Today I love cycling, but it hasn't always been that way. My cycling story is one that says, "If I can do it, you can do it!"

 However, I would not have been able to develop this love for cycling without the support and encouragement of my husband and friends.

    I was born in 1957 with crossed eyes. When I was a kid, riding a bike was tough, because I did not have depth perception and had trouble with balance. It took me until I was 10 to learn to ride my bike without training wheels. Once I learned to ride, I often ran into things.
     Despite vision and balance challenges, my life has been active; hiking, backpacking, swimming, skiing, kayaking, running and working out, but I didn't bike much. In 2006, my husband and I bought road bikes with clip-in pedals. Similar to when I was a kid, riding didn't come naturally and I fell many times. I put the road bike in the garage and bought a second bike; one with regular pedals and straight handlebars. We started riding trails with neighbors. My riding buddies bike skills were natural, but mine were wobbly and I had to dismount to go around tight corners. My bike balance slowly improved, but I was a nervous rider. Because my husband and friends were patient, I kept riding.  Continue reading...

     In cycling, we have two major goals - go fast and go long.  Ideally both at the same time!   Thus, it's imperative to improve pedal stroke efficiency to reduce wasted energy. You might think there's only one way to pedal your bike... in circles.  But the reality is, how you accomplish those revolutions has been a much-debated topic. 

     Think of your foot traveling around a clock, 12:00 being the top of your pedal stroke and 6:00 being the bottom of your pedal stroke. The portion of the pedal stroke from 12:00 - 5:00 is where you have the most muscle activity - this is the "power phase".  You want to initiate this force before your foot is at 12:00 to maximize the forward and downward force applied during the power phase.  The force comes from pushing the knee forward while stabilizing the pelvis - no rock and roll on the saddle girls!  This concept is well accepted. 

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