THOUGHTS - "Back home on the range (the front range that is)"

February 7, 2004

Howdy partners,

Me and my beau are finally settlin' in back here out in Cala-rado. We put alota miles on our horses last month with all that travlin' we'd done. It sure been nice gettin' back to the homestead. Our housemate Colin hadn't gone burnin' down the place, so that's fixin' a good 'ole day when we behold that. (Okay, that's enough western talk. Maybe with another five years I'll be able to write an entire paragraph.)

This last week has been one of catching up and refreshment. The inevitable consequences of being away from home are piles of letters and bills to answer. There are also things I've been itching to do for a long time but never had the chance. Yesterday I spent several hours cleaning out my office closet. I must have thrown out over 50 pounds of "stuff". What a glorious day:-) This letter is actually the lone task left on my epic to-do list and it has been nagging me to release it from bondage. Completing my list is a sure way for me to feel relieved and refreshed. (What's the number for the type A personality support group again?) The good news is that this is fun....

Upon my return from the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Canada I spent the my first two days alone in a mountain cabin. This is a yearly ritual of mine both for necessity and reasons of sanity. If you've never experience two days of uninterrupted time to think, study, and write your thoughts I'd highly recommend it. In fact, I hope to eventually do it several times each year. My experience is that if I don't take time to reflect on the previous year and plan for the upcoming one, I get sucked into the black hole of busyness and miss "the big picture."

In order for this letter to make any sense let's press the rewind button and start at the beginning... dasakslhgiuayerirnbkvjbxzcmnbnvlqiiuewyqiurfajkxcv... the team
dinner...(oops, not far enough back yet).... alsdkjfjfioehotinvkznxklvhfahsdfiouuewquoit....click.

For the second year in a row I had the great comfort and blessing of Tashiana's company at Nationals. My training had been more successful than ever heading into Atlanta and I felt ready to rumble. We arrived fairly late Monday evening to the discovery that our luggage had preferred to stay in Denver. We still made our way to the hotel where we were assured our luggage would be delivered by 4am. The next morning a scrubby version of "us" went to the concierge and asked for our luggage. I was informed that there was no message in the computer so my luggage wasn't there. "Can I go in a look for it?" "No, it's not open to the public."

"Is there any chance it was delivered but someone forgot to put it into the computer?" "No, it would be in the computer if it was here." "Okay, thank you very much," and we walked away. Then I went to get my credentials. That process went smoothly and my photo was stylin'
because of my bedhead! After that I tried calling United with no avail. As a last resort I dialed guest services at the hotel and inquired of the luggage. "What's your name sir?" "Jahnke" "One minute please....Your luggage is right here, I'll have it sent up." I love that southern hospitality!!! :-) I was very tempted to give the concierge a piece of my mind but wisely refrained.

The first two days my practices were going well but I was struggling with the triple axel. It didn't feel as good as it did at home and I wasn't sure why. I was really disturbed. Fortunately Dr. Gayle Davis, the sports psychologist I work with regularly, was at the hotel and was able to set me straight. Her main point was it is unrealistic for me to expect to feel the same at an event as big as Nationals as I do at home. Forget how things are feeling and trust that my technique still works. That advice helped me get over that hurdle and each practice session fine tuned my mental focus. In my short program I opened with the best triple axel that I've done in competition to date. I was so excited that I lost my focus on my other elements. My thoughts were in essence, "Just land these and don't fall." Those instructions didn't go over too well and I found myself in 6th place. At least it taught me what not to do in the long! Two days later I took the ice for my long program. I decided to really trust Sir Recipe. (Deja vu' anyone?) You've got to remember him, the creation of my untethered imagination from the last update! All through the performance I made sure to keep my thoughts right on what I was currently doing. One by one I checked off the elements on the way to my best performance to date! For the first time ever I couldn't contain my excitement and pumped my fists after my final pose. I remember standing in the middle of the ice for a few seconds before taking my bow. It felt incredible, what else can I say?

