Well day 1 is in the books and a decent day it was. It still seems a little low key I guess without a lot of usual people there. There was still good racing to be had. 300m continue to evolve and with another year for everyone to get use to the 110m wheels the times were faster then ever. Junior men had buckets of 27 second 300m and even three 26's which is a first time more then one person ever ran a 26 in junior men. Junior ladies usually has a couple of 29's and a lot of 30's but this year they had one 27 a couple 28's and a lot of 29's. Senior ladies only has 10 competitors so it's really hard to say how their times were without knowing each person individually. Senior men had a lot of 26's, so it was definitely fast this year.
Some quick standouts from the day would be Erin Jackson, Sara Hebbrecht, and Jonathon Blair for all breaking 300m records and also Mario Valencia for having an exceptional day in junior men all together.
In senior men Joey was not here for the first day because of a World Inline Cup race in Europe that he attended (and won) but he will be here tomorrow. Personally I thought of it as a opportunity to seize some good points before he got there which I think I did.
Tomorrow is just the 10k pts/elim for junior and senior world class while the freshman and master's kick off their competitions.
Well that is it for now. Check back for more updates as the competition continues.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
ODN
Well I'll probably post a blog or two during ODN for those at home. They will have a live feed on July 1st I believe and there is a USA Roller Sports twitter page you can follow too. If I make the World Team I will be blogging through residency and worlds much like I did last year.
Alright ODN 2009. Man it's here already. I guess you could say I have a few jitters which is very uncommon for me but I'm not really sure if jitters are the correct term. I'm glad it's here. I love ODN it might be my favorite event as a spectator and as an athlete. As an athlete it's the only time I am racing 9 distances in 6 days and as a spectator you get to see a lot about skaters by the way they skate. I like it because right off the bat you know it's going to be hard. You know that every race is going to test you as an athlete. And you know the person next to you or in front of you or behind you is dead tired just like you are. In the elim race when there's only like eight of you left and you know you are tired but you don't really know it then you see a picture of like eight guys just rolling through the line dead tired mouths open facial expressions asking why the hell they haven't sat down that.. that's what I love. It's hard to say why but I like those tired guts moments. I know that I am well trained and prepared so i know when I get tired it's the race. But the thing is, I want the race to be hard and tiring. I want to test the people in it and myself.
Alright the jitters! This year is very very different for me. I am now Senior World Class, I definitely think I am ready for it but it's different racing all together. I watched the video of just about every track race from last year's ODN and with respect to everyone I raced, for the most part I was just flat out better then the majority of people. There were 4-5 of us in every race (not the same 4-5 in all distances but usually about 4-5) that were just better. When you are just faster you can afford to make a mistake because you have the speed to make up for it but now I'm senior so even if I'm a little bit faster then most people it's only going to be a little bit. Everyone is so much closer so the execution of races must be flawless. Like a 1000m. When you make it to the final 9 times out of 10 every person in that race has a ability to win it but the person with the best strategy/execution/ or the person that just flat out catches a break wins.
Sometimes you can win because you are talented and fast. But once you get surrounded with people that are of your ability or close to it you have to learn how to race and I don't think you can be taught it until you really need to learn it so that's why I think it's different.
I've heard that the numbers are down considerably this year which is almost to be expected but I've heard the world class men is down over half from last year. Half the number of people from last year are even trying out. That's tough to believe but I don't think the field will lack talent, it might lack the usual number of participants but I doubt it lacks talent.
Well safe travels to everyone, if you are going to ODN. If not be sure to keep up with the action and check back for updates!
Alright ODN 2009. Man it's here already. I guess you could say I have a few jitters which is very uncommon for me but I'm not really sure if jitters are the correct term. I'm glad it's here. I love ODN it might be my favorite event as a spectator and as an athlete. As an athlete it's the only time I am racing 9 distances in 6 days and as a spectator you get to see a lot about skaters by the way they skate. I like it because right off the bat you know it's going to be hard. You know that every race is going to test you as an athlete. And you know the person next to you or in front of you or behind you is dead tired just like you are. In the elim race when there's only like eight of you left and you know you are tired but you don't really know it then you see a picture of like eight guys just rolling through the line dead tired mouths open facial expressions asking why the hell they haven't sat down that.. that's what I love. It's hard to say why but I like those tired guts moments. I know that I am well trained and prepared so i know when I get tired it's the race. But the thing is, I want the race to be hard and tiring. I want to test the people in it and myself.
