Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Are you a role model for your kid? Absolutely. They mimic your expressions, tone, & communication styles constantly. If you smile while eating breakfast, it’s likely they will too. If you talk to them, and play on the beach, they will talk back, and maybe love the ocean like you do.

They are absolutely their own person/personality, but they are figuring it all out, based on what surrounds them.

This I expected.

But what I have been most surprised by, is how much my daughter is teaching me. RZ is teaching me about a whole range of emotions, levels of effort, “true strength” & selflessness that I did not know I had within myself. I am a better man because of her, and I think I grasp some things about this world better, because of her.

It’s a wild ride.

She wants to grab my keyboard right now, she is talking that baby talk string of vowels at me.. BaBaBaDoDeeDaDaDa. I can’t write. Jess is sleeping and the baby is wriggling.

Oh, I am in Puerto Rico right now, my brother is getting married this sunday to an amazing lady who has a lot of family on the island. Like Puerto Rico itself, Esther is American, but then with some other amazing identity entirely her own blended in, it’s a fascinating place.

Ocean, family, good times. RZ, lets keep teaching each other through all the swells & waves, Ok?

I thought I would do some dryland this week, just easy stuff… the Utah oval opens in two weeks, but it’s just not happening.

Oh well, hand me another cerveza to wash down my mofongo..

RZ, can you teach me to be ok with that too?

2 Comments »
Filed under: on the road

The revolving planets of life, work & childcare finally aligned and I am finally back on the ice & skating short track on my battered pair of SS Boots I call the “disco snails”.

They are the boots in my header image above. Short or long track, they just put my foot into the right spot..

When you are away from speedskating, you wonder, exactly what is it that you miss? The brutal training? the people you bond with going though it?

These national team folks are working insanely hard doing explosive lateral hops, the black vests you see them wearing are full of lead weights. Ouch.

Or do we like speedskating because it’s an escape from “normal” life into something so wonderfully abnormal?

Or is it the simple feeling that skating is. That feeling of flight. That sensation that is just so different than a bicycle, or skiing, or running.

It’s so much harder to attain, so fleeting and so incredibly right when you just nail it. Caleb Eaton is the skater here.

I am far, far, from nailing it. Summer training makes you tough as nails, and patiently working on technique and psychological preparation is the carefully crafted hammer.

Race day is when you swing and drive that sucker through the board with one fantastic WHACK.

After a summer of just lifting and bike racing, my body is pleasantly shocked by the stress of short track. Although I need to become a “skater” athletically again, I felt at home from the moment I stepped onto the ice. National team member Pat Meek was coaching the evening session, and I asked him “how do I look”.

He smiled and said, “Well Andrew, I can tell you have been lifting, because I can see the power in the stroke, you just need to figure out exactly what to do with it”.

Sigh, the story of my life.

Pat is looking crazy fit, and under the stress of summer trainng, his legs have become ridiculously huge even by my warped standards. He has quite the tan line going too.

Here is my first fun poll of the year, pick as many answers as you want.

Have suggestions for more terms? leave them in a comment, and I will add them.

2 Comments »
Filed under: from home

For both short track & long track, my blades are 17.5 inches long, and 1mm thick,

Measured on a flat surface, depending on the blend, both blades have only 50 to 70mm touching ice at any one time. They probably do sink into the ice a bit during a hard push, but still, the “balance point” is under 3 inches, and can be as little as 2.

All your weight, on one leg, projected thought that tiny spot, at high speeds.

It’s amazing we can even skate at all.. And it is why the balance & proprioceptive skills needed for ice speedskating are so demanding, and a true mind-warper to try and perfect.

Inlines are, of course, different.

It’s hard to measure these 4 contact points, as they are squishy urethane. But inline has it’s own unique challenges, and although not nearly as precise technically as ice, it’s still brutal when you try to excel, to be your best.

At once point I thought the balance point of a solid ice speedskating stroke was the hardest balance to achieve. Then I became a dad, now I am balancing:

• Fatherhood
• Being at least a passable husband.
• Work Work Work! Blogging about work is never smart. But I just wrote my own job title & description at work & things are thriving.
• Trying to still be an athlete of some sort.
• Blogging/Writing/Thinking

This must be the hardest balancing act for a person. I am sure the competitively minded are challenged by this balancing act frequently. Honestly the first thing to go has been blogging, then training takes a hit.

