On 14 September 2012 at 16:37 | updated on 25 August 2018 at 19:24

Training to prepare a skating marathon

Skating is a means of transport fora lot of people. But it is also a full sporting activity with lots of popular competitions, especially marathons. That type of event attracts a great number of skaters. However, you cannot skate a marathon just like that…

By Alexandre CHARTIER

How to be ready on D-Day?

Départ du marathon roller de Berlin

When you start enjoying skating, you quickly want to skate faster and longer. You start by training on car parks, then on the local cycle lanes, and you quickly learn the existence of skating races. The want of jumping in becomes more and more present and you end up by registering. Here are a couple of tips to prepare in the best conditions…

Improving your technique

At first, it is important not to go too fast: Skating is a technical sport. Thus, you first have to learn to skate well before trying to skate fast. If you get bad habits, you will have a hard time kicking them.

In order to skate for a long time, you have to skate efficiently. Thus, you will spend less energy and cover more distance.

Choosing the good equipment

According to you level, there are two options:

Comfortable skates half-way between speed and fitness types with a comfortable liner and a frame equipped with wheels of big diameter
Speed skating skates

Long distance speed/fitness skates

Long distance skates are an excellent transition towards speed skating. Their high-cut liner offers a great comfort which enables to skate several hours in a row. They are completed with a long frame with big diameter wheels, which improves the inertia and the rolling of the skate. So that with a bit of technique, you skate faster and longer without tiring yourself out.

Count on a budget of 200 to 400€ according to the brands and models.

Speed skates

If you aim at performance, you need a low-cut speed skate made of glass fiber and carbon composite. The skate is equipped with a frame with 4 wheels of big diameter (100 to 110 mm).

Enthusiasts with comfortable budgets can buy themselves carbon boots, or even made to measure skates.

Warning: before buying speed-type low-cut skates, you should already have a good technical mastering of your skates.

Having a low-cut boot needs a strong and tonic ankle. You need several weeks to adapt, even several months given your level so that you get used to speed-type skates. Do not buy a new pair the day before a race!

Le type de roller de course en fonction de votre intensité de pratique

Start with shorter distances

We would advise you to start races with leisure competitions of 20 kilometers. That would enable you to get your bearings in skating with people of very heterogeneous levels. You have to handle lines, not disturb packs passing you at full speed, count your laps, learn how to hydrate during effort.

Getting used to the pack technique

It is not necessary to learn to skate in a pack, but if you start to reach a certain level, you will want to pace yourself in tailing the other skaters in front of you…

Take time to skate with the people around you. That is why it is nice to have a club nearby.

Legal conditions to take part in a race

Arnaud Gicquel du temps où il roulait pour Salomon

A medical certificate is required by law to take part in any timed sport events. Then, you will need a medical certificate or a sport license when you register for a race.

Training program structure by Arnaud Giquel
(World Champion and responsible for the French Center in Nantes)

In order to guide you in your preparation, here is an example of a typical preparation program.

It is divided into 3 cycles of 5 weeks.

Inside each cycle, you will find 4 micro-cycles of work and 1 micro-cycle off.

One micro-cycle is one week.

Each micro-cycle is divided into 5 days of work and two days off.

Have a good preparation!

Example of training plan

1/1

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	2 x 20’ at regular speed	4x10’	OFF	40’ at regular speed	7 x 5’	1h Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+	++	-	+	+++	+	-
Recovery	10’	3’	-	-	2’	-	-

1/2

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	2 x 10’ at regular speed	5x10’	OFF	45’ at regular speed	7 x 5’	1h30 Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+	++	-	+	+++	+	-
Recovery	5’	3’	-	-	2’	-	-

1/3

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	3 x 15’ at regular speed	35’ Interval training 3’ fast/ 2’ slow	OFF	40’ with 15sec acceleration every 10'	1h Cycling	50’ at regular speed	OFF
Intensity	+	++/+/++/+	-	+/+++	+	+	-
Recovery	1’	-	-	-		-	-

