Mykola Makowsky

It's been awhile since I raced this well: CAN-AM Racing results

2011-11-19T21:00:00.001-07:00

What a great few days of racing for me. Such a confidence booster and some personal reassurance. I knew that I could have qualified for both the 1000 m and 1500 m a few weeks ago, but, my ankle injury definitely limited me. I did make some technical mistakes but the ankle

Wednesday evening, I wrote up my race plans and rehearsed them. I knew exactly what I was going to do for both the 500 and 1000.

Thursday was a great day of racing. I executed technically and tactically and was mentally tough. The result was 2 solid races.

500m: 36.34... Its hardly a world class time but a significant improvement for me and a season's best.

1000 m: 1:09.81. A much better race compared to trials, and with that time I would have qualified for the 1000 m. (I know I can't directly compare despite the ice being very similar to trials.. different day, no trials pressure etc.) I finally figured out how to open under 17 seconds (16.91) with a pb opener. That is so important for me because I am giving up way too much time to my competitors in the opener. The rest of the race was very smooth and I skated the best I had all year in racing.

Friday was an even better day of racing, but there was a little bit of a rollercoaster to make it interesting.

500m was not as good as Thursday. I was rushed on the backstretch and messed up the 2nd inner.

So i was a little nervous and there was some doubt that creeped into my head. Was my focus wrong? Is the technical side wrong? Am I tired? I took a few minutes to clear my head, then went over my race plan and technical cues. I put some tunes in my ears (C'mon...catch em by surprise Tiesto ft Busta rhymes... soo awesome) and started warming up. I went through all my technical cues with some position drills. Then, the best way to deal with nerves is to fight fire with fire. I got ready to race, went to the line and went for it.

1500 m: 1:46.52. 0.1 seconds off of my personal best. Fastest time in 2.5 yrs on slow and unforgiving ice.
Solid opener. easy speed. Smooth first lap and I was just flying. 25.78 is one of my fastest 1500m laps ever, and one of my fastest laps of the year... in the 1500! I didn't even work for the first lap and a half. There are definately some things to work on in laps 2 and 3, but that was one of the best races that I've ever raced...up there with my 1500m at fall trials in Richmond in 2009 that qualified me for world cups.

These races, especially the 1500 m, are exactly what I knew I could do at trials had I not been injured. These were low pressure races..definitely not trials, but there was some serious pressure on myself to perform given that i was healthier. I know that I'm on track and that I will be ready for racing in Quebec and at trials in January. Such a great feeling and very much needed.What a great race. It's been awhile !

The ankle is finally healing up

2011-11-19T20:47:00.001-07:00

I raced this week at the Annual CAN-AM International competition here in Calgary. It was the first racing for me since trials so I was a little nervous to see how I would race now that my ankle is in much better shape than it was a few weeks ago. I noticed a considerable improvement in my ankle over the last week, but especially over the last 3 or 4 days where each day it was noticeably better. I figure I'm at about 90+% now, but this is where I thought I was back at trials.

Early this week, I noticed a few things technically when I was thinking about a few things at home one evening. So I tried out a few things on the ice for race prep on wednesday and the difference was enormous. First, I didn't realize how much I was using my quads instead of my glutes when I skate. Race prep on wednesday felt like i was a completely different skater. I felt like I had to relearn how to speedskate. By the end of practice I was really starting to get the new feelings down, but I didn't exactly have a fast tempo. Sure, I was slightly concerned but decided to just go with it and trust that the technical changes would work tomorrow. Plus, I knew that was the technique I needed to skate with to improve moving forward.

I decided to stick to the plan, write up my race plans and rehearse them and just trust the technical changes and see what would happen.

Inspired by the "Book of Awesome"

2011-11-11T17:41:00.001-07:00

I recently heard about the book "The book of Awesome" by Neil Pasricha and took a peek at it. The point of the book is to step back and notice some of the awesome things that we experience in daily life but are too busy or not aware enough to notice them. An example, putting on a warm shirt right out of the dryer or that nice cozy feeling when you wake up in bed.

Yesterday, I had one of those moments. Yesterday, November 10th, I rode my bike outside in the sun with very few layers on because it was 13 degrees Celsius. Yup, pretty awesome.

Check out http://1000awesomethings.com/

Wish I were on an airplane right now...

2011-11-09T20:50:00.001-07:00

A lot has happened over the last 8 weeks to get me to where I am right now.

In early September, I sprained my ankle doing a recovery jog in Montreal. (Yup, that's what I get for being a good athlete that follows the training program instead of taking the day off like I wanted). It was pretty bad when it happened. I was jogging down Mont Royal when i came up to 3 rock 'steps'. I slowed to a crawl, dropped down one step, then the other and then the third.... i heard a 'pop' as I dropped a foot and a half onto an uneven surface and rolled my ankle. I buckled over the railing close by, felt the most intense feeling of wanting to throw up. As I was bent over the railing, in intense pain and nearly hyperventilating, a gentleman walked past me...and kept walking (I hope not all Montrealers are so kind...). I was about 2 km from my girlfriend's place, I had only my phone (thankfully) and no way of getting back to her place. So, i started walking... Thankfully I could walk, so i knew the ankle wasn't broken, but i was in bad shape. I just kept walking, one step at a time and about 30-40 minutes later I got back to her apartment.

Later that afternoon, I went to the Maurice Richard Arena where the National Short Track team trains to see a physio to get it checked out. Turns out it was a first degree sprain (although recently i heard it was actually a 2nd degree sprain).

When i got back to Calgary, the treatment began and I got clearance by my physio to get back on the ice about 10 days later. I tried skating and the ankle hurt, but was manageable. I tried again the next day. No chance. By the following Tuesday, I was back on the ice for one of Xiuli's death programs ready to giver. Not bad...back training less than 2 weeks after an ankle sprain, and I skated pretty well.

The next 2 weeks I was quite creative in finding a way to skate. There was a lot of pain and tenderness. I was taped up like a football player so prevent any inversion. Then the addition of foam to pad up the tender spots made skating a little more bearable. In the first week of October, I finally shed all the tape and foam and got back to as normal as possible. (...I wasn't even close to normal)

(Aside: Everyone really takes the simplest and crucial motions and movements for granted, me included. Take away motion in your ankle (or elbow, or knee or thumb) and you realize just how important that motion is and how your ability to perform the simplest or most complex tasks become more difficult or impossible. Try it. Go about your normal day with your thumb taped to your palm, or attach a weight to your ankle and tape it so you have no mobility...your perspective will change completely.)

The next few weeks saw some progress. The ankle was improving from time and treatments (We have the best med team...physio, chiro, doctor, massage and osteo...) but i was still quite injured and spent every day in some form of recovery. I had some very promising practices from a technical standpoint where I applied many of the improvements that I worked on all summer with Mark and Xiuli. But there was still a lot of pain and tenderness. The biggest limitation was the tender fibula post and the loss of mobility. It is really tough to speedskate when you can't get your knee over toe. Its almost impossible....

Thankfully I'm really strong and fit, because that got me through the weeks of training leading up into trials. Training was going well, but due to my loss of knee angle, I was really struggling with my top end speed. I can only grunt through so much but eventually strength can't make me go faster, I needed to skate better technically.

Admittedly, I was a little concerned going into trials. I knew that the ankle was coming along, but I was still pretty injured. I had some very positive improvements technically despite the ankle and I knew that it would be tough to qualify for the fall World Cups. Nevertheless, I knew that I could do it. It was gonna take something special because my ankle wasn't 100%, but, if i really focused on me, trusted my race plan and trusted my technical cues, I knew I had a chance. Given all that I had been through in the last 6 weeks, all I wanted was to have a chance to qualify and be in the running.

World cup trials came and well, it was an interesting experience to say the least.

Thursday was the 1000m. It was a decent race. One of my fastest openers ever, despite a busted up ankle...not too bad! I didn't get the first lap going as fast as I should have, and it cost me. My ranking wasn't great, 12th Ithink, but I was 0.2 seconds out of 6th. Yup, 7 of us between 1:10.20 and 1:10.43 (and 9 of us if you extend that to 1:10.5).

I wasn't happy, sad or dissapointed with the race. I knew the race wasn't perfect and it was a missed opportunity. I could have qualified for the 1000. So, i watched race video that evening, realized a few technical things to improve on and put together a race plan specifically for my pair the next day in the 1500.

The 1500 m was an awesome race. I noticed in the 1000that I wasn't keeping my knee over my toe on my left, andtherefore losing pressure, because of my ankle (think levers all you engineering folk... ). I refocusedfor the 1500 with that being the main focus...get over my left and Ihad a solid race plan to attack the race and to take advantage of mypair. In my first two 1500s of the year, I was way too slow in the opener (24.5).

I absolutely went for it, 23.8 opener, much better. I didn't sit back in the first lap and kept the speed I built in the opener.

