I’ve looked at this in the past but was wondering if anyone else sees a benefit here? Does it increase leg strength to any degree or is it simply a good way to preserve current fitness?
Thanks…
If it’s the same of side to side motion as cross country or skating then I highly recommend it. Great cross training for triathletes but if you have not done it in a while, just like with anything else, be conservative and slowly build.
Maylene Wise, CSCS
I ski race for the Alpina/Madshus XC ski team and race tri’s in the summer. This time of year, I rollerski 3-4 times per week along with long trail runs and weights.
If you want, e-mail me or PM and I can give some great workouts on rollerskis.
Be safe.
Yep, just did a 10 mile rollerski this morning followed by a 10K ride to work. Beautiful autumn leaves by my house, sunrising, cool brisk temps.
My mind is pretty well in XC ski prep mode now. I’ll be starting my ski race season in 6 weeks. Rollerskiing is great training for actual XC skiing. XC skiing is awesome training for triathlon. Guys like Teemu Vesaala (won IMC in 1994) and Axel Koenders (went 8:0x) at Roth were National Team XC skiiers in Finland and Holland respectively. Closer to “modern times” Christophe Mauch of Switzerland is pretty damn good XC skier, has won Nice and finished 4th in Hawaii.
Pretty well all my winter training is XC ski focused. No swim-no bike-no run…just Cross Country (OK, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I totally stop swimming from Oct to April, do a few roller rides when it is super cool and only run when I can’t do a lot of XC skiing due to inability to get to the trails). Come April, I can pick up the bike and after 10 days of spinning, I am pretty well at peak biking fitness.
Another poster on this forum, Steve Fleck, has done something like 15 Ironmans, gone close to 9 hour flat at IMC several times and done some pretty good performances in Hawaii. He used to put the bike away and pile on the ski miles.
Rollerskiing won’t give you as good a workout as real snow skiing, but it is a good aerobic base training option. It is pretty hard to go anaerobic on roller skis (you can, but you technique better be really good). Don’t forget, that the slightest mistake and you hit the pavement and if you are going fast (like 60 kph down a hill), then you are talking major roadrash. I try to stay on roads in my neighbourhood where I can’t get much faster than 30-40 kph in a tuck.
Good luck. Its a real blast, but just be careful. Pavement is harder than snow. Always wear a helmet.
yea as devashish pointed out, any bad technique is exaggerated on rollerskis. I have been ski racing (rollerskiing) for lots of years so I can do some L4 and higher intervals. But if you are a beginner, work on solid weight transfer and drills. For classic I do tons of double pole (DP) and kick double pole (kdp). For instance I will 2.5 hours of nothing but dp/kdp. When I skate, I try to concentrate on V2 and V2 alternate as these are balance intensive moves. But my prime skate workout is skating without poles. This is a GREAT lower body specific strength workout. I have done 3 hours of no skating with no poles and the lower body is pretty wrecked afterwards.
Luckily only about 4 more weeks of rollerskiing as the first Nor Am races are in West Yellowstone Thanksgiving week. Prey for snow!
Idiot question, rollerski?
yea, rollerski it is a xc ski training device. Basically a shaft (approx 18-24 inches long) with 2 small wheels. Some (classic model) have a one way clutch to replicate the kick and glide. Skate style tend to have a taller narrower wheel. You mount standard XC bindings to them and use a xc boot with poles that have a hard carbide tip.
Thanks, now I have to go check ebay for euipment again.
Rollerskiing in summer and x-country skiing were my main forms of recreational exercise before starting into triathlon. Did the rollerski for many years until moving to the boonies. The roads were too rough up here so I had to give it up. Didn’t do anything competitive but it kept me in reasonable shape for a middle aged recreational type.
Kurt, funny you mention doing legs only drills. Today, I was on my rollerski and had to squeeze tight to the side of the road as a car approached me. In doing so, I did not pay a lot of attention and stuck my carbon fiber pole in a sewer grate…snap, it broke off around 3 cm from the basket, so I spent the rest of the rollerski doing legs only and working my weight transfer.
