A few photos from the 2015 Fall World Cup Circuit

After barely qualifying for the US team in October, my results in each of the following World Cup competitions were better than the ones before. It's about taking one step at a time–even if improvement isn't reflected in immediate results, with persistence you'll be able to recognize those steps occurring first in practice and in all the little aspects of your discipline before you see them in the arena.

Below I managed a few photos from the circuit but wish I had more of course.

Calgary, Canada: Watching races after I finished mine



Salt Lake City, USA: In my hotel, thinking about the summer training group that helped me build such a solid base for this season



Salt Lake City, USA: Mass Start race, B group



Inzell, Germany: Beautiful view from one of the places I stayed at (the rink is in the middle at the foot of the mountain)



Inzell, Germany: Some Dutch marathoners built this beautiful white beast in front of the rink entrance



Inzell, Germany: Watching a huge school of little kids take over the ice session during one of the mornings



Heerenveen, the Netherlands: 1500 meters, B group (photo curtesy of Dutch schaatsen fan, Arjen Burghart)



Heerenveen, the Netherlands: 30 minutes later! (Photo curtesy of Martin De Jong)








Back to Salt Lake City (World Cup qualifiers in October): Wouldn't be here without her (Photo curtesy of Martin De Jong)

GoPro. TeamSwiderPeltz. Epic.

Here it is! Thanks to Chris Laugier, here is an awesome GoPro video of TeamSwiderPeltz's summer 2015 training for the Speedskating season...for those that live in Germany, head to my (Nancy Jr.) Facebook page here --> https://www.facebook.com/nancyswiderpeltzjr because it is blocked there

GoPro Video Preview

Here's just a short preview of whats to come this weekend! A great friend of ours, Chris Laugier, is putting together a GoPro video from TeamSwider-Peltz's summer 2015 training including drone footage from our inlining workouts... ;)

Short GoPro Skating Video -Calgary

Took some more GoPro footage on our last day of training in Calgary so y'all can see some more of what our training session looks like :)

Also, for those that have country limitations and cannot video the video below, head to this link: 
https://www.facebook.com/NSwiderPeltzJr/videos/vb.283034073421/10153288467368422/?type=2&theater

Adios Calgary

Finished our last practice today at the Calgary Olympic Oval...wrapping up our 3 week training camp! 

Incredible how time flies...a reminder how much I need to daily live life in the moment. Also, we are extremely thankful to you Canadians and the other country skaters up here that were so generous to us while we were here...appreciative of you guys' kindness.

Next up is the transition to Milwaukee and training up at the Pettit starting next Tuesday. In the meantime, might take time tomorrow on the plane and put together another short GoPro video for y'all :)

God Bless,

Nancy Jr. 

"To him be glory both now and forever."

2 Peter 3:18

Calgary Training Camp in Pictures...(recap for those that have seen my Instagram/Facebook)

Yesterday I posted some videos, today I'm sharing the pictures that I've posted on Instagram/Facebook from our training camp here in Calgary, Canada for those that have not seen them on our social media.

Our world-class coach, Coach Nancy Sr. :)

Team Swider-Peltz (Nancy, Jeffrey, Darren Huang, our Chinese Taipei skater)

Inlining the first week in the rocky mountains, but because of the smoke from the fires in the Northwest, only the outlines were visible...

Though inlining was hard, the scenery was glorious...wish Wheaton had mountains :)

Played around in the mountain river after taking an ice cold river bath for recovery after inlining...

Riding into the sun as we bike down to the Bow river in Calgary for our ice bath recovery...

Darren doing sled pushes during our weight workout 

We make recovery bikes exciting, riding around Calgary, exploring new areas

Sometimes speedskating taxes your body so much all you can do is lie down on the grass in the hot sun and not move...

Our second time inlining in the rocky mountains, this time the clear skies brought beautiful, more visible scenery that was stunning....

TeamSwiderPeltz after an intense stair workout at the McMahon 1988 Winter Olympic stadium, in which mom Coach had her last Olympic Opening/Closing ceremonies!

During another recovery bike around Calgary...the striking downtown Calgary view from the river bluff

GoPro picture I took from lap day last week

From the first day we arrived in Calgary, excited to finally speed skate!

First time putting on my (Nancy Jr.) speedskates after a year and a half!

Waiting for the Zamboni to finish resurfacing the ice before the second part to our ice workout...

Ice bath recovering in the Bow River with our hot tea :)

Snack break on one of our recovery bike days along the Bow River

Going off the normal paths onto fun trails as we bike around Calgary

Sport. Identity. Love.

