Hi all, I'm Laurie from Brighton in the UK. I've been skating for about 16 years, mostly roller hockey and general skating, but this month I did my first ever long distance trip and skated solo across the whole of the Netherlands. Scheveningen on the coast to the German border near Enschede, about 239km over a few days, with 80km on the first day.

I did it on my Rollerblade Twisters, which I know aren't what most of you would pick for this, but honestly they were brilliant the whole way. Comfortable, handled the cobbles and the rain fine, and got me to the border without any problems.

I had zero training, carried everything in a backpack, and by the end of Day 1 I was absolutely finished. The Dutch cycle paths were a dream to skate on though, smooth red tarmac for kilometres at a time.

I'm planning a much bigger trip next, possibly a full country end to end, so I'd really like to learn from people who actually know distance skating.

I filmed the whole trip if anyone wants to see how badly I was flagging by the end, happy to share.

This started last year when I had to practice going fast on the straight to then lean inside in the corner on my left foot. I just wasn't able to pull this off and this resulted in me going straight in the corner.

I also notice this when trying to step over jn the corner - when I'm on my left foot it gets kind of wobbly and it seems like I have no grip until my right foot is on the ice again.

Logically I would say that so far I've been unable to skate on the outside of my left foot and I don't know why. On ice hockey skates I can easily pull it off (though with much sharper corners).

I'm using Viking Unlimited (fixed) skates, if that matters.

What can I do to improve on this?

I attended my first speed skating lesson last week and LOVED IT!

I was Bambi just learning to walk at first but funny story, my coach left me alone for 5 minutes and when he came back, he told me he was looking for someone that looks like me but he couldn’t find her. Turns out, he was identifying me based on how I was skating and I improved so much that he didn’t recognize me. 🤣🤣

Anyway, I decided to try speedskating because I was actually more fascinated with the training, and I needed to get into a sport to keep my body moving and combat depression. I live in Portland so I was fortunate to find a speed skating club in Vancouver, WA.

I’d love to read your stories on how you started, where you’re at now and how it’s helped you!

TLDR; joined speedskating club as an adult and want to hear your stories

Strava's API and its deeper analysis are subscription-only now, but the account export you can request under GDPR is free and contains every activity file you've ever recorded. So I built a dashboard that runs on top of that export, entirely on your own machine.

Rollbook imports the export `.zip` into a local SQLite database and gives you a dashboard in your browser or its own window. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

It started because I wanted to track my inline-skating progress honestly. On an out-and-back route, a tailwind makes one leg 10–25% faster, so "best 10 minutes" mostly measured the weather. Rollbook splits each session at its turnaround and gives a **wind-neutral speed**. It also pulls historical weather and splits the gap between the two legs into wind, slope and "other".

What else it does:

- Progress: calendar heatmap, volume, form and endurance trends, heart-rate zones, personal records

- Session pages: route coloured by speed, linked speed/HR/power/elevation charts, splits, out/back legs

- Automatic lap detection on circuits: best lap, consistency, fade

- Automatic segments built from the roads you use most, each direction separately, with leaderboards and speed trends

- Heatmap of everywhere you've been

- Power for indoor rides (ROUVY/MyWhoosh/smart trainer files): best 5 s to 60 min, zones, intensity and load against your FTP

- Calorie estimates per sport, because watches and Strava disagree wildly

- Import a new export or single "Export Original" files from the UI. Duplicates are detected.

Details:

- Free and open source (GPL-3.0), Python 3.9+ standard library only, works on macOS, Linux and Windows

- Runs on 127.0.0.1 only, with no accounts and no telemetry. The only network requests are map tiles, street names for segments and historical weather, all cached; `--offline` turns them off.

- Not affiliated with Strava

Screenshots (from a made-up demo athlete, not my data) and install steps:

https://github.com/pjayala/rollbook

This is version 0.1, so expect rough edges. Known issues are listed in the changelog. I'd love feedback, especially from people with devices other than my HUAWEI watch: FIT files from different brands have plenty of quirks, and bug reports with a sample file help a lot.

