Team MWC, FTJ, NGT

Review: Ropix jump rope shoes

2011-11-22T11:32:00.008-05:00

*Draft * 11-22-11

This review looks at some jump rope specific footwear called Ropix. The first question one has to ask themselves is am I willing and is it worth it to pay $XX for a jump rope specific shoe? Don't go by my answer as I am a true gear head. Whether is is bike parts, snowboard parts, rainwear, watches, or tools. If there is a product that will improve any part of my experience that is a good value for the money and designed well, it is a no-brainer for me.

My perspective is that the connection between my hobbies and the rest of my life is closer than you think. A good day on the bike, or the gym translates over in small was into the rest of the day. I've been doing certain activities for years and years, so a high upfront expense for a product that will see continuous long term use will amortize itself across many years. I spend a long long time researching a specific item, balancing out the value for the money, and magic bullet potential. Sometimes the product works out great, other times it was a bust.

So with this product, my answer is yes, it is worth it.

Why jump rope specific shoes? I've been jumping rope off and one since college. Every winter when the bikes goes away and my weight lifting routine starts (all hail the Morris plan), I also pull out the rope. I hate to run. treadmills, outdoors anywhere except when playing soccer. For whatever reason my connective tissue just cannot get over that initial pain when starting to run. I've tried at least half a dozen times over the years and never make it past a few weeks. Jumping rope on the other hand is an insane workout and the bang for buck in terms of work performed compared to time is high. All with minimal impact compared to running

I love the mechanics of jumping rope and footwork and crossovers. Combined with some good music and it is the closest to dancing that I get. Just jumping up and down on two feet can be inherently boring. However when you start getting efficient and realize that the rope is only a 1/4 thick and learning the timing between your jumping rhythm and the rope it can get really really fun. It's all about timing and knowing when, and how high off the ground you need to be in association with when the rope is going to be underfoot. I do this a lot. Take a simple concept and complicate it. You should see me work with my 13 year old on algebra!

Most people think it's all about the calves and jumping high. It's really a lot more of some of your smaller muscles like this Tibialis Anterior

I also have a good rope. Same question as earlier. Why spend a $30+ on a jump rope? when a $5 special at Dicks will work? no question here. I'd rather jump well than whip myself every time with a crappy rope. Buddy Lee is lord king buddah in this area. I've had a Rope Master for more than 10 years. Replaced the bearings and the rope once.

Anyway, back to the shoes. What makes these shoes a application specific design, and what is wrong with regular alternatives like running shoes or cross training shoes? Two major things: 1) running and crosstraining shoes are designed for heel impacts. there is very little major heel impact in this activity. 2) Running and cross training shoes are also designed with wide forefoot sections. This is a pain in jumping rope as the widest part of the shoe catches on the rope.

The designer of Ropix wanted something that wasn't a compromise. Narrow cross section combined with the specific loading of jumping rope as opposed to adapting a running shoe. This is what he came up with. I think they created some technospeak that wasn't really necessary. Why get caught up in the hype of marketing speak when there is no other shoe that is competing with you in this space. Leave that to Nike and Asics. Plain and simple, it's designed with jump-roping in mind.

I ended up ordering the Sonic White/Black leather lace up. If I were doing it again, I'd go for the mesh style with the velcro as I'll talk about in a bit.

On first glance they seemed really narrow and long. Part of that is the comparison with my other shoes and most running shoes. They just have a real narrow profile which is awesome when doing cross overs. I can really tell that I am catching the rope on the shoe much less. This gives an extra margin for error when tired and sloppy.

Sizing seems a tad big. Meaning a tad long in the toe. I typically wear 8M. I've got a bit more gap at my toe, and wonder if going a 1/2 size small might be good sort of like climbing shoes or snowboard boots. Not a big deal.

The laces on the lace up model are too long. I have to stuff them into the shoe to keep the rope from catching on them. Hence why I'd suggest the velcro model. The leather is pretty nice. Looks tough and able to stand up to anything. But it also makes the shoes warm. My feet sweat a lot anyway, so would have been better with a mesh style. I don't think they offer a mesh/velcro model. It looks like the velcro is in a nubuck material

The sole material is where this shoe is really different. Super tough material, Minimalist everywhere except the ball of the foot.

It is really weird at first. And I must say, you have to give these shoes at least 2-3 weeks to get used to. It feels like you've got a big wad of gum on your shoes. Or like you are standing uphill. If you look close, the section also has a rounded profile as opposed to a flat profile. This forces you to use extra stabilizing muscles that you don't normally use. So at first it feels awkward and unstable. When jumping with both feet on the ground it isn't as much of an issue, but as soon as you start doing some foot work and alternating between one foot and the other, you notice real quick, that you have to stabilize yourself a little more. My muscles in the front of my shin were pretty soar for a two weeks as I got used to it.

The shoes come with a sock liner that has some gel in the heel

If you've read any of my previous blogs you know of my universal hatred for sock liners on almost all shoes. They are worthless in my opinion. I have flat feet and have to use an orthotic insert of some kind and took these out and put in some Superfeet Blues. I'm a special case I'd say. One thing is if you are just going to use them for jumping rope, then there really is no need for any arch support. But I like them better with aftermarket insoles, and the designer said that was their approach. Replace them if you want, otherwise you might be fine with them.

I weighed them (w/o sock liners) and they are decently light. I didn't weigh my other shoes, but can immediately tell they are lighter on the feet.

Performance wise, it has taken a good 2.5-3 weeks to get used to the shoes. The feeling of the extra padding on the forefoot and the rounded profile has taken a while. My muscles, especially on the front of the shin needed some time to grow stronger, and were burning a lot during the first week. I love the low profile and the rope catches on my foot a lot less.

I would say that this design works very well. I am jumping better than I have in years. As some of these minor stabilizing muscles got used to the extra work, lifting off the ground is effortless. Double jumps are easier, footwork is easier. What is really weird, is swapping back to my other shoes to jump rope. It feels so crazy. Like I'm almost jumping in a little decline because that extra padding in the sole isn't there. That lasted all of about 5 seconds and changed back to the ropix immediately.

The lighter weight is noticeable. It's is like cycling which is a repetitive activity. Thousands of RPM over the course of a ride, so a small difference in weight at the pedal or shoe creates a cumulative impact. So while these shoes might be just a bit lighter than other shoes it adds up over the course of the routine.

Changes I'd suggest would be making a mesh/velcro model available, shorter laces on the lace model. Sizing down by half a size possibly. Buyers might want to swap the sock liner for an aftermarket model.

Yes, a significant investment for a piece of equipment that will get used for 20mins 2-3x week between November and February. With the few hotel gym travel days thrown in throughout the year. But for any gear head who cares about sport specific improvements, well worth it. I also just appreciate someone with entrepreneurial spirit to take the initiative to see a gap, and fill it with a specific design. That takes a lot of guts, work, and money I'm sure. Whadda-country I say, where if you want you can find jump rope specific shoe or an aftermarket lever for your Juicy 7.

Awesome Manitou service tutorial

2011-02-26T09:35:00.003-05:00

I'm a big fan of Manitou Forks. I have been on them since the Manitou 2 back in the early 90s. They may not be the best forks, and have had their share of mistakes, and creating frustrations for me. But I love 1) the customer service and 2) the ease in performing basic maintenance, and the tune-ability. Most people hated SPV, but I sort of like it, and all the forum posts on how to devolve it made for some fun.

Working on them is messy for sure and you can poke your eye out or shoot oil across the garge, but for me it's one of those therapeutic flow activities like scraping a snowboard.

Here is a great tutorial I found on working on the forks. The guy really goes into details that I never knew.

