Pushing the Pedals

Over the course of the last three weeks I have been through the ringer. 

 The bike I bought last summer was the wrong fit.  I was raised in the school of “it never hurts to ask” so I went back to Wheelworks in Belmont and talked to the owner about my dilemma.  The crux of it is that I need performance more than I need comfort.  Last summer’s bike was the right bike for the occaisional weekend rider who just wants to be comfortable.

They were great about working with me to get me into a new bike and they even threw a full/free bike fitting in for me.  I, of course, had dropped key phrases like “I joined Team in Training” … so they know what kind of riding I need to do, and they know I will be buying accessories.  ha ha

The new bike is great.  And, lucky for me, it was a 2008 model that didn’t sell so it was discounted.  I went from the Specialized Sequoia to the Trek 2.3 WSD.  If you know bikes, or just googled all of that, you know that I made a big leap up in performance.  And, I managed to stay with my “low profile” black/silver color scheme.  ha ha  Maybe I should have gone for the Maui blue with hibiscus flowers?? 

Anyway, the next piece was to fit the bike.  I met with a fitter and we set the bike up.  He told me that if I felt any of the “painful” things to come back as the fitting was guaranteed for three months.

Equipped with my new bike, I went out and rode harder and faster.  Yeah me!  And, I started to notice some pain around the right knee.  Back to the shop for me.  This time I saw a different fitter, and WOW!  what an experience.

We started by picking out new shoes.  I’d been putting this off since I am not totally made of money these days, but I was able to find a great pair of shoes (again last year’s that didn’t sell) and then we went downstairs to do a cleat fitting and take a look at my pedalling.

Turns out I am very “tibia neutral”.  Fabulous.  The guy said it’s a pretty rare thing, actually, so I guess I should stop being so sarcastic.  The really good part is that I don’t need special shoes or footbeds or an agressive road cleat, which save me a lot of money.  heh.

One my cleats were squared away he had me pedal the bike.  Ahah.  Herin lies the problem!  Turns out, I suck.  The pedal stroke is about pushing the pedal in a circle (spinning).  Four major muscles are involved:  quad, glutes, hamstrings and hip flexors.  I was basically using quads and hamstrings to get most of the work done.  I wasn’t using hip flexors at all.  Uh oh.  The hip flexors is what we focused on … they bring the pedal up and over the top.  It’s not enough to bring the pedal back to the 12 o’clock position, it needs to come over to the 1 o’clock position (or so).  And, when your hip flexors are tight or inflexible this turns out to be a really hard thing to do … I can get it done but right after I heard the “thunk” of hitting a dead spot in the pedal stroke.  So, I need to practice that and get stronger.

Because of my hip flex issues, we also changed the bike set-up again to get me a bit more upright to open that joint.  Did you pick up on what I just said?  First I was too upright in the old bike.  Then I went to a performance bike and we stretched me out and got me lower.  Now I’ve been brought back up a smidge.  He also raised my seat some more and fiddled with my handlebars.  AND, luckily, as I get stronger and better at this I can expect to continue to be refit on the bike.  Good times!

So I went riding on Saturday and it felt good.  Yeah! 

The next big battle is the weather.  Everyone’s joking that we’re the new pacific northwest.  Maybe the vampires will be here, soon?  ha ha

Oh well … someone please talk to the weather gods.  Thanks!

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