At 1100m I was about evenwith the guys around me, but my lap time was about a half secondfaster, so I knew that I was going faster than they were at that point. I executed the race plan perfectly and overcame my ankle until 300m to go.

Coming out of the 2nd last corner onto the backstretch, I had a reflexreaction on my last left stride in the corner trying to keep my kneeover. I slipped or stumbled and almost went down. I recovered reasonably well, but rushed the final homstretch and was so sloppy.

That cost me. I missed qualifying a spot by 0.17seconds. One of the guys isn't going to Holland for the last of 3 worldcups, so I missed going by 0.07 seconds.... quite a heartbreaker. Sodamn close, despite the ankle. If only I had connected one more stride....

I've taken the last 5 days off the ice to give myankle time to recover and heal a little more. I didn't quiterealize it then, but I my ankle was a lot more injured than I thoughtwhen I raced trials. I truly believed that I was about 90%....75% would have been lucky. I don't if it was a technical mistake or myankle that caused me to slip, but it doesn't really matter. I knew Icould earn a spot even with my ankle and came so close.

In retrospect, there are alot of thoughts that went through my mind. I was much more injured than I thought. So many shoulda, woulda, coulda thoughts... but one of the biggest things that came to mind was something that one of my mentors wrote to me in an email.

"Remember that whatever life has ahead for you, you have already won it. Sometimes it just takes atime to collect the prize."

Perhaps he is correct. I have a postercalled "Instructions for life" by the Dalai Lama in my room. One of the lines is "Remember not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderfulstroke of luck".

Maybe, I've already won, and Ijust have to wait until January to collect my prize. Maybe I'm justnot quite ready and need a few more months to engrain what I've learnedand improved on over the last few months. I've always been a truebeliever that things happen for a reason, and someone has a plan for me.Maybe that's the case.

I might have been good enough to go right now,but going might not have served me the best right now. With a littlemore time, I might be that much better come January. Physically and technically. There is alittle anger, sadness and everything in me right now. But I'veturned this into motivation. 0.07 (or 0.17) seconds is the smallest of margins that results in the biggest difference of where I'll race this year.

I'm writing this post as the rest of the team is flying to Europe. I could have been on that plane if i were just a little faster. I probably should have been on that plane regardless if I was injured or healed up. I would have easily qualified if I was healthy....Shoulda woulda coulda. So what?

That's why I wish I were on an airplane right now. I can use this experience to my advantage or let it bury me. This setback is my focus for the next 2 months.

I will be ready come January....Every stride counts.

Breakfast Television - Thursday, October 13th

2011-10-12T20:43:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I will be on BT live from the Oval with my coach Mark Wild and one of my teammates Kirsti Lay. Catch me chatting with Andrew Schultz at 7:15 am MST!

http://www.btcalgary.ca/

WildWang Colorado Springs 2011

2011-09-20T20:02:00.002-06:00

Here is a video from our team camp in Colorado Springs.. it has great video of both Incline and Pike's Peak!

There is also some video of the start and finish of our 20 km time trial along with the whole team!

The A-team turns into the D-team

2011-09-20T19:51:00.000-06:00

So we were in Kananskis for a National Team mini-camp and the team was split up into 4 groups to make videos about teamwork.... here is what the Developement team men came up with. To make it interesting, it was made a competition with prizes for the best video. After watching it, take a guess who won?

Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs, CO

2011-09-02T13:27:00.001-06:00

I forgot to put up a post of the hike that we did up Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs. It was such a great hike, especially since I climbed my first 14,000+ ft mountain. Apparently in North America there are 58 peaks over 14,000 ft and colorado has 53 or so of them. There it is... the hike looks daunting from the city and we still couldn't believe that we climbed it when we looked back up in later days.

Apparently the hike takes 8 hours at a brisk pace to get to the top.......We climbed it in 4 hours and 5 mins....

Half way up the climb at 10,200 ft (elevation and pretty much time) there was a little camp called Barr Camp where we stopped for lunch and some unexpected treats.

Fresh brewed coffee and M&Ms... hit the spot.

After the lunch break we really got into a nice brisk pace and kept coming across these trail signs, including the one for the bottomless pit..

Once we cleared the treeline the views were incredible. Nothing like I've experienced before. For the last hour or so we were in the rocks and it looked like the hike would never end. There was a sign indicated that there were "16 golden stairs".... apperently meaning 16 more switchbacks until the top.... not so golden after all.

Finally getting to the top was great and quite rewarding. Most of us had pounding headaches from exersion at altitude, but it was worth it. What a great climb.

The "Incline"

2011-08-02T20:01:00.000-06:00

In the mountains just outside of Colorado Springs (on the way to Pike's Peak) is a nice little tourist attraction called the "Incline". This is a one mile climb with an average slope of 48%, a maximum slope of 67% with over 2000 ft of elevation gain. So of course, we had to do it. We were all pretty confident that it wouldn't be that hard and planned to take water bottles in the back of our cycling jerseys. Then we figured that we wouldn't need our water bottles because they would bounce too much as we ran up the Incline. Well......we underestimated the Incline. We weren't running or jogging. We were walking, and climbing with our hands. My brother Luc was the first one up the hill at 24:22...I was next at 25:13. (That's right, those are minutes...nearly a half hour for one mile.)

Here is a nice pic of the team at the bottom of the hill, we definately weren't as peppy at the top of the hill.

This is looking up to the summit from the "false summit" 2/3 of the way up. It is really that steep.

But we all made it to the top where there was an incredible view of Colorado Springs. That was one of the toughest 25 minutes I've ever done, but it was a blast. The whole team made it to the top in varying times, but it was a great team building activity. Everyone that finished was waiting at the top cheering in those that were still coming in, whether they were teammates or random people.

2011-2012 Update

2011-08-02T19:33:00.000-06:00

It has been awhile since i've last posted, but no time like now to write an update of how the season is going so far. I'm still training with Mark Wild and Xiuli Wang and my training group is the same as last year.

The summer has been great. My training has changed slightly, focusing more on quality vs. quantity so that I can really focus on the little details required for the 1000m and 1500m. In May we went to Santa Fe and Albequerque, NM for a 2 week training camp to cycle in the mountains, spent June focusing on high intensity training and now are in Colorado Springs for another 2 week training camp in the mountains. I'll put up some posts of the NM and Colorado Springs in the next few days.

Post competition update - Canada Cup #1 Quebec

2010-12-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

This past week I was in Quebec City for Canada Cup #1, the first domestic ranking competition used to select the National Development Team. It was quite interesting because of the range in weather conditions that I experienced. Wednesday rained, Thursday and Friday had wet snow and temperatures around freezing, Saturday was wet and sticky, Sunday was cold and windy. The temperature was never too cold but the ice and wind conditions were all over the place. Nevertheless, I raced quite well this weekend.

Friday, 1000m: 1st, 1:14.31
Saturday, 1500m: 2nd, 1:56.65
Sunday, 1000m: 2nd, 1:14.49

All 3 races went quite well, but my 1000's were really good. I skated very well and had some really fast first laps (27.1 and 27.2) for outdoor, refridgerated ice. To put that in perspective, in most low land, indoor ovals, A good first lap in a 1000m would be in the range of 25.8-26.3, and I was within a second of that outside in wind and snow and less than pristine ice conditions. That is a good confidence boost for me, since I've had trouble with my top end speed over the last few months.

This was probably my best competition in Quebec and it is the fastest I've gone on that track despite the less than ideal conditions. This is a good step working towards winter world cup trials which start in just over 1 month. Its a nice change to be racing well, but i've still got lots to work on to get ready.

Interview for Teampages...

2010-11-01T16:17:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I did a skype interview with Cynthia Barker of Team Pages in Vancouver B.C.

TeamPages provides amateur sport teams with free and easy to use team websites to post their schedules, scores, news, photos, videos, and updates.

Here is a link to their website where you can see the interview and learn all about Team Pages.

http://blog.teampages.com/2010/10/teampages-community/mykola-makowsky-canadian-national-development-team-speed-skater-%e2%80%93-teampages-chat-with-the-pros

Big Mid Fall Update...

2010-10-27T17:59:00.000-06:00

Lots has happened since I last wrote after the altitude camp in Canmore. Lots of ups and downs to report, but I'll start with the most recent events. The canadian fall world cup trials were this past weekend here in Calgary and there were many interesting results.

Trials didn't go as well as I would have hoped. I didn't qualify for either the 1000m or 1500m this fall. Its disappointing. I was skating really well in September, I've improved technically on ice, physically off ice and in the lab but I got into quite a dip for the first 3 weeks of October that I couldn't get out of in time for trials. My results for the weekend were.

1000m: 7th, 1:10.25
1500m: 5th, 1:47.60

Both results put me as the second alternate for each distance so I'll be close to home for the fall and won't be travelling to world cups. As I mentioned, I was skating really well in September so I was optimistic of my chances of qualifying. The first few weeks of October were pretty tough. I lost much of my 'feel' over the last weekend of september and just couldn't get it back. Those few weeks were tough, spending time trying to recapture the feeling and figuring things out, only for things to get worse.

