After a terrible week of work and no biking it was finally time to get outdoors and pedal. The weather cooperated with temps into the upper 80s with no wind.
Packed up the bike and headed for the weekly group ride at Village Bicycles. Met up with a friend at work. They pulled out the maps and had planned for a 68 mile ride. The groups got setup and I thought I was going to average in the 15-18mph range. That would have been fine. Off we went when my friend said that we should check out who is in the lead group. So off we went sprinting to play catch up.
50 miles later, and I was in a group of 4 including the shop owner and one of his employees. Both of whom are doing the Race Across America. I cracked in the end... But I averaged 19.8mph. Not bad for an early spring ride coming off of knee injury!
Speaking of the knee injury, the shims that were added to my cleat worked wonders. No knee pain at all... no ankle roll... no numb foot on the outside. The money spent on the fitting was well spent.
I can't wait till Tuesday's group ride!!!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Tri-Bike Fitting at TTBikeFit
As a result of my recent knee injuries, I decided to spend some money and get a proper bike and cleat fit by someone who knows what he is doing. After looking at two places, I decided to visit Todd Kenyon. at:
http://www.ttbikefit.com/
Todd is a triathlete, a much better one than myself. His wife is a really good age grouper who has set bike split records. Todd fits some of the worlds greatest triathletes. He does everything through cameras and video analysis while you are on a computrainer.
Results:
After spending over 2 and a half hours, I had my seat actually raised a bit. I got a recommendation that I need new aerobars as the one I have are two short. Overall, he liked my actual position on the bike.
The biggest time spent was on the video analysis of my pedalling. At first, Todd was perplexed as he had never seen anything like what was happening to me. Basically, I don't stand knocked kneed, but as I pedal, at the top of the pedal stroke, my feet go out while my knees are in close to the frame. On the down stroke, the force causes most of the pressure on the outside of the foot and follows with ankle roll. This is apparent during climbing. To fix this, he added reverse shims underneath my cleat to tilt my foot. This put even pressure on my whole foot and aligned my hip, knee, ankle, and foot to my natural position.
I also had a chance to try out a ISM Adamo saddle. While not the prettiest thing, it attempts to eliminate hot spots in the appropriate areas if you know what I mean. I had a fizik saddle that everyone seems to recommend... but it just didn't work for me.
The final thing he did was measure me and provide me with a recommendation for a "dream" bike. He provides measurements in stack and reach. I have a freakishly long torso, so I need a long and low bike. The Cervelo I have fits into that category, but it is still too small. He recommended a 51 stack and a 43+ reach. This is the one I liked the best:
http://www.ttbikefit.com/
Todd is a triathlete, a much better one than myself. His wife is a really good age grouper who has set bike split records. Todd fits some of the worlds greatest triathletes. He does everything through cameras and video analysis while you are on a computrainer.
Results:
After spending over 2 and a half hours, I had my seat actually raised a bit. I got a recommendation that I need new aerobars as the one I have are two short. Overall, he liked my actual position on the bike.
The biggest time spent was on the video analysis of my pedalling. At first, Todd was perplexed as he had never seen anything like what was happening to me. Basically, I don't stand knocked kneed, but as I pedal, at the top of the pedal stroke, my feet go out while my knees are in close to the frame. On the down stroke, the force causes most of the pressure on the outside of the foot and follows with ankle roll. This is apparent during climbing. To fix this, he added reverse shims underneath my cleat to tilt my foot. This put even pressure on my whole foot and aligned my hip, knee, ankle, and foot to my natural position.
I also had a chance to try out a ISM Adamo saddle. While not the prettiest thing, it attempts to eliminate hot spots in the appropriate areas if you know what I mean. I had a fizik saddle that everyone seems to recommend... but it just didn't work for me.
