Riding Home in the Gutter

Well I just returned from my first real test of pain. Tonight I decided I would take out the powercranks and do 90 minutes of hilly tempo. I ended up coming home in the gutter. Tonight I realized that riding these cranks are like almost always going uphill. When you hit a 5 minute climb it is just harder. After about the eighth climb of the ride I actually had to do a little coasting. I am not too much of man to say that I got my rear end kicked and was questioning if I was going to make it home. It reminded me of almost 20 years ago when I got my first road bike to train for mountain biking. How far do I dare go, how many hills will I be able to tackle. These were all the same questions I once remember asking myself years ago. Anyways that’s about all the energy I have for commenting on these cranks tonight. I think I can now lift my leg up enough to take my socks off and may not have to use my arms to lift my legs up and over the bath tub.

Cranking Along

Well I have been playing around with my new powercranks for about 3 weeks now. I told myself that I was not going to fully introduce these things to my training until this race season was over. Well that ideal went right out the window with my obsession of riding these things. I have finally reached the point where I can ride them at a recovery pace or throw down the hammer if I really want to pay for it. There have been a couple of things that I am already starting to notice. I am not going to sit here and say my spin was flawless but I do take pride in the one I had. I have spent many of winters doing on legged pedaling on my trainer and countless hours on the good old rollers. So one thing I have noticed that is starting to change in my pedaling form is that I am starting to develop a forward kick at the top of my pedal stroke. I am assuming that this was my one weak area in my pedal stroke. It is just at the point when your pedal almost reaches the top of the stroke right through until it starts its way back down again. The second and more entertaining thing I have been noticing is after a ride I have a hell of a time taking my shoes and socks off. Just can’t seem to pick my feet very high off the ground to save my life.
I have yet to ride these with my power meter yet. Not sure if I am ready to see how low my numbers are going to be. I figure once the race season is over I will have to go out and do some tests with my power meter and rework some training ranges while working with these cranks. I think the reason I have become so obsessed with these things is that I can’t wait to fast forward to next spring and do a power test on a fixed crank bike.

Anyways I have been having a lot of fun with these things. I can now coast through turns with my inside knee up without much of a struggle. I still am trying to figure out how I am ever going to bunny hop any last minute obstacles that I may come across on the road. If someone knows the trick to that one please let me know.

First Ride

all i can say are these powercranks are crazy. due to a little motivation from ken lundgren and some results posted by the powercrank site i bucked up and blew my whole 2011 race budget. well at least 90% of it. anyways they came in the mail on friday and i mounted them up that night on an old training bike. i did as the powercrank site said and did my first session for a brief 10 minutes saturday morning on the trainer before heading out on my normal bike for my regular ride. sure they were a little goofy but nothing to weird. yes you definately have to have good spin form but i don't think i was too far off.

so sunday i was slated for a 4 hour hilly endurance. i already did my "A" race for the year and now i am spending the next 2 months experimenting with my training to see if there is something i could be doing different. i will find out in september when i have two back to back races that will be a real test of fitness. so this morning i said the hell with the stupid trainer and decided i would do the first hour on the powercranks. the website says not to go riding with out building up to x amount of time but i just paid some good money and wanted to ride them. what a trip they were to ride.

i was lucky in that i only had one stop sign to go through before getting to my testing grounds. the ride was going pretty good. i was definitely working to keep these things spinning don't get me wrong. the fun part of the ride was when i attempted my first out of the saddle hill. nope! not even close! i stood up tryed to keep my rhythm and fell right back down on my saddle. i started thinking that these things are actually going to be a challenge. the next time around i finally figured it out but it sure was ugly. it was actually pathetic. but i was at least off of my ass and keeping the pedals turning. after that each out of the saddle experience got a lot better. the hardest part of the day was actually coasting. when coming around turns or turning on to other roads it was so hard to keep my inside leg up. when i got back to town and returned to the only stop sign i saw some pedestrians at the intersection so i had to roll up with both feet in the bottom of the pedal stroke position. the people had to think i was completely insane. but they may be right.

so for now i will play with them a couple days a week and then fully introduce them after this season is over. i don't want to screw up my experimental training by having these things playing havoc with muscles i didn't know i had. i think i adapted petty quick to them because of all the years of mtn biking. lots of guys don't take us mtn bikers serious but it takes true pedalling form to climbs loose hills with gravel and not breaking traction by the slightest bit of too much torque. it also takes quite a bit of technique with pedalling to power through a long rock garden and still keep your speed up.

anyway if any of you are ever heading up the new york thruway towards albany just give me a shout and i will provide you with some good laughs while i still try to get smooth on these things. next week i am going to see if two hours on these things will make me crack.

sean