ChrisCowan.us

Over the last couple of days I’ve thought of a few things I wanted to post about but didn’t have enough substance to fill an entire blog post. I know that Twitter is good for these types of things but some of the thoughts can’t really be summarized into 140 characters either. So here are a few random thoughts…

Nice bike, is that your commuter?

Often when people see my bike the phrase above is usually the first thing they blurt out of their mouth. I’m not really sure how to answer this question. Yes I do commute on it but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s my commuter bike. It’s also the bike I ride on group rides, off-road rides, solo rides and I hope to be able to do some bike camping with it in the spring. It also happens to be my only bike which is pretty rare for a bike fanatic like myself.

Yes it’s heavy but you can hardly notice it since it’s also very comfortable and speed is not very important to me (anymore). I think it’s kind of silly to worry about weight with the style of riding I do (did you notice the triple crankset and the big ass gears… those make any bike light).

The one thing I’ve learned from my injury is that I really just love being on my bike and riding. Thinking back to how this injury started, my goal last year was to get faster, attempting to get faster got me into this knee pickle. Now I just want to be able to ride my bike a lot and without pain.

Is this working?

My last post I mentioned I have a new plan: stop riding with the knee straps and continue my rehab exercise (and limit my riding to commuting/errands). Since I started doing the exercises again my knees have been aching a bit more or at least I feel like they have.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if this stuff is working it seems like there are days where I feel like I’ve made progress and then there are other days where I’m no better off. I’ve also stared stretching daily and using the foam roller.

Today I feel like I’ve made progress since my ride was really fun and I’m not having much pain (well, much more pain then normal). Ibuprofen and Coors Light helps too.

Daddy’s face is itchy!

I’ve decided to grow a beard (or just stop shaving… I’m that lazy). Amanda doesn’t like it very much but I’ve kind of grown attached to it. I just wanted something different… It was either this or a pink mohawk!

I’m still in the process of recovering for my knee issues, all in all things have been getting better. My off bike pain is limited to some post ride discomfort in my patellar tendon for a day or so. On the bike I still have some pressure on my patellar tendon but nothing too intolerable. On a pain scale it’s like a 1 or 2 which is rather dull compared to what it was back in September.

A few weeks ago I also started developing some lower back pain associated with my tight hamstrings. I started getting back into my stretches and SMR from PT and it’s pretty much eliminated the back pain all together (thank god!).

I’m also concerned about having to wear the knee straps for too long. I’m worried that they have become a crutch and are starting to interfere with my full recovery. While they have given me enough relief to ride about 30 - 40 miles I still feel like I maybe slowing my recovery by continuing to put strain on the tendon even though it’s reduced. For example if I go multiple days without riding I’m almost completely pain free.

With that in mind I think I’m going to take a break from the distance riding, I’m still going to ride to work and maybe some short errands but nothing like my normal training routine. I think I’m also going to ditch the knee straps permanently and just take it super easy on the bike, high RPMs… low gears… slow. I’m also going to start training in the gym again focusing on strength training, stretching and working on my core.

Before I switched to road biking I did a lot of training in the gym and mountain biking. The gym work really helped keep my body form getting injured. Once we had Catie I stopped working out and focused on road cycling. One thing I remember from my gym workout days is that I never had issue with back pain or chronic over use injuries, most of the research I’ve done supports this.

Besides my rides lately have been lack luster due to the current weather conditions. It’s not like I live some where it’s really cold but you have to remember I do most of my riding before 9 am. At that time the temperature ranges from 25º - 40º and it makes my old man muscles stiff.

It’s time to go pump myself up!

Phoenix has changed a ton since I was here last time, it keeps growing and growing and growing and growing, I think it’s called sprawl. It kind of sickens me in the stomach to think how spread out this place is, not that everything is so close in the Bay Area. It just feels like this town will never stop growing (and it probably won’t).

Now I may sound all high an mighty about how spread out everything is and I’m tempted to do a diatribe on how this makes public transportation difficult and creates a car culture and blah blah blah. Truth be told my main choice of transportation in the Bay Area is still our car. I wish I could ride my bike everywhere but it’s just not practical when you have a family of four.

Ok enough about the sprawl.