This probably doesn't make much sense. Skating is a very technical sport, in fact, some may argue that skating is mostly technical. Skating technically well can make up for many shortcomings like lack of physical or mental strength. It doesn't guarantee anything, but it is easier to make up for a lack of strength than making up for weak technique. Sometimes, technical feel just disappears and you don't know why, and just can't fix it. And, the more I try to fix it, the more difficult it gets.

A chapter in "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell gives some insight into the type of skater I am. The story is called "Late Bloomers". Late bloomers are always hypothesizing, testing, analyzing and repeating to find and perfect the technique that works best for them. Often the process is long and arduous, and many quit before every finding their perfect result, but for those who stick with it, at some point, everything just 'clicks'.

You can read the whole story at: http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_10_20_a_latebloomers.html

For me, I've had many flashes of brilliance at one point or another. I've skated a 'perfect corner'. I've done a perfect opener. I've done a perfect straightaway. All of this has happened in the last month. I know what all of these feel like and now I have to put the puzzle together. I'm still in the hypothesizing/testing/analyzing stage for whatever reason.. and I want to get out of it once and for all, but everything really does happen for a reason, I just don't always know why.

I am really disappointed. I could have skated at world cups in Holland, Germany, Norway, China and Japan and I am good enough to be skating at the world cup level and qualifying for the Canadian team. But, maybe it is best that I didn't qualify. What if my dip happened one month later? It might be even tougher trying to get out of a dip at world cups. I have a poster by the Dalai Lama called "Instructions for life" and point #4 says

"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck"

Since I won't be travelling, I will have ample time to get my feeling back, and figure things out. Instead of over analyzing things, it sometimes helps to get back to basics, and focus on the little things. That doesn't mean trying to micromanage every little movement, but rather, paying attention to the feeling of specific movements and using that feeling to get my technique back in order. Ultimately, skating fast requires automaticity and it has to feel natural. It can't be robotic because there are too many things to remember. Being home for the next 2 months gives me plenty of time to do this.

Canmore training camp - September 2010

2010-09-15T16:10:00.000-06:00

I just got back home from Canmore, AB where Team Mark and Xiuli spent the week riding up and down Highwood Pass in Kananaskis.

Team Mark and Xiuli

Oh no, you are seeing correctly, we really are wearing that much clothing....you can probably guess what the weather was like.

Day 1: between 5-8 degrees Celcius with light rain off and on

Day 2: 8-10 degrees with intermittent rain and wind

Day 3: 15 degrees and sun! on the day we didn't ride (with a 5 minute downpour of course)

Day 4: 10 degrees, no rain, light wind

Day 5: 5 degrees and pouring rain......

etc...

Yup, that's me... nice and cold.

The 5th day of the camp was easily the toughest because we were soaked to the bone despite wearing rain gear. Hands were getting cold and going numb. Noses were dripping. The things we do for our sport... And to top things off... there was lots of snow up on top of the pass.

We had lots of fun, but it was a tough camp. One of my teammates said it best on the last climb of the day. Every season we have a bucket of willpower, and once we use it up, its gone until we recharge. This camp definately used up some of that willpower, but it serves its purpose in Xiuli's master plan, so we do it.

A new season has really begun...

2010-09-15T15:52:00.001-06:00

This summer has been quite different from last summer and most others since I have been in Calgary. Many changes have been implemented from top to bottom at Speedskating Canada, and I'm no exception. I am now training with Xiuli Wang and Mark Wild in a group of about 15 middle & long distance skaters, both male and female. Its an exciting new structure and I've already had lots of success working with both Mark and Xiuli.

Mark is a new national team coach for this quadrennial. He brings some jump and excitement to the group and balances off Xiuli who has been around forever! Mark has a background in sprinting, which is the perfect complement to Xiuli's ability to turn athletes into machines. I know he'll bring new ideas and different approaches to Xiuli's tried and tested recipe for success.

Xiuli is a technical hawk that carefully calculates every training block. We do every training session for a reason, and each training session and block leads into the next block. She has an eye for technical improvements that I've never experienced before. What's even more crazy is that she actually demonstrates any technical point or exercise...perfectly.

She is the exact type of coach I need at this point in my career. I've always been strong off ice and in the lab, but technical improvements are going to be what get me to the next level. Every coach that I've had up to this point have each contributed something very crucial to get me to where I am today, and my hope is that Xiuli and Mark can take me one step further!

A million dollar moment........

2010-03-11T22:26:00.004-07:00

A picture is worth a 1000 words...

Quebec City Results

2010-03-11T22:16:00.004-07:00

Last competition in the canada cup series was this past weekend in Quebec City. Here is a recap of my results

Friday
500m: 7th, 37.91 (personal best opener, 10.01 :) )
1000m: 2nd, 1:14.40

Saturday
1500m: 3rd, 1:56.85

Sunday:
1000m: 2nd, 1:15.10

Great last competition for the year. I'm pretty sure that I did what I needed to do to qualify a spot on the National Development Team for next year. I'll find out in the next few weeks about that.

This competition was really odd because of the weather. Even though the track is refridgerated, the ice was too soft mid day so we raced very early in the morning and late at night. Here was my race schedule... I've never done anything like this before.

Friday:
Warm up on ice: 8am
Race 500m: 9:30am

Warm up: 7pm
Race 1000m: 8pm

Saturday
Off ice Warm up: 4:50 am
On ice warm up: 5:10 am
Race 1500m: 6 am

Sunday:
Off ice warmup: 5:30 am
On ice warmup: 6 am
Race 1000m: 7 am

This was quite an experience...I can't say I've ever been on the bike at 4:50 am.... and I complained at times having to train at 7:30....

Link to an archive of my interview with the Current

2010-03-11T22:07:00.004-07:00

Hey everyone, click on the link to hear my interview with the current. Its really cool to hear the interview from an outside perspective. I could really see where I was at on a personal level at that time....and I sure wore my heart on my sleeve.

Take a listen

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/201002/20100225.html

Another CBC interview today with Mark Kelley

2010-02-26T14:32:00.004-07:00

Someone at CBC heard my interview on "The Current" and wanted me to do a live TV interview this afternoon in Vancouver, but I'm in Calgary, so I'm doing the interview from Calgary.

What: "Connect with Mark Kelley"
When: Today (Feb 26th) at 5:30 PM MST
Where: CBC news channel

I'll see if I can get video to post up on the blog in a few days....

CBC interview for "The Current"

2010-02-26T14:27:00.003-07:00

I did an interview with CBC back in January. They were looking for stories on what it was like for siblings of Olympians, especially those siblings in the same sports. It was broadcast yesterday on "The Current" with Anne-Maria Tremonti (February 25, 2010). You can find the interview archived on their website, and I have an mp3 file that I will try post here on the blog.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/02/february-25-2010.html

It was a good interview, and i wore my hear on my sleeve...it was interesting to hear the mental state i was in way back in January......

This is why we skate.....

2010-02-20T09:22:00.002-07:00

I'm super nervous and excited this morning. Not for me, but for Luc. Today he races the 1500m, his specialty, the race in which he won silver back in the fall in Hamar.

He gets to experience something today that most athletes and people will never get to experience. He gets to experience quite possibly one of the most incredible situations that an athlete can experience, and an experience that any Canadian athlete would love to have as they compete on home soil. I don't know this from experience, but I can imagine that i'm pretty close on my assessment.

Today, he is in the last pair, pair 19, of the 1500m. The pairings are seeded from slowest to fastest based on world cup points, but the top 8 are put in a group and drawn.

He was drawn in the last pair, outerlane, with Shani Davis. Shani is an unbelievable skater. World Champ last year and has won 4 of 5 1500s this year by huge margins. He was also the only guy to beat Luc in Hamar.

At my first world cup in Berlin this fall, I was the last pair for both the 1000m and 1500m. It was intimidating, and empowering..."I'm in the last pair, i'm one of the best." I knew exactly what I needed to skate to be on the podium. Except, there was no one in the stands.

Shani is exactly the pair for Luc today. Intimidating, yup, but Luc will just eat it up. Luc will get to chase Shani the whole race. On top of that, 7000 screaming fans cheering on a Canadian, on home soil in the last pair. I'm getting goosebumps just writing about it, nevermind actually experiencing it.

That is why we skate. Is it scary, you bet. Is there potential for disappointment, you bet. Is all success and failure put on display for the world to see, you bet.

But, there is nothing more exciting. Last pair. Knowing exactly what he needs to do. 7000 screaming fans ready to yell him to the finish. It's for this exact situation that we train thousands of hours getting ready for. Its why we make race plans and mental plans. This situation has crippled so many athletes in the past, but if it can't get you pumped and ready to race, nothing will.

