New pains

[Barb]

TOWANDA!!!


Still stressed, but my exam is just 11 days away. After that there will be no rushing home from rides, only long trails for me! BTW my neck and shoulders got sore at mile 4.5 today

[Sparky]

May not be related but I had trouble with pain in my neck and a little lower. Went to the bike shop for advice I tried a couple different things and nothing helped. One day while riding my friend said she thought maybe my handlebars were too wide. Turns out she was right! Switched out handlebars end of pain. Strange that only cm can make such a difference but it did. The other thing is that I had been riding for about a year before I started having the pain.

[shewhobikes]

Barb, I'm there with you. My neck feels "scrunched up" after about 10 miles. I finished 25 yesterday and knew for sure I was putting too much pressure on arms and hands. Which was actually good confirmation that LBS and I had this one figured out. I can't keep my arms at a comfortable bend and am pressing a bit outward on the handlebars. Also had trouble, as reported here previously, with reaching the brakes with my hands.

We've ordered 42 inch bars to replace the 44--a shorter, shallower set with brakes closer to my hands. Hope they get in this week when it rains so I can be set up for next weekend.

Barb, good luck on your test! Hope your neck stops bothering you!

[LBTC]

yup, shorter bars worked for me, too!! Just got my ritchey biomax bar installed on my bike and did a 2 3/4 hour 63 km (almost 40 mile) road ride with DH yesterday. That's the longest road ride I've EVER done before! yay!

I did have some numbness in my fingers on the long scary decent, which went away soon enough. And I did get that same numbness shifting into my lightest gear in the back....just have to avoid that as I get stronger All in all, the pain in my upper body (neck, shoulders, upper back) is minimal, only what was already there from life in general, so that is a huge improvement. I used the advice I found...somewhere on line...anyway it said, measure your shoulders bone to bone in centimeters and buy a bar exactly that width. Mine were 36 cm, but I know I like a wide stance with my arms, and my previous bar was a 44 cm so I thought it would be too huge a jump and opted for the 38 cm. so far so good!

Now I just can't wait for my new saddle to get here so my "Queen of England" can stop hurting on the rides!

Happy riding everyone!

Namaste,
~T~

[SadieKate]

Congrats, LBTC, on the new PB! I find that I have to consciously move around on my road bike. Mtbing is such a whole body effort that you don't think about it, but on the pave you can really get frozen in one position. That can be incredibly fatiguing and make everything hurt.

[LBTC]

Congrats, LBTC, on the new PB! I find that I have to consciously move around on my road bike. Mtbing is such a whole body effort that you don't think about it, but on the pave you can really get frozen in one position. That can be incredibly fatiguing and make everything hurt.

Thanks, Sadie! It took me awhile to figure out PB = Personal Best! Yup, the mountain bike gets me moving around almost all the time. I think like a border collie on it - ever watched a border collie run through anything bumpy? when you watch them, you can't tell they're going over high and low things, they just move their legs up and down to adjust, and the top of their back pretty much stays at the same position all the time....like the cosmic crunch up a bumpy climb... very cool...

the road bike definitely takes getting used to with the much more static position. it does help to move hands from drops to hoods, to top (what do you call that part?) and down again...although long decents I'd never take my hands off the bards! Come to think of it, how the heck does Lance DO that?? riding with no hands? scares the beejeezes out of me!! especially on a skinny tired road bike! yikes!

Namaste,
~T~