the Get Rolling Orbit Biking ~ Fitness ~ Adventures ~ Inline Skating

September 4, 2011

Your brains are showing!

Filed under: Gear,Skating — Tags: — Liz Miller @ 9:17 am

During my weekend skating jaunts on the local multi-use trail in Danville, it tickles me to see families enjoying the outdoors together—getting a little exercise on foot, bikes, scooters, or skates; walking the dog; and just generally sharing quality recreational time. What a great way for parents to share the fun and benefits of playing outdoors as a family! I always hope the kids are building memories that will guide their values as adults, and that they, too, will make it a point to participate often in the great outdoors with friends and family.

But there is one misguided family value I wish I could influence. When I see bare-headed parents bicycling with their helmeted kids, I have to wonder, what are the children learning from this? That helmets are kid stuff? There should be no double standard here. The adult head is made of stuff that is much more brittle than a child’s. When an adult skull hits the pavement it’s going to be at a higher speed due to height and with more weight behind the impact. The whole family needs the protection of properly fitted helmets when participating in wheeled sports!

And this brings me to my second issue. If the child’s helmet is tipped back to expose a large expanse of forehead, there is a significant risk that it won’t be protecting that part of his or her brain in a forward crash.

In the rare opportunities where I get a chance to interact with the family, I jokingly say to the child, “Uh oh, your brains are showing!” and then advise the parent that by shortening the front straps, the helmet will stay forward on the child’s head—assuming it isn’t too large to stay put in the first place.

Spread the word: there is a right way and a wrong way to wear helmets. See my August 2009 Orbit article, Proper Helmet Fit, for more details and a diagram showing how to adjust a helmet so it offers the safety and performance for which it was designed.

And if you skate bareheaded yourself? Remember, all it takes is just one slip!

My favorite inline online pages

Filed under: Sk8 Links,Skating — Tags: , , , , — Liz Miller @ 9:17 am

bulletred picture I use and recommend Rollerblade brand in-line skates. You should too! I have never had a bad skate from K2.

bulletred picture A video is worth a thousand words: see Skate Skill Videos produced by Mark Davies at SkateInstructor.com

bulletred picture Inline Planet – Timely articles and interviews with skate luminaries, and home of the best social network for skaters, the Inline Planet Skater Network.

bulletred picture Visit the Inline Skating Resource Center to learn all about the who, what, when where and how of inline skating today.

bulletred picture Find just about every skate-related product on the planet at Skates.com, folks I know and trust.

bulletred picture Want to try before you buy? Inline Warehouse has a very wide selection of inline skates and the best return shipping policy around (Tip: stay indoors on clean floors or carpet)

bulletred picture Zephyr Adventures offers international skate, trekking, biking, wine and beer tasting, and self-guided tours plus learn-to-skate mini-vacations at Camp Rollerblade.

bulletred picture Kathy Fry’s Skatelog.com is full of amazingly organized links to a wealth of skate-related info and images.

See the Get Rolling web site Skate Links page for the entire list of links.

Fuel for Serious Skaters

Filed under: Fitness,Skating — Tags: , , , — Liz Miller @ 9:17 am

In the past, I have not shared my written opinions about eating for performance because my dietary guidlines are tailored to my own body and my current knowledge about sports nutrition. But because I was asked and answered this question recently for Paul Korankye, (remember the Hidden Stars Skaters Dream Club in Ghana?), I decided to risk a possible blog backlash by posting a simplified version of my personal guidelines here.

Healthy lunch

Healthy eating, simple and fresh

Dan and I both think of our daily food intake as fuel for our athletic lifestyles, even when we are simply enjoying a weekend of relaxing at home. For many years we were strict followers of the Zone Diet, but these days we cheat a little more than we used to, though we are still benefitting from it: we have tons of energy while exercising and all day every day, we don’t need more than seven hours of sleep a night, and we both stay lean and fit year after year.

The Zone Diet is a technical approach to eating that requires us to understand how much fat, protein and carbohydrates we are consuming with each meal. Since Dan and I both have technology jobs, the science behind this diet is more fascinating than it is daunting. The Zone Diet can also be a calorie restriction (life extending) diet, if you want to use it that way, which I do.

