Bike Fit Fun & What to expect

Somethings just not quite right...well as right as it can be sitting your ass on an itty bitty saddle for 100's of miles propelled by your own legs, trying to scrunch yourself into an aerodynamic position, typically ending in the same spot you started...

1st bike fit at the top, 2nd bike fit position below - lean mean and aggressive!

And yet I love it.  No wonder people think we are insane.

I messed with it. I had a bike fit done when I first bought Stiletto, and the plan was to get the initial fit done and then there is the option to come back afterwards to make adjustments after riding for a while to dial it in.  At least there should be with a good fitter fitterist fitologist (that just makes me think mixologist, and then I want a margarita).  The first fit was great on the front end, but the seat was a lot farther back than I was used to, since last year I was riding a bike that was too big and had to slam the seat forward.  That resulted on my calves having to take up a lot of the work, and by the time I got to running off the bike they had nothing left.

Unfortunately my truck died, I know shocking that an '87 Toyota pick up, with a bench bolted in the bed, that I got for like $800 died, I mean it should have been the picture of reliability :p  So with the shop being 50 miles away in Boulder and winter outside couldn't get back up there.

So I fiddled.  I tweaked.  Move this thingymagiggy (technical term), and my knee aches, move this whatchamacalit and my quads feel like bricks, don't even get me started on what happened when I adjusted the angle of the doodad.

I got it to a place where it felt ok on the trainer, but when I finally got to venture outside it just didn't feel right and running off the bike felt blah.  So I finally decided it was time to go back to the fitologist and get dialed in.  I had great experience with a Retul fit in Scotland and found a shop in Boulder - Colorado Multisport being fit by Ryan Ignatz - that used the same system so I went back to them.  (not sponsored by them or anything just a great experience)

Here is the bizarre part about living here, you can't spit without hitting a professional athlete.  I found out on a ride the next day my bike fitter is a pretty bad ass Pro Xterra Triathlete.  No wonder he seemed to know a little about this sport.

So what to expect from a bike fit:

First is the questionnaire.  Why are you here, what's wrong, your goals and the latest triathlon gossip.

After the gossip they make you do some calisthenics, see if you can touch your toes (I can't), hip flexibility tests, and some strength tests like single leg squats (yay didn't fall over).

Following your calisthenics session, they will have you hop on the bike and start pedalling.  If pedalling has ever felt natural or comfortable, wait until you have someone watching each stroke.  Suddenly you wonder what you are doing, thinking should I be pedalling in a circle?  Or more like a box? Have I always wobbled my knees?

The fitologist will then stand looking very intensely at your bike, with a furrowed brow like they are figuring out the ultimate question to the answer of 42 (and if you got that you are a geek :p).

Once they have solved the questions of the universe they will proceed to move many whosits and whatsits by millimetres.  Occasionally asking you to jump back on and get into a comfortable position and pedal, hum and haw and then continue their adjustments.  If you find a fitologist that is great at multitasking the triathlon gossip and tips will continue through this process keeping you entertained.

And then THE question comes up.  How aggressive can we go.  I let him know what my goals were and since I'm looking to use my bike to get me on podiums we decided to play around and see how low can I go (no not doing the limbo...although that would be fun if the shop busted out with coconut bras, steel drums and a limbo bar) and still run well off the bike.  Last fit I had some homework to do on hip flexibility and strengthen my gluteus med so that this position could be achieved.  Ended up moving the front end down an inch (or 2.5cm) and moving my bars/pads/seat forward.

Bike fitters have a tough job of making you aggressive but comfortable enough that you will be able to put in the miles, and as A type people most of us triathletes just say go lower, go lower.  They have to evaluate what we will actually be able to ride based on body type, flexibility, experience, history.  I've had some push back in the past because, yea, I've owned a bike less than 2 years and don't have much experience, but the bike has ended up being my strength and I'm pretty sure the years riding a super sport motorcycle should count for experience :p  Luckily Ryan took it all in and evaluated strength/flexibility and said, yea we can go aggressive.

Ok adjustments made, got a good workout in jumping on and off the bike and spent some quality time drooling over equipment in the shop I want.  Time to hop on to do the last test to see how the position feels.

