Wake Me Up When September Ends

Seems like a good theme for the next couple of days. Haha. Well, worlds is over. It was cool but it's nice to finally be home.

While I was at worlds I noticed different things I had not before and I found a new approach that I can't wait to begin applying. I guess because I was senior and I realized that I wasn't going to race as much as I had grown accustomed to that I just started thinking ahead. This was the first meet I think that I have EVER gone to that I was really looking forward to it being over so I could get back to work. Yeah, really. Honestly though I watched almost every single race of every division and I watched everything in detail to collect every idea possible on how else I can improve.

Now I really can't wait to begin working on numerous things but it'll be a little while. I'm not touching my skates flat out for a week, then I might start doing some indoor circles because I'm not going to practice and sitting around. Quite frankly though, I don't care about indoor.. all of my improvements are 100% outdoor based.
(I've always thought some of the things I put in here could help other people but my goals and intentions are far beyond most and I apologize but I've just about outgrown indoor skating, or at least dedicating one of the most important segments of my training to it)
In the past I would take every technical practice (or as many as possible) and just tell myself "I'm going to improve my technique" I would work on becoming more smooth and exaggerating my position. Well it's going to be a lot different this year. Instead of a broad subject like technique every single practice will be broken down into specifics. Some days will just be body position, or experimental things I've seen, or dissecting every push, etc.

One thing that I'm realizing more then ever is how much technique is overlooked even though everyone preaches it. Everyone talks about technique and how you need it and have to do it and blah blah blah but it's still overlooked. I've been told every year I've skated that technique is so important and that's why you spend so much time year after year working on it but I've only taken it seriously the last couple. Before it was like "okay it's important I'll do it" but it has to be so much more then just doing it. Not only that I've realized that indoor you can get away with technical flaws way easier then you can outdoor. There are tons of ugly indoor skaters that are still fast but outdoor it's not as common, at least not if they want to be great especially somewhere like worlds.

Just about finished

Well road is almost over all we have left now is the relays. It's been a strange Worlds if you ask me, the strangest i've been apart of. We've gotten a pretty good amount of medals and with different people which doesn't always happen but we've done pretty good this year.

There is a lot of people questioning the selection of races and there will only be more once everyone gets home but i don't really know what to say. I know what I really want to say but that's no good so i'll try to explain my view on the idea. This is my third worlds and I have never seen someone denied a race that skated every drill, every practice, and genuinely gave 100%. Personally, I believe that nothing should be guaranteed to anyone. I don't believe making the world team warrants the privilege to race at all especially because tryouts are three months before Worlds. I understand the PARENTS pay 4k to send their child to worlds but they is with expectation that they are giving 100% and that their child respects them enough to continue training. But I'm just curious, if you are a parent that is forking out all this money and after tryouts your child has not picked up their training at all or even maintained their training then why do you pay it? Why send them?

One thing that maybe should be revisited is the selection process. I think that in theory our selection process is very, very good but that does not make it perfect. I think the world team should be 4-6 skaters but should not be a set number. I say this because: if four skaters are top four in everything (sprints, distance, track, road) then you don't need five and six. But if one guy is the best sprinter, and one guy is the best distance, then a different one is the best track and the best road that's where I think it gets iffy. You want the fastest track, road, sprinter, and (two) distance skaters but the problem is that they overlap so much. If there was never overlaps then we would never have a problem with our selection criteria.

On a completely different note I think a code of conduct might be appropriate. Or a list of what types of behavior is appropriate overseas. Maybe something that if is broken can result that skater being finished for the remainder of the championships or sent home... I don't know but definitely food for thought.

News Flash

China blows. I tried to convince myself before coming that it wouldn't be that bad. I tried to convince myself in the beginning that it wasn't that bad. Now i've given up, faced the facts, it stinks.
The realization comes on a day that there was nothing to do, we did nothing, and yet I have been tired all day. We woke up and went back to bed. Woke up again and got ready to go to the road when it was postponed until 5pm. Then i laid around until 1pm.. killed time with the rest of the four hours and went to the road where they skated one race that should not have been skated and was quite frankly awful and I feel bad for the junior women that had to participate. Then they canceled the rest of the day and we came back and did more of nothing while I fought off the urge to fall asleep.

-Why does China stink? Well, when you are not at the track or road there is nothing to do. I'm just about uno'd out considering I've played more uno while I've been in China then I probably have my entire life. I cannot surf the internet because I find myself doing that too much and nothing ever changes. And we are just about finished every english speaking tv show and movie (even the incredibly awful ones).

