Charlie Brown On Skates

Lately I’ve been working on what I’d call “sustainable speed.” Anyone can skate fast for a few moments, but that isn’t speed skating, that’s sprinting. A speedskater is one who skates fast for the duration of the race, and in my case, it’s endurance races e.g. marathons. As usual in speedskating, it comes down more on the technique side and less on the fitness side.

Most speedskaters I know are relatively fit. Over the last three days I’ve skated over 30 miles and spent something like 16 hours building a retaining wall and working outside - fitness isn’t an issue, but technique always is. So how do you generate and sustain speed in speedskating?

There are two things that were introduced to me last year that I am working on this year, and both have helped me already. The first is interval training. I have been doing Tabata (Hight Intensity Interval Training or HIIT) intervals for the last month, once or twice a week. Interval training is crucial for the speedskater to train one’s body to adjust to rapid changes in speed - closing a gap, chasing a flyer, or just adjusting to the pack speed. Intervals help train you to be able to make those bursts of speed without killing yourself, it allows you to train yourself to recover.

Intervals also help increase your speed. Team Rainbo uses interval training both individually and at team practices. All our top skaters use interval training as part of their training regimen.

Secondly, hip and knee drive are crucial to getting and maintaining speed. It’s kind of hard to show in a blog post, but essentially you drive your hip forward after the recovery stroke while “throwing” your knee ahead. This generates momentum helping you get and maintain speed. This one thing is often the critical factor for me on whether I can hang with the faster packs or not. And it’s easy to forget when you start getting tired. My goal this year is to train myself to do this so automatically that I don’t have to think about it.

And, speaking of speed - I was a hugely freakish Speed Racer fan as a kid, and the movie comes out in three days. Oh yeah, I’ll be at the matinée early! Here’s me as a 5-year old dressed as Speed Racer - think I should wear it to the movie?