If I were a betting man, my guess is that Luc will choose the latter. This will get him fired up, and he'll feed off of it. He's a big race skater....

Light it up Luc!

Olympics!!

2010-02-19T12:45:00.006-07:00

Its great to be back in Vancouver but somewhat anticlimatic. I needed to get away from training and Calgary for a few days to decompress and recoup from a long racing season. In that sense, its great to be here. Having said that, I'm not sure that I would have come here if Luc wasn't racing. Its great to watch my teammates race, but it was tough going back to the oval to watch the 1000m.

Its really easy to start comparing, wondering where I would finish if I were racing. The thing is, that first, it doesn't matter, and also, I can't compare because the conditions are different from when I last raced here. I know I shouldn't compare, but any competitive person will do so.

When I go watch the 1500m on Saturday, I hope that everyone just flies so then there is no way for me to wonder where I would finish....if the times are similar or not to previous competitions, I know I'll find a way to keep wondering what if.... I skated 1:49.16 in the fall... now maybe everyone else will compare too! haha.

On to some of the cool things....

Speedskate Canada house.... its at the UBC boathouse on the Fraser River. Its so much fun. Its put on by SSC as a place for speedskaters to congretate, watch and cheer on the team. SSC has done a great job with it.

The Richmond O Zone....

The City of Richmond has a great outdoor party place located at Minoru Park. Minoru Park is an artificial field where I shed blood, sweat and maybe even some tears training for these Games. There were training sessions where we were hurting so badly, so its different seeing that venue in a different format.

The O zone is really well done. There are concerts every night, a beer gardens, food and beverage stands, an ice rink and much more...like the infamous Heineken House (I'll let you guys figure out what might be going on there. dutch + heineken = ......). Last night I was at the O zone to watch the Arkells from Hamilton and Our Lady Peace. The Arkells were great! I was worried about OLP because they were trying to improvize and do too much, but they redeemed themselves with the last few songs which were AWESOME! A few vids of the concerts last night... one of the Arkells, another of the surroundings and the last of OLP.

One more cool tidbit at the Ozone. I guess corn on the cob is a big deal around here because they have a big stand with tons of different toppings. See pic below... cimmanon sugar??? hmmmm..

Salt Lake City Update

2010-02-19T12:07:00.004-07:00

I'm here in vancouver now to take in some of the sights and sounds at the Olympics. Time is flying by and I've always got something to do.

Last week I was in Salt Lake City for North Americans. SLC is such a great city, it was just like it was in the fall when I was there for the world cup. It was so nice and warm the whole time (5-10 C), the scenery is awesome as per usual.

I got a chance to do a few things while in SLC. I went to the energy solutions center to catch the Lakers and Jazz.....minus kobe. The seats were way up at the top and the game wasn't particularily interesting, but still really cool to go and take it in.

Also, almost every day I went for lunch to Great Harvest Bread Co. for some of the best sandwiches I've ever had. The people working there were great and seemed to just love what they do. One older gentleman took very good care of us, always asking how the speedskaters were doing and even offering up a container of chocolate brownies since as athletes we need lots of calories. He even had a challenge to name an obscure song/band playing on the radio, to which, one of the guys used Shazaam on his phone to get a $10 gift certificate! Check em out if you are ever in SLC (http://www.greatharvest.com/), the city that helps you cross the street by providing orange flags.

The competition was pretty good for me. The first few races went very well.

On friday, 2nd in the 1000. It was a tough race as I was just exhausted from not sleeping well/enough. I was so proud of myself and how mentally tough I was. No excuses or b.s. I had to perform, and even though i was not even close to being at my optimal state, I skated very well, and missed the win by just over .1 sec.

Saturday, very similar. I knew the ice wasn't going to be giving much love just like yesterday, so i knew I had to go for it and dig deep (yup, cue all the cliches). I went out hard and skated great. 3rd place. A few guys were just a little better than me today. No shame in that because i skated very well. There were 4 of us within .6 sec.

Sunday, well, lets forget about that one. You know those days where you just never really get into it. You are never really sharp , but always a little sloppy. That was the 2nd 1000 for me. I never got into it. I opened poorly, skated sloppy and was just never in position at any time. And, my placing showed. 5th place. Not ideal.

The top 4 guys were so close. 1:09.92/1:09.92/1:10:06/1:10.10 then me 1:10.5. I could have skated better and been in the same position, or I could have beaten them all, who knows. It was just one of those days..... Results like that reaffirm why you always push to the line and leave it all on the ice. You just don't know what everyone else will do. You don't know how fast the ice is. You don't know when someone will blowup, or if a blade length makes the difference between 1st and 5th. I perform the best I can, and let the cards fall where they may. The results take care of themselves.

I'm glad to be done racing for a few weeks. I'm getting tired mentally, physically and physiologically. My nervous system needs a break to recoup. For that reason, I'm quite excited to be in Vancouver, not so much for the Olympics, but just to get away for abit and not focus on skating.

Canada Cup 2 - Saskatoon

2010-02-03T22:10:00.002-07:00

I haven't written for a few weeks...some time for me to decompress from the rollercoaster of emotions that I experienced during Olympic Trials. Competing at a high level requires me to be on top of my game for a long periods at a time. There are so many things that I do on top of my training sessions to be ready to race: stretching, writing in my training journal, getting treatments, watching video and more. These extra things take up a lot of time, so as you can imagine, I have to be very disciplined and it takes a lot of energy to maintain that discipline.

This past week I was competing in Saskatoon, SK. Back to the homeland....and nothing has changed! It was cold. Very cold. Not really that cold if you are just going about your normal day, but its really cold when we skate outside in a skinsuit. Regardless of the cold, it was good to be home. Saskatoon is no Regina, but close.

The competition started off rather well. 8th place in the 500m. The 500m isn't exactly my forte. I'd usually finish somewhere in the 12th to 15th range, so an 8th place is really quite good!

For the rest of the racing, I can describe it with one word. Hmm.

4th places across the board in 2x1000m and the 1500m.

I didn't skate too badly but I wasn't able to transfer the feeling and technical improvements that I recently made in Calgary, to outside skating. On top of that, a slip here and there costs me just enough time to drop a placing or two. This past weekend, there were skaters that were just a little better than me. Nothing I can do about that.

For those of you who don't know, skating outside is nothing like skating inside. Indoor ovals spoil us. No wind, smooth ice, constant conditions for everyone. The conditions are generally fair for everyone.

Outdoor ovals are a different story, especially those with natural ice. Hard natural ice exposes all technical flaws in a skater. Any inefficiencies are accentuated, especially when you get tired. It is a whole different ball game, because I not only need to focus on racing the race, but I also need to change my tactics. This could include getting lower going into the wind and sitting slightly higher with the wind. If its going to be windy, then I'll use it to my advantage.

I'm back in Calgary, and off to Salt Lake City on Tuesday. I'm glad to be back inside so I can refresh and refind the feeling I had before I left for Saskatoon.

Canada Cup 1 ....

2010-01-11T16:46:00.004-07:00

I went back to work this past weekend, skating in the first of 4 competitions used to qualify spots for the national development team for next year. This is known as the Canada Cup Circuit. The 4 competitons are Canada Cups 1, 2 and 3, and the North American Championships.

This weekend went well and I got some good points. My placings were:

1000m #1 - 2nd
1500m - 3rd
1000m #2 - 2nd

The times I skated were solid, but nothing really incredible. Having said so, I did what I needed to.

A quick explanation on how the CCs work. It is a circuit, just like F1 racing where you get points for every competition. At Olympic trials there were 2x500m, 1x1000m and 1x1500m. At every Canada Cup there are 2x500m, 2x1000m and 1x1500m. So over 4 Canada Cups and Trials there are a total of 10x500m, 9x1000m and 5x1500m.

The points earned are as follows:
1st place = 100 pts
2nd place = 80 pts
3rd place = 70 pts
4th place = 60 pts and so on.

Our final point totals for the year will be taken by adding up our best results, but we can drop a one or two of our worst results based on placings. I cant remember exactly how many we keep, I'd have to reread the rules. Times are nice, but what counts is the placing. Being second by 0.01 seconds or 1 sec still gets me 80 pts.

1000m: add up the best 7 or 8 of 9
1500m: add up the best 3 or 4 of 5

To qualify a spot for next year, the only guarantee is to win the distance overall..so being on the podium is nice....but realistically to qualify a spot, I'll need some wins.

Currently I'm in 2nd place in the 1000m and 3rd in the 1500m. This weekend I got some good points but I have lots of work to do yet.

My Olympic journey is done...

2010-01-03T17:25:00.003-07:00

That's it. My journey to qualify for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver is over and the ending was incredibly anti climatic. I don't know what to think or how I feel right now. I'm disappointed because I didn't qualify for the games but more so because my showing at Trials was poor at best.

