New saddle, shoes, and other news

It's a gorgeous spring day in San Francisco... perfect for a long ride but alas, today is a very light day as I've got my first race (duathlon) tomorrow. I'm very thankful that the race organizers pushed back the time from 7 am to 7:30 as it's daylight savings time and it will take 1.5 hours to drive to the race. So I'll be waking up tomorrow at 3:30 am body-clock time, which I'm less than thrilled about... but it will be fun to get back into race mode.

Not that I'll be racing hard, mind you... I've prepared a bunch of excuses on why I won't do well I've done a lot of slow and steady HR training since January, and we just started adding a bit of speed work. The other potential hinderance is my own body:

1. My hamstring has started grumbling again. I was so happy to have healed up, but a couple hard and faster sessions last weekend strained it a bit. Should be ok to race on, but I'll have to be very careful and listen to my body. I made an emergency appointment with the magicians at Psoas on Thursday and ended up with Michael, who specializes in neurokinetics: the science of identifying which muscles aren't firing right and which muscles are compensating for them.

Him: "Your hamstring is tight because your quad is weak." (yes, just on my left side; I could feel it when he tested the muscle)

Me: "How could my quad be weak? I've been cycling/running/strength training non-stop this year!" 

Him: (after a bit more testing/poking/prodding): "Your quad is weak because your lower back muscles are compensating." (And true enough, I have HUGE knots in my lumbar area, but I've had those for years.)

Coincidentally, I've been complaining to coach that I felt like I wasn't getting any stronger; I have felt weak and it has puzzled me. Michael did confirm that muscle imbalances can definitely interfere with training progress so I'm looking forward to seeing if he can help matters. He didn't want to loosen up those back muscles too much given the race on Sunday, but I'll be going back next week for a longer appointment.

Ok, now on to fun stuff: the triathlon-shaped hole in the bottom of my financial bucket new shoes and saddle!

2. My calves and achilles have started really bothering me since I picked up the running pace over the past 2 weeks. I have a very strong suspicion that my new Saucony Kinvaras have something to do with it. They're very light, minimalist shoes and while I LOVE the light weight and better feel of the ground, my calves, feet and achilles just need to work a lot harder than they used to when it comes to hills or speed work.

So I went shoe shopping a couple days ago. It felt so weird to put on traditional running shoes with all that clunky padding... it felt like my feet were wrapped in spongy bricks. So I went with the Asics Gel DS Trainer.

 

These feel a lot like the Kinvaras -- ighter weight and low to the ground, but with a bit more cushion and slightly higher heel height. I'm hoping there's enough difference to merit buying a new pair of shoes, but I just couldn't bring myself to go back to regualr running shoes. The one difference I do feel is weight; the Asics are lighter than most running shoes but still 2 oz heavier than the Kinvaras, which will take a little adjustment.

So in addition to the shoes, I've been using The Stick on my calves and Achilles, plus standing on it so I could roll out the bottom of my feet which are crazy tight. Lemme tell ya, tight feet are painful. It's all starting to loosen up so I am hopeful that my 2 runs tomorrow won't feel like I'm running on inflexible metal pogo sticks. Not a fun way to run.

3. My butt has been so sore from trying out different bike saddles. But I did some reading and discovered the Cobb Flow, which I can't seem to find a single negative review on. I couldn't find it locally, but a Google search revealed Herriott Sports Performance in Seattle that not only carried it, but offered to send me a test saddle for free.

It's an interesting seat design... narrower than most saddles in the back, and you sit a bit differently on it as well. From a description on All3Sports.com (because I can't open the very informative Cobb Cycling site):

The V-Flow is designed for performance riding of a triathlete, where the rider is rotated much more forward, riding on a completely different part of the pelvis area. The narrow rear section is especially great at relieving pressure from the hamstring muscle and the upper adductors. These pressure points are two of the leading causes of leg cramps and lower back pain.

After a few rides on it, I've decided to go ahead and purchase it. It does take a little adjustment but I do not have the butt pain that I've had on several other saddles. And the red/black color palette matches my bike, which of course is all-important (kidding.)  The guys at Herriott are awesome; I was supposed to send the test saddle back to them within 2 weeks, but after learning I have a race on Sunday they said "no worries! We''ll mail you a new seat and just send back the test seat when you're done with it." Perfect.

So... today I'll hop on the trainer for 30 minutes and swim, figure out how to set my Garmin for multi-sport, and pack everything up so I can just hop out of bed and go.

Comments

[cheryl]

Find a pedorthist in your area to analyze your foot strike and position on bike while riding (all done with computer technology).
My guy actually made orthotics for my bike shoes and the strength in my left leg increased immensely (to the tune of a couple mph ave. faster!) and the lower back/hip stuff went away!
Best of luck tomorrow!

[Molly]

I love the DS Trainers, those are my racing flats and they are great shoes!!!

Have an awesome race!!!

[Lisa]

When/if I upgrade my saddle I will most likely go with the Cobb. I have only heard good things about it as well. Sadly though, it does not match my bike. ;>)

[herbal remedies]

I like your healthy lifestyle. It is better to feel pain because of some sort of exercise, than feel pain because you are not exercising. Good luck with the new gears!