Skating With Wouter Hebbrecht

How to shop for a skating boot?

2011-03-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

When shopping for boots a lot of things can get confusing. There are many options out there and therefor I wanted to guide you through the process of shopping for boots. After reading this article you should be able to determine what boot is right for you.

1) What level of skating are you at right now?

It is obvious that before spending lots of money that you will need to determine your commitment to this sport. If you are an entry level skater that hasn't skated all that much and doesn't really know the sport yet, it's clear that you will not need the most expensive setup there is out there. A good entry boot will do just fine, you are probably shopping for a boot and frame costing you about $350. Yet be aware even as a beginner skater you need to be demanding. Do not accept a junk skate that is build sloppy and doesn't give you the support you need while skating. A beginner skater will need all the ankle support he/she can get since they do not have the same ankle strength pro's have. Therefor I call this the dangerous category! Make sure before buying a boot you can try on the boot and feel the boot. While trying on the boot make sure the boot is very tight around the ankles. Can I buy a boot for my kid that is slightly too big so he can keep it for a while and grow into it? Yes you can but I would suggest that you only buy a boot that is a little too big in length. As long as the ankle is tight in the boot you should be okay. If you can fit your thumb in between the boot and your ankle the boot is too big or not tight enough. Also remember to check if the boot is heat moldable. How strong should my boot be? Grab the boot in your two hands by the ankle area of the boot. Try to squeeze the boot together. If it is weak and you can push it together easily than imagine what is going to happen when you put the pressure of your whole body on it...not just your two hands! A boot that is too weak will make you fall in on your skates (knees will often touch each other since you do not have proper edge control).

2) How determinate are you to skate?

If you are only going to skate once to 3 times a week it is only obvious you do not need the most expensive boot out there. You will do just fine with a mid level boot that ranges anywhere from $375 to $495. I have seen too many kids that enter the sport and buy the most expensive skates out there. After a few months they call it quits and go play another sport. Imagine how those parents are going to advertise our sport as "expensive!" Advice someone to be careful with spending money when they begin skating. I understand vendors want to make money right now but that is not a good thing for our sport. Be true to yourself and advice people the right boot for the right situation. If a skater lasts in the sport he or she will come back to a vendor when you advised them correctly so you will make more sales over a period of time.

If you have been skating for well over 2 years and are skating 4-6 times a week you probably need to get a better boot ranging from $500 to $900. You will need a little more demanding boot since now you are advanced in skating.

If you are in this sport for more than 4 years and are very committed to your skating and your work out plan, you will need to upgrade in a big way. All too many times I see skaters work out and put all their energy in their training to see them fail because of equipment. If you put yourself through all of your workouts you really can't hold back on spending the right amount of $ on the right equipment. In this case we are talking about a boot ranging from $1000-1500. Remember you will get what you are spending!

3) How to start fitting a boot?

When first trying on a boot start with your regular shoe size. If you wear size 9 Nike's than try a size 9, it's as simple as that! Next thing you want to try and do is get up on the boot. Don't ever try on a skating boot in sitting position. Wiggle around in the boot and feel possible pressure points and tightness. Get into skating position and check your ankle. Remember the allowed space between the boot and ankle and check it. At this point the saying "customer is king" kicks in for a vendor. Let your customers try the boot or multiple boots if you can. Let them keep it on for a while if they want to. Let them move around in the boots and try the skating position. If you are standing behind the product you are selling this cannot be an issue. Use a carpet to avoid the mounting blocks to get damaged and make the boots look used.

Do not try on a boot when you arrive at a meet after you have been travelling for an extended period of time. Flying 2h + or driving 5h + will make your feet swell (pressure) so of course trying on a skating boot is not a good idea at that time.

Be aware of a boot with a lot of padding on the inside. This may look like a good idea in the beginning but really that is a way a boot maker is masking a weakness in the shell. Padding is soft and therefor will not last when you repeatedly skate on the boots. It will get pushed together and may even make you feel like your boots are getting loose and too big.

4) What if I want to order online/by phone and cannot try them on before I buy them?

You can always start by tracing your feet on a piece of paper. Read out the measurements from heel to toe and send that to the dealer. This should give a dealer an idea of the correct size you need and you can start with fitting that one. Of course you will need to deal with someone that accepts returns. Keep in mind that you do not want to damage a new boot in case it doesn't fit so do not mount the boot or even worse go for a skate on them. This would damage the boot slightly indicating little marks on frames and boots so in case of a return the dealer cannot sell that boot as new anymore and therefor loses out.

5) How much should I spend?

Remember that shopping for a boot is like shopping for a car. Your are simply getting what you are paying for. If a deal sounds too good to be true it probably is! Question the dealer about the boots just like you would ask a car salesman about his cars. Ask about the materials the boot is made of, if it's heat modable and how. Ask if there have been any know issues with the boot, any malfunctions with any parts of the boot. You will not walk out of a dealership with a 500 horsepower car for a small price, same goes for a skate with all the bells and whistles. However driving that high powered car is amazing and so is skating in a great custom made boot! In the end it is really what you are looking for that matters.

6) Service?

When buying a boot pay attention to the service a dealer offers you. What will happen in case of a malfunction? Some boots are factory made and they cannot exclude malfunctions. The most important is how a dealer will deal with the problem. Ask if they take returns, what the warranty is etc..If a dealer waits two weeks to answer you that probably gives you an idea of the service you will get.

7) What Simmons or Schankel boot should I get?

Service is big for Simmons and Schankel. When you are buying a hand made Simmons boots you also buy the peace of mind that Simmons will take care of you after your purchase. The customer service is amazing. Same goes for Schankel boots. Check out the table to see what boot would be right for you.

South Africa

2011-01-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
Time for another update on this blog. I've been away for a while busy skating really. I had the pleasure to be in South Africa for a month training coaches and skaters from all over the country. It's been an amazing experience I wanted to share with everyone.

I have been trying to help out the kids here since my first visit in March of 2010 by sending them a training program and any other advice I could give. It is really a pleasure to be able to pass on some of the knowledge I have been accumulating over the years I skated competitively. I also noticed that they were very receptive while I was giving them info so that made me want to go back to South Africa and teach them a lot more!

The first week I had about 30 skaters, all part of the South African National Team, skating together in Pretoria. Pretoria is the administrative capital of the country (yes they have 3 capitals; Capetown and Bloemfontein being the other two). We had 2 sessions a day with lots of technical info and skating exercises. Most of the sessions were planned to be 2 hours but ended up being 3 hours or more. That is how eager these skaters are to learn and improve. I expected to lose attention after 1h30 but that never happened. Every single skater kept listening and trying their best until the very end! It is really a coach's heaven if you know how to coach. It struck me that the skaters were picking up things very quickly without having to repeat myself too much.

I found out that most of the skaters are not living the easiest lives either. Some of them have their whole family to take care of before or after practice, all that while still going to school as well. That is probably why they are so dedicated: they sometimes need to walk for 30 minutes or more and catch rides in different taxis to get to practice so it is a given that when they make it to practice they want to put in a 100% effort and become better! None of the parents ever show up to support them either so it's really their own wish to be there. What a difference with our Western society where kids get dropped off at the door of the rink by their parents and later get picked up again, often not even willing to try and put in effort.

We also visited 3 other cities to help develop the coaching staff and skaters skills: Sabie, Port Elizabeth and Capetown were on that list. Sabie made me remember why I love skating that much. Wendy from South African Roller Sports has just started up a team there and they were just amazing! They skate on a very small tennis court going around and around! The little ones were just loving it, everyone was smiles and had fun! Nobody was complaining about the fact that they only had a small tennis court that was in bad condition to skate on! That reminded me about the basic idea behind skating: not winning races or competing but about just having fun and being without worries! They also didn't have enough skates to skate all at once so they had to create a shift taking turns! I hope they can get skates there soon so everyone can enjoy it! We had the pleasure to see a couple of kids of Sabie working with us in the last week of skating in Pretoria and I was amazed with the huge progress they made. They went from just barely rolling around to crossing over and skating much much better. If only they had the same means available to them as we do.

In Port Elizabeth we skated on a little loop around a local hospital near a township. The kids also had to share skates and sometimes take turns. They would also need a lot more skates and maybe a better location to train on. It's good to see that some of them are making the national team even with this little resources available; do they really want it or what?

Capetown was the last city we skated at before returning to Pretoria. The kids turned up in big numbers in Capetown, eager to learn and ready to improve. They had a little track right near the ocean with beautiful views. Capetown must be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited with a lot of colorful individuals.

During the last week we stayed in Pretoria skating with the local team. Some days they would have more than 100 skaters from beginners to very advanced skaters. We worked through about 5 sessions in 3 days. It was amazing to see their devotion and the effort they put in. What a great country for skating! A special thanks to everyone that worked with us and especially to Wendy. She is an amazing person that makes skating in South Africa and Africa as a continent possible by being determined and devoted with little resources!

Photo's by Wendy

2011

2011-01-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE! ENJOY 2011

upcoming events

2010-12-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
I am putting together my racing calender for 2011 (January-May). I am trying to find out some more racing all over Europe from April till May so please let me know if you know any good ones.
December 15th-January 14th: South Africa
January 15-16: 2nd Southwest Pacific Speed League meet in Grand Terrance, CA
February 3-6: Nationales Cali, Colombia
March 17-20: Nationales Bucaramanga, Colombia
April 15-17: Gross Gerau international, Germany
April 23-25: Trophee Trois Pistes, (Pibrac, Valence D'Agen and Gujan Mestras) France
April TBA: Geisingen WIC, Germany
May: Belgian National Championships Track and Road, Belgium

2010 Go Kart World Speed Skating Championships

2010-11-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yes you read that well...Go Kart Championships...slipping and sliding, oil on the road and corners you wouldn't push the limit sitting on a little cart going 40mph...let alone skate a World Championship... It was absolutely ridiculous! In 13 years of going to worlds I have never seen a more dangerous course.

Going back to 6m wide roads was definitely a BIG STEP BACK and everyone is wondering WHO made that change??? The road was so narrow that there was barely any place to pass..the last corner topped it all off being smaller and tighter than most track corners...

This doesn't sound good enough for you yet? I skated on the road during the track championships and told plenty of people responsible for it that the road would have big issues with oil spots surfacing after the rain. I was told not to worry about it and that they would fix it....well guess what...on the morning of the 200m heats that were supposed to start at 9 am, they didn't start 'til 11...reason being? You guessed it: oil on the road....if that didn't do it they already had the next thing lined up for us: pylons on the road! They decided to mark the areas off where oil spots were on the road so you had to maneuver your way through it! Too bad if you had a faster start and needed to go wider than other skaters because you couldn't...everyone had to take the same line, small or big boys....

Don't get me wrong I didn't think the whole championship was a fiasco...the track portion was actually ran pretty well and punctual...when the weather permitted so. But who in the heck approved such a road course? If you watch the results of the championships you will see that the traditional road skaters didn't really do so well..

In the seniors men 200m TT the skaters that opened up before the last corner were 0.2 seconds faster than anyone but because they weren't used to tight corners they ended up 3rd and 6th all within 0.08....It's not being a bad loser but its about knowing what you will face when you train for something all year long...if you invest a whole year of your energy and money you may want to know what Worlds is going to present you with....

At least next year we know that Korea is going to take care of the skaters! Knowing Guarne has rain every single day the organization could have taken care of a good area for us to sit but the athletes area was like a couple of stables lined up drenched in water after the first day...barely any chairs to sit on and no light during the first night..I know Guarne took over the event from Venezuela but that shouldn't be an excuse to do everything half way...

As you can notice I am absolutely disgusted with the way things went so why come back? Well I love this beautiful sport and I am more than committed to it! It's my life and I doubt I will ever do anything else...I don't want to call it quits because of one bad championship either...this sport has so much more to offer but we need to sit together and talk about it all more and longer than one hour a year...and in many other languages not just Spanish...

I have to admit that the refs this year were doing a great job and that given the circumstances they did an excellent job keeping it all under control!

HOW TO FIX A FEW THINGS?

Road courses need to get standardized just like tracks. We need to get a road layout that is the same all over the world. Look at athletics for example...those guys know what they are training for: a 400m oval...
The last corner of a road course needs to be at least double the radius of a track corner.
Athletes need to get taken care of and not just be pushed to the side sitting in ice cold/ super hot booths and having no accommodations what so ever.
Venues need to be finished at least 3 months prior to the competition, being approved by a committee member AND an experienced skater!
Venues need to be open for ANY nation that is willing to skate on the track/road prior to championships at least 30 days prior to the start of the competition.
Anti doping control needs to get improved A LOT! Samples taken at a championship need to get shipped to another country to get analyzed (no internal job).
Blood doping rules need to be put into place just like UCI for example. Hematocrite levels (under 50%) are a necessity in this modern sport.

WHAT ABOUT CHANGED RULES FOR NEXT YEAR?

the change of junior's age is a good thing for our sport giving younger kids more time to mature in a natural way.
the split up of the marathon away from the tradition championship is beyond me...the main reason behind it is that it was too expensive to have all those events in one championship?? So let me get this right...if we are having championships in Korea next year and a marathon championship somewhere else, doesn't that mean we have to get double the budget to travel to two places and so that would make it all a little more expensive?
Earphones banned? Personally I never needed earphones and I can see a lot of skaters forgetting how to race their own race when they use earphones so I can support this proposal. Also it will eliminate some dirty team skating.
Full drugs testing? FINALLY!

World Championships 2010 Guarne: 12h to go!

2010-10-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

We re all ready to race! Everyone has been here for a while adjusting and now its GAME TIME.

Nothing new till tomorrow. I'll be racing the 300m TT heats in the morning and finals are scheduled at night.

Check out the Colombian newspaper today:

http://www.elmundo.com/sitio/noticia_detalle.php?idcuerpo=3&dscuerpo=Deportivo&idseccion=55&dsseccion=Primera%20Página&idnoticia=162848&imagen=&vl=1&r=primera_pagina.php&idedicion=1901

2010 World Championships Guarne, 5 days to go!

2010-10-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

A quick update on the progress for the World Championships. We re on track to kick things off great. Our team's training has been great and the coaching staff with Jorge Botero and Pipe Botero has been very helpful. I am starting to feel pretty comfortable on the fast track and am now tackling the road course. It's definitely challenging! The last corner is a pretty tight one...normally not my favorite but I am adjusting and figuring things out for the 200m to take it with as much speed as I possibly can. The 500m is going to be an exiting race and possibly a pretty dirty one!

The traditional timing game has started now that most of the teams are here and are starting to lay down some fast laps. The truth is that this a psychological game where skaters pass times amongst each other to scare one another. The funny thing is that in the number of world championships I have been the guy with the fastest lap time rarely wins a race...so even a fast lap time doesn't guarantee anything! It's the guy that puts everything together that wins the races. Ofcourse the times taken are an indication of you being on or off pace but it shouldn't be nothing more.

On another note the Las Lomas Hotel is beyond expectations! I was a little afraid after hearing about Guarne being a little mountain town with nothing really here, but this hotel really proves that even in the middle of nowhere you can find great Colombian hospitality! I just wish they could control the weather as well! Temperatures are swinging between 40 and 95 day and night! Very easy to get sick ofcourse while skating so precautions are better taken!

Please check out some pics of us skating on the Guarne track and a pic of the Boteritos school in Medellin!

2010 World Championships Guarne, Road video!

2010-10-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

2010 World Championships Guarne, Track video!

2010-10-04T13:58:00.001-07:00

World Championships 2010 Guarne: 15 days to go

2010-10-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

TRACK OPEN

Hi everyone, a little update on the way things have been going here in Guarne. We weren't allowed on the track as expected in Guarne, Colombia so we were obligated to travel to Medellin every day (about 1h + car ride every day through the hills). We skated on the track of Suramericanos 2010, a very nice facility and kind of strange we are not skating there for worlds since everything is finished there and there is a lot more stuff around than here in Guarne. A big thanks to Pipe Botero and mum since they have been helping us a lot since we have arrived in Colombia!

However great news today! We were finally allowed on the track in Guarne...kind of a coincidence really since we didnt know that the track would be open. We were on our way to Medellin and passed by the track to see the Dutch Team and Argentinian team skate. So ofcourse we pulled over and jumped on the track too....well we couldn't really do that cause the surrounding of the track are a mess! We had to struggle throught the mud (see picture) because the accomodations are FAR FROM FINISHED! You better bring your old used shoes and not new ones :-(

We skated about one hour without anyone bothering us so thats a great start! Lets hope it stays that way! It is going to be interesting with the weather as well. It has been raining every day so far for a few hours a day. If you happen to have a timeslot that falls into the raining hours you better start negotiating with other countries to split the track. Luckily the Belgian team only consists of 6 skaters so it shouldn't be to big of a problem. Lets hope the rain clears out when racing starts otherwise we will have some very long days ahead of us. Since the road course is being build around the track, the track is pretty dirty and that makes it pretty slippery. Hopefully they fix it all in time.

I am uploading some video's of the track and (unfinished) road course as well so once they are uploaded I will add them on this blog! The road course is not the best i have seen the last few years. It is probably the worst to be honest. The road is only 5-6 meters wide and some of the corners are going to be a challenge. I would hope the refs are going to keep their eyes open during for example 500m, points races etc....

Stay tuned for more!

World Championships 2010 Guarne

2010-09-27T10:36:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update on the preps. for worlds with about 22 days to go before the opening. I am getting ready to leave for Colombia soon after preparing at altitude for the last 60 days. It was great training and pretty tough to figure out the effects of altitude on your body but i think i tuned it ready to go!

A lot of teams have already arrived or are about to arrive at their facilities in Guarne or elsewhere in Colombia to prepare for Worlds while the local forces are in full effort of building the road course. The only place skates will not prepare for a while is...yes the track in Guarne. I guess we will have a repeat of the 2007 World Championships in Cali, where they closed the track off to most foreigners until a few days prior to worlds. Too bad for people that have invested to come out early and train at altitude. I believe its about time that along with the bid for World Championships organisers will have to commit to opening the track about one month ahead of time... not just to their own country skaters but to anyone...at a cost or not (China 09...). Maybe something the team managers can bring up at this years meeting prior to worlds along with many other subjects. Small detail = in Cali 07 the senior men's Colombian squad walked away with 0 (=zero) gold medals, even after closing off the track to others!