"If you're not enough without a gold medal, you'll never be enough with it."
-Cool Runnings

Question: How can athletes now (in today's world) be enough and have an identity without a "gold medal" and their sport?? 

In Jeffrey's previous post he reflects on the quote and the question above by writing, "The answer I think has to do with things that really matter in life–like loving God with all our heart, soul and mind as well as loving our neighbor as ourselves. And that love means doing things for others and being a part of things that matter. This is a mindset as well as physical action."

For me, I've returned to speedskating for a number of reasons, but mainly because I see a need for elite athletes to use their platforms for good reasons, beyond their present training/competing...to have something outside of their sport they are living for, an identity in something greater. I (Nancy) fully don't know what this looks like yet in my speedskating career, but I have ideas/goals/aspirations and I'm trusting in God to bring about other opportunities that only He can make happen. To start, like Jeffrey said, TeamSwiderPeltz has partnered with a couple of non-profits and excited to see the outcome of those relationships in the future. 

But for now, we are finally starting this blogging again to bring you all (our faithful supporters, friends, kindred spirits) along on this speedskating journey of ours...to include you into the lives of ours because we are not on this journey alone or we cannot do this alone. YOU inspire us, help us, motivate us to keep pressing on towards our goals (Philippians 3:14) and would not be where we are without you. 

To bring those of you, who've not seen my social media from this summer, up to date...the following few blog posts are for you...to everyone else, enjoy some repeats :)

On ice in Calgary

Rocky Mountain Inlining



Ice bathing in the Bow River

TSP back in the game and sayin Hi to the 2015-16 season from Calgary

It looks like it's going to be us three holding down the fort this year. Darren Huang's coming back from serving a mandatory year in the Taiwanese military, Nancy from graduating Wheaton College in December and me from a spring semester at Wheaton as well. 

I like this simple quote from the movie Cool Runnings a lot; "If you're not enough without a gold medal, you'll never be enough with it." In this age of sport, serious athletes around the world are demanded to endlessly train and compete to achieve and achieve and achieve and win races that people, countries, fans, coaches insist is worth the price. We so often give up everything and our future–just look into the world of American college athletics and their "athlete-students." Yet, athletes are constantly bewildered by and unprepared for their transition from their sport to a post-competitive world outside of their athletic bubble. This means that athletes are not just not enough without a gold medal, but not enough even without their sport (yes, the athlete identity crisis). Of course, we see the importance of determination, perseverance, resilience, and so on through the list of common sport-associated qualities that build character. But athletes often wonder why those who encouraged them never suggested to form a clear, tangible vision of how their life in athletics now can benefit those around them as well as how an athlete can still be a part of life outside their sport before the inevitability that age, injury, burnout or failure has ended their career. 

In the end, most athletes have to face the fact that whatever sport they competed in was everything to them–as well as whatever "gold medal" they achieved. Why do we continue to let this happen to athletes and fellow athletes? How can athletes now be enough without their "gold medal" and their sport.

The answer I think has to do with things that really matter in life–like loving God with all our heart, soul and mind as well as loving our neighbor as ourselves. And that love meaning doing things for others and being a part of things that matter. This is a mindset as well as physical action. And with this in mind, TSP is going to be working with a couple organizations this year–R33M.org and World Sport Chicago–so we'll probably post some things about that in the future.

Anyways, we're coming to the end of our 3 week training camp in Calgary, Canada, training as hard as ever and Nancy's going to be posting cool videos and photos after this I think!

Our first races begin in mid-October.

World Championships in the Netherlands

My updates this year have been awefully sporadic and I don't know if I'll be able to fill in the gaps from the last couple months :/ sorry! Anyways, I'm back in Heerenveen and so lucky to have a 5 day break from school and be able to race the with the best in the world here on Sunday :) Here's a couple pics from yesterday and today ...

In front of Thialf Stadium

Speedskaters in hotels (well the Russians at least)

Blood draw this morning

Yesterday before my flight out

World Cup, Hamar, Norway

Hey from Norway! So you can maybe catch a live feed of the speedskating Mass Start Race I'll be in beginning at 8:30am central time TODAY for everyone in the States. I think you have to be able to bypass what country your viewing the stream from tho cause it blocks streaming in the US :/ (Someone said google chrome does that well??) #USSpeedskating #schaatsen

LETS GO!

(The live stream is at this link)

http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/index.html

Some GoPro fun with former Milwaukee skater Kevin Bobb !