That night Tashiana and I danced the night away at the competitor's party. In celebration I even ate a couple ice cream bars! When I arrived at the party representatives from the Professional Skaters Association presented me the "Best men's performance" award. That was quite an honor. (I am a member so that may have earned me with a few bonus points ;-) Just kidding.) The next morning I had an early rehearsal for the exhibition. Let's just say I felt like the walking dead. By the time the performance rolled around I was able to control by limbs and skated well. Making the World Team again was a goal of mine but I found that I could not be disappointed that I missed it. It's not that I didn't let myself be disappointed. I literally could not be disappointed after having the best skate (yet) of my life. When it was all over I was elated and more than a bit fatigued.

But there's no rest for the weary! Due to my high placement I was named onto the Four Continents Team. There was only one week between Nationals and Four Continents and it was quite a struggle. I later found out that all the athletes who competed at Nationals or Canadians felt like a wreck that week. I was personally fighting a cold and hadn't had enough recovery time. Fortunately, by the end of that week of "rest" I felt ready to do it again. My week in Canada did have a few highlights.

The first was the team dinner. It is tradition for the entire team to get together at the beginning of the week and share a meal. This one was the best ever. One of the team leaders had a friend who belonged to a small private club named The Hamilton Club. The food was......out of this world. There was fresh soup, homemade breads, salads with all the fixin's, roasted vegetables, pasta made to order, potatoes, a belgian waffle station, fruit, and other immaculate desserts. And yes, I ate it all!!!! (The next morning's practice wasn't so hot.)

A second highlight was having my dad and Tashiana there. My dad drove up from Detroit to join us and Tash flew with me. We had saved money all year for Tashiana to come to Worlds so we thought this was the next best thing :-) This year my dad saw me at three different events which is so awesome because he usually had to stay home and work in the past as my mom and I went off and spent his money!

My third highlight was when Tashiana accidently tripped one of the Chinese competitors. We were sitting on the floor in the hallway of the hotel waiting for our room to get cleaned. We had our legs stretched across the hallway and would move them whenever anyone came by. Well, we did that when this poor gentlemen walked past. The funny part was that Tash was looking at me and extended her legs back out when I did. She clipped his foot and if he had not been an athlete, he would have gone face first into the carpet. All three of us were laughing and she was quite embarrassed. We heard him recant the story to the other chinese skaters in his room (not that we could understand them but I could just tell.) Then one of the chinese pair skaters came out into the hall and said in his chinese accent, "Come on chinese people!" as he was laughing. He was making a joke that they should gang up on us :-) One of the neat things about meeting people from all over the world is that you can laugh with people even if you don't speak their language. There are many more levels of communication than mere words!

Stereotypes also get broken. The chinese skaters are individuals with personalities just like me. They are not only serious and solemn just because they come from a communist country.

My McDonald's revelation also got me pretty excited. I was laying in bed one evening with Tash trying to figure out why I was having certain problems with my skating. Then it hit me: Skating successfully at competitions is like working at McDonald's. I'm serious! You get the
order and fill it with a smile. Then you look at the screen to get the next order and fill that. There is no room for creative thinking! Just fill the order. It is when I let my mind evaluate what I'm doing or think of "What ifs" that things go down hill. I mentioned this to a reporter the next day and I heard it got out on the internet. Do you think a McDonald's sponsorship may be in my near future?

In this competition I again skated really well and only made one mistake in my long program. That was such a relief! Some very "creative" judging put a slight damper on my mood but I did what I needed to do. I was encouraged by positive comments by many US Figure Skating officials and delegates and that really lifted me up. After three intense weeks I was more than ready to go home :-)

One of my greatest improvements this year has been turning my mind from a liability into an asset. I feel like I'm about halfway to where I want to be and I'm looking forward to next season's growth. Well, technically my season isn't over yet. I'll be training until mid-March because I am the first alternate to the World Team. I'll be putting my imagination to good use in order to stay motivated!

Thanks for taking three hours to hear of my adventures. I appreciate all of you who give me countless reasons to keep going. On to Torino!

Love,

Ryan

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