IMFIT.ca Athletic Performance Studio

on the white stuff...

2012-01-12T12:09:00.000-05:00

Hello everybody! Welcome to 2012, and welcome to my first new post of the new year. I hope everyone had a great holiday season full of friends, family, good food and of course excellent training.

Mine was full of all those things save the last one. And decidedly a little too full of the good food part judging by the scale this week! And that is what I would like to talk to you about today. The effects that certain foods had on my body and more importantly my emotional well being over the last couple of weeks.

Those of you who know me know that I preach (and try to live by) a relatively wheat and sugar free lifestyle. I'm not a fan of processed foods and I'm happy to say that for the last 4-5 years I've been quite comfortably in the 80% good-20% not so good range with my nutrition. As a result my weight has been very stable regardless of the level of training intensity or volume and my overall well being has been fairly good as well. That all changed over the course of a few weeks this December.

I'm not entirely sure what happened but as the holidays approached I started eating more and more sugary, starchy, processed foods. With my fiance being a teacher there ended up being a lot more chocolate and cookies and the like around the house as she kept bringing stuff home that her kids had given her. This is also the first year in quite some time that I've had to do the multiple family/multiple Christmas dinner thing, and each one came with it's share of heavy foods, sugary desserts and more alcohol than I'm used to. I'm certainly not blaming anybody but myself for this. It was my own willpower that gave in, my own choice to go for the cookie or brownie instead of the apple and almonds. And that really was it, my willpower vanished. I found myself grazing on cookies and sweets that were in the house all day long most days. I wasn't particularly hungry or in need of the calories but I found myself going for them all the same. I even found myself wondering why I was eating said cookie as I was eating it. I'd have this little conversation in my head..."oh look, cookie! hmm, I'm not really hungry, but it tastes really good, but I just had one a few minutes ago, and ya it was really good..." etcetera, etcetera. And usually the conversation would end when the cookie had been devoured. Oops!

All this was taking its toll. Over the course of the month I'd managed to pack on a very unwanted eight pounds. First time I've put on weight of any significance in a few years. Hmmmm, not good. Reality check number one!

Then something really odd happened. It's like my body hit a breaking point. We were having a big feast on New Year's day at the in-laws. Turkey, stuffing, all the goodies. I had a glass of wine and some chocolate as an appetizer and when I got up from the dinner table I instantly felt very light headed and just overall "off". I shook it off, hoping to sleep it off but the feeling persisted the next day. At that point something else switched in me as well. I stopped craving the sweet things and really started craving salads and veggies and fruits and nuts. I needed healthy, real, unprocessed food, and I needed plenty of it. That whole week after New Years was a clean week for me, but I still felt like crap. Zero energy, no interest in working out, rock climbing, didn't even want to be bothered walking the dog. All I wanted to do was sleep and flake on the couch. Fortunately I was quite busy with clients that week or I may have not left the living room! I did try to go climbing a couple of times and both times were epic fails. I had nothing and no motivation to even try.

All of that is very much not the usual me. I love climbing, I love being active and I love taking Charlie out for walks. I hate just loafing around feeling sorry for myself and yet for a whole week there I was, doing just that. Reality check number 2!

So what happened? I'm no doctor but my best guess is that in the span of a month I managed to create an addiction to sugary foods, overdose, detox and deal with the withdrawal effects. Quite the month!

Looking back though, it had to be an addiction. Look at my behaviour. Eating things I didn't need and more importantly, intellectually didn't want. My brain knew I didn't need the 5th cookie of the day but my emotional needs over-rode my rational thoughts. I knew what I was doing was bad and I was doing it anyway, with no real thought to stopping it. And it appears that the only thing that stopped me so quickly was the light headed, woozy feeling after that New Years Day dinner. That was my tipping point. The point where my rational brain was able to take charge and say "hey dumb-ass! This isn't good for you so cut it out!"

And cut it out I did. I went mostly cold turkey that first week. I think I may have dipped into the cookie jar so to speak once or twice later in the week just to get me through a couple of really low lows, but since then I haven't really looked back. I'm back to climbing, back to enjoying walkies, and started into a fairly aggressive training regimen to get myself back to my good weight and over time find myself a new, better weight. I have some goals and focus for my training now. Very important ones that will help keep not only my training, but also my nutrition on track.

