....and Gravel Tears

I set off on a ride this morning with Owen with two goals:

  1. get more gravel miles in
  2. pay attention to my position on my bike to see if I'm putting adequate weight on my seat to help keep me stable on gravel
You see, based on feedback I'm getting from my Gravel Fears post, two things that should help me feel more comfortable riding gravel are 1) time in the saddle riding on gravel (hey, that's sort of poetic) and 2) my position on my bike. In short, if I have all of my weight on my hands instead of on my butt I'm not going to be very stable on the bike. My goal was to figure out how to get my weight shifted aft.


Anyway, we set out for our ride and hit our gravel (fairly loose stuff and a hill right away) and I realized pretty quickly that I put almost all of my weight on my hands and toes but hardly any weight on my sits bones of my butt. Basically, I'm really not sitting in my saddle. Doh!

I was glad for the revelation. Seems like all I need to do is stop carrying tension in my shoulders and settle my weight in my saddle and my gravel riding will go so much better. Should be easy enough to fix, right?

Or maybe not.

So I shifted my weight in my saddle and the only way that I could get my weight on my sits bones had me sitting so far off the back of the saddle that I wasn't positioned on the saddle correctly. sigh. This position resulted in my knee pain coming back. I shifted and resifted my weight but never found myself in a place where I felt I had my weight on my saddle. Bummer.

Were I a Super Positive Person I would have finished out the ride feeling great because at least I knew what part of my issue was with feeling comfortable on gravel.  I would have said things to myself like "Yay! I know what I need to do! I just need to work on tweaking my bike. Someone can help me with that!" or "Yay! I'm tough! I can work through a little bit of pain while I tweak my bike to get the fit just right!" or "Yay! At least now I know what the issue is. That's more than half the battle."

I'm working on being that Super Positive Person. But when I'm tired, kinda in pain and sort of scared I don't find myself in Super Positive Person mode. Instead, this morning I found myself in Super Overwhelmed Person mode and I thought things like:

  • But I don't really know how to adjust my bike to get the fit right so I'm screwed
  • The RiotGRRRaveL race is just two weeks away. I'll never be ready
  • I don't know who can help me adjust my bike
  • The guy who helped me adjust my bike last time probably just thinks I'm complaining too much and won't help me again. 
  • Plus he's busy, when on earth am I going to find a time when he can help me?
  • How on earth am I going to keep training for this ride if I'm in pain?
  • I'm a wimp
  • No one wants to ride with me because I'm so slow
  • I'm too slow
  • and so on
Did I mention that I felt so overwhelmed and frustrated that I cried the last two miles of my bike ride? Yep. I'm prone to tears anyway but really outdid myself this time.

Oh I am so much fun to hang out with sometimes. Geez. I can't be the only person in the world who has issues with bike fit (and thinking positive) but I sure feel like I'm the only person in this boat sometimes. Actually, make that most of the time. 

But, now that hours have passed and the ride is well behind me, I can switch into Super Positive Person mode and realize that  I did, in fact, achieve my ride goals for the morning. I logged more gravel miles on my ride and I paid attention to my position. So that's all good. Yay!

Also, in the afternoon, I tracked down my bike fitting friend at his work and said I needed help. He said, first of all,  that riding loose gravel is really, really, tough, for everyone.  He also mentioned that I could try raising my handlebars a bit to help shift my weight back.

So that's my next plan of action - adjust my bar height a bit and get back out and try it again. Let's hope I can keep Super Overwhelmed Person in check tomorrow and manage not to cry.


Comments

david strachan said…
Don't despair Myrna. Gravel now is wicked soft and squishy.
June 7, 2014 at 7:39 PM
Myrna CG Mibus said…
It certainly is! I found some nicer gravel this morning and had Todd at Milltown help me adjust a couple of things. Much better ride today.
June 8, 2014 at 10:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Change in Plans

Image
My kids, Rose and Ryan, started a theater day camp today called Young People's Theater Workshop (YPTW). YPTW is a program put on through the Northfield Arts Guild  during which the kids, grouped by age, write a play, rehearse it, and then perform it at the end of the three week session. Rose loves the camp and this is her fourth year. In her first year I saw a huge change in her confidence from the beginning of the session to the end. She has grown each year since and I expect she will benefit from the camp again this year. Ryan has never been in YPTW and has been somewhat reluctant to go. But, to save on gas (it's a 30 mile round trip to town), make our schedule easier and give me time to work, Owen and I decided that Ryan should give YPTW a try. Given how good the program has been for Rose, we're hoping Ryan will benefit from the program as well. I dropped the kids off this morning and right off the bat Ryan found two friends from his class at Greenvale. He found
Read more

A Little Bike Schooling on the B Ride

I'll be honest with you, my two main motivations for riding my bike any distance are coffee and conversation. A good workout is also a motivator but going really fast is not. I'm more of a slow and steady - okay, really slow and not that steady - sort of bicyclist. But for months now I've wanted to join in on a group ride. From what I've heard people ride their bikes, chat away the miles and stop somewhere for a cup of coffee mid-way or at the end of the ride. Sounds like my kind of ride. Right? Maybe not. Most of the group rides I've heard about promise average speeds of 18 to 20 miles per hour or more and go 40 or more miles. Some sound brutal and talk about hill climbs and sprints. Granted, these are the "A" rides, rides geared towards competitive riders, riders who want to push their limits. "B" rides are supposed to be slower, "C" rides even more so but I've seen some C rides that sound too fast for me, some B rides with leng
Read more

Making tracks

Image
I just looked out my office window and saw my snowshoe tracks in the snow. For some reason they surprised me. Seeing them I had concrete evidence that I actually have been getting out on my snowshoes every day. That I've actually been going somewhere. And, for some reason, I find this comforting. I've been fighting my 30 Days of Snowshoeing commitment and am kind of mad at myself for creating the challenge for myself. I haven't wanted to get out every day and snowshoe. It's cold outside. I don't like putting on my snowpants, my hat, scarf, gloves, jacket. Perhaps because I'm doing the challenge alone, unlike the 30 Days of Biking challenges where hundreds of other people biked every day and helped motivate each other, I don't really feel like it matters that I'm doing this. And I've lost momentum and motivation and simply want to sit inside and read a book. Or sleep. Or watch Monk and Cake Boss on Netflix. But I keep snowshoeing. Every day. Ev
Read more