Alright the jitters! This year is very very different for me. I am now Senior World Class, I definitely think I am ready for it but it's different racing all together. I watched the video of just about every track race from last year's ODN and with respect to everyone I raced, for the most part I was just flat out better then the majority of people. There were 4-5 of us in every race (not the same 4-5 in all distances but usually about 4-5) that were just better. When you are just faster you can afford to make a mistake because you have the speed to make up for it but now I'm senior so even if I'm a little bit faster then most people it's only going to be a little bit. Everyone is so much closer so the execution of races must be flawless. Like a 1000m. When you make it to the final 9 times out of 10 every person in that race has a ability to win it but the person with the best strategy/execution/ or the person that just flat out catches a break wins.
Sometimes you can win because you are talented and fast. But once you get surrounded with people that are of your ability or close to it you have to learn how to race and I don't think you can be taught it until you really need to learn it so that's why I think it's different.
I've heard that the numbers are down considerably this year which is almost to be expected but I've heard the world class men is down over half from last year. Half the number of people from last year are even trying out. That's tough to believe but I don't think the field will lack talent, it might lack the usual number of participants but I doubt it lacks talent.
Well safe travels to everyone, if you are going to ODN. If not be sure to keep up with the action and check back for updates!
Up to Date
It's been about two months since I last published a blog. I feel as if it is dying, not because people like me don't have enough to talk about.. I could talk forever honestly about anything I love debating and talking as long as the person in conversation isn't interrogating me.
Well for starters I am now a High School Graduate! that was fun, I was mentioned in the valedictorian's speech which was kind of funny/cool.. not something I expected but delighted to hear. My future goes pretty much like this: I have delayed a college education until the spring semester due to my efforts to make the Sr. World Team this year which worlds would interfere with the fall semester. In the spring I will be attending West Chester University and still skating. Next year I will once again put strong efforts to making the World Team again. I due however plan to make a jump in the future to a place where I can pursue the Olympic dream. If that happens to be on ice then I am fully prepared to make that jump but if it manages to be on inlines then I am 100% committed to making that dream come true.
In the absence of a blog I began the yearly 'hell' stage of training which I oddly enjoy just about every year. And like every year my fondness of indoor skating grows less and less. My brother also suffered an injury during that time period that made things much more difficult for him, and me. He suffered an injury that is considered somewhat common in kids nearing the end of growth spurts. Either way, I was down to training virtually by myself instead of at least having someone nearby this year and he was down to sitting at home doing nothing, not exactly keys to achieving success but hey, life's no cakewalk.
I graduated high school not a moment too soon. I finished with a 4.03 GPA and as a National Honor Society member which is not bad but did drop off to a slight degree every year.. my freshman year I had a 4.5. My niece also turned one just last week and my nephew was born just two days before that! So if you see my dad you can congratulate him for being a grandfather like he looks! haha. Well that's bringing everyone up to date.. up next is an ODN post.
Well for starters I am now a High School Graduate! that was fun, I was mentioned in the valedictorian's speech which was kind of funny/cool.. not something I expected but delighted to hear. My future goes pretty much like this: I have delayed a college education until the spring semester due to my efforts to make the Sr. World Team this year which worlds would interfere with the fall semester. In the spring I will be attending West Chester University and still skating. Next year I will once again put strong efforts to making the World Team again. I due however plan to make a jump in the future to a place where I can pursue the Olympic dream. If that happens to be on ice then I am fully prepared to make that jump but if it manages to be on inlines then I am 100% committed to making that dream come true.
In the absence of a blog I began the yearly 'hell' stage of training which I oddly enjoy just about every year. And like every year my fondness of indoor skating grows less and less. My brother also suffered an injury during that time period that made things much more difficult for him, and me. He suffered an injury that is considered somewhat common in kids nearing the end of growth spurts. Either way, I was down to training virtually by myself instead of at least having someone nearby this year and he was down to sitting at home doing nothing, not exactly keys to achieving success but hey, life's no cakewalk.
I graduated high school not a moment too soon. I finished with a 4.03 GPA and as a National Honor Society member which is not bad but did drop off to a slight degree every year.. my freshman year I had a 4.5. My niece also turned one just last week and my nephew was born just two days before that! So if you see my dad you can congratulate him for being a grandfather like he looks! haha. Well that's bringing everyone up to date.. up next is an ODN post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)