Now I don't want to be dramatic or anything but when I started pedalling and settled into the new position it felt like magic, like I could go out and give Rinny a run for her money ;) (Its possible...if I didn't have to swim or run...and had a big head start on the bike).

Next up the pedalling analysis.  "You're doing it wrong" Ok he didn't really say that in so many words but he had some ways to improve my running off the bike and suggested some of the issues I was having wasn't the bike.  Now you think how many ways can you adjust moving your foot around in a circle when its fixed to the pedal??  A lot apparently, I have a tendency to point my toe down and give up the power house that is my gluteus (never thought of my ass as a power house), putting more stress on smaller muscles that fatigue quicker.  So homework after this visit, use my gluteus.  I also got a laundry list of things to think about on the bike and pay attention to, and what requires another visit if it feels off.

New position I've never ridden in and it feels more comfortable than the position I've been riding for months, I think this visit was a success.  BUT the real test comes when I get outside and put some power to the pedals and then see how the legs feel off the bike.

What better way to test than a long ride and hard brick, stay tuned for the results!

Carpe Diem

Swimming with the World Champion!

I'll tell ya who at the bottom, its not Macca this time :p

Ok sports fans, its time to get serious!

I was told I'm too slow, to join a swim squad I was hoping to join to get faster.  Huh.  I don't like being told I'm not good enough, it wasn't a shock I know my swim is mediocre on a good day but doesn't mean I like hearing it.

So what am I going to do about it?  I'm going to grow gills, start sporting eau de chlorine, do what it takes to get faster in the water.  No more of this flailing up and down the pool lane just to get through the swim workouts so I can get on the bike or run.

Last year when I was doing 6 hour 70.3's I didn't think my swim really mattered much.  I had so much to gain on the bike and run it just seemed better to spend the time and effort taking an hour off the bike/run instead of 10 minutes off my swim.  Now it matters.  If I want to be a top Age Group athlete I can't come out of the water a half hour down on my competition, as much fun as it is endlessly passing people on the bike I need to be in the game a lot earlier.

So game plan.

FOCUS! We've all been guilty of this, you have a workout on the schedule you know you need to get it done but your head isn't really there.  You finish the workout, but just surviving it, not giving it 100%, knowing you could have done more.  That was pretty much every swim for me, I would get in the pool and survive, instead of thrive.  I've been getting better at staying mentally engaged, and really focussing on what I'm doing in the water.  Which lead me to the next step, I didn't know what I was doing wrong so I needed to find out what to focus on.

Swim Analysis.  I should have done this forever ago! I've never had swimming lessons so my teacher was YouTube videos.  When I would have people take a look at my stroke they would say they didn't see anything crazy wrong, even Siri told me the same so I assumed I just needed to get more fit.

Well I finally went to Swim Labs in Denver and got an analysis done.  It was so cool/bizarre.  They have a pretty slick set up with a room full of endless pools.  Then there is a mirror in front of you and one on the bottom of the pool, along with a camera in front of you and another one along side you.  So you get to see every angle.  Then they have you swim and take a short video, review the angles with you and then show you what it is supposed to look like side by side showing your video and olympic swimmers from the same angle.  Then have you do drills or try to imitate the stroke you just saw.  The crazy part is you feel you're doing something drastically different but you see it on the video and your arm has maybe moved an inch from what it was doing before!  I'm not sponsored by them or anything I just thought it was so cool the set up they have.

Which was good because my issue is below the water.  I'm giving up a ton of pulling power half way through my stroke to the end.  So now that I know what to work on, I can focus on it.  I tried swimming in a speed workout (I cringe when I see Speed swim on my schedule) using the recommended form and holy crap are my triceps sore!  It feels totally awkward, but I was able to go faster, although fatigued more quickly because I'm not used to using those muscles.  I'll be going back next week to Swim Labs to see if what I'm doing now more closely resembles swimming than my unique flailing stroke :)

I've been told I should embrace my swimming, see it as my friend, learn to love it.  I'm going a different direction.  I perform best when I'm fuelled by competition or have something to prove, so I'm going to own my swim, attack my weakness.

