pedaling with my toes down.

[aly]

Yay! 16 miles today. I tried so hard to keep my heels down, but it was hard. The ride was long, hot and in the mountains. I kept reminding myself, but would soon forget. It also, as shellyj mentioned, aches more.

The only thing that sucked was that at the end of the ride there is a long hill. By the time I got there, I was exhausted. At first, I was thinking about my feet, but by the end, my boyfriend had doubled back behind me and I was just trying to finish up and make it to the top. At the end of the ride I was happy. My boyfriend promptly told me what a great job I did- then added "but you really have to work on that foot thing. After I got behind you, I looked and it was bad." It was awful timing. He rained on my little parade. I tried to explain to him that I'm acutely aware of the problem and I know he only means to be helpful and supportive, but he really needs to work on his timing. I was tired and emotional and always react defensively to even the most well meaning advice. But geesh- couldn't he have waited and let me feel good for a bit?

The ride, all in all, was fun. It feels great to ride longer and feel stronger. It will also be son nice when my form improves. It turns out that a female racer, who works at our lbs, has a spinning class where you bring your own bike and work on a trainer. She also occasionally takes the group into a local park to work on stuff. I think it'll give me a nice little boost on building my strength and a great opportunity to work on form. I'm going to check it out this week.

16 miles! I can't believe it!!

[LoriO]

Doesn't it feel great when you are able challenge yourself like that!!!

I have never biked with someone that is a serious biker and I am scared to think what they would point that I am doing wrong.

I have already learned so many things here that I am trying to adapt to my riding.

[luvs2ride]

my former Team in Training coach called peddling with your toes, "Sissy-la-la" peddling. I found that very funny and it was also a big problem of mine when I first started riding. We'd say, "she's doing the Sissy la-la," and the other person would laugh but would quickly correct their form. No one wanted to be doing a "Sissy la-la!" . . now I only seem to have this problem with my left foot but ususally keep my heel down on the right . . there's always room for improvement! HA HA

[equus123]

one thing i focus on while pedalling and trying to keep my heels down more is to mentally focus on the pull in your foot. i know this sounds contrary to popular belief, but hey, it works for me.

when i want to have a heels down, solid pedal stroke, i focus on pedalling in a rectangle. hear me out.

1) obviously be conscious of the angle in your ankle (i.e. heels up or down)
2) next i focus on trying to pull my cleat off the bottom of my road shoe. in doing this, i'm focusing on pulling backwards straight from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock.
3) then i focus on again trying to rip the cleat off but by pushing my foot straight across from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock.

[i know everybody says "pedal in circles" but if you can do this technique effectively, you actually are pedalling in a circle and also a more efficient one because there's more force being generated around the entire circle instead of mainly just the downward portions. ]

this may sound weird but hop on the bike and give it a try. if it doesn't work for you then oh well. it works for me.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I found that once I was aware of my sissy-la-la pedaling on toes thing, I just couldn't do it so much anymore- I became too aware of it and kept correcting it automatically. After a while of this awareness you just start doing it less and less. Toe pedaling seems to very really common when you're starting out.

It's not a big deal and we really shouldn't feel bad when people point it out to us. It's just one of many many efficiency biking tips we'll hear -and benefit from!- over the years from various helpful people.

[tjf9]

I found that once I was aware of my sissy-la-la pedaling on toes thing, I just couldn't do it so much anymore- I became too aware of it and kept correcting it automatically.

I didn't even realize I was doing this until I read this thread. Now, I'm constantly aware of it. Thanks for sharing this tip!

[indigoiis]

Today I rode and as I rode I murmurred, over and over again...:

Ankles down
ankles down
ankles down
Nice straight back.

I probably sounded a little creepy to anyone who happened to be up at that ungodly hour.

[Kuota Rider]

If you ever have a dog that chases you while riding in the country (I had 2 German Shepards take out after me last week ), you will learn very quickly not to ride on your toes. You will also learn that no matter how tired you think you are, you can go into a full standing sprint for quite awhile. At least until the dog gives up the chase.

[wiseowl]

I was thinking about this again when I was out riding yesterday. Because I also tippy toe, I was seeing what worked for me- I found that if I felt in my mind that I was doing a really exagerrated heel down...I was just about right. If I looked at my feet, they were nowhere near as extreme as I imagined them to be. So even though I may sound like I am overcorrecting, because things are so tight in my lower legs and because I so very badly want to tippy toe, I am turning out about right. When I had this problem horseback riding, I did stretches because part of the problem was that various lower leg muscles were very tight, so that would prob help with biking. Too bad I hate stretching!