In article ,
wrote:

Nick, you're very brave to give this a try again given longstanding
balance issues (at 66, I've found my balance is much better than when
younger, in good part due to the demands of x-c skiing and
rollerskiing).

Or a complete loon :-)

At 64, I decided to try downhill skiing, on the grounds that it was
then or never. Half of my friends said I was a total loon, and
the other half said "Go for it". Well, 150 hours of practice (and
I mean that) later, I can handle blue and the easier red, but I
have to concentrate 100% for that, so it's VERY tiring. I am OK
on green. That's all parallel turning.

If you pursue this, then I think it's a choice of picking your poison:
get the longest commercially available rollerskis (Marwe combi
+ wirewheel at about 825mm for classic; maybe the longer Jenex for
skating?); or you can build something that will be too unwieldy for the
physical conditioning you desire. ...

I am not quite sure about the latter. It's really the muscles at
the front of the thigh and hip that I am thinking of, and the
length of the ski doesn't matter. I would be using a very long,
straightish stretch of tarmac, so turning isn't an issue.

I take the points about protective kit on tarmac - I don't mind
falling on snow or moorland, but rock and tarmac can break things.
The problem about other exercise is that it wouldn't help much
for the muscles and ligaments that I remember suffering. It took
me a week to be free of pain when I was 30, so only the second
week was entirely pleasurable!

P.S. Your estimate of 10-15 mph seems way high, assuming we're
using the same system. Ten mph is a mile every six minutes, which
translates to ~3:45/kilometer, if my calculation is correct. At any
age, it's unlikely balance is a serious issue at that speed. My hunch
is something more in the 7-9 min/mile range, which if you're having
balance problems is fast enough to be quite scary at times.

That could well be. I failed to find any reasonable indicative
speeds of rollerskis, and was guessing from my cycling and old
skiing speeds. 6-10 MPH might be more plausible, but it doesn't
really help, as the real damage comes from the falling down from
a standing height.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.