Submitted by roadskater on October 14, 2009 - 2:56am.
Lots of skaters have asked how the Carolina Century compares with Athens to Atlanta in terms of distance and elevation. It's hard to say but my impression has been that:
Yesterday on the Cup N Cone ride here in the Cary, NC area, me, Mark, and Mike went down the infamous "Lystra" road and hit above 50mph (my gps said 51.2mph, Marks 53.1). I think that was the fastest verified speed I have ever done on skates that I can remember. Mark was out in front and handled it very well considering we had to pass a cyclist going 44mph.
Just wondering what other skaters have as far as "max speed", fun stories, and any ideas for safety. Also, is there a speed at which skating equipment
Submitted by roadskater on April 10, 2009 - 2:14pm.
It looks like those multiple extra over-the-air 24-hour weather channels may get some other use on free over the air digital television...long track speed skating, short track speed skating, cycling, ice hockey, marathons, track and field, even curling.
Submitted by roadskater on March 19, 2009 - 11:07am.
Not much to say on this as I wasn't able to watch any vid, but Joey Mantia rolls and rules again...Presti has been near the top for a long time. Impressive.
Submitted by roadskater on March 11, 2009 - 7:55am.
After last week's Salt Lake City (Kearns) Utah championships, where Shani Davis set two world records, the speed skaters head for what they say is the slower ice of Richmond, BC, to the oval where next year's Winter Olympics will be contested. There's controversy over whether the Canadian hosts have been allowing teams free access to the rink, but i don't care so much about that. If they want a home rink advantage, so be it. If they want to seem gracious and accomodating, so be that too.
Submitted by roadskater on February 27, 2009 - 3:08am.
Wow. I just found out that admission to the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup Speed Skating Final in Kearns, UT is free with an advance ticket. There's small print about it not guaranteeing entry but the point is you should be able to get in and be in if you want it free of charge. I would love to see this. USA should do well but that only matters so much. The main thing is to be able to see it in person without the usual television trickerism.
Submitted by roadskater on February 26, 2009 - 12:35am.
There's a whole lot of skating going on in Harbin (Haerbin) China. I've been following some of the stories and looking at photos this week, without a whole lot to say about it, since I don't know much about these young athletes.
Submitted by roadskater on February 24, 2009 - 7:47am.
If you have a few minutes to watch some videos about ice speedskating stories indoors and out, check out this contest where you can vote on which ones go to the next round. I assume United Statesians can vote! Check out the video from Canada's skaters...
Methinks thou must yield thine (or someone's!) email address to vote...or at least something that looks like an email address. But watching the videos is fine for me.
Submitted by roadskater on February 14, 2009 - 5:01pm.
Shani Davis continues his winning ways and certainly is close to taking a season win as well. No time to go into this now, but he's really doing great. Also Kristina Groves of Ottawa seems to be doing well lately. Not sure on the timeliness of these as they reference different locations. Gotta go! Enjoy...
Submitted by roadskater on February 9, 2009 - 9:17pm.
A few years ago at the US10K I met Heather Richardson from High Point Speed, just briefly, not a long chat or anything. But it was clear she was a powerful skater even at 10K, which is lots longer than most indoor types really want to do very often (that's a lot of laps on the tiny indoor inline circuits). The Greensboro News & Record has a nice story on her, point out that...
Richardson, a 19-year-old from High Point, is the reigning U.S.
champion in long-track speedskating's sprint events and recently
finished 20th at the World Sprints.
Notice anything specific? (Other than muscles, I mean!)
Anyone know where the video was getaken? [Later: I think I found it and have it pinned on the map. I'm sure eebee can help with the meaning of the title...sounds like community health insurance commission or similar, but the googlemaps note says it's an outdoor, covered, 200m track. Sweet.]
Thanks to Brian R for posting that link on the skating social list.
Submitted by roadskater on September 24, 2008 - 5:32am.
Hi to all. With A2A fast approaching procrastinators want to know:
What's up with Hyper wheels in general, 100mm in particular, and Hyperformance +G and Mach 2, more specifically? eebee and I are scouting around for at least 12 100mm and 4 84mm and we found one spot that seems to have them, but only one we ever heard of. Now I'm not against low-fame websites, ha, but seriously where have all the Hypers gone?
Anybody have a great source?
What have you been using and are they worth the money?
Submitted by roadskater on August 25, 2008 - 3:36pm.
Bicycle Toy & Hobby Sales gaves us a great skate and ride last weekend, even considering some rough road (not the worst gatorback by far, but not as great as the rest) on the spur out to and around Abbotts Creek. We had nice skaters, 4 veterans of T2T and 5 who have yet to experience the glorious weekend...but most plan to.
Hi everyone! Due to the multitude of schedule conflicts around the
original date for my workshop, it ended up not happening. So... I
want to gauge the interest of all the skaters out there and see if
there are enough people that would attend a workshop, should I decide
to put one together.
Submitted by roadskater on March 3, 2008 - 2:17pm.
