my first try on inline skates

I just bought a pair of skates cheaper than I imagined -- and I think
they've already helped my skiing technique.

The urge to finally try inlines hit me after Mark's stories about
high-country skating made me think that I need to put in lots more
long-slow-distance hours to prepare those big adventures -- and Jay T's
reminder about the value of big real hills made me think I need some
low-resistance things to do my best going up those big ones.

I tried some K2 and Salomon models at a couple of stores, felt interested
but undecided -- and then decided to drop in at Peak Performance in New
Paltz NY, where Steve Axelson is a big long-time supporter of XC skiing.
Turned out he had a used leftover rental Rollerblade skate in my size. It
had 72mm wheels, three plastic buckles, no laces, all-plastic shell --
seemed too stiff in the ankle for ski training. Not what I wanted, but I
asked him how much, and the price he gave me made it a no-brainer.

The Lloyd - Highland rail trail is not far way and it wasn't raining yet.
So I tried out these low-end rentals, and after 45 seconds I thought they
were great. I felt so much more confident going fast on them. After 10 or
15 minutes I felt my shin muscles were getting sore -- and I figured it was
because they were trying to flex my ankle like I've been practicing for
skiing, but this cheap skate boot is too stiff for them.

I remembered John T's suggestion about loosening the upper laces, but there
weren't any laces. So I just completely undid the top buckle. Two minutes
later I discovered a whole new level of _ankle_bend_ in my skating. Maybe
it was just an unconscious over-reaction to their previous confinement? Or
is is that strong ankle bend let me feel more control over an un-buckled
skate? Anyway it felt fun and powerful.

I had my rollerskis in the trunk of my car (of course), so I thought I'd see
how much 30 minutes on inlines had degraded my skiing technique. The first
thing I noticed when I started skating on rollerskis is that they felt
awkward and slow. After two minutes this improved to "feels OK". I didn't
feel like my rollerski technique was all that different switching from
inlines (but perhaps that just proves how desperate is my need to find that
"right" ski coach). But what struck is that my new-learned ankle flex
transferred immediately to rollerskis.

So the cheap test worked, and I'm ready to start skating lots of hours on
some long-distance tours -- and some big uphill time trials like Whiteface
and Greylock.

Should I want to move up all the way to racing skates for this -- say at the
level of the Salomon Mag Elite or Vitesse or K2 Mod 8.5 or 10.5? (or beyond
that?) (funny how much the photo of the Salomon Vitesse skate looks like a
two-year-old Salomon race ski boot mounted on five wheels)

Or since I have no intention of "normal" inline racing, will I be happy with
something less, like the Salomon TR Mag or K2 Mod LT? (models which I can
get in stores closer to me)

Ken

Andrey -- Thanks, Now that you mention it I did feel that the K2's I tried
on were more comfortable. And I was surprised at how much ankle flex they
allowed me even with the top buckle engaged.

I guess inlines could be "social" -- like for an outing with "recreational"
bicyclists. But for me they're a training choice -- against a fast
rollerski like that pair you let me try one time up the Montana Rd hill a
couple of years ago. I'm thinking I don't want to spend that much money on
a rollerski so specialized.

With inlines I get something just as fast, but which I'll also feel good
about using for interesting road tours. I was inspired by meeting Amit
Mehta, who skated from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie in a day. Then he joined
me at Prospect Mt (VT) for his first day on XC skis -- and skated all the
way to the top with no poles. How many bike racers could do that on their
first day?

And this morning I was looking at Barry Publow's book on inline skate racing
technique, and it struck me how close most of his principles and tips were
to what I've been learning this year about ski skating.

Ken

I had a pair of cheapie closeout inlines I picked up for $10. Upgraded the
wheels and sawed the top of the boot off so there were just the two bottom ones
left. To add some class, I spray painted them black and put some stickers on
there (Bones bearings or some such). Finally, on the blade, I used some plastic
stick on letters and put "Skeeler" on the outsides.

They were c o o l ... boy did I get the rubber necking on the parkway with
those ! Eventually they rusted out and were retired. Too much road salt.

jw
milwaukee

With inlines I get something just as fast, but which I'll also feel good
about using for interesting road tours.

Good point. Inline skates are much better in negotiating cracks in
pavement and curbs, they will nicely roll over debris and other stuff
that would normally cause a faceplant on rollerskis. Also, you can use
"hockey" breaking technique with them. All the above are major
advatanges when you head for a road tour with the intention of getting
from point A to B with some fun in between.

In fact both inline skating and speedskating borrowed heavily from ice
speedskating.

You would be curious to know that K2 experimented with skate boot
that bends like ski boot (they call it "klop" skate, do not mix it
with clap skate - it ain't the same thing.

There is a book "Skating for XC skiers" by Ednestaad and Teaford
(spelling?) that you might find interesting: they advise against stiff
and tall skating boot by the way.

As far as your buy, you should tie these skates together and dump them
in nearest lake provided it is not frozen yet. Stiff plastic boot has
nothing to do with any skating technique on ski, inline or ice.