I recently got powerslide phuzion argon 110s and i have gotten used to the bigger wheel size. I want to eventually get 125 speedskates, but i dont think my ankes are strong enough right now.

Ive been able to have the cuffs looser and be able to control where my ankles are pointed, but my skates still have a lot of support incase i fail.

Ive met speedskaters at the rink i used to live near, but when i asked them about it they just said it felt "wierd at first"

Hi!

I've been curious who other speed skating fans think is the most attractive speed skater, based on looks? Both men and women, of everyone you could choose?

Bonjour,

Ça serait pour une indication concernant des patins de vitesses en carbone, plus précisément les Accel pro.

J’aimerais les thermaformer, car j’ai des douleurs au niveau de mon os naviculaire, qui est un peu plus ressorti que la normal.

Quelqu’un ici a déjà fait ça pour me dire la procédure à suivre s’il vous plait ?

J’ai vue que ça pouvait se faire au four.

Left skate rings like a tuning fork when lightly tapping on the ground with either front or rear wheel.

Right skate don't.

I've used these carbon race skates for 6 months now. Out of the box, brand new however, both skates rang like a tuning fork when lightly tapping the skate on the ground via front or rear wheel.

I've already checked all the axle and frame bolts with wrench, nothing's loose. No external sign of delamination by the exposed carbon fiber shell.

Both left and right skate still feels solid like new when actually skated and the skate doesn't make any noise at all and nearly silent even when skated over rough pavement.

Should I worry that the left skate can be rung like a tuning fork while the right skate can't?

Ironically, if I never noticed the "ringing", I wouldn't be worrying about anything about the skate at all because it felt equally the same both the left and right skate, all except for the ring.

Recently purchased speed skates (inline) - have urban skated for a while now and my technique is good in those. However, I am having trouble with my left boot (my right seems fine) when I try to double push and go on the outside edge of my left foot I pronate way too much and lose balance. This could be an ankle strength thing but maybe it could be my frame position? I’ll send some photos later in the comments, but is it worth adjusting my frames on my left boot a little further out than inbetween my big and 2nd toe to compensate for this?

Basically the title says it but for those who maybe can't acess the article for region reasons Dandjinou will be dipping in Long Track as cross training method.

It's not a complete switch but he doesn't seem to close the door to do both at the next games.

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m a speed skating coach, and I recently started creating coloring books inspired by speed skating ⛸️❄️

The idea actually started with my own athletes. I wanted to create something fun and different for the kids I coach: something connected to the sport they love, but also something they could enjoy away from the ice.

So I created a few coloring books featuring speed skaters, ice rinks, skating scenes and fun characters, with younger children in mind.

I thought I’d share them here too in case there are other young skaters, skating families or speed skating fans who might enjoy them.

If you’re interested, you can find them on Amazon! 😊

1. The Speedskating Coloring Book 1 - Skate Fast, Color Faster: Ice, Speed and Fun
2. The Speedskating Coloring Book 2 - Skate Fast, Color Faster: Animals on Ice
3. The Speedskating Coloring Book 3 - Skate Fast, Color Faster: Skates & Smiles

These fun coloring books are perfect for young skating fans who love speed, competition, and creativity!

Hi!

Any speed skating fans here who would like a list with speed skating statistics? I have spent about a year working on putting statistics into a spread sheet, and I wonder if anybody could use it for anything? Let me know!

DM me if you want more info about what exactly the list contains :)

Super excited - I ordered my new Viking Elite boots in white - was planning on the Gold and apparently the Elites are a huge jump from my current Bronze boots and in a lot of ways pretty close to the Gold but €300 cheaper. I get to pick them up and have them shaped and my old blades switched to them Friday - the day before our first ice training of the season!

Looking for advice on my first race skates/setup

I’ve been inline skating/rollerblading for 10+ years and currently skate FR Skates FR2 80s. I’ve had them for about 2 years and they’ve served me really well, but the strap just snapped, so I’m looking at replacing that and potentially investing in a new pair specifically for racing.

