My Favorite Bike

I went to my physical therapist yesterday. She showed me a new exercise involving an exercise ball, had me run on the treadmill and then had me do some leg presses. I stopped doing those last year because they always hurt my knee. Low and behold, my right knee pinched and I really thought I was going to be limping for weeks. Fortunately, one day later and I’m back 100%, besides the common muscle soreness associated with using dormant muscles. No more leg presses with more than 10 pounds for a while.

I was going to do some running yesterday, but with concern for my knee, I skipped that and did about 20 minutes of stretching instead. I’ll probably do the same today and put in some longer training tomorrow and Saturday to catch up a bit. Now that I’m up to seven hours a week, I’m going to really have to buckle down and get a bit more disciplined or I won’t meet my workout goals.

I live 11 miles from where I work, which makes for a pretty decent workout. A routine ride takes me about 45 minutes. I’m not sure how much faster I can do the ride considering the numerous stops and circuitousness of the route. Next week, just to make my training time goal I will probably ride at least two days. Riding my bike, showering and shaving and getting to my office takes exactly the same amount of time as public transportation, so it almost doesn’t make sense not to ride. But like all habits, it takes some developing as I figure out how to get my clothes to and from work and still looking relatively unwrinkled. Last season I worked in an office where I didn’t need to wear dress clothes and that made it a bit easier. Now I’m in an office where I need to wear a tie every day and look presentable.

To completely change subjects, for my last LDT, I owned a Specialized Transition time-trial bike. I couldn’t shake my fetish for the look of a tri-bike and against all advice and better wisdom, I made that my second bicycle. It was pretty comfortable on the shorter rides and up to about a fifty mile ride it was pretty good. But it was 100% worthless on hills and for comfort, lethal after about sixty miles. I really missed that third big ring on this bike and I really think that would have made a huge difference.

My first bike was a Specialized Allez, which really is an excellent entry-level bike, a good value, plenty comfortable and probably would have been fine for many more seasons than I kept it, but I wound up selling it in a moment of pique.

Probably the best thing that happened to me was last summer when I volunteered for a new Portland triathlon (www.portlandtri.com). I locked up my bike with just a cheap cable lock in a high traffic area thinking there was no way someone would come along and steal it there. But as luck would have it, I checked on it and all that sat there was my backpack and cut cable. I was able to collect the value of the bike through insurance and if it hadn’t been stolen, I probably never would have wound up with my current ride, a Lemond Versailles.

I haven’t done any serious rides on it yet, but so far this is turning out to be the most comfortable bike I’ve ever owned. I’m still getting a horrible cramp in the back of my neck after a certain period of riding, but the more I ride, the more used to it I get. I’ve been on three different bikes with three different positions and still my neck kills after a certain number of miles. I'm sure there is some stretching or weight training I could be doing, which I will look into as the season and pain progresses.

One thing I’ve definitely decided not to invest in this time around is aero bars. After the tri bike, if I never get in the aero position again it will be soon enough. I just don't think I was flexible enough or far enough along in my career for it to make sense to have that kind of bike for anything other than vanity. Some some people look at a nice sports car or pair of shoes and get excited, I look at a high-end tri-bike and I want to mount that thing. If I had more dollars than sense, I'd probably own several and seldom actually ride them.

I learned the hard way how important it is to take comfort above all else. I was looking at time-saving techniques that really only pay dividends to people riding their bikes an average of 20-25 miles per hour. I can hit that speed and hold it for a while, but as of last season, I’m still pretty consistently averaging 18-19 MPH. An aero position, super light wheels and shoe covers aren’t going to do anything but pain and bankrupt me at this point.

I’m still debating whether to even get clipless pedals. I didn’t have them last year and I didn’t miss them one bit considering what a pain the neck it is to constantly unclip. Plus my feet and legs would fall asleep. I’m still considering, but I’ve got some other priorities on the equipment list. I'm sure no one talked to me last year in Coeur d'alene because I was the only one with platform pedals. If I cared, I would have been embarrassed. When I went to get fitted on my tri-bike, it was obvious that the person fitting me was fairly new. He asked the store owner what he thought of my position and he said, "Well, first of all you have to have clipless pedals. It's like a house, you have to have a strong foundation..." That was exactly all he said for input, really snotty. So for the record, a bicycle is not only nothing like a house, it's not even much like a mobile home. And not that I know much, but I'm pretty sure the wheels would be more analogous to a house foundation than pedals, so kiss my white ass.

On my next post I will talk about things on my equipment list. I’m also going to figure out how to attach pdfs and other files so you can check out my PT, my stretching routine and my training log. Also look for pictures of my current equipment. My blog consultant (blogsultant) is out of town at the moment and I’m too lazy and impatient to figure it out myself.