I'M FLYING!!!

Introducing myself to the new bike was a bit of a comical disaster. I ended up lying in the middle of the road because I had unclipped the wrong foot before stopping. But now I've learned my lesson and I'm able to ride the road bike properly. I cannot believe the difference it has made. It's so light compared to my cross bike, which now feels ridiculously sluggish by comparison. Before looking at my times, here's something else really worth looking at, my training chart.

You can see that in weeks 9 and 10 I cycled virtually nothing because of the bad knee. I've slowly come back to it, although this morning was meant to be another 15 miles but I was too exhausted from a late night. Anyway, in the first 12 weeks I've cycled a total of 335 miles. One week (week 8) I cycled more than the schedule required of me. 

Week	Total Miles on Schedule	Actual Miles Cycled	Total Miles	Weight
1	30	2	2	194
2	40	20	22	194
3	50	25	47	192
4	30	10	57	194
5	55	30	87	194
6	70	55	142	190
7	80	60	202	190
8	50	55	257	189
9	85	2	259	187
10	95	0	259	185
11	105	26	305	187
12	75	30	335	187

Check out my weight. I was losing weight slowly and steadily although the drop in activity on the regime has resulted in stagnation. Nonetheless, I've already lost 7lbs. With four weeks to go, I should be able to get that into double figures. So, that's progress. I'm not cycling enough, but I am cycling nonetheless. With four weeks left, I should probably pass 600 miles of training in order to be fully prepared. That's going to take more commitment than I felt this morning!

Now, what about the speed?

5 mile times	10 mile times	15 mile times	20 mile times
29
26
27
27
25
21:33	43:44
22:14	45:12
23:06
21:21
21:00	43:44
22:36	43:35	1:07:30
23:45	46:03
23:44	47:00
23:13	45:49	1:10:18
			1:46:12
23:19	47:38
22:52	46:44
23:27	47:57
			1:36:28
22:39	45:43
24:15	47:01	1:11:07
			1:39:06
18:29
19:04
			1:19:31
18:37	37:19
18:44	37:16

Blue is previous personal best (PB), yellow is current. The 15 mile column is about to get filled much more as my thrice-weekly ride is going to shift from 10 to 15 miles. But you can clearly see in the other columns when I shifted from the old bike to the new bike. My 5 mile PB was slashed by two and a half minutes. My 10 mile PB was slashed by 6 minutes. And my 20 mile PB was slashed by 17 minutes. I feel like this when I'm on the bike now...

I've honestly never cycled this fast. I'm going so quickly now that I even registered a reading on a local speed detector (which said I was doing 17mph). Speed isn't everything on a 100-mile race, though. The reason I pay attention to this is because during the Tour of Acoma, road support is withdrawn after about 7 hours and I'd rather have as little of my race as possible without support. An hour or two I can handle, more than that might be an issue.

I do know, though, that endurance is key, and I really need to be working more on that. There have been a couple of 30-mile rides but with 4 weeks to go, I should have at least done one or maybe two 50-mile rides by now. This weekend has to be a minimum of 40 as a result, but I'll push for 50 if I can. The key question is the left knee, which isn't very painful any more but is still aggravating me and still needs ice. 

So, I still have a lot of work to do. I'm now comfortable on the new bike with the new shoes and new way of riding. I say comfortable - the new saddle really hurts my bum. I'm used to more padding. But apart from that, I'm comfortable that I'm not very likely to fall off and hurt myself, even though every bump I hit in the road makes me think about it for a second or two. 

What I need is to build up my endurance. And what I also need is your support. I know without question that the more people sponsor me per mile, the more I'll be pushed to keep going. So please, please, please if you haven't sponsored me already, please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/655G575 to sponsor me. Thank you.

Time to Hit The Road

It is time for a new kind of cycling. I have always been afraid of clips because of a fear of toppling over and hurting myself, but the man in the cycle shop said that I seemed to be a natural at clipping and unclipping and that I would be fine. Someone else told me that I would fall over once, should laugh it off and then just get back on the bike. But I was totally prepared for this.

I walked down the loose gravel drive in my new shoes, got onto the road and clipped myself in. And I was off. This was fast. I've never ridden a road bike (aka a racing bike in the UK) and so I had never experienced anything like this. Every bump in the road was tremendously exaggerated because there was no suspension, something I've been used to practically since I've been riding bikes. And it felt precarious because the bike was so much lighter compared with anything else I've ever ridden. But I knew this was fast.

I wasn't even going to do five miles, I just wanted to get used to the bike. After I had cycled perhaps a mile, I saw a place ahead that would be perfect to stop. This was it. As I drew closer, I unclipped my right foot, which is my dominant foot. Here we go....

Now, muscle memory is an interesting thing. It turns out that for 25 years of bike riding on roads, whenever I stopped it wasn't my right foot that I would put down but my left. That was because I would push off again on the pedal with my right foot. So, here I am with my right foot unclipped and my left foot firmly clipped into the pedal. Instinctively, my muscle memory kicked in and I went to put my left foot down. But my left foot couldn't go down, so I unbalanced the whole bike and, as everyone said I would, I toppled hard onto the road. For a second, I stopped and then realised what I had just done and started laughing. Then I realised that I was actually lying in the middle of the road so I got up and moved to the side of the road just as a small truck quickly drove past. That was actually much closer than I had realised.

So, now I know. Unclip the LEFT foot, not the right. Then unclip the right foot if need be. Ass.

A little bruised, I at least wasn't squashed by the truck and am rather excited to see what I can do on the new bike. More soon...

If you haven't yet done so, please do go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/655G575 to sponsor me. I need your help. Thank you.

It's the Shoes, Stupid!

I haven't cycled properly now for two weeks. There was the quick 2 mile ride to Temple a week ago, which was met with a rather nice round of applause, but that's not really the kind of ride I should be doing right now - the minimum distance should be 15 miles. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to because of the serious knee pain that I've been suffering. During my last 30-mile ride, at about 15 miles I was struck by a serious pain in both knees, but my left knee in particular. I decided to ride through it and within a couple of miles it was gone. I finished the thirty miles well. A day later, though, I was in pain and it just remained. I posted on Facebook and there were lots of suggestions, particularly including ice. After a week of suffering I decided to follow people's advice and go and talk to the people at REI.

Here was the challenge. I've done a bike ride before - not 100 miles but still sizeable - and I never had knee pain then. So what was causing it this time? The first suggestion was predictable - the seat position must have been wrong. But even with a Transatlantic move, the seat hasn't shifted at all, so that can't be it.
"What shoes are you wearing?" asks the nice man at REI.
"These," I say, looking down.
 "Are you serious?" he says
"Yes."
"Well, that's the source of your pain. Are you getting pain on the very ball of your feet as well?"
"Actually, yes I am!" I say surprised, as though I didn't think this guy would know exactly what he was talking about. So he shows me shoes and I'm rather surprised to be looking at $100 for a pair of shoes plus another $70 for pedals plus another $30 or so for cleats. There are three parts to cycling shoes - pedals, shoes and the cleats which connect the two. I tell him I'm going to have to go and think about this. He suggests that until I buy shoes that I go to Wallgreens and buy their clay cooling and heating pad, because it's the best one there is. I try to see whether icing the knee will just solve this problem.


Of course, even if the ice fixes it, there's still the issue of what shoes to use the next time I ride. I'm quite afraid of clipping in to a bicycle because I can only imagine that I'll not be able to put my foot down and will topple over. But a number of people have been talking about clipping in because it makes you go so much faster and because effort is expended pulling up as well as pushing down. Still, the comedy possibilities of falling over because I'm attached to my bike are low and the wounding possibilities high, and I could really do without any more injury. Around this time, I remember the game Whirly Wheelers, which we used to play every time we went to my Grandma's house. The best thing about that game was watching their little legs go, because they were pulling up as well as pushing down. Was I going to become a Whirly Wheeler?

In a couple of days, someone from Temple Beth Shalom explains that there's a road bike at their house that gets used by a family member for the Santa Fe Century. It's road-ready and already has clips. I pick the bike up and it's perfect, complete with pedals, thereby saving me $70 or so. This is happening.

When I return to the cycle section at REI, there's a different guy serving and I explain to him about the knee pain and my shoes. "You're wearing THOSE?!?" he asks incredulously, looking at my feet. I'm rather embarrassed by now. He shows me through the choices of shoes - there are 3 to choose from - and then very honestly tells me that their selection of shoes isn't very good and that I should look elsewhere in Santa Fe. I'm very impressed with his honesty, so I take a look at their gloves to see if at least their prices there are competitive. The gloves are on sale so that's promising. I go to Bike and Sport right next to Trader Joes, which is a really excellent shop. I tally up the cost of what's to come and I hesitate. Again, with remarkable honesty, the man there tells me that he's there to sell me things. If I want, I could go elsewhere and buy a nice pair of trainers/sneakers that would be fine to use for the century and then at all other times. However, if I want to go quickly, and if I'm thinking of cycling long-distances again, then I should consider clips. After a while, I make an important life choice and buy shoes and cleats.


 

Ray at Bike and Sport then gives me a free lesson on how to ride a road bike, how to use the gears, how to sit, etc. He measures me up and discovers that the seat is a little far forward and the bike is a little too long, so he reduces the length of the handlebars. He discovers that when I cycle I'm slightly bow-legged, which may also contribute to the pain. He shifts the cleats so that my feet are further under my knees. He shows me how to unclip myself from the pedal and it's much, much easier than everybody was making out. He describes me as a natural, which is always nice to hear. This is happening. I'm going to bloody fly.

I look at the gloves at Bike and Sport and they're at full price, so I head back to REI, where, incidentally, I have a brief conversation with Presidential hopeful Gary Johnson. It's rather wonderful because just the night before I've read the entire Libertarian Platform and I had some questions that I really wanted to ask Gary Johnson. It turns out that Gary, who apparently finds smiling difficult, is a regular at REI. He's a big fitness buff. So, I ask him my core question that challenges his platform and he's clearly taking aback because he's not ever considered it. He says he'll think about it and I give him my card in the hope that he might tell me the outcome of his thoughts.

So I buy some gloves, which are essential not just because they're padded and will protect my hands from wear, but also because it's very easy for the hands to catch lots of sun and the last thing I need is sunburn.



So, after two weeks off the bike, I'm about to try to learn how to ride an entirely different bike. New bike, new clips, new gloves. The knee is still sore but I'm hoping it's essentially better - I have ice on it at the moment. Even without exercise for two weeks, though, my new sensible eating regime has continued to help and I've now lost a total of 9lbs in weight since starting. People have even started commenting on how much weight I've lost, which is nice. And even nicer, some of the members of the Temple have been inspired by my weight loss to attempt their own.

So, I've lost time - two whole weeks of training. And before going on a big bike ride again I'm going to have to get used to the road bike and to being clipped in, but I'm ready. I've got 7 weeks left until the bike ride. I can't wait to see how different it is to ride a road bike and to be clipped in. One of two things is going to happen - either I'm going to soar or I'm going to fall and seriously hurt myself. Let's see....
If you haven't yet done so, please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/655G575 to sponsor me.

SANTA FE, WE HAVE A PROBLEM...

I'm in pain. Proper pain. Two Sundays ago I did a great ride with Ben Larzelere for thirty miles. We sailed through it and I would have gone further had I not been teaching later that morning. The following Sunday, I had set myself thirty-five or forty miles as the target for that week's big ride. After ten miles I was going well but at about fifteen miles both knees started hurting. I mean, really hurting. I thought I might have to stop. I nonetheless decided to cycle on and after another few miles the pain went away. I finished the first twenty-mile lap in very good time and decided to do five mile loops just to add onto the total gradually. During the 20-25 loop, I realized that I was slowing down and that my knees were starting to hurt. During the following five, I realized that I was almost at a crawl and my knees were hurting more. Cyclists were racing past me. I had to stop. True, I did cycle thirty miles and that's a good distance but the fact that I couldn't cycle further was concerning.

The next ride was meant to be on Tuesday but I was really unwell and needed to stay in bed for a little longer. Wednesday was also meant to be fifteen miles but once again I needed to stay in bed. My thinking was that at least if I got a few days rest, not only would I feel better but my knees would be able to recuperate. Maybe I was overdoing it.

Today (Friday), I was meant to go out for 15 miles but decided to do a casual 10. The first five were done in good time again - 22:54, which is only about a minute off my personal best. As I set off on the second five, though, I started to feel twinges in my knees. By the end of the ten miles, I was in pain again.

Usually when I ride, I feel great afterwards. Today, I'm in pain. Both knees are properly hurting, and that was only after ten miles. I'm starting to feel like I may have bitten off more than I can chew with a century ride. The pain last Sunday was crippling and I really don't want to have to chug down painkillers just to finish this race.

Suddenly, I'm starting to feel middle-aged. I was 37 years old when I did my last long ride but now, four years on, I feel older. I'm also heavier than I was then, although since training I've lost 5-6lbs, which is definitely progress. The hope was that the less I weighed, the easier this ride would be, especially on my knees, but that seems not to be the case. It's possible that someone might be able to lend me a road bike before the race and that will mean less energy will need to be exerted per mile simply because of the design of the bike. That should also help my knees.

I won't deny, though, that today I'm worried. I'm meant to be cycling 40 miles on Sunday and right now that idea scares me a little simply because of the pain in my knees. I'm going to plod on for now but I can't help but think that I might have to go and see a doctor - and those who know me know that I very rarely go and see doctors unless I think there's something really wrong.

I've even started looking online at how to address knee pain from cycling, although I end up finding pictures like the one above with the cyclist with the painful knee and the disturbingly large head and hands. I'm not sure if that's a site for people or for Roswell-based cycling aliens.

All joking aside, though, this is a worrying time. I've totaled 260 miles in training so far but I now feel like I'm going backwards.

If you haven't yet done so, please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/655G575 to sponsor me. I'm going to need all the support I can get.