Friday Night Weighted Skate

Posted in: Sport

Thanks to a tip-off from the iron freaks at LKB, I recently picked up a Reebok "Iron Vest", a 20lb neoprene garment intended for adding a strength component to aerobic workouts. Having not been to a London Friday Night Skate in absolutely ages I resolved to go, and introduce a new friend to the joy of group skates...

You think it's funny now, Bucko...

(The flak jacket in the photo is in fact the "Iron Vest".)

The combination of a two hour 12 mile blast in skates I'm not really used to, not skating substantially for over a year, 100km intense fixed-gear traffic cycling the last few days (after a 4 month lay-off, whoops), and wearing 10kg of metal added up to a solid thrashing.

Wearing the Vest is a curious experience. Because it fits so snugly there isn't the immediately obvious sensation of wearing extra weight. It only becomes apparent when you actually try to do something, be it anything from walking to hauling oneself up an incline - there's this mysterious extra load that proprioceptively seems to manifest as almost a lethargy or fatigue condition: disproportionately higher heart rate, that extra twinge of exertion in muscles, peculiar sensation of towing something.

Overall, great to finally do some sustained aerobic work that made me beg for mercy.

Incidently, I'm running a mini-project with the Vest, but that's for another blog...

Posted by Paul Makepeace at April 24, 2005 03:57 | TrackBack