Bob Creasote wrote
I was thinking that maybe it was the fact
that you could push through with your toes
to get a bit more of a "flick" in the stroke,
hence more power for longer.

Toe-push has usually thought of as a novice mistake in skating. Now the
elite ice racers have found that there's a "right" way to do it on ice --
using special ice skates that are becoming more like a XC ski binding. But
still the general advice is that most racers will improve more if they focus
on pushing more thru the heel.

For inline skates it's debatable whether anybody but maybe a tiny elite
group of racers can get any benefit from toe-push to increase skating speed
on pavement. So again the general advice is that most inliners will improve
their skating effectiveness if they keep working more on pushing thru the
heel. (many inline skaters ignore this advice, or never hear it.)

Anyway if there is any advantage to toe-push for speed on pavement, surely
it lies with the guys on _rollerskis_, not inlines, since the boot-binding
system with rollerskis enables a much more effective toe-push.

You'd think with all the warnings going around on this group about dryland
training wrecking your on-snow technique, someone would take the trouble to
post a bold-red-print warning about staying away from skate _rollerskis_,
because they encourage and reward toe-pushing.

Do you really think it is just the rolling friction alone?

Have you ever _tried_ skating on a good inline skate with 83A-hard wheels?

Or is it the technique as well?

How about training?
Skating uses some muscles differently from bicycling. If those inline guys
zooming past you have been specifically training those muscles and neural
control patterns for years -- and you've only been training them for three
weeks (and unconsciously skewing your technique to avoid the non-bicycling
muscles) -- then what result do you expect?

There's been a rumor that there's more to this XC skiing thing than just
another venue to apply your V02max.

Ken