Round Up

Ok here's some quick news. Bokko is done for the year with shoulder surgery or something. The National marathon was this past weekend and I found some results here. 40 skaters looks like a small turnout. I would have loved to have beemed myself over there for that one.

Interesting post about the 1978 World Short Track event with results.

Go Marty.....wish i was there. Kick some butt!@

Highlights of Herenveen World Cup final here.

My video posted??? Hmmmmm.....i have lots more but time for bed.....

Team Pursuit at Balsega. ITALIA ITALIA!!!.

Get pumped for Short Track.....good music too.


I'm not in Germany for Master Worlds and not going to US ST Nationals. Gotta earn some $$$ and stay married....LOL!

I'll be at Weekly Worlds and doing the Champions Challenge, March 14-16th.


One more. I think this is the best from Herenveen Final.

Vote for Nunavut

Where in the world is Nunavut.



What would it be like to live there? I wondered that as I watched this girl Sarah A's video. It really touched my heart and I can't believe she is not winning this competition. Vote for her. I bet she could use the cash and you have to root for someone who is from Nunavut.
I had never heard of it but I guess they have were seperated from the Northwest Terretories in 1999. I used to be an ace in Geography but 1977 Geography.

http://www.ingspeedskatingchallenge.com/video.php

You have to watch both videos in order to vote.

1500m Gong Show & 5 Second PB (Don't give up)

I had a tough training week with lots of kilometers of skating. I raced the "tough man's" program on Saturday of 1500m/5k. 1500m was paired with Andrew Love. I had skated all week on one Maple Gold Steel skate on my right foot (thanks Mark) and my normal Maple Aluminum on my left. Got my broken skate (see last post) back from John Dimon Friday. I didn't have time to hook it up till Friday night. Probably should have waited till after the races but? The two different blades actually had felt ok all week??

You know what was funny is that Andrew smoked me in the 1500m. I was glad for him he skated a PB. He said he heard me coming in his mind last lap and that helped him. I was way behind but I guess my claps are loud. I was pretty fried with training, racing Wed, intervals etc.....

I had a decent opener (300m) in the 1500m then my left leg sort of gave out in the turn and I almost fell coming out of the turn. I stood up in the straightaway still had a ok lap of 28.6 then he went "over the top" of me....from Outer to Inner with 1.5 to go. He was slowing (but not the way Andrew usually slows) and I had to yield at the last minute to cross to the outer. I gave up at that point and went 2:01. Last lap I really gave up. I hate giving up in a race. First thought was I have a 5kilometer in 25 minutes. Then I was thinking I'm too old for all this training then trying to race....what am I doing racing with all this training load. Everyone else is more rested, why do I do this sport?......how in the world am I going to do a 5k in 25 minutes????? I should just go home right now and rest. My ego was bruised with one of the worst races in the 1500m in a while....but who cares it's a training race. You still want to do well.

I get my skates off quick, forget about the race (really had no time to dwell on it), jog......then get skates on again at the 5k start line. Get up for my 5k....no time to skate and hope for the best. I'm racing Liam Ortega (national team member and 20 years my JR). His personal is 6:49...mine 7:17. I'm ahead, I'm behind, I'm ahead....etc....I couldn't believe I was keeping up with him. My goal after the 1st race was to skate .000001 faster than my Personal Best. I told Liam this before the race based on how I felt. But once you are in a race whether it's a weekend TT or the World Championships of Right Now you are in a race. There's something special about forgetting about all your problems issues and life and just being in the RIGHT NOW.
Skating 33s and 34s depending on who had inners....I'm looking at 8 to go and thinking I'm so hurting....but i'm holding my lap times?......then 6 to go....hurting bad but kept building inner turns to stay even with him or ahead....i have a PB going just keep it going......4 to go.....how am I going to finish I'm thinking.....ok do 2 laps then you only have 2 to go. You can do 2 laps it's only about a minute. You can grunt out two minutes. I heard Jerica Tandiman's dad (Edwin) every lap urging me on. It's funny in a 5k there's more time to hear things....thanks Edwin that helped so much. There were others cheering but he was right in the middle of the straightaway where I was trying to relax as much as possible. I'm ahead with 2 laps to go and thinking I'm going to win this pair. I start putting hands on legs with 2 to go and drop to 35s.....what kept me going is I knew I had a PB.....he gets on me then flies by me with one to go....another 35....he ends on 34/32. I skate a PB by 5 seconds and I can't even let out a whimper as I cross the line because I am in seeing black with my hands on my thighs. I cruise around for two laps till I feel like I'm back on the planet.
A lot of people were cheering me on which I heard. I think people could tell I was hurting but I gutted it out. That was a great race! Moral of the story, "Don't give up". I guess the 2nd moral is "give up"????