Odds are that I wasn't going to qualify given how some others skated, and that's ok. I have no trouble being beaten if someone is just better than I am on that day. The catch was that I was in a great position with one lap to go, but my last lap was awful. I would have needed a great last lap to qualify but I do know that I would have gone much faster if I had just trusted myself to skate instead of scurrying through the last lap.

In the end, does it matter if I finished 4th or 8th? No. I would have liked to have a great race and be beaten, but going to the Olympics just wasn't in the cards for me for whatever reason.

I really believe that everything happens for a reason, even if that reason isn't initially apparent. Right now I'm not sure why I didn't qualify but in time i will find out. I do know that the reason wasn't for a lack of effort or care because I wanted to qualify so badly so that I could be apart of it all. Just thinking about the reality that I'm not going to the Games has brought me to tears at times.

This whole experience has made me ask some tough questions because I now feel a void inside me. I've worked so hard over the last few years to try and achieve this goal and it was over before I knew it.

Am I good enough?

Did I do everything I could?

Will I improve or have I hit a plateau? Will I ever be one of the best in the world?

Will I ever have as great of a race as the 1500m at Fall Trials in Richmond?

.....Was this whole process worth it?

This whole process started on an artificial turf field at UNLV in Las Vegas in May 2008 when my coach Marcel gave us a little speech about what we wanted to achieve with us leading up to the games: For us to have the race of our lives at Trials and let the cards fall where they may.

Since then, I have learned so much about myself as a skater, but most importantly, as a person.

I have been all over the world to places that most people would kill to go to:

Las Vegas, NV and Moab, UT
Richmond, BC on several occasions
Bend, OR on 2 occasions
Santa Cruz, CA
Berlin
Hereenveen
Salt Lake City, UT

During these trips and during training I shared some of the best times with my teammates and coach (see all my previous posts from the summer for the stories). We laughed, hurt and probably even cried together at some point along the way. I wouldn`t trade that for anything.

The journey was the only guarantee that I would get out of this experience and I loved every minute even though there were highs and some even greater lows. I got to experience something that most of the world will never even understand, never mind actually get to experience.

Thank you to everyone for being behind me along the way. I couldn`t have done it without you.

Thanks to the guys (and Nez) for being the best teammates that I could ever ask for. We pushed each other to the limit to be as ready as we could be, and had a blast along the way. We are all responsible for getting each other to where we are, and for us who didn`t qualify, when our teammates win medals at the Olympics, we`ll know that we were apart of it.

Thanks to Marcel for being quite possibly the best coach on the planet. For believing in me and doing everything he could to have me ready for Trials. There is really nothing more to say because that last line says it all.

Finally, thanks to my dad and Luc for supporting and pushing me to be my best.

It was a hell of a ride. This journey has now ended, but the next one has just begun.

Olympic Trials Update - 1000m

2009-12-29T20:16:00.003-07:00

So the 1000m didn't quite go how I would I have liked. The result is quite misleading actually and doesn't really give an accurate indication of how well i skated.

14th - 1:10.03...to put in perspective, the last Olympic spot was 1:08.66

I skated very well today, but i lost all my speed in 2 bad slips where i almost fell. I started in the inner lane...here is how my race was in a nutshell.

BANG! gun goes off.

Great first 50 m, really aggressive but solid. Great corner entry, lots of pressure as i push...and SLIP #1 about 2/3rd of the way through the corner.

I recover, and accelerate down the homestretch (which felt great and Luc said it looked awesome). Great corner entry into the first corner, keep building through the corner and SLIP #2. Hand goes down again and I recover but instead of carrying my speed from the opener and from the first corner and buidling into the first backstretch, I'm accelerating again trying to get my speed back.

From that point on, I continued skating well, built my corners and had a very good drop off. The drop off is the difference in time from laps 1 to 2. I skated 25.85/27.09, so the drop off is just over 1.1 seconds. An average drop off is somewhere in the 1.5-1.8 range, 2+ sec is a big drop and anything 1.2 or lower is really good. The thing is that having 2 major slips in my first 400m just left me with no speed going into my first backstretch. Sometimes you can get away with 1 slip, but not 2.

To give you an idea of how the slips affected me, imagine driving a stick shift car but you don't quite find the gear and the gears slip or kicks out as you shift. It was almost like i was doing intervals. Accelerate...stop briefly, accelerate again, stop briefly again...Accelerate again. I wasted alot of energy accelerating over and over instead of carrying my speed and further accelerating and saving it for later during the last lap.

It may sound like I'm all doom and gloom, but that is hardly the case. I'm not sad or depressed about the result. I'm more mad and motivated or driven because of it. I know that I skated very well today and without the 2 slips I know that I would have been in the mix with a high 1:08 or low 1:09. I might not have qualified the last Olympic spot, but I would have definately been close for the 5th spot which would get to go to a World cup in Erfurt, Germany in March.

There were lots of positives to take out of the race today. I skated well today so I'll take that and use it for Friday when I race the 1500m. On top of all the positive from today, this is exactly what happened in my 1000m in Richmond at Fall Trials: I made a few mistakes (then i didn't execute, today I slipped twice) and I didn't make the same mistake again. Also, I feel exactly the same way that I did after the 1000: My legs are fresh, I'm mad about the mistakes and i know exactly what those mistakes were, and I wont make them again. We all know how the 1500m turned out in Richmond, maybe history will repeat itself....

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T10:38:00.002-07:00

First, A Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope everyone can spend the holidays with their friends and family and truly enjoy the season. This is the time of year to reflect on the past year and appreciate everything and everyone that we have around us.

Olympic Trials start on Sunday with the 500m. I will be racing 2 distances, the 1000m on Tuesday the 29th and the 1500m on Friday, January 1st. Its incredible to think that the reason I've spent so much time training for is coming up next week. This whole journey started in May 2008 in Las Vegas when my coach sat down the group and introduced us to his vision for the next 18 months: How he was going to get us ready to have the race of our lives at Olympic Trials.

At this point, there isn't much more preparation to do, all the work has been done. I raced a 1000m last weekend for the first time since Berlin and it couldn't have gone any better. It really is something special when I race and I'm completely in the moment with no other thought or care in the world. I was completely present and executed the race very well. It was the fastest I'd gone all season on ice that was far from magical (You may be surprised, but ice can be really 'fast' or 'slow' depending on the weather outside, air pressure, humidity etc)

Over the last week or so, I've realized a few things about the my optimal mental state for performing my best. It sounds so simple but its really quite difficult to achieve. For me, I perform my best when i'm completely present, in the moment. Just like during my 1000 this past weekend. I've always had the pieces and strategies to 'get in the zone' but I was never quite sure why, or how they fit together. Now I know and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Like i said, the prep is done. I'm not sure i could have done any more. Things played out the way they did for a reason, to get me ready for Trials. A quote I really like from the Power of Now is this:

"The answer, the strength, the right action or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after."

That is why I train, get stronger, work on my mental game and work on my technique. So that when I need them, I don't need to think about it, they'll be there.

So, here we go: Trials are here and I am in mix to qualify for 2 distances. That is all I could ask for, a chance. Who knows how it will play out....

Picture of me racing the 1000m in Berlin

2009-12-14T22:10:00.002-07:00

Here is a really cool picture that i mentioned a few posts ago... You can see me in my element!

Update from SLC

2009-12-14T22:08:00.001-07:00

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT!

What a beautiful city. It’s set in a mountain valley with large mountains on all sides. I haven’t seen much of the city because we are staying in West Jordan, a suburb close to the Oval, which is in Kearns.

Today I raced my last 1500 for the fall World Cups, and it was a good race. Nothing spectacular, but a good solid race. I’m quite happy with it because there were many good things to take from it. I also had my best finish of the fall and was only 1 placing away from collecting my first world cup point! So close!

10th place, 1:46.91

That time is about a half second off of my personal best, and my fastest time of the year, but, I know that I’m capable of much faster. What’s positive about this race is that I’ve turned things around from earlier in the fall. I’m enjoying being in SLC and am appreciating how lucky I am to be a part of this all! I know many people would kill to be in my situation. It was really easy for me to get so caught up with performing and results and the hype and everything that I forgot to just sit back and enjoy it.

I’m now finished my inaugural world cup series. 4 world cups, 5 races. Olympic trials are only 2 weeks away. I remember thinking how trials are 7 months away..6 months away... and now they are almost here. I don’t know if I will qualify for the Olympics, but regardless of whether i do qualify, I will always have all of the experiences from the last year leading up to the Trials. Back to training and final preparation for trials this week!

Some cool media stuff I've done....

2009-12-02T22:53:00.002-07:00

Well, the world cup in calgary is coming up this weekend and I'm getting ready to race again. I'm a little nervous, but also excited to get back at it and improve on my results from the European World Cups. This past week both Luc and I have done a few different media events.

