Show us your.......newbie progress! [4 Sep 2012 - 4 Oct 2014]

[musa]

I just press the lap/reset button at that stage

 

[IanA]

I think I could a chill of some sort on my 100k ride as I've been nothing but cold and its taken longer to recover.

This is my fear today too. Bitterly cold...again and I'm off for the 25 miler !

And it looks like there is a shed load of snow on the way starting tonight for the next day or so !

AND IT'S SPRING ! ! so where's the damn spring weather ! Come on give us all a break for god sake !

 

[Boon 51]

I just press the lap/reset button at that stage

I'll give that a try this afternoon...

 

[Nigelnaturist]

This is my fear today too. Bitterly cold...again and I'm off for the 25 miler !

And it looks like there is a shed load of snow on the way starting tonight for the next day or so !

AND IT'S SPRING ! ! so where's the damn spring weather ! Come on give us all a break for god sake !

I have known it snow from Jan through to April/May when I was at school, so might be another couple of months yet.

 

[Mo1959]

Just grabbed a quick hour. Really to try out yet another saddle. Selle Italia Lady Diva Gel Flow. Initially felt a bit better but still a bit tender approaching an hour. Think this is what is giving me low back pain too as I am sitting awkwardly to try and avoid pain after a while. Think this one might be worth persevering with to see if it gets a bit better.

Got caught in a mini blizzard but it didn't last very long. Put the lights on though as it got pretty gloomy while it was snowing.

 

[IanA]

Well it was just the 73 year old guy and me in the end....

Stonking tale wind going out, hit 37.7mph on the descent out of where I live, and then continued at a relaxed pace to Sandbach...Little cafe, tea, tea cake, then return home......and forgot to restart the Strava, so only have the out bound leg...Due the prospect of the return home we reduced the total distance, turned out at round about 17 miles

But the return home was hard work, that tail wind...yep, HEAD wind and strong made it very hard work...

The good news is that I CAN feel my legs getting stronger. I managed the climb through kidsgrove and home with out stopping, even accelerated on the gentler climb and felt fine when I got home !

Second thing. Bought some lightweight cycling gloves from Halfords, after one trip they are coming I stitched...damn useless.

https://www.strava.com/rides/45025695

 

[Typhon]

Mo did the saddle hurt before you rapidly increased your mileage for that 31 hour challenge last month or did it develop as you upped the miles? If the latter it may be the case that any saddle will hurt until your body gets used to sitting on one for so many hours a week.

Well it was just the 73 year old guy and me in the end....

Stonking tale wind going out, hit 37.7mph on the descent out of where I live, and then continued at a relaxed pace to Sandbach...Little cafe, tea, tea cake, then return home......and forgot to restart the Strava, so only have the out bound leg...Due the prospect of the return home we reduced the total distance, turned out at round about 17 miles

But the return home was hard work, that tail wind...yep, HEAD wind and strong made it very hard work...

The good news is that I CAN feel my legs getting stronger. I managed the climb through kidsgrove and home with out stopping, even accelerated on the gentler climb and felt fine when I got home !

Second thing. Bought some lightweight cycling gloves from Halfords, after one trip they are coming I stitched...damn useless.

https://www.strava.com/rides/45025695

Well done on the ride. I'm about to do the same but in reverse, there's a very strong SSE wind here and my #2 training loop heads into it for about 11 miles, goes 1 mile north and then heads back home NW so hopefully I will glide back!

I bought some cheap gear when I started (muddyfox) but it wasn't up to much. Then I bought DHB stuff which is a bit more expensive but it's great quality. After 7 months of being washed 3-4 times a week my jersey and bib tights still look like new. So in my experience I would just go for quality as it'll last. Like with most things, you get what you pay for more or less.

 

[Mo1959]

Mo did the saddle hurt before you rapidly increased your mileage for that 31 hour challenge last month or did it develop as you upped the miles? If the latter it may be the case that any saddle will hurt until your body gets used to sitting on one for so many hours a week.
.

Was always a bit tender but I think it made it worse. Not really my sit bones, feels like the bottom of the pelvic bones further forward??? Can't afford to waste any more money trying saddles so I'll give this one a decent try even if it means backing of the miles and doing shorter runs for a while.

