A very wise man once said…
April 16th, 2008“Remember you’re clipped in”
And that is a very sound piece of advice. However, he forgot to add “and make sure you remember how to get out of your pedals”.
It was that second piece of advice I could have done with when I found myself teetering at the junction of Buchanan Street & Argyle Street this evening. The problem stemmed from the fact that I was on my mountain bike (due to the fact that the road bike is currently hooked up to my trainer) and that I had decided this morning to change the regular pedals for a set of clipless pedals that had been kicking around for a while but I hadn’t gotten round to putting on the bike. I knew from previous experience that it wasn’t a good idea to go out with a set of untested pedals, so made a point of adjusting the pedals and testing until they seemed ok.
However, while testing the pedals I noticed that something seemed to be different from the pedals on my road bike. It took me a while to work it out but I realised I was having to twist in the opposite direction to get out of the pedals. With the pedals on my road bike I twist my heel away from the bike to get out but with these pedals I was having to twist my heel into the bike to get out. I’m not sure why that would be, I double checked they were on the right way around but figured it was no big deal as it seemed to be easy enough to get out.
And thus I found myself at the junction of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street coming to a halt to avoid going into the side of a nasty big bus only to find as I twisted my heel that nothing was happening and I couldn’t get out of my peddles. And before I knew it I found myself spread eagled on the pavement in front of a bunch of young neds who found it all rather amusing.
- ned 1: “Had a few too many beers big man?”
- embarrassed: “Damn stupid pedals!”
- neds: “Aye right!” (followed by much hilarity)
So, I picked myself up and got back on my bike and cycled off into the distance.
Once home I repaired my bruised ego by getting on the trainer and pounding out a good 50 minute training session.
Program: FEI 004, 50 mins, varied gradient
- Avg Cadence: 90 rpm
- Max Cadence: 118 rpm
- Avg Speed: 18.7 mph
- Max Speed: 31.9 mph
- Avg Power: 168 w
- Max Power: 455 w
- kCals: 482
- Distance: 15.5 miles
- Weigh in: 14st 5lb
That’s the third time I’ve done the same program this week and have been improving with each attempt. It’s still pretty tough going though so I think I’ll give it another week before I move on to the FEI 006 program which adds an extra 15 mins and looks to have a much tougher gradient pattern throughout the program. My plan is to do 2 nights a week on the trainer with at least 2 good road rides a week. Coupled with my regular commute I should be looking at a minimum of about 90 miles a week. As things start to improve and I start upping the mileage on the longer rides I figure I should be able to get that up to somewhere in the region of 150 miles.
One Response to “A very wise man once said…”
By runography on Apr 17, 2008
Man, that must have been something you have dreaded since starting to cycle. LOL And whats with this 150 miles a week nonsense? That’s insane.