There is plenty of data and research out there that shows how the body can become addicted to sugar and to high glycemic carbohydrates in general. The insulin response, the change in brain chemistry, the "sugar high" followed by the sugar crash.The bargaining we do with ourselves and others to justify our consumption of such foods. It's funny actually. I can suggest cutting out a lot of things without much push back from clients, but when I suggest cutting out the sugary, starchy foods (breads, pasta's, sweets) that's when the justifications start. We can all agree that sugar isn't a drug but it can certainly have the same effect on the mind, the body and the soul. In all my years, I've never experienced anything like that and I certainly don't plan on it again.

So, back to eating clean, healthy and real for this guy. And hopefully my little brush with the sugar addiction will inspire a few of you to at least cut back if not cut out the processed side of the food chain.

If you are so inspired and all of this is new to you, check out the following books for ideas, tips, reasons and recipes.

The Thrive Diet
Wheat Belly
The Paleo Diet

As always, thanks for reading. Happy training and happy eating!

A little IMFIT Kitchen recipe

2011-11-24T18:15:00.001-05:00

Roasted Chicken with Quinoa stuffing and goat cheese mashed potatoes...
Ok, this one is so good it requires the full recipe. It's pretty simple but does require some prep and the instructions are a little too detailed to post on my FB page.

Quinoa stuffing:

pre-cook the quinoa at your convenience. Here at home we almost always have a container of cooked on the go in the fridge. You'll need about a cup to a cup and a half depending on the size of your bird.
soak quinoa in apple cider for 5-6hrs so it soaks up the moisture and flavour. Use enough cider to completely cover the quinoa in the bowl.
drain remaining liquid off and save for the roasting pan
add raisins and crushed walnuts
stuff bird and place any remaining stuffing in a small dish to heat and serve

The Bird:

rub olive oil generously all over bird prior to stuffing and placing in the pan.
once in the pan pour left over cider from soaked quinoa into the bottom of the pan and add enough fresh cider to cover the bottom of the pan entirely.
tent with tin foil and roast at 375 till done. Usually 1.5-2hrs depending on weight

The Potato:

boil potatoes till soft. I like to use red potatoes and leave the skin on. This is where a lot of the goodness is hiding.
drain liquid, add a splash or two of almond milk and about half a small package of goats cheese and mash

There you have it. A super tasty and pretty darn healthy chicken dinner. Prep time on this isn't really that long if you have the quinoa ready to go already. You just have to plan far enough ahead to get it soaking early enough. I think it took me all of about 10min to actually make the stuffing and get the bird in the oven. Hardly missed any of the football game!

Bon appetit!

Let's Make it a Merry Christmas 2011

2011-11-24T10:18:00.001-05:00

Good morning!
Today is one of my favourite days of the year...US Thanksgiving! A full day of mid week football and it really kicks off the holiday season in earnest north and south of the border. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to call out to all of you in the IMFIT community to help out with my Annual Christmas Family Adoption that I do here through IMFIT.

Last year was a great success thanks to many of you out there in my little community and I'm back at it this year hoping to make it an even bigger success with a bigger community. Help me help make a family's Christmas a little more merry this year. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, I adopt a needy family in the Halton Region each Christmas, contribute a chunk of my own cash and reach out to friends and clients to donate whatever amount they can to go towards helping fulfill the list that Halton CAS has provided me.

This year's family is a single mom with 2 boys, aged 8 and 15 months. Every year that I do this, the simplicity of the list is what gets me the most.

Mom: Gift Cards for some clothes and a hair salon (mom's never ask for much)
8yr old boy: clothes, socks, Star Wars Lego (I love that Star Wars is still cool)
15 months: clothes, socks, teething rings, puzzles, colouring books.

In this day of techie this, glitzy that, LCD 3D, Ipod, Wii etc...we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us to buy all these big, bright toys to have the perfect Christmas. I mean, A Lexus for Christmas...really?! The media, corporations and marketing whiz-kids have done an excellent job of blurring the lines between what we want, and what we really need. I don't know about you, but when I see a list like the one above, it makes me to stock of what I need.

