Well, I got fitted at The Spokesman in Santa Cruz on Thursday and really hoped it would solve my knee pain. Unfortunately, I’ll have to go back for more adjustments.
Saturday started out brilliantly, with clear, sunny skies and a forecasted high of 70°F! When we met, it was a brisk 50°F, so I had leg warmers, long-sleeve jersey and my windbreaker worn as a vest. My friend Mark had joined us because he wanted to get some serious training in before he starts training for the AIDS ride.
We left the Alamden VTA parking lot with route sheets and huge smiles due to the awesome weather. We warmed up nicely and since I have never ridden with Mark, we took it slow. After the first long stop light, I asked him how he felt about the pace and he said, “kinda slow.” So we ramped it up and I’d say we were riding about the same pace on the flats. But he hasn’t done any real climbing, so I dropped him on the first climb to Calero Reservoir. He developed some chain/deraileur problmes midway up, so I rode back to see what the matter was. Turns out no one had ever told him about cross-chaining, so his deraileur had gotten out of adjustment from working too hard. A few twists of a screwdriver and he was back in business.
Despite what I thought was a careful warmup period, and an extensive fitting, my knee started talking to me around the 20-mile mark. I was a little disappointed, but decided that I am going to do the century in March, so I will have to deal with this problem before then. Fortunately, a few adjustments are included in the original price, so unless I need a ton of new parts, it won’t get super-expensive for a while. And frequent stretching helps keep it manageable even on our longest ride to date: 50 miles. So I can still train while we figure out what’s wrong with me.
Anyway, soon after my knee began to hurt, Mark had a day-ending mechanical: a broken spoke. He was able to limp back to the parking lot about 4 miles away and got home safely. It was good timing, too, because he missed out on the two biggest climbs of the day!
After riding solo, then catching a few people, I eventually met up with Scott, my Team Short Break teammate, at a rest stop. We finished the ride together, getting some pacelining in along the way. It was cool.
The good news is the fitting solved a little lower back problem I’d had and just sort of dealt with. And the knee pain was a little less than before, so I think we’re making progress. I’d just like to have the normal aches and pains one gets AFTER riding a lot, not DURING the ride. There should be only one thing on my mind during the century—finishing—not “how do I keep this knee pain in check?”