-Then there is the food, at first it wasn't that bad and I could manage to make due. But now I am growing inpatient waiting to return home to get real food and to finally have the chance to eat enough food that I will be full. Not to mention I am just about out of snacks and have lived off of Ramen noodles for far too many days.

-Also the beds still are rock hard and suck really bad and it will be awesome to sleep in my soft bed when I return home.

-Last but not least there is the weather. 90% humidity everyday, permanent overcast and the inability to see through the smog, the smell of awful pollution not to mention there is a chance of rain 8 out of the next 9 days.

A Class Act

Yesterday was the final day of the track and a very good day it was for the USA. We entered the day with five overall medals and left with ten. In eight possible races we ended up with medals in five, three of which were gold. (Erin 500m Gold -- Joey 1000m Gold -- Senior Men Relay Gold -- Junior Men Relay Bronze -- Junior Women Relay Bronze)
Jonathon and Alex also made the 500m semi-finals which is not a medal, but still a top eight finish.

One thing that kind of bothered me throughout last night and parts of today was a scenario that played out like this: At worlds you are allowed to enter four competitors on your relay team, but only three are allowed to skate. What this means is that you can have an alternate skate the heat and someone else take their place in the final which personally is a pretty good thing IMO. We had a situation where Cheex had fallen twice the night before and was stiff in the morning of the relay heat so we did the logical thing and put the fourth guy in the heat and then played the wait and see game for the final. The fourth guy happened to be me and i had no problem skating the heat knowing that the final was Cheex's race if he could skate.. I had even talked to him and we were on the same page, it didn't matter to me. None of that bothered me at all.

What bothered me was how everyone wanted to tell me how good I had skated (in a heat) and how much it sucked i couldn't skate the final. Well it got old quick and in my own belief:
-I skated five total laps, I had one good one.. two bad ones.. and two okay laps.
-I skated so good to everyone because their expectations were not high,
-My first two tags were so bad their expectations dropped before I skated a good final lap.
-And Will and Joey bailed me out when I had my two bad laps so I could even have a good one.
-And I had skated better in my 1000m (in my opinion) and thought the relay just gathers more attention.

Now I don't mind the good jobs but it's everything else that came with it. I skated the first leg (the slowest leg) and if you discount my last lap (the good one) i did not skate a very good race and I did not have my team in good position until that final lap.

With all that being said here is where the title of my post comes in:
After the award ceremony I went out to the bus and patiently waited for everyone.. I found out they were trying to find out if it was possible to gain an extra (fourth) medal to give to me. They could not but even that they tried was pretty cool to me. On the bus Will told me how they tried for a fourth medal (especially because in most sports they would have been given the fourth medal) and he gave me his podium stuffed animal thing even after I tried to give it back, which showed class from him but wasn't necessary. Then back at the hotel Jake said Cheex wanted us to go down to their room where Cheex tried to give me his gold medal from the relay but there was no way I would accept that. But again it takes a LOT of class to even offer something like that. Then Joey wanted me to at least take the champion's jersey (claiming he didn't need it because he already has so many, haha) which took a lot of class as well. It's that type of behavior that proves a Champion is not someone that just wins races.

P.S. If anyone finds a video of the last lap of the relay final let me know because it is one of the best laps I've ever seen.

Racing

Day two of racing brought a lot of excitement once again. The 15k elim for senior men was pretty ridiculous with the huge fall with just over 5k into the race. It was probably about a twelve person pile up, all into the wall, which involved Cheex. When the restarted (all 75 laps again) they got just a little further into it then last time and there was another fall, again involving Cheex. The race was not restarted that time but it still sucked that Cheex fell not once, but twice. The other thing to note, is that Joey won that race and by won that race I mean really just ran away from the field on the last two laps with another World Record. Funny thing is if they had not restarted the race the first time it would have been a much, much faster time then what they ran the second time but still a very fast World Record.

The Junior Men's race was also very exciting especially watching our two US skaters Mario and Justin. The thing about the two of them is that it was a points race and they have very, very different styles of skating. Mario is the type of skater who stays up in the front the entire race and does his work in the beginning and up until the middle part of the race. Justin is the type of skater that in the beginning of the race he isn't necessarily concerned with being in the very front and he does most of his damage towards the end of the race. What this did was give us someone to cheer for throughout the entire race. At first it was Mario as he racked up six points which i was almost sure was really eight.. but he ended up in fifth place overall. Then it was Justin who racked up 12 points in the last 16-20 laps I believe and finished just one point shy of a silver medal. With his style of racing it makes it hard not to think if he had gotten two or three points in the first half of the race if his bronze could have been gold.. but a medal is still a medal and it's good to have no matter what.