I do understand that the organisers have to build their facilities and this year they have taken on a very diffucult task! They took over the championships from Venezuela with only a few months remaining...thank you for doing! I know personally that Colombia is probably the best country to organise a world championship with plenty of skating freaks and fans! I am sure despite the little details this championship will be awesome...

Small detail = the forcast for the next few days/weeks: RAIN AND 17C/69F

follow the world championships on:

9 weeks till worlds (23rd-29th of August)

2010-08-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

A little inside scoop on the workouts this week with about 9 weeks before worlds!

Monday:
a.m: track: flying 100m and 200m (10x)
p.m: gym: 1 h with interval on the bike

Tuesday:
a.m: track: 3 x 10 minutes with every 5 minute one lap sprint
p.m: hill sprints: 5 x 100 (all 100%)
3 x 200
2 x 300
1 x 500

Wednesday:
a.m: track: techincal drills 2h
p.m: gym: leg weights and slideboard

Thursday:
a.m: track 5 x 500m all out
2 x 1k all out
p.m: gym: core weights and slideboard

Friday:
a.m: 1h ride on bike plus leg weights
p.m: hill sprints: 5 x 100 (all 100%)
3 x 200
2 x 300
1 x 500

Saterday:
a.m: track flying 100m plus standing 100m (10x)
p.m: dryland exercises: explosiveness (2h)

Sunday: rest

All workouts on track and road include a 10 minute progressive warm up and a 10 minute cool down. I also stretch before every sprinting session!

World Championships selection Belgium

2010-08-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

4 Senior Men:

Wouter Hebbrecht (World Champion 2009)

Bart Swings (World Champion 2009)

Maarten Swings

Ferre Spruyt

2 Junior Men:

Matthias Voste

Siemen Tas

Coach:

Jorge Botero

Manager:

Luc Hebbrecht

NEW BELGIAN NATIONAL COACH

2010-08-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

I am glad, proud and excited to make this announcement: Jorge Botero will be the Belgian National Coach for the 2010 World Championships in Guarne, Colombia. I personally know Jorge since I raced with him in the same pro team (Rollerblade World Team) from 2002-2004.

a short skating resume:

3 x World Champion,

19 silver medals,

12 bronze medals

to total !34! medals at Worlds,

winning numerous WIC races and so on and on....a great resume to fall back on! He has been very active in coaching the last few years starting his own school and organisation.

Jorge will be a great inspiration to the Belgian national team and hopefully they can work together to obtain great results and good times!

Simmons Schankel!

2010-08-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

Become a fan of Simmons Schankel on Facebook! Click the link on the right!

worlds prep!

2010-08-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

Click the banner above to go see the official website of the 2010 World Championships in Guarne, Colombia! The track/ road course is being rebuild/build and will be opened on September 30th by the Colombian officials. Being at high altitude preparation will be more important than ever before.
Keep in touch to see how my preparation goes on. After all that went down at Euro's I seriously kicked things in a whole other gear...let's see if its going to result in October! Also stay tuned for some hot news to be released very very soon!

Rock Tape apparel

2010-08-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT THE NEW ROCKTAPE APPAREL

European Championships 2010

2010-07-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

Leaving soon for European Championships in San Benedetto Del Tronto.
The championships start on July 29th and go on all the way to August 8th....a good test in the build up to World Championships later this year in October. I am especially looking forward to skating on the road...it looks like a great new wide road where the fastest man should win! The track is a little more complicated being only 166m...not a great choice with our increasing speeds on 110mm wheels...

I will try and update some results as soon as I can. Not sure if I will have wifi in the hotel since it is Europe ;-) but I will try and get some stuff online! The Belgian senior men's team is:

Wouter Hebbrecht

Ferre Spruyt

Kwinten Tas

Maarten Swings

Bart Swings

Jore Van den Berghe

More news on http://www.euroinline2010.it/

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010

2010-05-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Finally the World Championships location has been appointed to: GUARNE, COLOMBIA. A small city just outside of Medellin. The dates have remained unchanged: 22nd till 30th of October. One small but important detail is that Guarne is at about 2100m above sea level!

ROCKIN' NEWS...ROCKTAPE!

2010-05-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

http://rocktape.com/rocken-news

Rocktape welcomes Daniel “Hollywood” Holloway of Bissell Racing and Inline Skating Champion Wouter Hebbrecht to Rockstar Roster April 26th, 2010

Rocktape, the leader in high performance athletic tape and accessories for active people everywhere, today announced a multi-year partnership agreement with professional road racing cyclist Daniel Holloway and professional inline skater Woutter Hebbrecht.
“Rocktape is delighted to be associated with Daniel, a rising star in the pro peleton, and Wouter, a well recognized member of the inline skating community,” said Rocktape CEO Greg van den Dries. “We’re excited to have them promote our message to the professional cycling and skating communities, and support our overall evolution as a company.”

Holloway, a Bay Area native, holds multiple Track National titles, is a World Cup Bronze medal winner and member of USA Cycling’s national development team and 2012 Olymic hopeful. “I started using this type of tape while training in Europe,” said Holloway, a member of the Bissell Racing team, which is directed by Eric Wholberg and includes brothers Ben and Andy Jaques Maynes. “When it comes to kinesiology tape that is reliable enough for professional athletes. there’s really only one choice, and that is Rocktape.”

Hebbrecht, a professional skater since 2002, is a 50+ time National Champion, two time World Champion in the 200m, four time European Champion and World Inline Cup Stage winner.
“After trying out different kinds of tapes I found that Rocktape was the only tape that can withstand an explosive 200m start or last a full marathon,” said Hebbrecht. “Since I race in hot weather and rainy conditions, I need a tape that I can count on! When I apply Rocktape, I am guaranteed my tape will last.”

Dr. Amor Adams, a member of the 2008 Olympics Team USA Sportsmedicine Staff, works with Hebbrect in preparation for his races. “As a sportsmedicine specialist, I need to provide athletes with all the advice I can give them to perform better and achieve their goals. Rocktape has been an integral part in the treatment of injuries, enhancing performance and preventing further injury. The product is suitable to different sports and levels of athletic ability – whether one is an olympian, a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, Rocktape works.”

As part of the company’s mission to deliver high-quality products that meet the needs of all athletes, Holloway and Hebbrecht will collaborate with Rocktape’s research and development team in the design of select merchandise to better serve the cycling and inline skating markets.
“When Rocktape approached me and asked me to help test their improvements I was intrigued,” said Holloway. “I always felt that there was room for improvement and Rocktape hasn’t disappointed.”

Holloway and Hebbrecht join a prestigious roster of Rocktape users that includes the New England Patriots, Team Garmin Transitions, National Champions Coryn Rivera, Shelley Olds, Cari Higgins, Spence Peterson, Jennifer Schuble and Ian Moir.

Pro M1...sizzling!

2010-05-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just received a new pair of Simmons custom Pro-M1 skates to try out...The new technology in this boot called E.C.P. standing for Edge Control Platform, developed by David Simmons and Joey Mantia. I must admit at first I though this wasn't going to be any different from any other Simmons boot I got but I was fooled. Back in December I got to try a last while I was at Dave's house. The problem was that it was Joey's last so it felt a little weird even though we have pretty similar feet. I could already feel what they were talking about but I wasn't convinced at all.

Yesterday I received my own custom pair of Pro M1 boots and now I know what they are talking about. It's not just a sales pitch but it actually works! For months I have been trying to find a decent form outdoors to get up to maximum speed. I always felt like I had six gears but was only operating 5 of them. After ONLY 10 minutes on this new boot I think I found gear six and maybe even gear 7! The control on this boot is just simply amazing! Never ever in my 26 years of skating have I put on a boot that allowed me to sprint with it in the very first session...this boot felt so natural that I didn't even think twice about sprinting on them. As a matter of fact Sara had to tell me to go cause I was so happy skating on them that I didn't want to stop...take a look for yourself at my setup and also look at Sara's sizzling pro m1 setup!

Gross Gerau

2010-04-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update that i wasn't able to make it to Gross Gerau this year...too bad because for sure this years edition is going to be a great one!

Cartagena Day 1:

2010-04-08T20:08:00.001-07:00

Finals are just about over here in Cartagena:

200m Senior men:
Steven Martinez 16.3 (1st)
Munoz 16.4 (2nd)
Causil 16.5 (4th)
Hebbrecht 17.1 (10th)

200m Senior ladies:
Jercy Puello (1st)
Estefania Cuervo (2nd)
Elisabeth Arnedo (3rd)
Sara Sayasane (12th)

A rather dissapointing day today for myself. Just like every year Cartagena is my first big race of the season where I race guys that are in great shape early in the season. Because the Colombians need to race for their national team selection they are all pretty fit and fast. Since this is my season opener I am everything but fit and fast...and there is no way to hide yourself here if you are unfit. On top of that I have done zero starts before I came out here since I was trying to get my knee taken care of. That showed in my opening 100m where I did a 9.9???? That is probably the worst start I have had in years....

Anyway enough with my excuses why I didn't do well. I know when I come here racing will be hard and that needs to motivate me to go back home and work twice as hard as before and really start working on my speed! Since worlds is going to be in October (now even gossip about worlds in November) I moved my training schedule around to start working on speed later in the season. I have no other races in mind to win this year but the World Championships so I can afford to be peaking in that race only. That however makes me pretty weak when I skate big races early in the season. Since I work hard in the gym and still do basic stuff right now its is nearly impossible to compete with these guys. This however is very fustrating and as the reigning world champion 200m, people expect you to win all the time. Keeping my eyes on the prize remains the most important thing...regardless of what people expect.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

2010-04-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

CARTAGENA COLOMBIA:
Programación IV Valida Nacional Interclubes Cartagena Fecha

Thurday April 8th (Road)
Mayores Varones
8:00 AM
200 CRI Clasificación/ 200m TT heats
10:00 AM
10.000 Mts Puntos Clasificación/ 10k points race heats
6:00 PM
200 CRI Final/ 200m TT final
Premiación/Awards
7:00 PM
10.000 Mts Puntos Final/10k points final

Viernes 09 de Abril/ Friday April 9th
(Ruta) y (Pista) / Road and Track
8:00 AM
500 mts Baterías Clasificatoria/ 500m sprint heats road
10:30 AM
500 mts Baterías Final/ 500m sprint final road
5:00 PM
15.000 MTS ELIMINACION Clasificación/ 15k elimination heats track
Premiación/awards
7:00 PM
15.000 eliminación Final/15k elimination finals

Sábado 10 de Abril (Pista)/ Saturday April 10th (Track)
8:00 AM
1.000 mts. Baterías Hasta Semifinal/1k heats and semi finals
10:00 AM
10.000 Mts Combinada Clasificación/10k points-elim heats
6:00 PM
1.000 mts. Baterías Final/ 1k finals
7:00 PM
10.000 Mts Combinada Final/ 10k points-elim finals

Domingo 11 de Abril (Maratón)/Sunday April 11th (Marathon)
7:00 AM
Maratón 42k/ 42k marathon final

consumer advice

2010-04-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

THEY SHOULD COME WITH A WARNING!

Skating around the world I see a lot of different products and I just wanted to point out that some of them should come with a warning! I understand the position beginner skaters are in when first buying a skate. They have about 20 different skates offered to them at different prices. Imagine not knowing anything about skating and all boots look similar to you at first? What are you going to go for? Right, the cheaper solution. However you should be very careful when buying cheap boots! The danger in that is that the boots look similar too high end boots but are very low in quality and therefore not supportive enough in different areas. The biggest problem is the ankle support they claim to give skaters.
Enough complaining about it...every successful brand is likely to have copy cats chasing them...
Here are some pointers to avoid buying a boot that is more likely to hurt you in the long term:

make sure the boot is stiff enough...a boot that you can push together with your hands is probably too soft to support your whole body weight.
check the finish of the carbon or fiberglass before you buy the boot. Are there any visible lines that look very unfinished and unclean then assume the job hasn't been done the right way and you may want to stay away from the boots.
check the inside of the boot; is the liner on the inside of the boot finished and glued to the shell without room to move?
Take the front and back of the boots firmly in your hands and try to bend it. If the boot flexes too much in the middle it is probably going to do the same thing when you skate on it is likely to rub against your second wheel, especially when you buy a 4 x 110mm setup.
Always ask your fellow skaters about the boots you are about to buy! They can always give you some free advice that is worth a lot. They have years of experience in skating and buying equipment themselves. Your coach is not always the right person to ask since they may not skate themselves!
Check different websites and inform yourself before you face a salesman. They are good at their job and will make you buy any boot.
forget about saving instant money buying the cheaper skate! You will make up for it in medical bills in the future! You can compare it with buying a fake watch that will run for a few days but could never compete with the real thing!

To finish this off I wanted to state that there is no such a thing as a perfect boot for everybody. That is way industry leading factories offer different setups and models. Every skater is different in skills, weight, height, technique and etc, so all of those points may require a different setup. Doing your research is probably the most important thing to remember!

Simmons/Schankel Racing team update!

2010-03-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Copied of the www.schankel.com website!

Song (World Champion) Joined with US !!
2010/03/30
In this season, we are really proud that we can inform you of good news again

We, Simmons and Schankel, were completed to make a contract with Song Quing Yeng who is the best racer in the world in Taiwan last week.
Briefly explaining about him, he is from Taiwan and won 5 gold medals and 1 silver medal in JR, World champion 2009.
After that, he advanced to SR. We are expecting he becomes world champion like Joey Mantia.

We are really glad that he becomes Simmons and Schankel team member from now on.
Also, it is happy for him to join in our team calling “dream team” including 7 gold medals list 2009, Joey Mantia and 2009 gold medal list 2009, Wouter.

We dare to expect Simmons and Schankel dream team will win many gold medals in various events like WIC.

World Championships 2010

2010-03-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

I just found out that the 2010 World Championships in Venezuela have been cancelled. I am waiting just like all other skaters to find out where the World Championships will be hosted...countries as Chile, Mexico and even China have been named but I do not think there has been a decision made. Lets hope we will find out soon as skaters need to adjust their schedules if dates are changes as well...

RockTape

2010-03-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Need some kinesiology tape that will last an explosive 200m sprint or a full marathon on skates??? Go check out ROCKTAPE. Its a technology many skaters from Korea have been using for a long period of time and now you can get an improved version of their kinesiology tape!

"ROCKTAPE is the only Kinesiology tape engineered to meet the demands of endurance athletes like runners, swimmers and cyclists. Unlike other products, ROCKTAPE can be used both to apply compression to promote recovery, or decompression to relieve pain and swelling. Similar to the Kinesiology tape in the Olympics and that Lance Armstrong wrote about in “Every Second Counts”, ROCKTAPE is used by professional and amateur athletes everywhere. "

South African Open Championships

2010-03-24T05:08:00.000-07:00

The site:

I decided back in December that I wanted to start my 2010 season in another way, when the RSSA contacted me to ask me to compete in their open national championships I thought that would be a perfect way to start the season. A trip to South Africa is just something you can not do every day and compete with other world champions just makes it even better. I arrived late at night after about 21 hours of flying to get taken to a village in the middle of...well nowhere. They had put me up in a little hut in the middle of a camp full of wild life...what can you expect more when visiting Africa for the very first time? The hut was great by the way in a camp surrounded with electrical fences to keep the wild life out! Our first dinner with other skaters and Wendy Gila and her husband Bruno from RSSA was great...to top it off one of the camp instructors brought in a baby snake....

Skating:

The first skating session on the road circuit in the Mandela Village was a real eye opener! I have never seen kids more enthusiastic about skating and training to get better. They have such a passion about skating that it makes me guilty to know that I can skate professional and these skaters with the same passion can not do the same thing. On top of that the equipment of most skaters is very poor with burned wheels and bearings that barely spin...BUT this whole time I didn't hear anyone complain about that! They are thankful that they have a pair of skates and that they can compete with whatever they have! What a contrast with the Western world!

Racing days:

To kick the competition off we started with a 200m. The very first one of my season. The road circuit was pretty good and i skated a 16.72 that was good enough for first. We had little time to relax since the 1k heats were up next. I made it through to the final and also won this distance. The next event was a 10km elimination race in which I finished 3rd. The second day of road racing had a 500m sprint and a 5k points race on the program. I won the 500m and sat out on the point race (not really my cup of tea). The final race on the road was a mixed relay where ladies and men, foreigners or Africans joined each other in teams of 3. We made it so the South African skaters would finish the race and spark the interest of the crowd.

The final day of racing had the marathon in store for us. A 42k race in very hot and hard conditions. I didn't know if I could finish a marathon since I haven't for a very long time but I did not want to give in for 2 reasons: to show my negative thoughts that I can finish a marathon and to show the South African skaters that even though you may not always have the right conditions (or be in the right condition) you can still finish things the way you want to! I finished the marathon in 3rd. That made me win the overall ranking for all 3 racing days as well...since I became a sprinter I can not remember the meet where I won the overall ranking....

The crowd:

This has been on of the most amazing crowds i have ever seen. Every day the number of people in the stands grew and they got more and more into skating as the racing went on. The skating of their local heroes such as Tsepho Modikwe made the crowd even more interested in racing. They were shouting, dancing, cheering and putting hands out to get touched...what an amazing crowd! They even asked us for an ENCORE after the relay!!! As passionate about skating as the skaters themselves! No reason why skating can not grow in South Africa.

The future:

Another reason that skating wouldn't be able to grow is the work of volunteers! People like Wendy, Bruno, Patrick, Shaun, Riaan, Nicky and lots and lots of others are making this story so interesting. They have to do everything with a lot less resources than we do in the western parts of the world but their passion and hearts make more than up for that! These people give themselves 100% for skating every single week and that is what is a big part or the success story they are about to write! Not only is the number of skaters in South Africa growing because of these people but also the quality of skating. Like I mentioned above the local heroes are making themselves stronger and stronger in every race believing a little more in their abilities after every single race! I am sure in the future we will hear more of these skaters. The World Championships have not shown the ability these skaters really have..they miss racing with other countries and are pretty isolated in far South Africa...but be on the look once they start racing in the international scene these skaters will catch your attention!

South African Open

2010-03-10T09:58:00.001-08:00

Upcoming event:
From March 18th till the 21st I will be competing in South Africa racing the South African Open Championships. Its my first time heading down to South Africa so I am pretty excited about this event! It will for sure be a great experience and a nice way to open up the 2010 racing schedule.
They are expecting a bunch of foreign skaters so I will make a little report for you every single day. Keep posted for more!

Product review: Schankel Viol II

2010-02-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

I have promised you to review a few products every now and then. I wanted to wait and get a little more feedback of this boot before I started to write about it. I have recently put some skaters on this boot and I am pretty pleased with the results.

