roadskater's blog

There's nothing so brilliant for me to say, except kudos to having a nice attitude and trying to make something good and fun out of a perhaps major mistake. It seems like 5 to 6 inches of ice would make a good start at a rink, and I vote for the Fire Department to come help smooth it out some. I have not been to the local outdoor ice rink but did drive by a few days ago on the way to something else. It seemed to be well attended by teens and such, who looked to be having fun.

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It's the helmet debate. I read this article to see if my thoughts might be changed. They were not. My thoughts are not based on numbers, but on my increasing belief over the years based on my experiences, mainly my failures if you'd like to think of them that way, but I think they were accidents far less under my control than I believed only seconds before, all in apparently very safe conditions. This doesn't make me right, but it makes me convinced. 

Shani Davis showed his speed at all distances this weekend as he won the all around for the U.S. Long Track National Championships in speed skating. In his first 10k (10,000-meter) in two years, he managed second place, seven seconds out. Davis had already won the 1500-meter. Davis hopes to give it a go in Calgary for the World Championships Allround too. But long distances are not easiest for him, he says:

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Here's a quick interview article with more from the mom than the skater and coach, taken from email and web material as well. Just like going to sit in the stands for a sporting event. You want to know what the athletes are thinking...not the former ones except for maybe the coach...but you hear the parents of course, coaching from the stands and discussing the logistics, because you're not an athlete down there but a spectator up here. Good reason to have an ipod or talk with the person beside you on stereo headset phone calls! :o)

Just in case you want another reason to keep on skating, consider Agatha Van Der Starre's 80th birthday celebration on ice. She did 80 laps with friends to celebrate 80 years. Like many who love various forms of skating, she came to it late in terms of joining the speedskating club. Being from Holland and then Canada, it'd be crazy to think she never skated, but it seems her speedskating started some time around 1980 in a serious way. She medaled at the British Columbia games a couple of years later, and fifteen years after that, still going strong...

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We've talked about the idea of bonk training before, and I don't claim to know a lot, but know I have done it. Often it was not "breakfast" time, but for various reasons it was still over 6 to 8 hours, sometimes more, since the previous meal. This might have been due to odd work hour schedules or preoccupation with all sorts of things, but sometimes I showed up at the park to skate in a fasted state. 

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While he might want to do a little more research on long track skaters from the Southeastern USA, I am glad to hear that Erik Ducker, 18, is getting ice time and work opportunities to keep him going as he trains to qualify for the USA long track speed skating team. I'd love to share some of that ice time, but I doubt that will happen! I'd need to get some ice speed skates and gasoline to get there of course!

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Get ready to cheer for the mouse that roars (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/) as Fränk Schleck and Andy Schleck plus former Saxo Bank riders (and others) will be joining them for a super team that looks pretty exciting. Other squads are looking strong, too, especially with some of the recent consolidation of major teams. 

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