This post is Un-edited

I went to the foot doctor to get set up with some insoles. As I mentioned the guy has worked with pretty much every US Pro team since Motorola, so he knew his stuff. It was funny because before looking at my feet he put me and my bike on the trainer and looked at my pedalling style. Right away he noticed quite a few wonky things.

So I hopped off my bike and sat down the bench leaving a giant bagbalm stain that I tired to clean off after, but with no luck.

He started taking all different kinds of measurmets of my feet, and leg ligaments and found a number of crazy stuff.

For years I knew something was wrong, but I just tried to ignore it. This year the problem with my left leg was especially bad. In times when trying to put the pedal to the metal it felt like my leg just couldn't go the place where I wanted it to go. There was just no way I could push the pedal down comfortably. Not to mention I was getting crazy saddle sores for years.

I suspected one leg was longer than the other for years, and after a number of tests and measurements the Doc confirmed it. All this time the damn Left leg was 4mm shorter than the right.

So, with all the measurements I should be getting my new orthopedics next week. Among getting my feet molded(the left foot was SUPER messed up too) the doc also made some suggestions on my position. Some after looking at myself in the mirror just made sense, and in turn are a good thing.

Other things he did were:

-4mm shim on the Left cleat

-After a bunch of measurement moved my left cleat 5degrees(which is huge)

-moved both cleats back to the furthest position possible.

I found it interesting that he said most cycling shoes are sooooooo far behind the times. In a sport soaked in tradition where every company copies every other company it was funny how some of the things he was saying made sense. 95% of shoes on the market are designed with bad ergonomics in that it is impossible to put your cleats as far back to attain optimal force for the foot.

Anyway. So I rode home and didn't really notice much, but on the next day I felt a huge difference. Honestly the way I'm set up now(with old shoes and NO orthopedics yet) I have never been as comfortable on a bike in my life. It feels like when I need to push down, my leg has the ability to go where it needs to.

I've been having a couple great days. Tuesday was a solid 5.5 hours and another 170km ride. Then yesterday I did my intervals in the evening up MT. Lemmon. It felt great to get up that mountain first time of the year.

I did my drivers class yesterday morning. I had to be there at 7:30, and of course forgot the ticket so I had to bike home again to get it. Everyone in the class thought it was ridiculous/funny that I had to take the drivers class when I don't even own a car. Ridiculous.

Did you know that 1/8 drivers in Tucson have guns in their cars at all times?! Ridiculous.

There were 2 distinct groups that had a prejudice against them that I noticed in the class. One was cyclists. and the other were males 18-25. A lot of people on the class ragged on these groups when the time to vent came about.

With this in mind I looked around the class of 50 and at least 85% of the class were over 45. Many were over 60. If the 18-25 year olds were such bad drivers wouldn't the numbers of the class reflect that?

So, I'm typing this in a frantic while waiting for Josh to arrive. Today we head to California!

Over and Out.