Dick Ring and Lake Placid Continued

The Ringer was in Lake Placid and we hung out. It was great to hang out with him and his friend Bill. They were old skate and bike buddies. Great story from Bill who surprisingly knew most of the guys I played college hockey with. He brought back alot of blasts from the past from my hockey days.
Great story about him and Bob Fenn being trainers or mechanics for a Six Day Race at Madison Square Garden. Packed house and all the riders were tired and sleeping. He and Roscoe were called to ride the bikes.
Also, Ringer gave me an update to story #1. Where these guys beat the crap out of him and a buddy while they were trying to skate.

http://boudieskate.blogspot.com/2008/01/dick-ring.html

Update: Ringer tells me that the first day on the ice in a out of town neighborhood. Him and his skating partner knew that something was up when a couple of kids dressed up from Catholic school came up to them. He says this one guy was up on a snow bank dressed up. Him and his buddy knew trouble was going to follow so Ringers looks his friend in the eye. Ringer grabs the kid by his tie and pulls him down while him and his buddy pound on him. As Ringer said, "we knew we were in trouble but Godamnit we were going to beat the crap out of at least one guy". The second day same thing. Guy comes up to them and Ringer and his buddy look at each other. As Ringer puts it they just swung at this guy from their outside arms as they stood facing this kid. They hit from from the left and right simultaneously.....they got the #$#$ kicked out of them again but as Ringer said, "we made sure we got one of them good"......LOL! Ah the old days.....i could listen to these stories all night.

I also met Dean Marini who was a high school teammate of mine on our hockey team. He was there for a hockey tourny with his son. It was funny I was warming up in the 1980 rink and he says "boudie"? I look at him and go yea. I didn't recognize him. He saw my first race. He couldn't tell who won....it was close. I love hanging in the 80 rink Miracle on Ice rink. When I first went to Lake Placid you would always see Jack Shea walking there every morning. What a great guy.

It was awesome staying at Marilyn Lyseks. Highly recommend looking up Lyseks in Lake Placid if you are ever there. We had awesome food and great socializing. I meet Eleanor Poore, Al Forsyth, Eleanor's mom, some hikers from Quebec (they snow shoed 10 hours on Sat!), and other who were with me (Mark Chysler, Pat Know and Mark's son Garrett). What an awesome weekend. Only bummer was seeing the Patriots lose Sunday night. Also met Liz Looby

DNS

DNS means Did Not Start. I expected to see that on the SLC TT results today. I guess they had time to take me out of the pairings. The results are at the UOO Website.

I finished my warmup laps and next was accels. First accel I had Erin Anders on my back pocket. He just started speedskating a few months ago and is posting some impressive times. He's an old hockey goalie from the University of Minnesota and a working stiff. He's in charge of sales and marketing for a software company and a skater now. He's been a great training partner as well and new friend.

I'm about 65 meters into an accel (ie. 65 meters down the straightaway for you non skaters) when I fell down after pushing on my right skate. I felt like I was getting good pressure. I fall and was like that was weird. Then I think I didn't fall but I think I lost my skate blade. Now I'm sliding towards the electronic timing equipement at the end of the straightaway. I use my only blade on my left boot to steer to the right and miss the timing stuff. I look at my boot and stand up. I only have one blade now and Kreg Greer helps me off the ice.


My day is done. I helped coach some skaters and cheer people on. I thought I would be doing manaul timing but they had enough volunteers.

Andrew Love had a PB on the 3k and a pretty solid 500m. It's funny Peter Schotting said to Erin that if you are going to die you might as well go out hard. Andrew used that strategy with a 31.8 first lap and hung on to a PB of 4:22. Good effort for Andrew a 500m fast twitch guy. I saw his first lap and he looked relaxed but I knew he would pay which he did but it's a good strategy. Hopefully he can get along further and further in the next couple of weeks before he leaves for Master Worlds in Erfurt, Germany. I wish I could go but not this year as work is too busy to take 6 days off.