 

[Scotty1991]

Beautiful day, blue skys hardly no wind

Picked up one of these aswell http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/SID-2.../our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=780

http://app.strava.com/activities/45274597

 

[Boon 51]

Was always a bit tender but I think it made it worse. Not really my sit bones, feels like the bottom of the pelvic bones further forward??? Can't afford to waste any more money trying saddles so I'll give this one a decent try even if it means backing of the miles and doing shorter runs for a while.

Hi Mo..

Do you think a bike fit might help or have you had one.. I know the right saddle is hard to find as I have just been down that road so to speak..

 

[IanA]

http://app.strava.com/activities/45272374

sorry this should have been the report for today..one way

 

[Typhon]

Was always a bit tender but I think it made it worse. Not really my sit bones, feels like the bottom of the pelvic bones further forward??? Can't afford to waste any more money trying saddles so I'll give this one a decent try even if it means backing of the miles and doing shorter runs for a while.

Oh dear. I'm not sure what to suggest other than persevering with the new saddle and cutting down the miles a bit as you said. Hopefully it'll get better soon.

Beautiful day, blue skys hardly no wind

Picked up one of these aswell http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/SID-2.../our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=780

http://app.strava.com/activities/45274597

It's grey and gale force here. You can't live somewhere that flat and not have strong winds, it's against the rules you know. No but seriously well done on the ride.

 

[Typhon]

Well I was slightly (ok, massively) regretting my choice of route when I struggled into the headwind for 11 miles but coming home was just beautiful, I just glided along with no effort. At one point I was going uphill in my 50/13 gear.

I find that on strong windy days I feel like I'm putting in more effort but actually I'm not, I'm suffering more and being more miserable but I'm not actually working hard. Not once on today's ride was I out of breath and that shows in my data - my lowest average heartbeat I can remember and my max was 17 beats less than my true max. So I barely got into Z4, let alone Z5 or Z6. Never mind though, I did enough of that yesterday so needed a good relaxed Z1-Z3 session.

Still kinda odd that I slack off when it's windy though. I guess it's psychological - "oh well, I'm not gonna get a good time today anyway so I'll just slow down a bit up this hill as the wind's barrelling down it" etc.

http://app.strava.com/activities/45288768

 

[RWright]

Was always a bit tender but I think it made it worse. Not really my sit bones, feels like the bottom of the pelvic bones further forward??? Can't afford to waste any more money trying saddles so I'll give this one a decent try even if it means backing of the miles and doing shorter runs for a while.

I am still fighting the one hour saddle blues too. I bought a Selle SMP pro and I still notice it, but I haven't had a lot of time to try to adjust it yet. The old Raleigh I bought this week has a Brooks B 72 on it and it is in good shape. Riding it yesterday was the first time I didn't really think about the saddle until I was almost home and thought wow, I haven't though about the saddle today. It is a sprung one for upright riding and I had followed some advice I found on the internet and angled the nose up very slightly, which I though sort of strange but it seems to be working (not sure how this would work for ladies). I remember you saying the Brooks gave you a hard time but you may want to try adjusting the nose and forward and back positions of the saddles you have, if you have not yet. Not just nose up but nose down slightly and so forth.

I am still working on the SMP on the drop bar bike. I have tried several saddles but nothing I have come up with that I really like yet. I may try a Brooks on it, Performance Bike headquarters is only about 25 miles from where I live, they let you return items for any reason up to one year and I may have to take them up on a Brooks. I may call them first to be sure that "because it hurts my ass" will suffice as a reason.

My house looks like a bike shop with all the saddles and other stuff laying around. Spring cleaning starts today, even if it doesn't feel like spring yet.

 

[RWright]

I almost forgot to mention that I have been using cheaper riding shorts too. I found some older Nike bibs on sale, I am pretty sure they are made by Giordana and everyone I have read pretty much has had great things to say about them, especially on long distances. So I am going to try sorting it from that angle as well. If you see someone with flames coming up the back of their legs and NISSAN stamped on their ass with a big smile on their face that will probably mean they are working.