Monday, July 16, 2007

quad vs. head

I was informed that in the photo from the Diablo TT, that my right quad is 3mm larger than my head. Yes, I do have an exceptionally small head. And yes, I do have exceptionally large quads. But is this possible??? I went into my favorite photo cropping program -- Paint -- and made the following image. I did not in any way alter the size of any quads or heads in the below image. I first did myself, and then as a comparison did Michiko, because I needed a control in the study. If any other cyclists out there are reading this and would like to do a comparison of their quad vs. head size, I would very much like to add to this study. Go ahead and send me your photos.
is that freakish or what?

Some time ago, Michiko suggested that I start measuring my quads. They have grown a lot in the last couple of months. This became evident when I biked to work one day and had a pair of normal fitting jeans in my book bag. They were of the darker color, with a fade in the back, because they were oh so stylin'. I hadn't worn them in about a month. When I got to work, I changed in the bathroom and was horrified that my normal fitting jeans suddenly turned into teeny-bopper tight ass pants, with a paris hilton blue jean fade in the back! I couldn't change, cause all I had as an alternative were some smelly spandex, although they were probably looser than my jeans.
I wish I had a January measurement on my legs...I'll be sure to get that next year. It'll be cool to track throughout a whole season... But, in the meantime, I will start mid-season with some quad measurements.

Here it is (and for comparison sake):
Quad: 59.5 cm. Whoa. That is huge.
Calf: 40.5 cm
Waist: 74.0 cm
I encourage all my cyclist blog readers to keep track of their own quad measurements, post them, and maybe I will be a big dork and make a sweet time-series analysis of quad measurements. I haven't decided the frequency of the quad girth measurement, but stay tuned.

8 comments:

place_holder said...

Where is the measurement of your head?

So psyched about the neighborhood watch program of your quads!!

Anonymous said...

oh yeah! I like this measuring game...where's my tape measure???

Anonymous said...

dang, mine wasn't close at all...but will definitely keep track of it - he he

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

that's not what i'm gonna start measuring...

karla said...

Olaf, i don't even want to know what you're thinking!

That's hilarious about the jeans, Beth. I got mono earlier this year, and was off the bike for a few weeks. I was so psyched because although the mono was miserable, after a couple sick weeks, my quads started fitting into my tiny pre-cycling-era jeans. But when I got back on the bike, the jeans went back into the back of the closet. Ha. The hardships we endure for cycling :)

chatterbox said...

Yeah, it's weird how your weight can stay the same and body shape change entirely. I think my calves are about 10" bigger around than when I started cycling. I used to have chicken legs.

Where do I measure my quads? Up in the fatty region? Or closer to the knee?

Oh, and I know my head is smaller than my quads.

Velo Bella said...

and I thinks its awesome that you signed up for AVC!! I will be there cheering your little headed biq quaded self on!

Gilby said...

If it's any comfort, my head is the same size as my left quad. My right quad is 1.5 cm bigger (56.5 cm).