Rollerblading over the weekend with a friend (before the rain), I noticed his skates were pretty beat, so I offerred him a second pair, nearly new, that I was planning to put on ebay (they didn’t fit right and I never returned them). In return, he gave me a better set of wheels. Then, he put wheels on his old pair and gave them to his friend. I donated some old knee pads and wrist guards - voila! A new exercise convert, and it’s about time, too.
When I ran High School XC a local Dr. bought the varsity squad spikes. I was doing some speedwork last week at the track and a local 8th grade sprinter was also working out. His spikes were ripped. I bought him new spikes. They werent second hand but I hope this was in the spirit of TSR.
Rollerblading does indeed count as cross training. I usually do quite a bit of it in the fall. I try to take about six weeks off from running once the season ends to let the stress fractures heal. Roller blading is kind of in between running and biking. I think it helps me get ready for cross-country skiing once the snow flies. It also gives me lots of cool scars to talk about.
A few months ago I encouraged a young guy I know to start doing some sport (he is only 18, but drinks lots of beer and is already overweight and lazy as a result). He lost lots of weight and was enjoying an old road bike I gave him. I found that he is actually an extremely strong cyclist.
The first few times we cycled together he was nearly dead after 5 miles. But recently he became very fast and on one occasion he had to wait for me to catch up. Three weeks ago I gave him my old Profile Century Tri bar that I no longer use and a set of SPD pedals (I use Ultegra SPD-SL) all in the TSR spirit. He was very pleased.
Unfortunately last week he was doing a local time trial and suddenly a dog ran and attacked him. He lost control and broke his finger. Unlike Tyler Hamilton who did the tour with a broken collarbone, this guy is a real drama queen and has been very upset since.