Let’s talk about cycling, I have to admit that the Metro Phoenix Area is really bike friendly. The drivers here are very courteous and there are tons of bike lanes everywhere. I didn’t have one conflict where drivers honked at me or where I felt threatened (I think they where too busy hating each other to bother with me.) Most of the time drivers just smiled and waved. I even had a lady pull up next to me and give me a wave and a smile at a light (she was old and I think she was checking out my ass).

I have a few uneducated theories as to why I felt a good vibe from the drivers here:

1. I haven’t spent enough time riding here to get a real feel for how drivers feel. But I also didn’t hear from friends families how they are totally annoyed by cyclist either. So maybe the animosity just isn’t here. In the Bay Area most of my friends complain about how cyclist are rude, entitled and run red lights all the time (even when most cyclist I see are exactly the opposite).
2. There are not very many hipsters or bike messengers here. I think the bike messenger/hipster culture is somewhat fascinating but I think it also puts an ugly face on cycling. (Overgeneralization Warning!) The perception is that Hipsters/Messengers have a tendency to bend the rules of the road to their liking, I also think the media in the Bay Area over emphasizes the rule bending so most people automatically start hating cyclist even when they have never had a bad experience with them. People see a cyclist in the Bay Area and automatically assume they are going to run red lights and break the law when it’s convenient for them. Most of the cyclist I encountered in Phoenix are either day labors or Roadies (doctors, dentists, young professionals, retired adults, etc) and these type of riders have a tendency to signal and ride respectfully (well except for the day labors riding in the wrong direction in the bike lane.)
3. There is no “Take the Lane” law here. When I first read up on the laws before hitting the streets (BIKE NERD!) I was concerned to read that they have a “Stay Right” approach instead of “Take the Lane”. But after my first ride I realized why this works here, the lanes in Phoenix are so freaking wide it’s ridiculous. Also every other street has a bike lane so you can plan a route without ever having to leave the bike lane. And when you do ride on a street without a bike lane there is still a TON of room. Most roads in Phoenix are at least 4 lanes wide and the lanes are big enough to accommodate two cars. My theory why there is some animosity in the Bay Area is that when a cyclist takes a lane they are encroaching on the Drivers territory and since most people are territorial they feel like they must protect their domain with aggression.

Like I said these are my uneducated theories, I’m sure some (or all) of my generalizations and assumptions are wrong. But since this is my blog I can comfortably make those and there isn’t anything you can do about it, except post a comment correcting me (which I get to moderate… ha!).

A few drawbacks that keep Phoenix off my list of ideal cycling communities.

1. It’s 10,000º here in the summer! I have a tendency to melt in hot weather and my favorite cycling weather is cold cloudy days with a mist of rain.
2. Everything is really spread out. If you plan on riding to work or to a friends house across town it’s probably going to be at least 20 miles round trip (which for someone like me isn’t necessarily a bad thing…) The infrastructure in Phoenix is really designed around driving.
3. IT’S 1,000,000º IN THE SUMMER!
4. It feels like your constantly surrounded by cars rushing past you. Almost every surface street has a 45 mph speed limit, all you hear is whoosh…. whoosh… whoosh… whoosh whoosh. It’s not very relaxing. On the bright side most of the canals in Phoenix are open to bikes so this does give your a bit of a break from it.
5. Did I mention that it’s 1,000,000,000º in the summer.

The drawbacks aside I will admit that I had a lot of fun riding here. The best ride was climbing to the top of South Mountain, it’s an amazing climb. The surrounding desert landscape is just absolutely beautiful. You practically forget your in a large sprawling metropolitan area. The average grade is just 5% with a few undulating sections and a steep final ascent at the summit. This is what the climb looks like most of the way up:

The road is ultra smooth and makes for an amazing descent, I think I maintained 25 mph all the way down. It’s an absolute thrill! If you are ever in the Phoenix area with your road bike, South Mountain to the Towers is an absolute must do ride.

I hate to admit it but I could see myself living here again. One of the toughest things about living in the Bay Area is the lack of close friends and family, I didn’t realize how much I missed them until today. Amanda really loves it here and the kids had such a blast playing with their cousins. Although there are a lot of things I like in the Bay Area I think our time may be limited there.