Find out what they had to say. Here is the first testimonial; "I didn't expect too much out of these boots since I was skating on another top of the line boot already. They compare easily with other top of the line boots for way less. Better yet I feel little to no difference putting them on right away so once I am fully used to them they will probably perform even better"

Another testimonial: "I cannot believe I have been skating on other boots for that long without knowing what a real boot is supposed to feel like....the support of these boots is just amazing and so much better than my older skates. I cannot believe how good they fit around my ankles and how they allow me to skate with edges. The ankle support is just great. I can finally find my edges on these boots without the pain it used to cause me in my old boots!"

That is just the opinion of 2 skaters...without even asking them to put in a good word! Looking at the boot it is very stiff at the ankle and probably the most narrow boot near the Achilles. That results in a tighter fit and of course more support in so your oh so important ankles! That also allows any skater to actually control their boots! What they did not mention is the control they can get out of this shell. The shell is based of a Simmons boot so it has top quality. It lets you push through your whole foot without having to get too technical. That creates an easier steering of your boots and of course that results in a better push off the ground!

The mounting blocks available on this VIOL II are 195 and 165mm. Schankel built these boots with the lightest mounting blocks possible reducing the weight of these boots significantly on top of the lightest carbon they use!

Lets sum it all up then:

Positive:

the weight
the comfort and control around the ankle
the price/quality ratio

Negative:

the white may scare people away from buying this boot
the laces that come with it need to be waxed and less long

CLICK TO GET MORE INFO ON THESE BOOTS

OR GO CHECK OUT THE SCHANKEL WEBSITE

bumps on the road

2010-02-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I haven't really been writing too much on my blog since I have been trying to take care of myself for a change....I have been struggling a little bit with a knee problem and its been diagnosed as a Tendinitis of the quadriceps tendon. People involved in sports or activities that involve a lot of sharp movements, repeated knee strain or uneven surfaces are at high risk. The condition is common in basketballers, footballers, runners, tennis players, snow skiiers etc. I have been looking for a good doctor to take care of me here in the SJ/Bay Area and finally found a good one that understands sports. Dr. Adams, a sports medicine specialist from Oakland, treated me with some Graston techniques to basically break up the scar tissue around my knee. She was recommended to Sara and myself by the Olympic center in Colorado over the summer. She was the head doctor of the US Olympic team in Beijing so that's a business card that can count!

It was the first time i underwent a Graston treatment and basically it breaks down collagen cross-links and splays and stretches connective tissue and muscle fibers. Why do we need to get ride of scar tissue? Because it limits our range of motion and in many cases causes pain which prevents athletes to undergo their daily exercises.
The good news is that I already feel way better, even after one day, and I can keep skating and riding my bike. I can even lift weights but need to lay low on my plyometrics program for a while.

I also wanted to let you know that there has been some postings on my blog that weren't authorised such as commercial postings. I will keep an eye on this and try to clean it up! Sorry for the inconvenience! If you want to contact me to post any messages please feel free to contact me. You are always welcome to leave a comment so don't worry about that!

Pictures

2010-01-21T09:31:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone, just like i promised in my last post I am adding some pictures for you to enjoy. Feel free to use them. I have received some nice new products from Schankel that I will review for you soon! Keep checking!

pictures copyrighted by Schankel/Simmons

SIMMONS/SCHANKEL

2010-01-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

Of course news sometimes travels faster than you expect but I wanted to announce my entry with the Simmons/Schankel team as of 2010. Also I am even more fortunate to team up with 26 times World Champion Joey Mantia. That makes this team have 34 world champion titles since Sara Sayasane will cover the women's races!

Our first race will be right here in CA, the 2nd Southwest Pacific league indoor meet from 23th till 24th of January, followed up by a short training camp in Cali, Colombia. I will announce my full racing schedule shortly.

Remember I can do Simmons castings at all of these events so you will also have a chance to find out what a custom boot should really feel like.

We also have the Pro M1 coming out; a stock boot that is built by Dave Simmons and Joey Mantia to help all of you feel better on skates and feel how a Edge Control Platform will allow you to finish your push with more control and power compared to any other boot experience you have ever had.

We offer the full range of Schankel boots that are basically made with the cooperation of the master in boot making; Dave Simmons. In other words a Simmons boot quality for a little less $. That way we cover the complete market; the high end boots and entry level skates.

I will be active in Europe, USA and South America so stay tuned.

For more questions you can always email me at schankelusa@aol.com

I will put some great pictures online soon but for now only this one is ready for release:

NEWS

2010-01-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

BIG NEWS FOLLOWING SOON!

STAY TUNED!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS MY BLOG!

2009-12-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

"Can you teach me to sprint?"

2009-12-03T06:53:00.001-08:00

That's a question I hear a lot these days. I answer it with another question; "How often do you practice sprint?"

That's basically the key to sprinting; you have to practice it. The more you do it the better you get at it. I don't really believe that you are a born sprinter or distance skater until you start preferring one over the other. But keep in mind that even the endurance races are finishing up in sprints!

How can you improve your sprints? Just a few pointers:

1) PRACTICE IT, all year around. Don't start your sprint practices 3 weeks before a big competition as that will be too late. Also don't forget to sprint every now and than during your winter work-outs! Skating in the winter means skating a lot of extensive drills and your body forgets how to sprint so incorporate sprints in your work-out. For example when you do 1h skates you can sprint every 10 minutes for about 10-20 seconds.
I do one sprint session once a week from worlds till December and in January I start putting more sprint work-outs in my schedule.

2) STARTS are a big element in sprints; if you can not start you can already forget about 200m-300m and even 500m. To explain to you in detail if you are looking at Worlds in China we are opening from a standing start in 9.2-9.3-9.4 so if you are starting in 9.7 or higher you are chasing the facts for the remainder of your sprint race or time trail. Also doing a lot of starts will increase the stimulation of your "fast twitch muscles" and therefore make you stronger, more explosive and eventually faster.

3) PLYOMETRICS are another great form of shaping up your "fast twitch muscles" by using the stretch-reflex mechanism, allowing for much greater-than-normal force to be generated by pre-stretching a muscle (the eccentric contraction) before it contracts. Jumps are great to increase your power and stamina.

4) WEIGHTS! Yes, I do believe in weights and personally they are a big key in my skating. For sprint specific training you can do reps at over 75% of your max.

5) Combine 3) and 4) in one practice; you can do weight lifting followed up with jumps. This will induce greater recruitment of your fast twitch muscles. This is also known as complex training.

6) OVER-SPEED TRAINING , this has a neural effect if the athlete consciously moves his own limbs at the increased pace. You can train this sprinting down hill on your skates and focusing on a correct skating style.

7) RECOVERY should be taken between very intense plyometric/complex training and speed work sessions.

NOW GET TO IT ;-)

Nieuwe schoenen?

2009-11-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

Even updaten dat ik op 28 en 29 november in Belgie zal zijn en plaasters kan maken voor wie Simmons schoenen wil!

Denk jij dat het toeval is dat 8 uit de 11 gouden medailles op het WK voor seniors heren op simmons schoenen zijn gehaald? Wil je dezelfde schoen als Joey Mantia...

Ook de Simmons onderstellen zijn verkrijgbaar!

Afspraken kunnen vanaf nu gemaakt worden via email:

wouterhebbrecht@hotmail.com

Ook via die email kan je meer info en prijzen verkrijgen.

Meer info over Simmons schoenen vind je via deze link:

http://www.simmons-racing.com/Worlds_fastest.html

Friday Ride through hills of Milpitas

2009-11-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

I have been playing around with a new app on my phone called RUN GPS and it gave me the following stats for my moderate ride today through the Milpitas hills in CA.

Cycling near Milpitas (United States) BY Wouter Nov 6, 2009 1:38:00 PM, 30.42 mi, Duration: 0.01:39:31, Avg Speed: 18.34 mph

Athlete: Wouter
Sport: cycling
Route: old calavares friday ride
Location: Milpitas (United States)
Description: mod hill ride
Distance: 30.42 mi
Date/Time: Nov 6, 2009 1:38:00 PM
Duration: 0.01:39:31
Active Time: 0.01:39:24
Total Average Speed: 18.34 mph
Active Average Speed: 18.34 mph
Calories: 1355 kcal
Average Temperature: 68 °C
Average Heart Rate: 158 bpm
Min Heart Rate: 87 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 195 bpm
Average Cadence: 72
Min Cadence: 35
Max Cadence: 136
Min Altitude: -58 ft
Max Altitude: 1020 ft
Ascent: 8094 ft
Descent: 8090 ft
Training data plausible? yes
Device: T-Mobile myTouch 3G (Android)

Positive thinking and success

2009-10-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry that i haven't updated my blog more often but I have been so tired after every workout that I didn't feel like doing much more than relax and sleep. It's been about 3 weeks post worlds and you should be back into training just like me. I feel extremely tired after every gym session I do and i caught myself having some negative energy. Also when I am doing my long extensive training for 1h plus I start thinking about only skating for 30 minutes. How can I help this? I want to change quickly and I started thinking about how to change this around. I want to feel like my daily affairs go smoothly and obtain inner peace, success, improved relationships, better health, happiness and satisfaction. I am writing a blog post about it cause it helps me look at it and read it myself when I happen to have negative feelings. It's normal that every human being every now and than has negative feelings or moods. I hope I can help some of you out with what I try to do when I feel negative.

WAUW you could say that's a lot to think about but there are some tricks to help you with this:

first of all you need to try and stop thinking negative thoughts. If you can not ignore those thoughts they will take over your mood and you will always feel tired, moody and negative overall. Refuse to think about negative thoughts! If you so happen to have a negative influence or thought you should try and replace it with a positive one!
Only think about feeling of happiness, success and strength while you are training
Never use the words: "I can't" but use "I can, I am able to, I will, It can be done, We will do it,..."
at practice try to use words that evoke mental images of strength, happiness and success
every time you train you should try and simulate a game plan and see yourself execute the plan in a successful way! For example when you have to skate all by yourself for 1h at an easy pace; picture yourself skating in front of the pack and controlling the pack. In your mind you can simulate races or competitors racing right besides you. It takes a little bit of imagination but I am sure you can picture it! Think about when you beat your competition or how you are going to beat them while you are practicing. Start doing this kind of mental drills in your very first practices of the year so you get used to that way of thinking when you actually have to race!
Look for the fun you can have in anything you do! If skating with friends is fun for you or just hanging out with them before or after practice than focus on those thoughts that make you happy being there with your friends!
write your goals of the season on a piece of paper and put it on your bedroom wall or door so you have to look at it every day and it inspires you to go and do work!
minimize the amount of time you look at negative news, listen to negative people telling others it can't be done.
Surround yourself with positive people that can boost your confidence instead of people that always see the glass half empty. If you train with people that give up and talk about negative feelings all the time you will be less focused on your goals and thoughts! Try to avoid that at all times!
Leave any personal problems or other issues at the door when you enter the training facility! Nobody needs to hear about your boyfriend/girlfriend problems until you are done training! Meet up with your friends to talk about those things after practice! If you happen to be mad before a practice because of problems, convert that energy into a boost for your upcoming workout!

Positive thinking is contagious. People around you pick up your mental moods and are affected accordingly. Look at the bigger teams and clubs around you in any sport. Most likely there will be people in that club that are very positive and others that just like to hang out in that atmosphere, they enjoy the vibrations of a positive mindset. I see that phenomenon at World Championships every year. A winning team has a very good positive way of thinking and it affects every team member to perform far beyond their previous though of possibilities.

It is not as simple as taking a moment to tell yourself during a drill that you can do it. It comes from deep inside yourself! You need to actually believe it before you can do it. If you tell yourself you can and than moments later let fear and doubt enter your mind, all of the above will not work. You need to change from the inside to obtain a positive way of thinking!

A few quotes to finish it all up:

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”

“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours”

worlds fastest....

2009-10-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

It's not all about being strong and fast, it has also a lot to do with what you are on! Check this link out and it will become clear to you! Thanks Dave and Jennifer for your support in 2009!

SIMMONS WORLD'S FASTEST

Royal congratulations...

2009-10-03T08:12:00.001-07:00

Here is something you don't get to see every day! Being a Belgian citizen I live in a Belgian Kingdom. Our king's name is King Albert II and he is the sixth King of Belgians. He followed the performance of the Belgian team during the World Championships in Haining and has now sent us a letter of congratulations. Okay it's in Dutch but its still pretty neat!

STAATSVOORRANG
BELGISCHE FED. ROLLERSPORTEN

HET VERHEUGT ONS VAST TE STELLEN DAT DE BELGISCHE ATLETEN INLINE SKATING VERDER BOUWEN AAN HUN SUCCESSEN EN OP HET WERELDKAMPIOENSCHAP SKEELEREN IN HAINING ZEVEN MEDAILLES BEHAALD HEBBEN.
MAG IK U VRAGEN HEN GELUK TE WENSEN MET DEZE NIEUWE GLANSPRESTATIE EN WIJ HOPEN HEN NOG VAAK TE MOGEN FELICITEREN.

ALBERT - PAOLA

Why we are addicted to training?

2009-10-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

In my last post I touched the subject of being addicted to working out and the need my body has in training hard from time to time. I wanted to find out why exactly I feel that way and scientifically there is a perfectly clear explanation to it all:

"Eight Hormones and Exercise"

by "Greg Landry"

There are many physical, mental, and physiological benefits to regular exercise. One category of benefits is the impact that exercise has on many of your body's hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers within your body that affect almost all aspects of human function:

1. Growth Hormone
- Stimulates protein synthesis (muscle tone/development), and strength of bones, tendons, ligaments, andcartilage.
- Decreases use of glucose and increases use of fat as a fuel during exercise. This helps to reduce body fat and to keep blood glucose at a normal level which helps you to exercise for a longer period of time.
Release of growth hormone from the pituitary gland in the brain is increased with increasing aerobic exercise time, especially more intense exercise such as interval training.

2. Endorphins
- An endogenous opioid from the pituitary gland that blocks pain, decreases appetite, creates a feeling of euphoria (the exercise high), and reduces tension and anxiety. Blood levels of endorphins increase up to five times resting levels during longer duration (greater than 30 minutes) aerobic exercise at moderate to intense levels and also during interval training. Also, after several months of regular exercise, you develop an increased sensitivity to endorphins (a higher high from the same level of endorphins), and endorphins that are produced tend to stay in your blood for a longer period of time. This makes longer duration exercise easier (you're feeling no pain) and it causes your exercise high to last for a longer period of time after exercise.

3. Testosterone
- An important hormone in both males and females for maintaining muscle tone/volume/strength, increasing basal metabolic rate (metabolism), decreasing body fat, and feeling self-confident. It's produced by the ovaries in females and by the testes in males.
- Females have only about one tenth the amount of testosterone that males do, but even at that level in females it also plays a role in libido and intensity of org*sms. Production of testosterone in females begins to decline as a woman begins to approach menopause and in males it begins to decline in his forties. Blood levels of testosterone increase with exercise in both males and females beginning about 20 minutes into an exercise session, and blood levels may remain elevated for one to three hours after exercise.

4. Estrogen
- The most biologically active estrogen, 17 beta estradiol, increases fat breakdown from body fat stores so that it can be used and fuel, increases basal metabolic rate (metabolism), elevates your mood, and increases libido. This hormone is at much higher blood levels in females, but the ovaries begin to produce less of it as a woman begins to approach menopause.
The amount of 17 beta estradiol secreted by the ovaries increases with exercise, and blood levels may remain elevated for one to four hours after exercise.

5. Thyroxine (T4)
- A hormone produced by the thyroid gland, Thyroxine riases the metabolic rate ("metabolism") of almost all cells in the body. This increase in "metabolism" helps you to feel more energetic and also causes you to expend more calories, and thus is important in weight loss.
Blood levels of thyroxine increase by about 30% during exercise and remain elevated for several hours afterward - this period of time is increased by an increase in intensity and/or duration of
exercise. Regular exercise also increase thyroxine levels at rest.

6. Epinephrine
- A hormone produced primarily by the adrenal medulla that increases the amount of blood the
heart pumps and directs blood flow to where it's needed.
- Stimulates breakdown of glycogen (stored carbohydrate) in the active muscles and liver to use
as fuel. It also stimulates the breakdown of fat (in stored fat and in active muscles) to use as fuel. The amount of epinephrine released from the adrenal medulla is proportional to the intensity and duration of exercise.

7. Insulin (adrenaline)
- An important hormone in regulating (decreasing) blood levels of glucose ("blood sugar") and in
directing glucose, fatty acids (fat), and amino acids (protein) into the cells. Insulin secretion by
the pancreas is increased in response to a rise in blood sugar and/or amino acids (protein) as is often the case after a meal. Typically, the larger the meal, or the greater the quantity of simple sugars consumed, the larger the insulin response. An excessive insulin response causes fat production within the cells - thus, insulin is sometimes called the "fat hormone". Many overweight people's cells develop a resistance to insulin so that it takes more insulin to have the same effect. This creates a situation where blood levels of insulin are higher than normal. This condition is often
improved by losing weight and daily aerobic exercise.Blood levels of insulin begin to decrease about 10 minutes into an aerobic exercise session and continue to decrease through about 70 minutes of exercise. Regular exercise also increases a cell's sensitivity to insulin at rest.

8. Glucagon
- A hormone that is also secreted by the pancreas, but it's job is to raise blood levels of glucose
("blood sugar"). When blood sugar levels get toolow, glucagon is secreted and causes stored carbohydrate (glycogen) in the liver to be released into the blood stream to raise blood sugar to a normal level. It also causes the breakdown of fat so that it can be used as fuel. Glucagon typically begins to be secreted beyond 30 minutes of exercise when blood glucose levels may begin to decrease. So, next time you're exercising, think about all the wonderful things that are happening to your hormones. It might even make you want to do more exercise!

To your marks, set, GO...

2009-10-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yes its the end of a season but already the start of a new one. Everything will start all over again. I just recently won at worlds but right now that doesn't mean anything anymore. I won at that moment but from now on I have to work as hard as before and even harder to try and do it again! Currently I do not know what my future is in skating. Will I get a sponsor, another year with my government or anything like that? I am not sure but the only thing I am sure of is that I will go out to Venezuela for the 2010 World Championships in top shape. That is the only thing I can control and that's the only way to try and control your destiny.

No rest?