SLC ST World Cup

Here's a great video from a 500m prelim that my buddy Rich filmed. You can hear me on the commentary. I was at the rink for a short time this afternoon. I was helping with "on the job training" of the block chasers on my end. I'm finally in "management".



so here's the lap! times. That's what two 8.4s look like. pretty easy sport huh?

Age Group Long Track Nationals 2008 Lake Placid

I just noticed that a bunch of people have been checking here for the past few days. I have a hard time bragging about myself since that's the way I grew up. I have a blog that is really for me and no one else. But yes I did win another Age Group Nationals last weekend. It was the closest one yet out of the 4.

The first one was in Minn in 2003 and not much competition. I went for a National record in the 1st race and missed it by 1 second in the 1500. I still feel the pain from that 2:13 1500m. The 2nd and 3rd ones were battles with the Love man in 2003 & 2005. I had home field advantage in both of those (Butte & SLC respectively). Fun times in 2005 and stressful in 2003. I still can't believe that the full results from 2008 are not posted.

It was anything but placid in Lake Placid on Saturday morning for our first race. The temps were in the single digits, winds were 20-30mph, and some occasional snow. Mix in one turn that was cracking out and the other turn that was washboard ice and you have some interesting conditions. I put alot of work in for this meet. I think I'm skating the best ever and in great shape. Trained hard and tapered better for this meet than US Championships in December.
First race I took off too early like 500m out and couldn't get a gap on Marty Haire. He got on me and executed a perfect pass at the line and it was game on. I was none too happy as I let out a few explatives that only I think Marty heard. It was not going to be easy to win. I thought the 40 plus group would be alot easier than racing the Love man in the 30-39 class. Boy was I wrong.

1500M Video 40-49m Part I


Dick Ring was my "coach" on the backstretch. In the first race I thought I had gapped Marty. Ringer was yelling at the end of the backstretch "you gotta go Brian, he's right on you". This was after I pulled super hard into a 20-30mph headwind with Marty on my back with two arms on his back breathing thru his nose. I didn't hear him back there at all and thought I had a gap. When I heard Ringer I knew I was in trouble. Welcome to pack racing on the Long track. It's so much different than metric. I can see the European's expressions after getting whipped up by the Americans in the 32 Olympics.

1500M Video 40-49m Part II



The next race 800m was a photo finish but only problem is they didn't have a photo. It as called by a human judge and it was super close. I "hawked" the line and somehow stayed up. I was lucky I did otherwise it was DQ and game over for me. Two races and two close finishes. The ice was alot better for the 800m though from the morning.

800m Final 40-49 Men


The best thing about this meet was all the old friends I caught up with. Winning is nice and feeds my ego but I think enjoying yourself is much more important. I was a mess after losing the 1st two races.
Next day I woke up feeling relaxed. I went to the rink figuring i had to win a few races. Things went awesome and I was demonstrative after winning the 1000m in the morning. I was yelling and pumping my fists. I wasn't trying to show anyone up just happy to win a race. The 500m was great race. I had the 6 spot on the line (yes 6 people on the line). My main rival Marty Haire was in the 1 spot. I just took off and had a clean start. I looked to my left and didn't see anyone as I went into the 1st turn. The backstretch I looked completely back to make sure Marty wasn't on me. I cruised in and actually broke the Age Group National record. That was icing on the cake for me. I just wanted to win the race and didn't care about time. Pack style or short track time means NOTHING!
After the race I apologized for swearing the day before to Marty Haire. I told him that he was skating really well and this is what it's all about. He appreciated hearing that he said. If he wasn't skating so well I wouldn't have had to dig so deep for those two races. I always thought of him as more of a short track skater but he is a man on a mission this year. I heard from Chris Callis that he lapped him 10 times in a marathon the year before. He also beat Andrew Hodor in a 5k this year I heard.
3k for all the marbles. Marty's a competitor and he said he knew he got in my head the day before.

Last race conditions changed big time. Crappy ice, snow storm, and wind. Jim "marathon man" Cornell took off like we were doing a 500m. Tom Cole, Glenn Corso were also strong in that race. Marty raced a ballsy race keeping the pace high and pulling 3 laps. I just executed my strategy and took off with 1 to go. I didn't pass Marty till the last 100m. I really shot out of the last turn and had a good gap at the line. I pumped my hands and had my knee up in the air AFTER the line. One of the refs said on the next lap that it was a "dangerous move". If someone was around I might have kicked them. Come on. You can't have fun in speedskating.
That was all about me. Jerica raced awesome as did Mark Chrysler and Pat Knox.

To be continued......