Something in Common with Apolo

Liz called this past weekend from Salt Lake, very excited.  In practice, she'd done 9.9 and 9.7 second laps!  It's a thrill to share those plateaus she reaches as her training intensifies out there!!!

Meanwhile, back in New York, the plodding continues.  On the ice, there is one clear similarity between my skating and that of a great skater say, Apolo Ohno or Jordan Malone:  we all circle the track to the left.  Off ice, however, we really do have something in common: Stay Bent Frames, the world's greatest sharpening frame!  Mine (pictured) got delivered to me at practice the other night in Rochester by one of the designer/creators, Jerry Whitmer.  I can't say too much about this frame:  it is designed to align the same way every time, and it's swiveling clamps hold the speed skating blades in such a way as to hold the bend, and improve the sharpening effort. I was sold when I saw the early prototypes that Jerry and Marty Medina built.  I was absolutely hooked when teammate Craig Pielechowski (an excellent skater) started using them and discovered that he got a better edge. Don't take my word for it:  roam around any US meet where the top skaters are racing, and take a look at what they carry.  More and more of the really good skaters are using Left Turn Dynamic's Stay Bent Frame.  And now the secret is out....even some of us amateurs are using the Stay Bent to remove one more excuse for not getting to that next plateau.  Check out the web site at http://www.staybentframe.com and see for yourself!  As for the engraving, Jerry came up with this:  "Michael Looby -You Know, Liz's Dad"   Very cool, Jerry.  Thanks!  Oh yeah, don't call it a jig.  

Day 2, Short Track Junior Nationals, Bay City MI

As a father and as a fan (and having a ringside seat in the timer's box except when Liz skates) the first two days of Junior Nationals have been unforgettable.  On day one, while sharing timing duties with Saratoga friends Don Acker and Bill Ralston, it was a thrill to watch Katie Ralston of Saratoga break 01:43.500 in the 1000 meter time trials, to qualify for A group, while being torn up to see Liz miss the cut four the top sixteen by six thousandths of a second.  Day one was frustrating for Rochester skaters and also for two young  Salt Lake skaters I've been happy to befriend, Matt Ferguson and Andrea Dahnke.  Day two was a new day for Liz:  three races, three personal bests:  she went under 50 seconds for the first time in the 500 heat, and then beat her new best to win the A Final at 00:48.832.  What a great way to shake off the disappointment of day one!  But she was not done:  leading wire to wire in the 1000 meter heat, she met the A cutoff by nearly a second, scoring 01:42.736 (perspective:  she is consistently about twice as fast as her dad!!).  Meanwhile , strong performances from Mitch Connelly, Lily Swartz and Mikey Burdekin (who turned in the smoothest race I have ever seen from him) rounded out RSST the day.  Andrea and Lily were within thousandths of each other, while Matt's frustration continued with some falls and some bad luck that just defies explanation.  Matt has been a fine example of sportsmanship, however:  his frustration shows, but do does his class and determination.  Marty Medina noted that progress in speedskating tends to come in chunks, and that Liz was posting some times in the last couple of meets that demonstrate that. By the way the photo above is a copywrited photo taken in Minnesota this fall at American Cup I by Jerry Search, and is reproduced here with gratitude.  Anyone interested in a gallery of wonderful speedskating photo's should visit Jerry's site.

Ohio Invitational/American Cup II Nov. 1-2, 2008 at Cleveland Heights

There are certain advantages to being an older speedskater, such as when your times are converted to age groups, the group itself is small enough that on paper your performance looks decent.

The Ohio Invitational had all sorts of attractions as my third meet of the season.  First, it was run in tandem with American Cup II, which gave us our first chance to see our daughter Liz skate since she began training in Utah.  She had grown in confidence and skill, and looked stronger.  Injured in practice on Sunday, she nevertheless finished first in the B group, winning three of four events!!! 

Second, the meet presented my second chance to skate the event, and a chance to compare my effort with the prior effort last January.  Mixed bag...a couple times better, a couple worse, but a rollicking good time with a LOT of very good people.  What was clear, though, was that my ability to skate was much better, even if the times did not show it.  Cleveland Heights is a wonderful, wide rink.  For someone of my limited speed, that means moving to the outside really adds distance... oh well, maybe next year!  Tom Frank's crew runs a really smooth meet in Cleveland, and the officials were terrific....can't wait for next year.

Ohio also gave me my third meet of the year, and my third in three weeks (never bunched them like that before).  It was interesting, in a frustrating sort of way.  Apparently I packed a different skater for Cleveland than I had the weekend before for Rutland.  For reasons I could not absolutely define, my confidence and comfort on the ice was less, and the times were consistently worse than the prior week.  Perhaps a flu shot the day before the meet was a factor....perhaps I'd put pressure on myself because my daughter and her teammates were there...perhaps an equipment malfunction?????  I'd been experimenting....I'd moved my blades back a notch, and it had seemed to help during the Rochester and Rutland meets.  In the two weeks since, I had also realized that the old sharpening stone I'd inherited seemed to have seen better days...for my most recent practice, it took 90 minutes of steady work to sharpen well...Finally, I decided to move the blade a little bit to the right on my left boot.  Only one practice, and maybe its a head game, but it felt more comfortable, and my bucket drills actually resulted in crossovers (a minor miracle, that.).

