Fitness

Welcome to all who have an interest in anything cycling of any kind.( road, mountain, commuting, stationary, whatever).

This is the place to come to ask that question you have been wanting to ask,

or tell that story about your latest adventure riding your bike,

find out how to use cycling to get in better shape, or anything else you can think of.

So, to start, tell us, what you ride, where you ride and what type of riding you enjoy.

Come back often too check out what's going on and see what's on everyones mind or add your knowledge to the group. 

 

I see, Ohio.  I usually turn my wheel so that my tire valve is on the top.  I don't know if that's the right way to do it, but that let's me use my thumbs to push the valve on.  I have to be really careful not to use too much pressure to push it on since I have Presta valves (actually, I think I bent one valve last night -- oops).  Do you have a stand pump?  The kind where you put your feet on the bottom and push down?  I don't think I'd be able to get enough pressure in my tires if I didn't do that.  I actually take it in the car with me and pump my tires before rides.  Also, it's probably easiest to be on the opposite side of the bike when inflating so the chain is not in the way.

Yes, gmule, I plan to ride this winter, but I live in North Carolina (and moving soon to San Jose, CA), so there's not really much snow to deal with.  But I am looking forward to seeing my breath, buying new cool weather gear, and long weekend rides.

Led my sub-group last night!  Woot!  I actually was fast enough that I had to stop several times and wait for them to catch up (no drop-style ride, and they had another leader hanging with them, too).  I may have to get my wheels trued up, though, since I let one of them go ahead at one point, and he wasn't calling out the junk.  I hit two potholes, hard.  But I had a blast last night!

Am I right in thinking that when it comes to hills cadence is more important than speed? I'm still getting used to shifting for hills and I was just wondering because I kinda feel silly pedaling so much and not going very fast.

Also I wanted ya'lls opinion on my plan. I know the numbers are small compared to most but then I'm about 135lbs over weight and I haven't exercised p.e. in high school. so... I started out riding 15 minutes a day. then I started adding one minute at a time. I'm up to 17 mins but I noticed my average speed and miles went down today. I was thinking that I should stay with 17 until they come back up.  My other idea was to stay at one time until I could go 10mph and then start going longer and longer. What do yall think?

Everyone has their own style but generally speaking you want to keep you cadence high and steady.  Shoot for pedaling between 80-100 ppm (pedals per minute).  Some bike computers have a cadence feature.  Then you shift gears to maintain your cadence.  Speed doesn't really come into the equation, it is a by-product of many other factors.  What happens sometimes on hills is people will shift at the bottom of the hill into a gear that they think will get them over the top of the hill and then pedal faster until gravitiy slows them down. 

Your plan of giving your body some time to adapt to the increase in minutes seems like a good one.  I would recommend trying to pedal easier gears faster and not trying to go at a faster speed.  Speed will come.

so today i'm riding to work and you know how you always fear something will fly into your helmet and sting you? it happened. some giant stinging bug (we'll say it was a bee, but i made no visual confirmation of that) flew into my helmet, got stuck in there and stung my head. i could barely maintain my composure enough to pull aside, remove my helmet and rid myself of the bug without crashing. it didn't swell or anything, but it still hurts (7 hours later). OUCH!

Ow!  That sounds awful!  I'm allergic to bees, so I do know that fear!  Poor Carri...  Maybe some ice would help?

And I thought EATING bugs was bad!

thanks :-) 

i wanted ice, but i was on my way to an early dress up & be professional-type meeting, so showing up with an ice pack wouldn't have made a very good first impression. i'm just pleased that i didn't have a huge welt on my forehead!

Carri, I don't know if you recall my post about being stung inside of my helmet but I ended up with puncture wounds on the back of my calf so it sounds like you handled it better than I did! 

The other day I was headed down hill through some shadows and all of a sudden I went throught a swarm of big bugs.  They were hitting me everywhere.  (I kept my mouth closed!)  When I was through the swarm I looked down and one of them was clinging to my leg.  They were honey bees!  Fortunately no stings that time.

Yes, I remembered there was a post on here about that, but hadn't had time to go back and see who had posted it. It really is a panicky moment! I can't believe you made it through a swarm of bees without any stings - you must have a good luck charm!

Well, let me tell you my little story,

Couple years ago we are visiting this town and there is a nice trail there so I take my bike along to ride it.

Well along the way about 10 mile from anything, a bee flies into my mouth and stings the back of my throut, OOOOWWW!!!!!  There is no one around, the only thing that probably saved me was that I have no allergic reaction to stings.  If I had I can only imagine the headline in the news;  man found dead on bike trail no sign of foul play. 

I can tell you one thing it hurt, alot and I had to ride 25 miles back to where I started, Oh and this was before we had any cell phones.

DAN

Fortunately, you guys are not alergic.  A bug bite can do bad things to a person with alergies.

Anyway, on to better things.  Ohio, it sound like your stem is not coming thru the rim properly.  I have had that problem with aero rims that require longer stems but I have also had that problem when the tire pressure was very low.  The stupid stem wants to crawl back into the rim like a turtle in its shell.  I recommend that you position the stem at about 7:30 -- near the bottom and toward the back. In that position the stem is fairly easy to get to.  If necessary, hold the stem with thumb and finger while you push the pump hose connetor on.  Then flip the lock.

