Get In, Get Done, Get Out:
Fall World Cup Trials are what you make of them, and I definitely made this one a business trip. From the time I started planning my itinerary a month ago, I was determined to spend as little time and money on the whole ordeal as possible, while still accomplishing my objective of qualifying for the fall world cups.
What bothered me the most about the trials this year is the fact that the national team skaters got the whole trip paid for, because the trials "happened to" fit into one of their low altitude training camps. Thus, their air fare to Milwaukee, a place to stay, and food were all covered by USS for the duration of the trials. My trip, on the other hand, cost me a little over $600, which made a significant dent in my savings.
Back when I was with the national team in 2003, I asked if our trip to the qualifier would be covered by US Speedskating, and the person I asked replied, "No, because it wouldn't be fair to cover anyone's expenses to a QUALIFYING competition, while other skaters have to pay their own way." How convenient to simply fit it into a "training camp."
(Speaking of training camps, whatever happened to the good old days, when all skaters who qualified based on their performance at the nationals were invited to national team training camps throughout the following season, regardless of their regular coach or training program?)
It was thoughts like these that I was trying to prevent from creeping into my head over the past weekend; thoughts like, "Shouldn't your best potential Olympic season be an exciting experience, where all of the people important to your success try their hardest to make it easier for you to perform at your best?"
Or, "I wonder what it would be like to compete for a federation that DID care about me?" Or just thinking about what it might be like to have someone by my side at races who cared about me but also respected me and wasn't overbearing. Is that too much to ask???
Of course, all of this is too much for me to ask; at least it has been for me in my experience of speedskating. So I knew that what I needed to do was to convince myself that none of these details actually matter.
I managed to do this, and as a result, I turned in two days of solid but thoroughly uninspired racing. Looking back, I see that I could have done things better if I had paid more attention to taking care of the details myself, rather than trying to ignore the advantages that others had over me. One example? Maybe I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to try to find someone to give me lap times for the 1500.
As soon as my races ended on Saturday, I signed my declaration of intent form, indicating which world cups I will skate. Then I left town, driving to Chicago to spend the rest of the weekend with my brother. Why not? After all, I paid for this trip myself, didn't I?
Fall World Cup Trials are what you make of them, and I definitely made this one a business trip. From the time I started planning my itinerary a month ago, I was determined to spend as little time and money on the whole ordeal as possible, while still accomplishing my objective of qualifying for the fall world cups.
What bothered me the most about the trials this year is the fact that the national team skaters got the whole trip paid for, because the trials "happened to" fit into one of their low altitude training camps. Thus, their air fare to Milwaukee, a place to stay, and food were all covered by USS for the duration of the trials. My trip, on the other hand, cost me a little over $600, which made a significant dent in my savings.
Back when I was with the national team in 2003, I asked if our trip to the qualifier would be covered by US Speedskating, and the person I asked replied, "No, because it wouldn't be fair to cover anyone's expenses to a QUALIFYING competition, while other skaters have to pay their own way." How convenient to simply fit it into a "training camp."
(Speaking of training camps, whatever happened to the good old days, when all skaters who qualified based on their performance at the nationals were invited to national team training camps throughout the following season, regardless of their regular coach or training program?)
It was thoughts like these that I was trying to prevent from creeping into my head over the past weekend; thoughts like, "Shouldn't your best potential Olympic season be an exciting experience, where all of the people important to your success try their hardest to make it easier for you to perform at your best?"
Or, "I wonder what it would be like to compete for a federation that DID care about me?" Or just thinking about what it might be like to have someone by my side at races who cared about me but also respected me and wasn't overbearing. Is that too much to ask???
Of course, all of this is too much for me to ask; at least it has been for me in my experience of speedskating. So I knew that what I needed to do was to convince myself that none of these details actually matter.
I managed to do this, and as a result, I turned in two days of solid but thoroughly uninspired racing. Looking back, I see that I could have done things better if I had paid more attention to taking care of the details myself, rather than trying to ignore the advantages that others had over me. One example? Maybe I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to try to find someone to give me lap times for the 1500.
As soon as my races ended on Saturday, I signed my declaration of intent form, indicating which world cups I will skate. Then I left town, driving to Chicago to spend the rest of the weekend with my brother. Why not? After all, I paid for this trip myself, didn't I?
posted by Eva at 1:24 PM
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