Green Mountain Invitational Short Track, Rutland VT 10/25/08

The Green Mountain Speed Skating Club hosted their first meet this weekend, and I am very glad I went over to Rutland, Vt.  Fast moving, fun event and perfect for young skaters and us not so young ones! The ice conditions were near perfect, and the facility is comfortable, clean very pleasant.  It's a non-profit operation, not a municipal one, and the pride of ownership shows.  This one should be on the radar of everyone in the Northeast and eastern Ontario/western Quebec next year.  One great feature:  the Castleton State College men's hockey team served, in shifts, as the block chasers and squeegee guys all day.  What a good volunteer service!  Thanks guys!

Thank you first of all to my teammate Beth Burchill for outstanding moral support (and congrats on some very impressive personal records!!!!)  Thanks, too, to many of the adults at the arena for their friendship and support (Don A., Rick T., Fred M., Chris & Ramona H., etc.) and to the other three members of my age group for the competition--Fred Cole of the Saratoga Winter Club and John Murphy and Paul Cantella of the Pittsfield (MA) Speed Skating Club.  They are much stronger, faster skaters but once again proved what a friendly, supportive activity speed skating can be and usually is.  It was a pleasure to kibbutz with them all day, and to try my best to keep up (and out of the way, once passed!!!).  The good news for me is that two 500 meter races were both PBs, and I am beginning to hope that I'll be not quite so far behind soon.  Moving the blades back a bit seems to have helped two weeks in a row!  A 01:37.345 for 500 meters may not be all that impressive, but it's a full six seconds faster than my previous best, and is encouraging.  

There was one little glitch for me early in the day.  The races started with 1000 meter heats and finals.  My heat time was objectively slow, but pretty good for me.  In the final, I felt great and was sure that I was on a PR time.  I was coming into my bell lap (I'd been counting carefully, after going a lap too far the prior week in Rochester, and my count matched that of a couple of officials as I passed), but unfortunately the chief up thought I was too slow and that I had more laps to go and called the race.  The numbers got posted.  It WAS going to be a personal best by a lot.  To say that I was pretty fried was putting it mildly.  Beth Burchill to the rescue on that score!  No complaints though.  The official and I wound up the day on the same page and all is good. I've been an official at enough events to know how hard those jobs are, anyway.   Since the timers did report the time, I was able to figure the pace and see progress, which was my goal.  And for as long as judgment is part of the sport, there are going to be days when I, or any other skater, will get a break we did not expect or perhaps deserve.  Those cut both ways... sometimes the luck is good, too, and the judgment call goes your way.

Rochester Invitational Oct.18-19, 2008

Day one, marked by frustration, wobbly knees, slow times and my usual place in the back of the pack....arrgh.  More in the nature of a Hail Mary pass than anything else, I decided to move my blades back a little on the boots.  Day two.  Two skaters on the line:  my good friend (and better, faster skater) Don Ducharme and I.  The gun sounds.  A much better than usual start and I have the lead!

Passing the apex on turn one, the announcer, Tom Connelly, with some incredulity in his voice, calls my name as the leader!  I've never been in the lead...what to do now!!!  I try to focus on form, getting as low as I get, milking glides for as much as possible......bell lap....still in the lead!  People who have cheered me on for a year are yelling!  Tom's voice on the PA.....Ducharme gaining...who wants it more....last turn.....I can see Don in my peripheral vision....running out of gas....never mind form....break into a run down the last straight.....focus...push....and across the line with six-hundredths of a second to spare!!!!!    What a rush!!!!  Don leaves me in the dust a little later at 1000 meters, but for the first time, in the first meet of my second season, I've won one heat....feeling really good....this sport frustrates, but it also rewards.....

When teammates help the most

A week from the opening meet of my second season, the discouragement is palpable. It is so incredibly frustrating to feel that skills are no better, and some worse than at the end of last year, and to see the performance gap increasing. At one practice, Tina said "you're so tense...there is no smile and you don't look like you're enjoying it." The inner demons are at work: fear of speed, fear of falling, fear of embarassment. Still, my team mates keep encouraging me on: an idea to exaggerate the kick, to make more of a pendulum and to glide better... a suggestion to go back to one of Jim Cornell's dryland drills to finally get a crossover... a "thataway" from inside the circle at a practice... an invitation to stay on ice and help with the youngest kids....the invitation to sit with "Coach Sam Adams" after practice...I have been part of a lot of groups and organizations over a lifetime, but the men and women and girls and boys of the Rochester Speed Skating Team are the greatest. They meant it when they called it a team and not a club.
If I ever develop any real skills in this sport, it will be as much because of the support and the patience of my team, as it will be of effort on my part. But I will keep plugging until then...see the post from August 18th on the "late bloomer" at the Summer Olympics.