Jolanda Abbes runs a cool website, www.speedskating-online.com all about the wonderful world of speedskating. I answered a few questions for her. Here is the link.

http://www.speedskating-online.com/mykolamakowskydec2009.htm

Luc and I also sat down with Glenn Reid from CBC Regina for an interview. It was lots of fun, and its great to know that the Regina Media outlets are following along. I did a short spot for CBC radio one, another for the online page and a 20 min camera interview...hopefully they turn out ok! Keep an eye and ear out on CBC for us!

Lastly, on DESG photo you can see some pictures of me racing in Berlin. There are some really cool ones that I'm trying to get a hold of. Photos 1,2,3 and 6 are really great. Here is the link.

http://www.desgphoto.com/desgphoto/gallery/index.php?p=athlet&id=2680

World cup schedule for Calgary - Dec 4-6

2009-12-01T19:44:00.002-07:00

Well, it has been awhile since I've last posted. I took some time to recover from the trip to Europe and have spent the last 10 days getting ready for the World Cup this weekend here in Calgary. I hope everyone around Calgary will come out and watch some skating. This is a great chance to watch the best skaters from around the world.

I will be racing the 1500m on Friday late afternoon or early evening. Once I know the exact time I'll post it up on the blog. I am in Division B, so there isn't even an entry fee!

Lucas will be racing the 1500m on Friday, 5000m on Saturday and the Team Pursuit on Sunday.

Here is the rest of schedule for the weekend.

Friday, Dec 4th.
12:30 pm start
Ladies and Men's 500m
Ladies 3000m
Men's 1500m

Saturday, Dec 5th.
12:30 pm start
Ladies and Men's 500m
Ladies 1500m
Men's 5000m

Sunday, Dec 6th.
11:53 pm start
Ladies and Men's 1000m
Team Pursuits

My first world cup race... Nov, 6, 2009. Berlin, 1000m

2009-11-17T11:38:00.001-07:00

World Cup #2 - Heerenveen

2009-11-17T10:59:00.003-07:00

Week two in the Netherlands was similar to week one in Germany: Really good training all week, racing, not so much. But regardless of the result, I'm learning more and more from watching the best.

Volvega is the town we stayed in, located about 10 min south of Heerenveen down the A32. Its a cool town, very dutch, very european with narrow streets, cobblestone everywhere and great people. Unfortunately I lost my camera somewhere between the bus from Berlin and the Hotel Wolvega. The hotel, a.k.a. the Van der Valk, was incredible. Well, mostly the food was incredible, and I'm told its the best on the circuit. How can a buffet with everything you could imagine really get any better?

Thialf is such a great oval. Thialf is like the Saddledome for speedskating. Thialf has capacity for about 10,000+ spectators and there are 3 restaurants/bars on the main concourse overlooking the oval. The dutch go crazy and make lots of noise for A group, especially when their own are racing. The atmosphere is something else, one of a kind.

I really liked the ice at Thialf, and I became very comfortable with it. It can be difficult to adapt to different ice surfaces: not every oval is the same. During the week I worked on some technical pointers that i noticed in video from races in Berlin, and felt very confident going into the weekend. Race prep on Wednesday went very well, so I was ready.

Racing.

1:50.87, 21st.

The 1500 on Friday was definately not my best race of the year. I've worked really hard on how i prepare for races, so that when I go to the line, I'm calm, comfortable and confident. My preparation was great for all aspects: mental, physical, and technical, but despite me being ready and focused, I didn't execute very well. I was confused after the race for many reasons, but mostly because what I felt during the race didn't match up to the feedback I got from Marcel and the video. My preparation and video looked ok, but something wasn't right, so i decided to take note of the little things when watching the best race.

The best way to learn is to watch the best. It's that simple. Shani Davis managed to knock another few races out of the park, showing why he is the man to beat right now. There were some other great races by Stefan Groothuis, Simon Kuipers and Havard Bokko. They are so smooth and are always building speed and they never waste a stride. After watching the 1000s and 1500s, I went back to video of my race prep (where I skated very well) and my race (where i didn't skate well), and i noticed some things I hadn't before. Now i have a few things to focus on.

As you can see, the process is rather iterative. Watch, try, learn, repeat. These are the things I'm taking out of my first two world cups, even though I didn't race well. This is why I'm also not disheartened but actually excited about the next few weeks. Sure, I wanted to race really well, but I have to respect the process and not get carried away looking ahead into the future.

I'm back on ice on Thursday, and after a few days of rest I'll be ready to go. 3 weeks until Calgary...

World Cup #1 - Berlin

2009-11-10T12:16:00.004-07:00

So week one of my first world cup experience is finished! The city and experience was great, the racing was not too bad.

-a piece of the Berlin Wall at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum

Berlin is a great city with so much history and I was lucky enough to be in Berlin during the week leading up to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (Nov, 9). I was able to take an afternoon to see some of the sites I've learned about and have always wanted to see: Brandenburg gate, Jewish memorial, Alexander Platz, Postdamer Platz and Checkpoint Charlie. When i was at Brandenburg Gate, a stage was being set up for a free U2 concert that coincided with the MTV Europe Music Awards. I really enjoyed downtown, but the reason i was in Berlin was to race and learn.

- Checkpoint Charlie

I will always remember Berlin, my first world cup. I learned so much this week, and I have so much more to learn. It doesn't really matter how ready I could be for this, until I experienced it, I had no idea what to expect.

The first few ice sessions, I took everything in. I was watching how my teammates and the best in the world trained and prepared. For many of them, they have been doing this for years, but at one point, they had to skate in their first world cup. Training leading up to world cups is very different: so many people are skating at once that at times I felt like I was playing 'Frogger' instead of skating.

My teammates were giving me a little bit of a hard time: I was the rookie, or rook, but it was all in good fun. Someone even decided to leave me a little gift for when i got back to the hotel from downtown. All of my stuff was taped. On my bed, my entire racing suit and warmups was laid out, complete with glasses and skates. My pen, shaker bottle, weight shoe, tshirt and other things were taped to the ceiling. My shorts: tied to the vent. My jackets were taped to the hangers and my pants were taped in a ball. I still haven't figured out who it was, but it was entertaining, and made sure I was nice and loose.

Finally, racing. I competed in the B group which excludes the top 24, but still has some serious competition. My first two races are set in stone

1000m: 1:11.65 - 18th
1500m: 1:49.72 - 15th

Both races were good, but nothing special. I was happy to get the 1000m done, so I had an idea of what to expect. I did make some tactical and technical errors in the the 1000m, but after watching video, I was clear on what I needed to do for the 1500m.

I skated very well in the 1500m, but I was a little tense. That is the difference between the best in the world and the rest. The best skate very well, but, they do it while being smooth and relaxed. This way, they can skate the early laps using the least amount of energy, saving energy for the end of the race. That is my next step. I know how to skate smooth and relaxed, and I know how to skate well technically. So this weekend, I will do both: skate well, and skate smoothly. Sounds so easy, but its not!

Even though this weekend wasn't the best I've skated, I still have a smile on my face. This is the first of many world cups: Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a world champion. Very few people have incredible races for their first international races. On top of that, I have to keep my eye on the prize: I don't get an Olympic spot in Berlin.....

Ich bin ein Berliner!! ...for the next week

2009-10-30T22:01:00.002-06:00

I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow I'm heading to Berlin to skate in my first World Cup race. I'm excited to race, to experience everything and to see Berlin. I'll be bringing my camera and computer along for the trip, so expect some blogs and pictures of the trip. I hope I'll get a chance to see Brandenburg gate and Checkpoint Charlie....Mr. Kindrachuk would be so proud of me. I'll write soon.... from Berlin!

Looks like I'm off to Europe.....

2009-10-21T14:43:00.005-06:00

This past weekend I competed in the Fall World Cup Team Selection in Richmond: the first big competition of the year for me to see how well my summer training went and how I stack up against the rest of the country. Speedskating can be a brutal sport, just like many others, because the only thing that matters is my time as I finish a race. Not how strong i was all summer, how mentally tough I've become or if I deserve a spot on the World Cup circuit. Nobody deserves anything, they earn it. The time is all that matters, but focusing on the outcome rather than the process wouldn't help me qualify for the team.

I used the 500m on Saturday as a pre race primer for my 2 specialties: the 1000m on Sunday and the 1500m on Monday. The 500m went well and I was ready for the big show.

1000m: I finished 10th with a time of 1:11.35. It really was a pretty good race: I skated very well, but i made a little bit of a mistake on the second lap that cost me some time. It was really costly because the 4th place time was 1:10.70, so 0.6 sec separated 4th from me in 10th. After the race I watched video, and it was clear what I needed to improve. I was disappointed because if I had skated like i have all year, I would have been right in the mix for the 4th or 5th spot in the 1000m.

1500m: 4th place, 1:49.16. My fastest time in Richmond by 3 seconds. Probably the best race of my career. I was confident going into the race and just smiled when I got to the starting line. I was ready. During the race, I executed very well, and made sure not to repeat the mistakes I made in the 1000m. Lets just say that I was far more nervous after my race trying to watch the pairs after me. As each pair skated, I became more nervous and excited because I was just that much closer to my first world cup. About 900m into the last pair, I knew I was in.

