The U.S. National Speedskating Team will be in the area until Sunday
MARQUETTE -- It's the hardest, most strenuous time of the year for the U.S. National Speedskating Team...the final week of summer training.
Wednesday, the team took 200 laps around the rink at the Berry in Marquette, the longest many of the racers have ever gone.
"I'm probably going to be in sports med for a while today. It was pretty bad," says Jonathan Garcia, a member of the team.
When the skaters aren't training on the ice, they're usually doing a mixture of weightlifting, cardio and "land" training, totaling out to about eight hours of workouts a day.
But the week isn't just a test of their physical limits, it's also about mental strength.
"When you think that after doing 50 laps that you can't do any more, you really have a lot more in you than you think you do," says speedskater Erin Bartlett. "It's just pushing, telling yourself you can do it and beating your body before your mind."
One thing keeping the team inspired is the dream of winning a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics, like their teammate Shani Davis did in 2006 and 2010 in the 1,000 meter race.
"It's always been a dream of mine to be the best at something that I do, and it just so happened to be speedskating. I put a lot of training, a lot of time, a lot of effort, and one day I looked up and I was a world champion, a gold medalist," says Davis.
This is the last week of the athletes' summer training. They'll be in Marquette until Sunday, then go on break for one week, and then keep training at several locations until Christmas.
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