You would get much better result w/5 wheel speedskates and carbon
boot.You can remove all wheels but 1st and 5th which will slow them
down somewhat.

"Serge" wrote in message

As far as your buy, you should tie these
skates together and dump them
in nearest lake provided it is
not frozen yet. Stiff plastic boot has
nothing to do with any skating technique
on ski, inline or ice.

Did you actually read what Ken posted? It seems you didn't. He was
able to get good forward ankle flex with those skates and decent
technique work when he concentrated on it.


You would get much better result w/5 wheel
speedskates and carbon
boot.

What you you mean "better result." And why a carbon boot? And why
five wheels, especially if you are going to remove some?

JT

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Did you actually read what Ken posted? It seems you didn't. He was
able to get good forward ankle flex with those skates and decent
technique work when he concentrated on it.

Plastic rental boot/no laces does not give you any forward flex if all buckles are tight. Besides there is no pivot.


What you you mean "better result." And why a carbon boot? And why
five wheels, especially if you are going to remove some?

Carbon boot is barely above ankle and let you flex forward similar to XC boot even though there is no pivot.
5 wheels give you better fore/aft balance, you can put more weight on the heel
without falling backward..

(John Forrest Tomlinson) wrote in message . com...
"Serge" wrote in message

As far as your buy, you should tie these
skates together and dump them
in nearest lake provided it is
not frozen yet. Stiff plastic boot has
nothing to do with any skating technique
on ski, inline or ice.

Did you actually read what Ken posted? It seems you didn't. He was
able to get good forward ankle flex with those skates and decent
technique work when he concentrated on it.


You would get much better result w/5 wheel
speedskates and carbon
boot.

What you you mean "better result." And why a carbon boot? And why
five wheels, especially if you are going to remove some?

JT

Ouch. Discussion on how inline skating, ice skating, and ski skating
techniques, and the boots they use are different goes a long way. I
think, no matter what kind of boots you have the muscles are still the
same. You feel awkward on ice skates for the first 5 min, then you are
fine. Next morning you feel too slow on skis, but, again, after 5 min
you realize that you've got poles and there you go. I believe ice
skating is the most "basic" skill though. If you can do that, you'll
be able to do the rest (recall Ken's example on that speedskater at
Prospect).

Book has some excerpts about skating on ice and XC skating and inline too.
Second author(Teaford)is a speedskater and XC skier.

There is some info about slide board too.
I don't think they talk about advanced XC techniques but cover basics.

I went out and bought my _serious_ pair of inline skates. One thing I
discovered was about the state of the market for serious inline
fitness-racing skates in the Metro NYC area -- it's not so easy to find
stores carrying the high-end models.

Some had recommended that I get 5-wheel racing skates, but I'm never going
to race inline. For ski training I'm already happy with just unbuckling the
ankle strap -- and I see the lower rolling resistance of a racing skate as a
_problem_ for ski-specific training. I like the idea of having a higher
cuff with an ankle strap that I can tighten down for extra control on a
downhill section of a long-distance tour -- just like any serious
backcountry ski boot. And a shorter 4-wheel-base for easy quick
maneuvers -- and maybe learning some show-off _tricks_ (an unknown realm for
this newsgroup?)

I liked the comfort of the K2 boots like Andrey said, but the most serious
K2 skate I could try on in a Manhattan or NJ shop was the Mod LT. I would
have been happy with that. But then I put my feet into a pair of Salomon TR
Mag Elites (same size as my Salomon XC ski boots). Not as comfortable out
of the box, but my legs immediately said, "this is Control". And I knew
from some web research that the Elite boot liners were heat-moldable for
better fit.

But when I asked how the heat-molding process would work, the shop told me
there _wasn't_ any for these: The boots would mold to my foot from the
natural heat of my wearing them. I told them that due to my unusual ankle
bone structure, my experience with my Salomon Pilots made me fear that my
feet wouldn't survive long enough for that approach to work for me. They
showed me there was nothing in the instructions about any heat-treatment
process.

I told them I was going to find another shop. Within one minute the buyer
was on the phone to the Salomon distributor. Two minutes later the Salomon
heat treatment machine was discovered in the back room. After a credit card
transaction, I was reading a book with my feet encased in some rather warm
inline skate boots. (So are there any heat-moldable XC ski boots?)

Then I was walking to the subway, wondering if a brand new pair of Salomon
Mag Elites in a shopping bag made me a target of theft in Manhattan. A
skater crossed in front of me on 6th Avenue, and I felt embarrassed that the
skates weren't on my feet already.

I'm amazed at how quickly I've gotten comfortable practicing going down
hills on them -- feels easier and more secure than rollerskis.

Next challenge is that I'd like the option of putting some slower 80 mm
wheels on them for some kinds of ski-specific training. But the current
wheels have these new micro bearings, so I'm afraid I'll have to figure out
where to get the right axles to take the other style of bearings.

Ken