On variables and the body's ability to compensate

2011-02-07T20:20:00.005-05:00

For less than a dozen days within a year, I can get out onto the snow for boarding. Only a handful of times to not only ride, but also tweak and mess with configuration variables of equipment. In which each has the power to change performance with only mm of change. Yet within all this variability, there seems to be only degrees of improvement that the body has an amazing ability to compensate for and overcome. Leading to the question of at what point is it worth stopping the tweaking and just concentrate on the riding and adapt to whatever it is?

Here is a list of variables that can have noticeable affects.
The board
-length
-Type (park, pipe, freestyle, all mountain, freeride, big mountain, twin, directional twin)
-Camber type and flat camber
- wax type
- edge detuning

Boots
-flex
-heel hold
-toe box

Bindings

-highback flex
-highback forward lean
-stance width
-front angle
-rear angle (duck vs both forward)
-regular or goofy foot forward
-stance centering
-flex pattern on straps
-where the strap hits your foot
-toe strap set as cap or across the top of foot
-highback rotation
-canting angles
-heel wedge

With all the variables one can isolate a single one and change it one at a time, or change multiple variables at a time. And with limited time on the snow, there is no way to test all combinations. Something I'm actually looking at in my research is methodologies for testing like factorial design where you test a limited number of configurations but can gain some insight into what other combinations would be given the results

Sometimes I thinks it's time to settle on a configuration and then let you body adapt. I'm almost there, but took a little step backwards with this little gaffe. I think stance position is probably one of the most important settings. The board manufacturers provide a recommended location where the center of your bindings ought to go.

This based on the location of the side cut and the type of conditions that the type of board was designed for. Sure I know more than anyone, but I imagine that the designers of the board defined these recommended position for important reasons.
Look close at the image below which is the top of a board similar to mine:

See the four holes that have a ring around them. These are the starting centered stance recommended by the manufacturer. All the other holes provide you two things, the ability to customize your stance width, and to also shift the entire stance back or forward to compensate for varying conditions such as powder. Which I know nothing of living in the east coast, but supposedly, you can shift your whole stance back to help lift the tip in deep snow.

So say you want a wider stance. The idea is to start at the centered location and than move both bindings out but X amount (one hole, two holes) rather than just moving one 2X. The disc of the bindings also allows a little more variability

So my board has a centered stance of 21", but with the inner most set of the 6 pack of holes, combined with the extra holes in the binding plate I can get a minimum of 18.5" stance width.

Widerstance --> stability but harder to bend at the knees/ankles.

Imagine my surprise when I took loosened up my plates to wax the board (important to loosen the screws when waxing so that the screws don't pull in little divots when you heat it up).

Hmmm, the rear binding seems to be placed off center to the back.

And I rode the whole day yesterday with it like this. Was it off the last time I went too? And how did I ride, ok, pretty good actually. The reason was that my timing of weighting and unweighting was improving a little bit. Something did feel off a little bit.

I of course changed it back to proper centering. And just for good measure added a little forward lean, and will probably remove some of that padding I was messing with in the boots. Why change one thing when you can just change several and start off riding like crap and then compensate over the next few times? But then the season will be over and start over next year.

I'm sure that the snow conditions are going to deteriorate into the ice and crust we typically have which will add another level of variability that wasn't included above.

Review of Nitro Team TLS snow board boots - an Do It Yourself DIY Bootfitting

2011-02-05T20:44:00.016-05:00

This post is a combo review of Nitro Team TLS boots 2009 and some experiences in DIY boot fitting

Age:42
Male
Ride Style: just mountain, mid atlantic small resorts (WV)
Board: K2 151 Believer flat base
Bindings: Rome Targa
Street shoe size 8 (7.5 in the Nitros)

2/6/11 ***note that I am rethinking the relationship between heel hold and ankle flexion and that some of the boot fitting things I tried probably weren't good because the padding pushed the top of my ankle into the harness more. Of course I cynched the harness down as tight as I could and the tops of my ankles were fried.

Summary:
Pros:
out of the box decent heel hold
high end construction
inner ankle harness
stays tight for the most part (need to re tightnen after few runs, inner harness came loose but got new lace locks from distributor)
dual zone lacing

cons:
takes forever to put on and get set up
hard to get off
original lace locks for inner harness would not stay tight
confusing lacing (at first) SLOW, lots of extra lace to deal with
laces don't stow well in the little holders

Vitals:
42 years old, M, size 8 street shoe, (right foot bigger), intermediate boarder in WV resorts, just riding the runs, no park/pipe.

-Very flat feet and very narrow ankle and bad circulation (Perniosis) You just can't get much worse than my feet.

With a very narrow ankle from very small bone structure, finding snowboard boots is a real struggle. My bone frame is extremely small, my 12 year old son's wrist is bigger than mine, so you can imagine how narrow my ankle is.

Snowboarding is utter hell on the feet. Sure in ski boots you cram your foot into some icebox an entire size smaller than your foot. But in boarding you have to flex your feet alot, especially on easy runs and flat catwalks. The ankles and your heel hold can make or break any toe-side turn. So having tight heel hold is essential. It often turns out to be a tradeoff between how tight you can cinch your boots down to hold your heel and not cut off circulation to you foot. The circulation issue is especially aggravating because it tends to be cold, duh when snowboarding. The trade off I think is between holding the heel snug while still enabling flexion at the ankle so you can bend at the ankle and knees when driving the board forward and absorbing terrain.

I've had some old northwaves and some Salomons Synapse. The Sals are supposed to be good for narrow heels, but the inner liner packed out very fast and the lacing on the inner liner would not stay tight more than one run.

I don't live in an area with access to lots of boots to try on. From a lot of reading and forums and chatting with sales people online the list of boots that seem on the better side for narrow ankles is:
Northwave Decade SL
Ride FUL-Intuition Liner
Thirty Two TM2
Nitro Team TLS
Salomon Malamutes
Salomon F22

I got the Nitro Teams last year from Backcountry. So far they have been pretty good for the heel hold but have their issues like I am thinking any boot does.

The Team TLS is a pretty high quality boot. Construction is solid, it's decently warm I guess. I am always cold and use toe warmers almost every time so am not a good judge of that aspect. It seems to be a trait of high end boots to incorporate an ankle harness with the boot.

I seem to like this method over having the liner itself have it's own laces but I only have the Salomon's to compare to. The liner is ok I guess.

I don't think has any heat molding characteristics like the Thirty two or Ride FUL. I heard the Thirty Twos have a lower end Intuition liner. Which I also heard is a good thing to go for if you have narrow ankles. I think the Ride FUL has a higher end intuition. Intuitions require a good way of heating it. Store will have an approved oven. There is also a good you tube video where the guy heats up rice stuffed in a sock.

The sock liner is an utter piece of crap like most sock liners that come in boots and cycling shoes. They ought to just leave it out an put a piece of cardboard in or just send you a check for to go buy some super feets. Here is a picture of it next to superfeet Blues, more on this later.

The inner harness laces uses a sliding lace lock

The first one that came would not stay tight. The distributor was really nice and sent me some newer ones:

The do seem to work better.

The one problem with this inner harness is that I have to cinch it down tight to get really good heel hold, But it aggravates a nerve on the top of my foot

or it cuts of circulation but it can get really bad after a few hours in the cold.

The outer lacing system is called TLS. every manufacturer of boots has their own special lacing system. Some prefer to stay with traditional laces like a lot of Thirty Two boots. The trick with traditional laces is to learn how hockey players laces there boots. They do two things. They use a lace puller to get the laces tighter than you can with bare hands, and they twist the laces to keep it from coming loose.

The TLS use a two lace system that allows you to tighten the lower laces different than the upper. For me it wasn't an issue because it's always as tight as I can. But sometimes I do keep the lower ones a little looser. The lower laces are black and the upper laces are grey. I found that I have to pull each row of laces with my fingers to get them snug before I pull on the laces with the handles. I typically get the top ones just a little tight, then pull the lower ones then back to the uppers than the lowers again.

