Hermes

What I find interesting is that cyclists think that they have strong leg and glute muscles. In general, they have disproportionately strong quad muscles and weaker glute muscles. They become quad centric.

As the glutes weaken and the neurological importance of the glutes lessons, the back muscles do more work such that every pedal stroke when the quad fires requires a contraction in the back. That contraction should not happen if the glutes are working properly according to my PT.

I thought that having ones chiropractor at the driving range to work on posture and make adjustments during practice was very pro.

The other thing I did yesterday was use some of the mental techniques set forth in the Brave Athlete. I am reading that book again. I like the way the author models the workings of the brain into the chimp, computer and professor and then discusses the use and interplay between the different parts of the brain.

Execution of the golf swing is all about the computer brain. I have a script in my brain for the swing and my brain knows what to do assuming I let it and do not allow my chimp or professor brain to muck it up. The practice range is the place to break down the swing by using the professor brain and via repetition change the script in the computer brain.

I see a lot of similarities with time trials. One wants ones brain to execute a script and one lives in the moment as the script runs without the chimp or professor screwing it up. The chimp is so powerful that it can easily take over from visual or audible cues and run another script or just plain ruin everything via flooding the system with emotions of doubt and pain and run the script of how poorly one did when one felt this bad or we are just too old to do this sport anymore.

We desperately need the chimp to keep us alive and maintain the species but it can definitely muck up a golf game or time trial when its services are not needed.

Heathpack 

What do you base this comment on?

The hamstrings and glutes are muscles the extend the hip and flex the knee, which are huge aspects of the pedal stroke. Definitely my perception is that on the TT bike in particular, I am working/using glutes and hamstrings even more than on the road bike. I base this on where I feel sore afterwards. I could buy that sore hamstrings could relate to tight hamstrings (rather than strong ones developed because you're working them) but glute soreness seems to me to correlate with working/building glutes on the bike.

I rarely feel sore quads- of course maybe this is because my quads are so much stronger/better developed. But I also think sometimes its a bit of an optical illusion to look at my legs and see quads and conclude: "my quads are my best muscle". I think some of this relates to the fact that the quads are big muscles that sit in the front of your body and aren't surrounded by fat in a lot of people. So they are visually obvious. Vs glutes which are big muscles surrounded by fat even in skinny ass people. And the hamstrings are just narrower, more linear muscles.

This stuff could be better defined with Electromyographic recruitment pattern testing, and likely it has. But then I guess the other question would be- if the quads generate more force than the calf muscles say, does that mean that they are "strong" and the calf muscles are "weak" with the resultant corrective action being to work the calf muscles? I would say no, of course the quads generate more force, that is a much bigger muscle group and it should generate more force.

Tl/dr- mostly just want to know why you say cyclists have weak glutes.

sarals 

I heard about a rumor that the UCI is going to change the format for masters athletes for Track Worlds this year. Basically no 500M TT or 2K pursuit. Men will do a 4K and kilo, and the women really get hosed by only having a 3K pursuit. They do get to have four person team pursuit, over a 4K distance.

I HOPE this isn't true!!!!

Racer Ex 

So.

We're heading down to the Bay Area to visit family and pick up my niece for a trip to Disneyworld. An hour in I realize I left my wallet at the house. Discussion ensues. I have my passport so we continue our journey. Coming down out of the Sierras Mrs. Ex is driving the minivan when a big rig decides to change lanes from the right lane into our lane. Problem is we're halfway up the trailer in the lane that he's moving into.

The laws of physics says that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

We have a good 10-15 seconds of fun as we get hit, get driven into the center barrier, then start getting squeezed. Windshield starts cracking, interesting sounds, then we get spit out the back and are free.



Long story ensues. Bottom line the van is probably totaled, though outwardly looks far better than it should. We shall see.



Getting on a plane tomorrow. What could possibly go wrong?

revchuck 

@racerEx - Glad you're okay! I sure hope you've worn out your bad luck streak.

Heathpack 

Watch out for the alligators at Disneyworld, @Racer Ex

Hermes

Glad you and the wifey came out unscathed.

sarals 

That was Three of Three, right? You're now past it!

sarals 

Broken ribs suck. Just so you know.

This forum used to be SO vital. Lots of activity, discussions, camaraderie, advice, race reports, yays, nays....and it's just died.

What happened?

Bandera

Injury and retirement here, but recovery-mode doesn't make for lively posting.
However I have:

Reached Level 40 on Fallout 4 for Xbox1
Finished a 750 of Knob Creek Rye Whiskey
Practiced Charlie Chaplin's cane-twirling routine for hours
Re-read D.T. Sukuki's "Zen and Japanese Culture"
Rode an hour at 70-80 RPM in 54-63" gears w/o pain today (so far)

PS: Take those broken ribs very seriously ( as they will remind you to do on their own).
I did not much to my regret these many years on....

Be well, keep posting.

