SHIFTING GEARS
It’s that time of the year again. November is the month that marks the start of the World Cup season. Typically, this means the first trip of the year to Europe. This time around, the team will be traveling without me. Instead, I’ll wait until December, and travel to new places with a new team. I am a ‘sprinter’ now, at least for a month, and I must admit there is a certain thrill to the thought of racing shorter distances. Knowing I will be close to the bottom of the results sheet, instead of the top, does not matter. The opportunity to do something fresh and new is what’s key.
And so, it’s off to China and Japan as a member of the Canadian Sprinting Machine I go. Because some of the World Cups are sprint distances, some are long-distance and a few are all-distances combined, it becomes challenging for those who are good at everything to race all World Cups. This is the first time I’ve had a choice to go to some or all of the races.
It all came about after my first races of the year. Only the week before the fall World Cup Trials did I step on the line, the first time since the Olympics, and Coach Xiuli decided to have me race sprints. She said it would be ‘for fun’. How I was able to skate two personal best times in the shortest distances, the 500m and the 1000m, was a mystery to me. It was enough to plant the seed to try and make ‘the team’ for the Sprint only World Cups the following week at the trial races.
There was a chance, because of the retirements and injuries that opened up spots, that I could make the team. But why, one might ask, would I want to do something I am so obviously not qualified to do? Why? Well, I needed a change of pace, a shift in focus and environment.
The past eight months have been a whirlwind since winning gold in Torino. Though exhausted in spirit, I was still having fun skating. The key to this enjoyment is a lack of pressure. I needed a non-pressure situation that would challenge me, a situation that would keep me fresh and allow me to improve on my weaknesses as a speed skater. Specifically, I want to work on my speed and know the best way to do so is to race. That I am able to travel later and train more before stepping back into the World Cup scene, (that is, the long distance World Cup scene) is an added bonus.
I have no delusions as to what I am good at. What is important is that I can already feel the excitement building for when I skate those first 3000m and 5000m races of the year. I’ll do so when I’m ready. Because I feel enthusiasm and not dread, I know I’ve made the right decisions. When I do step onto the line and tackle what I am trained to do and suffer through, I will be armed with speed that I have never before had.
I can’t wait for that day.