Hills: There are different ways of approaching the problem.  In the end, stupid stubborness trumps speed and cadence.  When you have shifted to the lowest gear you've and you are standing on your pedals, pigheadedness is your ace in the hole.  That's all you've got left.  Before that, it's nice to be able to carry some momentum into your climb that will help you keep up your cadence.  When you need extra power, slide your butt to the back of your saddle, maybe even slightly off of the saddle.  That will allow you to use your glutes, which may be the strongest muscles in your body.  Practice helps.  Practice pushing yourself up hills.  Practice pushing up and over the top of hills.  Speed and power intervals will develop you strength, increase your VO2 and raise your lactate threshold.  Refuse to be beaten by a climb.  Refuse to be the last one over the top.  Be smug every time you drop somebody on the way up.

Winter riding:  Snow isn't much of a problem around here (DC).  Frostbite -- even early stage frostbite -- is a problem.  But I plan to be riding.  Last winter, I got thin nylon inserts for my gloves and socks.  They worked very well.  I also got a skull cap that seemed to help keep my head warm.  The big hurdle is getting the bike out the door and started down the street on cold, dark mornings.

Heroes: I'll second Lance Armstrong -- probably because I know more about him than either Greg Lemond or Eddy Merkx.  I like Floyd too, even though they are taking his TDF win away from him.  A couple of other people stand out for me.  John Sinabaldi, who started racing when bike rims were made of wood.  He represented the US in the olympics back in the 1930's.  Then he stopped riding to raise a family.  He started back in his 60's.  In 2000, 200 people came out for a bike ride to celebrate his 90th birthday.  Then there's my friend John, who soloed across the country the hard way -- East to West.  He crossed the Rockies as Lance was taking of the TDF in the Pyrhanees on win #3.  But John did it would a team let alone a team car, without the crowds and the peletron.  Just a guy and his bike on a quest.  And, of course, Jane is right, everybody on this thread is an inspiration.

Joe

yes, lucky we're not allergic! it occurred to me that the bee sting in the throat would have been much worse.

gmule, I'd like to do more winter riding than I do, but I don't want the road salt to destroy my bike. If it's not too mushy, maybe I'll do some more mountain biking this winter.

gmule, I will be out there this winter. Not on the Trek though. I will cry like a little baby if something happened to it because of winter weather. So I will be back on the Schwinn as soon as the snow starts - riding to and from work. I am also looking at spinning classes for the winter.

Jane

Signing up for my first half metric century today!  Woot!  So, I'll be riding in Le Tour de Femme October 27, supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation and The Angel Fund of Rex Hospital (fund designed to help those undergoing cancer treatment with financial help for everyday needs like gas, meals, etc., not covered by insurance).  I know that's not a lot of mileage for a lot of folks, but for someone who just switched from spinning to road biking last week, it's a good little challenge.  Yay!

As far as winter riding goes, we have a fairly mild winter so I will continue to ride when I can but I don't ride after dark so that limits me to weekends.  I will ride the mountain bike a lot more because it can handle muddy gravel road and it is easier to keep warm at lower speeds.  And I will spend some time in the basement on the trainer even though it is one of my least favorite things to do. But right now I focusing on Fall which is my favorite time of the year to ride.

Hi all!  I know I haven't been in here in *forever*, but I have a question and I know you guys will know the answer.

I crashed my bike last week and I'm wondering about my front wheel.  It doesn't look bent, or damaged in any way.  But it took a hard hit on a curb and the tire went flat.  Do you think it's ok to just change the tube and be on my way when I am able, or should I take it to my shop for a once over, even if I do not discern any damage myself?

I personally would take it to the shop for a once over.  Just to make sure that nothing else on the bike got damaged.

go ahead and change the flat if you want, but yea, i'd have a shop check it out, especially since they'll probably do it for free. the wheel may be out of true. you can look for that yourself by spinning the wheel and watching the gap between the rim & the brake pad - if there is any inconsistency in the the width of the gap, you've gone out of true & need some spoke adjustments to correct that wobble. or the rim may have a crack or a sharp nicked edge that you don't see - shops seem to have a better eye for that sort of damage than i do. and you might have them check the other components as well if the bike hit the ground. crashes will often bend the rear derailleur hanger or damage things you can't spot easily or don't intuitively know to look for. remember to look over the tire casing to determine whether there is a fatal cut or hole in the tire now (meaning you should replace the whole tire to prevent more flats from the gash in the tire casing). very glad you are pretty much OK & recovering :-)

panda, If everything is working, then you just change the flat and get on your way.  If there is noises or damage to your rim have it looked at.

Usually a bike can take a pretty good hit and be OK. I know I have had more than my share of crashes.

however, keep this in mind, if there is damage to the frame, steel(no problem), aluminum(get it checked), carbon(it is now scrape).No kidding, any crack in carbon can be a potential dangerous problem!!  Aluminum can as well, but has to be pretty bad to warrent throwing it away.

I had two flats this week, what a pain!

DAN

August 6th since my last flat! I went ballistic and bought new tires, tire liners and tubes after getting fed up with flats.

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/page /40/36660.html (post #806 in this thread)

I'll keep you posted on this experiment :-)