So who was the World Champion I got to swim with?  Mirinda Carfrae!  I swam with Siri and her crew of unbelievably talented Ironman women.  It was unreal to get to see these women in action in the pool, they are fast, but have a pretty cool team environment.  I would think that would be challenging come race day but Siri knows what she's doing, can't argue the results they get!  It was very cool I chatted afterwards with Mirinda and Amanda Stevens and they were great.  Definitely one of those surreal moments.  I can't believe some of the opportunities triathlon has opened up for me, you never know what is around the corner.

Carpe Diem

Training & Racing with Macca - You can too!

Training for a 70.3 in the midst of a trans-atlantic move while trying to adapt to altitude...

Seem like a great idea eh?  Almost as brilliant as my marathon the week after Ironman, but once again, what the hell it will be an adventure.

First off the Race!  So I'm going to be racing Miami Man Triathlon, after a training camp with Chris "Macca" McCormack.  Always a blast meeting up with Macca at these races and downing a few beers afterwards.  Miami Man looks like a very cool course, with the run going through the Miami Zoo!  Now if only they let a few wild animals loose I would definitely PR.

Its weird being back into intense training again.  The last year has been a very much an aerobic focus with very little work around threshold and above.  Training specifically for a 70.3 means a 180 in training focus.  Hello pain cave!  Instead of the distance being the hard part, its now the intensity.  I forgot what it felt like to get my HR into the 190's and actually have my legs burning and screaming to stop!

You know what though?  It will be worth it...when I win Miami Man ;)  I'm going to race balls to the wall hard.  I haven't raced like that all year, everything has been held back a bit, in the sprints early in the year I didn't know what it meant to suffer on the bike so I didn't push as hard as I could, previous 70.3's I forgot how much I can hurt during a run and still make it to the end.  

I'm running some paces I never thought possible right now, but more important, I'm remember what it really means to suffer with intensity. The training has been even better mentally than physically for building up that strength.  Its the last race of the season, I want to find my limits, flirt with that red line. 

I absolutely cracked mentally on one of those runs yesterday, I used to run every run at that intensity when I was rolling with a group of runners much faster than me in Texas.  So need to keep working on that mental toughness,  remember that I can run like that and not explode, and not be afraid of paces. 

I'll need all the mental strength I can get because the physical stuff is going to be less than ideal.

Heres the breakdown of what makes this tricky: 

I'm moving from Scotland to Denver Colorado, USA.

Scotland is at Sea level, Denver is a mile high (about 5300ft) and goes up from there. High enough that training has to be significantly backed of in intensity and volume for 2-3 weeks to let my body adapt to the elevation or else I risk serious overtraining/adrenal fatigue all that fun stuff.  Which is not an ideal situation a month out from a race.

I have about a week and a half starting this weekend where I have to travel from Scotland, to Vancouver to visit the embassy, then on to Calgary to visit family and then to temporary living (still to be determined where) in Denver.  So I pretty much can't do anything but run during that time because bike will be boxed up for plane travel every 2nd day and pools will be hard to come by with no means of transportation.

Essentially I have the rest of the week to train hard, in the middle of packing and moving, then its a crap shoot up to race day.  I'm curious to see how elevation will affect my body, both going up there and then back down to sea level for the race.  You hear horror stories of coming down from elevation at the wrong time, and being completely powerless when you go up, it will be an experience for sure.  I hear carbs help at elevation...and they have some great IPA's over there...what...beer is carbs ;)

Ah well guess I'll be Embracing the Suck, should be fun ;)  I cant wait.

Another very cool part of this race I get the opportunity to meet a number of members from the MaccaX triathlon team.  Now this is a wild group, from all over the world, and already there is an agreement that what happens in Miami, stays in Miami!  

Read more about the team and how to get involved here if you want to meet up with "The Boss" Chris Macca McCormack - Train with Macca! 

Thats my rambling for now, time to escape the chaos of this house and try to get a swim in.  Wish me luck!

Feeding the ducks that hang out in our front yard for the last time :(

Good-bye house, Good-bye Scotland.

New Directions - Moving to a new Country!

Life as always is going at a million miles per hour, at this point just trying to hang on for the ride!

