Monday, May 21, 2007

Chilly Weekend

I had a pretty good weekend, but it was overcast and a bit chilly almost the whole time. My knee was basically back to normal by Friday, so it didn't affect my riding too much.

Saturday morning, I went out to volunteer at the first Bump & Run trail race. Sarah ran in it and seemed to do pretty well. She was wiped out for the rest of the day though. I manned a pushup station, and everybody but one guy did the pushups. (You didn't have to do the exercises, but you took a time penalty if you skipped them.) The guy that won was crushing the field when he came by me, and he did some of the best pushups too. I think someone told me he was a cross-country running coach.

When we got back home, it was still kind of cold and rainy, so I decided to do a hard trainer ride instead of going back outside. I'd already done one cold and rainy ride this week, and I really didn't feel like going back for more.

I've been thinking a lot about my knees this week after my Wednesday run. My new theory is that running isn't my problem, it's cycling. A lot of things have come together that make me think that the angle of my foot on the pedal is causing poor alignment of my knee while riding. It's very obvious on the trainer (if you're paying attention) that my left knee does not track straight up and down, it moves inward at the top of the pedal stroke, particularly under heavy load. I think my right knee also moves in, but to a much smaller degree.

I ordered some Power Wedges (formerly, "LeWedges" I think), and I'm hoping that they help. I think, at a minimum, I should be able to correct the lateral knee movement. My expectation is that this will also take care of the tight spots I have in my calves. What I'm not so sure about is if clearing all that up will let me get back to running a little; I hope so.

The weather wasn't much better on Sunday, but I decided to get out anyway. I rode two laps out at Pontiac Lake. I came very close to clearing the hill right after "The Chute", but I didn't quite make it. I need to either carry a little more momentum up the hill or be able to generate just a little more force, and I'd be all set. It's just the first pitch on that hill that's tough; if I could clean that, I could climb the rest.

Otherwise, I did a little better about riding the trail more aggressively: carrying speed through corners and rougher sections. It helped on a few corners to really study the corner and realize that there was no way I could possibly blow the corner (usually because of the banking). I also came to the conclusion that it's generally better to ride over rocks than it is to try to go between them. You don't get knocked off line as much and you can maintain your momentum better. I also think it's best to keep pedaling through rocky sections. I had sort of been unconciously coming to these conclusions, but what I was doing finally sunk in yesterday.


I've been following the Landis arbitration hearing a bit. The stuff that's going on there really makes me sick. This VeloNews article sums it up decently.

No comments: