Chronicles of a bike racer: The Magic Bullet?

I am pleased to say that my back has felt pretty good over the past month. This is the longest span of time that I have been able to ride without much LBP. Although, sometimes I do have a tad of tenseness in my back, for the most part I feel great. I can actually go out and ride daily and be consistent in my riding, where as before I would have maybe one good day, than 2 (or more) weeks of really bad days. Things were so bad a few weeks ago, that just by putting on my cycling shorts gave me some lower back pain. Like my body was so used to relating cycling clothing with pain. Crazy.

So yea, WOO HOO, it’s pretty sweet that I can ride!

At the same time, there are some pieces of the puzzle still missing. Lately I have been having a lot of left knee problems. Soreness and tenderness after most rides, regardless of the intensity of the ride. Steve Hogg looked over a DVD video I sent him of my bike positioning. What Steve saw reinforces what Joel Ninos (my PT) has told me: my left side is still too short. As a matter of fact, after my last visit with Joel (about a month ago now) he had me put 1.5mm of lift under my left bike shoe (cleat). This seems to have almost been the “Magic Bullet”, because after that adjustment, the LBP has been reduced a lot AND for a good chunk of time now.

Back to Steve Hogg: Steve saw in the video that my LEFT hip is dropping, which causes the RIGHT side of my lower back to work harder to compensate. Hence the pain I was getting on the right side ONLY. I also have left inner thigh pain, which is also due to the LEFT hip dropping. So my LEFT leg is reaching further than my RIGHT during the pedal stroke. The excess reaching in my LEFT leg is causing stress to the knee. It’s all coming together!………..

Steve doesn’t want to prescribe any adjustments until he can see another DVD with some different camera angles so he (Steve) can confirm and be sure of his recommendations. Steve does figure that I will likely be having anywhere from 3-5mm of lift under my left cleat when it is all said and done.
So the way it looks, shimming my left cleat up higher will hopefully be the final nail in the coffin. I am really excited for what else Steve will recommend after seeing my next video. I hope to get the video out some time this week….

So, with every crunch....