That 1500m was the most important race of my career. It gave me so much confidence that everything I've done and given up this summer and every year before was worth it. Maybe more importantly, it showed that I could full believe in myself and trust myself that I know what to do to perform on demand. Qualifying for the team has been something I've worked to acheive for a long time, and I've finally done it. But that's not the end, its only the beginning. I'm going to learn so much this fall skating with the big boys.

The fall World Cup circuit consists of 5 competitions: Berlin, Heerenveen (Holland), Hamar (Norway), Calgary and Salt Lake City. I will be competing in all but Hamar (although I may skate in Hamar to help qualify Olympic spots if necessary). When you watch the top guys in the world like Denny Morrison, Shani Davis and even my brother Lucas, they have a calmness and control that allows them to be at their best all the time, regardless of conditions. People don't really rise to the occasion for big events, they just don't falter and having that calmness and confidence lets those guys compete as close to their 100% as possible. Those are some of the things I hope to learn about this fall, so that I am in the best position possible to qualify for the Olympics in December.

I'm really excited that I'm off to World Cups, but I have to stay grounded and remember the ultimate goal: the 2010 Olympic Games. Qualifying for the world cups is just another small step in the right direction, and I'll use the experiences I'll have to be as ready as possible for Olympic Trials at the end of December!

Pics of the Richmond Olympic Oval

2009-10-14T18:56:00.005-06:00

Hey!
So a few people have asked for some pictures of the Richmond Olympic Oval. It is a beautiful building that have won some design awards are are nominated for others including the 2009 Building of the Year. It recently won an award from the Institution of Structural Engineers in the Sports or Leisure Structures category beating out other structures such as "The Bird's Nest", the main stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the retractable roof on centre court at Wimbledon.

A few pictures are below: Here is the oval last September during construction, facing east.

A closeup of the lattice-like roof. It was made using pine destroyed by pine beetles. It is a series of 2x4s that were screwed together by hand by a person. Definately not pre-made.

Here is the East side of the Building.

And a final picture looking west of the final product.

Performance on demand

2009-10-13T14:16:00.002-06:00

One of the things that my coach has been really pushing us to embrace is the idea of performance on demand. Doing it, right now, no questions. We went to Vegas to see two Cirque du Soleil shows with ridiculous stunts to see what we do, but in a slightly different context. There really is a parallel: They are the best at what they do, we are the best at what we do. Here is another example of performance on demand from the winner of Ukraine's got talent 2009.

Two great blogs to read....

2009-10-08T13:00:00.005-06:00

I happened to be checking out all the sports news at tsn.ca when I came across two great blogs by Canadian athletes. The first is by Regan Lauscher, a luger. She speaks to some of her challenges with Whistlerites and to the overall hypocricy of many critics of the Olympic Games here in Vancouver. One of the best lines is the following: "You can't reject the Olympic Games and everything it stands for and then turn around and rent your house out for enough money to pay off your mortgage." Take a peak, its a great read.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/newsid=16980.html#blog+whistler+life

The next is by Helen Upperton, a bobsledder, on the legacy left from hosting an Olympic Winter Games. Both Helen and Regan credit so much of their success to the legacy from 1988 in Calgary. I know I wouldn't necessarily be in a position to qualify for the Games without the Olympic Oval in Calgary. Helen shares some great ideas on why the Olympics leave a lasting legacy, including the improvements to the 'sea to sky highway' and the addition of the Canada Line from YVR and Richmond to downtown Vancouver. She also talks about the benefits and effects that sport has had on her life, and what kind of impact 'athlete heroes' can have.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/bobsleigh/news/newsid=17111.html#blog+the+olympic+legacy?cid=wgtsn

To see some pictures....click on the slideshow in 'My Travels'

2009-09-30T13:22:00.005-06:00

So, a few of you have asked me to post some more pictures, which i will do shortly, but for now, just click right on the slideshow in 'My Travels' and it will take you directly to a picasa web album where you can see pictures from some of the places i've been like Santa Cruz,CA; San Diego, CA; Las Vegas, NV: Moab,UT; Harbin, China; Newfoundland; Bend, OR and more.

My dad is now a big deal!

2009-09-24T11:10:00.005-06:00

A quick shout out and Congrats to my Tato (dad), Michael Makowsky. Last month he was named to the Championship list for Starters (the guys who shoot the gun to start races), which is limited to the top 24 starters. He was promoted to a Level 5, which is the top level, and now is eligible to start at World Cups, World Championships and the Olympics. While he will not be starting in Vancouver, hopefully he will be on track to start in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

There is a running joke between Lucas, my dad and I. My dad can only start women (for obvious conflict of interest reasons). We joke that it's a good thing that either Luc or I aren't female, cuz then he would never be able to start any competition!

Congrats Tato!

White man can jump?

2009-09-24T10:45:00.011-06:00

People wonder what kind of things I do for training i.e. what kind of weight can I lift, how high can i jump etc. Here is a You Tube clip of Adrian Wilson who plays for the Arizona Cardinals. He is jumping a 66 inch hurdle.

This is my best attempt at jumping over the moon. I still have quite a way to go, but this is about 50 inches. Only 16 inches to go! Not bad for a guy who is only 70 in tall! Looking at the video, my butt is way over the bar, i just have to get my feet up higher like Adrian does. That's easily another 6-8 inches!

Summer Update Part 3 - Home in Sask and Richmond

2009-09-24T09:58:00.019-06:00

So my last post finished up with the great training camp I was at in Oregon. By this point, I was already done 3 weeks of a 4 week training block.

(You might ask, what's a training block? well, our coach breaks out the year into several big blocks called macrocycles. These are usually 3 weeks, but can be 4 weeks long followed by one week of recovery. Each macrocycle is made up of several microcycles, each one week long. So, if i say we are in a week 3 of a 4 week build or block, it means we have finished the 3rd week of 4).

In the past, Marcel (Lacroix, my coach) would have us finish this block with a large volume camp and then a nice long week off. Not this year. We came back to Calgary and hopped straight onto the ice for another week of training. It was hard. I was tired before the week started, and by the end, i just wanted to go home. My body needed a break.

Cue up a trip to the motherland, i.e. Saskatchewan. What a great trip home, and so badly needed. It was so great to get home and just get away from skating. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it was a long summer, hard training and lots of travelling. This was the last break until after the Olympics, so i took full advantage of it. I got to catch up with some of the girls (yes, that would be you Alana, Jen and Britt), spend some time with Ciara throwing a football around and being informed on what everyone I graduated with is up to and had a beer on the patio at Freddy's brand spanking new place (which is awesome btw). The other half of the trip was spent in Canora with my family. It was so great seeing my Baba and Dido (88 years old on Sept 5th!), my aunts and uncles and maybe most importantly, spending some quality time with my 3 younger cousins Larissa, Matthew and Jordan. Larissa helped Luc and I cook dinner for everyone on Thursday night, and afterwards I showed her pictures from China, California, Oregon and other places I've been so lucky to have visited. She just loved it! Matthew is a gem. At 2.5 he knows how to turn on the quad and riding lawnmower, soaks up new words and information like a sponge and just loves a good 'airplane ride'. It would have been great to spend more time at the farm, but we had to get back to Calgary and then off to Richmond. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it up to Saskatoon to see O.T and D.J, Oksana, Julian and Tatiana and the rest of the Ukie crew (that includes you Zhan, Mysak and E.B.) and some other friends I haven't seen in a long time (Sean, Amanda etc.) Any other summer and I'd have far more time for trips like that, but its Olympic year, and there is nothing normal about Olympic year.

Finally, 2 more weeks in Richmond. Richmond doesn't even feel like a trip anymore except for the quick airplane ride. It is the same as in Calgary, but in Richmond: same training, different location. The 2 weeks flew by, and before i knew it we were back here in Calgary. The training was great and things are coming along well.

You may be wondering where I'm at now, how I'm feeling and everything. so very quickly here it is. Physically, I'm in great shape right now, probably the best shape of my life. I'm much stronger, leaner and fitter than i have ever been. My testing results in the lab are far better than last year and keep getting better. On the ice I've made significant technical improvements; I just might be a speedskater one day :D. Most importantly, my biggest changes have come in my head. My mental game has improved so much, and my focus is sharper than it has ever been. All the other gains have been helped by getting considerably more sleep, only focusing on skating etc, but without a sharper focus, my gains would have been severely limited. Sometimes we laugh at the saying "you need to take time to smell the flowers", but its true. Its so easy to get caught up in the future and what ifs and results that you forget to focus on the moment. Without enjoying the moment and all the steps it takes to achieve something, before you know it, that experience has passed and you're left asking "what just happened?".

