Seeking Peer Support & Motivation!

I'm 32 and used to bike avidly. After an accident and injury a few years ago, it's been a challenge getting back into biking consistently. But something inspired me to go for it. I just bought my first road bike (I LOVE this bike! god I love this bike!) and am starting to ride again and training, slowly, for a couple of short events in 2003.
For inspiration, I taped the words "Breathe" and "Believe" on my handlebars... and the quote "THIS is women's work" on the back of my bike light to help me up hills and through pain.
What I need now is this: other women who are passionate - even zealous - about biking to check in on me every now and then to make sure I'm doing it -- riding -- training -- perservering! Really, email me -- be my support buddy. And if you're in the PacNW, email for a weekend ride. I definitely need more riding partners just getting back in the saddle...
Thanks!

I'm passionate to the point of being crazed about mountain biking, I'm still riding 2x a week even with this arctic cold weather. I was up in the snow on Mt Coeur D'Alene yesterday.

I suggest you join a club in your area (Washington is a big state)and make some connections and commitements to ride. If you have riding partners, that's the best way to make sure you get out.

Either that, or the passion forces you out to ride, no influence of others needed. That's how much I need my rides, I go alone if I dont' have a riding partner.


penny s

just remember, you can do anything. you are a woman, of course you can. what kind of bike do you have?

i am a fairly new rider myself and i have such a hunger to learn and ride more and more.

what keeps me going is having watched lance go through chemo, being so sick, and then seeing him defy everyone, including the french team that dumped him when he had cancer. of course you know the rest.

never quit. keep going. one more mile. one more hill. it's all you honey!!!!

ride on!!!!

goddess1222

Quote:

---

Originally posted by goddess1222
just remember, you can do anything. you are a what keeps me going is having watched lance go through chemo, being so sick, and then seeing him defy everyone, including the french team that dumped him when he had cancer. of course you know the rest.

---

sometime you don't have to look so far for inspiration. One of my mountain biking pals had a partial mastectomy this summer. Then she broke her collar bone. Has she quit? Not on your life. Riding is what's keeping her sane. We meet after her radiation treatments for rides. Sure some days aren't so great for her, and some days she walks the hills, but I am so glad to have her to ride with. She says she'd feel like **** whether she rides or stays at home so why not keep riding...

penny s

Thank you girls! Yes, there is definitely inspiration all around me -- big and small.

Penny -- did you know Missy Giove has had several compound fractures in her pelvis and still races mtb?...

And Goddess, your clipless-pedal stories are killing me! This weekend will be my maiden voyage clipped in... I think I have the basics down, now I just have to put it all together.

Wow! I didn't know anything about MG other than her career performance and her pelvic injuries (my injuries were also pelvic)... that sucks that someone 'positioned' to be such a great women's role model is the opposite....

Your friend who rides after treatments is a far greater hero/role model in my book!

[note from forum administrator: the posts by Pennys that Missliz refers to have been deleted at Pennys' request]

I too am just back on the bike after three years of injury and being put back together in multiple surguries. It's hard. And every time I've been to this forum looking for support and advice you, pennys, have been a catty *** with no clue so why don't you lay off Missy? So what if she's a *****? So what if she's a ****? She has a history of acomplishment nobody here can even comprehend. I know from reading your posts that you certainly aren't a *****, pennys, you're a wuss, and that pathetic female "Oh lets get dishy with somebody we don't even know and call her a *****" is such a mean load of crap. Go back to Junior high. Or better yet, go to an inner city emergency room on a saturday night and you'll see that even Sunday school teachers go bananas after trauma. Missy is a legend, and she's kind of goofy, and every trip to the first aid tent is the possible end of her career. Since I'm pretty sure you've never made your living off of racing bikes, much less been world champion, what the hell would you know about what drives Missy's actions? It just sounds petty and jealous.
Every time Little Women like you start up with that kind of nastiness you chip away at the hard fought gains women have made to get out the house and onto a bike and into the workplace. The fact that a Missy Giove can race downhill proffesionally is a freakin' miracle to Title Nine generation women like me who weren't allowed into weight rooms and had to put up with a level of harrassment you all can't imagine. You should show respect.

well, uh, ok, I feel compelled to get us back on track...

