Uh huh.

Random topic tangent alert! Anyone else ever read and post on Bike Forums while still in their lycra after a ride? First time for me. Feels weird. The main reason is this room is where the AC is and it's hot everywhere else, so I wanted to cool down.

..http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oZwSBXOerB...0/image005.jpg

:facepalm:

How about some informative and inspirational content for a change?

I really wasn't feeling it this evening but, with a lofty mileage goal to meet, I HTFU and went out for a ride.

A couple miles in and I thought, "I may be low on energy today, but I can't be this low. Something is wrong."

I looked down at the wheel and--sure enough--the brake was off-center. I stopped and adjusted. Upon remounting I recognized an immediate boost in speed.

The ride got better as it wore on. Along the way I made a technique adjustment which may improve my efficiency powering over short hills (it's too soon to tell).

By the end of the ride I'd worked up a good sweat hammering a few laps at the office park.

Lessons learned:

(1) It's rare, but I have off days. This should be an encouraging reminder to you Freds that it happens even to the best of us.

(2) Even if you're not feeling it, you should get out there and slog through it.

(3) If I'm riding slow, there's something wrong with the bike.

(4) Discoveries on riding technique can come at unexpected times.

(5) Summer evening rides are awesome. OK, I already knew that but I'm reminded every time I do one.

pcad also tries the ol' brake rub excuse from time to time....

It was weird because I had not removed the wheel since my last ride.

So?

Thank God! I was wondering if anyone would take that bait.

Hey Pcad,

Have you ever do this?

I set them up and rjones knocks them out of the park. good job!

Do I haaaavve to. Well if I must. That's the whining bit out of the way, now to the climbing bit.

First thing that was noticed was my saddle was too high. Not by much but about 1/2 a cm. You should have someone watch your pedal stroke because the feel could be misleading. I always felt the saddle was too low but it turns out that I was pedaling toe down and it just felt like it was too low but I wasn't getting enough power into the downstroke. Once i lowered the saddle, I was able to drop the heal on the downstroke to just below level. This engaged my quads more than before and I could feel it whilst riding and afterwards with more muscle ache than previous rides.

On the climb, sit further back and concentrate on the pull back and up. The other foot on the downstroke can take care of itself. I thought I was doing this before but having someone yelling about it made me focus more on it and I felt a greater lightening on the other pedal doing the downstroke and the sitting further back helped. The difference in feel was the momentum. It was a steep stretch and normally the pedalling breaks down and I'm struggling to push the pedal down really slowly but with the momentum in the circlular pedal turning, the speed was a good 2 mph faster than normal and the top was reached quicker. It still hurt as much though.

Gear selection. I keep reading here to spin spin spin. Well, yes but don't over do it. Turns out I was choosing too low a gear. Where the gradient eases off a bit I normally kept the same really low gear and just spun more with little torque and rested. I was yelled at to gear up and although it took a bit more effort the preservation of momentum meant that when it got steep again I wasn't stuck and the speed kept higher but more importantly i could drop to a lower gear and keep the cadence going instead of it dropping off. momentum again.

by the way, the saddle height had been looked at by less experienced riding partners and they never spotted the high seat because they always looked for the classic rocking hips. My hips did not rock because I was compensating for the height by pointing toes. the road nazis noticed because they were looking at the feet and the lack of heel drop on th climb.

Did you ever pass English class in grade school?

Did you ever finish grade school? It's Tennessee, so that's always an open question.

Rocket ride today. Synvisc shot #2 tomorrow.

Such is the life of an aging Bike Weenie.

You're falling apart.

How does one do that?

It's possible to bump things or calipers/shoes/shifters can slip if is not torqued properly. It's a good practice to inspect before every ride.

Dirty rim and/or inadequate toe in can do that

I believe Tulex refering to the "almost thought" portion of Razors post. I was thinking, must have scared him.