Robin Osorio, SSW Redesign, ING, MSI Standings, Cartagena, Pics, FB's Round Up, Indy SO, Coaching Fees, Cucuta, RRC Going Insane, Nordic Fox & WIC

Robin Osorio: I am sad and surprised to read that Robin Osorio has passed away- read more in An old time skater/friend is gone..

SSW Redesign: Click here to view what SSW's new design will look like. I've got a bit of work to do, but it's basically ready to go.

ING: The time has come for you to vote- to decide the winner of the ING Speed Skating Challenge- a chance to vote on Canada's best speed skating story.

MSI Standings: Marathon Skating International's 2007-2008 season is now over. The last event was the Bytown Marathon in Ottawa- see the Bytown restuls. Check out the final 2007-2008 season standings.

Cartagena: Michael Cheek's blog has a report on the Cartagena competition- see Cartagena for more. About the Colombia skaters, he notes 'The Colombians are amazing. There's several things that really stick out. First of which being depth. From top to bottom they're all good. There's no one that just can't keep up. The 2nd thing that really sticks out is they're technique. They all skate right'.

Pics: Here are a few photo albums that may tickle your fancy; Suzanne Dionne's photos from the Bytown Marathon in Ottawa and photo from flickr_photographer (click indoor inline and longtrack sunday).


Photo from Suzanne Dionne

Photo from flickr_photographer
FB's Round Up: Flyin Brian has a nice collection of videos in Round Up- here's one of the videos- Shorttrack Speedskating, Erik Koops & Sander Uitewaal.


Indy SO: The Special Olympics Stage Games for Indiana took place on February 28th. I was informed that the competition was hosted by the IndySpeed Skating Club- click here for photos from Dennis Richmond & Craig Rice.



2008-02 Indiana Special Olympics- photos by Dennis Richmond and Craig Rice
Coaching Fees: Do you wonder what it's like to have the life of a coach? Check out the thread Coaching Fees to get a tiny picture of the dynamics and considerations that come with coaching.

Cucuta: Click for Patin Carrera's report and click for Federacion Colombiana de Patinaje's report on the Transition Campeonato Nacional Interclubes de Patinaje de Carreras.

RRC Going Insane: One of Road Rash Chronicles' recent posts is called Going insane- he writes 'I can totally understand how a broken leg, ankle, wrist or something major can take you out of the game. But a toe? Are you kidding me? What an insignificant body part. Geez'.

Nordic Fox: Check out Team Nordic Fox for WIC 2008. You can check out the Nordic Fox site.

In other WIC news, the World Cup Topics for 2008 topic has a deeper analysis of what you can expect on the women's side of this year's World Inline Cup season.

Marathon Manager, NROC Rules, What A Practice, Arndt's Team & ASSB, Mr B Saluted, World Cup 2008, REL News, NZ Banked Track Champs, 1978 World ST

Marathon Manager: Last night, I was reading through the prizes that the Marathon Manager competition awarded to the top-30 in the final standings. Between a vacation, tv, lap tops, iPods, and skate stuff... well, I wish I won instead of placing like 300th.

Skate Podium also has a training section that is cared for by Desly Hill- check out the first entry called De voorbereidingsperiode (BTW it's not in English).

NROC Rules: NROC's Rulebook is now online.


What A Practice: Due to an injury and a jam-packed time-crunched schedule, I haven't been skating much this year. I miss skating and I miss my friends. I do pop up to practice once in a while- I'd like to show up at tonight's practice, but due to the viewing of a friend & ex co-worker who passed away, training, and cleaning up the fresh batch of snow that has coated my driveway and side-walk, I'll probably be missing another practice.

Just in case you don't believe me about the snow, check out Sigrid Ziegler's entry called Training update.


Photo from Sigrid Ziegler

Here's outside of my house- SpeedSkateWorld.com world headquarters- this morning before going to work
It seems that last Monday's practice was one to NOT miss- it has received race reviews from Aaron Arndt- In the works... ('...RSC President Wayne Burrett throwing down some awe inspiring passes into a crowd...'), from Candy Wong- Cleaning The Floor ('What a fantastic practice tonight!!'), and from Jacky Shu- Get Off The Mark ('I bet everybody had fun in practice last night').

Arndt's Team & ASSB: Aaron Arndt's post It’s Official! introduces the Team Subaru X-Tech 2008- and who's on the team you ask? Aaron Arndt of course.

Andrew's Speed Skating Blog has some team news & equipment news- see Never Underestimate the Power of the Ex, DblA Interview Sneak Peek and 2008 Wheels and the X-Tech Intersport Team.

I'm looking forward to reading the 2xA interview. In the sneek peak, 2xA says 'After last year, I wanted back. I wanted to race every single WIC race over again. Every course, every turn, every approach into the sprint...'.


Not a bad group of skaters to be associated with
Mr B Saluted: I thought this was a very nice post; MR B, WE SALUTE YOU.

World Cup 2008: The 2008 World Inline Cup's wheels are starting to turn- the season will soon begin. I suspect the World Cup Topics for 2008 will become more and more alive- there is recent news about women's teams and about the Swiss Inline Cup- the 2008 SIC calendar is now up.


REL News: Roller En Ligne's article machine keeps pumping out material for us article seekers- the most recent news inludes France Espoir Indoor 2008 (see the photos here) and a video from the Poussins Benjamin Minimes the Lille.


Photo from Roller En Ligne
NZ Banked Track Champs: Roller Girl: Nicole Begg has new material on her blog- 2008 NZ Bank Track Championships- if you're into checking out pics (which I know you are), then click here and have fun exploring the photos from the NZ Banked Track Championships- here are short cuts- photos 1, photos 2, photos 3, photos 4, photos 5, photos 6, photos 7, photos 8, photos 9, and photos 10.


New Zealand Banked Track Championships 10K Points Elimination- photo from Jun Tanlayco
1978 World ST: Here is a cool historical post from World Masters Short Track- it's called 1978 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships.

Monday, Zen's LT World Masters, Thunder Bay Skate For MS, Time Management For Cyclists, REL News, Tampa Names, USARS Mag, PS News Plug, LT Jr Worlds

Monday: Good Monday to you.

Time is short, I am in the middle of the teacher-feared report-card writing time.

If there are few updates on my site, well, now you know the reason why.

I'm trying to train as best as I can and, well, trying to avoid the cupboards of cookies and freezers filled with ice cream sandwiches at the school where I work.

Zen's LT World Masters: Andrew Love provided some excellent coverage of the World Master Long Track Speed Skating Championships- see his posts (in order); Preamble, Masters Worlds, Day 1, Masters Worlds- Day 2, and Masters Worlds, Day 3.

These reports are rich with details- funny and inspiring, historical and informational... I can't even begin to capture the breadth of what Andrew Love wrote.


'I wonder if wind-tunnel tests could show an optimal way for an individual like Sylvia to arrange her hair for maximum aerodynamic benefit. '- photo and caption from Andrew Love

'Any day is a good day when you are at an indoor oval, and chatting with fellas like Ragnvald Naess. He is as warm as his smile indicates. Click on this image of him to see a larger version, & so you can see all the detail of the amazing patches on his jacket. He has skated all over the world, and has patches on this jacket from everywhere'- photo and caption from Andrew Love

'There were no official warmup-warmdown bikes at the rink. But there was an area you could set up your own, and if you put a bike there, the honor code said it was 'available for everyone'. For example- here is Russian Sergej Avdejev on a Swiss bike'- photo and caption from Andrew Love

At the end, he wrote 'The closing banquet starts in a few hours-

I will apply one of my life rules tonight, and drink joyously with Italians, Russians, Norwegians, and every other nation that shared this.

I will refill my wine glass repeatedly until I clearly understand every word the Italians with their hands.'.

Thunder Bay Skate For MS: The Inline Skate for MS will be taking place in Thunder Bay on July 27th. You can find some information here, a PDF here, and registration here.

Time Management For Cyclists: I've been following the Fat Cyclist blog for some time, but I lost touch in the last few months. Here's a great post that a friend sent me; Time Management for Cyclists. You can find the whole article here.

REL News: Plenty of good stuff coming from Roller En Ligne today- click here for results from the Lille French Inline Cup... whoooa, hold on. Results already? Oh man. I feel like a big potato right now, sitting in front of the computer in non-race shape while these people in France are racing around the streets. They probably have to dodge palm trees and animals that live in the tropical heat... Am I wrong about that? Probably.

The World Long Track Speed Skating Championships are coming soon to a Nagano near you. REL is reporting that Tristan Loy will be the only French skater present.


Tristan Loy- photo from Roller En Ligne
And how about this; plans to cover the Valence d'Agen track.


Tampa Names: I like this name-dropping post; These are just some of the Elite Skaters racing in Tampa This year...; '...JOEY MANTIA! Anthony Lobello Harry Vogal Kalon Dobbin Stephan Carter Michael Cheeks Justin Stelly Willaim Bowen Kevin Quandt Dallas Hebert Nelson Garzan Andres Munoz Emily Scott Ceciala Beana Briana Kramer...and the list goes on...'.

USARS Mag: Here's a thread that has grown with lots of comments. It will give some USA perspective of how big the speed discipline is in the United States; USARS Magazine- Snow Problem write 'Fish nets and black lips sells...
Like it or not that's where the $$$$ is.

5,583 members - Roller derby
2,188 members - Artistic
1,992 members - Speed (we are low man on the totem pole here...)

I couldn't find hockey, but then I was in a hurry....

It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$ Roller Derby brings it! '.

PS News Plug: This is a plug for the Powerslide, Racing, News, Core, Matter daily facts- they're putting all sorts of fun and interesting little snippets or history as daily facts. I was doubtful that they would keep up their daily facts this long when I first read about them last year, but they proved my scepticism wrong.




LT Jr Worlds: I know I posted the results for the ISU Long Track World Junior Championships, but here they are again in a different format.

World LT Masters, Cheek's Roanoke, USA Races, 3 Keys To Speed, Skating Budget, REL News, Jeugdmarathon, Link, Enjoy Skating, Italian Indoor Vids, Begg

World LT Masters: Click here and you'll be able to find all sorts of results from the World Masters LT Championships.

Andrew Love has a couple of more entries leading up to the competition; see Erfurt and 3 years & 500 posts.. Looks like Andrew had the fastest 500-meter time of all skaters.


'I was relieved, with the tightness of the track, to have the inner start/final outer in the 500m'- photo and caption from Andrew Love
Cheek's Roanoke: Michael Cheek posted a report on the Blue Ridge (Roanoke) Challenge. He writes 'Basically the meet lived up to the nickname of 'winter nationals'' and goes on to say 'UGLY-ummm nothing really.. I crashed on the last corner of the 5 lap when that pesky pylon reached out and grabbed my foot. That was pretty ugly'.

USA Races: Here's some USA Roller Sports information; USA Indoor Nationals schedule and a whole bunch of information on the USA Banked Track & Road Championships.

3 Keys To Speed: Here's a super good skate tip from the Inline Planet written by the legenday Tony Muse; Three Keys to Technique.


'Tony Muse is edged out in the skate vs cyle challenge at the Downers Grove Criterium (circa 1995). Winning the race was Olympic gold medalist Steve Hegg'- caption and photo from the Inline Planet
Skating Budget: Here's a good question for many of us; So Whats Your Skating Budget?.

REL News: Here are a few updates from Roller En Ligne; the roller location map of France is quite full- click on the little yellow dots and you'll get more places to skate.

Click here for a report on the French Indoor Nationals in Saint Brieuc.


Photo from Roller En Ligne
Click here for Chapelle-sur-Erdre results.