The last racing of the day was the 1000m final for Mario in which he took fourth place which is the hardest place to end up but the final comes down to a sprint at the end and the top three were the same top three from the 300m. The final race was the senior men's 500m. Joey got out into second place and on the back stretch of the first lap the other Colombian tried to go underneath him but didn't get fully by so in the turn they were two wide and the bumping caused neither to be able to keep stepping which opened the door for Willy (nickname) from Chinese Taipei to pass both of them. In such a short race after the misstep it would have been nearly impossible for Joey to catch the two leaders and he ended up with bronze which is still very good after a tough 15k (20k if you include the first 5k).

Today was another day and a pretty good day of racing although it is not over. We had a Junior Man advance to the semi-finals of the 500m, a junior girl advance to the semi-final of the 500m and the other one qualify for the final, we also have Joey in the 1000m final. We also had the heats for the relays and the Junior Women, Men, and Senior Men all qualified for the final tonight.

Just to point out exactly how fast the track is, every single distance senior men skated, they broke the world record including the 1000m who had about 10 skaters skate under the previous world record.

Day 1 of Recap

Day 1 of racing was an up and down affair. I can honestly tell you that after the 300m prelims i was a little concerned that we only managed to get three people into the final when normally we do quite well (at least getting to the final). What was nice is what we managed to do with what we had. Erin skated great and it really sucks to end up in fourth place but she skates a better 500m anyway so that's good news. Joey is... well, Joey and that's about all I can say. It is not often, at least in senior that someone can drop an entire second from their preliminary time. When such a thing does occur it normally means the track is way faster and everyone is dropping a lot of time. I cannot describe or begin to describe the feeling of watching Joey's 300. To give you a quick run down of how close it was: Joey's unofficial (by the big board at the track) 100m was 9.36 .... Pedro's unofficial 100m was 9.38... Joey's unofficial 300m was 24.27 .... Pedro's unofficial 300m was 24.28.

Justin was the only other USA skater to earn a medal and he earned a bronze in the 15k elim. By the end of the race it was quite a smart race by Justin. There were a lot of times that we thought Justin could have avoided contact and confrontation simply by moving up but he didn't. What he DID do was with about 20 laps to go Justin went up towards the front of the pack and stayed there. The last two elims were very close calls for him but once he get to 2 laps to go I knew there was no way he wasn't getting a medal. I've raced Justin more then anyone in the US team so at that point I almost knew what to expect. On the last lap Justin was passed from third to fifth but quickly moved back up into fourth (now it's about as fast of a sprint as they could go after 74 laps) first place was long gone, but second and third were battling with about a 4 foot gap on Justin in the back stretch. One thing to know about Justin is that his straightaways are subpar but his turns are great. So once Justin hit the turn he took his hands off his knees immediately closed the 4ft gap and continued on the outside. Down the final stretch third place was tucked in behind second as if Justin was never there and Justin just ran along the outside and rolled right passed the skater to take his first world medal.

Food For Thought

Disclaimer: Before reading this you should know that I have no idea if this takes place or does not take place, but i just think that it should.

Yesterday I came across this not so complex idea while watching another country skate practice (which means I was bored waiting for it to be our turn to skate practice). Now, I fully understand not even a decade ago, we could put the fastest two athletes in every race and they would both contend for a medal easily. But I have come to the conclusion that either we have gotten much worse, everyone else has gotten much better, or the combination of the two has made it very, very difficult for us to field two people in the same race that can contend for medals. In the two worlds I have already witnessed, I have seen it twice and only once with success. Last year Mariah and Erin both won medals in the 500m track race. In 2007 Joey and Jonathon both were in contention for a medal in the 10k pts elim on track. Jonathon finished with 9 pts and fifth place while Joey ended up eliminated with a decent amount of pts as well.

Now in races 1000m and below I say you easily just go with the flat out fastest two athletes because one cannot help the other unless it's a final and for the most part they just want a medal period.

But this is where the idea comes into play: when you get into longer races where two people could really be working together is it the best idea to go with your #1 and #2 guys? Now naturally the answer seems to be yes. But for instance you have three skaters, we will call them Skater A, B, and C. Skater A is flat out your best distance skater and skater B is very, very close in talent. While skater C may be half a step behind. So unless you are absolutely 100% confident that two skaters can both contend for a medal in the same race then would it not be more functional to pair skaters together so that one of them has a greater chance for a medal.