Sorry one woman (Penny) felt let down by someone who could have been a role model to her, and I have to concur with the last post: ***** or not, I have immense respect for anyone who fractures her pelvis and gets back on her bike. I'm sure anyone in the ambulance with me after I got hit would have had much worse things to say about me... and I didn't have a bike career at stake...

So, enough about that... MissLiz, are you still doing PT? What else have you done to get back on your bike? I just started pilates with a coach, and it's so much harder than it looks... but unless I rebuilt some strength in my lower back, riding any distance will continue to elude me...

So sorry about that rant, Meg, but cattiness and mean gossip is so un Bike. Being in exactly the same place I can totally understand the enormity of coming back, It's scary to get back on the horse and ride. A good club is a good idea. Go around and check them all out in your area. I used to ride with the touring club before I got run over, but I've been talking to guys from the hard core road racing club in the gym (I'm back in the real gym!) and they're really supportive and have a beginner development program they think would be right for me. Other slow fat awkward people. I would never have thought to talk to that club, but they've got a big non racing membership and stress individual potential. And they go mountain biking. So check around, you want the group with some structure AND people who are nice to you. I'm still at the barely makes it eight miles stage, but these guys have a coach who can tell me how to use the gym over the winter to come back faster. The body remembers. Also, if you do some upper body strength work it'll do wonders. Spin class works the heart, but on the road you need the strength to manage a moving bike.
I have two and half years invested in reconstruction and PT, so the gym was a doctors order. He was right- I'm coming back really quickly. A few days ago I went out for a whole hour and rode well, good leg speed, good bike handling from all those crunches and bench press, hopped a hole, I'm so sore I can't move. But I'm so happy!

missliz

Congrats on the hour ride, MissLiz!

I'm doing a half hour tomorrow, and a longer one Sunday... I don't even care how fast yet, I'll just be happy to keep upright and going forward!

Don't know if you've tried this, but hot baths with Apple Cider Vinegar take the edge off muscle ache for me (especially help stave off spasms).

You posted while I was writing! Pilates comes very highly recommended at my PT outfit; but I'm starting on "spinal stabilization" for a bad sacro iliac joint next week and it's supposed to be similar. I figured out something cool- the curvy saddles we've been riding act like a wedge pushing the ilia apart, wich may be why every rider I've talked to has an SI experience. When I wussed down my cross country bike I got a flat cushy saddle and wow! That flat across the back business doesn't shove the ilia out of place! Is this making sense? So I talked to Adam, bike merchant extrordinaire, and he said everybody is going to these flat tail saddles. Terry bikes concurs. So think about this if you had a lot of pelvic injury. I had to have both knees rebuilt and they're doing well. Actually, I had the best knee surgeon in the country (luck!) and he said I had some patellar misalignment that he fixed, and my knees may actually be better now. My feet are pretty ruined, have to wear ugly mens sneakers and I'm a stilletto heels kind of girl, BUT cycling is the most recommended activity for my injuries, wich is pretty cool. At least I get to wear beautiful silver and red shoes on the bike.
I got hit by a cane truck, and am told I tried to kill the driver when he stopped. I was completely losing it nasty belligerent all the way back into New Orleans in the ambulance. Yelled my head off. I'm told this was actually a good thing- ranting adrenelin pumped pissed off patients are in better shape than comatose patients. The big whack to the head I took wouldn't have helped.
So I'm finding the hardest thing is the habit, especially with the time change.I think about it, and I rounded up some riding clothes that fit, but actually getting out the door is tough. I hope the Guys With Cute Butts Bike Club will help.

missliz

Buy your bike a nice peice of jewelry, like a nice anodized brake cable hanger. She'll appreciate it, and the Bike Gods will smile on you both. Those BMX skull valve caps are good too, especially with ruby eyes.:p

Quote:

---

Originally posted by missliz
I hope the Guys With Cute Butts Bike Club will help.

