LesterOfPuppets

I'm at 64.7% on my Yahoo/QUICKEN BRACKET!

Too bad it doesn't pay 4,000,000 places deep.

coasting 

racing sounds crazy.

coasting 

is this what pcad calls flyover land?

Bah Humbug

By my standards that's a huge week. But I'm really a tri geek hanging out here and trying to blend in.

It doesn't work.

2manybikes

Earth people?

LAJ

No more crazy than some other cycling pursuits.

Heathpack 

Just last week, I added swimming to my training, which I really like but am very bad at. I am still adjusting to a slightly more aggressive position on the new bike, having some upper and lower back soreness (oddly skipping the middle part of my back, what's with that?). Hoping the swimming will build core + upper body strength, which will help on the bike. I realize it would be more efficient to just do a core workout instead of swimming, but I hate that stuff & won't actually do it. Versus swimming which I will actually do. I also do a very intense hour per week of core yoga, so it's not like I'm totally neglecting the core.

This am, I swam 1.47 mi in 1:03:17 according to my swim watch. (Yes, I am very slow but zen)

I can't run at all though.

H

patentcad

AA people call the civilian population who are not in Recovery 'Earth People'. Why? Because their lack of understanding of the nature of addiction is so utterly profound that it's like we are all aliens from another planet and they are the Earth People.

coasting 

i am a recovering KFC holic.

2manybikes

Many of my friends are aliens. Good analogy.

LesterOfPuppets

Greetings from Longview!

LesterOfPuppets

2manybikes

"Hi I'm 2manybikes and I'm a snow biking holic."

Group - "Hi 2many".

Bah Humbug

I like swimming, except for the parts of getting in and out of the pool when it's chilly. By "chilly" I mean "below 80*" which is what it's been for like half a year.

Was that just steady swimming, or were you doing any sort of intervals?

Heathpack 

No intervals, mostly steady swimming except for a warm up & cool down. BUT I swim in a tiny pool at the Y that is used for kids swim lessons. It is 17 yards long and only 3.5 feet deep. I am bad at flip turns anyway but can't really do them in this shallow pool. So I get a little pause every 17 yd. Otherwise, I don't stop because I only have an hour in the AM before I need to leave for work.

When non-swimming people see me swim, they comment, "oh you have a smooth stroke." But I went to a few masters swim sessions and the coach was all in a panic to change my stoke, I got the impression there is something significantly wrong with it. She had me doing these drills which made me feel like I was on the verge of drowning, that was no fun, so I just stopped going. I never really got from her what the problem was, but I do notice that I have a bit of a pause when both arms come together and I am fully proned out.

For some reason, though, I don't really mind swimming slowly. I find swimming very relaxing.

H

coasting 

why anyone would ruin a nice bike ride with a run is beyond me. triathletes...ppffffffff

coasting 

i think if you didn't get drilled in swimming technique when little, it is harder to learn as an adult. i think grown ups over think it.

3alarmer 

...I used to swim a lot as part of my routine until I managed to develop a chlorine sensitivity that makes it impossible now.

It's the best answer to roadie girly arm syndrome. On the whole core thing, I think I mentioned to @coasting once before that it's
possible to make your pedals go around using different muscles and groups of them, and that it's worth experimenting a little to get the
feeling of what it's like to use mostly the abdominals and stuff on the front of your body, as opposed to your gluteals and back muscles
to accomplish the work of pedaling. Back issues often pop up in people who increase their mileage, and are not easily attributable to
one or another cause. If you can get on a trainer next to a large mirror you can experiment with position and try to track down some things,
like if your back is too bent (versus extended and reflexed) or if you're too far forward or back with reference to the crank axis.

Like @coasting, many people find relief with either a longer, shorter, taller, or just different stem.....something that moves the bar position.

Position on the bicycle is pretty variable, and sometimes you just have to try different stuff to see what works.

coasting 

no. shorten your stem is the answer to all fit issues.

Heathpack 

OMG you have no idea what a can of worms you have opened with comment. I've been going through a little bit of a bike fitting drama behind the scenes.

I'm pretty certain that the back pain issues are to do with the new bike not the mileage (because in the first week I had the bike I rode it 146 miles which was a normal distance for me, not an increase, but I had the soreness right from the day I got the bike). I really shouldn't describe the back/shoulder issues as pain, just soreness vs I had zero on the old bike. But I was also very used to my position on the old bike. In 3 weeks, my feelings about the fit have gone from angry petulance that it was unacceptable to feeling like it is 90% ok. Right now the only thing I'm unhappy with is the hood position, I think the reach of the bars is a little long. I am on my second set of bars already (after having had to replace the original manly bars, so really I have 3 sets). My fitter was pretty clear that a shorter stem is not the ideal solution, which I understand is a little bit of an unusual thing to be so adamant about. But I will agree that my new very non-squirrelly bike is ever-so-slightly squirrelly when I'm riding on the tops, so maybe they are already as close as they should be.

I have not seen myself on the bike and maybe I should try to figure out a way to take a peek- Mr. H could maybe video me on the trainer. I know the fitter was trying to get me lower on the bike and I suspect my issues have related to adjusting to that- I would guess I'm not flexing enough at the hips. So I'm right now in the "give it time" phase of things, thinking about my position on the bike more when I'm riding. I have been to the fitter once since getting the bike, but between the seatpost set-back and the 2nd set of bars having too long of a reach, we were at an impasse and got nowhere. Both of those things have now been replaced and I'm going back to see the fitter in a few weeks.

H

3alarmer 

...among the many strange adventures I've had in a purposefully chosen adventurous life, one of the more interesting ones was as a farrier.

While in school for this, the instructor made a big deal in one of the corrective shoeing demonstrations about straightening the position and
travel of the front hoof of a recreational horse which winged out quite noticeably. So he cut down the inside of the hoof some, and stuck a
custom shoe with a little hook on the outside on the poor beast, and at the end that horse stood and walked just as straight as could be.

Three or four days later, of course, the horse pulled up lame. So you need to be the final arbiter on fit issues.

coasting 

shorten your stem!

bring out your dead!

rjones28 

I feel fine.

rjones28 

Hey, @coasting, if shortening the stem is good wouldn't reversing the stem be even better?

BillyD

Obviously Phillistines.