Skater A and Skater B are put into the same race but instead of both contending for a medal they get 7th and 8th place or 6th and 9th.. point is neither earns a medal but are not far off from one. But if putting Skater A and Skater C in the race allows Skater A to finish 3rd but Skater C to finish 15th which one would you rather have? That becomes the final decision, are you trying to win medals or have two good finishes?

The point I am trying to make is that Skater A and Skater B may not know which one is better which would make them unlikely to take a backseat or to devote a race to the other so they could win a medal but Skater C knows that if he may not be able to win a medal he can still make his race meaningful if he can help earn another skater a medal.
Furthermore:
(a points race)
Skater A goes for two points while skater B stays in the pack (now it's A-2)
later on Skater B goes for two points and skater A stays in the pack (now it's A-2 B-2)
and the race continues in that fashion (you must realize the points are not going to be back to back because if that was the case they WOULD be able to both contend for a medal) what ends up happening is that they finish with close to the same point totals but no medal.
But what if the race starts and Skater C leads Skater A up towards the front but moves over on the last straight away allowing skater A to earn two points but not take as much of an energy hit. If Skater C can help skater A earn 6-8 pts. then they 'blow up' and get eliminated or fall off the pace have they not done their job? Skater A still has some energy to contend for more points and if you get to 10-11 points you are almost always standing somewhere on the podium.

Maybe it's stupid, but maybe it works.. hmm.

A Good Day in China

Okay another day down in China. Today we (I) learned that the restaurant down from the track is the best american food we are going to find and it's really cheap so that's perfectly fine with me.

Today was a good/decent day for me on the track because it was productive and at this point in the season (at the world championships) if a practice is productive then it was a good day. I felt better just when I woke up this morning then I have most days which wasn't a bad feeling and I think I might be getting use to the time difference (finally). In the morning the sprinters did some starts which was good and it turned out to be a great idea because the track layout is a little different so the more days the sprinters have to get use to it the better we will be. By a different track layout all I mean is that the 300m and finish lines are not at the very ends of the track like in Colorado but are a little bit closer to the center of the track. What that means is that in stead of taking X amount of steps from the 300m line to the turn you have to take X+3 (approx). Either way we got some good time in and the sprinters got to find out where to cross and what not to do, etc.

That was in the morning. At night the sprinters did a little speed work for the first time which was really good to do. We did some 200's from a rolling start (in a pack) we weren't up to full speed at the 200m line but we still ran OK times which will do. The times we ran make me feel confident that our times will be in the ball park of every other countries once we perfect our line and hit a 200m at top speed. Doing the 200m was also really productive because although we had already figured what lines we would run, actually doing it is another story. It helped because we really screwed our lines up which means that we definitely can get faster just by slowing down a hair and perfecting our line so that next time we can go all out.

I have also confirmed (at least to/for myself) that this is definitely the fastest track I've been on and that once I run a 300 it will only cement that confirmation.

In My Perspective

Okay, this year I am a first year senior who made the world team. First, it is not a common feat. the last time i remember it happening in the US was Sebastian and Jono i think in 05. We have Jake and me this year. I will not be modest in saying I did not train my butt off this year because frankly, I did. And at the same time I realize the team for senior men may not have been as challenging as it has been to make in previous years but I would have excepted the challenge anyway. I think (speaking on my own behave) that Jake and I have taken it literally as best as possible. We trained hard with little knowledge to how difficult it actually would be and we still have a lot of room to grow (literally).

One thing that I have noticed being at World's right now, is that even though i have fully accepted the fact I will be 5'5" for the rest of my life I still need to grow into my frame (as do most of us men on the US Team). Another thing I have noticed is how much I love skating. Being here not only am I skating against the best in the world (I've been skating with the best in the world for the past three weeks anyway) but I get to watch the best in the world here too. As a spectator and I competitor of the sport it's awesome. We've heard some times and they are just ridiculously fast and I think I want to know what I can skate but at the same time I realize that I may not be ready to go all out until I feel that I've definitely found my perfect line. We've done some pretty fast things on the track like blasts and that sort of thing to get use to different lines and such but we haven't hit a turn at 100% yet (or at least I haven't).

So basically China isn't that bad. The food in much better then expected. The track is still awesome by the way.

Day 2 on the Track

We've had our second practice on the track and so far this is what we know for sure:
-the air conditioner in the building has not been running which means we are all sweating extraordinary amounts.
-the track is awesome to skate and is really fast.
-cab drivers are not afraid to drive on the wrong side of the road.
-moped drivers are 100% confident they won't be hit.

