Learning to Speed Skate: A Humbling Experience

For the past two months, I’ve been attempting to pick up the beautiful sport of speed skating.

A sport that requires lower body strength, the ability to turn left, maintaining an aero position… and oh yeah, actually knowing how to skate!

When I first considered trying speed skating, I had no idea what I was in for. I figured I had the leg strength, the body position was somewhat similar to cycling, and since it’s a race against the clock, all I had to do was learn how to skate. Easy, right? HA!

Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m Canadian. Put me in hockey skates, and I can hold my own. But speed skates? A whole different beast. The blade is a third of the thickness of a hockey skate, the boot sits below the ankle with zero support, and on long track skates, the heel lifts with every stride.

Coming from seven years of cycling, my legs were strong, but there was one major difference—I was no longer sitting on a saddle. I actually had to support my own body weight. The connection from my upper body to my hips, to my legs, to my feet? Nonexistent.

The first time I laced up and tried to do a lap, my feet instantly cramped. Every tiny muscle in my feet was firing, trying to keep me balanced and strong on this razor-thin blade. It felt like they were working for the first time in years!

Then came my ankles—let’s just say I hadn’t worked on ankle strength, mobility, or balance since my soccer days, so that was a whole other battle.

Video: SPEED SKATING

Moving up to the hips—on the bike, you're supported by a seat. To get into an aerodynamic position, you tend to shift onto the front of your pelvis, putting you in more of an anterior tilt. In speed skating, it’s the opposite. You need your pelvis tucked, your glutes firing, and your body in a deep, stable position. As a very quad-dominant athlete, this was yet another challenge.

Then there’s the core. I thought I had a strong core—on the bike, sure. In a fixed position while holding onto handlebars? No problem. But there are no handlebars in speed skating. Learning to engage my core while moving my arms in sync with my stride, bracing for lateral pushes, and also remembering to breathe? Yeah… that’s been an adjustment.

All this to say—the transition from cycling to speed skating has not been easy.

But there’s been progress! I can now skate a controlled lap, execute crossovers in the corners, and hold my own cruising at 20–25 km/h. The top skaters, though? They’re hitting 50–60 km/h. Insane. The G-forces in the corners, the lactic acid buildup in the legs—and somehow, they make it look effortless.

Here’s to more ice time, more learning, and embracing the challenge of this crazy sport!