Weekend: Better Living Through Bike Fit.
Jun. 30th, 2014 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterYou'll be unsurprised to learn we had another nonstop weekend. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrottie got back into town Thursday evening, so some of the busyness has gotten compounded, but in good ways, overall.
Saturday, J and I drove down to Houston for some Bicycle Fitment with a guy named Tad Hughes. After the 600k brevet, it became very clear that J needed to take action on that front, and I've made enough changes to Froinlavin that I wanted to re-confirm a few things about my cleat and saddle situations. So we booked ourselves for two, back-to-back two-hour appointments.
While I didn't require nearly as many extensive changes as J, it was still a worthwhile experience. Towards the beginning, T chatted about his position in the overall industry, which is a tricky one, because he sits somewhere between what bike shops do and what healthcare providers do. He said he won't touch the biomechanics of running fit for that reason. Also because in a whole lot of cases, runners with various issues have those various issues because either their shoes are worn out and they need new ones, or because they have selected their shoes based on their appearance and not on their function.
So, bike fits. This is an aspect of the bicycling industry where there is room for improvement, but also for better education and perspective on the side of how bicyclists approach the activity. This is basically the second fit I've gotten - the first one happened over the course of obtaining Froinlavin, at R&E Cycles, the shop where I got 'er. In a lot of respects, I think it's better to have a fit done at a place that specializes just on the fit, because many bike shops wind up having a conflict of interest between their goal of selling you something and positioning you to ride optimally. R&E was actually good in that department, largely because of their overall goal of selling you a bike shop, not a bunch of stuff.
Anyway - T had both a good, informative evaluation process, and a good process for making and refining adjustments. My favorite part of the evaluation process was his butt sensor, which sits on top of the bike saddle and measures pressure points. From that, I learned that my saddle is actually on the narrow side of what would be ideal for me, even though it's a fairly wide saddle. That might make you go, "Well, no duh, it's a unisex saddle and men have more narrow pelvises than women," to which I would counter, "Well, sure, except most women's saddles are too short for me." Regardless, I felt vindicated in my saddle choice overall, because my weight distribution was even and good.
The larger adjustment for me was for my feet. I got Froinlavin with platform pedals, but have been riding with Shimano SPD's and some Pearl Izumi shoes. I'm about to replace the SPD's with Speedplay Frogs, but my foot troubles made me wonder if I needed to make some changes to my shoes. T set me up with some insoles and cleat shims, and I can tell that they have changed my foot positions considerably. It remains to be seen whether that change will be beneficial over the long miles of a brevet, but I'm optimistic.
Getting a bike fit done can seem kind of expensive - Tad charges $250 for each two-hour appointment, and he said that he gets a lot of customers who walk in expecting him to be a miracle worker for that price. So he said that in a lot of cases, most of his job consists of trying to get athletes to understand how reality works - he can get a person into a more optimal position on the bike, but he can't guarantee him or her instant returns on speed. If anything, it can take time to adjust to changes in position, so initial gains will be minimal or nonexistent. Longer-term gains, however, will be in the right direction - the direction of avoiding repetitive use injuries and developing good biomechanical power on the bicycle. I also think my mom might have an interesting time talking to him (that reminds me, mom, next time I'm in town, I'd be happy to have you do a gait analysis on me).
Fortunately, both J and I have pretty good perspective on that subject, so T didn't have to convince us on that front - he just had to evaluate us and talk to us about the adjustments we needed (J even more so than myself).
My friends in Arizona encouraged me for a long, long time to go in for a bike fit, but I never did while I was there. I think I understood their reasons for encouragement at the time, but I was under so many different pressures on so many different fronts (including financial pressures) that it was just never high enough on the list of priorities. At this point, though, going in for the fit was a validating experience. I'm still doing things with the goal of preparing myself for another good run at Paris-Brest-Paris, and I feel like I've been making a lot of positive strides in that direction over the past couple of years.
It's challenging, though - I've also started reading a book on training for long-distance cycling, and there's a part of me that's still resistant to the notion of training for bike rides because I always also want to train for rowing, and the two activities are compatible, but only up to a point. I'm mostly hoping the book will give me better perspective to work from, overall. If the book could just make the Texas summers more bearable, that would be a huge start. We've got an overnight brevet coming up in the middle of July, but other than that I don't feel particularly motivated to go out for long bike rides when it's this humid and hot.
scrottie got back into town Thursday evening, so some of the busyness has gotten compounded, but in good ways, overall.Saturday, J and I drove down to Houston for some Bicycle Fitment with a guy named Tad Hughes. After the 600k brevet, it became very clear that J needed to take action on that front, and I've made enough changes to Froinlavin that I wanted to re-confirm a few things about my cleat and saddle situations. So we booked ourselves for two, back-to-back two-hour appointments.
While I didn't require nearly as many extensive changes as J, it was still a worthwhile experience. Towards the beginning, T chatted about his position in the overall industry, which is a tricky one, because he sits somewhere between what bike shops do and what healthcare providers do. He said he won't touch the biomechanics of running fit for that reason. Also because in a whole lot of cases, runners with various issues have those various issues because either their shoes are worn out and they need new ones, or because they have selected their shoes based on their appearance and not on their function.
So, bike fits. This is an aspect of the bicycling industry where there is room for improvement, but also for better education and perspective on the side of how bicyclists approach the activity. This is basically the second fit I've gotten - the first one happened over the course of obtaining Froinlavin, at R&E Cycles, the shop where I got 'er. In a lot of respects, I think it's better to have a fit done at a place that specializes just on the fit, because many bike shops wind up having a conflict of interest between their goal of selling you something and positioning you to ride optimally. R&E was actually good in that department, largely because of their overall goal of selling you a bike shop, not a bunch of stuff.