Not really, I believe that taking a long time off skates is hurting you more than doing you any good. Right now, fresh out a championship your body has learned things that you should engrave in your memory. If you stop skating your memory will forget about certain things you learned racing or training. Giving skating up for a month or so will in other words make your memory forget about the automatic things (muscle memory) you have been training for during the whole previous year. I don't train with the same intensity as prior to a world championship but I keep a certain level of training up. I will incorporate other ways of training such as swimming, cycling and running to mix it up a little but skating is still the biggest part of it all.

Training for what?

True, there are no more big races this year (maybe the WIC in Margarita is left) so why train hard? Standing still is going backwards and that also applies to inline skating. It's important to immediately set yourself new goals after a success. If you keep resting on your current success new kids on the block will soon catch up and even pass you. For example I won my favorite event in China, came off the track, enjoyed it for a few days but already went back into training mode. I have mentally set myself new goals such as defending this title and try to get a world record in the 200m. I also want to do better in the 500m. This way of working keeps you sharp and determined. That should be what you are training for and if you keep that in mind training should never become training for the sake of training. It should always be with a goal in mind.

Back to the dawning boards?

This is also the time of the year where you can attack your own weaknesses. My technical skills are not the best in the world and the next coming months that's something I want to work on. I will learn how to skate again starting from the basic. The camera will be my best coach and friend in tackling this problem. You cannot miss what you are doing wrong when you catch it on tape. I also want to work on my straight line finish. My starts were really good this year but I lost too much time on the straight lines.

Equipment will also undergo a big check-up. I will test new equipment, compare it to the older equipment and make conclusions. That's another way to make sure you stay on top. The clock will be my best friend in doing that. The best way to test a wheel, frame or any other equipment is to time yourself when you are doing things at a certain intensity. Feeling can tell you a lot but the clock never lies.

Teaching?

One of my other goals is to teach more people how to skate. Our sport is hurting in numbers and we all need to take our responsibility in doing something about that! Teaching people in how to skate and enjoy it more is one of the most important factors in making our sport grow to new heights. Teaching other people makes you think about your own skating a lot more too. Explaining or trying to discover what a skater can improve makes you analyze your own skating. You can even adjust yourself and do something way better after teaching someone about it!

Why not chase my Olympic dream?

I refuse to change what I like doing to pursue a different goal. I don't really care if we are an Olympic sport or not. Of course if it was up to me to go and reverse the OIC's decision I would do it right away. BUT; we were never Olympic and will probably never be so WHO REALLY CARES? Does it change the way of how I love and am addicted to skating? IN NO WAY WHAT SO EVER. So why would I give that up to go and do other things? Our sport has hold his own during many decades and will continue to do so. It is really up to all of us (skaters, coaches, federations etc.) to continue what we have been doing and try to make our favorite sport grow regardless of the Olympic status.

So am I addicted?

Yes in every possible way am i addicted to skating. It's the best thing ever to be addicted to your sport. Imagine you wouldn't be and you'd hate skating? How would you possibly put in the hours of training? My body has become addicted in hurting over the years. I need a good work out to feel balanced. It's the way my body has been chemically working for over 15 years now and it's the only way I want it. That will also be the subject of my next post so stay tuned!

Press articles of worlds:

2009-10-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Belgian leading newspapers:

HLN: Hebbrecht pakt goud op 200 m tijdrijden WK skeeleren

HLN: Hebbrecht buiten de medailles op 500 meter WK skeeleren

HLN: Wat kan Wouter Hebbrecht op WK skeeleren?

Standaard newspaper:

Wouter Hebbrecht wereldkampioen 200m tijdrijden op skeelers

De Morgen newspaper:

Wat kan Wouter Hebbrecht op WK skeeleren?
Hebbrecht pakt goud op 200 m tijdrijden WK skeeleren

Sport.be

Hebbrecht herovert wereldtitel

Hebbrecht 5de op 500 meter sprint

RTBF

Rollers: W. Hebbrecht champion du Monde

GLSSPORTS.BE

Wouter Hebbrecht torst Belgische hoop op het WK

Wouter Hebbrecht voor tweede keer wereldkampioen

Other sources:

Patincarrera.com

Wouter Hebbrecht y Jercy Puello reyes de la velocidad.

Official website Haining

HEBBRECHT Wouter won in Senior Men 200m Time Trial on Road

SkatingOnline.nl

Hebbrecht pakt goud op 200 meter

feel free to add more links in comments, thanks!

World Championships Haining 2009

2009-09-28T23:23:00.001-07:00

I am finally back home and have full access to the internet again. I didn’t really feel like updating my blog in China since it was too much of a hassle to avoid the million of filters the Chinese government has in place. I wanted to share the experience of my races at Worlds, I did 4 races in total. The first one was the 300m heats and finals on the track. I brought home a medal in the 300m for the very first time ever last year in Gijon, Spain and I expected to get close this year as well. I trained many hours on the track and started to feel pretty comfortable on the track getting times down every session I skated on the track. I began with about 25.2 on the first day and skated around 24.7 in the finals. That’s about 0.5 I pinched off my time by being there early.
Problem was that the time got me a 6th in the 300m final but that was not the reason why I was very disappointed. I felt really angry with myself because of the fact I gave about 0.5 away in my flying 200m….too much! I think the fact that the organization turned on the AC in the building changed the track a lot and I did not find lines for myself to feel comfortable anymore. Never did they turn on any AC unit during the practice days and at racing times it was even cold during the warm ups…but okay I hear you that is the same for everyone. I just do not adapt to a track as fast as I used to.

The morning after the 300m on track I decided that training on the road could be more beneficial and that’s what I did. I was very frustrated during the track championships. I just kept on thinking how I skated 0.5 seconds slower in a 300m while that should be one of the races I should be good in. That fact actually gave me a huge drive to practice really hard on the road and find the ideal line for the 200m. That brings me to my next race, the 200m TT on the road. I don’t think I have ever been so determined to accomplish something.

I did not even mention yet what was going on with Sara. She has a spinal injury that didn't heal fast enough so she couldn't compete. That caused a lot of worries for the both of us. She wanted to race so bad that she started the 300m TT heats. As soon as she started I could tell she was in too much pain to skate and I told her she would be better off not skating anymore. It is the worst thing for an athlete to be in good shape but have an injury holding you back from competing. It happens to the best athletes and in the end she only needs to be positive and think about the future. If her injury heals fast she can start training back up and come back next year to skate even harder and faster!

As I said above I decided to train on the road during the track championships. I skated twice every day to make sure I could run a fully automated 200m when I needed to. Because of the weather the 200m TT was delayed by another day and I felt myself become more and more nervous every day; I just wanted to race and get it over with. The heats of the 200m went pretty good, I qualified in 3rd but deep down inside I wanted to qualify in first. Only Andres Munoz and Joey Mantia beat me in the heats and that made me pretty angry. It was time for the finals now and I decided to go all in. I wanted to skate the fastest lines and the shortest one. Because the road was pretty dirty it was hard to start at 100% without slipping as seen in the heats but in the final I decided I needed to take the change and start with all the power I had left in my legs. In practice I ran a few good times and I knew a much faster time would be possible in the finals but I had to do it at that moment. I told myself to throw all the baggage off my shoulders and just try as hard as I could with a positive mindset.

I took off and didn’t slip one bit. I made it to the corner and all I could think of is to move my feet as fast as I could and I kept telling myself to accelerate again and again….corner went well and now I made it to the last straight line. I pushed as hard as I could for the remaining number of strokes I had left and saw the line approach fast. I hawked….but hawked too early… When I finally crossed the line I told myself I lost because I hawked too early. I slowed down and waited for my time to be announced. 16.45. I looked around because up until then I didn’t listen to anyone’s times. I had no clue if I had just done really well or really bad.
All I could do now is watch Mantia and Munoz skate to their best and hope they wouldn’t beat my time. And they didn’t. Now I saw my teammates and wife throw their hands in the air. Did I win it? Yes they announced it; it was official! I WON!

The next day I wanted to skate the 500m. The first heat I noticed it was hard to move around and make a pass just about anywhere on the circuit. I also had to start on the inside in the first heat and the way the referees put the starting line was absolutely horrible! If you were on the inside there was no other way to run your start than into your fellow skaters or inside the white line??? That was another reason not to win the heats so they would line me up in the middle of the road. Myself and my teammate Bart Swings made it to the same semi finals. We had an unfortunate bad start and a Chinese Taipei and French skater got in front quickly. I was on the outside and had to try and catch up with the top 2 skaters quickly before the gap grow too big. I got closer and closer and in the final straight line I ended up right next to the Taipei skater (Wei Lin Lo) but he hawked better than I did….gone final spot for me and Bart. I have to say I was very angry inside with this result. It was only my fault and nobody else so the only person I could be mad with was myself. Taking a medal in that race would have been very possible and that’s why I am disappointed with myself. I have to admit I made the mistake of not starting the 500m with the same mindset as my 200m race. I didn’t line up to take it…I was just undergoing every single moment without taking it into my own hands…a beginners mistake.

My last race was the marathon. I didn’t skate longer than 10 minutes straight since May so this was not going to be easy. I told myself I would take it lap after lap and just enjoy skating in a pack with the world’s best. It was however never relaxing and to my upset I saw how dirty and stupid a bunch of skaters were skating. I do not have any other words for it so sorry if that just offended you. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a bunch of skaters battle for 60th position in the FIRST LAP????? They were getting extremely physical with their fists…pushing skaters away that they shouldn’t even have to worry about…I even saw one of them push a South African friend with 2 hands?????

That brings me to the subject of refereeing at the world championships. I am not sure if the refs have all the help they need to make the right decisions and if they have the right training either but one thing is for sure; this was probably the dirtiest skating I have seen in a very long time! Some senior men were pushing with 2 hands and feet during 70 laps of their 75 laps race…some were being pushed off the track, others couldn’t pass in a final so just simply decided to push the person in front out of their way…all UNPUNISHED….We need to clean up our sport from the inside and that starts with yourself in the first place. Keep your hands of other skaters and outsmart them, outskate them and simply be faster. The 500m final senior men on the road is probably a nice example of that…Munoz just taught the other guys how to race and win a clean one!

On the way to worlds in China part 3

2009-09-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

(First of all I have to tell you that I cannot access my blog from China. There is a lot of censorship from inside China that blocks access to pages like blogspot and facebook...of course there is always a solution that that problem as you can see)

Arriving and settling in Haining:

Finally I can say I settled in the city of Haining after a few days. Getting over the travel fatigue was a pretty big deal this time. Travel plans were all messed up before I had even left San Francisco International airport; a typhoon hovering above Japan made all the US outgoing flights to Japan late. As a result of that I got into Narita International Airport a few hours later and missed my connection to Shanghai. I had to spend the night in Tokyo and the next morning I could finally board my flight to Shanghai. Once I got into Shanghai my next mission was getting a hold of a taxi and explaining him where I wanted to go. Because of my changed flights I ended up arriving way later so I didn’t have anyone picking me up. The organization did sent people out to the airport but I was unable to get a hold of them to warn them about my changed connections for which I am very very sorry.
I finally got to my final destination about 12 hours later than expected. The hotel and service I received checking in were really great and heartwarming. Hotel employees on this side of the world really grasp the concept of being at someone’s service.

The very same day I went to skate on the track and felt good for what kind of travel I had just been doing. The next two days however were really tough. Fatigue creeps up on you if you don’t rest enough after traveling to different time zones and that definitely happened to me. Nothing a good few hours of sleep couldn’t fix. Day 4 and 5 have been really productive for me I am starting to feel more comfortable on the track. Also the local organization has given me times to practice and were extremely helpful so far. I must say that they are really going out of their way to make us feel welcome in Haining and that’s definitely the case. I heard a lot of statments that the track wouldn't be for skaters with power but I am pretty sure the track will be similar to last years in time and results.

One of the things to get used to that is a little bit harder is the temperature and humidity. In 30 C and 84 % of humidity you seem to sweat a lot and after seeing a big pack of skaters skating on the track for more than 5 minutes there are sweat drops everywhere. That of course makes the track a little more dangerous to skate on. I wonder how they will control that. I have been told that the AC will be turned on but I am sure that will not make the place less humid.

The road course is pretty much finalized and seems to be shaping up great. It is pretty much a big 400m oval that is manipulated a little not to have 2 symmetrical sides to it. It seems like a great and fast venue were we could see some good times. I will try and skate on it as soon as possible to let you all know how it feels like.

On the way to Worlds in China part 2

2009-08-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

Why skating with other people is good for you!

Throughout the years that I have been competing I have to admit that training with other athletes can make you a WAY BETTER skater. I learned a whole lot off skaters by listening to them and taking all of the advice that I could take from them. Even if sometimes I could only pick up half of what they were saying I tried to take it all up and deal with it. More so I think I even learned a big deal out of skating with people that weren't world champions. They made me realize that skating isn't as easy as it seems; its not all about training till you drop and being the most physical skater you can be. It's also about learning how to push, how to position your body, how to swing your arms,....and one of the best ways to learn that is by analyzing other skaters.

Why I am bringing this up is because recently I had the opportunity to train with Joey Mantia and Michael Cheek. Those weren't the only people I have skated with during the years (Botero, Gicquel, Dobbins, Rabeau, Zangarini and Presti just to name a few) but training with Joey really made clear to me that a true champion is constantly analyzing his way of skating. I saw how Joey changed his technique daily to try and improve the way he was skating. He would go out once, twice or even three times a day to try and improve from session to session.While he was doing that he also gave me a number of pointers that I could work on as well and that by doing drills that he got taught a while back. Point is that he does remember what people taught him in the past and improves that with his own experience and by studying other athletes. On some of the drills we did he clearly was better than me. I was trying to learn from him and fix what i was doing wrong. Of course that is frustrating but this is the only way to improve and push yourself to the next level.

One of my weak points is skating indoor. I never skated indoor my whole life until I came to the USA. Honestly I have to admit that I do not have the same drive to get better indoor, I get really frustrated by getting beat all the time and it's not very rewarding to me. But I did learn one thing out of my indoor experience. I did not fully commit myself to it and did not take up all the advice people gave me to become a better indoor skater. I also skipped on several opportunities to skate indoor with the best in the world and that is all part of my failure indoor.

Why am I telling you all this? Simply because I learned that out of my failure in indoor that I need to make sure I can learn everything I can outdoor . I can not understand skaters that DO NOT want to skate with other top skaters. To me this is very silly. It's almost like the fear gets the best of them even if they have nothing to fear. It may give them an excuse later on in their career by saying they never had the opportunity but in my opinion you should take any opportunity to skate with anyone; learn from everyone! If someone asks you to skate with them, DO IT, you getting beat or being way better than the person that wants to skate with you doesn't matter, you learning a lot does! Thats why pro skaters race each other, that's why top football teams play each other, that's why MMA fighters fight each other: to get better!

On the way to Worlds in China

2009-08-10T07:09:00.000-07:00

Warriors don't take a day off:

2 Days after the European championship's end in Ostend I found myself sitting in the gym again...legs and body hurting. I got back into it with a lot of hard labor with weights, sprints, jumps etc...No time to take a rest, no time to sit down and look at how great the past championships were for Belgium. However 32 medals is probably historically the best hunt we ever came home with…no don’t even think about it…it can still be better! People will not talk about what the Belgian team won, they will point out the things we didn’t win at Euro’s this year! And that is a great way of looking at it and keeping yourself driven: remember what was good but more importantly never forget what wasn't good!
You can look at Italy this year; everyone said that Italy didn’t perform good this year but they did go home with 36 gold medals and 71 in total. As you can see it can always be done better and if you don't do it someone else will.
Compare it with Napoleon or even Caesar if you want. As those leaders needed to find new wars and territories they could conquer, athletes find themselves new challenges and want to find their own limits. Point being that I have seen way to many skaters rest after a little success! Get up and keep working on something bigger! Making a national team for a big competition is NOT a goal. Maybe your first year of trying out it’s an accomplishment but yet it should not be the end of your goals. Out of my personal experience I can tell you that even if you reached the biggest achievement of them all (that would be world champion in our sport), you should always look for a way to get even better if you want to win again and again. That’s another reason our sport is such a great one! Always teaching us there is more to it than just skating as hard as you can! I know if you take a rest your competitor will be out there working hard and that may very well make the difference this coming September!

European Championships Ostend Day 5

2009-08-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

After another long day full of heats and finals the following results of the 200m Senior men and a few pictures. Also Ferre (feefee) did a great job placing 2nd in the 20k elimination race. He was incredibly close to the gold medal (0.006s) but Francolini succeeded in holding him of. The Belgian senior men team did another great job working for their leader of the race and Bart even hung in there for 3rd. 20 medals and counting is what we are up to right now...in my 25 years of skating I have never seen the Belgian team this successful.

200m TT Senior Men:

1st Wouter Hebbrecht (BEL) 17.333

2nd Joseba Fernandez (SPA) 17.554

3rd Matthias Schweirtz (GER) 17.598

20k Elim Race Senior Men:

1st Fabio Francolini (ITA)

2nd Ferre Spruyt (BEL)

3rd Bart Swings (BEL)

200M VIDEO

European Championships Ostend DAY 1

2009-07-31T00:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not writing any sooner...internet in the hotel isn't great! Yesterday we skated the 300m heats and finals. A very long day with plenty of rain and cold weather We were about to start our heats but the rain decided to postpone us a little while longer. That meant we had to keep warming up 6 or 7 times today before we could finally hit the line. In the heats I had a hard time to get going and that showed in my first 100m. I don't think i have had a high 9.5 opener all year. Luckily in the final I could open a little faster to keep enough of a gap to win it.