1/4

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	4 x 15’ regular speed	40’ Interval training 3’ fast / 2’ slow	OFF	50’ with 15sec acceleration every 10'	1h Cycling	1 h at regular speed	OFF
Intensity	+	++/+/++/+	-	+/+++	+	+	-
Recovery	1’	3’	-	-		-	-

1/5

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	OFF	2 x 15 mn	OFF	40’	OFF	1h30 Cycling	OFF
Intensity	-	+	-	+	-	+	-
Recovery	-	3’	-	-	-	-	-

2/1

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	1h at regular speed	40’ Interval training 2’ vite/2’ lent	5 x 10’ with gradual acceleration on 3rd and 4th repetitions	40’ regular speed	3x16’ at regular speed	1h Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+	++/+/++/+	+/++	+/+++	+	+	-
Recovery	-	-	3’	-	3’	-	-

2/2

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	1h at regular speed	50’ Interval training 2’ vite/3’ lent	6 x 8’ regular speed	4 x 15’ regular speed	1h regular speed	1h30 Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+	++/+/++/+	-	+	+	+	-
Recovery	-	-	2’	5’	-	-	-

2/3

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	1 h Interval training 2’ slow/2’ fast	6 x 10’ Interval training 10’ fast / 10’ slow	1h30 at regular speed	7 x 5’	1h at regular speed	2h Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+/++/+/++	++/+/++/+	+	+/+++	+	+	-
Recovery	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

2/4

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	50’ Interval training 2’ fast /2’ slow	6x10’	1h30 regular speed	5x7’	1h at regular speed	1h30 Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+/++/+/++	+	+	+/+++	+	+	-
Recovery	-	3’	-	-	-	-	-

2/5

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	OFF	1h at regular speed	OFF	3x10’ at regular speed	OFF	OFF	OFF
Intensity	-	+	-	+	-	-	-
Recovery	-	-	-	3’	-	-	-

3/1

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	1 h at regular speed with 15 sec acceleration every 10’	6 x 5’ at sustained speed	1h Cycling	3 x 20’ at regular speed	40’ Interval training 3’ sustained speed 3’ recovery	1h30’ Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+/+++	++	+	+	+/++/+/++/..	+	-
Recovery	-	3’	-	4’	-	-	-

3/2

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	1 h regular speed with 10s acceleration every 5’	8 x 4’ at sustained speed	1h15 Cycling	4x15’ at regular speed	40’ Interval training 2’ at sustained speed 2’ recovery	1h30’ Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+/+++	++	+	+	+/++/+/++/..	+	-
Recovery	-	3’	-	4’	-	-	-

3/3

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	50’ regular speed with 10s acceleration every 3’	8 x 4’ at sustained speed	1h00 Cycling	5x10’ at regular speed	40’ Interval training 1’ sustained speed 1’ recovery	1h30’ Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+/+++	++	+	+	+/++/+/++/..	+	-
Recovery	-	2’	-	2’	1’	-	-

3/4

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	50’ allure regular speed with 10s acceleration every 3’	10 x 3’ at sustained speed	1h15 Cycling	6 x 10’ at regular speed	2 x 20’ Interval training 1’ sustained speed 1’ recovery	1h30’ Cycling	OFF
Intensity	+/+++	++	+	+	+/++/+/++/..	+	-
Recovery	-	3’	-	2’	5’	-	-

3/5

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Session	40’ allure regular speed with 15 acceleration every 5’	2 x 20’ at regular speed	OFF	30’ at regular speed	OFF.	OFF	MARATHON
Intensity	+/+++	++	-	++	-	-	-
Recovery	-	5’	-	-	-	-	-

Links

Choosing your speed skates

How to choose skates when you are a speed-skating beginner?

How to choose your long rides roller-skates

By Alfathor
Training plan: Arnaud Gicquel
Translated by Chloé Seyres
Photos: Berlin Roller Marathon
Fila, Salomon, ReL, all rights reserveddroits réservés

Released on 14 September 2012 - Read 69397 times

By : Alexandre CHARTIER "Alfathor"
Fondateur et webmaster de rollerenligne.com. Alexandre est un passionné de roller en général et sous tous ses aspects : histoire, économie, sociologie, évolution technologique... Ne le branchez pas sur ces sujets sans avoir une aspirine à portée de main !