I might be in the best shape I've ever been, skating the best i have and mentally sharper than ever, but the only thing that matters is what happens on the ice. All the work has been done this summer, and now we are getting into racing season, the specific work. Its now 3.5 weeks until Fall Trials in Richmond. Now the real work begins: Time to get 'er done!

Summer Update Part 2 - Richmond/Oregon

2009-09-09T19:37:00.011-06:00

Summer update part 2: Over the first few months of the summer, we were away for 5.5 weeks out of 8, so it was nice to get back to Calgary and just be at home. It was nice to get back in touch with friends and sleep and not be stuck in airports or on airplanes. By this point in the summer, we have been training full out for a month or two, so my body is used to the daily pounding. July was quite nice in Calgary, lots of nice weather, lots of hard riding and time spent on the ice. But, we were counting down the weeks until we were off on our second stint of travelling (we had 4 weeks at home in Calgary before we were off to Oregon).

The last few weeks before we left for Oregon were the first 2 weeks of a long 4 week training block. My body was starting to feel the first 2 weeks, so, what better way to recover than to go on a one week volume camp, spent almost exclusively on my bike.

(Aside: Back in May, I fell in love. Freddy from Dutch Cycle in Regina set me up with a brand spanking new 2009 Giant TCR Advanced 0. It's beautiful. Light. Fast. It makes me want to hop on the bike and just go and ride. That's the baby I've been riding all summer... I think we've logged something like 3000 km so far.)

Bend, Oregon is a city of 80,000 people in Central Oregon. It is on the Deschutes River at the base of the Cascade Mountains. And most importantly, there are trafic circles. Lots and lots of traffic circles. We stayed on the west edge of town, on the Cascade highway which climbs straight up to Mt. Bachelor (9000' at peak). It is one of the large mountains close to Bend, including the 3 sisters, all which are taller than 10,000 ft. Bend is a cool little place that's almost a little too perfect at times. I never saw any cops, except at the county police softball tourney where there must have been too many beverages being consumed. At that time, we asked, "If all the cops are here.....who's out on the road?".

The first day of the training camp was fun, if low walks are considered fun. For those of you who don't know, low walks are what we do to get 'down time', or time in skating position, in the summer. We are in a crouched position, similar to what we are on the ice, but we 'walk' by driving our knees through, land with our knees well over our toes, staying super low, all while maintaining a still back as if we were transporting a tea cup on it. It was a great session, but I couldn't walk anywhere (especially not down the stairs) without cramping or feeling awful muscle pain for about 4 days. Lets just say that some of the most painful massages of my life happened in the days following that low walk program. Luckily that afternoon we had a recovery ride, 2 hours nice and easy.

Over the next week, we logged something like 400+ km on the bike in 4 rides, plus we spent 5+ hours one day mountain biking up towards Tumalo Falls. That ride was at least 35 miles (58 km). Other than that first recovery ride, all of the riding was done in our aerobic zone. My aerobic zone is from 160-175 bpm, and I sustained on average something around that for 3.5-4 hours each ride.

During the week, we packed up our bikes and drove down to Crater Lake, in Southern Oregon. Why you ask? We rode our bike on the 32 mi loop around the Crater Rim. It's a collapsed volcano that has the 4th deepest lake on the planet in it (over 600m deep!). It just might be my favorite ride on the planet. It is an up and down ride with 1150 m of climbing on each loop. I decided to be brave and take off with Super Luc (i.e. my bro) and we hammered for 3 hours and 20 min, then he went for another 40 min or so to finish 2 full loops. I was short a third of the second loop, but still managed to ride for 85-90 km with lots and lots of climbing. Riding in that kind of scenery makes it quite easy to push really hard, for the same reason I was loving riding my bike in California. Here is a pic of Crater Lake.

Our last ride for the week started off with a nice long climb up towards Mt. Bachelor. There is about 8 km on the flat which leads into a 20 km climb with about 800m of vertical. Those first 28 km took an hour and 5 minutes, and we weren't going easy. Then we went down the other side of the pass, and turned right back around. Nothing like a 115 km hard ride to end off a camp when our legs are really talking to us. On top of that, a few sprint workouts and speed/agility circuits, and I was cooked. I was so fatigued at this point, but i still had a big smile on my face because I had one great week of training, and i really pushed myself hard.

We didn't just work hard, we had some fun too! One afternoon, we rented some doubles kayaks and paddle boards and cruised down the Deschutes River. It was so much fun and a nice change of pace. I was lucky to share a kayak with Christine Nesbitt where we had a heart to heart chat, while seriously wondering if something was wrong with us. We just couldn't paddle in a straight line no matter what we did. We found out later on that there was a rudder....good to know. The paddleboarding was also great. I felt like i was paddling down the canals in venice...except i was on a board, not a boat, and i used a paddle, not a pole. Close enough.

Some other highlights for the week included non-stop mom jokes between Steve and Jeff, a constant barrage of "That's what she said!" (remember The Office?), Luc and I polishing off the "BBQ Extravaganza" from Baldy's BBQ (http://www.baldysbbq.com/), constant flatulence in the house (that's what you get when each of us consumes 3-6000 cals a day), Todd's 5 trips to Safeway in one day, Jeff's ordeal trying to order Rock n' Republic cycling gear using pre-paid Visa cards, losing Jay in the Old Mill District, my 3 trips to the post office, Jeff paddling up the rapids on the paddle board and the guys kayaking up the rapids and cruising back down. Another great training camp :)

Summer Update Part 1 - Santa Cruz/Richmond

2009-09-07T14:21:00.020-06:00

Here is my first attempt at putting a blog together, so i'm not sure how it will go. I'm sitting here at the condo in Richmond, wondering what exactly to say in my my first post. I've decided to put a little blog together so that all of my family and friends know how I'm doing, where I currently am, and where I'll be. Hopefully I'm able to keep everyone in the loop as I go through the season.

Recently, I've been thinking about how much time I have spent away from Calgary this summer, and I now realize that I have only been in Calgary for about 5 weeks since May 15th. I remember being ready for the summer to start, and now its over. This is the busiest and maybe the most eventful summer I've had to date: I've travelled to California, Richmond (x3), Oregon and Saskatchewan, and each training camp had its moments. That's perhaps a great place to start, a little recap of the summer.

My schedule:

May 16-28 - Santa Cruz, CA

June 8-22 - Richmond, B.C.
June 29-July 12 - Richmond, B.C.
August 8-16 - Bend, OR
August 22-29 - Regina/Canora, SK
August 30-Sept 12 - Richmond, B.C.

May 2009, Santa Cruz, CA --> Best Camp Ever??

This was the first camp of the year, and it was meant to be a kick off for the season. As usual, we spent a whole bunch of time on the bike, starting to get some serious volume into our legs. For some reason, this camp was different though: maybe it was a combination of a sharpened focus, hard training and the scenery, but it was just different, and in a very good way. One day on the bike as we were riding down the coast from Monterrey to Big Sur, it just hit me.... This is my job. I've been sent here to California to ride my bike. That's all i have to do. It's that simple. I'm so lucky to be able to do this, and see all these places. I love this.

As for the things we did: Riding Highway 1 towards San Francisco, Dryland on top of the world, Sea Kayaking in Monterrey Bay, Riding through Pebble Beach/Spyglass Hill/Links at Spanish Bay, Dinner at Nepenthe, A day in San Francisco and a night at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

June/July 2009, Richmond, B.C.

Much of June and July were spent in Richmond, B.C. It was important to start the skating for the year on the ice that we hope to race on at the Olympics. The ice in Richmond is much different than that in Calgary. Richmond is much slower and has less glide than Calgary, so starting off the year in Richmond allowed us to get our skating technique adapted for slower, 'working' ice.

Skating wasn't the only thing I did in Richmond. Lucas and I setup the condo we are renting for the year. It's a great little place with not too much stuff. We don't know where we'd be without help from Uncle Harvey and Aunti Fae who managed to gather up enough furniture, kitchenware and other items to furnish our place. We have so many plates and cups and kitchen stuff, along with a sweet wicker loveseat and rocking chair. Yes, we have wicker, and a rocking chair. Thank you to everyone that donated stuff for us, we look forward to meeting you all at Thanksgiving dinner!

Richmond/Vancouver is really quite a nice place. The summer has been great here, and it only rained for a day and a half in the 4 weeks we were here. The humidity is wonderful, it doesn't really get too hot, and from our balcony we can see the mountains on Galiano Island in the distance across the Straight of Georgia. Also, everyone at the Richmond Oval has been great and the Oval has been a great training facility. Lastly, the people of Richmond are excited to host us, and I've been approached several times at malls or where ever by people just curious to know more. Many of us participated in the Steveston Salmon Festival, which has a parade along with a large fair. There were 60,000 people watching the parade, and i think i must have signed a few hundred autographs in an hour and a half at the SSC booth. Tons of fun! Check out the media section for a link to some pics and a story from the festival.