How fickle can a knee be?

Last Friday I wrote about my mission to stay injury free this season, and how my knee was already making life difficult. Well, over the last week I probably learnt more about biomechanics than I ever did in school. And more importantly just how your bike set up effects your body. Its mad!

So recently I got a new bike, an old Giant TCR frame with shiny new Shimano and Easton components. It was all good. Team manager Chris helped me build the beast and so off I went. Now, I thought I knew how to set up the position right, but how wrong I was. With the saddle height basically the same as my race bike I thought I was good to go. And for a while I was. Until after a few rides I started to develop quite sharp pains in my left knee. Ah, not good I thought. Im young and I've never had an issue with my knees before, so whats wrong now? After some tinkering myself I decided It was best to get some opinions from the shop who fitted me up for my other bike. After an hour of tape measures and spirit levels we decided that there were so many differences in the positions of each bike, that It could have been any number of things! So we opted to make the easiest and cheapest changes first. So with a change of saddle, with it as far back as it can go, and handle bars raised by 3cm, the total bill... just a couple of quid for the spacers to raise the bars. Nice one...

So over the weekend, I tried it again. With more success. Had some brilliant riding over the weekend. A club run with Addiscombe on Saturday to keep up with some old friends from there. Then a nice ride with Chris and Lisa on the Sunday morning. Rode back to Coulsdon with them as there was a French market on, now I love all things French. But in particular, Crepes. These ones were nice, but overpriced and not a patch on the ones I had in Paris a few weeks back! Then being a student I had another three hour ride on monday with a few local riders, David, Marcus and Stu, who to be quite frank would rip me to pieces in most races. As such, it was a relatively hard session! Got home and quite literally could have fallen asleep for hours, at 4pm! The hardest part was the knee, again...

It was a slight niggle through the ride and I couldn't put my finger on why. Then I noticed that the seat post had slipped about 3mm downwards, combined with the miniscule forward movement of the saddle this would have meant, that was it. So with the saddle raised once more, I had no issues whatsoever today. Funny how sensitive the body can be to even a minute change in what it is asked to do huh? On the plus side, I felt good today, really good. I think the kicking I took on Monday has really served me well. Riding today I was putting down more power with less effort than I have for a while. So I must be doing something right. So I'm hoping thats it with the knee, and I can carry on training as hard as I like without aggravating it further. As I don't really have the cash to resort to physio's right now! Fingers crossed...

So here we are...

This is my blog, my story, my life... Call it what you like. Over the next year or so, if not longer, these pages will chart my life on two wheels, and all the stuff that gets in the way!

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a 20 year old third category bike racer. By bike of course I mean bicycle, it makes me laugh how often people mistake the former for motorcycle racing. I mean c'mon! As if my Dad would have ever let me get into that! I've been slowly drawn deeper and deeper into this sport over the past three and a half years to the point where I pretty much eat, breathe and sleep cycling. There is not a day that goes by when I don't think about cycling. Just ask my friends, they're sick of me going on about it all! But on top of this, I also study Building Surveying at Kingston University. As at the end of the day, I'm not going to be a Pro, so one day, I'm gonna have to get a job, unfortunately. And of course balancing the student life with the bike, and a (rollercoaster) love life, and earning some money here and there in my job at the Chalk Lane Hotel here in Epsom. So, it's all pretty busy really...

This year has seen some incredible highs and lows. 'Almost' winning a race, riding with the Liquigas Pro Cycling team the day before the Tour de France kicked off in London in July (wow! still can't quite believe that one!), riding into Paris at the end of July having ridden 300 miles since we'd left London four days before hand. And there's more. But in contrast some of the darkest moments I've been through this year have been becasue of cycling, like crashing in May resulting in a shoulder operation that kept me off my bike for way to long. But at the end of it all, I go into 2008 having learnt much in '07 and so motivated to succeed, you wouldn't believe...

Next year see's me switching from club to team, a prospect that I am really excited about. Moving from Addiscombe cc to Trisportnews.com hasn't been quite so smooth as I would have liked. But I'm here now, and here's to a fantastic 2008. This year working as a team will be quite an education for me. I will go to certain races with the sole aim of working for John, to make sure he gets up there in the bigger races. Then when I have a free hand, I will turn it to making the most of an apparent ability to sprint to get a few victories here and there. The biggest challenge to me, staying injury free... Even as I write, im having a few little issues with my knee. Ah well, c'est la vie huh?

So, that'll do for now...

Adam