First milestone conquered!

[kfinlay]

Feel well chuffed with myself as I've conquered what I see as my first major climb - Falkland Hill in Fife . I cycled this route:
www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24849
and by the time I got around to Falkland I was in quite a bit of pain as I'm still not comfortable on my bike . I was down to 5mph for a steeper middle section but as I approached the car park I was up to 8mph, the last bit after that was easy at 12mph. Didn't use all the gears on my triple, went down to 28 front/21 rear so would seem to be similar to a compacts lowest of a 34/25 - still had 23 and 26 on the rear but had this mental block that I didn't want to go that low unless I REALLY needed to.

The pain I was getting was muscular in the soft tissue just on the outside of my bum bones at the back inside of my leg - not hamstring but inside those. It seemed to be better when I stretched a bit onto the hoods on drops so think my position was a bit upright or may need to try a longer stem. At least my bum bones are no longer the cause of discomfort since I got my Charge Spoon saddle
Better stop rambling on but good luck to anyone out there beating their goals!

 

[Garz]

Well done kev!

 

[gazmercer]

Nice one Kev, well done !!!

 

[Telemark]

Well done Kev, you'll be giving the CC Ecosse greyhounds a run for their money soon, especially on the hills!

Glad your saddle problems are improving (sort of). Hope you can get "to the bottom of it" soon

T

 

[kfinlay]

Thanks all, me bum probs aren't putting me off just limiting the miles I can manage, stuck at about 35 when I know I have the legs for at least 50.
Since I've got a saddle that works I've got plans to start my bike fit from scratch and take photos of my position etc so I can make good measurements. If after this I'm still not comfortable then I'll pay for someone to sort me out properly!

 

[Telemark]

You might want to post your bike/saddle/bum fitting question in the "Know-how" section of the forum.

There's bound to be someone on CC who can advise, but they might not stumble across it in "Beginners" (which is the obvious place for the achievement bit of your original post ).

All the best,

T

 

[Riverman]

Well done mate! Nasty climb on that route, it's more like the equivalent of a 50 mile flatish route.

 

[GAVSTER]

Well done Kev -

I was out yesterday round your neck of the woods but just did a 25 mile loop(ish) from Dalgety Bay up to Cowdenbeath and then around and about and back.

It was a delightful day yesterday and my only regret is I wasn't wearing sunglasses

Also I found that in the sun it was fine but every time I went down a lane with overhanging trees it was chuffin' cold !!

 

[kfinlay]

thanks guys (and Gals), Next stop is a run up to Dunning from Yetts o Muckart then back out thru Path of Condie - look like big hills and don't know if 'll manage it before Christmas. I'll certainly be looking to do Falkland hill a couple of more times before that though.
Gavster - Have you been up the hill from Burntisland out towards Cowdenbeath? It's about 60% of Falkland hill and I wanted to do that first before FH.
Need to change my sig now

 

[Jane Smart]

Kev well done to you, Falkland hill was on my list of hills to do, but now I am not so sure How long did that take you??

Gavster I was out yesterday too, it was cold you are right

 

[GAVSTER]

It was lovely out yesterday.

Kev - I have only come out of Cowdenbeath then gone past Mossmorran and then to Burntisland. Will have to do the Falkland Hill at some point.

I am so surprised how nice it is round that part of Fife.

Jane - it was cold in the shade. The worst thing that happened to me was my hat i had on under my helmet was turned up at the front when I left the house - after about ten miles it decided to unfurl and cover my eyes as i was descending at about 25 mph. Doh !!!

Back to the commute to Embra tomorra

Gav

 

[kfinlay]

Kev well done to you, Falkland hill was on my list of hills to do, but now I am not so sure How long did that take you??

Hey thanks Janey!

Took me just over 2 hours for 34 miles, averaged a touch over 16mph which I'm more than happy with considering my discomfort. I went up the harder north side, it goes thru lots of trees so the road was wet - I didn't want to descend on greasy, wet, leaf strewn roads. May be worth trying the road from Burntisland to Cowdenbeath, if you manage that with no real problems then you'll do FH.

 

[Randochap]

Congrats! But there's no shame in using the gear you need to ride comfortably up hills. Better to spin than injure oneself.

Check out the bike fit page @ VeloWeb.