Final 300m TT :
Senior men -
1st Hebbrecht Wouter (Bel) : 24"271
2nd Pelloquin Nicolas (Fra) : 24"37
3rd Peruzzo Andrea (Ita) : 24"423

Final 300m TT :
Senior ladies -
1st: Falcone Nicoletta (Ita) : 26"572
2nd Zanetti Erika (Ita) : 26"704
3rd Gegner Jana ger) : 27"246

Final 300m TT :
Junior men
1st Locci Michael (Ita) : 25"238
2nd Belzanne Antoine (Fra) : 25"377
3rdVandenberghe Jore (Bel) : 25"435

FINAL 300m TT :
Junior ladies
1st Bongiorno Giulia (Ita) : 27"550
2nd Schimek Laetitia (Ger) : 27"862
3rd Pignat Chiara (Ita) : 28"363

Final 300m TT :
Cadets boys
1st Airighi Giacomo (Ita) : 26"176 2
2ndGuyomard Alexandre (Fra) : 26"212
3rd Vosté Mathias (Bel) : 26"298

Final 300m TT:
Cadettes girls
1st Iglesias Vera (Spa) : 27"831
2nd Simbula Carlotta (Ita) : 27"838
3rd Gutermuth Alisa (Ger) : 28"198

You want to know what is really grinds my gears? “Google Journalism…”

2009-07-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

What’s up with all those journalists’ writing papers and pages full of their negative, personal view on every sportsman alive? “Armstrong and Contador can’t stand each other”…”this guy is doing this or that wrong”…”that sportsman' performance was under his level”…"this coach should of done that"...Do journalists these days even bother looking up any info anymore or do they just Google like you and me? They are supposed to write objective information without letting us know their personal view on the whole matter. Who cares what a “Google journalist” thinks about Armstrong or Contador? The worst consequence is that people actually think these articles are facts!

Do all journalists live with Armstrong and Contador? Are they personal friends? NO they do not and HEARSAY was NOT a fact last time I checked but they still get away with writing hearsay. Internet is making journalism really cheap these days. It’s funny to see how online newspapers copy each other, sometimes without even trying to change the text. I try to read different websites and online newspapers every morning…you would be amazed how “hard” journalists work on copying articles…insane!!! Those same guys are listening to radio’s, TV and read other websites to base their articles off. What ever happened to trying and contact the athlete in person and asking them about FACTS and not just speculate about what could be going on? Do those guys have any idea how they hurt the image of some people by writing crap like that? I am not giving you my opinion about the whole Lance Armstrong vs Alberto Contador battle…they will fight it out on the bike as it is supposed to be done in the first place, like real sportsmen at the top of their game! I would hope journalists could do the same thing and investigate before they publicize! I heard a journalist talk about the last time trail in the TDF and how this one particular corner is dangerous….he literally stated that it would be a Denis Menchov corner meaning Denis Menchov would crash in it just like he crashed in the Giro. I was pissed off hearing someone talk like that about one of the worlds best cyclists and above all top athlete. Who was he to say anything like that? I understood he didn’t really like Menchov at all but to say he was going to crash in that corner really struck me hard. How can they get away with saying anything like that? Let me tell you this: watch out what you are reading or hearing and form your own opinion before you judge any top athlete because you just can not trust what you are reading or hearing anymore!
I had to read about myself that I performed disappointing at world games in the time trail. I wish the journalist in fact would have contacted me prior to writing his article. I could have told him I wanted to medal and that was the disappointing part, but on the other hand I never finished top 6 on a slippery track like the one in Kaohsiung so maybe he could of added that. Later that day I had to read how others finished 24th at world championships and according to that same journalist that was a great performance??? Does everyone just like to read bad news and critic of a person that never performed anything in his life anyway? What gives them the right to write down on us athletes who give all we have to perform, train day in and out and try to do the best we can? Maybe we deserve a little more than critic of a nobody don’t you think? The best part is that like many other athletes we hate reading negative critic about our self and it stimulates us to perform better...the question however is will we get to read about it if we perform well or will those journalist not have to guts to admit their wrong?

World Games Day 3: 500m Video's

2009-07-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Too bad the camera was blocking the big screen but here are the two finals of the 500m World Games. Check for yourself if the DQ of Wei Lin Lo was correct or not. In my opinion the mistake was made on both sides: Munoz cuts in from the outside and Wei Lo puts out his hands to either protect himself from going down or not...check for yourself in the 3rd corner of the race. No matter what happened this is between the judges and the skaters on the track BUT I wanted to point out that these 500m finals were the most exciting ones I have seen in the last few years!

Also I added a bonus video of the women's last corner with Jercy and Huang Yu Tin but no call was made in that race....

1k Final World Games Video's

2009-07-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of World Games; final results

2009-07-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Biggest upset today was local favorite Wei Lo crashing in the 1k final.

1k Ladies:
1st Huang Yu Ting (TPE)
2nd Chiao Jen Hsu (TPE)
3rd Nicole Begg (NZL)

1k Men:
1st Pedro Causil (COL)
2nd Alexis Contin (FRA)
3rd Claudio Naselli (ITA)

15k elim Ladies:
1st Hyo Sook Woo (KOR)
2nd Martha Ramirez (COL)
3rd Yi Chin Pan (TPE)

15k elim Men:
1st Jorge Cifuentes (COL)
2nd Yann Guyarder (FRA)
3rd Andres Munoz (COL)

Tomorrow I will try to upload the 1k finals including the tumble of Wei Lo!
Also World Games' last day for skating with 500m sprint on the program!

World Games Day 2: 1000m final line ups

2009-07-17T23:19:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

During this mornings chaos of rainy and dry track conditions the women and men could skate the full program. The big question for today is who will be capable of beating the local skaters? In my opinion that will be pretty hard to do. Lets watch and see...

Start list Final 1k ladies:

Huang Yu Ting (TPE)

Chiao Jen Hsu (TPE)

Marta Ramírez (COL)

Brigyte Méndez (COL)

Jin Seon Lim (KOR)

Nicole Begg (NZL)

Start List Final 1k men:

Pedro Causil (COL)

Alexis Contin (FRA)

Claudio Naselli (ITA)

Sjoerd Huisman (NED)

Chiao Hao Chang (TPE)

Wei Lin Lo (TPE)

Day 2 of World Games

2009-07-17T17:04:00.001-07:00

Rain hit the town of Kaohsiung. The 1k will probably be delayed...more later!

World Games Day 1, Final Results

2009-07-17T16:35:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

A rather disappointing day today at World Games for me not getting further than a 6th spot on the 300m TT. I know this track here in Kaohsiung is not really one of my favorites but yet you always hope to surprise yourself and exceed your expectations....didn't happen today so we will have to see. The good thing about yesterday is that except for Wei Lo, who is from another planet BTW, my opening 1oo m was still one of the fastest around. That's a good sign for the European and World Championships where apparently the tracks are a little better for "power skaters." The long races were pretty brutal to skate. I think skating with the top 15 long distance skaters in the world expect for a few top guys missing this was a hard demonstration of what it could be like at Worlds. Belgians Ferre and Kwinten did pretty good and hopefully they can finish even closer in the elimination.

The final results of yesterday's day one of the World Games:
300m TT

Senior Ladies:

1st Huang Yu Ting (TPE) 27 s 670

2nd Chiao Jen Hsu (TPE) 27 s 676

3rd Jin Seom Lim (KOR)

6th Sara Sayasane (USA)

Senior Men:

1st Wei Lin Lo 25 s 555

2nd Andres Munoz 26 s 093

3rd Pedro Causil 26 s 094

6th Wouter Hebbrecht (BEL)

Points Elim:

Senior Ladies:

1st Hyo Sook Woo (KOR)

2nd Martha Ramirez (COL)

3rd Nicole Begg (NZL)

Senior Men:

1st Yann Guyarder (FRA)

2nd Nelson Garzon (COL)

3rd Daniel Alvarez (VEN)

7th Ferre Spruyt (BEL)

12 Kwinten Tas (BEL)

RAIN...RAIN.....RAIN
THE TRACK DID GET HIT BY A TYPHOON NAMED WEI LO
START SENIOR MEN 10.000M POINTS ELIM

World Games Day 1; 300m timetrail heats

2009-07-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

300m Heats results:

Lots is still to happen, this first heat is just to qualify the top 12 skaters. No big surprise so far with the local Chinese Taipei skaters really taking advantage of their home track. Also in men the Colombians are looking good for a medal. Also the track world champion 300m of 2008, Kalon Dobbin is leaving some gas in the tank for later tonight. As I said anything can still happen although Wei Lin Lo is pretty far away from 2nd and 3rd...

Stay tuned for updates on results.

Senior Women:

1st Chiao Jen Hsu (TPE) 27 s 798

2nd Yi Chin Pan (TPE) 27 s 986

3rd Jin Seom Lim (KOR) 28 s 041

5th Sara Sayasane (USA) 28 s 070

Senior Men:

1st Wei Lin Lo (TPE) 25 s 674

2nd Andrés Muñóz (COL) 25 s 823

3rd Pedro Causil (COL) 25 s 995

4th Wouter Hebbrecht (BEL) 26.316

World Games Opening Ceremony

2009-07-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

44.000 spectators cheering on Chinese Taipei entering the stadium...probably one of the nicest moments a sportsmen can go through...simply thrilling! This must be a pretty similar experience the athletes go through at Olympics allthough those stadiums are twice the size of this one. Tomorrow World Games kick of for skating with the 300m Time Trails.

OH BOY....Typhoon coming to town!

2009-07-15T01:35:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
While skaters are decending down into Kaoshiung the clowds are forming. Word is a Typhoon is moving its way up here. This is a local weather report (keep in mind we race Friday-Saturday-Sunday): source http://www.wunderground.com/

Friday Thunderstorm. Partly Cloudy. High: 33 °C . Wind NE 14 km/h . Chance of precipitation 60% (water equivalent of 7.18 mm). Heat Index: 41 °C .
Tropical Storm Seven: Distance from this city: 354 km» Estimated wind speed: 64 km/h
Friday Night Chance of a Thunderstorm. Overcast. Low: 25 °C . Wind East 21 km/h . Chance of precipitation 40% (water equivalent of 1.18 mm). Heat Index: 35 °C .
Tropical Storm Seven» Distance from this city: 354 km» Estimated wind speed: 64 km/h

Saturday Chance of a Thunderstorm. Scattered Clouds. High: 33 °C . Wind NE 14 km/h . Chance of precipitation 40% (water equivalent of 1.95 mm). Heat Index: 41 °C .
Tropical Storm Seven» Distance from this city: 223 km» Estimated wind speed: 64 km/h
Saturday Night Chance of a Thunderstorm. Scattered Clouds. Low: 25 °C . Wind NNE 14 km/h . Chance of precipitation 30% (water equivalent of 0.89 mm). Heat Index: 35 °C .
Tropical Storm Seven» Distance from this city: 223 km» Estimated wind speed: 64 km/h

Sunday Chance of a Thunderstorm. Scattered Clouds. High: 33 °C . Wind ESE 10 km/h . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 4.15 mm). Heat Index: 43 °C .
Tropical Depression Seven» Distance from this city: 547 km» Estimated wind speed: 55 km/h
Sunday Night Chance of a Thunderstorm. Partly Cloudy. Low: 26 °C . Wind NE 10 km/h . Chance of precipitation 40% (water equivalent of 1.68 mm). Heat Index: 36 °C .
Tropical Depression Seven» Distance from this city: 547 km» Estimated wind speed: 55 km/h

Monday Thunderstorm. Scattered Clouds. High: 33 °C . Wind ESE 10 km/h . Chance of precipitation 60% (water equivalent of 7.66 mm). Heat Index: 42 °C .
Monday Night Chance of a Thunderstorm. Scattered Clouds. Low: 25 °C . Wind ESE 10 km/h . Chance of precipitation 40% (water equivalent of 2.55 mm). Heat Index: 36 °C .

Tuesday Chance of a Thunderstorm. Partly Cloudy. High: 33 °C . Wind SSW 25 km/h . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 5.92 mm). Heat Index: 43 °C .
Tuesday Night Chance of a Thunderstorm. Partly Cloudy. Low: 27 °C . Wind South 18 km/h . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 3.75 mm). Heat Index: 36 °C .

Kaohsiung Track Pictures

2009-07-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Been a few days in Taiwan now and I am slowly getting used to the heat. The track on the other hand is another beast to tame; the local skaters look really smooth and are going pretty fast so that doesn't make our job any easier. In the meantime the NZ. squad has arrived with Kalon Dobbin, DJ Nation and Nicole Begg. The testing of wheels and clocking of times is slowly getting under its way...exciting and fascinating as always. Fastest time clocked so far is 16.00 from the local Wei Lin Lo aka "Silk" and he is proving every single day why he has that nickname...

There is some word on a new timing system that would work like the timing system used at the Olympics by Tissot. The main issue with that system is that they do not use beams but a horizontal area and I am not sure how accurate and sensitive these systems are...they will put a sensor in the track and not have the traditional beam that is set up x amount of cm of the ground (see CIC rules....).
Nobody knows how close you can get to the line on the ground for it to set off...hopefully they will do some accurate testing before deciding to go ahead and use this kind of system....
Anyway i promised you guys some pictures of the track that is slowly starting to look like a competition venue...

World Games Kaohsiung

2009-07-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Finally it's that time of the year where I will get to see old familiar faces, friends and fellow competitors. It’s the first championship of the year: World Games. City where it will all take place is Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Its not my first time going to Taiwan. In 2005 Taiwan organized their first and unfortunately up to date, their last WIC. I was fortunate enough to go there and compete and enjoy the wonderful country and people of Taiwan.

My second trip was in May this year, where I flew to Kaohsiung to get to know the track we will be skating on for this edition of the World Games. World Games are similar to the Olympic championships but than for sports that are not included into the Olympics. The last edition of the World Games was in Duisburg, Germany.
I came out early to Kaohsiung in conquest for a podium spot since this may very well be the last World Games I will compete in. Since I am 29 and these Games only take place every 4 year I have reason to believe I will be competing in them for the last time. The first step in preparing for races is to get used to the track. Some of the other challenges are getting over a jet leg, finding good food and other things. The jet leg in this particular case is a hard one. Coming from the US the time difference is pretty big (about 14 hours). There are two solutions to this problem: 1 is you arrive at the site and immediately start to pick up your normal life or 2 you can fly in late at night and get some sleep the very first day in. Out of personal experience I know I prefer to fly in late at night and get a full night of sleep in before I start day one. That’s why I got in at around 10 pm local time to go straight to the hotel and sleep.

Too bad the Airline I flew with had to mess up this plan; I took of from Tokyo's Narito Airport to find out the plane had problems with the navigation instruments. Result is that we turned around and came back in. About 3 hours later we tried to do it all over again and this time we made it all the way to Kaohsiung. Unfortunately I didn't get to the hotel until about 1 a.m. local time to crash...

This morning I finished my first session on the track and I am pretty satisfied. Considering I just spend a long time travelling I felt pretty comfortable on my skates. The weather however is extremely hot and humid but I don't really mind since I have enough time to acclimate. I will keep you guys updated on the progress of everything and will post some pictures soon.

This is the list of people that will compete in World Games:

MEN

Ferre Spruyt (Belgium)
Kwinten Tas (Belgium)

Wouter Hebbrecht (Belgium)

Marco Rebagliati (Italy)

Andres Munoz (Colombia)

Alexis Contin (France)

Wei Lin Lo (Taiwan/China Taipei)

Kyung Tae Kang (Korea)

Jorge Cifuentes (Colombia)

Kalon Dobbin (New Zealand)

Sjoerd Huisman (The Netherlands)

Jorge Bolanos (Eucador)

Yann Guyarder (France)

Nelson Garzon (Colombia)

Paxti Puela (Spain)

Nicolas Pelloquin (France)

Claudio Naselli (Italy)

Andrea Zanetti (Italy)

Roman Chirsten (Switserland)

Juan Jardine (Venezuela)

Andrea Andreotti (Italy)

Fernando Mejia (Spain)

Pedro Causil (Colombia)

Daniel Nation (New Zealand)

Yeng-Sheng Liao (Taiwan/China Taipei)

Myung Kyu Lee (Korea)

Pascal Ramali (Germany)

Min Ho Kim (Korea)

Daniel Alvares (Venezuela)

Chang Chiao Hao (Taiwan/China Taipei)

Women

Sara Sayasane (USA)

Nicole Begg (New Zealand)

Jin Seom Lim (Korea)

Estefania Cuervo (Colombia)

Huang Yu Ting (Taiwan/China Taipei)

Erika Zanetti (Italy)

Jana Gegner (Germany)

Mi Young Kim (Korea)

Hyo Sook Woo (Korea)

Yi Chin Pan (Taiwan/China Taipei)

Jersy Peu.lo (Colombia)

Carolina Santibanez (Chile)

Hye Mi Kim (Korea)

Sabina Berg (Germany)

Liana Holguin (Colombia)

Angelina Thomas (Australia)

Bianca Roosenboom (The Netherlands)

Sheila Posada (Spain)

Desire Contenti (Italy)

Francesca Bettrone (Italy)

Brigyte Mendez (Colombia)

Nadine Gloor (Switserland)

Elma de Vries (The Netherlands)

Sara Bak (Denmark)

Chien Jen Hsu (Taiwan/China Taipei)

Lisa Kaluzni (Germany)

Nachi Shinozuka (Japan)

Estefania Nunez (Chile)

Marta Ramirez (Colombia)

Leatitia Le Bihan (France)

Video's 500m ODN

2009-07-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

Senior Men 500m

2009-07-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

Senior Ladies 500m

2009-07-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Junior Men 500m

2009-07-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

Junior Ladies 500m video

US Outdoor Nationals Day 3

2009-06-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Results of the last day of track racing. I will upload the 500m Juniors/Seniors and some pictures of the elim races later today.

Junior Ladies 500m sprint
1st Erin Jackson
2nd Alexandra Harris
3rd Courtney Grzech

Junior Men 500m sprint
1st Mario Valencia (New National Record)
2nd Jonathon Blair
3rd Justin Mannon

Senior Ladies 500m sprint
1st Sara Sayasane
2nd Briana Kramer
3rd Chelsea Chreveling

Senior Men 500m sprint
1st Joey Mantia
2nd William Bowen
3rd Corey Gahan

Junior Ladies 15,000m elim

1st Erin Jackson
2nd Sophie Webb
3rd Alexandra Harris

Junior Men 15,000m elim
1st Justin Mannon (New National Record)
2nd Andrew Shatzer
3rd Mario Valencia

Senior Ladies 15,000m elim
1st Briana Kramer (New National Record)
2nd Nastassia Hamor
3rd Chelsea Chreveling

Senior Men 15,000m elim
1st Joey Mantia
2nd Justin Stelly
3rd Michael Cheek

US Outdoor Nationals results Day 2

2009-06-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Day 2 at outdoor nationals with not too many big upsets. I did see some new, very talented skaters rise today that you can find in the top 3 of Juniors . I shot some pictures of the Junior Ladies and Senior Mens race, enjoy watching them. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update on the 500m and elim races with pics and video's as I will try to post them in between watching races and my own practices.