Here they are in the loose mode:

The lack locks are spring loaded and once you pull up they lock into place keeping the lace from coming loose.

One of the problems with these types of speed lace systems is that there is a lot of laces and they have to go somewhere. In the you tube videos they wrap the excess around the handle and then stuff the handle in these little side pockets. No way does that work given how tight the pockets are. I can barely get the handle in alone.

I just wrap the lace around my calf and stuff the handle in. Same with the inner liner lock.

Problems I've had have been the inner lace coming loose, and not being able to get heel hold totally under control, as well as just plain my foot hurts like hell after a few hours in the cold and standing up. I've tried to remedy issues in a few ways

1) Get some decent insoles.
Getting some custom or aftermarket insoles is an absolute must if you have flat feet and pronate badly like I do. I suffered in cycling for years before I finally broke down and got custom insoles.
The inner sock liner must go almost always. There are several ways to go for the insoles. Drug stores, etc, have Spenco inserts. Superfeet are a great choice. Super feet green or blues. They also make a red that has foil on the inside which is supposed to be warmer. I've used Super Feet blues for a while, but after a bad day finally got my cycling orthotics to sort of work. The cycling orthotics are 3/4 length then have a neoprene top which bunches up at the end of the snowboard boot. But I sort of have it working.
Here is a comparison showing the Nitro, superfeets and my customs:

Notice two things. 1) how high the arch is on the customs. A good test to see how flat your feet are is to step into some water and then step onto smooth concrete. Take a look at the wet impression. You can see pretty quick if you have flat feet or have a natural arch. Mine is bad. 2) Notice that the custom and the Superfeets have plastic. in the arch. That means there is very little give in the arch.

Some after market orthotics like the Shred Soles

have a shaped arch but they don't have a rigid structure.

A note on the shred soles. They are made by a small company that obviously has soul and rider owned. I got some and they didn't work out for me. The owner was really straight up, the box said money back if unsatisfied and he was true to his word. I think they are a great design and have some extra features specifically for snowboarding in the heel and asymetric design that is thicker on the outside. So for someone with a relatively normal foot, it would be a great choice over the stock liner, but for real bad flat feet probably not.

There is also the Sole brand, I got some cheap on ebay and these seem to be the thicker kind. I think they make a thiner one that is probably better for snowboard boots. They have a very deep heel pocket and nice arch. It is not totally rigid like the superfeets but it does hold shape decently well

Others I have heard of are Down Unders and A Line

Right now I have my cycling ones in there which are custom and it seems to work ok. A KEY point with flat feet and orthotics that have an arch is that you can eek out some extra toe room because your foot is raised in the arch which pulls your toes back a hair. This is a god send in cold weather and wearing boots that are tight. Which they should be. Toes are supposed to touch when standing, but move back a hair when you lean forward.

In areas with good ski shops, you can find custom insole makers. I don't have any experience with those. I got mine made mail order by a podiatrist that specialized in cyclists. He sent foam in a USPS mailing box. I stood in them and sent them back, he made the orthotics from that impression. Not the best way I'm sure, but one way if you don't have access to the expertise.

Again, I have no access to a pro bootfitter, so I started to take matters into my own hands (probably a mistake as I don't have a clue what I'm doing). Tognar sells some boot fitting supplies. I decided to try some ankle wraps

and J bars.

I also got the ELIMINATOR which goes under the tongue of your boot to take up space and push your ankle/heel back.

I just tried to mix/match and try ways to fill the dead space around my Achilles tendon.

Verdict.
Improvement in heel hold: yes. However at the high price of more pain at the top of the foot. Cinching the ankle harness down as tight as I usually did with the new padding there placed hellish pressure on the top of the foot, and inhibited ankle flexion.

--------------
note that I tested out some of the mods today. While the heel hold was improved the strain on my ankles is much higher, top of the foot to be exact. Think about when you flex your ankle, trying to bring your toes closer to your shins. The combination of extra padding around the heels and tight ankle harness put the hurt on in that area.

The real interesting thing, is that I had a free coupon for a lesson at winterplace. I ended up taking it at the end of the day when I was beat and my ankles were hurtin for certain. I've been going on the assumption that a loose boot is a bad boot, and that it caused delayed reaction in my turning. But at one point, after tightening the boots my ankles were hurting again. So bad that I stopped and loosened them noticeably. At the same time we happened to be working on initiating turns by driving with the front foot first. The first step in the move is twisting the board with the front foot while the rear is flat. Then after the twist, driving the shin forward which just lifts the whole board onto to side edge.

so foot is locked in binding, drive the shin forward, which equates to really bending at the knees AND ankles. Hmm, a few times I really felt it. funny thing is you can't do that if the ankles are totally locked down. they have to flex to get that deep drive. So I actually had the board up on edge and my boots were looser. So I don't really need that ultra locked down tightness, what I need is better technique.

I only felt it a few fleeting times, so am now thinking of going back to w/o the padding, and shooting for a very snug fit, but not locked in place.

I've always heard about bending at the knees. But I'm thinking that this also means flexing at the ankles too. And if an ankle harness is totally locking your ankle movements than you can't flex.

I've been thinking about heel lift all wrong I think. I've always 'test' it by trying to lift the heel when standing up. So standing on my toes and trying to lift the foot up in the boot. WRONG. I think that it is foot flat on the floor, strapped in a binding, and then drive your shin forward. Then see if the heel lifts????

Proof of cold fingers

2010-11-07T13:38:00.004-05:00

I was at the First Lego League competition this weekend with my son. The biomedical school of Virginia Tech had some great research displays out. They had a very impressive high resolution infrared heat camera. This thing was so good it could show down to the eyelash level, which by the way don't conduct any heat.

My son and others were putting their hands and faces in front of it, and it showed a varying ranges of red for heat signatures. A cursor also allowed you to measure the temperature of any spot on the screen. I then put my hand up to the camera.

The operator and several other grad students working the displays all gasped. My fingers shown no red coloring whatsoever. My palm was red, but right about where my callousous are, the color went completely to grey/white and then by the very tip of the fingers, to dark grey. He took a temperature reading at my fingers and it came out at room temperature. No heat generation at all.

It was so freaky, but quantitatively and visually showed something that I've known for a long time. That I have cold fingers and toes.

The guy was saying that frostbitten fingers show up completely black on this camera. It's because the tissue and blood is actually frozen. People who try to rub their hands against each other to create heat from friction actually do cellular damage to frostbitten fingertips, because they are actually abrading the tissue away. Since it's frozen it's like chipping ice crystals away. It takes much longer to heal from frostbite.

This picture is nowhere near the resolution of the camera they had. Their camera was able to show the lines on the hand it was so good.

Shoulder update

2010-10-31T14:17:00.012-05:00

It has been many months since the last post regarding some shoulder problems. Here is an update on the situation after many months and several mistakes taken on the diagnostic pathway. I'd have liked to make these updates in real time, but I continue to live in another world of family/full time work/part time school that has isolated me from many other activities.

While the exact trauma can be traced to a particular day, I think that I've got a particular physiology that makes this type of injury harder to recover from and easier to to get on my right shoulder. I naturally have bad posture, and participate in an activity that contributes to slouching and rounded shoulders (ie biking). Not just cycling but mountain biking with several years of falling and rolling probably a few landings on outstretched arms all leading to stresses on the AC joint. The bad posture contributes to shoulder impingement by decreasing the amount of space in which shoulder ligaments have between the shoulder socket and the AC joint. The smaller this AC space the easier it is for the ligaments to get caught or impinged. This right shoulder has always seemed to have a strength imbalance compared to my left side, even though I am right handed.

