Blog « Speed Skate World- By Peter Doucet- Online Since 1999

March 4th, 2012

PHANTOM RACE – LEARNING

It’s only been a week since I announced the 2012 Phantom Race and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see the level of support from the skating community.

First off, thank you to everyone who has registered and to all those planning to register.

In all fairness, I rushed in to launching the series because I wanted to give everyone ample time to learn about the series and then sign up. I’ve had some great conversations with friends and new friends as I attempt to explain why I’m doing this and how it works. This has gotten me thinking about how to make the entire process and experience better.

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February 27th, 2012

Katherine Reutter is hard at rehab

I’m four weeks into my recovery process and things are going great! I took my first steps without crutches last Thursday. Whenever I take a step on my left foot, it feels like I’m walking on a cloud. Surprisingly, I’m not sore at all. My hip is pretty stiff when I wake up in the morning, but the athletic training staff at U.S. Speedskating know just what to do each day so that I’m constantly improving.

We start every day with a bit of soft tissue (massage) work. There is so much scar tissue on my hip flexor around the incisions, it makes it hard for me to stand fully upright or extend my left leg behind me while walking. We use the ultrasound machine to heat and break up the scar tissue and then move to ultraviolet light therapy. We finish with a massage to make sure all the muscle fibers heal smoothly and in the same direction.

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Photo Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

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February 8th, 2012

Some of the best practices

Some of the best practices I’ve ever skated were the ones where I didn’t care about how fast I was going, how hard I was working, how far I was going, how technically correct my form was or how many calories I burned. In fact, despite being known as a sufferer of low grade narcissism, some of the best practices I’ve ever been a part of had nothing to do with me at all. They were about the people I was skating with.

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January 22nd, 2012

Christine Nesbitt- Sharpening My Pencil

Sharpening my pencil.
These are the words that my coach, Xiuli Wang, used to describe what these World Cup races in Salt Lake City are for. I had to keep that in mind today, after my 500m and 1000m races.

This is the first big competition in over a month, and although I’ve been feeling good, it’s hard to tell what that will translate into, at a high level of racing.

I’m really happy with my 500m today. I had a really good start, for me, in fact my best ever (10.67), and didn’t feel like I was running those first 100 metres (like I normally do)! I was able to build good speed in the first corner, and skate the rest of the race pretty well. I skated one of my fastest laps ever, from my fastest start ever. So, of course I’m thrilled to come away with a new personal best of 37.59!

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January 21st, 2012

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll fall??”

Every single skater I know has heard these words at LEAST a half dozen times. Any time I tell anyone who is a non-skater that I’m working on becoming a speed skater, I hear some variation of this phrase… Aren’t you afraid of falling? Aren’t you worried about crashing? Aren’t you scared you’ll wreck??

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January 13th, 2012

Blog: My Inline Skating Journey

Check out My Inline Skating Journey.

What if I can’t get the hang of the speed skates? What if I can’t stop, and this time when that stupid goose crosses the trail in front of me I take us both out??

Tony Muse: Worth the Price

I still am fairly athletically smart and certainly mentally capable of competing at all levels of competition. I suppose the credit for that goes to my wife for still letting me act like a little boy and to my parents for letting me think I could achieve what ever I wanted. My desire to win certainly has not shrunk…just ask anybody who still trains with me. I do not eat all that well but compared to the Tony Muse who once held World titles I am a top notch health nut. I like to blame added responsibility as the main factor in not being the same athlete as I once was but seriously, God has blessed me with a wife and children that take care of me way more then I have to take care of them. My faith in God and the power which I understand I have in him is way stronger then it was in my peak years. So all things considered, I should be CaptainAmerica, right?

Read more from Tony Muse: Worth the Price

Photo shared here

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November 18th, 2011

November 18th 2011- Go Faster: Why I Skate

Every couple of weeks, I review my exercise log and update my planning for the remainder of the year. This time, I noticed that my running mileage is somewhat close to my skating mileage this year. With the inline skating season just about over, the gap will only close. When considering the hours of training and months as a primary sport, a case can be made that my primary sport is running. I like to run; but my first love is skating.

November 18th 2011- First Loser: 20 Years Younger & Big Mouth

Here are a few recent entries from First Loser:

If I were 20 years younger, I’d have been in Federal Way, Washington this past weekend to try out for the 2012 season for National Speedskating Circuit. It’s the biggest thing in inline here in the US, and I’d say probably the biggest inline “show” in the world. Yes, they sponsor this blog, but it’s because I was a fan of what they were doing, not the other way around. You don’t seriously think they actually READ this, do you? That’s why I can get away with stuff like this…

Photo from First Loser

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November 2nd, 2011

November 2nd 2011- Catching Up With Daniel Friberg As He Ends His Long Track Career

Daniel Friberg has provided the long track speed skating world with a glimpse into his training and sporting life. He recently ended his long track speed skating career. Here are some of his most recent entries:

Träningsläger i Inzell
3hg godis och 1050kcal
Säsongsdebut: Norge cup 1
Ending his career: Jag slutar med skridsko

Håvard Bøkko- photo from Daniel Friberg

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November 2nd, 2011

November 2nd 2011- Schaatsen Mediablog

Check out the Schaatsen Mediablog for long track speed skating news.

Polish long track skater Katarzyna Bachleda-Curus is coming back to long track after an injury and the birth of a child- photo shared by Schaatsen Mediablog

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September 21st, 2011

September 21st 2011- An Inliner’s Guide to Getting Into Ice Part 1: Gear

So you’re a pretty good inline skater. You’ve won a few national titles, perhaps you’ve even won a few national titles in different countries. Maybe you’ve been to world championships a few times. But now you want to try something new, you want to try ice skating.

There are many reasons why an inline speed skater would want to have a go at ice skating. Some people don’t like hot weather, others don’t like losing a leg-side of skin every time they crash, still others have Olympic aspirations. Whatever your reason, in this article I hope to provide some useful tips into making the transition into what may at first seem like a very alien new environment.

‘this is not a trick of the light – the blade is bent‘- photo and caption from Daniel Yeow