Junior Ladies 10,000m points elim
1st Sophie Webb 22 points
2nd Erin Jackson 15 points
3rd Darian O'Neil 14 points

Junior Men 10,000 points elim
1st Justin Mannon 21 points
2nd Jonathon Blair 16 points
3rd Drew Valinsky 13 points

Senior Ladies 10,000m points elim
1st Briana Kramer 47 points
2nd Chelsea Chreveling 25 points
3rd Katie Grimm 3 points

Senior Men 10,000 points elim
1st Michael Cheek 18 points
2nd Joey Mantia 15 points
3rd Christopher Springer 7 points

US Outdoor Nationals results.

2009-06-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the US Team Trails in Colorado Springs, CO. On the program today there were 2 track races, the 300m and 1k. 3 out of the 4 national records were improved with the exception of the Senior Men's Record that is still standing (maybe because Joey Mantia was absent today since he is still traveling from Switzerland and will race tomorrow). Under the results I added some video of Sara and Erin, probably the two most amazing skaters out there today and some pictures (sorry picture quality isn't that great but it will still do).

Junior Ladies 300m

1st Erin Jackson 27.833 (New National Junior Record)

2nd Alexandra Harris 29.296

3rd Hailey Leech 29.521

Junior Men 300m

1st Jonathan Blair 26.608 (New National Junior Record)

2nd Mario Valencia 26.909

3rd Justin Mannon 26.913

Senior Ladies 300m

1st Sara Sayasane 27.533 New National Senior Record

2nd Kathie Grimm 29.288

3rd Briana Kramer 30.084

Senior Men 300m

1st William Bowen 26.037

2nd Keith Carroll 26.382

3rd Michael Cheek 26.458

Junior Ladies 1000m

1st Alexandra Harris

2nd Erin Jackson

3rd Megan Gillis

Junior Men 1000m

1st Andrew Shatzer

2nd Justin Mannon

3rd Mario Valencia

Senior Ladies 1000m

1st Sara Sayasane

2nd Briana Kramer

3rd Chelsea Chreveling

Senior Men 1000m

1st Justin Stelly

2nd Michael Cheek

3rd Keith Carroll

Wednesday Night Hill Sprints

2009-05-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, Sara and myself did a bunch of 100, 200 and 300m uphill sprints in Fremont, CA. It's about a 15% gradient so pretty steep...Enjoy watching!

or watch on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTkCtrhejyU

Stop whining, Start working!

2009-05-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post this one a long time ago but I thought somehow I wouldn't have to and I could secretly believe that the world would change. Everywhere I go I hear people whine and cry about something; economy, skating, wheels, frames, boots etc...everything is wrong but themselves. I hear people complain they got fired but at the same time those where the people that showed up to work late, didn't perform doing their jobs or just didn't function in their position. In another example I hear people complain about not making the cut year after year. Of course the only person doing wrong in these situations are the employers or selection makers right??? ----->WRONG and this is why:

There are two ways to deal with that: the first one and of course the easiest one is to keep on whining and keep using the sentence "if this, then that..." and 99% of the people have this mindset. The other 1% are the exceptional people. People that can think outside the box and step back to have a serious look at themselves! People who can wake up and look in the mirror and see their own mistakes, face them and create an opportunity out of them to change their ways. In my life I have had the opportunity to meet a few people like that and they have inspired me to try and do the same.
May and June are the months of the year where decisions are made; you decide for yourself how hard you are going to train and make those championship practices harder. Also people decide your faith in selection procedures. I strongly believe you are the only one who controls both of these decisions! Of course you will ask me how I can control people to vote me on or off a team? Simple; SKATE FASTER AND STRONGER. You are the only one who can control your own skates on a track or road to go faster and win races. You are the only one who can put more into your own practice to get tougher, stronger and of course faster. Start winning races left and right and you will get picked on a team....quite simple isn't it?

I hear people complain about the fact that the last couple of years I have been picked for the national team without racing my own national championships. Other than the fact that I won around 50+ national senior titles in the past I have a way tougher selection criteria = World Championships. That's where I earn my selection for the next year and ask yourself what's tougher: worlds or your nationals....so even there you have no reason to whine and complain.
So make out for yourselves what category you are going to be part of. I understand you are going to keep whining as that is what the majority of people do and it's just so freaking comfortable to do the same.just remember not to whine around me so I can keep a positive mindset...But if you decide to go about it the other way; congratulations and you are more than welcome to join me any day!

START TODAY...GET OFF THIS BLOG, TIE YOUR SKATES AND GO SKATE HARD!!!!

Coming up: Open International en Cali

2009-04-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

After two years I can finally return to the city that gave me one of the best memories in my skating career thus far; Cali! I will go and compete in the Open International de Patinaje de Carreras en Cali. They expect to have around 1000 skaters showing up: WAUW!

More info can be found at http://www.fedepatin.org.co/

Schedule:

Thursday (Track): 300m heats and finals plus 10k points-elim heats and finals.

Friday (Track): 1k sprint and 15k elim.

Saturday (Road): 500m heats and finals and 10k points.

Sunday: marathon over 42km.

Stay tuned for updates!

Cartagena results

2009-03-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Well the track and road portions are over here in Cartagena and its been a tough 3 days. My first real competition this year without really doing the appropriate preparation prior to this meet. Since I will be peaking at World Games and Worlds this year this period of the year is not really one of my best on skates and that shows in the results that i put down here. In the 500m road I ended up in a really tough heat in the quarter finals with Andres Munoz, Pedro Causil, Juan Nayib Tobon and Camilo Orozco so I got eliminated in the quarters. I couldn't really put any power down on my skates yet and felt really wobbly trying to go that fast behind these guys. Sara did great and finished 4th in the 500m final!

On the first day on track we ran a 300m TT. During the heats in the moring i felt pretty good but still couldn't transfer any power to my push. I qualified around the 9th spot and that's where i ended up in the final. This track was pretty hard on me since I couldn't really put all my power down in the corners. Sara demonstrated her awesome track skills and took the 300m victory.

Today we had a 500m relay with teams of 2. The first 4 Colombians and the first 4 foreigners would team up and race each other over 500m. The first skater had to finish 300m before relaying the second one. After the 300m ranking it worked out to be that I could skate with Kalon Dobbin as my partner foreigner.. Our first run went okay but we couldn't hold back the 2 Colombians and we ended up racing for 3rd and 4th spot. In that B final I couldn't really move around and I had to relay Kalon in second. Kalon couldn't catch the guy in first and we finished 4th. Never feels good to let down a big champion like Kalon, even if this race was just for fun.

Looking back at the last 3 days I realize that I will need to go train and work on my speed. Of course its still very early in the season but this wasn't a good meet at all! Its unbelievable how the Colombian top guys can keep their shape all season long especially this early and all the way up to worlds. The one positive thing coming for all of this is that I feel very frustrated with my results and will go back working twice as hard. Giving up or keeping my head down low isn't an option. I need to work out the reasons why i failed and need to adjust where things go wrong. I also know that this wasn't a meet that I put up in front of my agenda as being an important one but it never feels good to get beat bad!
PS: last year the same happened to me here in Cartagena; I actually skated worse last year. I knew what to expect this year but it's never easy and mentally very tough.

I will put up some pictures as soon as i get them uploaded here so stay tuned!

Cartagena 09

2009-03-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

Just landed in Cartagena, Colombia a few hours ago. It is that time of the year where things kick off and we put our skates on for the first big event of the year. The “Copa de Cartagena,” a race contested over 4 days this week including one day of road, two track days and to top it all off a marathon race that will be included as a WIC stage. On top of that this race is one of the Colombians national selection criteria races so they will be hot and ready to roll!

That’s right there couldn’t possibly be a better platform for racing; great Colombian weather, great track and road and plenty of great talent skating all in one place. The Colombians will be lining up their world champion squads with names such as Diego Rosero (who is making his comeback after his injury), Jorge Cifuentes, Andres Munoz, Pedro Causil, Nelson Garzon, …and of course their girl squad that is one of the better ones in the world of speed skating with, Cecilia Baena, Briggyte Mendez, Jercy Puelo, Alexandra Vivas, Kelly Martinez, Liana Holguin and many many more…
The Colombian racing scene isn’t afraid to throw in a little competition for overseas as well; Joey Mantia, Massimiliano Presti, Yann Guyarder, Alexis Contin, Francesco Zangarini, Juan Jardines, Kalon Dobbin and myself along with many more for the men and Sara Sayasane, Erika Zanetti, Andrea Gonzales, Tamara Llorens and maybe a handful more ladies will line up to make it all just a little more exciting.

Of course this race is one of the first races in the season so you can ask yourself how many people will be in good shape and what do those results really all mean. I can personally tell you that my experience from last year taught me that this race is of at an incredibly high level, maybe close to the world championship level. Because its early in the season it’s a great opportunity to test yourself out there in a real competition environment so I know everyone is going to try as hard as they can to measure up with the Colombian skaters.

New this year is that Belgium will not only be represented by myself but also by Ferre Spruyt, Kwinten Tas and Bart Swings. This is a possitive development that hopefully it can sustain or continue growing with more Belgian athletes competing at the top level. I will post results and pictures as soon as I can; racing will start on Thursday so stay tuned!

Tour of California, San Jose

2009-02-18T13:58:00.001-08:00

Fortunately they found the TT bike of Lance Armstrong a few days after it got stolen...meanwhile the riders went on and stormed up Sierra Road. That's one of the numerous hills around San Jose, probably one of the most challenging ones! Just to give you an idea; my personal best on Sierra is around 28 minutes...those guys went up it in around 24 minutes...pacing...They do only weigh in at around 140 pounds each...I am around 180 so lets just say that's why ;-)

Tour of California

2009-02-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

As a big cycling fan I had to go have a look at the 1st stage of the Tour of California. They had already finished the prologue and today's stage went from Davis to Santa Rosa. In a weather i would normally not even send my dog out these guys rode for over 5 hours...its was pouring all day long. This is really about the first week of bad weather all of California has had so the timing of the tour is pretty bad this year.

The biggest upset of the day wasn't the stage action ( although there was plenty of that but the broadcast on the TV channel Versus was horrible) but the stolen bike of Lance Armstrong! Who would do such an awful thing? This bike is worth about $10,000USD so maybe they should keep that one in his room next time around. They happen to have a similar bike set up for the public to see so have a look at it yourself.

The Belgian Jurgen Van De Walle almost made me jump on the track to push him to the finish. The rides were all split up before entering the last 3 local circuit laps they had left in Santa Rosa. The first time they came through Mancebo (Rock Racing) was in front and then a pack of about 12 riders with Armstrong, Leipheimer, Basso, Landis, Popovych, Sevilla, Horner, Gesink, Rogers and Rubiera (YES they do have an incredible strong field riding here) chasing the leader. The big peleton was another 5 minutes behind including Cavendish and Boonen just to name two. With 2 laps to go Nibali and Jurgen Van de Walle jumped and bridged the 1 minute gap to Mancebo and with one lap to go they had to battle it out for the victory...right in front of us Mancebo placed his final jumped...I was yelling "JURGEN" as hard as I could to warn him for Mancebo's jump but it was too late and Mancebo slipped through the finish in first...followed by a tired looking Van De Walle and Nibali! Great stuff! But jeez wake up with less than 300m to go VDW!!! Today they have another great stage with 2 big hills in it to finish in the famous city of Santa Cruz, thats about 30 minutes away from where I train.

Tuesday I will go watch the pack ride up Sierra Road. That's an incredible steep hill where I ride up to train frequently. I hope to see some more Belgian riders up front!

How to motivate?

2009-02-08T14:11:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! It's has been a while since I wrote a little something on my blog! I wanted to take January off from the blog to see how things would go and if anyone would still be interested so I guess there is interest and I will continue writing during this season.
January has been, like every year, a month full of training and nothing much more than that! 2 Sessions a day, 6 days a week. Lots of skating, gym and riding my bike.
During a couple of my sessions people were asking me how I can stay motivated to do all these sessions over again and that year after year. That's why i wanted to write a little something about motivation.

How to stay motivated?

This one is an incredible diverse subject that can be analyzed in a million different ways and through another million theories such as Hartner, Bandura or the pyramid of Maslow.

Efficient motivation is the result of an accurate study of the needs of your athletes. Some athletes that are accomplished will need a different approach in motivation than new skaters. For some athletes self respect and reinforcement of their knowledge can be the main subject of their motivation. Other athletes that need a strong reinforcement of respect, can sometimes get better motivation by open discussion of these athletes performances, in particularly the worst performances.

I personally believe in 3 motivational pillars:

Expectation: the main idea is that more effort will lead to greater results. The more I work in the gym, on skates, doing technical drills, riding the bike,…the better I can become (but keep in mind you also want quality not just quantity). An example can be a dream of one athlete to be the best ever or just to simply finish a race.

Realization: someone’s perception of the relationship between results and rewards for performing. Rewards can appear in a very different way…some skaters are happy with a simple nod of a parents or coach signifying a good effort…others will actually need material rewards such as equipment, gifts etc…it’s really anything that will make an athlete happy or satisfied.

Weight: the value someone attaches to a certain reward.

So basically if a skater believes that by working hard she/he will get better results (expectation) and better results will lead to personal satisfaction (realization) and knowing that this satisfaction is important (weight) for your athlete, this should work motivational for an athlete.

Now how can we incorporate all this theory into practice? The reality is that these days its not that hard to figure out what kind of rewards are appropriate for an athlete. In reality there are different kind of cultures and different up brings within those cultures. This simply means that some kids will be spoiled and some will have to work way harder and show way more effort and results before getting the same as a spoiled kid.

The dangerous part of awarding athletes is that this can happen too frequent or too soon. I will give you a personal example; last year I went racing in Colombia in February where I got murdered in every race I skated. Point of this is that I realised that i needed to pick up things to be more competitive. If I would of done good there I may of slacked off during the following months and never gotten to the same level I needed to be at! I do however realize that this could of worked that other way around too; I did work hard before I went to Colombia so I could of given up! That however is a state of thinking that you want to avoid with any athlete! Always take a positive experience out of a negative one! Back to my example; it was only February and the big races weren't until July or September so I had plenty of time to change things around...

As a coach it's very important to analyze every stage of your athletes preparation and motivation is probably the most important one. Talk to your athletes about what they want to realize before you kick of with training. When you notice less effort in an athlete you can always play with the knowledge this athlete gave you about his/her motivation. Adjusting their goals and motivation may also be a coaching job!

Recession proof?

2008-12-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

You have all read or heard about it, you suffer from it or escaped it this time; yes i am talking about the economic recession we are in today! While recession and the melt down in the money markets has widened the gap between the world's richest and poorest sports, inline speed skating is unfortunately at the wrong side of this gap. Less top races. less sponsors. less money...and so on, that has been the news of the last couple of months.

The sports who are suffering the most from the downturn receive little mass-media coverage and therefore have limited appeal to sponsors and other commercial partners. Where crowd sizes are already low, the credit squeeze is placing even more pressure on the smaller clubs and sports and that means they need to do more than ever before to survive or prosper. How can we all fix this and keep inline skating alive? Just a few toughs:

First of all, like in anything we try to achieve, we need to go back to the basic foundations of speed skating. 99% of the speed skaters today have started in some local clubs, organizations or foundations. That's where we can tackle this crisis. If we can try to convince people that skating can be an affordable alternative to spend free time other than expensive toys, trips or other items (the new PlayStation costs more than a simple set of skates!) we can pick up the numbers on a local scale. This is the only way to get our sport bigger in the long run; NUMBERS!

Second I don't think we need to send new skaters to as many races around the world/country/state as what we force skater to do today just to get some racing in. These races are a hard impact on any one's budget! An easy solution to this problem is organizing club races...invite people from your area or state to come and join you at your practice hours to do some racing. This doesn't cost you anything at all to organize and it will get you in shape! Of course you will need to plan things a little but it will be less work and effort compared to organizing a real race. The benefit of this all is that the newer people you have attracted to your team now see that they don't have to spend too much on travelling around to get some racing experience! A great example that has proven to work is the State of Washington. I have had the privilege to attend the "battle in Seattle" and saw the way things were organized up there. Very simple yet very effective! And guess what; they have some of the biggest clubs in the US. This is not really ment for the top guns out there, but remember i am trying to tackle the basic.

I don't mean to put down all the big races around the world either, without them we would be nothing! But is it really necessary to organize all of them without thinking things over and not turn off people that may be interested in sponsoring. This turns into number three; how to attract sponsors in a recession? The local races you can organize can also attract new sponsors. Starting small can keep them interested. If you tell them to give you serious bucks without any bang they will leave you hanging next time around...if you real them in with a small project and keep them interested in the long term this will benefit everyone! Same conclusion in this part: NUMBERS. Someone is only interested in sponsoring a team or skater if that is going to bring in some extra business for the sponsor. It's a win win situation...well it is supposed to be but the last couple of years I honestly have to say that I don't see a win win in most situations. Simply by bringing more people to skating the sponsor will reach out to a bigger public and therefore the chance of the sponsor doing more business will increase.

Of course everything I typed in this post is fairly logical and easy but seems to be forgotten by a few!

2008-12-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

World Championships 2009

2008-12-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

Since I have been traveling a little and have felt sort of a decent Internet connection and time I haven't been able to update my blog. I was in Belgium this week for contract negotiations and for some of the award shows that I have been nominated for. For the first time since long I am nominated for "Sportsman of the year" in Belgium...that's the biggest honor a sportsman can receive in Belgium. Of course it being an Olympic year and having a small country full of excellent athletes makes it hard to win such and award. Maybe next time. The award will be given this Sunday.
Ferre, Kwinten, Maarten and myself were awarded during the "Vlaamse Sportjuweel" show of the Flemish sports world. A nice gesture since we receive our little award from the minister of sports himself. Also the famous and legendary Louis De Pelsmaeker (one of Belgians top journalists) asked me a few questions on stage about our sport so I think we got some good publicity for our sport in Belgium!
Finally the decision has been made.....WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS '09 will take place in CHINA. The city of Haining will host worlds from September 16 through September 27th. Lets hope with the current economic recession that seems to be worldwide spread that this edition of the WC can make a positive impact for our sport! Last time the WC's were organized in China was in 2005 in the city of Suzhou...personally I found it a positive experience!
Speaking of experiences, I organized a clinic in Belgium this past Sunday (as seen on my blog) and want to thank everyone that showed up. I noticed that everyone was very eager to learn and very passionate about the sport. However I was surprised with some of the skaters technical skills...and not really in a positive way....lots of work to be done! I think everyone that attended has the potential of becoming a better skater since I did notice that most of them were picking up the new drills with ease. Keep working, Rome wasn't built in one day either. The positive trend that has been going on for a while in Belgium along skaters seems to continue. Everyone is ready to help each other out and learn from each other! Skaters understood that together we can become a better skating nation! GO Belgium GO

2008-11-26T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I will be in Belgium next week and i will give a clinic to coaches and skaters: check out some details if you want to attend. For Belgian Federation skaters only, sorry contact me for more details or if you want to organise your own clinic with me.