For years I've easily 'thrown my shoulder' out when tossing a ball or a football. When doing turkish get ups with my right arm, I was fine when the arm was totally vertical in plane. But, if it got off angle at all, my arm would almost buckle when compared to my left arm. When viewing my trap muscles from the front, my left side is noticeably bigger and stronger.

I'd been working out 2x a week at crossfit, and really loving it. I loved the combination of high intensity, camaraderie, and time efficiency. 1 hr in and out, endorphin rush, and full body workout. We'd been doing some pushpresses . Light weights, high reps. The problem was my bony AC joint. I've got a point bump there, I think I've always had it. But every rep, I kept landing the bar onto this bump.

The next few days it was sore, but didn't think much of it. At first, while my bony AC joint was tender to the touch, it was my shoulder muscles that really felt bad. Any motions that caused isometric contraction of the front of the deltoid, such as pushing, sanding, RIDING MY BIKE hurt. The muscle just felt engorged or overloaded. And the bicep tendon running up the shoulder was tender and swollen. Additionally, and in hindsight the really telltale signs, were pain in movements where the arm crossed the chest and when moving the arm in an arc to overhead, the last third of the motion hurt.

I followed the natural course of action of rest, and ice, and ibuprofen. Combine being very busy with inherent desire to not go see doctors and I waited much much to long before doing something.

Several cycles of this and it really never went away. Finally, I went to my family doctor.
1) Mistake 1: Not going to go see an orthopedic specialist the first time. They took and xray and he prescribed high strength naproxen. The staff radiologist said the X ray was in spec and that the AC spacing was ok and there as no separation.

Several weeks go by, some improvement but not that much. Then I went to see a sports doctor.
2) Mistake 2: not going to see an orthopedic specialist. He prescribes PT. I go to PT and the PT assessment shows significant strength imbalance in my internal and external rotators on my right arm, and bad posture consisting of shoulders rolling forward which contributes to decreased AC spacing and potential for impingement. A combination of tight chest muscles and weak back muscles helped perpetuate the hunched forward position. The exercises several for internal/external rotators, stretching the chest. Plus some ultrasound and icing using the game day machine

After weeks of little to no activity, the PT was welcome. My whole shoulder system was so weak. We started with the lightest band and the smallest weights. My deltoids were just blown. afterwards.

Over the course of a few weeks, my strength definitely increased and the stability of the whole shoulder improved, but the pain the certain movements continued. The reassessment showed the improvement but still some significant weakness compared to the left arm.

Finally went to go see the orthopedic specialist. He does his assessment and history and then looks at the first xray I'd gotten months ago. The same xray that had originally come in as being fine. He takes one look at it and says AC osteolysis.
Also known as weight lifter's shoulder. Also known as arthritis of the AC joint. This issue is common with people who weight lift for a long time or do lots of overhead work. Ironically, bench press is also known to cause this problem and bench places significant stress on the AC joint. Along with dips. Pull ups also can aggravate it. I have been lifting off/on since highschool. But rarely did overhead work till this year.

The next step was either a cortison injection right into the joint. Which would be a definitive diagnostic more so then any sort of cure. But I wanted an MRI just to be sure that there wasn't anything else going on, because so much of my issues seemed to involve muscles and tendons.

As part of the MRI they also retook xrays.

If you look close in the XRAY you can see some black spots where there should be bone. This is the part of my clavicle that has eaten away. Healthy bone would remineralize back.

You can see the bump I speak of in my AC joint. The MRI was so weird. It was a contrast MRI which involved injecting dye into the shoulder area. The whole MRI experience was interesting but not something I'd like to go through on a regular basis by any means. Thankfully I'm not too claustrophobic. Here are some of the shots of the dye being put in:

And the MRI with the dye

The MRI came up fine, maybe a little bit of tendinitis, so the next step was the cortisone shot. He'd said that it may cause temporary relief or it may be all I needed. Several cortisone shots could be taken over the course of a year. Though there are some negatives of multiple injections. Surgery, an arthroscopic technique known as Distal Clavicle resection aka mumford procedure would be a final step if the cortisone didn't offer enough relief and I didn't want to continue dealing with the pain.

Getting the cortisone shot hurt like all get out. Like someone was taking a hammer to the joint. It was sore for a few days, and then all was good. The pain is virtually gone, it still hurts in certain places especially when puttting on/taking off a shirt. But the important thing is that I can bike again. I still ice it afterwards but other than that very little issue.

Who knows how long the shot will last. But I will put off any surgery as long as possible.

It was a bad summer/fall. School was/is very bad, combined with being unable to do much exercise at all and riding just made for some generally negative vibes. I felt like I lost out on a whole summer. But now that I'm back on the bike I feel much better.

I guess like many things in life, I took for granted the ability to ride. I've realized how much I miss it, and the social interactions of riding with friends. Missing all that time wasn't fun, but coming back to it helps me value this time much more. Plus starting over is good. I can relearn good habits instead of ingraining bad ones. It's taking several rides, but I'm amazed at how well the legs are starting to come back and how well the feeling of moving with the bike is coming back.

I still am gun shy on the downhills, and I can tell I don't have total shoulder stability like when I was lifting a lot. As soon as I can get past this class I'm going to restart the Morris lifting plan and stick with that into winter and ride when I can. Doubtful that I'll go back to the other xfit even though I miss the style of working out. But I think that the highrep workouts aren't the best thing for my joints. I'd like to do some yoga maybe as the one thing I can really feel from returning to the bike is lower back fatigue.

Lesson's learned.
1) the shoulder is very very complex, and not to be messed around with. If it feels bad go see an ortho w/o waiting.
2) cycling is a wonderful sport. Road riding, mountain biking, doesn't matter. For me, it is more than just an activity.
3) while different types of working out provide more balanced body development, there is no substitute for time on task and actually pedaling your bike to get better at actually pedaling the bike.

It's not over yet I'm sure. I've heard lots of people's cortisone stories so we'll just see the next step.

18:55 OF, shoulder pain, etc

2010-05-22T07:01:00.003-05:00

Lately, I don't have a chance to get on the bike during the week until Friday or Sat. I think that is too long to go without any saddle time. The legs get stale and one starts to loose the ability to tick the pedals over well.

Last week I'd done a hard high rep/low weight squat workout on Wed Enough to make the muscles tender to the touch. Then hard ride Thurs, followed by road ride with lots of climbing Fri. My legs were toasted. Yesterday I got out onto the Azure for up OF and down beast and up sidewinder.

18:55 up, legs felt better at the bottom, then started to fade. I need a new rear tire, the tread is gone and spinning out too much. Front end still feels wonky. Loosey goosey. Just can't tell if it's the wheel that feels flexy, or the fork. Gotta re-bleed the rear brake too.

My right shoulder is still a mess. Time to get a little more serious about treating it. I think a combination of events and continued use has contributed to inability to heal.

It started after we did a fair amount of shoulder work with push presses and push jerks. The problem wasn't the lifting it is my bony shoulder. My right shoulder has a little bony bump protruding from it: the acromion

On my right side it is big bump. The bar ended up bruising that bone I think. Then the next 3 days I rode on the mountain bike which places a fair amount of wear on the front of the shoulders. Then with all that fatigue in place, I was doing some basic pullups. But, it's amazing how much load is on the shoulders with pullups when you go all the way down and your arms are too close together. When you arms are fully extended and your shoulder is jammed up into your hear, it places a serious stress on the front part of the deltoid. That seemed to really do me in, and since then it just hasn't felt right. Just too much overhead work combined with bruising the tip of that bone. My right shoulder has always had some strength instability compared to my left

I ice it, rest it for a few days, then go and do something like a few days of mountain biking or back to working out. I'll take it easy, but there is no way you can avoid using your shoulder in daily activity or working out. Never realized this till it has issues.

