Numbness

When I first started riding, my right hand would go numb. In talking with a bunch of people, I came to believe that I needed more padding to help with the numbing. So I bought some gel gloves in hope that my numbness would go away. It did work to the extent that my hands took much longer to go numb - but they still went numb. For several years, I just thought I had to live with it and I did. I'd pound my hand against my leg every so often, keep changing my hand position, and continually stretch. Not all bad ideas to do on a long ride but the numbness was still bothering.

What I have found out lately is that less is better in my case. I have some padless, fingered gloves I began using in cold weather. I have noticed that my hands don't go numb when I wear them. On my two hour ride home on Friday, I didn't wear any gloves and I had no problem. Cool! So, if you have a numbness issue and haven't tried to ride with less, give it a shot and see what happens. You might just learn that it does the trick.

Riding was good this week - a year best total time riding for the week. It was a lot of time but a lot of time on the hills so the mileage was not as much. My view is that it is all about time on the bike and it will pay off later. On Saturday, I headed out early to ride a loop I outlined online. The gravel road proved to be awefully difficult as the back wheel would slip as I stood up and pushed. The first hill wasn't too bad, but the subsequent series were a difficult on the legs but good for them. Later, I rode with a few triathletes and we pushed 40 miles in about 2 hours. We had the hammer down a few times, pushing 25 - 27 MPH. I will say this, the combination of the climbing and the speed work, my legs were toast when I was done. It is good to be relaxing today.

Next week is time in Tacoma and anniversary Saturday.