Mid Season Breaks

It's always a good idea to take a break in the middle of the season to avoid burnout and refocus your efforts. Traditionally for me it's usually the week after Fall Long Track World Cup Trials at end of Oct and the US Championships at the end of December both of which I didn't do this year. This year I've had two forced breaks.

One was for 8 days around the middle of October when I had diarrhea for two weeks. It actually started during the America Cup ST 1 in Minnesota. One of the last races I raced that day was a 1000m D final. It was the D final because I was knocked down in the heat. I was racing one of my teammates who is getting faster and faster but I usually wouldn't have a problem beating him when 100%.

I encountered something in a race that has never happened before in my time in speed skating. I had to go to the bathroom bad (like diarrhea bad) with 4 laps to go in the 1000m. Not a fun feeling when you are out in front of the pack with other things to worry about. Anyways my teammate passed me with two to go but luckily he slipped coming out of the 2nd to last turn. I snuck by him and barely won the race.....I hockey stopped down the other end where I exited quickly. I ran down the length of the rink by all the locker rooms. Made it to the bathrooms downstairs. It was weird that the locker room had a shower only??? I was just wondering why i didn't go in there. The two stalls were full downstairs! There was just a resurface after our race and the fans (what fans we had there) were heading towards the restrooms upstairs. I ran up the stairs guards on and helmet on. Made it in the bathroom stall with some people looking at me like didn't you just race. I let loose in the bathroom with what was much more enjoyable than the shallow victory in the D final minutes before.

Fast forward to today. I had been walking around the past two weeks feeling ok but have had a cough but nothing was coming up. Was able to train and wasn't too sick. I'm pretty stubborn or stupid that I didn't go to the doctor earlier. Wed night i was going to go to the doctor but didn't want to miss LT practice. I skated ST Friday morning and after every set couldn't stop coughing. The 7 lappers i was doing felt like 13 lappers.

So I go to the doctor's after skating. Takes a chest x ray and tells me i have walking pneumonia. Great. I've been on antibiotics for 4 days now and I'm still in bed this moment writing this. Starting to feel better but that's a relative term from how i felt the past few days. Like I wanted to die is how I felt

Anyways this is my 2nd break of the season and with better planning might have been planned. I came back strong after the last one in Cleveland at the America Cup there. I have some good stories from that meet that I will post some other time. I have been so busy with life and stuff that posting here hasn't been a priority. But I'm back for today anyways. Take care and leave some comments to let me know anyone actually wants me to 1. get better and 2. post some more on here and reads about my ramblings.

God willing i won't get sick the rest of the year since I am going to Master Sprint Worlds in Inzell and National LT in Milwaukee the end of the month. We are also going to the World Allrounds in Hamar, Norway the week before Inzell. Can't wait as I'm going with my buddies John Diemont and Mark Chrysler.

I am signed up for Master All Rounds in Norway the end of Feb but I need some serious financial aid to get there. It's a shame because I have a good chance of winning that. Also noticed that there is a Master Meet in Vancouver the week in between but that would be a dream to get to that as well and too much travel. Then the rest of the season will be the ST Nationals and then the Chumps Challenge at the Oval in SLC towards the end of March.