I'm reviving another dormant thread.
Seems there aren't that many Rollerbladers here?
I took up inline skates, actually, to get myself back into shape for skiing. I hadn't exercised much for many years, so I needed some aerobics and strength. I started out with rental quads, but, when time came to buy my own, I opted for the inlines; I learned to ice skate on speed skates, so the movements were more familiar to me.
Now that ski season is over for real for me (we were gonna go today, but a kid got sick!), to assuage my grief, I went back to the rink today. The surprising thing: I'm out of shape! For skating that is. All sorts of muscles ache and are crampy that I didn't know could be achy and crampy. Apparently, I haven't been using these while skiing. I'm also out of breath a bit more easily now; apparently, all those long lift rides helped me recover my breath between runs. Or, perhaps, carving is conserving enough energy that I'm not straining any more. Or, I'm trying to skate faster than before, now that I've discovered the joy of carving on ice, and I don't have gravity to help me charge.
And I'm noticing techniques of skating that are different from those of skiing. When turning, for instance, the weight comes off the outside skate, and the outside skate goes forward and inward. No wonder my inside ski leg tries to stay vertical. Also, I now have enough balance to keep my hands behind my back when skating; when skiing, they need to stay forward. In skating, I'm trying to keep my feet closer together, working toward being able to have one foot in front of the other. Skis, they need to be a bit farther apart!
It's also interesting to see similarities. Shin-on-tongue is giving me a new level of confidence in both skiing and skating. Upper-lower body isolation is a key to a lot of challenges in both. I borrowed ski boot fitting techniques to have my skates fit better, too! My right turns are a little less certain in both; it could be body asymmetry, but it could be psychological, since most of my recent falls have been just before or during a right turn, and the "regular" skating direction consists of left turns only.
Otherwise, nevertheless, it's been a very good exercise. I am stronger, last longer, and have better balance. The best part is that I'm not afraid of other people any more.
I've had a pair of Bladerunner Pro 80, which are cheap, but have sucky bearings and a small camber that makes turning difficult. I've kept them because they are for exercise, after all, and sucky bearings mean more work means more exercise. I might, however, soon opt for a city- or hocky-style skates with rockers, since they will let me move more like I'm carving on skis.