I've had to do a lot of that in the recent past having been on my own and taking care of my dog. My discretionary income wasn't what it had been in the past. Sure I'd love a new 42" LCD TV, but I don't need one. Heck, I didn't even have cable, I was happy with four or five channels free over the air waves, so why bother with the fancy TV? LOL Even now that I'm in an awesome relationship with a great woman and we are both living fairly comfortably, neither of us really need any of the stuff TV and radio is telling us we need right now.

This want vs need issue is why I do this every Christmas. Personally, I don't need anything other than food on the table, a roof over my head a great woman at my side and a healthy dog at my feet. I have all those things, and have no problem providing them for myself. Those in my family circle, and friends circle are all in the same situation. They have everything they need, and don't want for anything discretionary. I would rather put my Christmas dollars towards people who need things, and are having a hard time providing for those needs on their own. And, I'm hoping enough of you out there will feel the same and join me in helping this family have a happy Christmas.

If you are interested in helping out you can either donate cash to my shopping fund, or choose an item on the list and drop it off to me. Either way, drop me a line and let me know if you're in.

Thanks for reading, and have a Happy Holiday!

The IMFIT Kitchen

2011-11-23T12:04:00.001-05:00

Greetings! As usual it's been a long time between posts for me. With the addition of our new four legged mascot Charlie a little over a month ago I've been finding it hard to set aside the time to commit my thoughts to page. But, we all seem to be into a nice little routine now, so here I am.
And as a nice little segue, I want to talk a little about finding time for the things that are important for our health, happiness and performance.

I've been wanting to do something along the lines of the IMFIT Kitchen for awhile now and finally got motivated to get it started after seeing a Facebook post from one of my "friends". She was both congratulating and mocking herself for actually having had the time to cook a real meal with real food for herself and her two kids. It bothered me, this should not be news. Cooking, preparing and consuming real foods should not be a milestone in someone's life. Especially someone who makes a living promoting a healthy lifestyle as this person does.

Sadly it's not the first time I've heard this though. I think we as a society have been tricked by some very slick marketing from the fast food and packaged food industries into believing that we don't have the time in our day to prepare and consume healthy, real food. One of my goals with the IMFIT Kitchen is to show that it can be done, and it can be done on a tight "time budget".

It's true that I now have the luxury of working primarily from home which does allow me more time than most to prepare healthy meals, but that wasn't always the case. Last year at this time I was living on my own with my dog, working a full time job that started at 8:30 in the morning and ended at 4:30, with a 45min commute on either end. After getting home I would typically have to feed and walk the dog, feed myself and then head back out to see a client or work one of the part time evening jobs I was holding then. And I would say that at least 80% of the time, I ate real food cooked and prepared by me and packed healthy, real food lunches and snacks to have while at work.

As the IMFIT Kitchen progresses I hope not only to share what I'm eating, but how I'm preparing and how long that preparation takes. I'll be doing this with a mix of written FB and Twitter posts and some video blog of actual preparation as time goes on. (As a side note, anybody have a used Go-Pro camera they want to unload? I'm looking for something hands free to aid in the video department.)

For the athletically inclined who are reading this, you know that food is fuel. What you eat has a direct impact on how you feel, how you sleep and how you perform in training and racing. I think those sound like pretty good reasons for making real food a priority in your daily and weekly timeline.

My other purpose with the IMFIT Kitchen is to answer in detail over time a question that I get from many of my clients..."what should I eat?" or the similar "what do you eat?" Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect. Far from it. I try to live by the 80-20 rule every week. 80% good and 20% "bad". I'm a firm believer in balance and the 80-20 rule has served me fairly well. It's when I allow that to slip to more of a 60-40 rule that I end up in trouble! There are plenty of healthy, real food options out there and quite a few that I still think the masses haven't really caught on to or just don't know what to do with. My aim is to hopefully catch you on to some new things and maybe some new ways of preparing some old things in healthy and delicious ways. I'm also hoping to break through the confusion of all the different diet labels that are floating around out there. Paleo, vegan, vegetarian, Zone, Paleo-Zone...blah, blah, blah. Why does what we eat have to have a label in order to make sense? Simply eat real foods, organic when and where possible, local when and where possible and stay away from the stuff you know doesn't agree with you. Now, if I could just come up with a label for that I could make a million dollars with a book! LOL

Seriously though, eating well doesn't have to take exorbitant amounts of time, thought and energy. And what little extra time it may take could very well be added back to you in both quality and quantity of life down the road. It's your body and your life. You've only got one. Don't put better fuel into your car than you do into yourself and your children.

So stay tuned for more from the IMFIT Kitchen and if you have any recipes or ideas you'd like to share please feel free to post them on my FB page.

A little more on Fit and Posture

2011-09-24T13:17:00.000-04:00

Time for another bike fit post, this time inspired by something I saw at Interbike this year.
For those of you who have been following me for awhile, you know that a huge part of my philosophy towards bike fit revolves around rider posture and biomechanics. For those of you are new here, check out this post in particular as it relates directly to what I'm talking about today...
http://imfit-youniquecycles.blogspot.com/2009/09/rider-posture-as-it-relates-to-bike-fit.html

I spend a lot of time working with my fit clients on how to achieve the posture that I talk about in the above blog. However, every now and then I come across a cyclist who lacks either the body awareness or natural range of motion to properly adopt the correct pelvic rotation to flatten out the back.

Enter the video below.

I'll admit, when I first saw this I quickly passed it off as another gimmick to artificially improve power output and speed and didn't see much of a practical use on the road. And I certainly didn't see this ever gaining UCI or ITU/WTC approval for competitive use.

While I was walking around though my brain started to properly wrap itself around what this mechanical aid could really do. It's all about muscle memory. This little gadget is perfect for those who can't quite get the proper pelvic tilt on their own. Strapping in to this contraption forces the pelvis and lower back into the optimal position and requires very little effort on the part of the rider to maintain it. From a bike fit perspective, this could become an invaluable tool for me to help explain and demonstrate the benefits of proper pelvic tilt. For at home use, those who need posture improvement can use this on the trainer a few days a week to help create the muscle memory and positional inputs that they can then carry out to the road. I'm sure that after spending enough time locked into the correct position and pelvic tilt, the cyclist will easily be able to feel the "wrong" position out on the road and make corrections based on physical cues and power feedback.

I'm definitely bringing one of these into the studio in the near future to assist with my bike fit protocols and I'm also considering retailing them on a small scale basis for those who need a little help to get their posture dialed in. Once I have one in house I'll be offering up demo's for any who are interested.

Interbike Day 1...26" or 29"? That is the question...or is it?

2011-09-13T19:21:00.000-04:00

Well, a great first day down here in super sunny Las Vegas. The organizers had everything running very smoothly this morning and the buses out to Bootleg Canyon were right on time. What a great day to spend outdoors ripping up some trail on some truly sweet rides.

I've been getting a lot of questions in the last few years about whether to go 26" or 29" with new mountain bike purchases. And while it's easy to understand the intellectual/theoretical answer to this question, it's another thing entirely to feel how that theory actually plays out on the trail.

If you pop over to my Youtube channel you can see a short video diary of each of my rides...how they felt, handled etc. This blog is an attempt to put all that into perspective.

I didn't bother testing any 26" hardtails as that's what I ride now and have a pretty good idea of what that feels like. My first ride was a 26" full suspension to get a baseline for how that handles/tracks on the trail. From there I rode a variety of 29" hardtails and finally a couple of 29" full suspension XC bikes.

Overall, the 29" wheels made a huge difference. I was amazed at the acceleration they all provided...two or three pushes on the pedal and the bikes just take off, on flats or climbs. And they pick up speed far quicker than do the 26" wheels on smooth descents. There is a little 2-3% downhill heading back to the expo area and every time I was heading back on a different bike I was amazed at how quickly they picked up speed on such a minor grade. And climbing...wow. Especially technical climbs. There is a steep section on one of the trails here with a 21/2-3 foot high vertical step up right in the middle of the climb. On the 26" bike I totally bypassed it, it just didn't look doable. On the 29" I felt taller on the bike, higher up over obstacles so felt more confident in going up and over this step. Every one of them handled it no problem. Each time as I crested the step I would tense up, expecting to feel the BB or pedal knock against the lip, and every time I was wrong. The taller BB stance on the 29" wheel platform really does allow for amazing clearance over obstacles, which in turn inspires a great deal of confidence.

