Thursday, May 11, 2006

Stroke Efficiancy

Sunday was rather uneventful. I lazed around and watched Pride and Prejudice. What a great chick flick!! I think I might have to go out and buy the book.

Monday, I thought about going running. And that is as far as I got!! Bad!

Tuesday I met up with some friends at Memorial Park and did some loops. But before I could do that I had to rush home to clean my bike so it would be nice and clean. Because you know I just had no time to clean it the past two days!!

Anyway, I ended up doing about 12 miles and kept thinking about how I need to improve my pedaling stroke. I think I put to much effort in the pushing resulting in my toes and such falling asleep. Do I need to concentrate on pulling more? That is what someone said to do when I told them my toes go to sleep. But I think that is more to take the pressure off the foot for a bit so the blood can start circulating. I was trying to find some stuff on the Internet about how to be more efficient with my pedaling and couldn’t find much. The only thing that really stood out to me was the “scrape your shoes off” technique.

I asked Dan about it on Tuesday and he suggested the same thing. He said that you are most efficient from the 1 to 5/11 to 7 position of the stroke if you look at it like you are looking at a clock (does that make sense?). The hardest part of the stroke is from 11 to 1/1 to 11 or 5 to 7/7 to 5 – the top and bottom part of the stroke. He said to help with this, when you reach the downward part of the stroke put your heal down so your foot is more parallel to the ground and pretend you are scraping off the bottom of your shoe.

I have tried it a couple times since (on my mountain bike in tennis shoes) and I did notice a difference. I sure did feel some different muscles when I did it, too!! I will really have to put it to the test this Saturday – we are doing 80 miles up in the Magnolia/Anderson area – hilly!!

After the short ride and lesson it was time for dinner – Los Cucos on Memorial. I love that place. Actually, I love their fish tacos and margaritas!! I was going to refrain from the margaritas, but too many people know that I like them so when I came back to the table after washing up the guys had ordered me a rita on the rocks with salt! They know me too well!!

Yesterday I didn’t do anything. A couple weeks ago my mother went to a nutritionist and since then she has been trying to do some of the things the nutritionist recommended. One of these things is semi-fasting for 36 hours every week or so. During this time you are allowed to eat or drink only one type of fruit (must be non-citrus). Well yesterday my mother calls me up and wonders if I would like to do it with her and Tom (step-dad). I agree! Have to be supportive. That is the reason I didn’t do anything. I was STARVING!! All I had to eat yesterday was apples and applesauce. Do not think I will be doing that again anytime soon!

Tonight I am going running. Just haven’t decided if I am running around the golf course or meeting up with friends at Memorial Park. I think I will do the golf course, that way I do not have to get in the car and drive! And I have to make Cowboy Caviar (love this stuff!) for a work retreat tomorrow. And if I meet up with friends that will not get done!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Why does the nutritionist suggest fasting?

For me that would trigger a rebound that would do serious damage to the local ice cream supply.

Keith.

Unknown said...

I assume you have clipless. Try taking one foot out of the pedal and only pedaling for a while with one leg. You will quickly find out where your stroke is sloppy, and floppy and generallly not strong. Also by only using one leg you can concentrate on pedaling in circles and making sure your stroke is round. when there is no other leg pushing you quickly learn when you need to pull.

hope this helps.

Mojo said...

Good imagery, scraping off your shoes.. I will try it!

If I fasted for 36 hours, everyone would leave me. I cannot imagine how grouchy I would be, I probablu would start biting people. You are a brave, brave woman!

What is cowboy caviar?

Jill said...

Keith - not sure the reason for the fasting. Asked my mom, but she couldn't remember. I think it is a cleansing thing.

Tom - thanks for the tips! I will try them out this weekend.

Mojo - Cowboy Caviar is a dip/salad that consists of black beans, black-eyed peas, corn, tomatoes, avacado, cilantro, jalapenos, mango, garlic, s&p, lime juice, and red onion. It is very good - in my opinion!!