The issue seems centered around the muscle at the front part of the deltoid (anterior deltoid). When I massage deeply and use the massage ball, muscle is knotted. Seems more so on the right side than the left, but the left also has knots.

,

But I think there is more going on here than just muscle. The worst pain is when my arms extended overhead and I hold my right wrist with my other hand and the try to move the arm in an arc to my side. This is an adduction motion, and the thing is, that muscle, isn't used in adduction. If I do this isometric motion against a wall, that muscle isn't even flexed.

I've been icing it and doing isometrics and stretching it, and it gets a little better, then I go an aggravate it again. The pain is sharp sometimes and even though it feels like it's coming from the front shoulder muscle, when I press around with my fingers to try and find it, I just can't pinpoint it.

After more googling, I think I found a potential answer: BICEPS TENDONITIS (LONG HEAD OF BICEPS TENDONITIS). Here is another site.

What struck me was this description:

What does biceps tendonitis feel like?

Pain related to biceps tendonitis is usually felt over the front of the shoulder, often with some radiation to, but not usually beyond, the elbow. Typically, the pain is aggravated by overhead activity and is worse at night. People may report a clicking or popping sensation in the affected shoulder

Makes sense that it is this tendon and not just the muscle. When I press around hard with my fingers trying to see if there is some trigger point in the muscle that is I just can't seem to get to it. The pain is radiated from the front of the shoulder but it's deeper. It seems counter intuitive for this to be related to the bicep because I consider it shoulder issue. But when you look at this diagram you can see that the bicep muscle connects into the shoulder joint.

So I think several weeks dedicated to
1) no overhead work
2) limited mountain biking
3) icing
4) isometric and band type strengthening excercises
5) stretches for biceps/shoulders
6) vitamin I or naproxen

5/8

2010-05-09T11:47:00.002-05:00

19:10
dually
dry

no riding day before
still don't feel that great on the azure, something isn't right with position or suspension (front and/or rear), maybe it's the legs, last two weeks have been off in general, not working out regularly or riding regularly.

TP massage ball

2010-05-02T20:26:00.002-05:00

Here's a video of using the Trigger point therapy massage ball on shoulder. I this alot especially after mountain bike rides. I've been trying to keep my elbows flared out a lot ala moto style and it places a lot of strain on my shoulders, front and rear (external rotators)

You'll see when he puts the ball underneath his shoulders he'll start taking deep breaths. !! believe you me it can take your breath away

The difference that a centimeter makes

2010-05-02T18:35:00.004-05:00

I knew something was wrong with my position on the Azure. At first my mind was explaining it away as cummulative fatigue, allergies, etc. But on rides the last two days I just couldn't turn the pedals over and had to just plain get off and walk several times on Old Farm and Beast. Now I am not saying that I'm so good that I don't ever have to walk. Yet for months I've been riding fairly well on those trails, maybe not like years past but definitely decent riding.

My left hamstring had been tender too. Deep in the belly of the muscle. I also noticed that my hip flexors hadn't been a sore as when on the hardtail. It's so obvious that my saddle had shifted on the rails given that this has happened several times before. The saddle has ti rails and this seatpost has a known issue with not being able to hold fore/aft position. When the saddle slides back, it effectively lengthens the saddle height. A telltale sign of a saddle that is too high is sore hamstrings. And for me, diminished capacity for leg turnover and good spin.

I pushed the saddle forward today and rode for a third day in a row on Brush. The result:
18:55 up OF. So that is 1 minute off of yesterday and 1:40 something off the day before. But keep in mind that today is the third day of hard riding and cumulative fatigue. So after 2 hard rides I'm now posting a faster time? I think the time savings would have been much more had I not been tired. Yesterday I climbed the beast and was just shut down several times. Today, it was noticeably different.I'm hurting for certain today. So bad that I took the offer for a ride home from the trail head. One thing though is that being tired, I just physically couldn't blow up like I had a few days ago. With out complete blowups I never did slow way down after a technical section.

It just amazes me the sensitivity to certain elements of position. Sure I can feel if my brake levers are even slightly rotated or if my cleat position has shifted a mm. But the actual affect of the saddle fore/aft on my legs was amazing. This shift for practically shut the legs down.

My body is tired. Especially my upper body. My right shoulder is tweaked a little. I'd messed it up in cross fit doing some shoulder presses where the bar had bruised the top of a little bone on the collar, but now the front muscles of the shoulder are hurting.

I see another crest forming for riding either this upcoming week or two weeks from now. I'm setting a goal to try and get the OF time down to sub 16 from the wood fence to the top.

notes - OF

2010-05-01T23:59:00.003-05:00

Azure, dry day, loose
19:45 OF fence to top

had taken a little air out of shock. Grabbed harder gear after spinning up legs. Helped bring heartrate down.

Think saddle has slide too far back. Hamstring hurts, deep in the muscle. Hard time spinning legs like I remember and compared to hardtail,

tracking OF climbs

2010-04-29T18:14:00.002-05:00

I'm going to start tracking OF climbs just for baseline.
Azure, rubbing brake, worn rear tire. calf, hamstring on left side hurting.

21:36 from fence to top. Felt really bad. I'm not sure if it is the pollen, coming off a good weekend and 2 workouts M and W, not used to position on bike, nutrition, etc. But I haven't felt this bad in a long time.

Left calf even cramped up within 10 minutes. I rarely cramp in training and if so not till many hours in. Breathing was very labored.

I think the key to climbing old farm is leg turnover. This is the ability to tick the legs over at good cadence throughout the whole thing. OF is not a steady grade, it is made up of many technical sections. In order to tick over through those sections you have to have the ability to maintain the gear you are in and spin up the legs and then recover while still under fire.

No doubt that I've got some strength but my best time is 5mins less. Today I tried to spin up the legs through some sections and I would just blow up over and over. This is all good as paying now means sooner or later the investment will come through.
on Azure, first time in a long time. In fact, just the ability to go hard enough to blow up such that I had to get off or just stop is a success in itself, in that it breaks through the typical self preservation mode. I think it was the pollen for combined with fatigue from the weekend and muscle fatigue from M and W workout.

I haven't been on the Azure in months and months. Wheel issues, brake issues, shock, etc. I can build a wheel but maybe not so great. I think something is wrong with the front, maybe spokes not tight enough. Still love the bike, but my timing is way off after being on the Hardtail for awhile. The 100mm fork and rear suspension had me zigging when I needed to be zagging. But when you zig when you're supposed to zig you can work with the shock and the terrain and get some free speed.

OF

2010-04-26T20:33:00.003-05:00

note to self
19mins fencepost to top OF, hardtail, after a light rain, little wet. day after hardish ride, eating wasn't timed right

big gains

2010-04-26T15:02:00.002-05:00

As I predicted, it was a good riding weekend in terms of fitness. Two weeks ago, I'd run myself in the ground with 4 consecutive hard/short rides. One week ago I felt terrible on the bike. No power, no energy, whole body having difficulty holding my body up on the bike. When that happens than every root, and every rock goings into you and it's the fatigue spirals up.

The whole past week though I hadn't been on the bike at all, which is a bad thing. No riding at all makes it take at least a few days to get the systems back in order and ready to go. So first day back, the legs are sluggish, but next day is good.

My whole body felt strong and was riding technically very well. On the hardtail, I was riding technically strong, but after two days on brush I was starting to feel the fatigue. The biggest limiter right now seems to be my mid back. The muscles just are fried and tired.