-Bandera

Heathpack 

Same thing as what’s going on with bike racing in real life- it’s shrinking. People have exited this forum due to injury, retirement from the sport, death, and they are not being replaced by newer people.

There’s also a wane in interest in forums as a means of online communication. FB, Instagram, Snapchat are more popular these days.

Personally I think having 50 subforums accelerates the decline of forums. Do we really need separate forums for recreational road cycling, young racers, old racers, really young racers, track racers, mountain bike racers, etc? Makes subforums seem “dead,” which doesn’t exactly foster participation. At some point if you keep posting to a forum with little participation, it just starts to seem narcissistic. That’s what happened to me in this forum.

Then there’s the sense of obligation to participate in something just to prevent it from dying. That’s a lot of unnecessary pressure/obligation. At some point you have to recognize that if something is trying to die, it’s maybe better to make peace with that than try to “save” it on your own. Otherwise you’re perpetually pulling your hair out over something you can’t realistically change.

Just my take on it.

sarals 

I think you're spot on right. I hate to see this forum die. I'll keep posting, in the hopes that as the season starts to awaken, maybe the threads will, too. Honestly, there are very few forums in the overall Bike Forums where I'm comfortable. This is the only one where I can be myself and feel as if I can say something and not be either misunderstood or something else. I'm active on the track forum, yes, but I do more reading than writing. Very, very few women post there, and it can get lonely.

Anyway...

Thanks for your input. It was sage, as always.

By the way. Norco is evil. I only took it for four days, and I spent the whole day yesterday in withdrawals from it. Today I'm fine, my head is clear, and tylenol is keeping the rib (and other) pain at bay nicely. I'm on track, it appears, to pick things up again starting Tuesday. Fingers and toes crossed!

sarals 

I'm going to try a trainer spin tomorrow. I'm taking tylenol when things start to get out of hand pain wise, but that's become maybe once a day. I tried to stop any meds at all yesterday, and that didn't work out so well. If I feel good in the morning, and things go well as the day progresses, I'll put my Look on my trainer (NOT rollers) and give it a try.

I hope I can!

sarals 

Two days of trainer spins. The first day was just a joy, and my legs got going, I feel the circulation coming back. It was really good, even though it was very light.

Today I tried a few different things, and the tools are all there. There may not even be much rust on them. My cardio has taken a hit, I'm swollen, still, and I'm up eight pounds. The ribs tolerated most of what I did, except for coming OTS. They don't like that.

I'm encouraged!

revchuck 

Sara - so glad you’re doing better! A wounded beast is still a beast!

sarals 

Chuck, thanks for the kind words, and the vote of confidence!

Progress, I go back to work today. I've been able to sleep on my right side, yay, rather than just my back.

I don't sleep all that well, even though I am dead tired by 8 PM. This really knocks the patootie out of you. I get pretty sore laying in bed, Tylenol helps, but still, it's uncomfortable.

I gain more and more range of motion each day. My core has taken a pretty good hit, and it will be probably a week or more before I can do planks or back ups. That core work was essential to my sprint strength, and I can't use it right now. I've been spinning on the trainer, and I discovered that I can NOT pedal OOS. That correlates with my core being dinged.

I sustained a pretty significant injury, I know that. I won't come back over night, but I will come back. I've already progressed very, very well. I'm confident I'll be up to speed for when I need to be. By the way, every cloud has a silver lining? I'm thinking the one in this was "don't panic". I've been uncharacteristically patient with this whole episode!

gsteinb

Sorry you're hurt Sara. Heard from Ex. I'm not on social media these days, and rarely use the forums except to play sheriff. Like heathpack pointed out, this is a somewhat outdated platform, and the inherently low volume of material in this sub-forum begets an even lower volume of activity.

Had my own mishap a couple of weeks ago.

There's a Chinese parable about a farmer, his son, and a horse that you can hum this to.

I was the leader in the New England velotooler series. Six races with a combo of crits and long hilly RRs. The RR race on the 7th had the potential to be canceled due to snow. 5 inches in April? Oy. Luckily it blew away and there was no adverse weather. So we lined up for a 60 miles road race with loads of hills. I think it was 5500 feet for the race. But 5 minutes before the race my rear derailleur snapped off. SRAM had neutral room support and they tried to fix my bike, but couldn’t find the proper hanger. The officials were holding the start for me. So they put me on a service bike with the seat feeling about six inches too high, and I raced that. Not fitted properly, no computer, watch, and no idea how to work the shifting - having never ridden sram before.

Thing is I was riding great, and no one was out climbing me, so I kept talking myself into sticking it out. We’d pass the parking lot and I’d say “one more lap.” Might as well get the workout. One guy got far off in front alone, but he wasn’t a series factor. I was in the yellow jersey and defending it. Last twenty minutes I realized I had a shot. Race ends with a five minute climb, a downhill, Then a 1k climb to the line. With 200 meters I rolled away and took the sprint for second.

