FasterSkier Forums » Gear

1. tradesmith45
   Member

   Wind damage to the house last spring has delayed my roller ski experiments considerably. One goal for this summer was to do a better job of keeping my heart rate in Zone 1 (60% to 70% of measured max. HR) during LSD workouts. The resistance on most skate roller skis is high enough that the upper HR limit alarm goes off constantly on the monitor unless I really work at keeping it easy. Too much frustration when what I want is easy gliding for a few hours. Faster roller skis would help reduce the frustration.

   To that end, I've been using 98mm & 125mm kick scooter plastic wheels some this summer & they work pretty well. These are cheap & fast. You can buy 98mm wheels for around $15 a pair w/ bearings. The 125mm wheels are $17-18 a pair & even faster. And the plastic wheels are lighter than stock roller ski wheels. The 98mm scooter wheel is an oz. lighter than s rollerski.com wheel & the 125mm wheels are 2.5 oz. lighter than a stock V2 125 wheel. The weight savings is certainly noticable. Of course the down sides are a bit more vibration, can't use brakes or speed reducers & though I haven't tried it yet, I'm sure they will be very slippery on wet pavement.

   I've tried using the plastic wheel in front & keeping the stock wheel in back & using the 125mm plastic wheels front & back - zoom! With a plastic wheel in front only, increased vibration is noticeable but tolerable until I got on very rough pavement. I could still snow plow to control speed on modestly rolling terrain. With the plastic wheel in front & a Roller ski.com #2 wheel in back, the speed about matched a V2 150 Aero - a fast RS. Using 125mm plastic wheels front & back produced a RS that is faster than garden variety roller blades & the 150 Aero. But you really want to be on smooth pavement with a plastic wheel in back!

   I was surprised that these narrow wheels were not noticeably harder to balance on. And they certainly made staying in Zone 1 much easier.

   I have no idea how these would stand up to a heavy skier + hot pavement. I'm 155 lbs. & they've been fine in 80-90F weather.

   These are fun.

   Posted 8 months ago #

2. T.Eastman
   Member

   Yo,

   Can't you make technique improvements that would lead to better efficiency to meet the same goal?

   Posted 8 months ago #

3. tradesmith45
   Member

   Good question Eastman. Certainly good technique helps with this issue. And having a big motor would help too. But your question tells me i didn't make the reason for this post clear enough.

   I've tested a wide range of skate roller skies from slow to fast & found I can V2 in zone 1 on all of them if I concentrate on it & set the HRM to beep. Topher & I had an exchange about this back a few years when he was doing RS tests. Topher favors a moderately fast skate RS for this reason.

   The point of the post was I (& I'm sure others) want to be able to go out for a long relaxed Z1 skate without having to concentrate on going easy so much - you know, have fun.

   There is a debate about the value of Z1 training. While many elite endurance athletes (including Norwegian skier) spend 80% of their training time in Z1, studies have not confirmed Z1 training increases race performance. One argument is that long training bouts (with good form) improve economy of motion or efficiency. Others argue that it is so hard to maintain good form at such low speeds that it is necessary to do frequent pick-ups into Z2 say every 10 min. during long Z1 workouts. When I've skied w/ the US team, they have a saying - "Zone 2 happens" because that's about the minimum effort needed to get good form on real ski terrain. But they still aim to keep blood lactate levels below 1.5 mml during Z1 workouts. That's near the bottom of Zone 1.

   So the value of faster wheels is they make it easier to keep the intensity low during long workouts.

   As a practical matter, the plastic wheels may only be. useful during the early season when you are doing little intensity work & lots of Z1 base building unless you have a good safe hill to use for your intervals. You can certainly do a good interval workout w/ a plastic wheel in front but you still have to get back down the hill safely.

   Cheers

   Posted 8 months ago #

4. T.Eastman
   Member

   All good points. I guess that one of the things that I wonder about is the value of trying to achieve a particular "form" within a technique rather than exploring for yourself, new and more efficient ways of skating by trying to stay within given zones, L1 being a frequently visited site.

   My skate skis are Marwes that tolerate the chip seal roads fairly well.

   Constant innovation and constantly returning to the basics to center new ideas still keeps roller skiing and skiing an ongoing process. I have learned more about skiing since I faded into masterhood than all those years of just hammering.

   I tend to use jogging, hiking, and biking for the long L1 tours.

   It's all still great fun!

   Posted 8 months ago #

5. T.Eastman
   Member

   
   

   Posted 8 months ago #

6. tradesmith45
   Member

   Like you, for many years, all of my early season training ('til July) was biking or hiking. But those were also years with no performance improvement as a result of all that time. I've concluded that I must keep up some skiing or RS all year to maintain/improve upper body endurance & do more weight training for power. So now I do at least one Z1 & one Z4 RS workout every 2 weeks along with my cycling/hiking. Its really helped.

   There's just no substitute for RS for the upper body except maybe rowing.

   Posted 8 months ago #

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