---

LOL

Thanks for the smile. If only MTB guys would get that baggy is NOT flattering. Except when they hang a little low on a nice flat belly....

penny

hey missliz!!! i had to write to say that i admire you. it sounds like you have had a serious time with injury. it also sounds like you are doing all the right things to get back on track. you have such a level of courage to get back on the bike after being hurt for so long. i want to personally congratulate you on your courageous journey through a tough time.
if i ever get injured, God forbid, i hope i have as much courage as you to get better quick, and get back out there.

ride on!!!
goddess1222

You're a sweety, Goddess, 'cept you poached my own true name... :p Well lets all be a pantheon.
Courage is kind of a movie of the week word- useful for PR but the supposedly brave have no idea what it's supposed to be. I only recall stark terror and trying not to panic and bolt in pre-op. At PT it was tedious and onerous and half the reason I always went was that it was the only thing that got me out of the house. And I could only find one article of faith to hang on to, that I would ride again. I had some exquisite wheels hand built for my road bike just as a sort of offering to the bike gods. If you ever get sick or injured you'll find that there's no choice. What are you gonna do? Obsess on illness or obsess on health? It's always there. And daytime TV is SO awful.
I figured out early that cycling was the only sport I did that I could keep, so I focussed on it. Now is the really hard part- actually going out the door on the bike. If anybody wants to explain courage, tell me 'cause I need it now.
Course maybe just struggling along chasing The Guys with Cute Butts will work better than courage. Sex is more interesting than philosophy.

missliz

you are right about courage being easy to say yet tough to practice. so cool about your custom wheels. it gives new meaning to a girl's best friend. i started a thread on this website a few weeks ago because i am a new road rider and had been practicing in a park clipping in and out to get ready to try it on the road. i titled the thread "fear". i had the most wonderful responses from women on these boards. encouragement, advice, and a bit of cheerleading. it was great!!! you have obviously been riding a lot longer than i, but you may find a few of the responses encouraging. check it out .

good luck to you!

goddess1222

p.s. i am more than willing to share my namesake. the word "goddess" is meant to be shared.

I read that thread about the road pedals and fear. If you continue to have trouble, it's perfectly OK to use clips and straps 'till you're used to manuevering in traffic. I think clipless pedals get pushed on to people much too early now, because it's more stuff to sell and the people in even the best shops forget that they had it one step at a time. Bikes used to come with beartrap (toothy platform) pedals and after you got used to the bike and traffic you added toe clips. Clipless are only about ten years old. Sports are actually learned in the body as much as the mind and a road bike with Looks is a lot at once. Even road shoes are a big trick to put down a foot in. I'm using beartraps and clips with no straps right now till I get stronger, and I love clipless, but I'm relearning stuff. Lots of people are scared to death off clipless pedals- I talked to a woman at a festival (my last) three years ago who was terrified of them but used them because her husband told her to. There's no shame in putting off clipless if you get overwhelmed by it all. People ride singletrack on MT bikes and BMX pedals. Cycling equipment is so fashion driven and you should scale down to your best comfort level if you need to. You can add stuff back on later.
Maybe not BMX pedals on a road bike though:eek: Too weird!:p

Missliz

Quote:

---

Originally posted by NW_Meg
well, uh, ok, I feel compelled to get us back on track...

---

thanks.
disclaimer :rolleyes: the following comments are my OPINION, no one has to agree with it. Anyone is welcome to disagree politely, just don't attack me

Quote:

---

Sorry one woman (Penny) felt let down by someone who could have been a role model to her, and I have to concur with the last post: ***** or not, I have immense respect for anyone who fractures her pelvis and gets back on her bike.

---

there is that... However when I look at a role model for myself or my kids.. l look at the whole package, the whole persona: how are people treated, attitudes and so one... how much of that would I want my daughters modeling? There are plenty of excellent and awesome atheletes who don't use a "bad boy" (bad person) persona to make their way.

I

Quote:

---

I'm sure anyone in the ambulance with me after I got hit would have had much worse things to say about me... and I didn't have a bike career at stake...

---

last note about an encounter I had with a certain racer: Serious trauma I can understand. But a broken toe that needs to be retaped? Give me a break.

More opinion, no one has to agree:
There's a lot to be said for a drive to keep going under injury. But there's some things I file under the stupidity category. That''s just my opinion. I've got a lot of respect for someone who knows when to quit, too. Even my freind with breast cancer says "no" on some days.