Although I need to stay at least physically active enough to keep what Winston Churchill called the “black dogs of depression” at bay.

Sometimes they bite at my heels, and that gets me out the door to the gym, or on the bike to turn the day around. Maybe I should thank them, they are an impulse, and can be fed, can become almost tamed. I rode them like a horse to all sorts of facinating places.

But it’s damm difficult to balance. I love my life right now but I have no time.

Time… Time… Olympic trials are 5 months from today.

Balance—- Balance—-

4 Comments »
Filed under: from the coffee shop

This is my 3rd time riding and writing about this 100+ mile ride. My first year I rode my brothers rusty Bianchi & had a blast, last year I had a flat very early in the ride, and had a hubris filled day..

This year I wanted to have a different experience. I wanted to see how fast I could ride the distance. But life has been challenging recently, and this koan came into my head as I spun to the start through cool 7am air.

You must learn how to ride, to learn how to ride.

There are so many ways to wrap the mind around this, and as several thousand people clipped into their bikes like a thousand single hands clapping, it made sense. How to ride? How many ways of knowing riding multiply into each other?

Low angle sun, cool, still air. Shadows & humming gears. I love these big organized group rides.

A mass century is not a competitive event. It’s not a race. But in a group this size, there are always people who want to ride the distance as hard & fast as they can. That infers a certain amount of drive & weight to the pack.

I wanted to be a part of that drive. To reach as far & hard as I can to see if I will crack. I call this fun.

My father has ridden so many organized centuries; I wanted to make him proud that his son can ride a fast one. I want to take that competitive part of me, and batter it into happy submission.

The front pack of several hundred was clipping along nicely at 25-27 mph in absolutely perfect conditions. No one fighting for position, just solid fast riding in the shadows of the Wasatch

I encounter a co-worker of mine in the lead pack. “R” has lost over 120 lbs and gone from 35% body fat to now about 13%. He is smiling and spinning the big ring. I admire his effort and accomplishment tremendously. He works harder than most Olympic hopeful speedskaters I know.

The miles clip on by. 40 miles seemed like a warmup. The first year I did this, I wrote that the pack reminded me of fish. I wish I had seen these jerseys then. This is a custom bike builder in Salt Lake. Fishlipz,

But the weird jersey, shorts, and logo winner has to be the DZ-Nuts folks. This is a saddle sore cream.

Some people peel off at the rest areas to eat. I munch an apple from my jersey pocket & keep riding. Maybe 100 people are still zipping along at 25mph most of the time, surging to 27-28 at times. I used to be a speedskater who raced bikes occasionally, but in the last 2 years, I seem to have turned myself into a cyclist who speedskates occasionally. I feel at home on the bike now.

We come to the Antelope Island Causeway. It’s an absolutely gorgeous, awe-inspiring place that if you ride across it, you will never forget.

This image does not do proper justice.

However, the Great Salt Lake does stink in places, this is one of them.

A breeze picks up from the fetid waters, echelons form, and people start riding very intensely. 27-29. 30, 31, back to 27. This is what is called fun? During my turn at the front I do 38 pedal strokes, one for each year of my life. I can be weird like that.

Near the Island itself. There seems to be pillars of faint smoke rising from the waters. No wait!! Those are not pillars. Those smoky tubes are millions of FLIES.

We ride right through several, people start yelling, “look down!” “close your mouth & breathe through your nose” “Yummy!”

Looking at the pavement, I see this living snowstorm pouring all around me. I am being pelted by millions of tiny bits of life, My arm hair is full of squirming bugs. One richochets around between my eyeball & glasses.

Gross.

We exit the causeway and hit the rolling hills of antelope island 75 strong & leave the flies behind. I follow several who are in a mood to big-ring the uphill rollers. This is not a race, it’s just how we roll, & it’s a good pace.

Leaning through turns, popping across the rollers, speed builds on speed. Dropping off the backside of the island onto the causeway again, there are only 7 of us left.

Sharing the work, we fly along. Spinning big gears. At my turns at the front, I take pedal strokes equal to how many years I want to live. 80, then 90. over and over.

We see big packs starting up the hills we are leaving.

No time to ask someone to take a picture of me. We are going way too fast. But this self-portrait is accurate to this moment. Not big pain, but using all the oxygen I can suck in. (and rocking my fat cyclist jersey ,the Jersey has a Clydesdale on it. Clydesdales are traditionally 200+ lb riders. I am seeing about 198 on the scale these days, do I still qualify? Maybe only after a big breakfast.).

