Jamie Wong
Hi, I am a level 2 USAC coach who has ridden now for six years. I first started riding to have a common hobby with my brother when I would visit him in California. I have usually been more athletic than him in most regards, but cycling has brought new challenges into the picture as it requires different abilities than most high profile sports. I decided to buy a pair of powercranks to try to train smarter and more efficiently so I can keep up with him on the hills....
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End of week 4 - cont'd revelations riding ouside vs on the trainer....
Position on the bike is one thing subtly mentioned in the instruction manual, but has been of large interest to me since riding outside. My typical position on the bike is one pushing the seat back towards the edge of the rails to increase the distance that the front of the kneecap is behind the pedal axle when the crank arm is at 3 o'clock. Me, the rider is arranged this way to improve the ability for large muscle groups to work on the pedal stroke while pushing over the top of the circle as opposed to being aligned more with the force of gravity in a downward motion. In the PC introduction manual, they do warn you that pedaling is easier while sitting more upright. This is completely true, and I have followed this while riding on the trainer. However, when outside, there's a definite need to have ready access to the brakes and shifters which makes riding in an upright position less desirable. So, on my first ride outside, two parts of the body which experienced unusually more pain were my lower back and neck. Luckily, I can only ride so far at this point, so the pain was not unbearable. Also, since it was recognized early I did my best to sit more upright and took advantage of all the stoplights to get off the bike and give those parts a rest. Typically, when one of my athletes informs me that their neck and or lower back hurt, two things come to mind: posture on the bike, and bike fit. Obviously in this case, riding the PCs has influenced my posture on the bike and led to this problem. The introduction manual suggests that over time, as the body is adapting to the new PC pedaling style, one can eventually progress from the more upright positioning back to a more aerodynamic one. Suffice to say, I am considering moving my seat up and forward a bit to make the front of the kneecap above the pedal axle to alleviate the aches and hopefully lead to longer time for training. This may be a recommendation that should be added to the introduction manual.
Here are my stats for riding outside for the second time.....
t = 96', AvgP = 116, Avg cad = 53, CP5' = 167