I found this link thanks to REL; an interview (en Francais) with Ewen Fernandez.


Ewen Fernandez (in the white, blue, and red France colours) at the 2006 Junior World Roller Speed Skating Championships in Anyang, Korea
Jeugdmarathon: Harm de Boer Fotografie posted some photos from the Jeugdmarathon (pages 6 and 7 have photos of all sorts of falls...).


Photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie

Photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie
Link: How cool is this? My site is linked on the 2008 World Roller Speed Skating Championships Enlaces de interes (links) page under the Mundo De Patinaje section.

Enjoy Skating: A short post by Jacky Shu and perfect for this time of the year- Still Skating- he says 'but more importantly, I began to have fun in skating'. Also check out today's Enjoyed it.

Italian Indoor Vids: Here are a couple of videos from the recent Italian Indoor Championships (I don't remember if I linked to them or not). I found them on Pattinaggio Bellusco- check them out here and here.

Begg: More endorsments are coming in for Barry Publow's Science Of Speed- one of the more recent positive reviews comes from Bill Begg- in Bont's forum, he writes '...Originally when he was involved as the Canadian coach the results were not forth comming, so that was something which was basically beyond his control.

Myself & many others were judging him on his coaching results, rather than his ability to write a decent book, I am a Great Coach, who can Write, He is a Great Bookwriter who can Coach.

In a similar situation the late Charlie Whalig, said to me when I first went to coach Colombia, that I would be judged on my predecesor Bobby Kaiser's results & achievements.

I told him I had no fear of that, Bobby Kaiser was a skating great, I was not, but I am a great Coach, but he is not. SAme Game, but different areas of speciality expertise.

But What Barry does Very Good & better than I for one & most of the rest of the World do, is gather Specifically Skating Information & utilizing his knowledge & present it in email or Book form to the World.

These people that are good enough to,or auctually do it are very rare & few & Far between, they have to make sales to try & survive, in order to hope they can one day write another book, so if we knock them around to much, they might go down for the count & thats the end of that.

Barry has to overcome the fact that he comes from Canada,which is not a Colombia, Korea or Italy of the skating World, so has to work even harder to coalate his information.

So one advantage is that he is not ingrained in any particular system, with indoctrined ideas, so he can probably have a more subjective view of the overall picture.

Another big advantage for us people, is that it is in English, not Italian or Spanish, where most the material originates from. So English Coaching versions are few & far between'.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for Beggsport Coaching Series information or you wish to ask some questions of the videos, click here.

Across America, Cado 4x100, Love's More Soon, Begg Kiwi Sports Awards, FIC Nimes

Across America: While some of us freeze in Canada or people are nice and warm somewhere else other than Canada, Danny Dannels in continuing his epic trek across America. Check out his blog- the latest entry called Update from the Wife
- 'Hello everyone! Danny has asked me to update the blog for him while he skates. We are currently just outside of Mobile, AL, getting ready to cross through. Danny decided this morning, after our break, that it would be easiest if he skated across this area solo. That has also given me the chance to find an internet connection to update the blog, and get some cleaning done (laundry mostly).

We have been in no man's land for the past few days, hence the lack of updates. We haven't had much of an internet connection. Danny will be writing full updates soon, I hope. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still out here, skating hard. We should be across Alabama by the end of the day, depepnding on how much Danny feels he can put his body through today.

Hillary'.

Cado 4x100: Roller En Ligne has a review of the Cado Motus 4x100mm frames.


Love's More Soon: Andrew Love is in Europe, ready to skate the Master World Championships.He posted an update on his site called more soon.... He posted a video called Marty In Erfurt- it's got great skating shots- and I love how Andrew Love shouts 'Marty, you're beautiful!'. The rink is soooo nice-


Begg Kiwi Sports Awards: This is pretty cool; Nicole Begg makes the top 4 at Kiwi sports awards- make sure that you check out the video here- you'll see her in front of what looks like a very nice castle of some sorts and you'll get to see a few skating clips placed in the video.


