long distance speed increase methods

[freeislandsk8tr]

Hello

I've been skating for about 11 years recently. I started skating late at twenty four. Skated all over Texas and San Francisco. Then joined the navy, got married had a kid, then when I was 51 I started up again. Now I am 62 and last week I did 28 miles on skates.

I plan to do longer distances, problem is I am slow I average between 5 and 8 mph. There are marathoners in my club who do 22mph when they are racing.

I'd like to increase my speed, just so I can get through those miles a little quicker.

What exercises and techniques can I use to increase speed with out damaging myself?

Thanks

[ursle]

https://www.fitness1st.com/brands/tr...am-roller.html

Grab one of those, roll your back, ribs and spend time on the hips and the IT band, then the quads (do both at once) and then kneel on the sucker and do your shins.

Loosen the muscles that you are now accumulating, before skating.

Basically, you want to drop your butt more so you can increase your stroke, time on skates and loosining the muscles will make your stride longer and increase your speed, and the roller is great for loosining muscles, strengthening ligaments and tendons and recovering from workouts.

[chuckboucher]

You may want to pick up a slide board. It’s a good way to simulate outdoor skating when you can’t skate outdoors.

Dryland exercises are also great. Here are some basic exercises: https://youtu.be/FZmljgGyIGw.

Google dryland skating for more. At 62, you may not want to do a lot of plyometrics, or jumping exercises, unless you’re used to them.

[ese002]

Skate hills.

You will build strength and power going up.

Going down (assuming it isn't very steep) gives you the opportunity to use those long, low strides that you may not have the strength yet to employ effectively on the flats. It also lets you get used to going fast. It is not the same as going slow.

[CKS]

Originally Posted by ese002

Skate hills.

You will build strength and power going up.

Going down (assuming it isn't very steep) gives you the opportunity to use those long, low strides that you may not have the strength yet to employ effectively on the flats. It also lets you get used to going fast. It is not the same as going slow.

I second this. I have a gentle downhill that I try to skate fast on. At first the speed freaked me out, even though I wasn't going any faster than I ran when I was in high school (I'm in my fifties now). And it was weird to me that I reach the bottom more out of breath than at the top of the hill.

My hill is pretty gentle and not very long, but at first I couldn't really skate up it - it was more of a walk in skates. When I could glide a bit as I skated up the hill, it was a big victory.

Another thing that I find myself doing is not really pushing. I'll just be letting my feet slide out to the side but not pushing hard. When I concentrate on pushing, my speed increases rather a lot (and so does my effort, of course). I'm trying to gradually increase the strength of my pushes and the length of time I push hard as my fitness improves.

When I started skating outdoors a couple of years ago, I was skating about 5-6 mph. Now I'm up to 9-10 mph for 5-7 miles at a time.