RMCC Faces of Winter

Mt. Dell shows us that it is truly a golf course not a XC ski venue!  Bummer!

Mike, Jeff, and Jay like to do some tree hugging when the snow flies.  The backcountry skiing beckons, pulling them off their trainers for a much needed mental break from stationary riding.

Andrew is RMCC's resident speedskater!  He throws down all winter on the ice and then uses his massive legs to blow it up at the crits.  Here is what he is up to:

I'm skating as usual.  It took me some time to recover from my cracked ribs at the UTCX Halloween cross race, but I am back at it. 

Currently I have the fasted 500m & 1000m in the world this year for my age group (40-45) and am preparing to go to Masters World Sprint Championships in Holland this February. 

It's a strong field, the Russian I tangled with in Berlin last year will be there, and we are pretty much identically as strong as each other. So it will be a dogfight!  There is also a Japanese and a Kazakh who are a half step behind us, if Bayev or myself make any tiny mistakes, they will zoom past...

Speedskating is the best winter training there is for American style racing!   In skating, the g-forces in the turns help you generate wattage outputs roughly 3 times what the same "feeling" that a comparable cycling effort has.    I am happy to guide/train with any RMCC member who wants to try skating, for equipment or how to get started.

Local programs:
http://utaholympiclegacy.com/sports/speed-skating

equipment:
http://theskatenowshop.com/

Especially if you used to play hockey, or figure skate, it's crazy addictive training. Local strong racers Brian Boudreau & Teal Buschi skate, and when Robert Lofgran finished 2nd overall in the A's some years back, all he did in the off season for training was long track speedskating. 

Onward!

Andrew