I'm not sure why this is a limiter now. I'm very strong these days in general from crossfit. The positive wave I'm on continued today with the CF Total which is Maxes in Squat, Shoulder Press and Deadlift. Squat I matched my best in 185 and I think could have gone higher. Shoulder press also maxed at 90 even with a bad shoulder, and PR'd Deadlift 295.

My speculation right now is that I am real strong in my quads and hips and can push a big gear. But all that power has to go through the low and mid back. I might have strength there, but maybe not the muscular endurance needed for multiple hours in a riding position, on rough terrain and pushing the gears.

1994 24 Hours of Canaan @ timberline

2010-04-20T19:40:00.003-05:00

From my friend Denny. Me coming out of the trees onto the ski slope 1994 24hrs of Canaan.

good video on stans install

2010-04-16T20:45:00.001-05:00

http://singletrack.competitor.com/2010/01/gear-and-tech/technical-faq/tech-faq-so-many-sealants_5696

Blocks

2010-04-11T21:22:00.004-05:00

I've been running a new training program the last few weeks with the return of bikeable weather. It has it ups and downs but seems to be producing some worthy results.

3on(bike), 1on(CF), 1off, 1on(CF), 1off. I'd like to try 3on, 1 off, 2on, 1off

During the week I'll work out at cross fit, in the mornings if I can get out of bed. No coffee, no food, just roll out of bed and go. Works best for me that way, as long as I can get out of bed and the out the door.

Friday if possible, short ride. Sat and Sunday also. I've been unable to put any ride together longer than 2hrs though. I need to get some of that endurance back. The rides though are hard by design and course. Hills always. The third day is always hard, and uncomfortable. mid-lower back is starting to give way and it's harder to posture right on the bike so every thing hurts more.

Combining both types of training can get hard because they overlap in certain areas. Upper body isn't too impacted. My shoulders get a little tweaked mountain biking and my triceps. However, not so much that it seems to affect the other workout. Where it really gets me is in the hip flexor area and mid-lower back.

A 3 day block of riding leaves my mid back completely fatigued. This impacts my posture and is a real cause of slouching. My lower back has some serious knots in it but isn't tender or fatigued. When I put my Trigger Point ball under the mid back muscles and find the tender spot, it just takes my breath away, like jumping into cold water. I'm not sure what muscles area actually taking the brunt here, The seem to run vertically about 2 inches away from the spin. about 5" above the belt line.

The other area where I really get taxed from both workout types is in the hip flexor area. Both cycling and any of the olympic style lifting we do hammer these

The area that cycling really taxes too is my piriformis.

What I am seeing is that my Monday workout is tough due to the cumulative fatigue created on the weekend rides. By Wednesday I'm doing better. On Friday when I get back on the bike things are usually going ok but trashed again by Sunday. There is a macro 2 week cycle that I'm seeing. This shows up in defined crests and troughs. Any 3 day block for me crosses the line of 'overreaching' It's not overtraining but it's enough to require about 10-11 days till I'm fully recovered. Prior to that I can and do ride, but these rides never go very well. Whether I sat on the couch or rode, it wouldn't matter too much, come the 11th day as long as I've kept the legs spinning a little bit that I'm on a crest.

There will be one or two days every 2 weeks where I'm riding very well. Meaning perceived exertion is low but the power output is high. I see something similar in the gym too. Some days will be high, feel easy, and pulling big #s, others will be miserable and hard.

This is actually the point of event based training. The sweet science is coordinating those crests with your event. I don't seem to be overdoing it, but could see the potential to. I think that self limitation on the riding created from being pretty busy during the week helps me recover enough for the weekend block. At the same time the break from crossfit between Thursday and Sunday gives time to recover. The fine line though is the continual fatigue in the hips and mid back. It'd be interesting to see which element would tip the scales to overdoing it. Sometimes I do a mid week ride, never long but usually short/hard. I never do any recovery riding anymore.

Also of late, I've been wearing these compression sleeves after riding. My wife got them to help with a calf injury from running. I've commandeered them. I love them after rides. I think they look cool with shorts, sort of like I'm a freerider wearing some shin pads. Or I could like like an elderly man, like my dad who walks around in them in shorts.
they really work whatever they do.

unlocking the power

2010-03-15T08:59:00.003-05:00

I've been able to get on the bike a few times in the past two weeks. So far the legs are feeling pretty good. This past 6 months I've been striving to do crossfit 2x a week, and then get on the trainer 2x a weeks.

My trainer plan follows the progression of the typical Morris plan but is much more haphazard with regards to the timing of the workouts. I sort of just go down the list and check one off an then move to the next one. I'm fairly pleased with the power outputs. Power is up from last year but I am not completing the full workout usually. So if the workout calls for 3x8min MSP I might do 2 of the sets. But power #s are 10watts or more higher which is significant.

The first days back on the bike hurt. The biggest limitation seems to be wind, meaning just getting air into the lungs. Not the huff/puff kind of wind during high intensity efforts, but more the aerobic side of just being able to get enough air into the lungs. My chest feels constricted.

But I feel this power in the legs. The kind of power that just needs some time to get used to the bike and get used to pedaling. In years past I've experienced this feeling early in the year several months past the lifting phase. That was when the strength/power in the weight room started to convert over to cycling specific strength. It manifests itself in the ability to push a biggish gear up a hill without it being a mashfest, but rather something approaching a spin. Maybe 60-70 rpm.

I've been scared to just go out for a 2hr ride, but have rather opted for shorter rides with some hills. The additional thing I've seen is that my core feels strong and hence feel good sitting on the bike. This leads to a more overall connected feeling. Telltale signs of having been off the bike include severe shoulder knots, neck knots, and tricep soreness just from being on the bike. The TP massage ball works wonders here.

So how does crossfit work with mtb/cycling? I think well to a degree. I've been doing it now for 6mos so have adapted a little bit. Overall body fitness is much better and am much more of a complete athlete vs just cycling. It will pay big dividends off road. There is good combination of strength as well as high rep. But I think for optimizing race fitness, the heavy strength work would need to taper some.

I still continue to see some patterns of fatigue/feeling very good now and then. Two week cycles seem the norm but sometimes I get taken for surprise. The other day I just felt terrible, but this morning I posted new PR in shoulder press and dead lift and matched my squat. Mornings w/o any breakfast-coffee seem to work best. 10am is bad, 1pm is slightly better.

275 dead lift. I weigh 130. My squat and overhead press are decent but for some reason my DL is very high given my size.

new position with Trigger Point massage ball

2010-03-06T16:35:00.003-05:00

no secret that I love my TP massage ball. It is a godsend for my shoulders, and hips.
Just read about a great way to hit hamstrings.

while seated in a chair, put it under leg. then slowly extend leg straight. Oh yeah it works well.

snowboarding notes

2010-02-24T11:01:00.002-05:00

Notes to self:

I made some changes to the snowboard setup the other day. I've never been sure about my stance width, binding angles, or high back tilt. Over the years I've tried some different things but was never sure regarding if the changes made any difference, or if was snow conditions, my own conditioning or my own skill levels at the time.

For a while, my angles have been +25 on front and +9 on rear. Stance width was 19.something I've wanted to try a narrow stance width but my board only allows a certain width due to the hole patterns. My bindings are Rome 390s which include some additional lee way for narrowing width, but unfortunately the board is limiting. An interesting note is that the board is a 146 but the stance range on the next size up actually allows for a narrower minimum width.

The positive angles on both the front and rear foot create a more forward facing stance and supposedly are recommended for more free riding where there isn't so much switch riding. I've always had poor shoulder/neck flexibility so the constant neck rotation created when you are in a sideways position (as in snowboarding and skateboarding) has always been an issue. I've wondered if my limited flexibility range in neck rotation made heel side turning harder because they say to look over your shoulder to help initiate heel turns.

