Cheers Jim!

wrote :
1. Wheels are the determining factor for racing. As a novice you should
get the slowest wheels possible. Rollerski chassis come in varied
lengths. With your foot size I would go longer than 530mm. 530mm is
used by elite racers because they are lighter and more maneuverable.
Marwe makes an excellent rollerski with a length of 610mm.
"maneuverable", how should I see that? More freedom for movement in turns,
or making a rollerblade-like skating motions?
I am looking at 150mm tubeless air tires as my main rollerski wheels to
learn the technique and have to pick the cleanest of road. For days in a
hurry, 125-145mm PU wheels. But only if I can control that speed.

2. Leg length is no factor when choosing rollerskis. I would be more
concerned with weight.
My current Crosskates are 3.7kg per foot, including all. I'm not into
rollerski racing yet, so as long as they're not much heavier than I can
expect from skate ski's, I'm fine.
In ice-skating the blades go up in length a bit with every shoe size I
think, as do ski's. I wonder why that doesn't work with rollerski's, apart
from having to acommodate a boot size?

5. Snow Plow! In combination with the speed reducing mechanisms you
have mentioned. Here is a website with video on technique and stopping.
Thanks, I've seen that video yes, and somewhat put it in practice already
beforehand, having seen ice skaters do it on tv. Judging from the time it
takes here to come to a stop, she's travelled about the length of a block.
Not very practical to avoid problems, I fear.
I really hope there's better brakes out there. Powerful stops. Abrupt
decellerations.
A dog jumped in front of me this week, and I really had no-where to go. Next
ride I'll use long baseball bats for poles, so I can clean the road in front
of me :-)

9. You should be able to get your HR to threshold with no problem from
V1 to double pole. I have trouble keeping my HR low when I rollerski.
I stay 30 beats below threshold easily when just going for a ride, trying
not to look slow.
Perhaps I have difficulty because I've got pretty powerful lungs to start
with. Near untrained in the off-season I was tested to have 506W of aerobic
power. I am probably putting out 300W now when trying hard. I'll try even
harder this evening. I guess it just takes strong muscles to get the
heartrate up.