Some R n' R from the Oval

So today they took out the short track mats at the Oval for the upcoming long track World Cup. I'm surprised they left them this long, as the competition starts soon. But, it was awesome of them to leave them on this long!

Tomorrow we're shippin' out to Canmore for a couple of practices. It should be fun, then a nice relaxing weekend full of recovery!

Round House Kick to the Chest

OK, so the Oval is a little busier than usual. The Long Track World Cup is in Calgary this weekend and there is a large number of athletes on the running track during my morning warm up.

While doing my warm up jog I unfortunately got blocked by the Chinese team. Now these aren't normal sized Chinese people, they are huge with very powerful legs (as I soon learned from first hand experience)... Like I think the tallest girl is like six and some feet...

No Jokes.

They run pretty slow to begin with, but they had just finished their lap jog and started doing dynamic stretches - they were now spread out in front of me and moving very slow.

I saw a break in the group and started to maneuver my way through the pack. They had been doing front swing kicks for the majority of my pass but as soon as I was about to pass the lead person, she switched exercises on me, swung her leg round the side of her and snapped straight back into my chest... So strong it knocked me right off my feet.

I was in complete disbelief.

I think she was too, she had no clue I was coming up on the outside of her. She was very apologetic, but I said that I was "OK", brushed myself off and callapsed on the long track mats. I'm not sure what was worse, being winded or my ill attempts to hold back laughter.

Anyways, enough said...

Also, Congratulations to my cousin Chris and his wife Amanda, they had a baby girl today... Presley Riana Davidchuk! Now I've got to teach Kadan (their son) how to deal with a little sister!

Here and There

Hello, yes it's been a while. I will be returning to blog writing soon. Especially since National Team Trials 1 will be coming up in less than 2 weeks.

I've been here and there with things, a few guest appearances on the ice with various Short Track groups, which were all really fun! It may sound funny, but it's almost more inspiring for me to watch those kids with all their energy and enthusiasm!

Training has been going well, which is good with Trials approaching.

I'll fill in the blanks more soon.

40.572

The World Record is 41.051 held by Korea's Si-Bak Sung.

This weekend I basically tied it in my Quarter final at Oktoberfest, I went 41.054. At the time I was pretty choked, as I've always wanted a time below the World Record (you know, somewhere in the 40 seconds). But needless to say, I was happy to finally have a 500 m time that is one of the fastest in the World.

I wasn't done there, later in my Semis I went 40.886!

This was exactly the type of time I wanted, unfortunately though, I realized that Cory Rasmussen (a teammate of mine in Calgary) holds the Canadian Record of 40.866... I joked with Cory after that race, he only had 0.02 seconds on me in the 500 m now, and that I was coming for him!

I was pretty tired at this point, we had skated two 1500 m's in the morning and two 500 m's (both World Record pace) prior to the Final - I was having trouble staying optimistic about getting another good time. A number of people approached me before my last race, and urged me to go for time, but I set it in my mind that I just wanted to win the race. Sorry, but this is how a real Short Tracker thinks!

From the start of the race Cory was putting a ton of pressure on me, I could feel him close behind me every corner. I managed to pull from start to finish though, with a new track I've been working on it allowed me to maintain my speed and defend at the same time (only set back, it's really, really tiring).

As I crossed the line, I was dead tired. I remember the corner after the line, how fast I was gliding around that corner. But, I thought the race had been pretty slow, it seemed to go on forever! I didn't think much of it at the time, but I sensed some stirring in the coaches box. All of a sudden there were screams from various parts of the rink. I was really tired and I didn't think it had anything to do with the race until I was called over by Jereon to the photo finish box, he had already run over to find the finishing time...

"New unofficial World Record time in the 500 m, 40.572!" - Announcer (teammate Tyler Derraugh)

Redemption.

I couldn't believe it. I almost burst out laughing! All I wanted was the win, but here I come out with the fastest time in the world in the 500 m.

After everything with Olympic Trials, it was good to bounce back with this. It's a little bittersweet, since it clearly means I deserve to be there at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Our group has been training really hard lately, a lot of laps and high intensity programs outside of ice. It's been really demanding physically as well as mentally!

So now I hold two Canadian Records, both leagues beyond what the World Records are (both the 1500 m and the 500 m).