news and blog entries

Back at 'er!

Tue, 18 May 2010 22:29:00 -0400

Hey everyone,

Looking at a calendar, some time has definitely passed since I last updated my blog. I don’t think I’ve been home in Calgary for more than a few days at a time since coming back from Europe; so, the busy schedule hasn’t made it easy to keep everyone updated.

Having said that, I’ll be home a little more regularly now that I’ve started training again. In my blog I’m going to finish up my Olympic Recap and I’ll also look back on the off-season to let you all know what I’ve been up to.

Check back every so often to read the updates!

Athlete-of-the-year

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:05:00 -0400

After winning his first individual World Cup medal and winning an Olympic gold medal in the Team Pursuit this season, Lucas was named male athlete-of-the-year at the Saskatchewan Sport Awards today. Click here to read more.

World All-rounds - day 3

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:35:00 -0400

After today’s 10k at the World All-rounds in Heerenveen, Lucas finished 9th overall. He skated in the 4th pair with Trevor Marsicano, and crossed the finish line after 13:54.63. Read more

World All-rounds - day 2

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:50:00 -0400

Silver medal in 1500m at World All-rounds!

On the second day of the World All-round Championships in Heerenveen, Lucas finished second in the 1500m. Read more

World All-rounds - day 1

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:16:00 -0400

Lucas gave a great start to the World all-rounds today with his 6th place in the 500m! In the 5000m, he finished 11th, and consequently is now 9th overall. "I’m pretty happy because this is my best ranking after two events at this competition." Read more

Olympic recap 3 - My first Olympic race

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:44:00 -0400

While all of the excitement was building up for the Olympics, I was getting ready for my Olympic debut on day two of the Olympics. I couldn’t worry too much about the condo or Athlete’s Village, the Opening Ceremonies, or anything else going on in and around Vancouver; I had to get ready to race.

When I’m only getting ready for one race, as opposed to 2 or 3 in a weekend at a World Cup, the week leading up to that race is a lot more specific. I did longer sets of laps, there wasn’t a lot of speed work, and I wasn't practicing starts that often. It would only make sense that all of my training that week was 5k-oriented.

Once it came to race day, the thing that stands out is how calm and ready I was. I wasn’t thinking about the crowd and I wasn’t getting nervous about what people would think about how I did. I acknowledged the fact that I was going to race and that this was going to be like any other 5k I’ve ever skated. To be honest, I thought I would be a lot more nervous than I actually was.

When I went to the line and my name was announced, the crowd went crazy. I started the race and all I was thinking to myself was ‘keep it light and keep a good tempo’. I’ve had a couple of 5ks where I started too slow or where I was a little too static. But this was the Olympics – I wasn’t going to make that mistake! Instead, I started a little too hard haha. Whether it was the adrenaline pumping through my body or the cheers from the crowd that got me going, I was off the line in a hurry.

If you start a 5k harder than you would like, you have a decision to make pretty quickly: keep with it and hold on as long as you can, or sacrifice some speed, get your rhythm back, and maybe try to speed up a bit at the end. In this race, I went with option one because once you’ve invested the energy to get your speed, you don’t want to waste it by slowing down right away. I gradually decelerated over the next two laps and carried that speed for as long as I could. From there, it was pure grit to hold on for as long as I could.

As I came across the line I knew I was going to post a reasonably good time given the lap times I was holding. A finishing time of 6:28 was 5 seconds faster than I had ever skated in the Richmond Olympic Oval, and was a good 7 seconds faster than I skated there at the World Single Distance Championships last March. I may have finished 13th, which actually wasn’t all too bad, but I had an awesome race. For the rest of my life I will be able to look back at that race and smile.

TP WC Heerenveen

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:33:00 -0400

On the third and final day of the World Cup Final in Heerenveen, Lucas finished second in the Team Pursuit, together with teammates Denny Morrison and Mathieu Giroux. Read more

5000m WC Heerenveen

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:36:00 -0500

On the second day of the World Cup Finals in Heerenveen, Lucas skated the 5000m. He crossed the finish line after 6:35.93. Read more

1500m - WC Heerenveen

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:29:00 -0500

On the first day of the World Cup Finals in Heerenveen, Lucas finished 9th in the 1500m. Read more

Olympic recap - part 2

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:45:00 -0500

After things were set up at my condo and my room at Athlete’s Village, the next big thing was to decide whether or not I was going to go to the opening ceremonies. Making that decision took a lot of time, and was probably one of the most drawn out decision I made during the Games.

The first time I actually thought about the opening ceremonies probably goes back at least a year. That’s when I really started to see myself as having a realistic shot at making the Olympics. So, realizing this possibility, I wanted to be as prepared as I could.

Lucky me - the 5k, “my” distance, was the day after the opening ceremonies haha.

Many thoughts went through my mind from then until even the day before the start of the Games: these opening ceremonies, here in Canada, will be like no other I will ever have a chance to go to as an athlete; if ‘participating’ is what I’m there for, great, but if I want to do my best, I won’t want to spend up to 5 hours standing, waiting, and sitting; the emotional boost, the pride, and the honour of walking into BC place will easily surmount any physical drawback from attending; will I have any regrets or doubts when I go to the line for my first Olympic race; and the list goes on.

I talked about this decision with Marcel (my coach) a couple of times as well because I knew he would know best. He’s been to a number of Olympics and he knew what to expect. If anyone could give me good advice it would be him, and all I wanted to do was make the decision that was best for me. I was leaning towards going.

With everything looking good a few weeks before opening, we got word that there was the possibility of shortening the procession time (gathering at GM place, being bussed over to BC place, sitting and waiting underneath the stands in order, slowly moving along as each country got announced, etc, etc). I decided I was definitely going to go. I could only dream of walking into an Olympic Stadium with my Canadian teammates eager to do our country proud. So that was it, I was going to walk in!

...until two days before when we got word that it was an all-or-nothing event. The “shortened” procession schedule was kiboshed.

From then on in it was a pretty easy decision not to march, which I was completely ok with. I was ok with it because I knew it was the best decision for me. And although Kristina was another one who decided not to go, the two of us still decided we’d head down to the Village to watch it there with any of the other Canadians who opted out. That was going to be our way of participating.

In the end, we got to watch the ceremonies, we were still excited for everything to begin, and we were making the best of our situation. Looking back at how I felt after my 5k the next day, I easily made the best decision for myself.