To begin with, I want to thank everyone who has reached out to be outside of this blog to ask questions and provide me support for my PowerCrank'ing experience. I'm happy to know that folks are interested in my learnings and are considering their own application in the near future. Please feel free to send me questions and/or post comments on this blog.
Introduction:
With that said, all this week I have been racing the 6-Day at Alpenrose Velodrome and riding my PowerCranks each day to and from the track. By the end of the week I will have 8 days straight of PowerCrank riding (total of ~12 hours of training on PowerCranks), which will be my longest continuous stretch of usage since I started this adventure a few months ago. Also during the past week I went into Upper Echelon Fitness in Portland to have another Retul fit check and based on the feedback from the fit, matched with my observations from on and off the bike, I have begun to realize how messed up my left leg has been for the past several years.
Before we walk through my observations and how things are changing, I want to take a moment to provide you a brief overview of my fit history, pedaling challenges, and crash considerations, because I don't think that I'm unique in any way.
Fit History:
Effectively, I have tried almost every fit process during the past 15+ years and continue to be a "micro adjuster." It drives most of my cycling buddies crazy, because from day to day my fit will go from feeling okay, to way off, to "I've never ridden this thing before." I've met with fit specialists, chiropractors, pediatrists, etc and have tried Wobblenaught, Specialized, and Retul fit processes. Additionally, my left femur is 10mm shorter than my right, so I have constantly experimented with lifts, offsets, and other mechanisms to help "balance out" my legs.
In the end my fit has, and continues at points to be, a constantly evolving view of what feels right today. At the beginning of the season my fit and saddle height were quite low...see this photo as proof.
Pedaling Challenges:
Given some of my physical considerations, I have always struggled with the stroke of my left leg. Effectively, my left foot/knee/leg has always ridden longer than my right side even though it is actually my shorter leg. It's hard to explain without waving my hands in the air, but effectively my body has shifted over to the left, which causes my left side to ride as if it was "compressed." From there my foot/knee/leg behave as if they are longer (e.g. compressed) and have a tendency to want to roll, or "push," out as if you were trying to step down and in the same process also roll your foot as well as knee out away from your body. I've often called the sensation "cupping" because it feels like my leg is bowing out in a cup shape while pedaling.
As a result my left leg engages poorly during my pedal stroke and my quad as well as my glut fail to fully engage throughout the pedal stroke.
Crash Considerations:
As you can probably tell by now there are a number of factors that have contributed to the way I sit and pedal on the bike, which why the independent pedaling motion supported by the PowerCranks has been the most conclusive way for me to (1) identify and (2) address my lingering issues. In addition to my Fit History and Pedaling Challenges it is also important to recognize that I have crashed very, very heavily on my left hip at least 4 times during the past several years. In fact, one of the crashes left me unable to walk without support for several days and I continue to work on stretching out my left hip, which has some residual scar tissue.
Observations and Changes:
Frank at PowerCranks is quite right when he says you get the best results from focused PowerCrank usage, because a week of daily PowerCrank usage really highlighted the fact that my saddle height has been way, way too low for several months (if not years) and that my left leg's poor engagement was being driven my a low saddle height as well as poorly developed hip flexor strength. I have raised my saddle by nearly 2 cm (yes, for all of those who know me I use to worry about 1mm, so 20mm represents a major fit evolution for me) and my left leg and side is finally starting to fully engage within my pedal stroke and I no-longer feel like my leg is "cupping." Also, the additional height has allowed both of my legs to engage in a complete stroke and it has become a lot easier to bring my legs up and over the top of the pedal stroke while maintaining pressure on the pedals.
I am hoping to do a round of power testing shortly and I will post results. I will also look at doing a before and after fit comparison for those of you who are interested. As always, thank you for reading and please let me know if you have any questions.
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