Mr. Silver is a cyclist!

[silver]

yesterday, we rode 20 miles. at about 10 miles we had a "disagreement" and each found our own way home.

We discussed our "issues" and then went for a wonderful ride today. Mr. has achieved a great level of fitness and is already capable of surpassing me in speed.

Today we rode 33 miles (Mr. computer said 32, but I think mine's more correct) averaging about 15 mph. Our ride had hills, flats, rollers and wind. This is farther than he has ridden before and he did great!!

Things we've learned.....he's a masher and I'm a spinner. He has very strong, muscular legs and seems more comfortable this way. I have to refrain from coaching him to ride differently. (I'm an ectomorph, tall and thin, as in not strong muscular legs)

Way to go, Mr.!!!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh that is so GREAT!! There is nothing finer than riding with someone you like to be around.
33 miles is a long ride!
About the masher/spinner thing.... i think that is not too uncommon with a man/woman cycling couple. I'm a spinner too, and I head up hills slowly and steadily, usually trying to get a "running start" as much as possible. In contrast, my husband has longer and stronger legs and is a masher.
Meaning he approaches a hill, then suddenly slows down and goes into a HIGHER gear and stands up to power up the hill fast. If I happen to be behind him as we approach a hill, his sudden slow down totally wrecks my running start and messes me all up! We have learned to let him go on well ahead when approaching a hill, so that there enough of a distance between us that neither of us will ruin the other's hill technique. I can stand up on shorter hills, but not the big long ones.
We had some initial differences that we needed to sort out when biking together, and once you come to agreements onhow to work around them, there are way fewer "misunderstandings". It's nice to know ahead what to expect. I remember one of our big problems was the directional language when coming to turns, forks in the road, etc. He would yell "Straight!" and all I would see infront of me was a perfect "Y" in the road. That was a BIG ongoing dilemma to solve, but we eventually came to an agreement!
I'm so glad you two are riding together! It's so much fun once the little kinks ar ironed out!

[Mr. Bloom]

Silver is still stronger on the hills...they wear me out, but I'm improving. I'm whipped four hours later, but I think that this will be the week that I get my own bike so I don't have to alway borrow SilverSon's.

I find that I'm staying in the top five gears except on the long hills, but I'm learning how to find my "sweet spot".

I think tonight's work out will be upper body focused!!

[Triskeliongirl]

So let's replace the car avatar with a pic of your bike! This is a cycling forum afterall. Glad you made it over to the Dark Side Mr. Silver (and congrats on the weight loss, been following that thread too)!!!

[KSH]

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Silver for being riding buddies.

Pppsssstttt... Mr. Silver... mashing is HORRIBLE. If you are not careful, you might end up with pain in your knees because of it.

[Mr. Bloom]

So let's replace the car avatar with a pic of your bike! This is a cycling forum afterall. Glad you made it over to the Dark Side Mr. Silver (and congrats on the weight loss, been following that thread too)!!!

Silver's working on that with a picture we took yesterday.

[Mr. Bloom]

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Silver for being riding buddies.

Pppsssstttt... Mr. Silver... mashing is HORRIBLE. If you are not careful, you might end up with pain in your knees because of it.

Is mashing horrible if it feels natural and comfortable?

[Jo-n-NY]

I agree that cycling with a Sig Other is great. My best and most enjoyable rides are when dh & I are togther.

Thumbs up to a wonderful cycling season ahead for both of you!!!!!

~ JoAnn

[li10up]

Is mashing horrible if it feels natural and comfortable?

I don't think so...I rode yesterday with an older gentleman who has earned 2, yes two, rainbow jerseys. He is primarily a mtn. biker. He pushes big gears and spins slowly. He is very strong! He has been riding about 30 years and it hasn't hurt his knees. I think if you have strong knees it's fine. He keeps encouraging me to push harder gears. He's not trying to turn me into a masher but he says I need to improve my leg strength. So he wants me to push a harder gear as long as my knees can take it and don't hurt.

Strength-to-weight ratio: I've got to improve my strength as well as lose some weight.

[Dianyla]

Is mashing horrible if it feels natural and comfortable?

Even if it feels ok, you're still creating a muscular imbalance by overdeveloping your quads and neglecting your hams. Eventually you will pay the price for that somewhere on your body, whether that's in the knees or in the back. Spinning is more efficient aerobically, better for your body, and causes less wear and tear on the drivetrain of your bike.

But hey, do what you want. You'll pay for this later.

[smilingcat]

I don't know... if mashing is really bad.

Men seem to have stronger connective tissues, joints, and muscle then women. So what is okay for men may not really apply to us.

I look at some top male riders and many of them are mashers. Look at Jan Ullrich of T-mobile. He was mashing gears while Lance kept a much higher cadence. Lance learned to spin more with help of Miguel Induran (sp) wasn't it?? And there are other male riders who consistently use big chain ring even when climbing cat2 hills...

And even if you to mash the pedals, shouldn't you still be putting power into your pedal at the top (pushing the pedal forward), back (pulling up on the pedal) and at the bottom (pushing the pedal backwards)? My quads, hamstring and glutes get a pretty good workout.

Any trainers out there with thoughts??

For the record, as I get older, I prefer to spin cause its easier on my knees.

Shawn

[Mr. Bloom]

I don't know if this is relevant:

My inseam is 29", my thigh circumference is 23", my calf circumference is 16"

I don't know what the stats are, but my guess is that my legs are fairly strong and evenly muscular (yes, I have tear drops above my knees)...they're simply short.

While the rest of my body is flabby, I'm hoping that leg strength matters in protecting my knees.

BUT, I hear enough push back on this to know that I can't ignore the issue.

[mimitabby]

My son is a masher too. But he's young yet and can get away with murder.
he is amazing going up a hill on a fixed gear bike.

I think you can train yourself to spin more, but to an extent, you're always going to tend towards mashing if you are one... so with this knowledge, you
can improve and i'm sure it will be just great.
Congrats on the new bike. I hope i get one soon. as soon as i figure out what it is that I want.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Is it just me who has noted the terrible irony of finding out that our own Mr.Silver is actually a MASHER?!
Or is the term so old nobody remembers it anymore? (feeling older by the minute...)

[Wahine]

Since this thread has already been thoroughly highjacked...

Mashing will tend a person toward muscle imbalances, unless you have a very clean pedal stroke. Most mashers do not. That's why it's called mashing and not just slow cadence, it looks like they are mashing down on the pedals.

Yes, men have stronger connective tissue and can take higher stress loads because of it but eventually, even the strongest joint will break down under enough repeated stress. The other advantage that men have is the alignment of their femurs (thigh bone) relative to the pelvis, this allows them to get away with muscle imbalances longer before they experience pain around the patella (knee cap). The alignment changes the way the force from the quads is delivered through the patella.

But the most telling factor, IMO, is the relationship between cadence and intra-articular pressures (pressure inside the joint). As candence goes up, intra-articular pressure goes down, drastically. So, higher cadence, less pressure on the cartilage, less microtrauma that leads to nasty things like osteoarthritis in our old age. Having said that, if you're spinning above 70 RPM, the joint forces are pretty low anyway. Below 70 is not good for long term joint health.

Hope that helps.

PS - Congratulations on the weight loss and the riding.