The one "issue" I did have was back wheel bounce on a few of the hardtails. As I mentioned on the video's, the Felt was one of the better hardtail versions, and looking at the geometry of the different bikes I rode I think it has to do with the geometry. They build a steeper head tube and seat tube angle than all the others out there and this geometry just felt right to me. Aggressive, centre of mass displacement felt balanced over the BB, able to put power down to the pedals with minimal shifting in the saddle to compensate for changing grades in terrain. One spot that really drove home the geometry difference was a little down and up on the course. Nice steep down right into an equally steep up. If you carried speed through the down you didn't have to pedal much to get back up. On the slacker geometries though, I felt myself getting "thrown off" the back of the bike as it transitioned from down to up. You know how you are supposed to get your butt back off the saddle, upper body down low, weight back on a steep downhill? I was doing that no problem on all the bikes, but the transition back to a more forward position was harder to make on the slacker bikes. On every one of them I felt like the inertia was trying to keep me back as the bike started to go back up, and on the Giant it actually threw me further back off the saddle before I was able to move forward. Not so on the Felt. I was able to move forward very easily and naturally on all terrain. I have a feeling this is a bit of a personal thing, a slacker geometry may suit some others riding styles better, but for me steeper is the way to go. I also found the steeper geometry of the Felt helped to keep the back wheel in contact with the ground more often than not. I didn't have the same "kicked around" feeling that I got from the other hardtails.

Now, rear wheel contact is hugely important, especially if you are racing. I had a good talk with the Fox suspension guys about this-and let me interject here and give huge props to these guys for being set up on trail to do proper suspension dial ins. It made a huge difference to the ride of every bike. And they were giving away free t shirts just for letting them set you up. Gotta love the mountain biker mentality!-anyway, where was I? Ah yes, traction. The Fox guy said that traction is the only reason he has a job. That is the primary job of their suspension systems, even though most people don't realize it. Suspension is designed to smooth the ride out but the comfort aspect of that is secondary to that smoothness allowing both wheels to stay in contact with the ground at all times. And not only stay in contact, but stay in contact with enough force/weight to maintain traction. Every time your wheel comes out of contact with the ground you are losing speed. And that loss of speed equates to an increase in watts required to maintain speed as you are constantly working to compensate for the little losses when getting tossed around. And as any of you who have spun out on a climb know, a loss of traction can at worst stop you dead, at best make you work far harder just to keep yourself moving. Suspension is designed in order to minimize all those losses of speed and save you valuable watts over the course of a race.

Enter the 29" full suspension XC bike. I got to ride the Ellsworth and Giant options. I would have liked more but there weren't too many on offer, and those that were seemed to always be out on rides.
Truly, this is where 29" is at it's best in my opinion. I had the acceleration and climbing efficiency that the 29" wheel provides and the traction and control of a full suspension. I was faster on my little test course on both these bikes vs the hardtails because I was more in control throughout. I was more confident in my technical riding with the combination of the bigger wheels and the full suspension and was able to stay off the brakes more and just let the bikes roll over anything and everything the trail had. You'll note from my videos that the Ellsworth felt better to me than did the Giant, and after getting home and looking at the geometry specs I know why. The Ellsworth is steeper, a little steeper even than the Felt hardtail I liked so much. The Giant is very slack, I felt like I was on more of a free ride bike. The handlebars felt too high in relation to the saddle, and I felt way too far back behind the BB. The Ellsworth was super aggressive and very easy to handle. Hands down, if I were ever going to get a new bike I think that would be the one for me.

