Now is the time to do a little SkateFarm-ing. Attending a SkateFarm workshop with Eddy Matzger will help get you ready for an event, teach you to skate on hills and burn more calories than you can imagine. These sessions teach and demonstrate essential skating techniques like stopping, turning, pacelines, body alignment and even the double push, too.

Participants should plan to arrive early and get settled one day ahead. These are the SkateFarm Virginia dates for this season:

1. May 31- June 4
2. June 7 - 11
3. June 21-25
4. June 28- July 2

Eddy Matzger's SkateFarm is located at 1438 Union School Road in Floyd, Virginia. You should reserve a spot as soon as possible by sending an inquiry to skatefarm@skatefarm.com.

This Skate-tv video shows event highlights from kids' events at the past 33rd Vattenfall Berlin Half Marathon and the atmosphere in the inline village at the Berlin Vital expo on April 7th. Julien Levrard and Katharina Rumpus were the winners of the race, and in keeping with the motto the best start into the spring, the participants were greeted by 200,000 spectators and plenty of bright sunshine.

There are more German race events this season:

• The 22nd Vattenfall City Night Inline Skating will take place on July 27th 2013.
• The 40th BMW Berlin Marathon Inline Skating will skate on September 28th this year.
• The next Vattenfall Berlin Half Marathon will take place on March 30th 2014. Online registration will begin on June 3rd 2013.

These SCC Events in Germany are just a few of many large marathon race events that recur annually. In addition to North American and International marathon events, there are fundraising races, festivals and local marathons that raise awareness and money for a lot of good causes. Many enthusiastic inline skaters use these activities and other competitive speed events as the foundation for vacation trips, especially since many of the destinations are good ones.

Gloria Drebes is an inline figure skater from Germany. She says on her profile website that at first glance inline figure skating looks a lot like ice figure skating - only without the ice. Gloria loves it because you can do this sport on any hardwood, tile, concrete or paved surface - indoors or outdoors.

She wrote to ask for a shout out on About Inline Skating's Twitter and invited me to check out some of her skating event videos on YouTube. Looks like she is having a lot of fun with the competitive end sport, so let's share her adventure:

• Gloria Drebes at the Kür Inline Artistic

• Inline Artistic Hessische Meisterschaft Short Program skated by Gloria

• Gloria skating at the Inline Artistic Kür in Hamburg

If you are seriously interested in speed skating, don't take the self-help route. Many potential new speed skaters learn to skate in all the wrong places. And they will need to re-learn many techniques before they can move into inline racing.

If you feel the need for speed, join a speed team first. The coach will point you toward basics, if you need them, set up a training plan and will be the best ones to determine the inline speed skate manufacturer or equipment setup that is right for you based on skill level, weight and the details of your foot shape and other physical needs.

The speed events that interest you, indoor vs. outdoor and even skating surface information will also determine you speed skate training needs. Inline racing is more than just going fast and turning left:

• Learn more about inline racing activities.
• Discover inline racing and speed skating race formats and venues.
• Find out about speed skating strategic maneuvers.