The imposter syndrome is an affliction suffered by many young academics, usually beginning in graduate school but then often carrying on into their first appointments as faculty. It is characterized by an intense sense of not belonging, as if the person hired for the position is someone other than one’s self and that there has been a mistake made, something over looked, or some unspoken understanding that everyone is just humoring you.
今日は久々にライバルと二人きりで練習した。こんな日は大体練習がゆるくて半分ふざけたり、半分談笑したり、その間にちょっと練習は入る感じ。
I don’t expect many people to understand or be able to empathize with what I am about to write.
But then, perhaps I should.
久しぶりのユーキャンチーム練。
久しぶりと言うか、先週は雨のせいで独り活動になったわけです。
チームに私はいつも元気をもらっています。チームと走らないと人生で迷って、日常生活が不安定になって、いろいろ大変です。
今日のコースも久しぶりの周回コース。一ヶ月ぶりかな？私は頑張った。いつも頑張るけど、今日はこのコースを「My Bitch」にするつもりで走っていました。久しぶりにガーミンも使えたから、ハートレートもケーデンスも見ながら練習した。勉強になりますね。
帰ってきたら神谷社長がISMのサドルを試乗させてくださいました。すごく気になるもので、普段の走っていない状態よりも血流が２００％となる場合もあるらしいです。いつも苦しんでいる私の大事なところがやっと気持ちよく走れるのでしょうか？
楽しみにしています！
Omg! I just realized why this chamois is called a MiG!
This post is really more a follow-up than its own entity. Yesterday I took the new chamois out for a 120 km ride through some damn beautiful mountains, my butt seated securely on the Arione Donna of previous mention. I was good for about 40 km, but then the wiggle set in.
The route was 2-4% grade for most of the first 50 km, with a sudden jump up to 9% in the last 16 km of the climb (thankfully not ALL sixteen of them were that steep). With no room to relax and coast, and with the extreme steepness at the peak, I was forward in my saddle and really digging in for over an hour solid.
My labia hate me today. Peeing hurt and I’m pretty sure my right lip is bruised and swollen today. I hate to say it but even this awesome pad can’t salvage the Fi’zi:k saddle. Thanks for trying, guys. Come back when you grow a vaj.
Pardon my uncharacteristic rant here, but Apple, what the fuck were you thinking when you made your office series with its “numbers” spreadsheet?
… Until now!
The SMS Santini MIG3 chamois was immediate love at first sight, and first sit. Frustrated with my dying gear that never excited me in the first place, I went to my bike shop and ordered a second set of their kit shorts. I figured shopping and researching didn’t make my butt happy, maybe there wasn’t a such thing as a happy female taint on a bike saddle.
Love love LOVE! This chamois!
First of all, it’s black and green and orange. As a girl, let me tell you, it sucks having white products that touch your leaky bits because try as you might to keep the colorful fluids safely contained, vaginas leak and body fluids stain fabrics. So the nice dark chamois made me instantly happy to know that I won’t have to worry about staining my race kit.
Second, it’s got some serious padding! This is a gel chamois and I didn’t know it when I bought it, but gel in the chamois is an awesome idea. It’s got two big ole gel pads right under the sit bones, and two more running parallel down the length of the saddle. Moreover, it’s got a built in relief zone that, when combined with the meager relief zones in my Fi’zi:k saddle, make a channel that’s actually almost deep enough to take my body weight off my precious genitals. The fact that it’s articulated gel pads instead of multi density foam gives me confidence that over time, both on long rides but also in the long run of thousands of kilometers of use, my body weight is not going to crush this chamois into another blood sucking mush taking up precious space where my arteries ought to be flowing.
Looking it up on Santini’s official website gave me a small shock of disappointment. It’s a “unisex” chamois which in all practical terms means it’s a men’s chamois because the majority of non women specific testing is done on a primarily male sample set. That said, the twenty kilometers of tits out screaming hard distance (I was having a good day) that I put into this chamois has me nothing short of incredibly pleased. A saddle that I have come to think of as a torture device was actually pretty nice to sit on with this chamois. I can’t wait to try it out on my Selle Italia Lady Flow on a serious morning training ride. Will update you with more information then!
A Ferret Called Wilson 
Women Don’t Need [ fill in here ] Because Women Aren’t Serious Riders
Heaves a great big sigh.
Total Women’s Cycling, I thought better of you.
Today’s article on women’s specific saddle research starts with this headline
Continue reading “Women Don’t Need [ fill in here ] Because Women Aren’t Serious Riders” →