Speedskating Season Preview

Minnesota is a great place to live. Along with the change of seasons, most endurance athletes are seen switching to a different sport discipline.  Cross training proves to be one of the best ways in building for success in any individual’s primary sport. Cross training allows an athlete to improve his or her weaknesses, refreshes their motivation, and works different areas of their body thus avoiding overuse injuries.  For those of you who have their primary season in the summer time, the winter months can be a good time to try new things and meet new people.

For me as a cyclist, I can’t stand sitting on a trainer for longer than a half hour.  Why should I when I have a newly created environment provided by winter. I find it best to hang up the bike for a few months and use skiing for my cardio and upper body, and speedskating for my power. I think the cyclists will appreciate the increase in power that speedskating brings. The main muscle groups I have noticed are the gluteus, outer and inner thighs and a great deal in the lower back. It took me a good month or so to get my back used to it. Speedskating has also taught me to relax when racing. Because the motion is so technical, you end up going slower by rushing the technique and adding more power than by just relaxing and letting everything flow. It is a sport you first have to learn to go slow before you can be fast. All and all, speedskating is like lower body strength training. I come away from the ice feeling like I just finished doing squats, except at 25+ mph.

I have the privilege this year to bring to you the sport of speedskating here at Skinnyski.com. You would think that Minnesota would be a big speedskating state with lots of athletes and spectators. We even have the second largest cooled sheet of ice in the world right here in the Twin Cities with the John Rose Ice Oval in Roseville. (The Dutch just built a cooled 5km course). Speedskating was very popular back in the 50’s and 60’s around here, bringing in thousands of spectators just for the weekend meets, but it has tailed off since then. Although we lost the numbers, we still produce some very talented skaters, many of which advance to the Olympic training facility in Salt Lake, Utah. 

The Midway Speedskating Club is the primary club for up and coming skaters. Their main focus is in developing kids and youth. There are a few other clubs around the state that will take adults in and teach them how to skate. All these clubs are part of the Greater Minnesota Speedskating Association (GMSA) which is the larger governing body. The Midway Speedskating Club website is a good place to look and learn more on how and where to get started speedskating. They have links to GMSA, US Speedskating, and all the event calenders.

Every Saturday and Sunday there are races at the John Rose Ice Oval. Saturday’s are pack meets, and Sundays are the metric time trials. Race’s range from 500 to 5000 meters in length and racers are sorted by age groups. Some of the people to watch this year: Erik Ducker, Mac Blumel, Ashlee Barnett, Rebekah Dyrud, and Rebekah Bradford from the Midway Club. Laurence Ducker, Mike Blumel, and Paul Dyrud were on the US team last year and could occasionally be seen racing time trials when in town.

The team I belong to, Twin City Speedskating, has some good talent in it also: Mike Anderson is a national pro road racer turned inline skater and speedskater. Anderson, a top master in both disciplines, has incredible endurance and wins most of the long distance events including last year’s 50km National Speedskating Marathon Championship held on Lake Bemidji. Eben Fisher was training in Salt Lake all last year but has returned to be under the guidance of our head coach and two time Olympian, Floyd Bedbury. Eben is known for his sprinting abilities and is another exceptional inline skater. Club president, Steve Miller is competitive in his age group nationally and has been skating for many years. He usually provides beginner skaters with a wealth of knowledge technical skills and leads workouts.

Patti Koehler, State criterium, time trial, and ROY (rider of the year) champion in the Cat 4 women this year also added to her season accomplishments by winning 13 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze medal(s) in rowing.  Three of those gold medals were won at the National Championships and another at Boston’s Head of the Charles rowing regatta, one of the most prestigious rowing races in the world. This will be Patti’s second season on the ice and will be competing in some of the national masters pack meet races.

We also have some fast inline skaters and even a former Mr. Minnesota body builder on the team.  Our head coach, Floyd Bedbury, says his club has turned into a multi sport club, but he likes it that way. He used to compete in 13 different sports himself. It’s a great little club and everyone is helpful to new comers.

I’m getting anxious for the season to get gliding and I wish to see this sport grow this year and bring in some more competition. It’s great fun. The ice is coming soon, so I hope to see you out there.

John Rose Ice Oval Opens Friday November 7th.

Race schedule

• Dec 6-7 John Rose Open (mass start)
• Dec 13-14 American Cup II
• Jan 24-25 US Junior Long Track Championships

• Feb 14 Zhuikov Cup

• Feb 21-22 North American National Marathon Championships

• Nov 23 Gold Cup Championships
• Dec 27-30 US Long Track Championships (allround/sprint and World Cup Qualifier)
• Jan 10-11 Great Lakes Long Track Championships and 2009 US Masters Sprint
• Jan 31-Feb 1 National Long Track Championships
• Feb 14-14 Masters International Meet

Beginners

Since speedskating is such a technical sport, it is virtually impossible to figure it out on your own. That's why all the clubs have coaches to help everyone out. Midway offers an adult learn to skate program on Wednesday nights. Skate rentals are available.  You can also contact Twin City Speedskating Adult coach Steve Trynoski at [email protected] to set up a lesson.

I recommend coming out to a race on the weekend and start talking to people and watch how its done. All the coaches are there and you can put some faces with the names. They can give you a few dry land techniques and workouts to work with so when you come to the ice lesson you will already have an idea what it's suppose to feel like. If you think you'll be interested, give it a try and see how you do. That's how I got started.
 

About the author... Eric Oftedahl lives in Shoreview MN. He's currently going to college for engineering. Eric just finished his fifth year of mountain biking and first year racing as semi pro. This year was his best year, scoring third overall in the Minnesota State Series racing for Hollywood Cycles /Silver Cycling club. Eric also enjoys road racing as as a Cat 3 rider. This will be his second season training and racing speedskates, and third season skiing.