Other women to look up to: Julie Furtado, Cindy Devine, Jeannie Dywer, Aliesha Kline Kasha Rigby, Lynn Hill....

speaking of Lynn Hill, her memoir on climbing ( she's the best female rock climber in the world ) is an awesome read. "Free Veritical" is the name of it.

penny s

Get a life, lady. Your kids already have a role model in the house to teach them how to be judgmental and self centered. Meg NW wanted a little scratching behind the ears as she struggles through the hardest scariest turning point in her rehab, and suddenly it's all about you and your tiny little world view. You made an attack and got called on it. How does calling somebody you don't know ugly names support Meg, or Goddess, or womens cycling? Dishing Missy Giove is as far off this topic as you can get. Missy as your role model? Since when are you a gutter punk peirced gravity drop junkie? She's not anybodys role model, she's a one of a kind. And you might try out the realities of the great Gioves situation- If she blew her event that day, didn't finish, was this when Cannondale was getting ready to drop her, you have no idea what goes on in other peoples lives and the kind of pressure cooker elite athletes are subjected to. She probably lives with a chronic pain problem from her years of injury, as did Furtado from her knees. (She was no peice of cake to deal with either I hear). Missy has enough history of head injury to be almost guaranteed Parkinsons and will pay for her career just like Muhammed Ali- A great athlete in a frozen dyskinetic body. She knows it too, talks about it very calmly in interviews. A broken toe? How about the mounting choking terror that builds with every trip to the first aid tent? Every race could be her last. Her career was really dicey back in '99, and thats the last I really heard, I've been distracted by my own injuries and career gone down the tubes. She doesn't know how to do anything else but ride gravity, and probably can't even use pain meds 'cause of the doping rules. You never had a hideous overwhelming last straw day?
Why don't you back down and check yourself, and I think you owe the thread an apology for throwing the B word at a complete stranger. I'm referring to the posts you had deleted rather than just apoligize for, as well as the one above. Until you've been hauled off in an ambulance you shouldn't dis anybody who has.
In New Orleans we have a saying- Be Nice Or Go Home. You made a nasty little attack and got called on it. You had a chance to just drop it and didn't. Karma will be around to bite you on the *** shortly. I won't be even reading anymore of your posts, though, so you can call all the nasty names you want. I think when you come after me, and girls who call nasty names throw them at everybody, you'll want to throw in slob, ****, shameless Jezebel, pushy **** ( I'm straight and really pretty, but get called that a lot for some reason :p), foul mouthed, fashion victim, smart ***, and I'm sure you'll think of some more. Like unpleasent belligerent *****. Whatever. I'm off to enjoy the shameless Jezebel thing at Galatoire. Wish you were here, Meg. The oyster season is starting, yum!

Liz Claiborne

So back to the important topic of this thread- It's Sunday, and Meg had planned to ride. How'd it go? I had forgotten about the evil bugbear of biking on the Gulf Coast- Sinus trouble. I haven't been able to ride again all week, got a fever and a scrip for antibiotics. I'm frustrated, and my knees ache from lack of exercise. Please, everybody tell all about your weekend rides. I'm going to go down to Galatoire and eat Oysters Rockefeller, but I wish I was on the bike instead. I need an adventure and can't go have it, but if you all would share yours it would help a lot.

Miss Liz

I now have my maiden voyage under my belt! The big one for me is the distance from my house to my office (Washington State Ferries kindly help with crossing the Sound, but the rest is all me). I did it today! I was trembling as I left my house, really trembling, but I did it!
I rode mostly bike trail along the water and stayed clipped in about half the time.... except when I approached an intersection at which I clipped out, hopped off and WALKED through... but I feel ok about it. When I actually arrived here at my destination I was jumping up and down in the hallway yelling "I ROCK! I AM A GODDESS! I AM THE PHOENIX!" I'm, uh, feeling very proud right now.... total ride was only 7 miles with three hills worth mentioning... but it's 7 back for a grand total of 14 today. Weee haaaa! I feel fantastic. I figure if it takes till summer to warm up to riding closer to traffic, so be it.
Btw, MissLiz, I am from the Gulf Coast, too -- originally from Tarpon Springs Florida but many years now a Northwesterner. Riding in 40 degree wet weather -- like today -- still does not feel right. Have a great time this afternoon and thank you for all the support! Wee haa!!!! Oh... and I put my favorite sticker on my new bike.. it's flourescent orange and depicts a person shooting a tv (reflecting my personal disdain for television, which I think keeps too many women needlessly indoors....) and I seem to have named her Georgia.
OK.... gotta finish work here so I can get back on my bike and do the glorious reverse commute!

meg, i am so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!! way to go. my legs were trembling last week on my maiden voyage too. i know what you went through.
so cool that you stayed clipped in and ok. i don't know what else to say but great job!!! i am speechless! you made my day. go get yourself a foot massage, back massage, or something to reward yourself. or better yet, if you feel comfortable doing so, give me your e mail and i will send you a little surprise. don't worry, i am about as harmless as they come.

great job girl!!! ride on!!!!

goddess1222

Yup, and I rode better on the return 7 miles (well, at least more consistently, though mostly NOT clipped in).