We haven't done any speed drills or anything yet because we just got here and while we all get acclimated to the time zone and changes doing speed drills would be stupid so instead we are skating a lot of laps to get use to the track. During this time it's good for people to figure out what wheels they are going to skate on. Our paces have been in the 17-18 second per lap range which is good for pacing and we have dipped into the 16's which is ridiculously fast because we are pacing and in Colorado that it a dead sprint. I think just about all of our guys will be in the 15 second range when sprinting and the girls will probably be in the 16 range. The track in at least my opinion, is a lot better then last years but that might just be because I kind of knew what to expect this year. Coming out of the turns here is ridiculously fast. Well that's just a quick update I thought I'd give about the track so far, we are about to go skate it again about two hours from when I am typing this.

In China

Well we are in China. We left Wednesday at 4:30 from detroit and landed in Shanghai at 7:00 Thursday and finally got to our hotel at about 2:00AM local time (China). So now it is friday and we lost about an entire day but oh well. We woke up and ate our breakfast and after words some of us went exploring through a little bit of the town which is kind of cool I guess. There is a leather mall across the street from our hotel and we've been told to only offer about 30% of what they are asking. After walking for awhile one way, turning around walking past our hotel again and pretty far the other way we gave up on finding the track only to figure out it was a 25 minute walk one way and we walked further then that, just not in the same direction. When we were out exploring i forgot my camera but I am going to try and get a bunch of pictures anyway but I wont be able to post them until I get back into the states.

We are scheduled to skate for the first time at the track tonight between 8-10pm (for those of you wondering the time here is exactly 12 hours ahead of eastern time). From what I have heard the track is fast and skates a lot like Spain did last year. I've heard some times and the fastest seems to be a 14.7 for a flying 200 which is crazy fast but most times have been around 15.2 from what I've heard but to put that in perspective.. in Colorado the fastest ever is probably a 16.0 or 16.1 (because the track in Colorado is no where near as fast as most tracks).

It's a hot day today here but it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the humidity. It stinks going from the dry air in Colorado to the sticky, humid air here but oh well. By the way, our hotel is really really nice especially for a international hotel. It is a four or five star hotel (I'm not exactly sure which one) but the rooms are actually somewhat roomie which makes it more comfortable and the bathrooms are really nice. The only real knock is the beds are rocks but that is traditional for Asian hotels from what I've heard from some of the more experienced/frequent travelers.

Skating to Become Better

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog and I figured I should write one now that I am at residency. I have meant to do this but have gotten somewhat lazy when I am not skating and have spent most of my spare time laying on my bed. Well here it is:
Residency should be one of the most difficult times of the year for anyone. You should be tired and sore. That is the bottom line. You are meeting up with the top 24 athletes from their respective divisions and training to each others strengths and weaknesses. At no point should that come up as easy.
When you get to residency, or even well before you get there (unless you have an ego issue) you normally are well aware of exactly how good you are. If you are that 5th or 6th person then you come here and you should have one goal: skate everything and skate like hell. If you get a blister you skate through it, if you fall down you get back up and keep going, if you are sore you shrug it off. But sometimes I don't see it, and I don't understand.
This year I am a senior man. I will not try to lie to anyone and tell you that I can skate with Joey because time in and time out he has destroyed me as long as we have been here, but that has not stopped me from skating with him. This is where I am getting with this: in my case, every time I skate with someone better then me I am chasing them. I am chasing and chasing and chasing. If they are going 80% i'm going to go 100% if that's what I have to do to keep up. If I go 80% when everyone else does, but do not stay with them because I am set on 80% what good does that do me? When am I getting better?

In 2007 I made my first world team. I was the 5th some cases 6th guy to make the team. When I got to residency I did not ask questions I just skated. I skated whatever and whenever because I was not the guy that knew he was going to race at worlds or the guy that new he could turn it on and be flat out better. I chased and I chased and I went all-out all the time.
This year I chase and I chase and I do it because I am not the best. If someone is better then you, then chasing them does nothing but help you.

I could write that everyone is giving 110% every single time they tie their skates but I would be lying. I don't get it, if you are not the best you chase the best because it makes you better. How can you ever expect to become the best, or get better when all you are doing is staying in your comfort zone?

If you are the best skater and you get a little injury or something you can sit out and by all means if it will help you be faster then you have nothing stopping you. BUT if you are not the best skater (FYI there can only be one skater that is the best) then you skate through pain and you skate through absolutely everything because not skating does not earn you respect, or races, or medals.