Well Hello Family and Friends!!

We start yet another fun adventureous year of Speedskating!!

Casey has been training for the past 7 months, both in Milwaukee and Salt Lake City to get ready for this important season.

Casey starts the season this next weekend in Nagano, Japan and then flies into Harbin, China the following weekend. The team left Saturday morning for the first two World Cups of the Sprint Long Track season. Casey was anxious to leave to get the season started.  His practice races have gone well.  He has skated a low 35 seconds in his 500m race with an opener of 9.8 and his 1000m race has been strong with a time in the low 1 minute 9 second range. (Casey did qualify to skate the 1500m world cup races in the October team trials...but opted out of competing in Europe so he could train more and concentrate on his sprint races.) Although he would like to be going faster...I remind him that his season pattern isn't to start off fast...it's to finish fast! He likes that his 1000m race is strong this year...his endurance has kicked in and his last lap is stronger once again. His "top end speed"  is not as fast as in the past...but he thinks this will come as the season progresses.

After returning from Asia, Casey and I will be heading home to Wisconsin for the Holidays with our wonderful families and US Nationals Championships at the Petitt National Ice Center. We would love to have you all join us to cheer our Cheetah Man on!! :)   The sprint races will be Tuesday, December 21 and Wednesday, December 22.

To Start 2005, Casey and I will be heading north to Calgary, Canada for the next Sprint World Cup on January 14 and 15. The next weekend are World Sprint Championships, where Salt Lake will play host! (January 22-23) Yet another championship weekend falling on our stars birthday.  And it's a big one...he will be 30 years old!!  I can hardly believe it myself!

On February 12 and 13 they will compete in Baselga and then on to Heerenveen for the last World Cup which combines the Sprinters and All-Arounders in one single weekend.  The final weekend (March 5&6) is World Single Distance Championships in Inzell, Germany.  This weekend is Olympic style, in which the ISU crowns individual medal winners for each distance.

Well, there is the sprint speedskating year in a nutshell!

This year, I will be writing updates for each weekend again...if for some reason you do not see a friends name on the list or you would like to add a name...let me know and I will do the best I can to get them added.  You may also look on Casey's website ( www.caseyfitz.com ) under Jenn's Corner.  Our website manager will post them there.

Alright...sit back, relax. Our pre-training is complete.  Now we put it to the ice and watch the magic in action. Maintain the base we've built and execute each race plan.  Easier said than done, of course. But none the less...I hope you enjoy this season as much as I will.

Take care and have a safe and happy holiday season.  Hope to see you in Milwaukee for National Championships!

Love,
Jennifer