my ?intensity? workout on inline skates

It started innocently enough.

It was my day to train for power intensity, so I had my rollerskis ready to
go, since I knew my inline skates didn't have enough resistance for that
(mine have 83A durometer "race chemistry" wheels with Micro-bearings).

After reading Gary's fears about crashing with inlines, I thought I should
first practice braking. So I put on my Salomon Mag Elites, buckled the
ankle strap, and gingerly tried out "full weight commitment" to the brake
pad -- actually lifting lifting the other skate off the pavement while
pressing back and down on the brake. More practice at this produced a
satisfying squeal of rubber, and a pretty quick stop.

Then I thought, how about using these low-resistance things for a little
work on turnover frequency as a warmup -- like often I like to do some
"spin-ups" on my bike before getting into my serious cruiser intervals. So
I undid the ankle cuff strap and off I went on my usual rolling course,
getting comfortable with the downhills, and soon I felt OK pushing at a
pretty good frequency on the downhills too -- pretty exciting. Then I
looked at my heart monitor.

My heart was going faster than I ever saw skating on rollerskis on this,
with or without poles. (Uploading it afterward to my computer, the graphic
in the Polar software confirmed that I had sustained a higher heart rate for
4:00 minutes, and the max was within two beats of the highest heart rate
I've seen myself doing _any_ exercise in the last five years.)

After that surprising result and three minutes rest, I figured I should try
another experiment on on my inline skates, this time focusing on ankle flex
and range of motion. My heart rate sustained for 8:00 minutes was a little
lower than before, but still a little more than highest skating on
rollerskis, even with V2 poling. Some rest, then another 6:00 minutes
sustaining about the same intensity on inlines, and I figured I better quit
pushing this new style before I strained something. After that I did put my
rollerskis on, for some poling work.

Interesting experiments, but it was unfortunate to miss out on my key power
workout for the week.

I'm not sure what caused this strange problem:

-- the inefficiency my novice technique on inlines resulted in extra load on
my heart?

-- my lack of inline-skate-specific base training?

-- the inefficiency of high turnover in skating, as opposed to the long
stride distance of elite racers?

Anyway, perhaps putting some softer wheels on these skates should help.

Ken