Speed skating

[David in Maine]

Just wondering if any other Paceliners indulge in short track speed skating during the off season. I joined a club about 6 years ago and love it. Great workout and a total rush. I skate with this club here in Maine. https://speedskatemaine.wordpress.com That's me leading the pace line --my technique has improved a bunch since that photo was taken. Just started up again this weekend and I'm still enjoying the endorphins.

David

[Lewis Moon]

What's an off season?

[gasman]

What's an off season?

It's a Maine thing.

[mwynne]

Nope, but have started roller derby (my wife skates with a local team), so a lot of those same skating muscles. I will say so far it is excellent cross training.

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[Jad]

That's gotta be exhilarating. I'm still hoping to try some lake skating here in NH. But I just got some skate skis, so those'll probably take up most of my "other" season.

[jvp]

Ha, today on the greenway I chose to lag behind a pair of rollerbladers cruising at about 20mph...didn't want to pass then get passed! They even climbed a fairly steep hill at speed.

[David in Maine]

What's an off season?

Good point Lewis,

I do commute to work all winter with studded tires. A lot of guys also hit the trails with fat bikes. However short track is so fun!

[tumbler]

I did it competitively when I was younger (roller version, not ice) and loved it. I'd love to get back into it.

[RFC]

I love it! I've done thousands of miles on 5 wheel skates here in the Valley. In Denver, I used it as my winter aerobic activity. Once you have the form down (think Eric Heiden), it's an excellent workout. It get's your heart rate up fast and gives you quads and gluts of steel!

BTW, despite thousands of miles, I still wear a helmet and wrist guards. The reasons for the helmet is obvious. The wrist guards greatly reduce the probability of breaking your wrists when you go down, and you will go down.

Also, for street skating, practicing braking technique is essential. I much prefer grinding a rear mounted brake then dragging my wheels and wearing them down.

[guido]

I've always thought speed skating would be a blast. Very cool!

[Tony]

Just wondering if any other Paceliners indulge in short track speed skating during the off season. I joined a club about 6 years ago and love it. Great workout and a total rush. I skate with this club here in Maine. https://speedskatemaine.wordpress.com That's me leading the pace line --my technique has improved a bunch since that photo was taken. Just started up again this weekend and I'm still enjoying the endorphins.

David

I enjoyed speed skating (inline skates) in the nineties, used a double pump. Speeds around 25 MPH in a group. I still remember coming up on a group of cyclist in a low crouched over position and a female I was drafting turned around and said in a frantic voice "what are you"

[verticaldoug]

There is a pretty good group in London devoted to inline speed skating. A annual bucket event is 24 hr at LeMans in late June/early July. About 500 teams and soloist show up. (I find it amazing the top soloists do more than 600 km in 24 hours)

With the new cycling superhighways having a better grade of asphalt than the normal roads, I will do an early Sunday morning Chelseas to Barking skate. Unfortunately, now that I am older, I have to be careful because long skates can mess up my hip and hamstring.

[David in Maine]

My club is solely focused on ice, not inline. I bought some inline speedskates but haven't used them much since I don't have many good places nearby to use them. Also, I don't know how to stop!

[CampyorBust]

Always wanted to try it, I like how the heel is not attached to the blade. Oh and the speed is pretty darn attractive, so are the tights.:p

[Joel]

Used to Speed Skate every night when lived in Minneapolis. There was an awesome outdoor track at Lake of the Isles.

It was amazing - if there was no wind, you'd just wear a sweatshirt and you'd be fine down to about zero F. (until you stopped of course!)

Great training, fun times.

Love speedskating. Just hard to do in Florida :mad:

[djg21]

My club is solely focused on ice, not inline. I bought some inline speedskates but haven't used them much since I don't have many good places nearby to use them. Also, I don't know how to stop!

I did it for a couple years when I lived in NYC (ice). I really enjoyed it, but never got even a little competent at it. Since moving from the city and into the north country, I've spent most of my free time in the winter on telemark skis, and one can have only so many hobbies that require a lot of time, travel and expensive equipment!