The other name for this diet is the 40-30-30 diet because each meal needs to be a balance of about 40% carbohydrates (not starchy), 30% fats (monounsaturated, not hydrogenated), and 30% lean protein. Preparing food this way made me a little crazy for a few years because I had to learn to weigh my food and always read the nutrition labels before I could cook or eat anything. My Zone Buddy spreadsheet (now an iPhone app) got me through this period.

Fully understanding and following the Zone Diet is too difficult for most people (especially for a team of growing boys and young men in Ghana). However, I was able to at least give Paul a few manageble guidelines for his speedskating club.

Zone Diet Tips and Tricks

  • Eat a little protein with every meal and snack
  • Carbs are everywhere, so we often carry portable protien to supplement it: protein bars, string cheese sticks, soy nuts
  • Eat fresh, not fast foods (focus on fruit, vegetables)
  • Eat healthy fats: nuts, avocados, olive oil
  • Avoid starchy foods and snacks like french fries, potato chips
  • Eat a small breakfast, medium lunch, and medium dinner every day
  • Eat a small afternoon snack to sustain energy until dinner time
  • Before a race, stay away from alcohol and sweets and eat pasta for dinner the night before
  • Carry and use energy supplements for 2-hour or longer events or training
  • Drink lots of water (not soda) all of the time, especially during strenuous activity

Typical breakfasts

  • Two  Balance Bars (or Zone Perfect bars) for Dan
  • 1/2 protein bar plus two Zone oatmeal cookies for Liz
  • Oatmeal with low fat cottage or ricotta cheese on the side (or a zero carb protein drink)

Typical lunch

  • One 3-0z deli meat sandwich plus two fruits for Dan
  • One 3-oz chicken spinach salad plus one fruit for Liz

Typical snacks

  • Smoked salmon (or cheese), radishes, cherry tomatoes, olives, and 2 crackers
  • Balance bar
  • Jerkey, almonds and one beer or glass of wine
  • Soy nuts (or jerkey) plus fruit
  • 1-oz string cheese and 2 crackers

Typical dinner

  • One 4-oz erving of lean protein (or sized to the palm of your hand)
  • Two large servings of a leafy or high fiber vegetable (or one veggie serving plus a fruit or sweet potato)

Follow the links above or surf the Internet for other peoples’ advice.

July 10, 2011

Off-Skates Fitness

Filed under: Fitness,Liz's Journal,Skating — Liz Miller @ 9:45 am

I love taking great care of my body, I love playing and exercising outdoors, and I love exploring the places I visit away from home in a human-powered way. The past six weeks have been busy in exactly this way for me and Dan. To summarize, we:

  • Skied three full days (in winter conditions!) at Mammoth Mountain over the Memorial Day holiday
  • Biked 40 miles and walked a few more during a 4-day visit to lovely Victoria BC, Canada
  • Hiked  up and down steep Las Trampas Ridge in our back yard, and skated (me) and biked (Dan) the Iron Horse Trail during the work weeks
  • Backpacked 30+ miles with 30+ pound packs on the Yosemite North Rim trail over the July 4th weekend

A few years back, I created the Get Rolling Off-Skates Fitness web pages after realizing that my active, outdoorsy lifestyle sets a good example for others. This section of my website offers a path to an overall level of fitness that benefits all physical activities, not just inline skating. To accommodate different starting levels, I documented a sample workout week for beginner, intermediate and advanced exercisers.

For skating in particular, fitness is necessary for those just beginning, especially middle-aged or older skaters, because it reduces the chance of injury while improving the chance of success. Flexibility and strength are important to achieving the most powerful inline skating stroke possible.

  • Flexible joints give you increased stroke length, while a regular stretching routine can help prevent joint injuries and reduce muscle soreness.
  • Strong legs allow you to sprint away from a pack or climb a long hill without using up all of your resources.
  • A solid core means better agility and balance.
  • Proper breathing and a quiet mind keep you alert and composed in dicey situations.

These aptitudes do not come from skate training alone: they result from specific and consistently-performed off-skate training activities. Are you ready for a fitness lifestyle? I’m here to help!

June 26, 2011

Camp Rollerblade Survey Says!:

Filed under: Skating — Liz Miller @ 2:28 pm

I joined co-instructor Janet Miller to teach at Hilton Head Camp Rollerblade on May 14-18, 2011.

Fourteen women aged 34 to 62 met each other for the first time to share inline instruction, smooth pavement and new friendships. Here is what they had to say in a Zephyr survey taken immediately afterwards.

Overall experience

  • Camp Rollerblade was absolutely incredible and I had the time of my life. Liz and Janet were phenomenal and very supportive.
  • Very good camp, perfectly suited for beginners and those with just a little experience.
  • The instructors are excellent and have an incredible amount of patience and knowledge about teaching. I really loved them–they made the entire experience a great one.
  • I would encourage anyone interested in rollerblading to take it.
  • Was a lot of fun – plenty of laughter along with very patient and caring instructors.

Favorite moment

  • Meeting my roommates. I’d never really done any sort of ‘camp’ before (as a kid), so this was my first experience with that sort of thing. Second would be our first dinner as a group.
  • So many to pick from… but getting to know this incredible group of women was truly inspiring. Oh yes, and when I finally learned to stop.
  • Dinnertime conversations were fun!
  • Too many to describe; the entire trip was Wonderful!! The instructors were both excellent, their styles were complementary to each other, and the group mixed very well.
  • Doing a spin stop.
  • Getting out to skate on the beautiful trails.

These ladies had so much fun, and bonded in so many ways. The most gratifying outcome to me goes beyond what I was able to do for their skating skills: it’s the frosting on the cake that this group is already planning a “Reunion Weekend” next year.

June 25, 2011

Sk8 FAQ: Why do my legs and feet hurt?

Filed under: Skating — Liz Miller @ 7:26 pm

Burning calves and tingly arches are very common for the beginning skater. Your muscles need time to get used to any new activity.

Your arches may cramp if:

  • your feet are tensed up inside the boot,
  • the boot is laced or buckled too tight, or
  • you haven’t skated for a few months and your skating muscles have gotten out of shape.

A dull pain may also be the result of feeling a little scared. As a beginner, your knees may be too straight (very common) and that causes a tendency to bend forward at the waist, which forces your lower legs to work harder to support that weight.

If this sounds like you, try to get your torso more upright and drop your hips towards your heels to keep your weight lined up over your arches. Crouch by bending your knees, rather than leaning forward. By doing this, you flex at the hips, ankles and knees instead of from your waist.

Another way to feel the proper stance is to try to tuck your tail bone forward (think of rounding your spine) rather than back which results in sticking your rear out.

Leaning too far forward  also causes calf pain (not to mention your lower back). The muscles on the fronts of your shins are unaccustomed to skating in the first place. Bending forward at the waist tips a lot of weight over your toes, and the fronts of your shins must work along with them to support that weight as you try to stroke. Other calf muscles may get a bit sore when you’re just learning to skate, too.

My last bit of advice is to take a deep breath in and out and pretend like you’re relaxed. Imagine the good skaters you’ve seen, and be them in your mind as you skate. This does help for brief moments, really! The more time you can skate with a relaxed body, the less your feet and legs will burn so you can build up the muscles and the confidence that will help you maintain the proper ready position shown in the image above.

From Spin to REAL Biking

Filed under: Biking,Fitness — Liz Miller @ 12:23 pm

For the past 30 years, I can count the times I have ridden a bicycle out in the world on one hand. That’s one reason I got so deeply into inline skating. Dan would bike and I would go for a skate.

Within a few weeks of meeting Prince Charming Dan, I mounted my own bike on a stationary stand and never looked back. I knew I’d always be a sissy on the downhills. Dan and I already had a physically competitive relationship, and I could see he was a serious biker. I could not compete in this area and did not want to be an annoying lagger.

But now that Spin classes have built up my tolerance for sitting on a bike and rotating the pedals, I felt safe in saying yes to exploring the area in and around the beautiful Canadian city of Victoria, BC, a 2-hour ferry ride north of Seattle, WA. It would be fun to try out my new-found biking fitness on a moving bike. Further ahead, there will be at least one biking day on our multisport wine Tour in Chile and Argentina later this year and I wanted to get comfortable with shifting and any other issues.

What a scaredy cat I turned out to be!

There were more challenges in bustling Victoria than just learning how to shift the gears. First off, the rental place is smack dab in the middle of the city, with double-lane traffic, no bike lanes, and clueless motorists opening doors or pulling to the curb right in front of us. Trying to follow Dan and Clark as they casually maneuvered through all this was not my idea of a fun first mile on a bike!

