Today I was going to have a rest according to the schedule, but I was worried that I might be losing my sense of biking, so we did 10 mile ride today just after temperature dropped a tiny bit.
I've been struggling to get my start and stop right for a long time. I understood in my brain, but my body coordination never came right. I thought there must be some secrets or hint.
I found this excellent site and watched the video over and over.
On today's ride I practiced like this at beginning over and over.
For start: I won't sit at beginning to make sure, as soon as the right pedal goes down sit and put left foot on to pedal. With right hand gear 3. My left hand gear is 2, and I decided to never change.
For stop: Before the stop sign, I will change right hand gear to 3, left foot pedal up and right foot pedal down, and roll. When brake stops the bike, tilt bike to left a little bit and only left foot off to the ground, right foot stays on the lower pedal.
Because I have a bad balance sense, right hand gear 4, in stead of 3, was better to start smoothly.
It took many practices to get the stop right. Somehow I had a habit to put both my feet on the ground. And I tilted the bike to the right instead of left. Finally I got it. I still need practice to do it more naturally.
At my old age, skipping biking completely to rest for a whole day seemed not a good idea, because especially I need some tedious practice. And also old aged body never can refresh like a younger one, our body is always tired whether doing something or not doing anything. That was a surprise.
Distance, Max speed, and time
I must have tensed unnecessarily so that I got left arm pain, and butt pain again. And I got tired deeply. Good thing is that I will be able to get to sleep immediately when I go to bed. That's great nowadays.
p.s. The site I put today has another video at the end for cyclocross, and I enjoyed watching a lot.
2 comments:
It's great that you are stretching and doing other exercising between rides. I like to do yoga, but have fallen out of practice lately. You've inspired me to try to get started again.
Funny, I do my starting and stopping just the opposite of how the video shows, although they do say to start pedaling with your less skillful foot. I always start pedaling with my left foot. And when I stop I always tilt my bike to the right and put my right foot down first. It's hard for me to do it the opposite way. I think it's best to use whichever side feels most comfortable to you. Watching the video made me realize I'm sometimes kind of messy with my stops. I tend to want to put my foot down before I've stopped all the way, so I end up kind of dabbing a few times before I come to a complete stop. I'll have to work on that.
That cyclocross sure looks challenging, doesn't it!
Hope you are having a good rest and recovery day.
Hi CyclePatH,
Thanks for having come and telling your thoughts. I think once you got your own style which you are comfortable with, it doesn't matter which way. But for a beginner like I am, it's good to examine different videos carefully to find the right one for myself. There could be some variations. I think finally I found the right one to follow. I'd like to start with my right foot which is my strong one and so I practiced/will practice left foot off to the ground. But in the future I want to practice opposite one too. Because many cases cars coming from my left side, so I don't want to be run over on my left foot.
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the cyclocross video. Thanks.
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