Day 8 Part #1 -Before Brian's 1500m race

15 Feb 2014

Here are some quick videos I took this morning before Brian Hansen's 1500m race...I will be sending a longer post for Nancy Jr. to write up later and share with you all. But wanted to give you a little something now...

So check back later!

Nancy Sr.


As I did for the 1000m race, here is Brian and I "riding to the races" (1500m) on our bikes...



Several hours before Brian's 1500m Olympic race...I sharpened his skates in the morning and then did a workout and sat outside to record this video here.

Day 7 -Day Before Brian Hansen's 1500m Olympic Race

14 Feb 2014


It's Valentine's Day, and I never had a moment to think about it except when Jeff Sr. sent me a picture of the roses he bought and card he made...

Tomorrow is a big day for Team Swider-Peltz as it is Brian's 1500m. Brian's racing style is super fun for the spectator to watch (as I think I may have mentioned before his 1000m) because he has this ability to put the pedal to the metal when the situation calls for such. As a coach, when I see that, I have great respect for the competitive heart he has to be able to just turn that on! It also comes from training physiologically, putting off the anaerobic threshold a bit further to the right on the graph!!! Our self-described trademark.
He will race almost exactly at 6:45pm our time (8:45am your time Saturday morning) See below for the pictures that detail his pair/race for his 1500m tomorrow.

Today was a tough day for myself as the day started with serious consequential decisions to be made. As some of you have read in the papers, online or maybe heard on the news, that the skin suit developed over the last years was steeped in hundreds of hours of design and wind tunnel testing. It was supposed to be a revolutionary super fast skin wrought of a technology never before done. Yet as the racing days ended, each one started bringing questions and suspect that something was not right with the US Speedskating team. As I said yesterday, there are other potential reasons which could all be valid, in addition to training programs that just failed.

But when the trajectory is going the wrong way, you have to make decisions to either try to change it or conclude that nothing can be done but to move forward and give it ones best shot .

Most everyone in USS (and private coaches) directly involved with the athlete and who was in Sochi, met to start the process of determining what may be the cause and what would be done. It was determined to ask the athletes (yet to race), who were of medal potential, what was their choice...either to continue in the high tech skin or change to the Fall World Cup skin suit. And then to move forward and make changes to the high tech one or to make the WC skin suit compliant to Olympic requirements.

It was also told to me by the Dutch that some of the "new" ideas on the suit had already been tried by them in previous years and had been determined to be more of a drag than a streamline. Some of the US speedskaters had described the suit as feeling like their "drag" suits.

The athletes decided (a majority) that it was better to give themselves the shot at the skin suit that served them well in the Fall World Cups. They would rather take their chances than to live with the regret that they didn't try. There are very far-reaching consequences to the organization for not seeing this skin suit to the end, and so much is at stake for so many. It may or may never be known what caused the results thus far, because it's too late to quantify a persons physical condition, and results also involve the mental state, the equipment, diet, health, sleep, etc. Monday-morning quarterbacks and speculators will debate that for some time to come. But this is where we're at now: pending a final ok to the World Cup skin suit in the morning, that is what will be seen on the US speedskaters.

At times like this, it is my opinion that when organizations seek to do justice to the real goal and not to personal agendas and financial pressures, ultimately it will come back to earning trust and support by those who are needed for the success of the organization.

Tomorrow is a new day and I know Brian is hungry for this one!

As I keep saying, thanks you all for all the comments. I love it and it makes me smile. I'm still enamored by Facebook "screen shots" from Jr. :)

Brian's 1500m details: if you are wanting to watch his race live, you have to watch it online either with a subscription to NBC extra live (http://www.nbcolympics.com/live-extra) or from another country's live broadcast (I go to http://nos.nl/os2014/ using a different IP address). The 1500m Men's races begin at 7:30am CST, but Brian is in the 2nd group, 16th pair, approx. racing at 8:45am CST. For live non-video results, check here: http://www.sochi2014.com/en/speed-skating-men-s-1000-m.

As with his 1000m, this is the official time schedule for the 1500m race. He starts in the second group that goes off at 6:30 (he skates 6:45pm).

As I sent for Brian's 1000m race, this is the official pairings sheet handed out to all coaches and officials. Brian is 16th pair in the second half starting on the inner. If you start on the inner lane in the 1500m, you finish on the outer. He's paired with a Norwegian .

This is a photo of the official "pairings" meeting that occurs the night before the races. 
Names are actually drawn from a bucket in a random selection. This was taken as the final pair was drawn and still up on the screen. 