As I'm typing this my house is being taken over by boxes, we are officially leaving Scotland!  It was such a short stay here, we have been here a year and 10 days.  It was very cool living overseas, exploring such a beautiful country with such a colourful history.  As well as having the opportunity to race around Europe, and sample European beers :)

I've been fortunate to travel a ton here, and have raced in Scotland, England, Spain, Sweden & Canada this year.

I am moving to..... *DRUMROLL* Denver, Colorado, USA!!

I cant express how excited I am for this move, it came along at the perfect time and is the right location.

Sea of Boxes!

Couple of major benefits:

1) Direct flight home to Calgary.  Visiting family once a year, having to travel almost a full day to get there makes it very tough.  Technology is an fantastic tool to stay in touch but not as good as quality time in person.
2) Close to Boulder ;)  With my recent triathlon obsession what better place to be living and training than at elevation with world champions training just a few miles away?
3) Mountains & Sunshine.  I love you Scotland, but seasons of Rain, colder rain, warmer rain, greyish fog I wont miss so much.  I've missed playing in the Rocky mountains (although the Canadian side before) and cant wait to explore them in a new way with running and biking.
4) Staying in one place!!! The plan is to stay in Denver for a number of years, instead of moving every 1-2 years like we have been doing.  4 moves in 4 years from Calgary, AB -> Grande Prairie, AB -> Texas -> Scotland I'm ready to buy a house and settle down for a while.

So I'm thrilled, and sad at the same time.  Its going to be a few months of chaos from heading to Canada to get work permits, to heading down to Denver living in temporary housing until we find a house to buy down there and start to normalise again.

Since triathlon is such a logistically easy sport to manage and train for (not!)....I decided to sign up for one last race a 70.3.  I was a little disappointed with the mechanical at Ironman and want to have one last hit out for the season.  More details to come in the next blog, but I'll be training and racing with Chris "Macca" McCormack

Tomorrow I'll update on my next race and attempt to train at altitude!  Until then some pictures of Scotland.

The view from my doorstep, I'm going to miss waking up to this!

The sea side, I loved living near the water, even if it was so cold I couldn't feel my fingers and toes after a few minutes

Downtown Aberdeen

Castles, real live castles everywhere!

Trail from my doorstep

Afraid of my Bicycle

This is inspired by an awesome someone in my online tri club.

Just like riding a bicycle...you hear that a lot.  Supposed to mean its easy, you never forget how to do it.  I disagree.  Riding a bicycle can be terrifying, and getting on one for the first time in over 10 years does not feel familiar and easy!  Especially when you mix an uncoordinated wanna be triathlete with clip in pedals and tri bars.

In triathlon, especially non-drafting the bike is where you are going to be spending most of your time  - well for most people...unless you have an injury or completely blow up on the run.

So you better be pretty comfy on that saddle (which can be a whole other blog post on saddle comfort).  Easier said than done, the last year my bike has become a strength of mine, I posted the fastest female bike split in my last 70.3, but its pretty crazy to think about where I started 15 months ago.

*Queue cheezy back in time music*

Ok I want to be a triathlete, and as much fun as the recumbant bike is at the gym I cant quite race on it.  So time to bike shop, bikes are like 200-300 bucks right?  (Insert incredulous look from husband who used to race mountain bikes) "Umm they are a bit more than that".

Start looking at used ones on ebay YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!?!  These things with no horse power cost nearly as much as the motorcycle I was racing!! For what?  Some metal and cables, little bit of rubber?

Luckily Blair knew a lot more about bikes than I did (paint up rubber down was about the extent of my knowledge).  One thing that worked out well was Blair always wanted a Specialized bike when he was racing, so he started looking at them for triathlon bikes for me, I'm so happy he did because now that I know more about bikes and fit Specialized was the right brand and bike for me.

First question, road bike or tri bike?  There is a lot of debate over this. Go with the road bike you can ride in groups, stability, and if you dont like triathlon you can still use it in social settings, if you do you can add tri bars.  Tri bike - more unstable, better aero dynamics, better hip angle for running off the bike, pretty sport specific and you will rarely find bike groups that will let a tri bike tag along.

At the end of the day, I wanted to race triathlon, not bikes.  In my usual fashion leaped all in and went with a tri bike.

So after an exhaustive ebay search (too cheap to buy new) found a deal on a Specialized Transition Elite, an aluminum job done up in my favorite colour.  Entry level tri bike, that was a bit too big but hell I wont be fast enough for the bike to matter that much I'm just getting started.