Funny how my parents think I'm young, and I think I'm old sometimes, young others, mostly depending if I've been forced to look in a mirror, or to look at my hands, or help me, otherwise be faced with reality of that sort. The inner reality is often far different, and yay for that....
Submitted by andrewinnc on February 18, 2008 - 6:21am.
May 3 2008 - 7:00am
May 3 2008 - 11:00am
US/Eastern
Location
Callaway GardensPine Mountain, GA, 31822
United States
32° 50' 48.9408" N, 84° 50' 49.4484" W
Having skated with Blake and many others last summer at so many outdoor events, I am always looking forward to somewhere new and different to skate. I ran across this marathon a few months ago and have gotten all the details. I thought I would share with everyone. It seems like the marathon is set up for the more adventurous of us who like to race, myself not included, than those that skate outdoors for the pleasure, relaxation, scenery, exercise, etc...
Submitted by andrewinnc on January 4, 2008 - 5:17pm.
I am hoping someone can help me solve a major dilemma. I have noticed some of my wheels have developed a severe wobble. It doesn't matter which location I put them on the frame they still wobble. I checked the frames out today and the axles are all inline, surprisingly very much more than I would have thought. So i have ruled out a bent frame. I align my frame with the heel being centered underneath my heel and the front of the frame coming out between my big toe and second toe. This ligns up with a lot of the articles I have read on frame alignment, so I think it is pretty close.
Submitted by roadskater on January 3, 2008 - 12:55am.
I had a chance to hang out with eebee a bit while she was working on a project to promote skating a bit. We both took our cameras to see what we'd get, ill equipped as we were, without some of my fun lenses. We got to see some new folk and some fellow Athens to Atlanta and US10K veterans as well. I was mostly chilling and hoping to capture a photo of the day or two or more. Anyway, here's a sample that's not likely suitable for print but it sure is fun the ghostly way it turned out.
Some interesting self-assessments after taking a break from any kind of exercise for 2 months (except climbing the 40 or so steps to my apartment about 4-6 times a day!), and after throwing all caution to the wind regarding healthy eating :-0
Submitted by phillyskatergirl on October 19, 2007 - 6:49pm.
Deciding to do A2A was a very last minute decision. I kept hitting the website, read numerous stories and had a lot of friends tell me how hard it was! The more everyone told me how difficult it was, the more I wanted to do it.
Submitted by roadskater on October 17, 2007 - 3:01am.
Here's a map for the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate A2A 2007. While writing my 2007 A2A review, I just couldn't resist looking at a few things in satellite and hybrid views. It was also interesting to see a different version of the elevation profile. Check it out! Make sure to view the map in mapmyride, as you'll have more options, such as hybrid view and elevation map view. Hope you love it! Skateylove, roadskater.
Submitted by jmdill on October 16, 2007 - 10:57am.
[Editor's note: I posted this for Jim after he sent the info at my request. I wanted this story to be in the 2007 A2A Journals collection we are building!]
After the Athens to Atlanta skate this year, the Herbsts, a couple who skated the 52 mile distance wanted to know more about the granddad-grandson team who skated the full 87 mile distance. Here's what I wrote. My wife and daughter-in-law took pictures at the rest stops and at the finish. I've included those also.
Submitted by roadskater on October 16, 2007 - 1:09am.
Saturday broke late and fuzzy, thank goodness, and it was likely eleven a.m. before verticalizing. I went to the computer for some reason and eebee helped a great deal with finding a place to get the window fixed. We decided we'd be too nervous to leave the car unrepaired at the hotel and in the city garage, as we'd need to leave some little something most likely no matter how we tried to plan.
Submitted by roadskater on October 11, 2007 - 4:07pm.
After Rolling in Randolph's 50 very hilly miles, I knew I had better get some last minute work in on my skate boots (more on this later). After some smoothing with stone grinding bits, I used marine epoxy and black silicone to do the best I could to put my old Verduccis back in shape...a reasonably smooth footbed shape, that is. Once I finshed that, or thought I had, I set my mind to another obsession...decorating my skate frames.
Which do you think works best as the single publicized name for the alliance website? The North Carolina Active Transportation Alliance website is in the planning stages. This page lets you vote on domain names and comment on features you might like on the site in advance. Results are tallied by Borda Count, sometimes called "a consensus-based electoral system" where each choice gets a point for every choice ranked below it. Thus, with 9 choices, a 1st place vote gets 8 points. Please click the title for more info and to rank....
Note that if you only vote on the names you really like and leave the rest unranked, you boost those names you prefer, as with no rank at all a name gets no points. The idea is to find the name most wish to promote, and let the rest fall away. Thus, this is a reasonable practice, especially if all are aware of the technique noted here.
You may cancel and revote.
Please vote only once. Although it is possible to game the system by voting anonymously from various IP addresses, we hope you'll vote just once. The way to ensure one vote per person is to require login, but that would also ensure a lower vote participation and one biased toward people willing to sign up for a website in general, and specifically a webiste about skating and cycling for charity.
