve gotten it out of my system, it’s time for the detox and to create a better routine going forward.

We’ll see how I manage to get through the first two “tests” - Blackhawks game tomorrow night, Brewers game on Saturday.

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…

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.

With only one meet left to go in the season, and with it being a month away, I pretty much only have workouts on the schedule between now and then.  The next two weeks are going to be a little intense, followed by a two week taper period before I head off to Salt Lake City (March 13-16) for the final American Cup races.  I’m still undecided about racing at Short Track Nationals this year, the weekend before heading to SLC.  While I did qualify, I don’t have much interest in racing short track.  And I’d rather not do anything too intense the week before heading to SLC. 

Last season I finished on a high note with 4 personal best races in Calgary.  I’m hoping to repeat that with this trip to SLC.  Thus far, I honestly would say that my season has been a disappointment, by my own standards and where I wanted things to be.  From the very first day of dryland, when I hyper-extended my knee and couldn’t squat for two weeks thereafter, things have been behind schedule on where I wanted to be.  And from a consistency point it’s been frustrating as well - even though I’ve continued to post personal bests, I don’t feel like I’ve had any one particular race where I’ve felt it was solid all around… whether it was a bad start, a bad turn entry, or my legs dying before the end of the race…  Anyway, the last two weeks I’ve gotten in a lot of good workouts.  Tomorrow thru Sunday I’ll be able to get a lot of good ice time in (hopefully they will have enough people to run time trials on Saturday).  So now it’s time to hammer it out and bring the times down as much as I can when I hit the fast ice in SLC.  We’ll see where the chips fall….

As for the blog expansion, I think I’m going to have to expand the commentary a little this spring/summer.  There’s only so much speedskating that you can talk about during the summer, since we aren’t on the ice that much.  Besides, reading about dryland workouts probably hurts as much as doing them.  So, you’ll probably see some more posts on general stuff, more pics, links, and of course updates on the last season at Yankee Stadium (specifically whatever pictures I can take when I’m there this summer).