More Good News for Old Olympians!!

Wonderful story today (Mon Aug 18 2008) from Bejing. The Silver Medal to Canada in equestrian team jumping, includes a first medal in NINE Olympics for61-year old Ian Millar!!!! Millar's story, reported by the CBC is worth mentioning:

"I remember back in the early '70s when I had a disastrous Grand Prix, my wife, Lynn, said to me, 'Don't worry, you're going to be a late bloomer.' That's what she said to me and I've always held that thought," said Millar. "And so the Olympics don't go well and I'd say, 'Lynn said I'm a late bloomer. I'll go to the next one.' And sure enough, guess what happened? I bloomed." The sad note? Millar's wife died from cancer earlier this year. "I had an angel riding with me, that's all I can say," said a teary Millar.

Last night, it was exciting to see 33 year old Oksana Chusovitina win Silver in Women's Vault, jumping for Germany (back at a "NORMAL" age for success in her sport, she was a Soviet star!). I'm loving the Bejing Games!

Saturday at Summer Olympics: Great Day for the Oldsters!!!

Spending WAY too much time in front of the TV watching the summer Olympics, but what a day this Saturday Aug. 16 has been!!!! Michael Phelps' Eight for Eight (they said 8 is a good luck number in China), and "Lightning" Bolt's 100m sprint, of course; but what gave me the most pleasure and excitement was seeing the success of so many "older" athletes: Two Silvers in swimming today for Dara Torres (41); a Gold for Jason Lezak (32) in the anchor leg of the 4x100 swimming relay that cemented Phelps' #8; and a 2:26.44 marathon Gold medal for Constantina Tomescu (38) of Romania. How much inspiration could you want in a single day!!!!! Wow. I'm exhausted just watching! Makes me wonder how many great athletes were NOT in prime time on tv today! Exemplars like these make it easier to believe that each of us, irrespective of age and specific ability can aspire to Citius, Altius, Fortius, and can hope to be a little better than yesterday.

Have You Ever Seen Pure Joy in a Face?

I have just returned from Salt Lake City, after bringing my daughter out to join Mike Kooreman's New Edge team at the Olympic Oval, and get her ready to begin her college career at the University of Utah. Sending my son to college several years ago was hard. Sending my daughter, my youngest, is no easier. Still, we had a wonderful four day trip together, seeing the Field of Dreams in Iowa, and looking for Shoeless Joe in the corn fields (see photo--is it a ghost, or just me?); eating a great steak in Omaha; going to Chimney Rock NP Nebraska (see photo of Liz cycling past Chimney Rock); to Fort Laramie (color me surprised to find that it was an open layout, and not surrounded by log walls as in the movies); and to Fort Bridger, Wyoming and a few other spots along the Oregon and Mormon Trails. Seeing the most amazing lightning storm near North Platte NE. A wonderful dinner at an organic restaurant Liz picked in Laramie WY called Jeffrey's was a highlight, too. Our first trip west without a plane--I had no real idea of the vastness...sure glad we could share driving! I hope Liz had half as much fun as I did and will remember it with as much pleasure. In any event, it was Monday morning, at 6:15 at the Utah Olympic Oval. From the bleachers, I watched my daughter take to the ice for the first time with her new teammates. NEVER have I seen a face so happy, so excited. My daughter is where she needs to be. A chance to take her sport to a new level. Quite apart from my hopes for her, I am proud to see her reach for the brass ring.

dryland is not ice

At this time of year in my area, hockey rules, and ice time gets scarce for figures, nonexistent for short track. So notwithstanding on land work, the gap of ten days between figure skating sessions was pretty obvious. Muscle memory seems woefully short term, and basic building block moves felt tentative and awkward for the first half hour. What a relief when, at last, the edges felt right, the leans more natural in the second part of the skate.

The Second Season

It is dry land training time. Intense Tuesday workouts. Sore muscles two days later. But having had so much fun as a first year speed skater at 57, and had so much acceptance from others, on home ice but also in Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Syracuse and other venues, I am anxious to do it again, but better. We'll see . At a time trial near the end of last season, Mitch Connelly of Rochester Speed Skating teased that he was "only" twice as fast as me at 500m (but he was recovering from a tib/fib fracture and I had no such excuse other than being "slightly" older.). I learned that in speed skating, there is room for everyone. When on ice, its almost zen....the world narrows down to the contact of blade and ice, and to a spot on the ice about 15 feet ahead. But at practice, each muscle just yells "are you nuts?" And always the nagging question: why is it so much easier to do crossovers in figure skates than it is on short track blades?