I'm tired and sore, my lower back is throbbing and I feel wonderful! Life is SO beautiful!

The challenge, of course, will be to do it again....

I'm really glad I found these boards, this is making a huge difference simply having other women to 'report' back to! Thank you thank you!

New Bike? Merry Christmas! What did you get?
I'm so proud of you, and thats not half as proud as you are of yourself which is great. You go girl. And ferry rides? Crossing water is always a little something extra, a little more to the adventure. Thats so neat.
You're gonna be sore tomorrow Miss Pheonix- we want the second ride report post 48 hours. Rest. And stinky Ben Gay really helps.
I think the fact that the new bike told you her name so soon is very auspicious. Course putting a smart aleck sticker on a bike is like giving a lapdog a new rhinestone collar. Instantly curries favor. Sounds like you're groovin' girl.

missliz

Ouch.
I did ride again today -- the 14 mile commuter round trip, plus about 5 miles at lunch with a friend practicing clipping and shifting and managing traffic. I am feeling much 'smoother' on my bike now, like she's becoming an extension....
But oh my god am I aching from head to toe. My butt bones I think are bruised. My back is throbbing. My arms now, and right between my shoulders.... and even my thighs and calves. Was I always sore before? Am I just old enough to feel it all now? Or am I this horribly out of shape?
So, hot tea and a hot bath tonight... and tomorrow I'll cut myself a break and not ride.
I am going to check out a wide flat saddle like missliz mentioned -- I have a damanged SI joint which I regularly sprain, which often triggers that whole cycle of back pain, pelvic pain, back pain.... it makes sense that our saddles are pushing those bones apart. My butt deserves so much better :p
Nonetheless, I gotta say, I love being back on a bike and it's worth all of this. Must be in my blood or something...
I'm looking forward to hearing about your next trips out!

Well it will get better, and you were only ocasionally sore before. So what kind of new bike is this? What color?
I'm ready to train- and still sick, doc said not to ride yet. Went to the gym to stretch and keep the habit, asked about spin class, and some aerobics bleached blond type told me she didn't think I could handle a spin bike. Time to throw down. Handle what? Hopping the potholes in the aerobics studio floor?
I've only ever done one competitive cycling event,a time trial, but I won it in perfect inexorable spin form. I don't display my trophys, they're kind of meaningless a few days after a meet and catch dust, but I dug this one out and had a little cyberchat with the head of the Cute Guy Bike Racing Club, actually the New Orleans Bicycle Club. He reveiwed a few basics, like time at intensity, I found my heart rate moniter, it still works...
Bring It On, Kelly. My butt may have gotten big, but I have new knees.

I've been back at the real gym one month, and I lost ten pounds! Progress.


Miss Liz

Hello NW Meg!
Way to go girl! Keep it up! Sore butts are a pain but if you keep biking it will get better! You gals are giving me motivation! Lately I haven't been biking because of the weather, work, my husband working overtime (he's my riding buddy), tired but that's going to change starting right now! Joe (hubby) and I bike hard all spring, summer and fall but once winter and the rains of the pacific nw arrive we stop. As if a little rain will melt us! But not this year! Nope .... I'm glad I found this forum and this thread .... this weekend for sure Joe and I are biking. Saturday on our mountain bikes and Sunday a nice long road ride! I hope the same goes for everyone else out there!
Thanks everyone!
Susan

You're so inspiring! Someone telling me I can't do something is a sure fire way to get me to do it. (Being nice, of course, helps me continue doing it). You will show that woman! Just remember: you are doing this for yourself. Let her enrage and inspire you -- but this is all about you!

I've been thinking about spin class, too. I feel strong now (finally getting strong), but the cardio... well... could use a little work!

Georgia (my new bike and first road bike) is a black matte Cannondale RW700. And she is beeeeeautiful. She's angled slightly more upright than a traditional road or racing bike, but very slick.