A big box shows up on the doorstep, a flury of screws and allan wrenches and a box of bits turns into a sharp looking triathlon bike...without pedals...what do you mean it doesn't come with pedals?!? From my limited bike experience pedals are kind of essential!  Then I learn about clip in pedals (that are called clipless...I swear this is just to mess with newbies).

Ok we have pedals now we are in business, bike is ready to ride.

A week later...yup bike is all ready...just sitting there...its too windy to ride...those clipless pedals are scary...(insert more excuses)...

Another week passes...it sure looks good in the living room...I cant get the hang of unclipping standing still how am I going to do it on the road?  I'm totally going to fall on my ass.

It took just over 2 weeks for me to take my bike outside, I had terrifying images of me trying desperately to get my feet out of those pedals while doing a slow motion fall (which happened eventually anyways), being blown off the road with the wind, and generally looking like an idiot.  Not a great start to my triathlon ambitions I was too much of a scaredy cat to get on the road.

(First ride notice lack of bike shorts...jersey...or bike shoes)

I did get some progress in the triathlon ambitions during that time though, I went to the pool once and felt like I was going to drown doing one length of 25 meters.  I've never had swim lessons and had no idea what I was doing.  I spent 10 minutes getting the nerve to swim the 25 meters back, was nearly hyperventilating and got out of the pool.  Yea this is going well.

Ok, I need to get outside on this damned bike.  First ride was terrifying, I was wobbling all over the parking lot, I don't remember riding a bike being this hard?!  Panicking as I tried to unclip my clipless (WTF) pedals.  Don't even get me started on turning around.  But I was determined.

It took another ride just in the parking lot trying to stay upright before I ventured on the road.  Now if it had been here in Scotland with itty bitty roads it may never have happened, but I was in Texas with huge roads and big shoulders so I finally got out there.

I was wobbly, but starting to get the hang of it after a few rides...then I tried the aero bars...as soon as I dropped down my bike took on a life of its own swerving side to side.  Adrenaline and heart pumping went back up, ok that didn't go well.  Thinking how the hell will I be able to race this thing when I feel like its going to throw me off when I go down into aero position.

I can handle a motorcycle with a 600cc engine on a race track knee dragging on the ground in the corners like its the most natural thing in the world...and a bicycle is getting the better of me.

Well it just took practise.  Lots of time just doing 10-20 minute rides trying to stay calm and in control of the bike, and even more time in parking lots working on bike handling.  I started to get more comfortable, relaxed, started to focus on what my legs were doing instead of a panicked death grip on the handle bars.  Dealing with the insane cross and head winds in Texas forced me to get used to tough conditions and stay relaxed.

Once I felt good on the road, my bike became my favourite toy and a strength.  That fear didn't completely go away, for the first 5 or so months I was in Scotland I didn't get off my trainer because I was scared again of the little roads here with no shoulder.  Once again just had to get out there, now I feel good on them (but still cautious).

I forgot how difficult the bike felt in the beginning, how scared I was, 15 months seems like a lifetime ago.  Now the bike feels like the most natural thing in the world.  I love the way my legs feel applying power to the pedals, slipping through the wind in aero position.

I've been looking back on old workouts and races to motivate me for Ironman, and I looked at the power output on the sprint Duathlons I did earlier in the year.  Well the power I put out in those short races feeling like I was going hard is the same power I plan on putting out for Ironman over 8x further than the sprint.  Its been a year of getting to know my bicycle very intimately, and I cant wait to see what I can do at Ironman - 6 days.

Carpe Diem

Ironman Buffalo Springs 70.3 Race report

I wrote this a while after the race on another forum, just wanted to document.  A good lesson to train for the race terrain...especially those damned hills.

Ok so I have the crazy sometimes obsessive personality that anyone outside of endurance sports doesn’t understand, and am now doing things that just a year ago would have thought was bat shit crazy!  5 weeks of training, followed by 2 weeks of taper in hind sight probably wasn't enough, but hell I finished!

 

THE RACE!