So, as I mentioned at the start I get a lot of questions about whether to purchase a 26" or a 29" bike. I don't think that is the right question. To me, clearly the 29" wheel is the way to go at this point in the evolution of the mountain bike. The real question is whether to go hardtail or full suspension. In my opinion when considering the traction issue full suspension seems to come out on top. I realize that the hardtail comes in lighter and for certain courses and certain riders this may be more important. But I think for the majority of Sport level riders and even "happy to be middle of the pack" Experts, a full suspension offers more in terms of handling confidence than what it loses by being a couple of pounds heavier.

Next up, the battle of the aero bikes.

Ironman Mont Tremblant Preview

2011-08-19T15:16:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Mont Tremblant to check out the new IM course in prep for next year's inaugural race.I have to say it looks like it's going to be a great day for both racers and spectators. The course is centred around the Village at Tremblant and is set up as a double out and back that brings the racers through the village four times on the bike and twice on the run. The village itself will provide plenty of distraction for family and friends while they await the next pass of loved ones and I'm sure seeing those friends and family so often during the race will keep competitors in high spirits all day.

SWIM

The lake looks beautiful. Clear water, and there doesn't appear to be much in the way of vegetation growth. It's a pretty straight forward, single loop swim. You start at the beach (see link to video) swim out past the point, across and then back in to a separate finishing area that leads directly to transition. You will have a very short, maybe 500m run from the water exit to the transition zone. My only concern right now is that the parking lot being used for transition is currently crushed gravel and dirt. I'm hoping they are able to pave it between now and race day or have plenty of carpet to lay down for bare swimmer's feet!

BIKE

The bike course is stunning as well. Plenty of scenery all along the route...

The bike course is a double out and back that loops through the transition area multiple times. You start by heading south away from town on a fairly flat to rolling road that is a slight net downhill on the way out. A great way to get your legs underneath you. Then you head east-ish on the 117 which takes you up and over a couple of very nice 5-6% grade steady climbs. These are not difficult. Even for my current lack of fitness and less than ideal gearing I was able to spin through these hills both coming and going. With targeted fitness and proper gear selection these hills won't cause any problems as long as you pace them intelligently. After the climbing you are on an awesome flat stretch through a farming valley before turning around and revisiting everything you just did on your back to transition. From there you head away from transition again, this time in a north-northwest direction. This is where things get interesting. There is plenty of climbing here and they are much steeper and more difficult than the earlier hills. If you don't pace properly through here you are going to do yourself a lot of damage for later in the day. This section requires a healthy dose of pragmatism and very smart gear selections. This road takes you up and over a series of climbs before dropping back down to the turnaround, at which point you back track, taking yourself back over all the climbing you just came down from! Once back at transition, you repeat the whole thing one more time.
It's not the hardest course I've seen. I think that it's a very fair course with a great rhythm of work and rest. And you really can't go wrong with the scenery.

A couple of notes regarding pre-riding the bike course. The 117 is very much like hwy 11 here in Ontario. It's a 4 lane divided highway with semi-controlled access and a 100km/hr speed limit. The difference is they have paved it with an 8ft wide shoulder in both directions. I wasn't sure I was going to risk riding it when I got there, but I saw other cyclists on it so figured I'd give it a shot. The wide shoulder gives you a pretty good buffer from the traffic, but even when all the way to the right, if a transport went shooting past me I could feel the suck from it's draft pulling me over to the left. Now keep in mind I was on a road bike with a nice long wheel base and relaxed geometry. Things will be a lot different on a tri bike in the aero position. If you aren't sure of your handling skills and are planning on doing some training on the course I strongly recommend refining your handling skills before hitting this section of road.

RUN

This has got to be the best part of the whole thing. The run starts by looping out of transition and right through the heart of the village. You then head out on a short out and back section that has a few super short and super steep hills. They aren't killers, but will definitely test the legs right off the bike. You then head along the lake shore to the small hamlet of Tremblant. This section is rolling and quite enjoyable. And then things get down right awesome!

Rail trail! From the hamlet you are guided onto Le Petit Train Nord. A super awesome, super flat, super soft rail trail that offers a great amount of shade on what could be a very hot day. It's a slight net downhill out and net uphill back, but the grade is barely noticeable. You are on this for about 3-4km before turning around and heading back, retracing your steps to the transition zone to head out for another lap to the finish.

