I used to work with someone who decided to mess with my head. He said "Why are you still skating, nobody does that any more?".
I responded with "When is the last time you could see your toes without a mirror?".
I know. Catty. But hey, never compare your 100th session with someone else's first.
The thing is that I still skate. I still measure the distance in fractions of Marathons. It is August and I have not stopped. Resting heart rate is 48. I think that guy is still casting a large shadow at noon.
Jus' Sayin'. Trails are filling up with skaters again. This is the second "rebirth" of inline skating. It isn't like in the 90s but you can find friendly faces out there again.
And that is the point. I do it because I like to. I do it because the beta endorphins are a great rush. I do it because I have a distance goal of "Once Around The World At The Equator" and I am within 250 miles.
I skate once a week, bike twice a week. Skating is 1.5 times more calories burned than Biking at my level. 1500 calories per hour. I'll drop it when I'm "old" and I'm not there yet.
There are a few things that I picked up over the years. You don't skate 24659 miles without learning a few things about a sport.
I am endurance, not speed, not tricks. I go to log miles, as you might have gathered. I pick a pace and "just go".
August in Florida is hot, it was hotter in my native Philadelphia last week. I found that taking a break every 45 minutes is a requirement, not "nice".
I bring a LOT of water. My home park has lots of water stops, as did the park in Philly. I time my breaks to be near water. Getting through the heat in August wherever you are (February in the upside down world of the southern hemisphere) is helped by this strategy.
Stop, dump water on your head and clothes. Don't get the bearings wet for the love of the skating gods. But definitely do the water dump. "Room temp" will feel nice and cool. Ice water will send a chill up your spine. Then dump a similar amount down your waiting gullet and enjoy. I also bake brownies for my water stop since I'm stopping very close to an hour and it burns up your blood sugar. Once you get going that water will evaporate and you will get about a half hour at "your pace" of being cool. Trust this "Senior Skater" on this one, you will like the feeling of the breeze on your head and chest.
Second thing to mention is Bearings. If you are still on your original bearings consider an upgrade. I am in a wet climate. I got very tired of having to tear down bearings every week, even up North. That is about 100 miles in my old pace of 4x25 miles on the trails.
Hybrid Ceramic is a big improvement and they cost online about $25 a set. You still have to keep them dry but they are a little better at rolling resistance than a steel bearing.
I know some out there say ABEC 7 or Bones Swiss but I disagree. I have two containers of formerly useful bearings that were ABEC 5 and better. ABEC is just a measure of precision of the bearings within the race in the bearing themselves, not a durability rating. Once you hit the dust or wet on the trails, they will rust up and are no longer smooth.
Hybrid are only good as long as they are maintained. Degreased, Dried, Reoiled after a session.
A much better solution is the more expensive Ceramic bearings. A set of Full Ceramic bearings cost me about $70. With the orange menace adding tariffs and taxes on anything he does not understand, I am sure they have gone up.
But do consider them. Add a cheap Ultrasonic Cleaner to the purchase price at around $35-50.
Why? They are made of a ceramic mixture like your coffee mug. They are designed to never need lube. Lube will pick up dust and corrupt your shiny white or black ceramic bearings. Care is simple - Put them in the ultrasonic cleaner with water and a drop of dishwashing soap and let it run through a cycle. When through dry them out with a hairdryer and reinstall.
The difference is a roll test or spin test.
You take a pair of skates and flip them over. Run your hands, quickly, over the wheels to get them to spin. Watch your clock to see how long the wheels spin. My rule is 1 minute spin on steel bearings. 2 minutes on Hybrid is a good number although I see regularly upwards of 2 minutes 30 seconds.
I have seen one wheel spin 5 minutes on ceramic bearings. I shoot for 3 minutes 30. I tend to get bored when I do a spin test.
Anything less than those numbers and into the ultrasonic they go.
Steel gets lube. I'm not sure of the Hybrid but since they feel a little oily, I would tend to put more lube back.
Lube for me is "Tri Flow" oil. It has Teflon in it, and it is a light machine oil. I have been using it for the majority of my 24700 miles.
Ceramic Bearings do not get oiled.
Let me repeat that.
Ceramic Bearings do not get oiled.
You dry them off as much as possible, and put them back into the wheels. My own ceramics are open bearings, unshielded. The Steel and Hybrid are both shielded and I have stuck myself many times with the push pin to get the C Clamp off the individual sides of the bearings.
Steel Bearings have gotten so cheap that there are many out there that just get a new set rather than refurbish a set of steel bearings and take the hours of time to do it right.
Spin test them. You will never get a set of steel bearings to spin the 2:30 of a hybrid let along the 3-5 minutes of a ceramic.
Ceramic bearings are smooth. It makes for a much better feel on the trails. More like you are on Ice than on asphalt. More of what you are putting onto the trail gets converted to speed so this is not for someone who is just "taking up skating". As an upgrade, I can't think of a nicer one other than perhaps a harder or larger wheel.
Both of my pairs of skates are hard wheels. 88A durometer. My small set of 80 mm wheels are pure urethane - creamy colored plastic. The 100 mm big wheels are probably polyurethane but they are 88A.
Softer wheels will give you more grip but will wear out faster. They are also stealing your momentum. Higher durometer wheels will last longer, roll further. You choose.
I chose hard wheels. A long time ago, that is.
I've been at this so long that the terminology has changed. The "Frame" or "Skate Frame" where the wheels are bolted in was called a "Truck" from the old quad skate designation. I still slip and call the Frame a Truck from time to time.
But I prefer a long frame, and I have a pair of Rollerblade Twisters from 2023 (I think) that I installed a set of 4x100mm wheels on that look like a demented set of skis. They have the feel of riding on a rail because of the length of the frame but I don't do tricks. If you do, you will want to get a custom shorter frame.
For me, and my distance, I'll stick with the longer frame.
(Or Truck) Long frame on a big heavy boot is a heavy skate, a beast of a skate.
But definitely, if you can find them at a good price, get the ceramics. You will appreciate the smoothness.
Better to roll than to talk about it. Find yourself some trainer's tape and tape up the hot spots. Then get out there and enjoy a workout, I know I will!
No comments:
Post a Comment