KPN Schaats Cup - Enschede (1e divisie).	7
KPN Schaats Cup - Den Haag (1e divisie).	9
WC road - marathon.	3

A new adventure!!

posted on 21/11/2010
After the WC in Guarne I took 1week of totally rest but after that week my new adventure started, Ice Skating! I did last year already one week of ice Skating in Hereveen together with Desly Hill and her team to feel how it’s like and if I like the sport. That week went surprisingly well and I really enjoyed it so during this summer we started planning how we could do this winter more ice Skating. During this winter I want to focus as much as possible on the technique and do some long track races at the end of the season to see where I am standing. So I started the 8th of November my first training on ice together with Ferre. Since then we went every day for 2 weeks to Grefrath in Germany(1,5hour drive) to train with Marc Otter who is coaching us the technique! We started with the best material from CadoMotus, the Marchese record blades so we just could focus us totally on the technique.
The first week went really good, only the weather conditions weren't that great (Grefrath is an outside track). We also got accompanied sometimes by our other teammates, Maarten and Pascal! Pascal Ramali is for next year our new teammate, I think he will be a very stronger factor for us team next year! Maarten only came 2 times with us because at this moment he has to focus on university but he will be more on the ice soon!

Because of the good feeling during the trainings we decided to start the ice marathon in Den Haag. I was a little stressed about it, also during the first Laps in the race, it 's really strange to skate in the group on ice! Probably because I’m not yet as sure on ice like I’m on inline, but after 10laps the fear and strange feeling was less so I could race properly. The race on itself wasn't too hard for me, I got in a few breakaways, we are off course still in good shape after THE WC and I could handle the speed very well. Between lap 20 and 10 I was in almost every breakaway but the race ended in a sprint. I tried to finish in the front, I just had to come from a little too far, the last corner was just too fast for me and the ice too bad but I finished in 9th place, good for the first time I guess! Interview from after the race here:





Sunday after the race we had a day without ice skating so I put my inline skates back on and did some indoor which went better than expected! From Monday until Friday we went again every day to Grefrath for some more ice Skating. I am still improving in different things and I am getting different, better feelings every time so it was fun to feel I’m improving. On Saturday there was another marathon on the program, this time in Hoorn! I was pretty excited for the race, to do better than last week. In the begin of the race I was very active, got in some breakaways but then I struggled a little in the pack, had the same feeling as the first time. But when I got again in the front racing went easier again. At 10 laps to go a group of 4 athletes got away they had a decent gap on the peloton. I hoped the pack would catch them again in the final sprint. At 2 laps to go I saw the gap was still very big and knowing I was too late in the sprint last week I started my sprint at 1,5 laps to go! I got closer to the leading group but saw I couldn’t catch them anymore. I came in first position from the peloton out of the last corner, tried to win the peloton-sprint but with 50m to go on the last straight I went to much on the outside of my blade and crashed, stopped with gliding 15m before the finish.. I just got to excited in the sprint and started sprinting like on inline, that 's when it went wrong.. But after all the race went good, the speed is increasing so maybe next time!!

Busy week and Psychology

posted on 02/09/2010
Past week was a pretty hard one, but I think there are harder to come so no complaining up until now. But it was also a busy week, for that reason not so many updates to explore here. But from next week on that will change with our next training camp in Geisingen coming, you can follow it here every day on www.bartswings.be !

About last week, in the beginning of the week the weather wasn’t great. Maarten and I did a 1.5 hour bike training in the rain which was hard. The training itself wasn’t the hardest but just the fact that your body has to heat you up the whole time costs a lot of energy to your body. The past days were better, did every day skating trainings what felt good because we couldn’t do so many the past weeks because of the rain. Pictures of the trainings in the album ‘trainings’ made by Ferre.

Tomorrow we have the second and last part of our test for the altitude in Guarne. I’m not really looking forward to that, I’m going to die again. My coach Jelle also had an interview on pureskatingnews, you can read it here here . He also posted a new post on his blog, training-news.blogspot.com. It’s in dutch but definitely worth reading it. He talks about the psychological part of sports. It’s something really strange, I experience it almost every training with myself and have to work more at it too. For example if we have to do a small points race 1lap easy(50%) 1lap fast(100%) for 20laps, just an example. We always take times of the fast laps. It’s logical that those fast laps stay the same during the exercise, if you are in great shape, or that they go slower and slower. But for one or the other reason the last fast ones are sometimes the fastest. Just because you think ‘Yeah, two more to go, let’s give everything I have in my body’ and in the beginning you are thinking ‘Ok, let’s go, but there are still so many to go, so keep a little energy for those last ones’. It’s one of the mistakes I still make every day. Going 100% and give everything you have the whole time is just so difficult. There are off course a lot of other examples in which you see how much the psychological part counts in sports. I figured it out the most during a practice like the example.

I try to work on it and reading those article motivates me even more to work on it. Last years it’s going better for me. I learnt that not every training is a race that you have to win. Because of that sort of thinking, that you have to race and win every practice, you always keep some energy for the end to ‘win the practice’.

A small quote for Jelle to end for today: Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Rain.. But another trainingcamp in Geisingen!

posted on 28/08/2010
The new national team for the World Championship is known now. So an extra motivation for Ferre, Maarten and me to train as hard as possible. Thursday Maarten and me had another long distance training in the morning and after 15min rain… The weather from last week wasn’t great, a lot of rain so we didn’t had much skating practices. But Maarten and me finished the training in the rain, actually I did most of the leading because Maarten isn’t really a rain specialist :-) I’m looking forward to our next training camp in Geisingen! You never have to worry about the weather because there’s always such a nice indoor track. We leave in one week to Geisingen so let’s hope the weather here in Belgium stays good for the next week!

Friday we did our first test to know how we react on the altitude in Guarne, Colombia. I can’t say much yet about the results, next Friday we have our second test on the altitude so after comparing both tests we know more! Pictures from Maarten in the climate room in the album ‘Trainings’, but it's a the end of his test so his oxygen mask is already off. One thing was sure, the test was hard, I went full out in the test and it was long time ago since I was so tired and exhausted. The strange thing was I didn’t felt anything this morning during my training. Maarten, Ferre and me did a training on the road in Haasrode. It’s a 2.4k long rectangle with a uphill and downhill in it and smooth asphalt. In the winter we train almost every day on that course. It’s a public road so when I was young I couldn’t come and train there, it was only for the ‘big guys’ but since I was cadet I started training over there too. And 2 or 3 years ago the road has a new layer of asphalt which is very fast so now we train there a lot, especially in the winter. My fastest lap on the course is 3min and 10sec, what’s about 45.5 km/h. But you have to consider there‘s a uphill from 300m in it so it’s pretty fast. Next time we skate there I’ll have some pictures and maybe a small video of it so you know how it’s like.