how fast am I skating?

Question
I want to take up inline skating for excercise.  How can I measure how fast I'm
skating without having to buy those expensive speedometers?  I read that if I go
8 miles per hour I can burn around 390 calories an hour.  Now, all I need is to
know how fast I'm skating.  Can you help me?

Answer
Hi Carolyn,
  I can't honestly answer what you could use to measure your speed but here's some info that might be helpful.

Just one hour of moderate skating burns 330 calories for a 143-pound person.  If that same person skates vigorously, he or she will burn up to 590 calories in an hour.

The number of calories burned per hour while skating at 6 mph is 350 and 600 while skating at 10 mph

Moderate skating is just pushing at an even and consistant pace.  Of course the faster you skate the better workout you will get and the more calories you will burn.  I would suggest going at your own pace and staying safe.  The more you skate the more speed you will naturally pick up.  

Just the movement of skating for 1 hour is great exercise but would be very difficult to keep up a very fast pace for a full hour.

Without spending any money you could try having a car pace you at 6 mph.  Just make sure there aren't any cars coming at you.  

Good Luck.  
Pat