Nah, just heaven! Only feels like hell at the time. So alot has been going on since I last posted. Been riding and riding like mad. Going from 3 or 4 mile rides a couple of weeks ago to a 13 miler today. Something back at the beginning of the month of August or late July just clicked in my head- I'm a cyclist! I have been since I first began enjoying riding my new to me bike in April around the driveway with my two sons and I still am. I've been a cyclist since the early 80's, maybe 1984 when I turned 13 and started getting turned onto road cycling. Life changed when I was in my early 20's and I gave it up, but I guess that I never stopped being a cyclist. And I realize that I still love it!
So in addition to riding I wanted to feel like a cyclist too. I found a pair of Shimano MTB shoes at Play It Again Sports, a second hand sports equipment shop where I have found ALOT of great deals, mainly weight lifting equipment. Not enough cycling duds, but these shoes have immensely raised my level of enjoyment. From old sneakers and gym shorts and a t-shirt now I am back into spandex bibs and cycling jerseys via a few second hand Ebay purchases. Oh yeah, and a pair of beat up, but perfectly functioning Shimano M520 pedals also came from Ebay for $15!
As far as the bike has changed- well, not alot. I bought a small under the saddle bag for it, finally caved into the all too real world of tres expensive water bottles ($9 for a store bottle, but from a store that I love anyways- AllSpeed in Portland) and swapped in my wife's cycle computer (that she isn't using right now) a Sigma BC906 that is a fairly nice and well featured computer that would be better if it decided to work more than it does. I blame the magnetic pickup which is incredibly fussy about being only a millimeter or so from the magnet or it stops entirely giving a speed readout. I've also picked up for cheap a Ritchey WCS alloy seatpost in 350mm. yeah, the frame is still too small and even with a frequent watering of sweat it hasn't grown, so in order to counteract the fact that its too small for me I've raised the post up too far (and it needs a fraction more really...). The Ritchey is 50mm longer, a good two inches that will make me feel alot more secure. Plus, its the bling factor- Ritchey!
And so I've enjoyed the hell out of riding. I'm feeling stronger day by day and capable of riding farther and stronger and faster. My only real problem has been mainly solved by reading this article on leg pain. This fellow is a bike fitter in Britain and this article said that what I've been feeling especially since installing new cleats in my Shimano clipless boots was wrong. On longer efforts, especially climbing from the seat, my quadriceps would burn like hell, esp. right at the inside corner of my knees. I figured that it was just being out of shape and that it would be the price I'd have to pay until I got into better shape. But it hurt so much that it really hindered my desire to keep going. It was so painful that it made me want to just slow down and hopefully stop. This guy said that ANY localized pain in your quads should not happen- ever. He suggested adjusting cleat position. The old wisdom has been that you should adjust the cleats so that the ball of your foot just in back of your big toe should intersect your cleat. Well, he wrote that that may be too far forward. I had adjusted my cleats so that they were so far forward that I had no more adjustment and I had thought that it was what I should have been doing. You know, the old toes down and dig with your pedals. I moved my cleats back a few mm and hey, no more pain! Incredible! I'm still fine tuning them a bit, but what a difference! I can go harder in the saddle with no flaming pain in my quads, well, nothing that I can't endure at least!
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