Usually, once I get on snow, I spend >50% of the time for my first 300K doing legs only. I find this helps me when I start racing it ensures that I have full weight transfer from ski to ski. It also enables spring studliness on the bike. Nothing like dusting dudes who have spent all winter on CT’s and all spring at cycling training camps down south :-).
Where do you live and when will you be on snow. I’m about 3-5 weeks away right now. In some good years, I’ve starte as early at Nov 10th, but I usually assume that I can be on snow from Dec 1 to April 10th.
Dev
I live in MA, but I go west every fall and get on snow till the East has skiing. West Yellowstone has Nor Am races T-Giving week so I will go and do those then maybe go to UT or Anchorage.
It is funny to be super white and hairy legged and still strong as shit come april. I am the ultimate “sleeper” in the early races. This year I will try to do 1 swim (3-4k) and one CT workout all winter to keep the muscle memory. And I run every morning to stay loose so that comes pretty quick.
Prey for snow.
Kurt. You should come up for the Keskinanda 50K Worldloppet Race here in Ottawa. Hope to see you at the LP 50K race 3rd week of Jan. I’ll be racing “skate” at both. Have fun in Yellowstone/Alaska. Some of my buddies are heading up to Silverstar British Columbia for some early season racing (yikes, up at 7500 ft).
used to roller ski some 30 years ago… just moved to a new area where I could again…
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looking for best buy on new or used roller skiis/recommendations?
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I probably will just use them for classic, can I just replace the wheel w/ clutch wheel if I find skate specific rollerskiis?
check ebay or a site like skinnyski.com. as far as changing the wheel, you should just look for a combi ski. Not the best for either technique, but works for both. I use Marwe. A lot of people like the V2 Aero big wheel models. They are ok for DP only on rough roads, but the big wheels kind of screw up the skate technique.
Great to see some other XC’ers out there.
When we lived back East I used to race freestyle as prep for cycling. If you really want to see your Max. HR, do a XC race some day. I was easily able to get 5-10 beats higher skiing than running.
The Keski is awesome (except for penguin hill) nice fast downhills and good sustained climbs. The lake placid loppet is brutal. I bought it hard a few times on the faster downhills from being so blown going up!
Unfortunately, I’m now living in cincinnati, so no skiing at all!
What rollerskis would you guys recommend for purely skate training? I’ve heard good things about Marwi and the aeroskis, but havent tried either. I have an old pair of the rossignol plastic ones, but they pretty much suck.
Thanks
Ron
Ok thanks…
Found this site http://www.rollerskishop.com/rollerskiis.php
prices are more affordable… what do you think? love/hate those skiis?
Marwe 610’s are the best “snow” feel out there. The aero’s are ok, but can be difficult to execute good technique on. If the roads suck, the aero’s are your only bet.
You should just rollerski and come up for the Keski…
I use the Elpex F1 for skate technique. Its a good rollerski. I have the “slow” wheels (soft rubber) with the “slow bearings”. I’m much faster on snow than on the wheels, but since roller skiing is for training only, I prefer to keep the speed slower in case I hit the pavement. In general, on a steady rollerski on my F1’s, I tend to cover 15 kph or 4 min/k. On snow, I tend to average around 17-20 kph depending on conditions even with the hills (including Penguin).
As a side note, last winter I did a 10xPenguin workout. Total vertical was just under 500 feet and the descents were a blast :-). It took me a week to recover from that workout though.
Would using rollerblades with poles give you the same workout? I have both and do like to skate ski as often as possible here in central Ohio when we have snow. thanks.
the trouble with rollerblades is 2 fold. One is the speed. Rollerskis (esp the F1’s that Dev has) are much slower. Also, because of the binding and boot interface, you can get much better deep ankle bend and drive the knee forward. Which is the proper way to skate (or classic for that matter) But if you don’t own rollerskis and don’t plan to use them a lot. then blades will work.