Staying relaxed on the bike

Saturday of this weekend I did one of my longest rides to date of 55 miles. I’m happy with my progress and each ride keeps getting longer and I had a feeling that I might just be able to take on the 100 miles in stride, but I know see the other kinds of challenges that I am going face. They come as you rack on the miles, and it’s different than running out of energy in your legs.

I’m glad that I’ll be riding on a new bike for the ride, not only for the sake that it is lighter, but it is far more mechanically sound. I more than likely will not need to deal with malfunctions, loose wheels, finicky shifters, etc. So that is one concern taken care of. I ordered an under the seat bag today to put spare inner tubes, CO2 canisters, and tire levers just in case I need to change a flat on the road, but so far into the season, I have not faced a flat tire. My fingers crossed that for the century ride, I don’t run out of luck in that department.

From my ride over the weekend, which was about 5 hours long, I at some point banged my right foot against something and I don’t remember when. But it developed into a bruise making it painful to pull up on my bindings. Being on the bike that long gives you plenty of time to make a mistake and have an injury, so the most important thing, as always, is safety.

Now I’ve been trying to make a better practice of doing this, but sometimes when I ride I notice a lot of tension in my neck. It’s bad posture to have your shoulders scrunched up. Ideally, your whole body should be relaxed when you cycle. Hands should not be clenching the bars, your back should be long and loose and your whole body should be comfortably balanced over the bike. Now I don’t know if this was due to extra strain from having a backpack on, but about 40 miles out, I had a stinging feeling at the very base of the back of my neck. It was excruciating, but I pedaled through it and did my best to keep that part of my body relaxed. I realized, if I were to have kept that part loose for the first 40 miles, I wouldn’t be having this problem then. So even though I hadn’t noticed the slightest amount of tension earlier, as the miles carried on it developed in to a real problem. Had I to go another 50 to complete the century, I may have needed to stop, even if my legs were still willing to carry me the whole way.

My goal in my shorter rides now is to practice as relaxed of a posture as possible, even if I’m only doing a couple loops around the park. On these short rides it is important that I practice this, because if I am not immediately discomforted by it, it will eventually catch up with me to sting me. Actually, concentrating on relaxing on the bike is, surprisingly enough, quite relaxing. It is a very thoughtful time for me and I really enjoy the exercise outdoors. When I am at work, it helps me concentrate and, I think about not carrying tension in my shoulders when things get busy around the office. When I feel fatigued, I will often allow my self to completely relax, downshift to a low gear and just do light circles, letting my self totally loosen out. Sometimes I will even put my head down and just think about the little circles that my feet are making. After I do that, when I look back up, I’ll be surprised to see that I have caught up to the person in front of me and I’m recharged to put myself in a higher gear and keep on going.