Really, a pretty remarkable turn of events. Career highlight stuff.

Rolling the three or four miles back to the parking lot a couple of lower category riders from another field suddenly grabbed a handful of brake to stop and pee and me and the guy I was riding with slammed into them. Sheared the front spokes out of the wheel on the service bike. Slammed my face into the pavement, scraped the helmet, and broke my thumb at the base. Drove home to dump the dogs, get my bike fixed with the hope of starting the third round crit the next day, and then on to my wife’s ER where they were expecting me.

Became clear racing wouldn’t happen.

Needed surgery. When we went in it turned out it was actually crushed, and instead of a pin and splint as the surgeon originally thought it required a bit more hardware. I got a plate and full cast. I guess a scar to follow.

Hoping to get back for the bear Mt RR which is the NJ state championships. That or a short hill climb. Hard to say though. Surgical follow up Monday. I don't intend to rush it. I've got metal in three parts of my body now. A bit too many perhaps. Talked to Ex about this when I saw him a couple months back. I <3 the training. I'm just ga-ga for going hard. Love the discipline. I wake utterly ready to go for it day in, day out. Heck, I've been putting up historical best numbers since last season ended. I am a bit over crashing though. Not phobic, or scared, or even the slightest bit hesitant. My brain (or lack thereof) just doesn't work that way. But yeah.

Going for a bone density test when this all heals.

Started a weekend meditation retreat for a group of kids from Syracuse University the day after the surgery on 48 hours of no sleep, and truly insane pain. How a little bone could hurt so much is utterly remarkable. At least I know what I'm doing I had no clue what I was saying for the first part, until I caught up on some sleep.

Also, I can't overstate the superiority of e-motion rollers over a rear wheel trainer. Been on a fluid trainer since I started back riding, and no doubt I'm a much better rider due to the e-motions. So much smoother, and more natural.

Heathpack 

@gsteinb that truly blows, hope the thumb feels better

I was serious when I mentioned Disneyland. DL + Santa Barbara would be an awesome anniversary trip. Gibraltar is a great climb.

I can’t relate to where you are with crashing and breaking bones, but I 100% relate to your comments about training. I had some external factors make racing less fun for me this year and I started to question why I do it.

I do it because I like the workouts, the training, the overall arc of it. I gets me out of bed in the morning, to see if I can get whatever’s on my schedule done. I decided even without racing, I’d want to train. And training makes more sense when racing. So I’m still racing.

gsteinb

I'm sure. Not even a remote possibility though. That's not what I consider a vacation, I won't put my bike on a plane. Plus we have reservations for the victoria and albert's chef's table on our anniversary. serous bucket list.

Heathpack 

Napa Rose chefs table is excellent. 😉

gsteinb

color me confused

Heathpack 

Napa Rose is an excellent restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, which is a hotel & timeshare at the Disneyland Resort.

They have a great chefs counter experience. We’ve done it twice.

However I am just poking you with a stick. I personally think it would be awesome if you did the Gibraltar hill climb Nationals. It’s a great climb and Santa Barbara is such an awesome place if you like food, wine, sunshine, beaches. We’re going there as an overnight in a week or so and I’m majorly torn as to whether do a big road ride, up Gibraltar as part of a loop, vs a mountain bike ride at home prior to leaving for Santa Barbara. Two weeks after that, we’re doing an overnight at Disneyland and I’m trying to decide between the Chefs Counter at Napa Rose vs staying in the park later to catch the fireworks.

I understand that you’re not gonna do it the race out here though, makes no sense to me cause it would be an awesome perfect trip. But I understand it.

Heal up and feel better.

gsteinb

makes no sense, but you understand?

I have no interest in going to california for any reason. My mom's best friend moved there and we went twice a year. I did business out there and was there 5-6 times a year. I dated someone from the central valley and LA for 10 years and was there more times I can count.

Under no circumstances can I consider bringing a bike 'vacation.' Vacation to me is family time, and I'm singularly focused on them.

Long before this race was even on my radar I had written off doing the HC the first weekend of October I'm two time defending champion at to do a meditation retreat in september. From there I'm heading to disney for my anniversary and to eat at victoria and alberts (on my anniversary).

There's nothing even remotely appealing about disneyland, california, holding my season 6 weeks longer than I intended to, making my wife cancel reservations and trip she's looking forward to, or putting my bike on a plane.

Heathpack 

Jeez, chill out.

“I understand that you have stated you intend to keep the plans you have.”

“It makes no sense to me because I personally have done both the trip you intend and the trip you are rejecting and find them both to be great.”

Just making conversation with someone who is injured and I thought could use a chat. Lol my apologies for the attempt.

gsteinb

Plenty chill, pot calling kettle black.

I’ve done both trips, prefer Florida’s version, and want to be on vacation with my wife on our anniversary. Not training for a hill climb.