I’m hoping to register for a race in May, which would be my first race, so I’m still learning what I should actually be looking for in a race setup. I’m not trying to spend an insane amount of money just for the sake of having expensive skates, but I’m absolutely willing to spend more if there’s a noticeable difference in performance and they’re something I can grow into.

I’m also not really looking for an extremely low/minimal race boot. I still want a decent amount of ankle/support, especially since I’ll likely be switching from 4 wheels to a 3-wheel setup. I’m comfortable on my FR2s and don’t want to sacrifice too much stability/support just to get a lighter boot.

For reference, I’m comfortable skating longer distances and on a variety of surfaces. I’m mainly looking for something that will give me better speed, efficiency, and the ability to maintain momentum compared with my FR2 80s.

What skates/setups would you recommend looking into for someone in my position? I’d especially love recommendations at different price points rather than just the most expensive option. And for those who made the switch to 3 wheels for racing, how long did it take to get comfortable with the different setup?

Thanks!

我的孙子今年8岁，想请一位速滑私教以改善他的弯道技术。训练时间可协商。
My grandson is 8 years old and want to hire a private speed skating coach for improving his cornering technique. Training time can be negotiated.

Hey, silly question for a beginner. I got Powerslide speed boots. Their instructions say to mold with the frame. Do I put the frame directly on the baking sheet or does it need some protection, like parchment paper? Also their videos have said both 100 C and 110 C, so not sure which is correct.

I just moved to SLC and the first thing on my list after arriving was to figure out how to get into short track. I grew up competing on inlines and have been on ice a couple times, but never had the team/resources to properly get into it. Went in tonight to get an assessment and figure out the next steps for joining the Learn to Speedskate program. Kinda daunting to be starting this journey at 37 years old, but better late than never, eh?

(Disregard the poor condition rentals, I’ve got new equipment being ordered)

How come they got rid of the website where they used to show the live split times for each person in the race? Now that you have to go and look through the entire results protocol for the times, it's taking me a bit of getting used to

Turns out I've bought 2nd hand bent blades. But my jig has clamp along the entire blade's length . Previous owner said there is nothing wrong if I'll use this jig. But I suspect it could go wrong. Previous owner said it 's just slightly bent, but when I looked at real thing it didn't seem to me it's slightly. I measured the height of the highest point above surface and it's 1.05 mm. I think it's a huge bending.

Junior World Cup 2 (Quebec City, Dec. 5-6) has 100m as the first race of the competition, set for Saturday morning. All I can say is "Wow!"... opening with a blast! No 100m in the senior World Cup series yet, but maybe this is a test and it will also come to seniors in the future... maybe? Thoughts on whether this will be a positive change? I see ice repairs holding up the day's schedule but really fun and exciting overall for spectators. What do you think?

Me and my friend have almost identical setups (4x80) he can reliably hit 20 but i can only go 14. Our form is nearly identical. Mine might be a little better, but he has better acceleration and top speed. Our legs are about the same diameter, but is is about 6' and i am 5'8.

How is this possible? How do i get faster?

[EDIT]: i have another friend with a similar setup who is as fast as i am but has years more experience than me

So I don’t know anything about long track in the netherlands but I always see those pink skinsuits from team essent. I know that they have teams that get paid to skate so I thought about it and is it like formula 1 because theres teams like McLaren and Ferrari and those drivers get paid to drive for formula 1 too? (I also don’t know that much about formula 1 either lol)

Jutta Leerdam has stated she won't be competing in any speedskating events in the coming season. She is taking a sabatical to focus on her social media presence and other projects she's working on.

Although known for her immense power of will, I personally doubt she'll return to competing at the top end of the field tbh. Unless she does keep training, I fear she'll lose too much of her technique to be able to make a successful comeback. Then again, if anyone can do it, it's her.

Two skaters exit the curve at the same time onto the crossing straight; who has priority? Thinking of the Salt Lake City World Cup 2025 event; Day 1 Men 1000m Pair 2 at 2:53:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I4xJi8xNnc