But the forward angles on both feet is an inherently unstable position. Just jump in the air a few times, and see how your feet land. Or do some squats and feel the difference between angling both feet forward vs standing in a more natural 'duck' stance with both feet angled outwards.

This last weekend I change to a +15 on front and a -6 or -9 (can't remember) on the rear. It felt pretty good. but again I was feeling good that day fatigue and muscular, the snow was decent, and I've had more board time than in the past. But 'sitting down' in heelside turns felt a little better, and I felt more stable overall and more balanced.

I still have a limited speed threshold and when I get scared I'll dig in that rear foot on heel turns. It would be so much smoother if I'd just turn faster and not wait so long on one edge. The waiting is when I start digging in and then end up sliding out or blowing an edge out.

interesting snowboarding instructional site

2010-02-12T20:33:00.002-05:00

I'm doing a little snowboarding this winter. It's a fun activity, but also very very challenging for me and hence also rewarding. In some ways I think I've hit a little plateau in improving and some bad habits. Flailing rear arm and using twisting the upper body (ala windmilling) to get turns to initiate faster are two. The last time I rode, the snow was choppy and some small moguls were appearing, and it was easy to fall into the trap when tired of twisting the upper body hard the opposite way of needing to turn.

One tip I've seen and read about is holding your arms clasped behind your back or grasping the sides of your pants to help ingrain the right movements.

Here's a site I came across that has some of the best content. Looks like a lot of work went into these including some admitted hokie scripts.

Training Update

2010-01-24T12:02:00.003-05:00

Still following the loose Morris/Cross-training plan. It seems to be a good fit for now. Early on, the cross-fit alone was fine for general body fitness but I think cycling prowess fades naturally with no cycling specific efforts.

For the time being, I workout 2x a week in the Crossfit gym and then hit the trainer 3 days, barring travel, etc. With the weather we've been having there is no thought of going outside, but as soon as the weather holds above 40 and not raining and the at least sweep up some of the gravel on the road I'll get in some outside time. It has been over 3 months I'd say since turning the pedals any more than 40mins at one time.

I'm not as gung ho on the intervals as years ago, so if a particular workout feels too much I'll just bag it and not go to super human lengths to push through it. The power numbers are encouraging. Even up a tad from the last few years. So I wonder if the X fit has done some real good in setting up the legs to go into the SMSP intervals. What is missing this year is absolutely no endurance riding. It's going to be sort of a reverse taper in that if I get any at all it will come after the intervals.

The other thing that is unchecked is planned rest blocks. In the Morris plan there are planned almost complete weeks off that occur about every 3 weeks. About 10 days after them I feel really great. But in the current plan, these rests occur more randomly due to work travel, family travel or other life events that disrupt the schedule. The fact is there is more worry from over doing it in this current plan. Because the X fit workouts are intense, and the intervals are intense, so there is a cumulative fatigue that builds up. Which is fine and good because that is why training works. But it's the rest where we get stronger.

What I've seen is cycles of ups/downs occurring. Where I'll go into a crossfit workout and it will feel easy but I'm setting PRs in times or weights. Other days will be the exact opposite, tired lethargic with poor performance. I'm not tracking what is going on but I imagine I'm matching my known patterns for peaking. Hard efforts, back to back to create an 'over-reaching' combined with about 8-11 days buffer and you get a peak. In The 8-11 days it doesn't really matter what I do either couch or working hard. It just seems that the body recovers and comes out the other side pretty well.

But now with the interval training combined with the 2x a week cross fit it will be interesting. It will be nice to ride outside again. I miss it.

Thoughts on hard shell-soft shell gore tex eVent and other musings

2010-01-09T09:06:00.011-05:00

Snowboarding season is on. Time to obsess about gear related issues. Right now, my big obsession is on clothing. I've realized now that having the right gear, even if you pay a ton of money and only use it twice a year, is worth it. Because having wrong gear can just make life miserable. And when you travel several hours and pay out the wazoo you are going to get onto that slope for the mere principle of it. So you better have your system together otherwise it is going to make you hate it all.

My current thinking is that a good hardshell system combined with flexible layering is the way to go to accomodate varying range of conditions.

Here is a super Great article on layering.

Here' a good treatise on waterproof/water resistant fabrics

Proper gear encompasses wide definition. For me and snowboarding it includes good safety gear (wrist guards, kneepads, butt pad (you gotta not care what others people think, cause it looks lame, but I LOVE it. You sit in the hard snow alot and sit on cold lifts and fall on your but alot, so I love it. It gets sweaty some but so worth it to me)a helmet, Good wicking base layer, any old insulating layer and a good outer layer. Especially pants cause your in the snow a lot, mittens, and shell.

10 years ago I'd gotten the typical Gore Tex shell. You know the first generation that was super stiff when cold, didn't really breathe all that well, felt heavy, and lost its water beading quickly. I didn't like it all that much. It was so stiff it rubbed my chin raw, it was hard to move in. BUT, it was a hard shell: meaning windproof, waterproof, and tough as nails.

Part of it was that I didn't know how to take care of it the best, nor layer properly. See the key to waterproof style jackets that have 3 layers is that the DWR, or durable waterproof coating has to be in place.

The DWR is what gets the water and snow to bead on the jacket , then it rolls off. But if the DWR is rubbed off then the top layer will 'wet out' that means that the water soaks into the next layer. The fabric will look wet. It's typically NOT actually going through the other layers and leaking into the jacket But it does weigh down the fabric and enables the wind to start chilling you down very quickly.

The other part of the equation is the breatability. That means letting water vapor generated by exertion leave your body and the inside of the jacket. Without breatheability, like the sitution you have with those garbage back type jackets is that you get water moisture building up on the inside of the jacket and hence into your inner clothes. Which means getting and staying cold.

When DWR wears off, and small pores in the gore tex material get dirty, then the breathability starts to shut down and you get clammy and moisture builds up on the inside.

So it's a complex situation, because even though you are not running and sweating like cycling and sprinting you are working hard, so you are creating some moisture, So breathability is important, waterproofing is equally important. The other thing I'm learning is that the insulating layer is al so important from limitations it can place on movements. I'm always bending over to get into my bindings and if I've got so many layers it it's a pain, also too many layer restrict movements and fleece on fleece friction makes twisting and moving hard.

So I was hating my jacket when a lot of the issues I could have taken care of with some good care.
Such as:
1) washing the jacket with a good NON-detergent soap. like Atsko sport was. Then reapplying a DWR such as this one that I saw recommended for Gore Tex and eVent and other waterproof breathable fabrics.

Wash, then let air dry, then apply the waterproofing, let it dry, then stick it in the dryer for 1/2 hour to really activate it and open up the waterproofing. Does it work? Not sure, I'm doing right now on some gore tex pants and other gear.

A few years ago, the whole soft shell phenom was going big. Softshell is a hybrid combo of a hard shell with an light insulation layer. In traditional layering systems, you start with a light base layer designed to wick moisture away from your skin. This layer is not warm at all, it's sole purpose is to keep your skin from being clammy and damp which leads to getting cold quickly. Hence the reason why cotton is considered a killer when next to skin, because cotton does not wick and it once damp it stays damp.

The second layer is in insulation layer. Something designed to hold warmth in when underneath an outer shell. Fleece, wool, down, primaloft. all fall in this category. You can pick the thickness based on how cold it is. These then go under the 'hard shell' like the old gore tex I described above.

Soft shells hit the scene, where then integrated a water resistent/windproof outer layer (some of the real expensive ones were truly waterproof) and an insulating layer together into one unit. So it was thicker than a hard shell, and it felt nice to the bare skin because it had a fleece inner fabric and not just that slick inner material of a shell. The material felt cool, and it looked cool and was/is all the rage.

