Tales of a Novice Cyclist

We rode Ventura into Ojai today.  48.3 miles.  It was actually okay. I knee was a little sore but not as much as it used to.  I think the angle of the cleat helped.  The saddle position though is another story.  I made it to the end of the route without any incidents. Except for my being unable to clip out and ramming into Bill at one of the stop signs (sorry Bill!).   Everyone commented about how nice the scenery was, but I was too lame, concentrating on the road in front of me to not lose the rider in front.  I should have stopped and taken a picture. Darn it!  I found that 3 GU packets and a packet of Shot Bloks would last me the 50 miles.  Funny thing was that my legs actually didn’t cramp up until mile 45.  On my previous rides, my legs would almost certainly cramp up by mile 30.  I guess I’m making progress…. slowly but surely.   Now, if only I could figure out these damn pedals so that I can clip out without falling over. :-(… and to pull my water bottle out of the cage and drink from it then put it back while pedaling.  I think I should work on the clip thing first though. :-\

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I woke up this morning and started walking over to the bathroom to get ready for work and my knee is hurting!  W-T-HECK?  I’ve been baby-ing my knee all week to get ready for the  long ride this weekend!  I don’t understand what I could have done to it…  It was fine last night before I went to bed.  I just took a closer look at it and there is a big ole’ bruise… :-\  I don’t even remember when I got this bruise! The heck, MAN…  I guess I bumped it into something in my sleep?

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So I rode with the new cleat setting and the saddle lowered. I must say that I think the new cleat angle worked. My knee was not as sore or hurting as it usually does after a short 15 miler. The saddle is a different story though. I lowered the seat but I didn’t feel any difference, so I decided to push the saddle further back to put it in the center setting of the rails. Then when I started riding, I was actually sitting on my sit bone! whoa! BUT, I think the saddle was not too high since I was sitting more on the rear of the seat. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but I rode the rest of the ride without lowering the saddle again as I was fighting daylight to get back to my car. Anyways, I’m hoping that my next ride will be more comfortable… Wish me luck!

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I went on the Gold ride yesterday through Simi Valley. God, I could BARELY keep up!  Thank goodness Bill was riding with me on the latter part of the ride to be the map. Otherwise, I would have gotten lost for sure.  Santa Anas were blowing so we hit some headwind up in the hills, but it was definitely a nice day.  The ride was about 37 miles, I think.  So here starts my complaining.  I rode yesterday with a Superstep insole which is supposed to raise my arch a bit more to accomodate the pronation of my foot (I think that’s what it was called).   Anyways, my knee started throbbing about 5 miles into the ride.  But I was stuck with the insole because I couldn’t take it out and ride without anything, right?  I just cranked through the 37 miles with the throbbing knee, and immediately iced it when I got home.  My knee now feels the same as it did last week after my ride.  Oy… So today, I tried to pay close attention to my foot position when I walked to my car.  I remember the bike fit person saying that he tries to match the feet/knee position of how people walk and translate that to the pedaling motion in the bike.  I turned the angle of the cleat in the shoe out a bit more.  I couldn’t do TOO much because the way that screw holes of the Speedplay cleats are configured, I can only adjust up, down, side to side, and not allow me to turn the angle of the cleat mounting position too much.  Nevertheless, I was able to turn it about 5 degrees, I think. Hopefully that will help.  I am also going to bring my saddle lower a bit to see if that will force me to sit right over the sit bone instead of anywhere else.  I don’t know what it was but it just went NUMB down there.  Maybe it was the padding in the shorts?  So, I’ll try again later today with the cleats in a new angle, Superfeet orthotic out, and lower saddle and see if that alleviates ANY of my problems.  Only 3 more weekends until Solvang Prelude….

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Call me sloth.  S-L-O-T-H.  I was stuck in the office all day today.  Spreadsheet after spreadsheet after spreadsheet, and putting out fires.  I didn’t even leave the office for lunch, and was stuck at the office until 6:45pm!  It’s just WRONG…  I’m usually done at the office by 5:30pm at the latest!  I missed my usual Thursday evening rides with Jan and the group.  GRRRRrrr..  I haven’t been on my bike since last Saturday when I was bonked out.  No exercise at all since then except a couple of yoga classes. I was even too late to go to a yoga class too.  Have I complained enough? So call me sloth.  I need to make more money so that I can have a better lifestyle… but don’t we all, I guess.

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