It's been a while.
More importantly, I've actually got something worthwhile to share. I've not raced since last fall so no races to report on and because my typing fingers are lazy, theres been not a single post from me in months. No one really wants to read about my training. But people may want to read about why getting fit to your bicycle and having said fit tuned up/checked on at least once a year is invaluable. Invaluable for numerous reasons. Of which I'll detail in a hot sec.
I went to see my friend, sponsor and bike-fit-guru-master-fitting-genius, Jonathan Blyer at Acme Bicycle Co this past Friday. We've been working together for nearly two years now. I originally found JB via Slowtwitch under their list of F.I.S.T. certified fitters in my area. JB was performing fits out of his apartment at the time. But oh how the times have changed. Over the past two years, the fit shop that was once a spare bedroom is now a full blown, state of the art bike fit studio complete with Retul motion capture technology and the crazy awesome Guru Dynamic Fit Unit. Through a partnership with TRIBY3 Performance Coaching owner Greg Close the studio also now does double duty as a computrainer training studio. Its a one stop shop for all things bike related and I love it. I just want to hang out at the shop and talk about bikes and drink espresso. If you haven't been, I highly recommend (force) you check the studio out and even more importantly book a session of your own with Jonathan. If you dont think you need to now, you might change your mind by the end of this entry.
Back to why I was visiting. As mentioned above, JB fit me on my original Speed Concept nearly two years ago and I've been riding essentially that same position ever since. I've gone through a bike or two since the original fit but have carried my fit numbers over to each bike. One would think that after having ridden the same position for two years (and yes I should have been back to see him much earlier), that things would be rosy. Well, we're humans, not machines. Things change. Our bodies change. While sometimes the human body can be very adaptable, there are other times where optimizing makes much more sense. I've been having some pain in my right calf/right leg that sometimes has flared up in my achilles. Potentially scary stuff. One of the main reasons I wanted to get over to see him. But also to jump on board the Guru DFU and see what we'd net out on with a blank canvas of sorts.
Your day at Acme would be just the same as mine - probably even more in depth. Jonathan would talk to you about your goals, what distances you race, where or what you've been having trouble with, what you're looking to get out of your fit, etc. He knows me pretty well so some of that stuff we didnt have to go through but he did start off by evaluating my flexibility, looking for any asymmetries before we got on the DFU and just watching me walk around barefoot. I then jumped on my bike which was hooked up to a trainer and got warmed up before jumping on the DFU. Meanwhile, JB input my current fit numbers into the computer which is connected to the DFU (if you're still wondering what exactly that is, have a look at the Acme homepage) to get it set up in the position I was currently riding in.
After the warm up, I hopped on board the DFU which had now been setup to mimic my fit and started pedaling. The DFU is hooked up to a computrainer and I was able to adjust the level of resistance (power) during the fit to see how changes were affecting my power output dynamically. Meaing, I NEVER HAD TO STOP PEDALING. I dont know JBs inner wizardy/magic, but he slowly made adjustments as I pedaled my little heart out. Thats whats so cool about the whole process. It all happens in real time. JB would make changes - bringing the front end up/down, forward/back, seat up/down and forward/back - and in real time I could be like "no no no...move it back" or "YES, right there" (yes, this was just a bicycle fitting). This process went on for quite some time and JB has the ability to save specific "positions" throughout the process as well as the original position. So, for example, we netted out on a couple "preferred positions" and then quickly would switch back to my old position and I could feel the changes in real time. Needless to say, my old position is no more.
Once at a point where he was comfortable where we were and I agreed on the amazingness, it was time to get me set up with the Retul Motion Capture System to confirm everything. JB connected a cord with various sensors from elbow, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and some place on my foot. A device set up next to me captured my movements and recorded every angle of my fit and displays them on screen. We did that for both my left and right side. JB used all of the numbers on screen to verify that I was within acceptable ranges for things like knee angle, hip angle, knee tracking, etc. Its sort of like power data. Useless if you dont know what you're doing with it but invaluable if you do. And JB does.
At that point, I was finally done with what felt like a solid bike workout and JB attempted to transfer over my new fit numbers to my bike. BUT, because I'm an expert dunce and forgot the various spacers and such for my bikes integrated front end, we could only make the changes to the saddle position while at the shop. But I'm relatively competent when it comes to working on my bike, so no big deal. I simply took the numbers home and made the changes to my bike over the weekend. I do want to stress though that this is generally part of the process and I just managed to forget some very important pieces.
So, what does this all mean and how did my fit change? Well, for starters, my saddles was in fact, too high. Much too high. And probably the culprit of my ongoing calf issue. So the saddle came down by about 2.5cm and also came forward just a bit. Additionally, he adjusted the position of my cleats and gave me some inserts for support of my arch. On the front end, my pads came up! The horror. Low is better right? Uh, not if you cant hold your position. So up we go and boy does it feel good. This weekend, I spent more total time in my aerobars than any previous ride this year and the power came by so much easier. A great fit isnt going to give you fitness, but it will allow you to tap into the fitness you already have more readily and more easily. And thats what we've done with mine. I'm super pumped and looking forward to getting out on my tri bike even more in the coming weeks.
