This year - I'm going oval!

One of the reasons that I have enjoyed cycling so much over the last few years is that (as long as I don't fall off!) I manage to stay injury free. After a long time spent rowing, with weight lifting, plus running, karate and other intense sports, I have had a number of problems that have stopped me enjoying those sports.
When I started cycling seriously, when I moved to Italy seven years ago, I fell head over heels in love with cycling. And best of all, I remained injury free (discounting the occasional time when I hit the tarmac at speed which thankfully has not happened for a few years) which was amazing for me.
And then 2016 happened. First in January, whilst somewhat foolishly running some off road courses on a hired city bike - actually a VeloPop from Avignon - think of London's Boris Bikes, or the Velib in Paris - after 3 hours I got off the bike and realised that my back had gone. It seemed to be a return of an old rowing injury - a pain in the L2 area of my spine which resulted in me pretty much unable to walk some days, and spending several days in bed, unable to move.
That led to 3 months of recovery - osteopathy, physiotherapy, kino taping - and very little riding. When I got back it was ok, until a couple of months later it went again - resulting in another month of recovery. And most recently it went again, requiring another 2 weeks of rest. So, 2016 - that's 4.5 months off the bike, more than a third of the year :(

And now, I am going to jump on the bandwagon and try oval chainrings. The reviews are mixed, the science is confused, but I am going to jump in, both feet, and see if makes a difference to me and my old knees, back and shoulder injuries that are not getting better as I get older.

There is plenty that has been written about oval chainrings, and the idea is by no means new. Here's a recent article.
http://www.ilovebicycling.com/what-are-oval-chainrings-should-you-use-them/

I have acquired several different types of oval chainrings and will try them all over the next couple of months - I have osymetric, ogival, rotor qrings, and doval rings which I will try on various bikes, and try to give some open-minded feedback on if they help.

Watch this space!!