Things have gotten a little quiet around here and I've noticed that I've gone into my yearly winter hibernation. In the midst of my hermitage, I've been cycle-geeking like crazy.
About two weeks ago, I slipped on a frozen puddle from melted snow that had extended across the bike lane in front of my work. Broke my glasses, scratched myself up here and there, and as would become apparent over the next few days, fractured or bruised my ribs. Later that weekend, I slipped while carrying my bike across some ice, rebroke my glasses, bruised my tailbone, and bent my back rim. Gotta love winter...
In the midst of all of this, I have been working on getting things going for the rest of this year. Forming habits, working on details, etc. Two of my cycling goals for the year are to streak and log my miles daily. I found a nice piece of software to help with this, Cyclistats. Here's a screen shot of my logged miles for the past month:
http://www.cyclistats.com/
With injury and some bitter cold and snowy days, it's been hard being consistent on a daily basis. But, I've ridden every day since at least 12/11 and plan on biking every day into the future.
I've also been tweaking around with seat and handlebar adjustments to help out with bike fit. I've been reading quite a bit about different bike fitting methods and the reasoning behind them and realized that it had been a while since I had last played around with things. With all the snow outside, it was the perfect opportunity to strap my bike into my trainer and slowly tweak things to fit just right. In the middle of it, I acquired some fit software that I'm interested in using sometime in the future when I have someone to use it with. It looks like it would be a lot easier to get different body measurements with a partner. The software also can be used for frame design and such, so I'm interested to see if it can help me with the geometry of my next bike. More on this software when I've had a chance to play.
I've been riding for a few days now after my last adjustment and have been very surprised how much nicer things feel. I must have been way out of wack in comparison. The handlebars came up, the seat moved forward and I now feel much more on top of my pedals than before. After long hours of riding my back doesn't hurt at all, it's even easier to keep my head up. Overall, the ride is smoother and more comfortable and I feel like I have more power and leverage. After all the adjustments, I measured the height of my handlebars vs. the height of my seat. The seat is still 4 inches above the bars, so I must have been around 6 inches for the past 2 years, ouch! And I thought I was adjusted correctly? If others can realize these benefits, I'd highly recommend revisiting your bike fit from my experience.
With a fractured rib it has been somewhat uncomfortable working on breathing, but I've still been working on changing my habits. I used to be an upper chest breather. I had the mistaken idea that to use your full lung capacity one had to allow the chest to blow up like a balloon, pushing the chest out and the shoulders up with every inhale. I've been doing this for longer than I can remember. I've been working on abdominal breathing since just before my mishaps on the ice and it's even helped with re-directing where my chest expands in such a way to help avoid aggravating the spot where my ribs are injured. Breathing is a funny thing. The more I know about it, the better I feel when riding. It really sets the pace of everything else. If I want to go fast or climb a hill, I don't start by pedaling faster or harder, I start by changing my breathing and letting it all cascade from there. When I can remember.
I've been having a great time out on the roads, too. I haven't had too much contention these days. I'm not sure if it's because people are nicer in the winter, there is less traffic, the changes I've made to my riding style, or a combination of the above, but it's been pleasant. When I come to an intersection, I swerve to the extreme left side of the right-most lane. This allows most traffic to take a right against the red when there's no oncoming traffic. I had a guy in a big truck pull up behind me last night that couldn't get by so I moved a little further forward, into part of the crosswalk, and left to give him room. He waved, smiled, and mouthed 'thank you' as he made his right turn. This is yet another example of why I've been enjoying owning the lane more and more (at least in downtown traffic). I use this lane owning as a stage in which to frequently and very visually give way to faster moving traffic. I'm seen a lot more, and people seem very happy to see me respond to their traveling needs in a progressive manner instead of being oblivious and rude. I hope that, especially at intersections, others seen what I do. This is part of recognizing the bigger picture for me. Being nice to one driver may be witnessed by many others at a busy and boring intersection. In moments like these, I feel like a performer on stage. Do I let a potentially hostile crowd get the better of me? I like to rise to the occasion and own the situation. I've had a lifetime of provoking emotion in other road users, can I provoke thought instead? How so? This is a very fun game to play on the streets of SLC...
I have to give credit to my heroes at Cyclesmith. After purchasing my latest wheelset online a few months ago and having some of the most insane issues I've ever had with an internet order (including having to exchange for a second set), these guys helped finish the chapter on all my woes. After having a waterbottle slam into my front wheel and having to carry my bike home because the rim was hitting the fork (which I fixed the best I could on my own) and then with all my fun with ice recently, I pulled the wheels off my bike and took them in. They found that 3 spokes on the back were too long and were hitting the end of their threads and winding up whenever someone tried to true it. They also found a damaged spoke on the front (probably from the water bottle). They replaced these four spokes and got them as true as the day I received them. A week and a few rough spots later and they're still just as true. Before this work, it'd take 15 minutes of riding to cause them to start warping. Give it up to Cyclesmith. They took their time, did the work right, were very nice to work with, and were very reasonably priced. More than I can remember getting from a local bike shop all in one go. If you haven't been into their store, check them out. They're especially fixed-friendly and have some nice components and also some complete bikes in stock.
I finally found a nice cycling shoe for urban riding, the Specialized BG Sonoma (
http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=26101). They ride great with Crankbrother's Egg-beater pedals! They're a good compromise between racing and MTB shoes.
It's been nice seeing the occasional (and sometimes very frequent) winter rider around town. It makes me happy to see others braving the cold, snow, and ice. Let's show those inversion causing autos a better way!
Lastly, I hope to see everyone out for
http://www.saltcitysprints.com over at the Urban Lounge on the 24th. Everyone keeping in shape? Does the old guy have to come and kick some ass? I hope I'm handed it on platter instead!
March is only six weeks or so away. It won't be long before it's time to get all your seasonal riding friends back on their bikes for the beginning of Spring.
Ryan
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