Discussion: I feel your pain

Sorry. I can see in your track where you hit the ground. It's not fun at all.

I got too comfortable and thought if I can do this then I'll try double poling......What a stupid F@@@ing idiot. I took a lesson in Placid and tried some of the drills. Lesson learnt. Stick to being crap! You don't get hurt as much. Although it's happened before.

You definitely want to be careful about how aggressive you are with new skills. My first year on the roller skis I really beat myself up in the beginning. It got to the point where I was anxious and nervous about going out. However, I had already signed up for a 50km race so I forced myself to keep at it. I eventually confined myself to a parking lot for 2-3 weeks just doing small strides, small circles, small zigs and zags until I got a bit more confident on the skis. My spills now are seldom and mostly just a loss of a bit of skin, which is much better than the body slams that were a regularity in the beginning.

Guys often ask me about it when I'm out on the trail. I generally conclude by saying, "I enjoy it, it's fun, but I don't recommend it. It's dangerous."

There, how's that for a pep talk.

This is spot on. I'm actually annoyed I've had a lesson. Because.... I now know all the bad habits I have. The only way to get rid of them is to practice...but roller skiing is not the medium to try out new things. It's just there to keep/get in ski shape. Trying new things on roller skis is like graduating to Heroine after enjoying the 6 month to 2year old dose of Children's Benedryll. There's quite a difference in "kick" I've been informed.
It's the /km that impresses me. I stalk you and many others on here and I'm amazed at the /km you all reach yet if we run we're all on the same /km. I understand it's technique, but the speed/HR difference is insane. I'd be in zone 5 trying to go 4-5mins/km. I think you're in zone 2-3 for 2-3 hours.