Training together for
the next Elfstedentocht
On the “Jaap Eden baan”, the artificial ice track in Amsterdam, I came in contact with a group of skaters of approximately the same level and age, skating every Sunday morning together and on other days individually. They all were enthusiast skaters that were planning to participate in the next “Elfstedentocht”. Some were members of a skating club other not. I have not been a member of a skating club. For me training 3 days a week was enough besides the other activities I did. Whenever it was possible to skate on natural ice we contacted each other and we went to places where it was” safe” to skate.
Because the “elfstedentocht” did not come we went together also to Davos, a wintersport resort in Switzerland where the international speed skaters also went for training and to relax in a beautiful surrounding. I will come back to this activity later.
Because the “elfstedentocht” did not come we went together also to Davos, a wintersport resort in Switzerland where the international speed skaters also went for training and to relax in a beautiful surrounding. I will come back to this activity later.
This group also did sport together in the summer. On Sunday morning we made bicycle tours of 90 to 120km most of the time. Incidentally we did a longer tour like the Amstel Gold tour of 150- 250km and the “Elfstedentocht” of 210km on the bike. I would say that this tour is a bit easier on the bike than on skates because the roads are in general better than the ice so one does not have to survive falls and the weather is normally a lot better. But it remains a 200km tours which is not easy.
It is , nowadays also possible to do the same tour on inline skates but I am afraid that I am now too old for this. Maybe I will once do this tour in three days what is also possible and will be a very nice experience because the countryside and the eleven cities are very nice. See the following website for the different possibilities in different languages: http://www.lexandthecity.nl/A-Round.eu/www.skate-a-round.com/default0b44.html?refer=Reis&ID=65&action=intro&c=NL%3C
It is , nowadays also possible to do the same tour on inline skates but I am afraid that I am now too old for this. Maybe I will once do this tour in three days what is also possible and will be a very nice experience because the countryside and the eleven cities are very nice. See the following website for the different possibilities in different languages: http://www.lexandthecity.nl/A-Round.eu/www.skate-a-round.com/default0b44.html?refer=Reis&ID=65&action=intro&c=NL%3C
We have continued the activities
with our group till now that we are all pensionists. They still skate nearly
every Sunday and I join them when I am in the Netherlands. After so many years
we still enjoy it to meet each other. This was certainly also a consequence of
our effort to train for the “Elfstedentocht” on an artificial skating track of
400m. It indicates that I made a very good decision to move to skating on
artificial ice if there are no other possibilities. However as I have said,
whenever the possibility was there we also tried to train on natural ice. So
let us go back to this again.