New Saddle

I've debated for some time about whether to try a different saddle on my X6 or not. Well, more frequent, longer rides on the stock saddle in cold weather became pretty uncomfortable as I had to keep shifting from one sit bone to the other during the ride rather than just being able to perch evenly. As the saddle didn't seem bad other than not being wide enough, I decided to look for one from the same line. The stock saddle is a Selle San Marco Ponza. Unfortunately, they don't seem to make a Ponza for women, so I ordered a saddle from the same 'Island' series, the women's Ischia. It is an appropriate width which is good, but also a bit heavier and thicker in profile. Luckily it's not at all expensive, so I don't feel badly about experimenting a bit. I ordered it from amazon since it's not something the local shop usually carries.

This is the saddle as pictured on amazon.

Jeff and I mounted it on the bike Sunday and I think we did a pretty good job positioning it, but I'll probably stop by the shop at some point as the owner said he'd help with adjusting it. It certainly won't hurt to have an expert look at the angle of my knees, etc.

This is a picture that I took of the saddles together for comparison. My new saddle is in the foreground and the stock saddle is shown behind, on Jeff's bike.

If you happen to know about saddles for cx and have any thoughts on this one, pros or cons, please leave a comment for me. Or if there is one that tends to be favored by women, let me know the name. I'm just getting started with cx, so I appreciate *all* advice!

Also, Jeff has decided he isn't very comfortable on his saddle, so we'll be looking into an alternative for him as well.

11/17/07 Weekly Ride Report

Five days of riding this week and 137.56 miles total. Two solo efforts and 3 rides with Jeff. All but one ride on the 'cross bike.

The Japanese Maple tree in our yard is such an amazing color right now! I snapped the pic at the start of today's bike ride. I'd hoped to take some more pics as we rode, but it just seemed too hard to do with the wind, cold and full fingered gloves too!

Whoossshhhh...

That was the sound of the wind blowing past my ears on my ride today. No, not due to my great pedaling speeds, rather due to a constant NW/W wind speed of 14-18 with gusts to 27 mph! It was all I could hear for the entire duration of my ride, in fact, I still feel like I'm hearing it!

When I stopped for a drink and uncapped my Gatorade, the wind blew a spray of Gatorade right out of the bottle! The wind also made a foghorn like sound as it blew across the bottle opening!

It could have felt really cold today with temps no higher than 46 and a ‘feels like’ temperature of no more than 40 based on wind chill, but the sun was very bright and my black tights soaked up the warmth of the rays pretty well. I only felt cold when I was pedaling straight into the wind and there were some long stretches like that. At times I was practically doing a track stand into the wind gusts!

At the start of my ride, when I pushed the on button to wake up Garmin, it said 'bleeep' and shut off immediately despite having been fully charged on Wednesday. Aarrghh! As much as I like it, Garmin can be a real pain sometimes. So, I had to go without a computer today and just did a route that I know the mileage for exactly: 29.52 miles.

I’m trying to do a lot of easy Base Effort rides and think I did as well as could be expected at it today considering I had no computer/heart rate monitor and the wind was making me work a bit just to have any forward momentum at all!

I snapped a couple of pics where I stopped for a drink and look at the waves.

If you look closely at this one you can see some of the spray blowing off the tops of the waves.

Brrr...

It was a cold ride for Jeff and I today. No one else braved the weather with us! The best part was jumping back into the sun-warmed cab of the truck at the end! Here’s Jeff, styling in his skully and showing the average for the day.

He can actually pull off the shades and skully look. I quite like this shot of him!

On the other hand, I can’t work the skully look, and opted to go with really bad hat head. Oh man, maybe I shouldn’t be posting this shot!

How cold was it? The high temperature during our ride was 35.6 degrees with a NNW wind direction and wind speed of 11.5-14.9. We rode 25.44 miles at 16.5 mph average with a quick stop to share a coffee and cookie mid-way. It’s so hard to ride in the cold. You want to go fast enough that you get warmed up, but not so fast that the wind-chill becomes unbearable!

11/10/07 Weekly Ride Report

I feel like I'm getting over the little cold that dragged me down a bit earlier in the week. I have a total of 117.20 miles to report for the week. I did 5 road bike rides, 3 were solo efforts and 2 were with groups.

One group ride was the Sunday cafe route. The other happened on Friday at lunchtime. Jeff and I had plans to ride with one other guy and the three of us ended up with a chance to meet up with two other guys we know for about 12 miles of the route. Those two guys are pretty fast, so I know they were holding back, but it was still a great feeling to work in a pace line with them.

The total distance was 28.83 miles. On the charts, the part where the five of us rode together is from about 5 miles to 17 miles, mostly down and back on a road with no crossings. The rest was just three of us. The overall average was 17.0 mph and the elevation gain was 1,533 feet.

This chart shows speed:

Here's the elevation:

Easy Rides This Week

Seems I’m not over trained or sore from my posture on the cx bike as previously speculated. I’ve come down with a low-grade cold that I can attribute the muscle aches to. So, bad news is that I have a cold, but good news is that the biking wasn’t hurting me!! Today, I’ll take a day off since it’s going to rain. I’ll do easy rides the rest of this week as long as I feel up to it.

Sunday, I did the (now pretty regular!) café stop group ride instead of a more intense ride I’d hoped to try. Yesterday morning, I did 24 miles solo and the cool, fresh air felt like it cleared my head a bit. I took it mostly easy, but couldn’t resist a more intense effort for the long, flat stretch along the beach as it seems silly to me to pedal that part slowly.

I stopped for a drink and photo break by the lychgate at a little churchyard.

Here’s my road bike a little closer up. The new X6 has been getting photographed a lot lately so I thought I should make sure to include a shot of my road bike!

Do you think it’s embarrassing to ride with someone who still has the plastic thingy on the rear wheel? I still haven’t removed it and so many people give me grief about that! Apparently, it makes me a geek!!

11/3/07 Weekly Ride Report

I accumulated 146.43 miles this week over 5 days of riding. (3 road bike rides and 2 cx rides. 2 solo rides, 3 with Jeff and 2 of those were group rides.)

I took yesterday and today off to let my body rest and refresh for an upcoming group ride. Lately, I've noticed that my muscles are tired and don't have much extra output when I want to sprint or power uphill. It's probably a case of 'over training'. It may also be related to a lot of miles on the new 'cross bike which works my muscles a little differently.

Friday, I got this Winter 2007 special publication from Cycling Weekly magazine. I haven't had a chance to do more than browse through, but I think there's some stuff in here that will help me manage my winter riding. There are articles on what to wear, what to eat and some sample training schedules as well as articles on the body's physiology.

The leaves are really falling now. The ones already on the ground keep getting caught between my wheel and brake and make a scraping noise until I can reach down and pull them out. The ones drifting down from the tree limbs can be a hazard as they seem to aim straight for my sunglasses! Twice, I’ve had soggy leaves plastered over one lens like some sort of eye patch and had to peel them away! Nonetheless, they are pretty.

Here's Jeff doing his first bit of trail riding earlier this week on his new X6.

This is just a very short path, but it's fun to get off the pavement even for just a few moments.

Most of my pics are shot from the saddle, but off pavement, I definitely stop and plant both feet first!