Nicole Begg- photo from Bont
FIC Nimes: The French Inline Cup in Nimes- Nimes En Roller- will take place on April 13th.

Meanwhile, I suspect on April 13th, most of us Canadians will still be burried in snow and in some sort of deep freeze so severe that elementary schools don't let the students outside for recess to play. That happens. Seriously. It was so cold today that the school I work at would not let the students outside to play.

IP Skate Review, More Spring Fling Pics, ASSB (Arndt, Begg, UFO, Ecoroll)

IP Skate Review: One of my articles has just been put up on the Inline Planet- check it out; Rollerblade Crossfire 8.0 and Activa 8.0.

More Spring Fling Pics: The rest of the gang of the 2008 Spring Fling pictures by Mark Virtue are now up- have fun browsing through the many photos!


2008 Spring Fling- standard medium race- photo by Mark Virtue

2008 Spring Fling- standard short race- photo by Mark Virtue

2008 Spring Fling- standard short race- photo by Mark Virtue
ASSB (Arndt, Begg, UFO, Ecoroll): Andrew's Speed Skating Blog's latest entry covers a lot of interesting topics- I think the title says it all; Nicole Begg goes Bodypainting? DoubleA is Subaru-Xtech! UFO sightings at X-Race!? Ecoroll Cup next weekend....

Happy Birthday Aaron Arndt, Phillip's Father's War, 2008 Spring Fling Pics, Francesco Zangarini Interview, Loy In Kuopio, Quarter Life

Happy Birthday Aaron Arndt: Happy birthday to you Aaron Arndt.

Phillip's Father's War: The following is non-skating-

I suggest you read My Father's War by Mississauga's Phillip Morris.

Here are a few of my thoughts after I read My Father's War- maybe they don't make sense...

You think you know someone.

Maybe it's a friend or a family member.

Then, for some reason, you experience a shift in your relationship with that person. Maybe you read something they wrote. Maybe time that you spend with that person changes you... or changes them. Maybe things outside of your relationship with that person change- and in turn alter the nature of your relationship.

Things change, and afterwards, you think you know that person a little bit better.

We all have our layers; our depths that we sometimes share with others. Secrets that may eventually come out when they're ready to come out, maybe when it's too late or when it's too early or at just the right time.

I have my depths-

The following text is from Phillip Morris' writing called My Father's War. The piece was published in the Gazette on June 2nd 2007- '...My father never glorified war. He said that a lot of young men died for nothing. He never encouraged anyone to go to war to solve their problems.

On Remembrance Day, just before he died, my brother and I dressed Dad in his blue blazer, medals and beret and sat him in front of the television. His mind occupied by morphine and approaching death, he didn’t pay attention. Then the bugler played Last Post. In a desperate voice, he whispered 'get me up.' He never spoke again'.

2008 Spring Fling Pics: Beautiful pictures by Mark Virtue; 2008 Spring Fling, Skateland, Bremerton Washington. Some of the albums aren't working for me at this time, but I hope they work for you.


2008 Spring Fling Novice short race- photo by Mark Virtue

2008 Spring Fling 2 mix relay- photo by Mark Virtue

2008 Spring Fling 4 person relay- photo by Mark Virtue

2008 Spring Fling 4 person relay- photo by Mark Virtue

2008 Spring Fling- photo by Mark Virtue
Francesco Zangarini Interview: Click here for an interview (in French) with Italy's Francesco Zangarini.

Loy In Kuopio: Roller En Ligne has an article about Trisant Loy's 3rd place finish in Kuopio, Finland from a few days ago.

You can find all the results here and the final Essent Grand Prix standings here.

You can view a video of the race here. The video is 30-minutes long and opens with a great bird's eye view of skaters.


Quarter Life: I've been a fan of Quarter Life since December. The site features many different things including an online show- two episodes are released each week. Quarter Life is making its network television debut on NBC at this moment. Good stuff :)