Anyway - T had both a good, informative evaluation process, and a good process for making and refining adjustments. My favorite part of the evaluation process was his butt sensor, which sits on top of the bike saddle and measures pressure points. From that, I learned that my saddle is actually on the narrow side of what would be ideal for me, even though it's a fairly wide saddle. That might make you go, "Well, no duh, it's a unisex saddle and men have more narrow pelvises than women," to which I would counter, "Well, sure, except most women's saddles are too short for me." Regardless, I felt vindicated in my saddle choice overall, because my weight distribution was even and good.
The larger adjustment for me was for my feet. I got Froinlavin with platform pedals, but have been riding with Shimano SPD's and some Pearl Izumi shoes. I'm about to replace the SPD's with Speedplay Frogs, but my foot troubles made me wonder if I needed to make some changes to my shoes. T set me up with some insoles and cleat shims, and I can tell that they have changed my foot positions considerably. It remains to be seen whether that change will be beneficial over the long miles of a brevet, but I'm optimistic.
Getting a bike fit done can seem kind of expensive - Tad charges $250 for each two-hour appointment, and he said that he gets a lot of customers who walk in expecting him to be a miracle worker for that price. So he said that in a lot of cases, most of his job consists of trying to get athletes to understand how reality works - he can get a person into a more optimal position on the bike, but he can't guarantee him or her instant returns on speed. If anything, it can take time to adjust to changes in position, so initial gains will be minimal or nonexistent. Longer-term gains, however, will be in the right direction - the direction of avoiding repetitive use injuries and developing good biomechanical power on the bicycle. I also think my mom might have an interesting time talking to him (that reminds me, mom, next time I'm in town, I'd be happy to have you do a gait analysis on me).
Fortunately, both J and I have pretty good perspective on that subject, so T didn't have to convince us on that front - he just had to evaluate us and talk to us about the adjustments we needed (J even more so than myself).
My friends in Arizona encouraged me for a long, long time to go in for a bike fit, but I never did while I was there. I think I understood their reasons for encouragement at the time, but I was under so many different pressures on so many different fronts (including financial pressures) that it was just never high enough on the list of priorities. At this point, though, going in for the fit was a validating experience. I'm still doing things with the goal of preparing myself for another good run at Paris-Brest-Paris, and I feel like I've been making a lot of positive strides in that direction over the past couple of years.
It's challenging, though - I've also started reading a book on training for long-distance cycling, and there's a part of me that's still resistant to the notion of training for bike rides because I always also want to train for rowing, and the two activities are compatible, but only up to a point. I'm mostly hoping the book will give me better perspective to work from, overall. If the book could just make the Texas summers more bearable, that would be a huge start. We've got an overnight brevet coming up in the middle of July, but other than that I don't feel particularly motivated to go out for long bike rides when it's this humid and hot.
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Bike Fit Discussion
Date: 2014-07-01 01:51 am (UTC)Interesting points as I'm ordering new bike and getting ready for fitting prior to signing off on order. Motivates me to get a quality, independent bike fit instead of a cheap substitute; the challenge is finding an excellent fitter!
I think your overnight bike ride is the only solution for Texas humidity & heat, having lived in south Texas at one time. You're just being smart and protective of yourself by avoiding dangerous combo of heat & humidity. Lots of rescues here in southern Arizona this summer of hikers, etc., claimed by heat. Jim Duncan
Re: Bike Fit Discussion
Date: 2014-07-01 03:25 pm (UTC)When we were training for PBP 2011 in Arizona over the summer, we would do a lot of midnight century rides on Friday nights - start out at about 7:30 or 8 pm, ride north through Scottsdale and up to Fountain Hills, get home between 5 and 6 am, and sleep. The only thing was, on one of those rides I vividly remember checking a bank sign in Fountain Hills and seeing that it was still 92 degrees out there at 2 am. The trouble with Texas is that it isn't *quite* as bad as Arizona, which makes it tempting to try riding during the day, even though riding during the day for extended periods is still a bad idea.
Re: Bike Fit Discussion
Date: 2014-07-01 04:23 pm (UTC)I was in Tempe twice this month but didn't get to bike or ride on the Canal. Phoenix area (about 1,200 feet above sea level) really does not cool off overnight as you noted whereas here north of Tucson (about 2,800 feet above sea level), it gets into the seventies overnight, a considerable difference.
Jim Duncan
Re: Bike Fit Discussion
Date: 2014-07-01 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-01 05:33 am (UTC)We did a couple of bike fittings for my ex-girlfriend, and they did help, especially insofar as we went in there saying "we want her to fit the bike she already has, by changing stem, seat, handlebars" so there wasn't ever any question of buying a whole new bike from them.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-01 03:21 pm (UTC)I'm somewhat hesitant to get as twitchy as the book recommends about certain things (detailed training log, et cetera), although I can appreciate why it encourages those things.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 03:25 pm (UTC)-Get a heart rate monitor
-Keep a training log
-Make sure your bike is properly adjusted
But maybe I'll learn more in later chapters. It's making me appreciate two other books a bit more - the training book written for Concept2 indoor rowing machines, and Bike for Life. That said...it's still fairly fun to read and clearly written.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-03 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-04 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-05 05:22 am (UTC)