Skating Clinic:

Date: Sunday December 7th
Hour: 1-4 pm
Place: Evergem, Belgium (sporthal "de Hoge Wal")

In Dutch:

Skeelertechniek
Een clinic voor trainers en renners

Lesgever: Wouter Hebbrecht
Wereldkampioen tijdrijden 2007
Tweevoudig Europees kampioen tijdrijden 2008

Datum: zondag 7 december
Uur: 13 tot 16 uur
Plaats: sporthal 'De hoge wal' - Guldensporenlaan 34 - 9940 Ertvelde

Programma
13.00-14.30 off skates
basisposities en gewichtstransfer, opbouw stabilisatoren, opbouw skeelerspecifieke spieren
(eerst op sportschoenen, daarna op skeelers)
14.30-16.00 on skates
basishoudingen, basisafzet
bochtenwerk: hoe opzetten voor een bocht, houding in bocht, afzet in bocht, uitkomen van een bocht starten in groep, starten tijdrit start

Meebrengen sportschoenen (ook de trainers)
skeeleruitrusting
VRB-lidkaart

Doelgroep
Trainers alle trainers van de skeelerclubs, ongeacht niveau of opleiding
zeker in het eerste deel (off skates) is actieve deelname gewenst (sportschoenen meebrengen!)
Renners mits voorlegging van hun VRB-lidkaart met C-licentie
opgelet: van de deelnemers wordt verwacht dat ze de basisskills kennen en beheersen; dus niet voor beginners!

Deelname gratis voor leden VRB
Inschrijven ter plaatse

Turn round and round....

2008-11-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Finally I could fix some of the problems I had with the connections here...anyways as promised I am going to talk about corners . Who better to feature in this article than "cornering queen of the World" Sara Sayasane!

Corners, how important they actually are. . . Not only do corners make you change directions, but you can also gain speed turning a corner on a track or road course. The centrifugal forces that you produce can whip you out the corner gaining speed on your skates.

There are so many technical aspects to crossing over. To start it is VERY important that you keep your core body weight low (you carry a lot of that weight in between your stomach and butt/hips). Basically meaning you HAVE to bend your knees. If your hips sit high, you will have a harder time in the corners. Your HIPS are the key to corners! Pay attention to what your hips are doing. You must enter the corners using your hips (see picture 1). As you can see you will need to bring your body over your supporting leg to make your hip lean in. The key to this position is keeping you body low, knees bend at a 90 degree angle and shifting your body weight over the supporting leg. A common mistake made while shifting the body weight is the shoulders shifting the other way. Keep in mind that the shoulders should stay straight aligned (no twisting).

Start with practicing the following drill and try to feel your hip leaning in (can be done on skates of shoes):

1) start from a basic skating position.

2) take a right stroke out and lean your hip over to the left side (see pic 1 and 2). Make sure you are keeping your skates pointed to the front. All your weight should now be on your left leg. A pro at this can easily lift of his right skate without falling over.

3) start falling to the left while crossing over. Pay attention to your hips when you cross over. The biggest mistake made in this step is that the hip will come out of the lean so make sure you keep leaning in with your hips(see pic 3). Bring all of your body weight over to your right leg while crossing. Again your skates should be pointed forwards and you should land on a bent knee.

4) recover your left leg and repeat steps 2-4 numerous times.

Let’s move onto actually crossing over. After watching a lot of people cross, the biggest problem that most people have, either their body weight is sitting too high or they don’t cross their foot all the way over. The first problem is fixed by making sure you are actually bending your knees and sitting low. The second problem has a little more technical difficulties for many people.

While crossing you should make sure to finish your step . As you can see in pictures below there is a significant difference between a finished (pic 4) and unfinished (pic 5) cross resulting in a better push in the first case and an incomplete cross in the second example.

A nice drill to make sure you are completing you cross is the tucking drill...no not trucking drill....

You can tuck and hold your cross as seen in picture 4. An expert can lift his leg up while tucking. Make sure while you tuck to keep the hip leaning in and the shoulders straight.

SOME OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

You should stay in skating position at all times.
Pay attention to your arms, they should NOT be crossing your body)
Keep your feet parallel and pointed forward.
Don’t take steps that will take you out of your power box.

Now try this in an actual corner or even on a small circle. Pay attention to all the details, getting down the basic cross over is very important.

Well all thats left is to thank Sara for helping me write and demonstrate this post about corners. Check out some more pics to admire Sara's crosses:

Swing them right...

2008-10-28T13:15:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Well I hope you could all "enjoy" the burning sensation in your legs by now! I wanted to add another step that is considered basic but many people make mistakes in this basic movement. I am going to teach you how to swing your arms and keeping your shoulders in the correct position doing so.

The Arm swing:

Remember when you use your arm swing you want to add more forward motion to your push. I did say forward so it sounds very logic that we should try and swing our arms forward. While swinging your arms your shoulders will be mobilized. Try to remember while you skate to keep your shoulders in a horizontal line at all times. That means your shoulders should not come up or under that line at any time (see horizontal line in picture 1) or to the front or back of that line (see picture 2, do not move your shoulders back or forward in the shaded area).While swinging your arms to the front a good way to verify if you are doing it correctly is to touch your nose with the tip of your fingers. This way you make sure your arms do not cross the center line of your body (see picture 3). Many other skaters do cross there arms but I personally believe this makes your shoulders come out of their horizontal line-up and that makes your spine rotate, followed by your hip....(more on that later).

Also while touching your nose you will make sure not to extend your arms while swinging to the front. Extending to the front would mean you will move your shoulders forward. Notice in the picture below how I bend my elbow while swinging forward.

While swinging your arms back you should fully extend them. That way your are creating a tension in the muscles and tendons. This tension wants to release and by just letting your arm fall down forward the tension will release. You can look at it as a sort of wind up system. It will swing your arm forward automatically and that means you are saving energy not using your muscles to create this motion. Again this is a personal experience and a lot of other top skaters do not extend their arms cause they feel it will move their shoulders. A lot of practice will help your shoulders from moving while fully extending.

The final goal is to line up your balance leg and arm that wings backwards in 1 line as seen on the picture below. For now just try to get your arm swing right so we can get to that final position with arms and legs aligned later. Remember to break down and analyze everything in steps in order to fix the total package.

What about my hands? I try to relax my hands as much as possible. Making fists is only going to create muscle contraction that shouldn't be there and that will of course make you loose energy in the end. If you watch runners like Bolt (see older posts) you will notice that they are swinging their arms in a very relaxed way. That is what we are after.

WHAT TO DO?

This exercise will teach you to relax your arms while swinging forward. Find a gym or bathroom that is big enough and has a mirror where you can watch yourself. Grab 2 weights that are about 1 kg or 2 pounds and start your arm swing. Adding a light weight to your arm swing will make you feel the tension you are building in your muscles while extending backwards plus while you swing your arm forwards you should try not to use any muscles...the weight will swing forwards by itself holding on to it of course! Remember to try and swing your arms slightly across your face while doing so.

One of the bigger mistakes people make is bouncing while swinging their arms. Try to watch yourself in the mirror or on camera doing your drills and pay attention not to bounce up and down.

CONCLUSION:

Remember to keep in mind that while doing your arm swing you should still be in a correct skating position! I will add new steps but that doesn't mean you can dump and forget about the stuff you learned last time. While doing your exercises of last time you will now also pay closer attention to your arm swing.

Another drill:

Sit in a correct skating position (see previous post) and stay there for 1 minute at the time. You will also swing your arms during this minute.

Next post:

I will talk about the body position in corners and the arm swing in corners.

Lock them in low!

2008-10-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well here we go with technique drill number one! It seems like a very simple one at first but once we start analyzing it, it doesn't seem so simple anymore. Oh and doing it all the time is another story!

I am talking about the knee bend you should be skating with. Everyone should have heard about this drill more than once in their skating career, if not every session! All the drills have this basic position in common. This is the start for every drill and the end of it. This is what you will be using when you actually skate, slow or fast!

WHAT TO DO?

First, you will try to get into a 90° angle in your knee bend! Stay there for a while and feel the burn that is created! That is the basic idea of this drill; keep the knee bend and feel the burn. As you see in picture 1 there is a line you create in this position: the SKT line (shoulder-knee-toe). A way to check that can be seen in picture 2: try to lower your arms to your feet and check if you shoulders-knees and toes are in one line! Please see that I am grabbing the front of my skates and not really my toes so that explains a slightly different line than picture 1.

Once you are comfortable with this position we can start skating! Keep in mind that you will have to stay in this position for every drill you will do during any practice. It sounds easy but I can tell you if you do it the right way it will hurt and give you one of the hardest workouts you will ever experience. I often skate in pace lines and will be in one of the last spots during this line so that means I will be skating anywhere from 50 to 150 laps. The goal is to stay in this basic position during all these laps!!! I can guarantee you it will hurt! Don't worry about your speed while doing this drill! I have been passed numerous times by skaters that I should drop any given day but they were simply not putting any effort into it and were skating with their "butts in the air." It can get frustrating to see other people cheat in this drill but remember what you are working on and don't forget that your efforts will be rewarded later on! You can start with pushing one leg to one side (see picture 3) and bring it back keeping your skates on the ground at all times! Later on when you feel stronger in this position you can skate with picking up your skates. Stay in the same basic position without rocking your shoulders up and down or moving your head up and down. Make sure you shift your weight when you change sides (more about this in detail in the next post). Remember to check yourself every now and than cause when you think you are low enough you will probably be higher than you think you are! A camera is the best way to check yourself!

WHY DO I NEED THIS KNEE BEND? DOESN'T IT JUST MAKE YOU HURT?

True, it is very unlikely that you will sprint with a 90° angle in your knees BUT practicing this position will how ever make you skate lower than normal. The ultimate goal is to be as low as possible sprinting and being comfortable with it. Therefore you will need to exaggerate in this drill by getting down lower than normal!

A good knee bend has multiple advantages:

while you bend you knee in one leg the other leg can stretch more and of course your push out of that leg will be way more efficient. If you can stretch your leg further you can extend your push and that means your wheels can stay on the ground for a much bigger push adding speed to your skating!
lowers your center of gravity for better stability.
more load out of every push for increased power in every push (you are using your body weight and gravity to load the muscle before contraction).
aerodynamics; the lower your body the less wind you will catch reducing the amount of energy you will use in your forwards motion of skating.

Couple of other things too keep in mind while bending your knees:

The back should be straight and the head should be still. The skaters inner balance is in the head. In other words, if skaters are bouncing their head around, they’re not gaining momentum, they’re throwing off their balance. The same thing can be said for the back.
Keep you shoulders aligned for the very same reason; leaning over to one side will have consequences in your whole body position. Try to simulate a horizontal line in front of you and make your shoulders never go up or under that line!

Let's get going!

2008-10-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't been writing and you guys keep on checking this blog with nothing new to read, I hate doing the same thing so I know how you feel...I wasn't up to anything different than hopefully every single one of you out there: starting the 2009 season. I went to train on the track in Colorado that is always a nice one cause of the altitude plus it's a banked track so it works your skills in the corners. Other than that I have been hitting the gym hard and want to try some new stuff to get stronger (more to read about that later on). Left and right I have been reading about how important the technique of every skater is and how that determines your speed! Nowhere could I find any exercises that I can copy from the Internet so I want to change that! Starting next week I will give you readers a set of drill that should improve your technique a lot and that will help you in your skating! And you know what the best part is? Its all going to be for FREE! Why??? Well cause I want to help most of you guys out there to get our sport more successful and with people able to keep up at high speeds (even with bad technique) its getting all a little too dangerous!

I will cover some drills off skates and on skates so you will have the possibility to keep on training if you live in those countries where the winter really starts to kick in! Keep in mind that every drill is one I personally do so you can add your own personal touch to it! I have been using them myself for a few years now and also Sara is proven to be successful with these drills. If you need further instructions or someone to check you out doing the drills you can always hire me :-) remember i have a bunch more than the ones I will put online!

So keep checking this blog for updates within a week or so!

Marketing school!

2008-09-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

Ice Skating at its best!

No, it's not short track neither long track or not even marathon skating! I was invited to go check out the San Jose Sharks play a pre season game at the Shark Tank aka HP Pavilion last night! I am talking about a NHL (National Hockey League) ice hockey game! For about 80$ you can get a pretty good seat in the lower half of the Pavilion with center view!

I have never seen better advertising, ambience and promotion for their own skaters and sport as the way the Sharks are doing it! They have a huge jumbotron where they not only promote their sponsors but also their own players with plenty of statistics for the true fans! Yes you can already hear me; inline speed skating can learn from these guys! A full house even in pre season games, plenty of TV advertising and broadcasting and apreciation of the fans! Plenty of entertainment in between the 3 standard periods with free stuff thrown into the audience!

The HP pavilion built in '93 can hold up to 17,500 fans at once and 68 luxury suites/boxes for companies to promote themself during the game at any expense! Not to forget all the action on the ice with top sport and incredible plays from some of the highest level players in the NHL (Cheechoo, Thornton, Mitchell, Michalek, Marleau, Nabokov, etc...). And oh yeah...guys they do get their gloves of to fight every now and then and I can tell you I did see some good punches resulting in some blood! You would almost forget that the Sharks lost this game to the Vancouver Canucks 2-3 cause of the great show around it! Plenty of beer flowing for the adults and lots of gadgets for the kids to buy and play with! T-shirts, sweaters, sticks, pucks, BBQ sets, hats, you name it they make it!

Few numbers that make any inline skater dazzle; average players salary; 1.9 milion dollars, with a total of players expenses at 35 milion dollars, team revenues; 69 milion dollars and ticket sales of 29 milion dollars a year! What's the point of this article? I think inline speed skating has the potential to create something that is maybe a little smaller in numbers but could grow to something similar after a few years. With the 100m indoor tracks that are everywhere in the US, speedskating has plenty of opportunity to promote their sport and create a racing venue similar to the NHL one. 100m tracks fit in any arena across the globe...getting people into it is the next and probably most difficult mission! Proper marketing and promotion could be step one! More and more speedskating companies got onto the right track selling more and more gadgets such as bags, shoes, T shirts, and other stuff to promote skating and get more budget into the sport. But at the last World Championships in Gijon i barely saw any banners or posters spread across the city??? How to expect more spectators if nobody knows about it. I heard some nice radio announcements in Gijon so that was a great way of getting attention! Let me know how you think about it and maybe we can make our own sport grow so we don't have to think about leaving inline skating to become Olympic or get more recognition!

"Training" or Not, Be Active

2008-09-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

Even when I'm in the off-season and do not yet need to be training for my next race, I am still very active. I find that by regularly running, biking, lifting weights, and swimming that I maintain a moderate baseline fitness level, which makes it easier to regain "peak form" when I need to. Perhaps more important than the physical benefits of daily exercise, however, is its effect on my mental health -- a good run, bike ride, or swim is an opportunity for me to release stress and frustration, to think about things, and to re-energize with some quality "me time." I am known to sometimes get edgy and withdrawn when I cannot exercise, like if I'm injured.

Yesterday I went for a hike! Yes I too was sceptic about hiking thinking this is something only older people would do...but I was proven wrong! Living in San Jose with more than 1 million other people can get busy and loud! Everywhere you go people are lining up! Normally I don't mind the life in the city but sometimes you want to get away from all of that and in San Jose that is not a problem. About 10 minutes of driving takes me to a park named "Alum Rock." In that park you can hike different hills and the one I hiked was named Eagle Rock! Worth all the sweating cause the views were phenomenal! Pay attention to the deers, squirrels and blue jays in the pictures! Its absolutely dead silent over there so its just you and nature! Did i mention there is a road going uphill where I skate on in the season!! Also with fall starting and temperatures still hitting 80's this is the perfect place for some training!!

Rest or Rust

2008-09-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Well everyone that followed World Championships should pretty much be burned out from all the articles, pictures, videos etc so I will not throw more out there for you! I will however tell you what I want to be doing the next couple of weeks and why!

1. REST.
The first thing you can read in any training program is the rest that trainers subscribe to their athletes to recover from physical fatigue, injuries and mental exhaustion! That is the only way to get your body recovered enough to go out and do another season of hard training! Typically I take about 2 to 4 weeks off skates and gym to try and get everything cleared up that was going wrong in my body! I do however take part in other activities such as swimming, cycling or running but all these activities should be part of having fun and not being considered a workout!

2. LIVE IT UP.
In the next weeks I will live it up a little and eat and drink whatever i want. Not paying attention to food for that period of time keeps me clear for the rest of the season! Three weeks of fast food is MORE THAN ENOUGH! After that time I don't crave any hamburgers, milkshakes or frappucino's in excess. This also restores the necessary fats and other substances I will need to bulk up and create muscles later on.

3. PLAN YOUR TRAINING.
Next to resting I also want to figure out what I can improve before I go out and torture myself! All season long I keep on thinking what can improve me and what hurts me so now is the time to change things around. I don't like change in the middle of the season so the next few weeks are important and good to change things around! This time of the year I will also try to plan what races I will compete in during the 2009 season and where i want to peak and perform the best of my abilities! In picking out races I try to figure out who will race where so I know what level the races will be! I don't want to race at Worlds level every week so I typically mix things up a little. Racing at high level makes me want to be top all the time and i know my body can not take that so I need to take it easy more than once!

4. FINE TUNE YOUR EQUIPMENT.
The first thing I think about in the off season is my equipment! I want to have the fastest wheels, the stiffest and best steering frames, the lightest but strongest boots, the longest spinning bearings....you got it; lots of testing and research to do to get that all right!

5. GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
When I will put my skates back on or when I will pick up the squad bar I will keep things light and easy so I can go back to the basics of things! Going back to the first steps of skating will improve your technical skills drastically. I don't think anyone should skip this step! You can never be too good and always improve something! Also going back to the beginning in weight lifting can be great to avoid possible injuries. Maybe while lifting heavy weights your body created a bad habit like bending over too much or something similar so going back to the start with light weights can avoid a bad way of lifting!

