Rochel Roland loves baths, and she loves speed skating.
At first, the two hobbies seem a bit incongruent, but the 49-year-old Kensington resident is used to being out of the ordinary.
For one, Roland didn’t begin short-track speedskating — a sport in which ice skaters race around a track the circumference of a hockey rink — until she was 41.
While out with a friend, she saw an advertisement for a speed skating club open to people ages 4 to 70. “I’m somewhere in the middle of that,” Roland said at the time. Though she hadn’t picked up a pair of skates in 30 years, she decided to give it a go.
Now a competitive short-track skater for the Potomac Speedskating Club, Rolan typically devotes five days a week to intense physical training during competition season. In an average week, “I get in at least three times a week of ice training, an hour and a half each,” she says.
The ice training involves sprinting on skates, in addition to her grueling land-based routine, which includes sprinting, power jumping, sit-ups, and resistance workouts with an elastic belt.
“I like the roller derby aspect of it,” Roland says of the notoriously high-contact sport. “It’s kind of like traffic in New York City … it takes a lot of strategy.”
In addition to her arduous training schedule, Roland found time in 2008 to start her own all-natural bath-products business called Joyful Bath Co. She blends the organic bath salts herself, harkening back to the soil sciences classes she took as a graduate student. “I’ve always liked to deal with organic, natural things,” she says.
Before starting her current Bethesda business, Roland spent years running her own photography agency. Other passions include ceramic sculpture and Raku firing.
“I never have enough time to do all the things I’m interested in,” she says.
For now, she’s trying to focus on one goal: becoming the short-track national champion for her age group at the annual U.S speedskating competition. “Last time I did nationals I was about in the middle of the pack,” she said. “[But] I’m continuing to train and there’s no break I ever take in training. Since 2002, I’ve trained at least three times a week, but mostly four or five.”
One motivator is the thrill that she gets from the sport. “My boyfriend teases me and says he likes me better when I speedskate,” she says. “I’m always in a good mood because I’m heavily endorphinated.”
Roland’s strict practice routine has paid off. Three years ago, she reached a major goal when she broke the one-minute mark on the 500-meter skate, which is a milestone for speed skaters.
But she realizes that balance, as she juggles a business, a competitive sport and her family, is critical.
“I do like having a lot of excitement and adventure in my life,” she says. “[But] to balance life, I think that’s really important, too. I could probably train more and do more but then things would be out of balance.”
In that respect, speedskating helps keep her life in harmony. “Speedskating does provide a lot of balance. … When you get out on the ice and you speedskate, then you are totally in this moment,” Roland says. “It’s hard work. You push your body as hard as you can push it, but it feels really good afterward.”
And then?
“Then I get home and take a hot bath.”
