Two Weeks Out

Written by T Dobbin
Just two weeks until the first World Cup of the 2010-2011 long track ice season starting with the WC in Heerenveen, Holland. Followed by the World Cup in Berlin the following weekend and finally heading to Norway with the final World Cup for November in Hamar.

Shane still in Salt Lake City, heads to Holland next weekend, one week before the World Cup to prepare for his race. Shane will skate only the 5,000 meter in Heerenveen which is held on Sunday the 14th of November.

With only two weeks remaining of training, Shane is hitting this final week with some hard training and finalising those minor details, followed by a recovery week when in Heerenveen.

"Things are definitely going in the right direction compared to last year. I have been able to focus 100% on long track this winter which has been a huge advantage being able to focus every training session on that".

Shane is really looking forward to skating in Heerenveen. After watching the World Inline Speed Skating Championships in Guarne, Colombia especially watching the New Zealand men's team take gold in the relay final on road today, he has a lot of motivation to keep focused on his long track and give it his all in the upcoming World Cups.

Keep posted for more updates coming soon.

Salt Lake City Update

Written by T Dobbin
It's been another week down in Shane's training program and only just over three weeks to go until the first World Cup in Heerenveen. Currently Shane is having a recovery week before he hits the final three weeks of his training phase. To finish last week's hard training cycle off, Shane skated a race here in Salt Lake City skating a five kilometre. It was a good race, skating a flat race while the ice not in great condition. There is still room for improvement between now and Heerenveen, so after this week it will be back into hard training to prepare 100% for the three World Cups coming up in November.

Shane's lap times are below:

Start 19.25
30.08
31.18
31.29
30.88
30.93
31.16
31.06
31.32
31.52
31.17
31.24
31.56
Time: 6.32,64

Keep posted for more updates soon.

New Personal Record in the 3km

Written by T Dobbin
This morning was the second race of the pre-season for Shane in Salt Lake City. He decided that he would race a 3km as he is still in the middle of a hard training phase so this race would be better suited. Shane managed to skate a good race finishing with a new personal best time as well as a new, New Zealand National record in the 3000 meter distance. See his lap times below:

Opener: 19.40
Lap 1: 29.55
Lap 2: 30.03
Lap 3: 30.22
Lap 4: 29.84
Lap 5: 29.32
Lap 6: 29.56
Lap 7: 30.20
Finishing time: 3:48.12

For now it's back into another week of training and another race next weekend.