On The Trail

IN THIS ISSUE...

• Publisher's Message
• Skating Tip
• Trail Tactic
• Until Next Time
• Advertisement

Publisher's Message

Welcome to the fourth issue of On The Trail. As you already know, the best skating happens when the trails are dry, smooth, flat, clean, and uncrowded. However, this is an ideal set of conditions.

Normally, the trail skater needs to contend with road snakes, manholes, potholes, cracks, curbs, bridges, as well as high heat and strong winds.

In today's issue, we're going to discuss what to watch out for when skating in strong winds in the middle of the summer. In particular, we'll look at the adjustments you need to make in your skating to avoid energy loss and fatigue from the high, wind resistance.

Skating Tip

Sometimes, you may start to fatigue due to strong winds. Under these circumstances, it's good to have a means by which you can conserve your energy and minimize the wind resistance until you reach the end of the trail. One approach is to use the long-track Speed Skater's Stride and Glide maneuver.

This advanced striding and gliding technique is a more relaxed way to skate and serves to reduce the rolling resistance, as well as the wind resistance. When you reduce the friction between your skates and the ground, you need to do less work to travel the same distance. In addition, when you bend further ahead and move into a forward stance you're cutting down on the resistance due to the wind.

Refer to the ad at the end of this article for complete details about how to do this trail skating maneuver. This is one of the five skating techniques in Lesson #3 Advanced Trail Skating, which is now available from the Inline Skating Center.

Trail Tactic

Realize that it's not going to be a normal roll. Skating against a strong head wind is one of the toughest challenges that trail skaters face.

The trick is that you need to work a bit harder to maintain a near constant speed to counter the force of the wind. If you relax too long on an incline, flat section, or a descent, the wind will resist your forward motion and slow you down in a hurry. It will require a great deal of energy to gain your momentum back. You don't want this to happen, at least not more than once or twice during any given roll.

If you're facing a 20+ mph (32+ kph) head wind when you start out on the trail:

1. Drop into the speed skater' s stride and glide position right from the start.
2. Use this maneuver on all flat terrain.
3. Stay in this stride and glide when skating up any roll or hill to minimize wind resistance and maintain your speed.
4. Skate in a more erect position on the downside of any roll or hill, but pump hard so you keep your speed up.

Just think how fast you'll be going when you skate the return leg. You'll have a strong tail wind at your back and your skating will seem effortless.

Until Next Time

When you're out on the trails in the middle of summer, and there's a strong head wind, move quickly into the speed skater's stride and glide. Skate to conserve your energy and minimize the wind resistance. It takes more effort when skating into the head wind, but you get to enjoy an effortless skate when the wind is at your back.

In the next issue, we'll look at the adjustments you need to make to handle road snakes. They're not that common on the trails, but often show up on the streets in residentall areas that connect one section of a trail to another.

Advertisement

Use the above maneuver called the Speed Skater's Stride and Glide whenever you need to conserve energy, reduce wind resistance, maintain a constant speed, and keep a fluid style when skating into a strong, head wind. or rolling longer distances.

This issue deals exclusively with the advanced trail skating maneuver dubbed the Speed Skater's Stride and Glide. To find out how to master the T-stop for emergency stopping, the crossover turn for handling sweeping curves, the short-radius parallel turn for blading down steeper hills, as well as how to sprint to enhance your aerobic endurance, refer to Lesson #3 Advanced Trail Skating.

To find out more about this lesson, click below:


Lesson #3 Advanced Trail Skating