Right On Track With Christine Nesbitt

By: Karen Karnis

When long track speed skating Olympic gold medalist Christine Nesbitt was in elementary and high school, her favourite track and field event was the 400m, but she did everything from 100m to 800m and relays.  “I loved the middle distances,” she says, “just like in skating. They’re gritty – I love that feeling of hanging on for dear life.”  She can draw a lot of similarities between speed skating and running – even more so since she made the switch from short track to long track.

The London, Ontario native had originally wanted to attend McGill University, but she graduated from grade 12 the year grade 13 was phased out in Ontario.  This meant that the graduating class was twice the size, and competition to get into schools in Ontario and surrounding area was fierce.  She says, “I was pretty sad at the time. McGill seemed like the perfect opportunity – I could take classes in French to keep up the language, and train with one of the best short-track programs in Canada.”

Looking back, however, she has no regrets.  She had been toying with the idea of switching to long-track, and Calgary’s Olympic Oval was right by the University of Calgary, where she had been accepted to study Engineering.  “My parents talked me into applying to Calgary as a backup,” says Nesbitt. “My dad is a professor and my mom is a teacher – getting an education is a pretty big deal in my house!”

Nesbitt had been considering the switch because racing short-track is really stressful.  “Short track is all about placing, not time, so there are so many outside factors that can affect your results,” she explains.  “In long-track, placing is based on time, meaning that the only person I can blame for a bad race is myself,” she adds.  She doesn’t think that’s harsh – she likes having that level of control, much like in running, where success on race day comes down to your own training and preparation.  Clearly that worked out well for her, as her list of accomplishments, including that gold medal in the 1000 m at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, is quite impressive.

With fall being well underway, the team is training very heavily for the 2011-12 season.  Nesbitt described a schedule that includes training 6 days a week with Sunday being a recovery day.  She says, “We skate every morning. Including warm up and cool down, the morning sessions last three hours.”  Right now the afternoon workouts are about light-intensity endurance, including cycling, running and weights, because they are in a lactic training phase on the ice.  “We’re doing long intervals with little rest in between. It’s pretty killer,” she says.

After training, the team focuses pretty heavily on nutrition.  Just as a runner would do after an intense workout, the skaters are sure to eat a protein snack right after they come off the ice, then have a full meal within an hour. “When you’re looking for every second, anything that helps you improve even one percent is worth paying close attention to,” she explains.

Nesbitt has been a Mizuno athlete since 2010, and loves her Wave Rider 14 running shoes.  “The more I wear these shoes, the more they conform to my feet,” she says.  Her favourite Mizuno pieces, however, are her tights. “Training at the oval is so cold all the time, and I have had a lot of problems with leggings chafing – it’s hard for speed skaters to find tights that fit properly,” she says. Not so with these tights – she says they are the perfect combination of function and fashion. “I love the way they make my butt look!” she laughs.

Nesbitt is looking forward to another great season for 2011-12.  As the 2011 champ in the World Sprint Championships (an event in which skaters race the 500m and 1000m twice each, and the lowest combined time wins) she is particularly looking forward to defending her title on home ice, since this year’s event will be held in Calgary.  “I really hope lots of people come out,” she says. “Get to know speed skating – after all, we’re all lovers of sport!”