Moral of the story - if you havent been fit, go do it now at Acme. If you have been fit but are encountering issues or feel like there might be an area that needs some work, go get a tune up/check up. I promise it will be some of the best money you spend on this sport.
More importantly, I've actually got something worthwhile to share. I've not raced since last fall so no races to report on and because my typing fingers are lazy, theres been not a single post from me in months. No one really wants to read about my training. But people may want to read about why getting fit to your bicycle and having said fit tuned up/checked on at least once a year is invaluable. Invaluable for numerous reasons. Of which I'll detail in a hot sec.
I went to see my friend, sponsor and bike-fit-guru-master-fitting-genius, Jonathan Blyer at Acme Bicycle Co this past Friday. We've been working together for nearly two years now. I originally found JB via Slowtwitch under their list of F.I.S.T. certified fitters in my area. JB was performing fits out of his apartment at the time. But oh how the times have changed. Over the past two years, the fit shop that was once a spare bedroom is now a full blown, state of the art bike fit studio complete with Retul motion capture technology and the crazy awesome Guru Dynamic Fit Unit. Through a partnership with TRIBY3 Performance Coaching owner Greg Close the studio also now does double duty as a computrainer training studio. Its a one stop shop for all things bike related and I love it. I just want to hang out at the shop and talk about bikes and drink espresso. If you haven't been, I highly recommend (force) you check the studio out and even more importantly book a session of your own with Jonathan. If you dont think you need to now, you might change your mind by the end of this entry.
Back to why I was visiting. As mentioned above, JB fit me on my original Speed Concept nearly two years ago and I've been riding essentially that same position ever since. I've gone through a bike or two since the original fit but have carried my fit numbers over to each bike. One would think that after having ridden the same position for two years (and yes I should have been back to see him much earlier), that things would be rosy. Well, we're humans, not machines. Things change. Our bodies change. While sometimes the human body can be very adaptable, there are other times where optimizing makes much more sense. I've been having some pain in my right calf/right leg that sometimes has flared up in my achilles. Potentially scary stuff. One of the main reasons I wanted to get over to see him. But also to jump on board the Guru DFU and see what we'd net out on with a blank canvas of sorts.
Your day at Acme would be just the same as mine - probably even more in depth. Jonathan would talk to you about your goals, what distances you race, where or what you've been having trouble with, what you're looking to get out of your fit, etc. He knows me pretty well so some of that stuff we didnt have to go through but he did start off by evaluating my flexibility, looking for any asymmetries before we got on the DFU and just watching me walk around barefoot. I then jumped on my bike which was hooked up to a trainer and got warmed up before jumping on the DFU. Meanwhile, JB input my current fit numbers into the computer which is connected to the DFU (if you're still wondering what exactly that is, have a look at the Acme homepage) to get it set up in the position I was currently riding in.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| JB getting my current touch points entered into the computer. Thats the DFU behind him. |
Once at a point where he was comfortable where we were and I agreed on the amazingness, it was time to get me set up with the Retul Motion Capture System to confirm everything. JB connected a cord with various sensors from elbow, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and some place on my foot. A device set up next to me captured my movements and recorded every angle of my fit and displays them on screen. We did that for both my left and right side. JB used all of the numbers on screen to verify that I was within acceptable ranges for things like knee angle, hip angle, knee tracking, etc. Its sort of like power data. Useless if you dont know what you're doing with it but invaluable if you do. And JB does.
At that point, I was finally done with what felt like a solid bike workout and JB attempted to transfer over my new fit numbers to my bike. BUT, because I'm an expert dunce and forgot the various spacers and such for my bikes integrated front end, we could only make the changes to the saddle position while at the shop. But I'm relatively competent when it comes to working on my bike, so no big deal. I simply took the numbers home and made the changes to my bike over the weekend. I do want to stress though that this is generally part of the process and I just managed to forget some very important pieces.
So, what does this all mean and how did my fit change? Well, for starters, my saddles was in fact, too high. Much too high. And probably the culprit of my ongoing calf issue. So the saddle came down by about 2.5cm and also came forward just a bit. Additionally, he adjusted the position of my cleats and gave me some inserts for support of my arch. On the front end, my pads came up! The horror. Low is better right? Uh, not if you cant hold your position. So up we go and boy does it feel good. This weekend, I spent more total time in my aerobars than any previous ride this year and the power came by so much easier. A great fit isnt going to give you fitness, but it will allow you to tap into the fitness you already have more readily and more easily. And thats what we've done with mine. I'm super pumped and looking forward to getting out on my tri bike even more in the coming weeks.
Moral of the story - if you havent been fit, go do it now at Acme. If you have been fit but are encountering issues or feel like there might be an area that needs some work, go get a tune up/check up. I promise it will be some of the best money you spend on this sport.