The next several paragraphs were written during the voyage.
Earth to James, land every stroke.
By the final 20% of each long Voyage this seems to happen by itself. To accomplish it in the first 20% of the voyage so far is pretty much impossible for me.
Difficult first 20%. Very difficult. Then here is what really helped.
Dig! James, that means, the last 30 percent of the stroke is where you need to focus. A really bad, hon recognized habit, is trying to find the power in the first third of the stroke. Why? I don't know. Body thinks it's a good idea. It is not.
Land the stroke James. Land it.
Aim the torso and keep it stable James. Aim to the landing point as best you can. James, keep it solid, something for the thighs to work against. Have a heart.
Left leg really wants to go rogue today. Part of that seems to be not digging but rather starting the stroke too early. The other part, and this seems huge, the foot ankle and shins were not completely limp. The lower muscles were disempowering the thighs. And forcing a very difficult rotation to manage. make the foot ankle and Shin Limp.
Stationary attempted to be sure that the knees were in equal relationship to the crank full extension. Seems to have quieted the rogue left leg down.
There is a support beam running right down the middle of this vehicle. Sitting as I always sit but looking down maybe for the first time the cross bar is distinct Lee to the left. Who knew? Have just shimmmed supporting the right buttocks against the slope of the shoulder, and centering the body. Feeling less lopdided for these initial seconds.
But these paragraphs are written at the end after a 1650 calorie night, very good performance, and really startling stuff the last mile and a half which is an extremely difficult climb of between 8 and 13%. About a mile and a half of that.
In The crucial very difficult last mile and a half, a new part of the routine, an old friend returned unexpectedly. Probably was a friend about 3 months ago on lesser climbs in this area but was not found to be sustainable.
That old friend is the notion of the knees turning the gear that moves the chain. And on top of, enabled by, a month-and-a-half now of ever-improving and more rational sustaining Dynamics, this emerged and was quite helpful. It improves the ability of the body to do everything that's been discussed in the last month and a half worth of logs in an even more rational and coherent and focused way.
But then something really really really surprising happened. Knees, James, the knees! This has been emphasized over and over and over for many months now because when musculature in the calves ankles and feet get involved things get very tense and a lot of energy is lost in that.
But tonight at least tonight, maybe not sustainable, maybe very sustainable, the thought was, James, the knees are not really turning the gear at your knees, there is not one, but they are moving your feet which is turning a gear.
Well, whether it was adrenalinn because the overall Voyage was going well, whether it was somewhat the new seat orientation, whether it was just a body is stronger and better trained from all these recent months, time will probably give some evidence.
But this last Discovery really is mechanically what's happening, and at least for that arduous last hundred human Watt blast at very high output, about 200 watts per hour sustained Which is higher than James has seen all winter, and it felt quite good, quite fluid, maybe it's sustainable and a new Plateau for James? Maybe with this thought and all the preparation psychological and physical all winter, maybe he'll be able to continue to deliver all of the Power with the thighs using the study torso as a PowerBass, and the knees but with this improved focus of what it's actually doing, it is moving the feet which are moving that gear driven by the crank.
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