And when did they stop making girly bikes? I had trouble getting the pedals rotating while throwing my leg over the saddle, with the bike quite often in the wrong gear for starting out. None of this stuff was second nature to me. Every bit of it was a distraction to be dealt with along with everything else. Oh, how I sympathized with my inline skating students as I felt the urge to call out “Watch out, I can’t stop!” to pedestrians or other cyclists on the street or bike path whose actions forced me to react in some way.

And the hills. Going up was OK, especially after I got good enough to shift to lower gears without dislodging the chain (I finally gave up on the gear combo of  1/1). Going down, though,  I kept a death grip on both brakes. I squeezed at the first hint of a downhill. This is what I do on skates too: I start dragging my heel brake just to reassure myself I am ready to apply full braking force the moment I feel the need.

We did some street biking on Friday and I felt proud and relieved at having survived about 20 miles of very scenic touring around the shoreline of the island, on city streets, down a couple of miles of gravel trail, and finally on a dedicated bike path. I was slow on the downhills but pedaled madly to catch up with my boys on the uphills. Legs and lungs felt good, and no butt or back pain!

On Saturday we biked another 20 miles, this time on a portion of a gorgeous trail I would recommend to my skating friends in an instant. The only glitch I had that day was the thunk, thunk, thunk that made me think I had a flat tire. It turned out I’d forgotten to pull up the kickstand.

On Sunday morning I woke up with a pretty bad backache that plagued me as I lugged my rolling bag with the disintegrating wheels back to the ferry, the light rail and finally the airport check-in. I learned several days later that I was in the throes of a systemic infection at that point, so I do not know if there was any muscle soreness from biking or if it was all kidney pain.

Now that I am feeling wonderful again, I can look back at my weekend of bike touring in Victoria BC with pleasure, and look forward to future bike adventures with less trepidation.

May 6, 2011

Sk8 FAQ: Am I too old to skate?

Filed under: Skating — Liz Miller @ 4:22 pm

Inline skating is a really great low-impact exercise  for aging joints. My main worry for older people, especially women, is bone density. The undeniable truth is that it’s not really a matter of if you fall, but when you fall. If you do have brittle bones or have not been exercising regularly for a few years, the impact of a fall is more likely to lead to injury. This is a serious consideration before going out and buying the gear.

That said, many of my students are in their mid- to late-sixties and some do astonishingly well. I am guessing it’s partly due to the active California lifestyle, but also because they’ve had a lifetime to develop the cumulative balance that is such an asset to the beginning skater. Here are the most common and helpful advantages for beginners of any age:

  • Past balance experience: Ice or roller skating translate wonderfully to inline skating (many other activities help too, and it doesn’t matter how long ago or how well you did them)
  • Sure-footedness or general agility: There is a definite advantage if you are steady on your feet and have decent balance while standing on one foot.
  • Fitness: You need to have a baseline of fitness to be safe on skates. Here is a good test to see if you are fit enough for skating: you must be able to get up off the floor by yourself without help from furniture or another person.

Occasionally—and more so in recent years—the problem of being rigid with fear has prevented some of my students from ever relaxing enough to enjoy the delicious inline stride and glide, even on a flat surface. If you tend to be physically timid, you may want to stick with less athletic sports.

All new skaters can take action to reduce fear and risk, and increase their chances for success. First, there is a subtle confidence that comes from always wearing a helmet along with knee, elbow and wrist guards. Some people wear padded shorts to protect their hips and tailbones.

Do try and find a lesson for your first time out. To find a qualified instructor your area, go to the Inline Instructor search page and enter your state abbreviation. Another option is Camp Rollerblade, which specializes in 5-day learn-to-skate instruction for mature adults. Many of my proudest teaching memories are from people I helped at these camps over the past dozen years!

Good luck!

Teacher, Mind Your Attitude!

Filed under: Biking,Fitness,Liz's Journal,Skating — Liz Miller @ 3:29 pm

Heads up fellow inline skating instructors. Whether intended or subconscious, the attitude you display toward your students has a big impact on how much they learn and how much fun the activity is—for you and them. Here’s a personal experience from the receiving end that drove this home for me.

By the time our  one-hour Thursday Spin class had ended, I’d decided there was no need to follow the substitute teacher’s directives because, really, that class was all about her, not us. Within half an hour, I felt disengaged from her and the group experience, and decided I’d have to get the best workout I could on my own.

For starters, we were ten minutes into the session before Debbie began her agenda. Maybe it’s because she got annoyed by satisfying our morning group’s preference for the overhead fans: back row on, front row off. People choose where to set up their bike according to this non-verbal standard. “Are you happy now?” she asked. “As long as you’re happy!” she repeated at least twice, only slightly sarcastically.

Then she turned on her iPod, climbed astride her bike (in the non-fan row) and started a standing sprint that lasted five minutes with no acknowledgement or instructions to us. That particular sprint is not a beginner skill: it takes coordination, core strength and lightening-fast leg speed. So basically it looked a lot like she was showing off as she watched herself in the mirror for five minutes. Or maybe it was her heavy-handed way to demonstrate her credentials (read: superiority over us mere mortals).

As her iPod music selections played in sequence from start to end (easy for the instructor, tedious for the participants), Debbie announced what to do at the beginning of each 3-4 minute piece and then left us to our own devices. No cheerleading, no encouragement, no “Only 30 more seconds to go, you can do it!” Her teaching style was to direct rather than guide us through the intervals, sprints and “hills,” and to berate us for being stuck in a rut (“You’ve got to learn something new every once in awhile!),” as though our regular instructor has been neglecting us.

During one moderate-paced song, our 15-year veteran (“I learned Spinning from the inventor!”) decided to improve our technique. First she pointed out that there was too much bobbing up and down in the ranks. Then she”congratulated” one  lady who had smoothed it out, pointing her out to all as the main culprit, although 2/3 of the room bobs.

Debbie got off her bike a couple times with no comment and for no apparant reason. Was she taking a break? (She never gave us one!) Finally, with several more minutes remaining, she started moving the unused cycles to the back of the room, apparantly to save herself some time so she could leave the gym sooner.

All of these  behaviors add up to what looks like nothing so much as an instructor with a chip on her shoulder, which translated to me as dislike or disrespect for her students. I was so shocked she felt free to express this attitude that I immediately scribbled out how it felt to be on the receiving end on a paper towel.

Note to self:  Give up teaching inline skating altogether if I can’t always be enthusiastic about my students and what I am about to offer them.

PS: If you are curious to read my Beginner Spinner series of Fitness blogs from start to finish, here is the first post, right after I started in November 2010, My Head is Spinning!

April 23, 2011

You can skate, but can you teach?

Filed under: Sk8 Links,Skating — Liz Miller @ 11:39 am

The Skate Instructors Association (Skate IA) is an organization that certifies passionate participants of “small-wheeled sports” to effectively teach inline skating, roller skating and skateboarding. While skating certification itself has been around in various iterations for years, the Easter Bunny has just delivered the newly hatched Skate IA member web site http://skateia.org/.

Curious about certification? Here are Skate IA’s current skate instructor examination programs. For a quick video overview of the teaching components for several basic skills, see demonstrations by Skate IA Director and owner of Skate Journeys Skate School, Trish Alexander.

Level 1 Certification. The basic certification gives you the tools to learn the  Teaching Model, some physiology, how to ensure a safe environment, how to break down the 5 key skills and learning  true skate technique. There are three exams: written, skills and teaching.  More info>>

Level 2 Certification. Utilizes the Teaching Model for advanced learning from a technical perspective. Copious time is spent on solving common student issues. Also includes teaching to a wider variety of students such as adults, kids, and differing learning abilities. There are three exams: written, skills and teaching.  More info>>

Grace on Skates. Technical learning. Whether a person is a racer, a slalom skater or an artistic skater, grace can be found as long as the skater is efficient. This course will review basic moves and help you relearn them for perfect technique and efficiency.  From there, more and more challenging moves are added so attendees can see the common threads from basic through advanced moves.  Particular attention is paid to Form, Edging and Rotation.  This will be open not just to instructors but to all skaters who want to take their skating to the next level. More info>>

Skateboard Certification. See www.skateboardia.org for details. It’s new, it’s great, it’s about time!

Ready to roll? Check the 2011 schedule to find out when a weekend certification course will be coming to a city near you. If nothing is close enough with a minimum of four instructor candidates, you can arrange your own certification weekend with Skate IA Director Trish (see the Contacts page) .

Colorful Easter egg

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