Old Skool

Back in mid January I raced outdoors near St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota. Outdoor competitions can be pretty fun but not if the weather turns freezing cold or gets too windy, which of course it did. Over two days of racing, we had wind of over 30 mph (which actually blew over a skater during his race, sorry Andy) and temperatures at 0 degrees. Even though it really sucks to be out there racing with what seems like no clothes on, I like the challenge and it turned out that it was probably my best competition all year!

Thanks so much for coming out to watch Jake and Robin

 

Back in the day, all ovals were outdoors and many were on natural lake ice (this oval ^ has ice artificially cooled by compressors underneath so people can still skate even if it's 45ish degrees or less outside). But speedskaters had to deal with the elements of snow, wind and sun that often times differed from race to race so results were unfairly affected by their race condition. For example, if the sun happened to come out for your race, it would make the ice gloss over and become way faster and glide significantly better. So in 1988, the Olympics in Calgary, Canada, introduced a new enclosed oval to the world and so began a more modern era of the sport. Since then, more and more ovals have been covered and most major competitions are indoors but it's good to keep alive the tradition of this sport in even if it means freezing your face off.

Our good ol' hometown oval in Milwaukee before it was covered in 1994.

The Milwaukee oval today

Much Needed Short Update!

Definitely needing to update y'all...sorry it's been a while! In brief, Jeffrey, my mom and Brian are in Inzell, Germany at the moment, training for a couple weeks after Brian's 1500m world cup race last Sunday. He dominated by taking another 3rd place podium finish! After these next weeks, Brian will race another world cup in Erfurt, Germany while Jeffrey and mom/coach will be heading to Salt Lake City for the American Cup Final and then onto Calgary, Canada where I will be meeting them there for my last competition this season, the Finale.

Since returning home from the U.S. Championships and Regionals out in Salt Lake City over Christmas break, I have been revamping and sketching out new goals for the next couple months and then into Olympic year. Yes, the 2014 Olympics are less than a year away now! For me, my focus right now is on the competition in Calgary, March 7th-10th. A solid race where I will be shooting for a PB (personal best) is the goal, which will bring back confidence in my racing leading into the Olympic season. Until then, I have been cranking out great workouts and perfecting technique even more. While my training partners have left me for beautiful Inzell, Germany, I have been blessed with other training partners while Brian and Jeffrey are gone. Jilleanne Rookard, Chase, Darren, along with Dano, Jacky, Tweddale...we've had some great workouts already this week and pumped to continue this change-up of training partners for a bit! You guys are great!

So as this Calgary Finale competition nears, I will be keeping you all posted on my progress and then the results from those races. Jeffrey, too, will be updating on his end the races he has in Salt Lake City as well as Calgary.

In the meantime, today is Valentine's Day. And though we love to share and show our love to those closest to us, let us be reminded on how God's sacrifice of His son was the ultimate love story. Giving us a chance to have a relationship with Him and life of eternity = hope. 1 John 4:19, "We love because He first loved us."

God bless you all,
Nancy Jr.


1 Corinthians 9:25

Photo Shoot Número 2 - CHECK out these pictures!

So back in October, amongst her crazy, super busy schedule of juggling of her last soccer season with the Thunder ladies (who made it to the NCAA final four!) and working on her Senior Art Show, Hilary Barreto made time to shoot another session with Jeffrey and I. We are super pumped to reveal some of her amazing work below, which will hopefully be helping us as we try to attract sponsorship leading into this next Olympics, Sochi 2014 (almost 1 year from now!) as well as gain her recognition as she finishes college and dominates in the world of art and photography. Her talent just keeps getting better as she refines and polishes her look...if you are in the Wheaton area next Tuesday evening, you got to check out her Senior Show, details are at the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/443730022364717/?notif_t=plan_edited

On to the pictures... (to see them all, go to her website: http://hilarybarreto.wordpress.com) And if you like her work, contact her at: hilaryb@c28.com or like her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ONETHREEphotography/268276849774

Hilary, thank you so much for taking the time to shoot these for us...you're talent and hard work will take you far!

God Bless,
Nancy Jr.


1 Corinthians 9:25

Racing Outdoors in Roseville!!

Beginning today, American Cup III and the Junior Trials have started and though it doesn't show the whole rink...I was watching from a live video feed from Roseville and got to see Jeffrey warming up in his retro 1980's skating skin. As I posted on my Facebook, the picture for the schedule of the races today/Sunday at the end of this post...if you're in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and want to watch some racing tomorrow and support TeamUSA, head over to the John Rose Oval! And if you want the live video link, click on the link below:

http://www.skatetheoval.com/?checked_cookie=1





Today conditions aren't too bad...but tomorrow? The poor speedskaters will be bearing some 5F degree weather and maybe some snow....yuck! ;)

God bless!
Nancy Jr.

1 Corinthians 9:25

Happy Birthday Nancy! 26

Nancy started skating again at age 13. That was 13 years ago so she has been competing for half her life! 

Unfortunately we're just sitting around our hotel room today in Salt Lake and we'll have a nice birthday dinner tonight after skating this afternoon. It's hard having to rest and train instead of taking the day off today to go to Park City and ski some slopes or something fun and different. Nancy races this weekend at the North American & New Zealand regional qualifier for the World All-Around Championships. I'm just here training with Nancy and Brian for another week until I go to Minnesota to compete there outside...brrrrr. Hope I can meet up with Jake Thomas there!

Also...been working on my first official logos for Brian's little rocket scientist brother, Stevie Hansen, who goes to University of Wisconsin, Madison! Finally learning a little photoshop. The top one was the final. Any comments on how to improve these though?

_____________________________________________

(sweet origami effect)