 

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!! Leading up to this a lot of people warned me about this course, calling it a ¾ Ironman and saying how I chose such a hard one for my first one. I figure get the hard out of the way for the first one and fine tune for the next one :p I probably should have paid a little more attention though!

 

So I am a terrible swimmer, never had lessons growing up so I was nervous about just surviving the swim…my longest non-stop swim before the race was about .75 of a mile… I put on my wetsuit for the second time, and head up to the beach with a group of bobbing heads in pink swim caps. It was a wave start, going every 3 min and all of the women were in the second wave, with 3 more waves of men behind us. I never heard them say go, but all the sudden the mass of wetsuits around me started sprinting for the water so I followed suit. We got into the lake and you can barely see your hand in front of your face its so murky…this was my first time swimming in open water and freaked me out a little bit, but I just started thrashing trying to make forward motion. 

 

That first 5 minutes was the most terrifying thing I have ever done…and the only point in the race I really considered quitting.

 

Heart rate was racing, the wave behind us caught up I think it was 35-40 yr males, the water became a frenzy with a few slaps and kicks as the fast swimmers swam over me. Then came the first buoy along with the next wave, everyone crunched up and I had someone latch onto my wetsuit Velcro…opening it up. Well great now I have a wetsuit filled with water :s There goes the buoyancy advantage! It wasn’t until half way through when I got some space to breath, just tucked in and finally found the familiar rhythm of my stroke through the water, that’s when I started to feel strong again and knew that I was going to finish no matter what!

 

Out of the water, got my wet suit stripped by 2 girls (I know your jealous boys) ran up to transition. I was so happy to get on my bike, this was familiar. We had become very intimate friends over 5 hours weekends of training together. Now I am in Midland Texas….which has zero hills…the largest grade is a .2% grade incline that is known as “The Hill” but what we do have is wind. I’m talking 25-35 mile per hour wind on most of my training days so I wasn’t worried about the hills too much…hills end…the wind just keeps beating on you! Well the one part I didn’t prepare for hill wise was gravity…yea I should have seen that one coming….my bottle between my bars with all of my nutrition fell out on the first downhill….damn. So I got the pleasure of trying the Ironman perform…not bad…not great, but it got me through. The bike was comfortable most of the way I wanted to save my legs for the run…which it turns out didn’t really matter how my legs felt off the bike, little did I know they were about to take a beating. I did pass about 300 people on the bike, just keeping it at a pretty easy effort.  Legs never burned, surprised to see how many people I was passing going uphill without spiking my HR.

 

 

 

The Run. I figured the run would be my weapon, I had been running really well since I started incorporating the biking, most of my run training of the bike was done around noon so 100+ Fahrenheit was familiar and race day was only calling for 90 when I would start the half marathon. What I didn’t prepare for mentally or physically was the hills….those damned hills. It started off with rolling hills…that were a little larger than my definition of rolling and more than any hills in midland…then there were the 3 big ones…7-10% grade, ranging from 400-800 meters in length. I had to walk them…I’ve never walked in a race before but there was no other option…I was running up them slower than I could speed walk them. It hit me hard mentally on top of the physical.  Then came the downhill….first downhill was the begging of a very large blood blister that would continue to form. The second half I started to get into a groove, there was never a question that I would finish, but there was the thought of just walking the rest of the way…I was feeling shattered, my legs didn't know how to handle the incline and blood blisters had formed on both my feet from the decline, not to mention the beating my quads had never experienced before. Funny enough a lot of people talked about how tough the one flat section leading up to the turnaround is, it’s just flat and hot, and there is nothing around you but tumbleweeds and pump jacks….that was my favorite part! It felt like home :p

 

 

JENNA-CAER FROM MIDLAND TEXAS CONGRATULATIONS they announced as I crossed the finish line, (butchering my name but its all good). I felt such a sense of near delirious happiness that I had made it. It was a wild journey, with just over a month of training for a Half there was always the question of if I would finish…if I had stepped off I would not have been the only one that day…but I was determined. It really amazes me what your body can do if you put your mind to it and believe you can do it. This former fat kid, that never won or really competed in any sports growing up realized that there is an athlete inside her. I can’t wait to take on my next one! Next month I will do the sprint triathlon that got me thinking about this crazy sport. 

 

Finished in 6 hours 01 minute.