There is a major rest stop 67 miles in. This is the one with the best food. Someone says we have been averaging 24.1 mph so far. 4 turn into get some food. 2 keep riding and urge me to come along. I hesitate.. Then U-turn back for some food.

Riders from many of the distances are collecting here. Bikes are everwhere.

I inhale oranges, bananas, stuff food in my pockets, refill bottles, This is the only break I take all day, and it’s less than 10 minutes.

Back on the bike. I am alone. Still able to turn a big gear, all my body knows how to do is go hard. I ride alone for 10 miles, before hooking up with one of the original 7, a nice fellow by the name of Mike

Going the other way, on a shorter route, I see an inline speedskater whipping out a pro-level double push (It’s Josh Wood). As I whip by, I see all sorts of faces I know in a blur of bikes. There are the Speed skaters out for a training day. I miss my friends.

Around mile 85 Mike and I are caught by 3 more of the original 7. Two of them are stupid strong. How about “WRONGSTRONG”.

The pace is now a steady 27mph. I pull when I can, but 3 of us are just passengers. Wrongstrong in action.

The miles zip by. Mike is dropped. My mind fixes on a gold ceramic bearing in a fat Cervelo, bottom bracket glintings in the sun in front of me. Metallic red rear derailleur cable housing.

Gears, driving legs. I am just starting at wheels. Suddenly it’s a hot day.

One of the Wrongstrongers says “hey those pills, this morning, they don’t do SHIT” really? Hmmmm… Probably they are just talking about electrolye replacements. These are talented guys though. No matter the pharmacology.

I hit a deep pothole and my right quadricep goes into spasm. Don’t get dropped… not… Now… no..

The last few miles, we travel faster than the first few of the ride.. Blur.. effort… Blur…

We dive through afternoon traffic, and suddenly its over. Pulling into the finish. Two guys who have computers start discussing the stats for the ride. 105 miles, 23.9 mph average, 4:39 time.

Wow… that is the fastest I have ever ridden for the longest. I’ve ridden farther, but never at this kind of speed.

Aftewards, I take advantage of the post-ride creamsicles and massage. Being one of the first to return has its advantages. As I am leaving I run into the speedskaters I saw earlier. Heather Richardson, Josh Wood, Derek Parra, Ryan Bedford. Chad Hedrick. Chad is a new dad as well, his daughter is 7 weeks old, and he is happy as a clam.

Life is good. I get a text message from jess. “Lunch with the Kraans, be there”. I earned my chocolate Éclair today.

You must learn how to ride, to learn how to ride.

So many layers to this idea, and like most Koans, the answer is not something you can explain, but after a long, fast ride, your intution tells you that you somehow understand it deeply.

7 Comments »
Filed under: from the coffee shop

Finding an unpublished image of Eric Heiden is quite unusual, as he retired 28 years ago.

Even more unusual is this is Eric in one of his very last speedskating competitions. This is the world Allaround Championships 2 weeks after the Olympic games in Lake Placid. I love the outdoor rink with the crowds sitting right on the ice

I send a huge thanks to Dutch Photographer Peter Van Balen for this image.

The more I know this sport, the more I am amazed at what Eric’s career was like. He was like a runner who essentially won everything from the 100m dash to the 10k. Amazing.

The fascinating thing about this photo, is that this was a day that Eric did not win. And there is another bit of information just became public recently, about how the Dutchman responsible for refrigerating the rink cheated, turning off the refrigeration, and as the ice got softer & softer, it slowed Eric down. He was 2nd overall in the allarounds, by a small margin.

Here is what Peter says about that day, and the picture.

Looking back the picture must have been taking at Heiden’s LAST world championship; also in Heerenveen, but in 1980. (in 1977 he skated in blue and I didn’t have a telezoom for my camera yet).

He was second, about the only time he was beaten; however, this was apparently not just due to his post-Olympics busy weeks (the WC were only 2 weeks later) and his lesser motivation (according to himself), but also, not known to him as far as I know, to the fact that the guy responsible for the (ice) rink maintenance decided (he admitted later) to change the ice preparation schedule on the last distance (10k), thus benefiting the later (Dutch) winner, Hilbert van der Duim.

-Peter

4 Comments »
Filed under: from home