Unfortunately tomorrow is a suit day (as in biz suit), so no bike. But Thursday, I just can't even wait! Bring on the rain -- nothing can hold me back again!!

Tell me when you start spin class -- let's comiserate!

Welcome! I have really been inspired -- especially by the amazing encouragement and candor of fellow biker girls MissLiz and Goddess here...
I'm just figuring out all the waterproofing and would love to hear how you manage the wet rides. Keep us posted!

I'm on the Kitsap Peninsula and commute to Seattle -- plenty o' rain.

Thanks NW Meg for the welcome! Yes, MissLiz and Goddess are very inspiring! I've heard a lot about spinning classes from friends who bike. They swear by it and say it really helps them to keep in shape all winter long. Joe and I do belong to a gym and maybe we should check it out. By the time Joe walks through the door it's after 5 and very dark outside! Forget road riding in the dark! Too dangerous even with lights. We do however mountain bike in the dark, now that is a lot of fun!

But anyway, the Kitsap Peninsula! How lucky! That is a beautiful area to bike. I did the Kitsap Color Classic last month! A good friend of mine lives nearby in Indianola. She's been road and mountain biking for years! She's my inspiration because she just celebrated her 60th birthday and she's still going strong! She's trying to talk me into doing the Courage Classic with her this August. I told her I'll let her know! I live in Pierce county in the town of Bonney Lake between Sumner and Enumclaw.

You're so lucky that you can bike to work! And as far as water proofing goes .... LOL .... you just try the best you can. I have the gortex jacket and the booties but even so you're still going to get a little wet. That's life in the NW this time of year!

Wait until Joe finds out we're going to the gym tonight! :D

well, she says you can't handle the spin class eh? i got my degree in health and fitness. that is a huge black eye on my profession. she is an insensitive and uneducated person. i am glad you are not listening to her. i love spin. i go twice a week, more if i can. it really supplements the riding. what i don't understand is that since spin is such an individual sport in a class atmosphere, where is she getting her information that you can't handle it? ohhhhhhhhh, makes me angry. women like that give all us good women a bad name. what i learned in school is that encouragement is the key to creating a fitness program and developing good habits. if you would have been talking to me, i would have gotten your number and called you until you gave in and joined a spin class.

report back and let us know how it goes....

goddess1222

Well, I've never been to spin class, but it's an obvious thing to try- The only group that can't drop me in the first hundred yards right now. 99.9% of people at this very cool gym are super nice and freindly, the first gym I've ever used that's so relaxed. Love it. Lots of well used bike racks on the cars in the lot. Not worried about this one insecure non-rider, just motivated. I was wearing a t shirt from a century at the time, so she just knows nothing whatsoever about cycling. And really, it's just a fancy exercise bike with a cheapo seat.
I got really fat while I was laid up, and I think it was more about the size of my butt than my human potential. I think Goddess has already covered this attitude in a diffent thread.
I fenced for 16 years- a super competitive sport where you try to just rip peoples throats out in a certain arena, then all go out for a beer together afterwards. Wish more women understood freindly competitiveness and sportsmanship. I don't get these women who are so super fit from aerobics but never take it outside and play- they miss so much. I show up with occasional black eyes, bruises, or road rash, and they're just horrified by it. They don't get me. I think a skinned knee or two is totally worth the day I rode with a ten point buck on the Racourci Island jeep road. Now a deer, it can really humiliate you. Damn they're fast.
But this woman doesn't bother me. I just need to show this lost soul how it's done, that'd be fun...

missliz

Hey Meg- matte black? How elegant! Welcome, Susan.

missliz -

I am confused - what do you mean exactly by a flat seat versus a curvy one? can you get me a brand/model /weblink of an example? I only know 1) cutout, 2)soft padding instead of cutout, 3) no cutout (I have only been riding about a year and 1/4...so much to learn....:)

my thinking is to ward off injury....

thanks!

I spin 3 - 4 times a week at the gym. The best thing about is it's your ride. You decide how much tension goes on that knob and your cadence. I encourage all the new women at my gym to try it because you don't have to be super coordinated like for Step or kick boxing.

I also work out at home with my mountain bike in a trainer to Spinerval tapes. I really like those too. For me it's a different focus with the tapes - I spend more time thinking about technique. Spin class is all about heart rate for me anyway.