God bless and goodnight from Sochi,

Nancy Sr.


Videos:

Outside the dorm where the US team lives looking out to the Black Sea......I know I've sent maybe too many scenes of the Black Sea but we keep getting these incredibly warm days as you can see from what we're wearing! :)


Here is Emery Lehman, the "young kid" out of Oak Park (speedskater) shows up and I decided to make his debut in this blog. You can see him race the 10,000 next week!

Update from Nancy Sr. -Day 6 (& the struggling American Speedskating team)

13 Feb 2014

This is a huge panoramic satellite view of the Olympic park and surroundings. They just put it up on the wall in our hotel. I thought you would get a better feel for some of the videos I've sent by looking at this to put it all in perspective. Study this a minute and then go back to some of the videos already posted on previous days. I wish I had sent this first cause it's hard to get a feel for what I've sent without this context.

If anyone would like a longer video on this or actually have a specific request for some quick video clips from the Olympics (no events except Speedskating because I don't have any tickets to events) send the specifics to Nancy Jr. on her Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/NSwiderPeltzJr

For those of you watching more than just Brian's races, you are starting to wonder what is happening to the US Team. This team was touted as the most talented, and expected to bring home the greatest collection of medals ever! So far not a medal in 3 men and 3 ladies races, and the best placing has been 7th.
Only 3 men and 3 ladies races are left, with a hopeful yet questionable scenario of medals. What has happened?

Several reasons and some will never be known for sure, but right now the suspect is the newly designed Lockheed Martin skin suit that was NOT tested after manufacturing because of the attempt on the High Performance level to keep it secret. What a price to pay for trying to get an edge! But also, what a huge strategic blunder if high performance is supposed to be science. Isn't it protocol in the scientific world to race test before potentially negatively affecting anything or anybody? Let alone Olympic results?

Other potential reasons for the lack of expected success thus far can be:

1) selection of the Olympic team in Milwaukee would have been the most fair way to select an Olympic team that could best compete at a lowland rink, but also prepare the team for the conditions under which they would have to compete. But the organization chose the potential benefits of an NBC coverage with financial support over what was originally deemed the most fair and logical place for the selection.

2) the decision on the organizations part for the central program not to train in lowland before the Olympics, thereby replicating the Olympic ice conditions and atmosphere. Similar conditions were at their disposal in Milwaukee, but the benefits of altitude were the High Performance team's priority. Lowland training was never seriously considered, but questioned by most who were not in SLC.

3) the decision to have a pre-Olympic training camp outside in altitude in Italy, for the purpose of: retaining altitude in the system, to train on what was considered "similar" ice to Sochi, to test other new factors, and team unity, YET disregarding weather and the consequential training affects of such. 

4) the travel schedule to Sochi ended up requiring 2 early mornings with a late night back to back with team processing (on legs most of the time) into arriving at the Olympic village, figuring out a personal schedule and how to maneuver within the transportation availability which involved one week of serious walking affecting the ability to recover properly.

Opinions are out there, but I wanted to give you all a little perspective on what you may be wondering or what you have heard.

The team is waiting final approval, but they should be able to race in the suits they wore at the Fall World Cup competitions starting on Saturday for the men's 1500m. This should help the team determine if the suits are truly the factor for the unexpected results.

For Brian, he is physically and mentally ready and for sure anticipating this race. As his coach, I can honestly say his greatest assets towards his success are his 5th gear, as I call it, and his love of "playing this game"...AND of course, his coach :) haha

...until next time....keep us in your prayers for wisdom and safety. As always, I appreciate all the facebook comments. Jr. keeps taking screen shots and I'm getting them all!!! Except, I wish those little profile pictures on the side were more clear for me to see your faces :)

God bless from Sochi, Russia

Nancy Sr.



Another mashing session. We "scientifically" decide how much of this Brian needs by what his legs are "saying" to him everyday. Honestly, Brian has learned to sense his legs so well that I will ask him, "are your legs talking yet??!!"


I have already sent one of my "views out my window" or one on the "boardwalk" but when you wake up to a sea so perfect as this, you simply want to show everyone!!!! I wish I could enjoy it more, but I leave within 30' of getting up and don't come back til 9 or 10:00pm and it's too dark to see :(



A different take on speedskating 'turn-belt' dry land crossovers by the Japanese Olympic team....always looking for new interesting ways to dryland train for speedskating!