The final thing he did was measure me and provide me with a recommendation for a "dream" bike. He provides measurements in stack and reach. I have a freakishly long torso, so I need a long and low bike. The Cervelo I have fits into that category, but it is still too small. He recommended a 51 stack and a 43+ reach. This is the one I liked the best:
Vacation!!!
So every year in Mar/Apr, the wifey starts complaining about needing warm weather so we tend to make a migration. This year, due to all of the deals, we took a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise that went out of Miami and did port calls at Roataan Honduras, Belize City Belize, Cozumel Mexico, and a stop at a small island in the Bahamas owned by the cruise line.
Overall impression: I would cruise again!!
The stops were so-so, the food was great (I recommend freestyle cruising), and the relaxation spa was grand! The weather was great and the seas were calm. The entertainment on-board was really good, especially the comedians.
Because we were eating so much, to not gain weight we decided to take the stairs the whole cruise. When your cabin is on deck 8 and the pool/restaurants/bars are on either deck 6 or 12/13 you end up with a lot of stairs. I also brought along my old shoes with SPD cleats and took 3 spinning classes. On two of them, the instructor made the workout more like road riding with 3 hills in one hour. I left each session leaving a puddle on the floor.
I highly recommend a cruise.
Overall impression: I would cruise again!!
The stops were so-so, the food was great (I recommend freestyle cruising), and the relaxation spa was grand! The weather was great and the seas were calm. The entertainment on-board was really good, especially the comedians.
Because we were eating so much, to not gain weight we decided to take the stairs the whole cruise. When your cabin is on deck 8 and the pool/restaurants/bars are on either deck 6 or 12/13 you end up with a lot of stairs. I also brought along my old shoes with SPD cleats and took 3 spinning classes. On two of them, the instructor made the workout more like road riding with 3 hills in one hour. I left each session leaving a puddle on the floor.
I highly recommend a cruise.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
My Glory Days
When you go cleaning out the television room, moving, and repacking stuff you sometimes find old relics. Well, I happened to come across a videotape containing me in my days as a competitive swimmer. I got through 1/2 of the tape before it disintegrated. Ahh, what a wonderful thing VCRs were. So out of request, I managed to have the originator (my father) transfer some things to a DVD. Nice!!! Indestructible media, well until I step on it and break the disc. So after playing around with ripping the disc, converting the format, extracting out races... I have the following:
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Missed my trainer while on travel
Believe it or not, I actually missed riding on the trainer while I was away on travel for work. Taking the trainer to the next level, I found out that you can create your own course files based off of GPS data files. Luckily, Sarah has had that nice Garmin Edge 305 for awhile recording some of our favorite routes (I got the Garmin Forerunner 305 at the end of last year). So I converted a local 26 mile ride that we do that travels down most of the southern Rhode Island coastline.
Amazingly, the ride felt very accurate as far as elevation changes goes. They were spots where the grade just seemed to randomly jump by 2-3%. So unlike the road, there is no slow increase. There is probably a setting in the program to smooth the elevation changes. It will just take some playing.
Ride Results:
Distance: 22 miles
Avg mph: 20.2
Thats about all the stats. My heartrate strap wasn't being picked up and the report didn't get saved. Oh well. Still things to learn.
One very bright spot: the weather outlook for the weekend! It is supposed to be hitting 60s so the plan is to do 2 outdoor rides! Both will be group rides, so still haven't broken out the tri bike.
Amazingly, the ride felt very accurate as far as elevation changes goes. They were spots where the grade just seemed to randomly jump by 2-3%. So unlike the road, there is no slow increase. There is probably a setting in the program to smooth the elevation changes. It will just take some playing.
Ride Results:
Distance: 22 miles
Avg mph: 20.2
Thats about all the stats. My heartrate strap wasn't being picked up and the report didn't get saved. Oh well. Still things to learn.
One very bright spot: the weather outlook for the weekend! It is supposed to be hitting 60s so the plan is to do 2 outdoor rides! Both will be group rides, so still haven't broken out the tri bike.
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