rjones28 

What's the problem?

WhyFi

Went out with friends last night - dinner, a concert, then a nightcap. It was fun, but I'm paying the price this morning. Ah, I remember the days when I had to try really hard to earn a hangover.

jtaylor996

Thanks much, BillyD.

MoAlpha

I don't necessarily know what the hell I'm doing, but I keep the resistance low and the cadence high on the trainer, a. because it trains the motor system to generate a smooth stroke and b. because it's a more effective way of recruiting the cardiovascular system for a given power output. I get plenty of high resistance on the hills, when I get outside.

As for the left leg and the top of the stroke, why do you think it's hip flexor; have you had problem there? I had that pedaling issue after I squeezed out a disk fragment onto my L3 & 4 roots and my left quad started to atrophy. I figured it was hamstrings, which are principally L4, but never had any real evidence because I refused an EMG. Anyway, a couple of weeks on the bike fixed it. Assuming it is hip flexor, just be careful with selective hip flexor strengthening. A tight ilipsoas without concomitant strengthening of the posterior chain (glutes and hams) is a set-up for lower back problems. Ask me how I know.

LAJ

RPM is such a subjective thing. One has to realize that painting a Picasso on the bike is something left for the pro's, and us minions just do our best with the time and skill we have. My single leg drills consisted of some low rpm (40-60) 80-90 watt target drills. 5 minutes or so, at the end of a workout. High cadence was greater than 100, for up to 10 minutes at a time, x3 or so. That was considered an "easy" day, and I hated it. I churn butter as a rule, yet race day, I actually bop along at 90-95 most of the time.

Start slow, work your way up to what you can do, and go from there. Maybe at the end of a workout, start at one minute single leg, low rpm, and concentrate fully on form. High cadence stuff, again, start small, and work up. As far as making your leg work, that's on you. My left leg will never be 100% since that pesky femoral neck thing, but it's functional enough for those drills.

LAJ

Very much agree!

seedsbelize 

Yes. I need the insulation under as well as over.

seedsbelize 

It is said that that was the original formula, among the Maya. I've tried it, of course, and it only tore up my innards, as hot chiles tend to do in any venue.

WhyFi

In what way did 110rpm suck? If it was a lack of smoothness, that'll quickly go away with practice. If it was a high toll in terms of cardio, that'll be mitigated with improving fitness (though your best threshold power may never be in that cadence region).

I've never had an ACL replacement, but I ****ing hate single-leg drills. They can be frustratingly difficult for me and one leg is noticeably less proficient than the other, so I wouldn't be too hasty with any functionality assumptions. Doing your exercises probably wouldn't hurt, but I would just keep at it, maybe being a little more mindful of the entirety of your pedal stroke while riding normally. Reassess in another 4-6 weeks.

Despite the saying, I don't think that riding a bike is like riding a bike - it takes time to get your groove back.

seedsbelize 

I rarely, if ever, pedal above 80 rrpm. I'm comfortable at that pace, and am not interested in any of the power/cadence/ftp, etc. mumbo jumbo. Granted, I ride pancake flat 99 percent of the time I'm out. That's all I got. I can't speak to hip flexors and the like except to say they likely could stand to be loosened up. I am truly shocked at how unlimber my body has become over the past ten years. 66 years old.

BillyD

We'll start with some recent shots, these from last summer at the HS tournament I shoot.
The man in the middle is Nate "Tiny" Archibald, one of the NBA's top 50 greatest of alll time.




One of the rare occurrences when I get into a celebrity photo, Tiny is one of my favorite people.



Here's Tiny with another NBA legend you might recognize - Earl "The Pearl" Monroe. The big guy in the back also played pro, Tom Hoover.

LAJ

Way cool, Bill!

datlas 

Kudos.

But you can't Strava basketball, can you?

Trsnrtr

Ditto.

rjones28 

Good stuff, @BillyD

seedsbelize 

I finally caught a good tailwind today, and it was sort of anticlimactic. Oh well, it was fun. The outbound headwind though, was tougher than .it needed to be.

Lovely pics BillyD.

WalksOn2Wheels

Thanks all for the comments and input. I had planned on seeing my preferred sports chiropractor as soon as I put some more rides in and weird issues cropped in, so I do have an appointment for that tomorrow.