So I obsessed for days and days searching for the best deal/value in a softshell and ended up with an Outdoor Research soft shell. And was promptly disappointed with it.

Why? Because softshells for me only work in a very limited range of conditions. Dry for one, and not super cold. Sure you I layer with it just like I did with a hard shell, but some things bugged me. like I'd put a fleece top on then the jacket, but the inner fleece of the jacket has so much friction with the fleece top it's so hard to move.

The outer layer is water resistent. Meaning that it has a DWR on it, but when it fades, water does seap through. the DWR on it was terrible, it wetted out quickly. Where we are, in the mid atlantic/virginia, we have short runs and slow lifts. And snow makers. So you don't warm up on the way down. You freeze in the wind on the slwo way up, and you get snowed on with ice pellets from the snowmaker. They melt immediately and if your DWR isn't beading you'll get wet quickly. Once the material is wetted out I start slowly freezing my ass.

Don't get me wrong. Softshell is breakthrough, and I wear it a ton. It is windproof, and it works in milder not so wet conditions great. But to me it isn't versatile enough for what I need and adaptiple to changing conditions.

So NOW, I'm back to obsessing about going back to a hard shell. Hours of googling and I'm starting to come to some conclusions that I'll share here. My perspective and singular focus is to go for the best functionality and best gear at the lowest price. Hence bang for the buck and value is always my driving compass. Good gear costs. ALOT one must change their pain threshold in terms of cost. I'm ok with this from my years of cycling and also power tools, etc. While I'm ok with it, hell if Im going to pay $400 for a shell. Closeouts, used or non popular brands is where I lean.

also one must be careful of the fakes products on ebay. The North Face products are notorious for this to the point that there are forums dedicated just to this issue. I came across this Peak Performance line at ebay that is a rip off of a high end line out of Europe. They look so much like the real deal, maybe they are real that are grey market overruns.

There's so much info out there you just gotta read a lot and see where postings agree with each other to filter out the junk.
Here are some good ones
eVEnt and Gore tex
another gore vs eVent
forum posts

One confusion I have is between 2 layer and 3layer fabrics. My conclusion is 2 layer is lighter and designed for more aerobics like running cycling and isn't as durable, I'm going for a tougher 3 Layer fabric.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these articles are written from an alpine, mountaneering, or backcountry mindset. Meaning that these activities involve a higher exertion level and hence place a much higher premium on breathability. Back to mid atlantic resort snowboarding, and breathability isn't as much of an issue. In fact the eVent fabric mentioned below has been criticized a little in that it breathes too well, and trapped warm air can escape cooling you down, so you need to dress a little warmer. Than compared to pro shell. I don't know but it sort of makes sense. But breathability is still very important because wear a cheap rain jacket and you'll be clammy in short order.

Gore tex is like kleenex. They are the king of market share. The old school Gore tex is now called Gore Tex Performance Shell. They lightweight hiking style is called Gore Tex Pac lite, they came out with a new product that had better breathability, not a stiff, and was still tough and waterproof called Gore Tex XCR. XCR has been replaced with Pro Shell, which is the top of the pops in the Gore line.

eVent fabric is considered the biggest competition. Lowe alpine made an eVent a few years ago that you might find for sale. Backcountry's Stoic line is made from eVent. Seems to have some sizing issues in terms of being cut for layering. WildThings uses eVent and has good reputation.

There are also a myriad of gore tex want to be's that tend to be lower priced. EMS System III, TNF Hy-Vent, AquaStopint,Membrain, conduit, Toray makes a couple of Entrant like Entrant GII-XT ,Columbia's Omni-Tech Platinum ,dermizax (by Spyder), Repel storm used in Eddie Bauer's First Ascent line (which by the way went to Chapter 11 and you can find a $300 jacket for under $130. Some don't have the breathability of Gore Tex or eVent

Here is an older chart that I think someone at an Army cold weather research center made that compares breathability in terms of water vapor passage. Interestingly, it shows the Entrant GII-XT to be very good compared to eVent. What isn't shown here is the level of waterproofness. But again I caution that waterproofness is really only as good as the DWR and capability to bead the water on the surface and not allow the top layer to wet out.

Everyone has their #s something like 20,000/20,000 these are measures of waterproofness and breathability. But I think the fundamental issues hold true for any of them. The DWR must be in good condition for water to bead, and the pores of the breathable fabric must be clean to promote transfer of water vapor from inside to the outside.

Other things to consider are taped sealed seams, Which truly keep water completely out.

so I'm still looking, I only want to do this once so I'm leaning towards Gore Tex Pro shell, 3 layer eVent, or possibly the Eddie Bauer 1st Ascent on closeout

Some more good reading
Older breathability comparison chart

UK climbing article on eVent

First time on the trainer

2010-01-07T20:12:00.002-05:00

Back it it. Well sort of. I've been crazy busy with school and work and family, and blogging has gone by the way side. I have missed it, and while I'm in the short time period before classes start up again, I figured I'd post a few updates.

For the past year, I've gotten out of formalized training for cycling. If you've been following the BLOG for a time, you know that I had utilized a great plan that fit within my busy life of family, jobs, and other commitments. It worked realy well, and on a realizable amount of time, I could ride well enough to have fun and be competitive.

However, the last years I had more added to my plate, and just couldn't deal, as my approach tends towards the obsessive compulsive end so racing went by the wayside. Recently, I started working out at a local Crossfit Gym Twice a week. And while the weathe was decent, I'd get out on the bike for some short rides once or twice a week. The cross fit is great. I get to the 6am class M/W which is really hard, but nice to get it out of the way, otherwise I know something would come up and it I'd miss.

The format works realy well with my needs and personality. 1/2 time we do with functional movements, and strength training. All core movements like squats, presses and full body olympic style movements. The second half is more aerobic/anaerobic workouts that include huge variety. Box jumps, pushups, pull ups, jumping rope, runnung, medicine balls, etc. Typically, combinations of set/reps with time on and time off. HIGH intensity.

I also like working out with the small group of people and the trainer. You get a morale boost from sharing misery with a touch of competitiveness. And every one there is empowering. Why, cause we are all just regular people. Moms, dads, jobs, normal genetics. Getting our asses out of bed and killing it. Regular people doing extraordinary things, like cleaning weight off the floor to overhead, or setting PRs on squat and working hard.

Riding had still be going relatively well, just 1hr rides here there. Getting by on good technique. This winter weather we've had has just killed any riding. I finally got pshyched enough to get back onto the trainer for the first time in over a year I'd say. Right into SmSp Morris intervals. I was actually excited and motivated to get on there.

Just doing 2 days a week crossfit and then nothing else wasn't cutting it. The intervals, at least the first two days of them went relatively well. Power was ok, not like it was years ago, but doable And the high intensity of the crossfit has helped with just general tolerance of the uncomfortable feeling associated with high intensity of short intervals.

So for now my plan is to continue with crossfit 2x a week, then fill in a few days with my old training plan from Morris and just follow it checking one day at a time. What I've removed from the equation is the endurace phase that included a few 3-4 hour low intensity rides, and I've removed the entire Morris Strength training.

The xfit does a lot of the stength training part, but the Morris one was specific to cycling and periodized specifically to tie into the rest of the training program for racing in spring.

As soon as this freeze leaves us I'd like to get outside on the bike provided my toes can handle it.

seized pivot pin in Azure

2009-09-14T06:52:00.002-05:00

Tried to take off my shock today on the Azure. Tapping with a punch did not remove the front pivot pin. I was wailing on it and not even a budge.

after some searching I found the solution on mtbr using a vice and some sockets to press it out. It worked finally, with some liquid wrench but I am still amazed at how much force I had to use to get the pin to move. Big vice, plus a cheater bar on the lever.

Check out this post with some pics/links I did a mtbr: