Pedalin' Like A God Damn Fiddler Crab
The way my body works, or doesn't work, is an enigma coated in a secret sauce and breaded with a flaky crust of puzzle pieces. I have always had bio-mechanical issues. Whether it was wonky knees back in the beginning of my riding days (somehow single-speeding has never re-aggravated this issue) or back problems related to my mid-nineties surgery; I have never been 100% comfortable on the bike. Just how imbalanced and screwed up I am at a given time varies, right now I'm at about a 7.5 on a scale of one to ten. One being "I feel frickin' awesome on the bike, Yeah dude!" And ten being "I am going to give up on cycling and become a professional Wi-Tennis player."OK, it's not that bad.
But I am pretty messed up. My pedaling action is way off kilter. I've done some work in the past with Bill Peterson at We Do Feet. He definitely improved matters, but there was still something awry. I've been to see several other folks as well, none of them could unravel the mystery either. Yoga helps. Stretching helps. Swimming seems to help as well. But never have I felt like I have been able to lay down even and balanced power to the pedals.
Like a message in a bottle or a distress signal from a doomed spacecraft, I will leave this post up as a desperate cry for help. If you know of anyone who has an MRI machine that will accommodate me, my bike, and my trainer, let me know. Because at this point that's what I think I need — an orthopedist to watch me pedal my bike in an MRI machine.
Today I did make a trip over to The Boston Shop to see Mr. Craig Gaulzetti to have him take a look at me on the bike. We spent a lot of time pedaling and talking and trying different things. He said of my pedal stroke, "it is odd." After observing what just might be the root of the problem (a leftward tilt to my hips), several changes were made and I pedaled away from the shop in better alignment than when I arrived there.
Craig told me to pedal through the bottom of my stroke like I was scraping dog poop off my shoe. "No Thom, you don't actually have poop on your shoe...it's an analogy, get it?"
Do these shorts make my butt look big or is it just perspective?
The Racing Weight plan is working by the way,
or something's working anyway. More on that Tuesday
The Racing Weight plan is working by the way,
or something's working anyway. More on that Tuesday
6 comments:
This is normal. Bicycles are not natural. If you were going to kick the shit out of someone, would you do it smoothly and evenly with both legs? I didn't think so. Imperfect pedaling is made more imperfect from winter body imperfection. Keep up the yoga, stretching, and general athleticism, ditch the belly, and you'll feel much better about this right about the time we're back outside in shorts.
What was the first rule of Weight Club?...unless Tuesday...
Great post!
http://www.myo-facts.com/
I think about 3 min into the video there is a good freeze frame of Mario scrapin' poop off.
WobbleNaught is a bit nutty, like the Dr. Bronner's guy, but he has a cult following.
Good luck.
xo
m
ooops--25 seconds in. . .
Holycrap, Solo is all over the internet today.
I used to go to a web site called "we do feet" but for a TOTALLY different reason.
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