Good luck and go spin!

So, suppose you were looking at a horse from the rear, across the tail. The back of the saddle is curved like the horse. If you look at the Iron Pony (bike ) the same way, the saddle is basicly the same sort of curve. Walk behind the bike and squat down so it's at eye level, look across the back tire.
Now go to terrybicycles.com and look at the Butterfly, or criuse your local bike shop. Different saddles have different shapes, including the curve of the back of the saddle. Some are deep crescents, some are totally flat across the part where your sit bones go. And many variations in between. The shape can be very subtle.
I have a long history of lower back pain on the bike, which I now know to be sacro iliac trouble. When I started riding again after a three year break I had to take the hard racing saddle off the bike and get something a little more easy going, by luck it's totaly flat as a board across the back, my SI joint hasn't flared yet. A light bulb went off. ( This is a big cushy sprung saddle, the kind we laugh at. Laugh no more, it's comfy!)
Hope this explains it. The nice ladies at Terry tell me the flat across the back saddle is popular with other people with lower back troubles, and my physical therapist thinks it makes perfect sense. Some people just hate the Butterfly/Damselfly flat thing, but we're all built differently.
The saddle thing is just such a *****, so expensive to keep buying them and find out what you need or hate. I can't beleive nobody's ever researched what body types like what saddle types. It could never be totally precise but I'd think they could throw us better clues.

Miss Liz

Trivia- the ladies saddle with the cutout is actually a late nineteenth century invention. The Safety Bicycle, what we basicly all ride variations of today was a major factor in the womens suffrage movement. Zooming around the parks in bloomers was called "scorching", absolutely scandalous behavior and totally the rage.
So we get it from our great great grandmothers! Raise that beer to the old girls after your next bike adventure.

So where do Spinerval tapes come from, and are they the same kind of thing as the classes? Tell me more. Sounds like a good resource.

We got ours at Performance. I think they have them on their website. The company has their own website too spinervals.com. Most of them are 45 minute workouts, one is 90 minutes. There are 9 videos in the competition series, two in the fitness series. I only have the competition ones (no we don't compete) The coach on them is Troy Jacobson. Each tape has a different workout focus, hills, muscle breakdown, intervals, sprints, recovery & technique. The 90 minute one is steady state intervals.

I find them to be a great workout - a good change of pace from Spin class. Because I'm on a real bike, it seems I can work on technique better than in Spin.


Good luck!

Veronica

Thank you Veronica, that's good to know about. They sound cool.

Thank you Veronica, that's good to know about. They sound cool.

I will go look at my saddle tonight - I think it's probably a flat one as it's a Terry butterfly.....good to know stuff like this!!

PS gonna ngo "scorching" again Saturday :D

As I understand it, the very flattest. But don't sweat it, unless you already have the problem, 'cause 1- zillions of people ride all their lives and never have an SI problem, and 2- the injury isn't caused by the saddle, but by unequal leg strength creating a lot of torque up in the hips and pulling things out of whack over a long period of time. Pedal mashing instead of good spin technique will bring on stuff like this eventually.
Most importantly though, not everyone is even susceptable to this particular irritant. I have hypermobile joints (double jointed) and my ligaments stretch like putty. I also have congenital knee misalignment problems that affected the adjoining joints. And I got hit by a truck. And I'm probably a lot older than you and have years of wear and tear from a really intense fencing career and a lot of nasty skating crashes. You probably have none of these factors.
If your back is killing you, the first thing to try is serious ab work, at least 100 to 200 good quality crunches a day. You work up to this, don't be intimidated. this also strengthens the pelvic floor muscles and stuff in your back. This will improve you in any sport real quick even if your back doesn't hurt. I drop and do them while the coffee drips in the morning.. And getting looked at by somebody like a really good physical therapist or orthopedist (A lot of them are idiots, really ask around) is sometimes warranted.
But this is trivia to you- didn't you just spend 12 hours on the bike doing your first century and having a ball? Don't worry about it unless some jerk (guy) tries to intimidate you with gear inch calculations and you need something esoteric to counter with. Just look up the sacro iliac joint so you'll know what you're talking about.
Actually, it'd be easier to bat your eyelashes in silly fashion and then go find somebody fun and nice to talk to instead.:D


Miss Liz