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" Katherine Reutter is a U.S. National Champion speedskater who left home early at age 16 to pursue her love of the sport. Check out what the Olympic hopeful had to say when we met up with her at the Nike Summit! 17: How did you get into speed skating? Katherine Reutter: I took a learn-to-skate class and it turned out to be for figure skating. I really had no fun figure skating. I only wanted to go fast! While other kids were doing spins, I would be like, &amp;quot;Race you to the blue line!&amp;quot;. A parent pulled my parents aside and said they do have a speed skating club and that I should get involved in that. What I loved most about it was that I was constantly setting new goals for myself and learning new techniques. It&amp;#039;s very goal oriented, so there&amp;#039;s always something to be working on. 17: What do you do to train? What&amp;#039;s your day like? KR: We skate every day from 9am to 11am, we do about an hour warm up on dry land before and an hour after, and we&amp;#039;ll be back in the afternoon for either some kind of weight training, running, or jump program. Two to three days a week we skate again in the afternoon. It&amp;#039;s very easy to put in eight hour days of training. 17: Do you have little tricks for when things get tough and you&amp;#039;re not hitting your goals? KR: To get through it, I try to step back and look at the big picture. I realize that even if I can&amp;#039;t do this skill today, just the fact that I&amp;#039;m working on it will get me there someday. Not every day will be perfect, but if I take a shot at it, the skill will come. For more on Katherine, visit her web site! [Photo: katherinereutter.com] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/health/fitness/a6414/katherine-reutter-interview/>