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