6. ENJOY.
Don't forget why you are doing all of this in the first place! That's right, you all love skating so non of the workouts you plan on doing should be a drag! Never skate because someone is telling you to skate! Only do things you want to do and put your heart into it! If the last season was mentally hard on you and you don't really feel like starting all over, take some more rest and think about why you started skating in the first place! If you feel like your last season was a failure and you don't feel like making the same sacrifices for nothing; think about the successes you had in the past and try to turn things back around to get to the same success or even better! Enjoy what you are doing because you never know how long it can last!!

Post Worlds Hang Over

2008-09-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, first of all i want to apologize for not updating my blog during the World Championships! As you probably knew our 4 star hotel was one without Internet connection?!? I feel like writing about my hang over; not because of the alcohol, but more of a mental hang over; getting two bronze medals is okay but left me with a pretty sick feeling in the stomach! I trained all year with only one goal and that was to win a gold medal at worlds. Not succeeding in my mission didn't make me a happy person.

How it all unfolded;

The 300m TT on the track went pretty smooth in the heats; qualifying 2nd with enough gas left in the tank to do better in the finals. Later that night during final times i opened up in a 9.3 but kinda messed up the 2nd and 3rd corner resulting in a 3rd final ranking. Not too bad since i never got a medal on track before but yet i had skated faster times at practice and to know silver and even gold could of been possible. The next day is where it all went wrong; during the first heat of the 500m sprints I got off the line and felt a sharp pain in my left groin. I finished the heat in first trying to get more points for the 2009 World Games but had to pull out of the next round. I felt it wasn't worth pulling my groin and not being able to defend my 2007 gold medal in the 200m TT on road.

The next days i had to go look for professional help from a Korean doctor who gave me acupuncture and a Spanish top physio named Lorenzo that helped me get back on my feet. Without Lorenzo I probably wouldn't been able to race the 200m. The night before the 200m i could barely walk straight and had a lot of pain in my leg. He treated me (ya it made me cry when he pushed everything out OK!!!) and the next day i could at least skate! That day is one to forget. In the heats things were ok and i qualified second but i could never explode from the line the way i am used to. The first 100m is where you win the 200m and not being able to explode really made me struggle. I finally placed 3rd with only 0.16 from the winner Duggento who made an amazing comeback! Congrats to him for his 10th win!!

I hope that explains the head line and my hang over a little. Only one thing left to do at this point; go back and train harder and avoid injuries! I will glue a bronze medal to my underwear drawer so i have to look at it every day! This will remind me to work harder and take care of my body better! A lot of people told me that I should be happy that I ended up with something but to me nothing tastes better than gold!

The positive things about Worlds were Sara and the Belgium team! Sara skated incredibly fast on the track and together with B. Bowe they were unbeatable! I felt nothing but joy watching Sara skate that great! She gave me goose bumps every time she shifted into Turbo Gear and became the Pocket Rocket! I've personally seen her evolve from Italy 2004 to where she is now in 2008 and i am glad all the hard work paid off. She is a real example of how skaters should work to become World Champion setting the right example for everyone around her! She has more will power and work ethics than anyone i have ever met! Yeah you get it I am very proud of her!

The other good thing was the results Belgium got at worlds! We all skated a top 10 or several top 10's! Bart set the standard with his 3 gold medals and several more medals dominating the Junior long races! Also Wannes turned it up with a 2nd in the marathon! I think with some better sideline coaching our juniors could of all come home with an individual medal! They topped it of with a relay medal on the road! Our seniors also stepped it up with Ferre aka Feefee skating top 5 on the tracks points elim race and Kwinten in the roads Elim race! Belgium is definitely a top nation with only 7 skaters going and for the 2nd year in a road i can say to be proud to be part of the Belgian Team!

photos of patincarrera.com

2 DAYS TO GO

2008-09-02T00:24:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone!
It's been a while and we've been pretty busy skating between lunch and dinner. A problem in Spain is that no place serves food 24h a day; most places serve food around 13h30 for lunch and 20h30 for dinner so we have to schedule our practices around that. It's a little easier now since the Belgian team arrived and the meals are taken care of by the team manager and coach. Ferre and me also moved out of the Silken Hotel to the Gran Jovellanos; a four star hotel that shouldn't have 4 star rating. The rooms are pretty small and there is only one spot in the entire hotel with a hotspot so that makes that everyone staying here (Spain, Germany, Costa Rica and Belgium) are trying to get online with the same access code and same connection...SLOW...

Not so slow were the times on the track last night. In perfect conditions with no wind team USA did a trail for the 2nd spot on the team (for the TT's) and Dane Lewis did an awesome job with a very good time well in the 24 seconds. Dane skated on all street fight MPC's by the way. Also Joey looked solid (no surprise there) and seeing all of this Gregory jumped in and opened up in about a 9.3....this track will put a new world record on the tabels for the 300m, that's a certainty now! Never have i seen everyone open up full for one 3 days before racing day. This championship is going to be exciting to skate and watch! Stay tuned cause in less that 48h the Juniors will kick off the championships with their 300 m TT.

7 DAYS TO GO

2008-08-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

One week to go for the biggest competition to kick off! 7 Days from now the 300 m TT will start with the heats in the morning. Slowly we are getting some times on the other skaters and can safely say the WR will go down in some of the distances. The 110 mm wheels have a lot to do with it and of course the track feels very fast once you get up to speed! I wouldn't be surprised to see some 14 second laps during this years competition.

Sara arrived with team USA on Wednesday and is getting used to the track! Most big teams are here by now including Colombia, Korea, Chinese Taipei, France, New Zealand, The Netherlands and of course Feefee and I for Belgium.

Yesterday Feefee and I skated the road course to try some wheels out! It is ridiculously fast this year! They topped it off with an extreme smooth layer that feels similar to the surface of the track. It is pretty much a 435m long track with slightly changed corners to comply with the rules of FIRS. We ran some times to try out the lines for the 200m and did a long smooth skate. The downside is that the road course is about 10 minutes by taxi from our hotel so its an adventure to get there and go back every time. Since i don't really have a lot of time to write in between practice times and rest i will try to get something more interesting up in the next few days! Keep in touch!

START IN 8 DAYS

2008-08-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

Not a lot to write about here in Gijon at this time. Teams are slowly coming in town such as South Korea, Chinese Taipei and today Colombia and USA. Also Ferre Spruyt aka Feefee will get in today and start training on the track for worlds joining me in the two men strong Belgium team until the arrival of the others in the team on September 1st! The advertising campaign of the organisation has kicked of and hopefully a lot of people will show up coming racing day to follow their hometown favorites like Sheila Posada and Fernando Mejia.

Things have been going as usual at the track...the only thing worth point out is that France had a few trails on the track and they gave all of us an idea of how fast things can really go! The more i run times and see other skaters run times the more i believe a world record will be set in the 300m, that is if the wind can lay low for a few hours at final time! One other interesting fact is that Julien Despaux (France), the no. 2 of last years 300m TT will not start in the TT according to our 'agents' at the track ;-)

The other thing worth writing about is the wheel testing. Everyone is testing out different combo's of wheels and everyone has his own way of testing wheels. The thing that i wanted to point out is that a lot of skaters just seem to copy other skaters without really testing for themself. Putting the clock to the test may be the only way to figure out what works best for you if you are a sprinter. For distance racers this may be a little different since they have to go for a little more roll and less grip. I will keep you updated on what i will be skating on soon but as you all know it will be on MPC WHEELS!

9 MORE DAYS!

2008-08-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

Yes!!!! It's almost SHOWTIME..less that 10 days before the biggest and greatest competition in Inline Speed Skating gets under way! The thing that surprises me this year is that only a limited amount of skaters are here well ahead of the championships to get used to the track. Last year there were many more teams that flew in more than 14 days in advance of start of the competition. This year I notice that even 10 days out only a select amount of countries are present! It will be interesting to make up the balance after worlds is over and have a look at how those people were performing compared to the ones that came in late!

The psychological 'time wars' that is traditionally part of a world championships are also in full effect; skater A did a 15.2 but skater B did a 15.1 so what will skater C do??? It's very interesting to see this evolve every year. Of course it's good to know where you will be before you get to the line so you're not naive and think that you'll be the man while really you are about 0.5 of the times but yet...pre world racing doesn't mean a thing; if you don't pull out the fast one the day of the race it was all for nothing! That's what makes this sport so beautiful; you have to be fast of course but also stress resistant, fit a the right time, healthy, injury free...yes you get it by now: this is a complete challenge for your body and mind! The older I get the more I enjoy this whole environment! I love trying to perform when it really counts, no matter if that includes success or failure, that's part of the game! Happiness and sadness are two factors that are very close in this sport and only 0.01 can be the difference between the two of them. All you can do is try 100% and hope you are on the good side of the 0.01! It's almost like a real life job where you work hard every day in hopes to get that promotion or shoulder tap from your boss, only in skating you should do it for yourself and your country and not for your boss!

13 DAYS TO GO

2008-08-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

After training 2 sessions a day for the past week I decided today would be a great day to relax and not skate. The track has been injuring a number of people and i don't want to become one of them. It feels pretty hard on your whole body to skate twice a day but I had to get used to the track and skate a lot on it. It's slowly getting better and I am starting to feel more comfortable on the track. That is also noticeable in the times I am running. Lets hope the times keep going down till racing day!

In the meantime the whole NZ team arrived in Gijon as the first complete team. Also the French senior team and the Venezuelan team with some other individuals have found their way to Gijon. It's getting to the time where every other country will start coming in and skate on the track. That way I will have a better idea of what times I should run compared to the other skaters and know where I can end up in the races. It's nice to see other countries train and discover the way they go about skating on a track and studying different things on and off the track. In Belgium a lot of skaters just jump on the track and try and go as hard as they can without really analyzing a lot. If you compare that to the NZ or French team where they tape the whole training and record every single time to compare it with different lines on the track later that night, than I wonder how much better Belgium could become if we did some more of that stuff?? Well i am sure that is not going to happen this year since the other Belgian skaters (execpt for Feefee) are arriving 2 days before the start of the competition. Anyway I am going to relax and enjoy the day off. Oh yeah i almost forgot to mention it but Belgium took a gold medal today at the Olympics!!! Way to go Tia Hellebout!!!

17-16 DAYS TO GO; TAPERING

2008-08-20T02:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of people were asking me to write a little about tapering and how i do my own tapering. I don't really want to go into detail but I did write a couple of rules that count for no matter what kind of tapering you are doing. As for skating on the track in Gijon i will try to skate another 2 sessions. I will keep you guys posted on how that went! Have fun reading!

Tapering: how do I make sure to peak at the right time?

Peaking and tapering to peak for a race means a change in your regular training program. It has only one goal and that’s to get you into the best possible shape your body can be in for a specific day, week or even one day of racing. Tapering is almost and art on its own; there are many different ways to taper an athlete such as linear, step and exponential tapering. The best program is the one that will be balanced enough so you will reach your optimum level of skating and not kill yourself in the practices prior to your races. Online you can find enough info on the different taper methodes and pick which one will fit your skating better. I will not explain the different ways to taper athletes but just talk about some general headlines.

A. PROGRAM; Stick to your program! Once again temptation will get bigger as you get closer to your races to do more. Also if you see other people skate around the track for multiple laps at the time at high speeds…don’t get tempted to jump in and do the same if it’s not in your planning. I know it’s a guilt trip your mind will put on yourself but don’t think of it as being lazy, think of it as being smarter!
B. VOLUME; Cutting back in volume is an important step in tapering. Find a good way to reduce your amount of training. Don’t cut back your skating 80% or more from one day to the next! There are many online training programs that can explain you more about how to cut back and what percentages to use. Of course this is different for a sprinter compared to a long distance skater!
C. FREQUENCY; Keep up the speed! Include more sessions where you just go at race pace or faster. In the last weeks include at least 3 sessions a week where you can sprint all out. This is important so your body doesn’t slow down! If you will rest too much in the last weeks prior to a race or competition your body will slow down! Continue doing this until the week prior to your race. In the last week make sure to still do some intensive stuff at 100% but take long rests in between reps.
D. REST; In the last three days you really need all the rest you can get. This doesn’t mean you have to shut yourself off and go in a 3 day winter sleep either! Try to keep your body in at certain rhythm. Wake up at the times you will need to be up on racing days and if possible go to bed when you will be going to bed during competitions. Get your body used to that! Don’t go out to the track and do stupid things! I typically take the second day before racing as a day off. I will skate a little the day before a big race to loosen things up. Also stretching is a great way to relax your muscles and keep yourself injury free prior to your big competition. Get in a massage if you can 2 days before the race! That way your muscles can relax enough before your race!

These are just some thumb rules that I use during the season and preparation for Worlds, I hope they can help out some of you out there! Feel free to ask me any questions!

18 DAYS TO GO!!

2008-08-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Well I was finally able to skate again today! It felt great to be able to put my skates back on and roll around the Gijon track. The more I skate on it the more I discover how to skate the track a little better lap by lap. It's definitely not an easy track! At first it may seem like it but don't be mistaken! How difficult it is was obvious when everyone on the track skated together and did a few corner blasts. Who is everyone? Well as you probably read New Zealand arrived in Gijon on Friday and also Mick and Angie from Australia are here! This morning Diego Rosero also turned up to the track so we have a pretty nice group to skate on the track.

Slowly I am starting to think about what time could possibly be skated on the 300m TT. I am not convinced yet that this track is one of the faster tracks in the world like everyone told me prior to getting here. It's fast but I am not sure if it's record fast. I will have to clock some of the flying laps and first 100m's and than I'll probably know what's possible on this track. This is also a big part of the World Championships! There is always a lot of speculation before racing even starts! People are always clocking other skaters and some may be clocked a little inaccurate (a lot of coaches get excited with their stopwatches!). I have seen this every year and it just doesn't really get to me anymore. A lot of skaters are actually running faster at practice than they do at races. Its one thing to put the fastest lap down at practice and but a whole other thing to do that in a WC final when the heat is on. It's of course also a psychological game coaches and skaters play with each other.

After 11 years of skating World Championships I try not to look too much at what other skaters do time wise and just try to get my own times down. Sure I will watch what lines on the track other sprinters take...I would be dumb not to, but I am no longer worried if I run faster or slower practice times than they do. A lot depends on the conditions of the track and a lot of people seem to forget that. You can probably run way faster times at nighttime here in Gijon than during the day. Also the wind is going to be a huge factor here. Some days its been pretty windy and that could definitely take its toll on the times. Also being push off a relay tag can do miracles to your times but it's another thing to get to those speeds by yourself! We'll see when it's racing time and as they say in Spanish; que sera sera!

Here are a few pictures taken today by our friends from Mundopatin!

Chase Bolt....

2008-08-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

You really need to check this video out; if you're not patient enough roll it 2m25 into it and look at what time Bolt ran???? This means he knew all along he would run a 9.69...is that coincidence or not? Funny if you ask me!

22-21-20-18 DAYS TO GO; Assumption of Mary

2008-08-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well sorry for not writing anything for the last few days but things haven't been interesting here in Gijon. On Thursday I could finish my practice on the track as planned. On Friday however I couldn't access the track because of a National Holiday; The Assumption of Mary (this means that Mary was transported into Heaven with her body and soul united. The feast day recognizing Mary's passage into Heaven is celebrated as The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Roman Catholics). The whole city of Gijon was absolutely filled with people, not a single parking spot to find for miles! And celebrate they did with a huge beautiful firework! All I had to do is open the curtains and enjoy the spectacular show.

Today I met up with the NZ guys at the track to see if there was any chance we could get on but that didn't really happen so we went to go check out the road course. That course is not really done yet; they have put down a primary layer and still need to finish it all up. Not sure when that is going to happen but they told me that it depends on the weather. If it rains they can't really put the last layer on!

The next time I can get on the track will be on Monday so for now all I can do is rest plenty and of course watch the Olympics...HOLY COW can that guy Bolt run; 9.69 is freaking amazing! We should give that guy some skates but then it could be all over for us sprinters ;-) Did you know he is only 22 years old (well he will be as of August 20th)! So that means he can still get stronger as he will get older! Can't wait to see him run the next Olympic final in 4 years...maybe a 9.5? The only other thing worth mentioning in his career so far was his silver medal in the 200m at the world championships in 2007! What a way to step it up! Maybe he can take out the 200m as well!

The biggest star by far in Peking is Micheal Phelps! He is just simply amazing! The thing I don't understand about him is how he can swim at that level for 7 days or more, swimming heats, quarters, semi's and finals at world record pace??? What is this guy made of? That is like someone that is racing every race at world championships and winning it all and making it look easy ( I guess Joey Mantia is another one of those amazing athletes that pretty much did something similar in Cali 07 at the level of inline speed skating world championships). However I am amazed by Phelps because of the fact that he can beat specialists in every distance/swim style he starts in. That is something incredible! As for the Belgian athletes at the Olympics...well its not going that hot but maybe the U23 soccer team can bring home a medal; they are in the semi finals so that's as close to a medal you can get!

23 DAYS TO GO

2008-08-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Another day in Gijon, with a beautiful 25 degrees, even at 9 PM and no burning sun to get to that temperature; perfect conditions to skate! Today it was time to get the skates out of my bag and skate a hard interval session on the track. I dread these kind of practices cause they are making me feel extremely sick in my stomach and head, well they kind of make my whole body feel like it wants to shut down and never reboot again. However these are probably one of the most important drills an athletes needs to be doing. The track is a leg killer, that is for sure! It puts a lot of pressure on your legs during cross overs plus the straight lines are pretty long so you need to keep pushing to get to the next corner.

After I finished my session I got approached by a city official that was telling me I need an authorization to skate on the track. I went to the official office of the World Championships and they told me I need to pay 25€ an hour on the track! Wauw so that means if I want to skate 2 sessions of one hour/day that will cost me no less than 350€/week. Good thing I knew before I came out here that this was going to be the case. Every year the organizers of worlds or the city officials seem to come up with another way of keeping skaters of their tracks!

Last year the Colombians played a game by keeping all skaters that came early to Cali of the track and now this....where is this going to end? This has very little to do with organizing a World Championship to develop skating...maybe next year they will charge 30€ and so on. How would a person that is coming from a poor country be able to afford all of this? This is making inline speed skating a sport for rich people and I don't think that will do speedskating any good. People are trying to get as many nations involved in skating but on the other hand they are doing things like this? It just doesn't make sense to me. Put in your two cents and let me know what you think!