The first week of April inclusion the end of March got me not a lot of riding. But, I had a good time. There will be a break of about a week for family vacation then back on the bicycle for my first real week of riding in April. This second weekend of the month has me helping lead the no drop medium course with the club ride on Saturday and on Sunday the local band of the club will ride to Las Pulgas for the breakfast ride.
The Saturday ride went well. We had a great turn out. My heart rate monitor battery was dead and I didn’t check it before leaving the house. I ended up using my watch data so no power data, but the ride was nearly 78% zone 1. Quite a laid back spin. Very good for recovery. Unfortunately my knee is no better and slightly worse as I type this on Sunday after tangling a foot in my covers last night I tweaked the knee just rolling over. That has me limping. I have a doctors appointment on Monday to give it a look. I suspect based on my life of bad knee inspections, I’ll get the knee wiggled then sent for x-rays and maybe something to check the ACL, which was the problem that began it all way, back in my youth.
The bicycle is working quite well. Tubeless tire set up is fine. The Sunday club ride and breakfast was canceled thanks to rain. I knew that was going to happen when I woke at 6am to find rain pouring down. I went back to bed then gave up trying to sleep after several notices popped up regarding the cancellation vibrating my watch. Making coffee I noticed the rain now pouring down harder than ever. That gave rise to a laid back and relaxed Sunday breakfast. Not a big week of exercise. I hope to know more about my future after my doctor visit Monday.
The knee. First appointment with my GP, was an evaluation and x-rays. Then off to an orthopedic surgeon for a consult. At the ortho, he felt my IT band was the issue. This was the Homer Simpson “doh!” moment. I’ve not dealt with this since way back in my early days on racing bicycles. I knew immediately what to do. Even though I am directed to a PT session that was at that point a week and a half off. Next available was a month further. Remembering what I did back in the day, I set to a massage and stretching routine. By Saturday, descending or climbing the stairs in the house don’t bother my knee. That even after a bigger day on Friday. More yoga and more stretching, self massage of the IT band and quads.
Tested the knee on my short Saturday ride. Some flat efforts then the little climb. Zero pain. None, nada, zip. Quite happy with that result. Yoga, self massage of the quad and IT band stretch and amazing result.
Sunday is the club La Pata climb then next Saturday is a century with lap/s of the 1984 Olympic road race course. I have done one day of Yoga using an old GCN video and one day with Apple TV fitness app Yoga. Both yoga sessions were around 30 minutes each for some good quad and core stretching.
302km for the week where I mostly took it easy. My knee isn’t too bad. This next week is big and may prove interesting. I have PT for the knee on Wednesday. Friday Max and I will scout replacement routes for the La Pata ride. Then Saturday is the possible OCW 1984 Olympic route century with the Aliso Creek ride on Sunday. I’m around 1,200km behind my goal pace, but I’m not fretting it.
No donut, but a post ride coffee and I made pancakes for lunch.
The first ride of the week happened to be a 4/20 ride. Nope, just a ride on that date. Nothing more.
This is a busy week with a PT appointment for my bad knee. That turned into the now usual app-driven daily routine. I figured after the first run through, if it was good for one leg, I might as well do both. That’s the new routine, both sides. My knee is feeling better. I have a couple of weeks to get good at this then see the therapist again for a check. I also had a phone chat with the orthopedic doctor just prior to that first PT appointment. Some arthritis in that knee. Not unexpected given my age and history of doing all the dumb things. No swelling and little pain so, I’m hopeful this is just a bump in the road to recovery I can negotiate with the PT and continued stretching and likely incorporating yoga stretching. I have ridden four of the days this week, the final ride being a Saturday club ride. Then Sunday for a bike fit check with Bosco Bike Fits, in Claremont. I suspect some seat and cleat adjustments.
Max and I did a route creating ride to replace the old La Pata climb route. Not a lot of folks like the climb up the trash truck route. So, a no trash truck route with less of the relentless climbing and much less traffic. Summer weekends on La Pata can be hectic with traffic exceeding the high speed limit by a lot. We’re still figuring out a new name.
I’ve passed 10,000 miles riding my Pinarello F7 now. Passed the first thousand miles on this tubeless setup as well.
357 kilometers for the week, not quite up to my 380 goal. Close enough for now.
The bicycle fitting session with Sterling Reneau of Bosco Bike Fits went very well. A few millimeters here and there changes made for a big gain in comfort and control. I was surprised when I rode on Monday in pretty big side gusts on a descent, the increase in control I had. If you have ever ridden with older smaller section wheels then changed to deeper section wheels that are more aero, you know that feeling of being blown all over the lane. I had more or less gotten somewhat used to this over the course of ten thousand miles riding of the F7, but crosswinds on a particular descent that includes a lot of wheel grabbing pavement cracks and bumps I was never confident on this piece of pavement. Monday though, after the small changes to my bike fit, I felt none of the old looseness. The bike felt perfectly neutral, even with the big gusts hitting me from one side then the other.
Saddle went up a tiny bit, tilted down a little more than 3°, and slide back. My brakes were rotated forward about the same 3mm or so. Sterling also suggested possibly adding a spacer under my bars to raise them that amount and open my position even more. We also worked on my posture on the bike to flatten that 30 years in a cube on a keyboard hump in my back.
The insoles of my shoes were replaces with cycling specific insoles from Trek, replacing my ice hockey inserts from SuperFeet. That insole change highlighted instantly how I was missing support under my arch.
There was of course video analysis of my riding on that stationary trainer setup with all the datum dots providing targets for the computer to create the joint lines. Quite cool to see my terrible and out of balance beginning point change to this in balance setup. The whole process took about three hours. Now, the cost is usually where everyone blows up. This cost me around $500 total. But, I would like to point out I’m currently dealing with an IT band irritation that these adjustments along with PT exercises and some yoga stretching are mitigating. As part of that IT band my insurance has me first visit my GP where x-rays were taken, then referred to an orthopedic surgeon where more x-rays were done, then referral to PT for some guidance through a course of exercises and application to their tracking app. All that I’m sure managed to tot up to well north of that $500.
Now the other side of this is what would be the fit if my bike were far too big or small? I would not like to contemplate that. I knew going into the purchase of my bike what sizes was good enough. But, I have, early in my riding had a bike that was far too big. And I have had more than one shop want to sell me a too large bike, because that was what they had in the store. If I were buying a fancy new bike of the level of the F7 or above, or even more to the point, if I were planning to do a lot of riding on a bike, I would get a pre-purchase sizing specific to what I planned to buy and how I planned to ride, then get the bike tweaked into position after the purchase.
My purpose in getting fit at this stage was to first and foremost eliminate the possibility of exacerbating my knee injury with poor adjustments. Lo and behold there were some things to correct. I am very glad I did this. Yes, I should have done this the first week I bought the bike, or there about. Miles under the tires, word to the wise.
Now, with a couple of rides with this new setup, totally around five hours now, I am happy to report everything about this setup is very good. I find I am more comfortable on the bike. My IT band is still there, but the bike is not doing anything bad to it. The PT and yoga will slowly bring my body back into balance.
As part of my IT band recovery, I’ve shortened my solo riding a little bit. I will be adding weight lifting back into the mix once I get the garage organized a bit so that can be done. A few more days left to the month, then on to May. Our weather is looking quite nice.
Nice easy recovery ride to end the month on Thursday.
Ride a bike, be safe. Smile and wave to the crowd.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 1,143 km
Climbing: 5,491 m
Time: 48 hours, 7 minutes
Along The Way 