pedaling with my toes down.

[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!

[indigoiis]

What's interesting for me is that when I did not think of ankles down, I got charley horses in BOTH calves. When I focused my energy down the leg and straightened out the feet, I got no charley horses.

So is it mind over matter? Can I actually stop charley horses with my brain?

spooky!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I think when you pedal with your toes pointed down you are using your calf muscles more. You probably get more power from the thigh muscles.

As mentioned by wiseowl, I too notice than when I *think* i'm having my heels way down I am actually just riding with my feet flat.

Here's a little unrelated pedaling tip I recently discovered on my own:
When I am going up a LONG LONG hill and am in my lowest gear, and have used up just about all my reserves and my leg muscles are burning and are about to konk out on me altogether.... my "last ditch" trick is to just stop using my upper leg muscles altogether and instead I just concentrate on straightening my knees to complete each pedal stroke. It's amazing how this can actually work to keep you spinning up the hill. You won't have a lot of power, but it will keep you moving and give your leg muscles a chance to recover for a minute. It's vaguely like a Michael Jackson "moonwalk" technique- but not so weird!
I use it when I have no reserves left and want a minute to let my leg muscles recover while not actually stopping on the uphill. It does not work on steep hills though- only long inclines. It's a nice little extra trick to have up your sleeve.

[LadyInMotion]

today was my first ride on my new (first) bike. Many weeks ago I was clueless about cycling and about bikes. Thanks to the many wonderful ladies on this thread, I was able to get through my test rides and purchase not feeling like a total green dufus. During my ride today, this was one of the threads that I remembered and paid attention to my foot position on the pedals and mentally found myself correcting them a few times.

Lisa S.H. - thank you for another tip that I will file away in my brain. I am very apprehensive about tackling any type of climbing and will put that on hold until I build more leg strength but I will remember that tip.