Day 5 -1000m Race Day and Thoughts

12 Feb 2014

I didn't send you all any writing for the post yesterday because it was the day before Brian Hansen's race and I was trying to get to bed a bit earlier than 4:00am, which seems to be the time I get to bed these days...and today is ending up being no different. It's already 3 am!

The venue area as seen from athlete village (dorms)

Brian and I stayed at the rink after his 1000m race long after everyone had left and we talked about sport. The journey and the goal. What is more important? Achievement of the goal can often cloud out a difficult journey. But if the goal is not achieved, has the journey been worth it?

Brian, Jeffrey and Nancy have all been about the journey, but as the Olympics loomed more near, the goal became more the priority. Should that be? Maybe the focus on the journey and loving more of the moments could ultimately produce the end goal more effectively than the focus on the end goal...and what is life if you don't enjoy that with which you've been blessed? But the corollary is also, if you haven't achieved what you set out for, can you enjoy that either?

I think you all know the results by now. It was not what we had anticipated by any means. Brian definitely had a shot at a medal and the race can be summed up by simply "what happened?" He gave everything he had, as you can well see if you watched or [or will watch tonight on PrimeTime NBC if they show it]. He finished believing he had skated a great race, but the time didn't show it. Even Shani Davis was confused with his own race. It just didn't add up. I have some thoughts about it, but will probably leave that for some days down the road...

Thanks so much for following us and we wanted to be bringing you exciting news today...BUT DONT GO ANYWHERE! Because we have the 1500m this Saturday, Brian's strongest race! He is someone you can say the following about: "He's the first one they look for and the last they want to meet". Don't miss this one for sure! :)

Hey, thanks everyone for all your comments back to me [Nancy Jr. keeps sending me pictures of the comments so I can read them]. It has really meant so much that you write something. Like I've said, because I don't Facebook or Twitter [and whatever else there is haha], getting "pictures" of the Facebook pages is still novel to me!

Good night from Sochi, Russia and God bless,
Nancy Sr.

Videos:

On our way to the 1000m Sochi Olympic race.

Brian's 1000m day!!!!!!! Of course I'm anxious!!!!

An incredible day outside. Here is a shot of the Black Sea just 20 steps from our hotel out the front door!



And then if you turn right around from where is was standing for the Sea front video just before this, here is the hotel I'm staying at. It's half a mile from edges of venues but a 20min. ride by bus.

Day 4 -Day in the life of Nancy Sr. at the Sochi Olympics

11 Feb 2014

TOMORROW! Brian Hansen races the 1000m, his first shot at the Olympic Podium!!!

Nancy Jr. will now give you a heads up on how to watch Brian racing tomorrow:

1000m Men Competition Day Detailed Schedule

"If you are wanting to watch his race live, you have to watch online either with a subscription to NBC extra live or from another country's live broadcast (I go to http://nos.nl/os2014/ using a different IP address). The 1000m Men's races begin at 8am CST, but Brian is 19th pair, approx. racing at 9:20am CST. For live non-video results, check here: http://www.sochi2014.com/en/speed-skating-men-s-1000-m. Also, you can wait til 8pm PrimeTime on NBC tomorrow evening to hopefully see the recapping of the 1000m men. The pictures to the right and below are the sheets of information the coaches/officials/skaters get after pairings the night before look like these...."

The Adler Arena -Long Track Speedskating

Pairing Sheet for the 1000m Men

Nancy Sr. with Julie Hansen (Brian's mother)

I need to get a good night's sleep tonight, so the blog post for today consists mainly of pictures and videos. Sorry, but tomorrow is an important day. If you get a chance, please lift Brian and I up in prayer. This is a big day tomorrow! And then Brian will be racing the 1500m race on Saturday, another one of his potential podium finishes.

Thank you all, as always, for the continual support and encouragement for Briana and I. 

God Bless,

Nancy Sr.


Our speedskate sharpening process (Brian's 1000m Olympic race sharpening). Listen carefully to Brian's comments :)


A quick pan of the venues from the back side. Try to imagine this massive entertainment park one day. The center is the flame. A race car track will go around that. With some of the venues to still remain (some taken down & relocated). A Disney amusement park with castle hotels and a massive array of luxury resort apartments (Olympic village) on the Black Sea!!!!



And then what it looks like going from the speedskating oval (called Adler Arena) into the circle of venues (right to left) hockey, opening ceremonies stadium, figure/short track...


Just to give you a feel for where I walk in everyday to the speedskating ice rink...