I'm guessing hip flexor only because the cycling portion of the muscles all seem to be firing fine, but even when I did PT for the ACL recovery hip flexors were pretty weak on both legs. Trying to analyze what was happening on single leg drills and just sort of guessing where the weak link might be. I do have a nagging nerve issue in my left outter thigh. One chiropractor swore it was due to a pinched nerve at the vertebrae, but the last time I saw my current one, she suggested it's mostly nerves bound up in the muscles. I tend to agree with her because massaging the area does give it a tingling/pins and needles (painful) sensation and more cycling makes the muscle right and weird sensations start to happen randomly, hence my scheduled visit.

For sure, I looked at those plans again and typically the 110 rpm was only for 10 seconds or so. Maybe 100 at x amount of minutes. I could probably manage that. I was also surprised at how much power I could put down at 110 rpm even though it was taxing my cardiovascular fitness. I think I will do another week or two of just basic rides and then take a shot at the 4 week FTP booster just because 4 weeks is a lot easier to block out with work travel, etc.

And yeah, cardiovascular. As you said, should get better with fitness. But even when I was riding a lot, I stayed at 80-ish because I could feel my HR rise at 90 or so. Wanting to keep my HR in check, I would default to what was comfortable. I can do 110 smooth, it's just work.

I shouldn't care as much, but "training" is fun. Even if I don't stand a chance at being competitive on any level, it's in my nature to poke at numbers regardless of how dismal they are.

Right now the plan is ride (or "ride" as the case may be) consistently during the week, try to do 20-30 miles on the weekends when I can and sing up for a 100K gravel ride I did 3 years ago to see if I can better my time. I was in really bad shape then as well, barely riding. So I want to see if I can make a quantifiable dent in that performance. I was talking to the organizer recently and it's the same exact route as before.

MoAlpha

Well, I can help with one thing: Chiro 2 is almost certainly correct—it's the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve—but the cause is usually a tight belt, waistband, or something outside the abdominal wall.

Rowan

That again from me,too.

Tiny has held on to his reputation, looking as though he is still not carrying any weight whatsoever.

Heathpack 

Generally speaking, for most people it is more metabolically efficient to pedal at a higher RPM so there is some benefit to training up the ability to output threshold and above power at higher cadence. Additionally, it is a little better to be able to output good power over a wide range of cadence. Definitely for me personally, I tend to naturally pedal at a lower cadence- ie 85-90 rpm. This feels more "restful" to me at threshold power when I am racing. But when I'm really aerobically fit, I can pedal at higher cadence at the same power output. This is desirable on two grounds- 1. per coach I am always a little faster at higher cadence and 2. I have more arrows in my quiver, meaning I can use a broader range of cadence during a TT- I can pedal fast and tax myself aerobically and then if I start to get winded, produce the same power at a lower cadence to recover a little before going back to the high cadence pedaling.

That said, I don't sweat it too much and coach doesn't make a big issue of cadence. Generally he wants me to self select my cadence when racing or training. I should just be aware that threshold power output at high cadence is worth working on. He only occasionally prescribes a specific cadence for an interval. However I've been working on this of my own accord lately and last week wound up doing the last 20 min of a threshold interval at a cadence of 98. It was something of a triumph. I definitely need to warm into it, spooling up cadence works better for me than trying to start out too high.

As far as the sideness, we never work on that. I think its fairly normal for people to have a strong leg and a weaker leg. I do stretch a lot to try to keep one leg from being tighter than the other (tore my quadriceps playing soccer in HS and that leg is shorter than the other and tighter). But no one-legged drills or anything like that.

Heathpack 

My MRI tech found me yesterday and told me her brother sent her a video of his dog who suddenly was having trouble walking. Would I look at the video. Sure.

In the video the dog is stumbling around, obviously mental and twitching.

Aw jeez, definitely neuro and with the sudden onset of symptoms needs to come in to the ER immediately.

First thing they do is check some bloodwork. I kid you not, dog's BG is 48 mg/dL.

#insuinomanumber4

gnome

What are they putting in the water in your town?

Rowan

It's never intrusion when it helps protect my life and other road users should the person be subject to the law and suffers from a brain issue that prevents them from driving with appropriate judgment and ability.

BillyD

Tiny is one hell of a guy. No matter what he makes it his business to come back and show his support for the local basketball scene, and he's been doing it for years. He's one of the most accessible pros you'll ever meet.

Here's a shot of him at the Rucker Pro tournament in 1982, greeting fellow native NYer Dean Meminger who played for the '72-'73 champion NY Knicks.

BillyD

That was my thought too, more likely than my first thought - all the cases eating the same food.