Overall I think this course is going to be challenging but not torturous the way some can be. There will be some fast times from the pro's and the average Age Grouper should have a very enjoyable day out there.

One final note. If you haven't booked your stay yet I recommend you do so soon. An article in the local paper mentioned they had already booked 2000 nights worth of hotel rooms for that week within twelve days of registration opening. Considering that it's already sold out, places to stay are going to be hard to come by soon.

Stay tuned for more on the course as I will be out there a few times for training camps. Speaking of, if you are interested in joining the IMFIT crew for one of the camps, drop me a line. There's always room for another.

Just 'cause you was, doesn't mean you is...

2011-08-03T19:23:00.000-04:00

Greetings and salutations faithful IMFIT followers. I hope everyone has been having an awesome summer so far. I just got back from an awesome week in Lake Placid checking out the Ironman event. Always, always a very inspiring day. I had the chance to put some time in on the bike on some truly amazing and scenic roads. Time that also served to show me just how much bike specific fitness I've lost in the last couple of years spent with a greater focus on my clients fitness than my own. It was at that point that I decided it was truly time to get my own butt back in the kind of shape it used to be. I know how to do it...I've got countless client PB's, podiums and improved test results to show that I've created a training formula that truly works, and that is completely adaptable to each clients needs. Time to put that to work for me!

All I needed was a starting point. That starting point was some Metabolic Testing to figure out what my current heart rate zones are, where my Threshold is and how strong (or not) my aerobic system is.
Well! That was a humbling morning. A little physical history on little 'ol moi. At my peak about four years ago I had a Peak VO2 of 63ml/kg/min. My max heart rate was 198, Anaerobic Threshold was 172 and my Aerobic Endurance Threshold or Aerobic Base was 155 and I was burning 55% fat calories.

Ya. Not any more. Current data as of this past Thursday has me at a Peak VO2 of 36ml/kg/min, peak heart rate of 140, AT of 132 and AeT/AB of 114. In short, I'm couch potato fit! And yes, I'm trying to maintain a sense of humour about this. That's my bike fitness. My run fitness is slightly better. VO2 isn't much better, but my AT is in the 140's and my AB is at 131.

I am not the man I used to be. But here's the thing. Because I spent so long training at those levels back in the day, my body and my brain are both conditioned to feel that effort level. My brain especially is conditioned to look down at my heart rate monitor and see certain numbers and that is part of my problem. Up until I tested myself last week, I had been riding and running to feel. Problem is, that feel was all wrong. I know now (and new deep down at the time) that I was pushing too hard.

How could I tell? I was too tired after my rides and runs, recovery was taking too long. I was super hungry and craving bad things. I was sore a lot, more sore than I should have been for what I wanted to be doing with my training. And most importantly, I wasn't losing any weight. All of those things add up to tell me as a coach that the training is too intense, too anaerobic in nature. As a coach it's very easy for me to see that in one of my athletes. As the athlete, it's harder to admit that I need to go easier than I used to be able to. But now that I have the cold hard test results staring at me, there's no more denying it. No more doing what I used to do just cause it's what I used to do. My body has changed. My training sweet spot has changed. If I want to see the kind of improvement in myself that I get out of so many of my clients then I have to drop the pride, accept and believe in the results and train smart.

And that's what I've been doing for the past week since doing the testing. Result? I've already dropped two pounds with no change to diet. I'm not as tired after my training sessions, I'm not as hungry through the day and I don't have the cravings post workout that I was getting before.

Believe me, it's tough to spin easy enough around Halton Hills to keep my heart rate under 120. Really hard. I'm spending a lot of time doing loops around the neighbourhoods to avoid the bigger hills right now. It is incredibly humbling but I have a goal and I have a plan to get there. I don't want to waste any time in getting there either so I've made the same commitment to my training that I ask of my clients. Don't waste any time. No garbage miles. I've got the results, I know where my sweet spots are. I know that every minute I spend going easy right now will equal awesome minutes going hard in a few months time. I just need patience and focus right now.

I'll be testing every four weeks or so for the next few months as I expect my body will respond quickly to the proper training and I don't want to waste any time with fitness plateaus. As I continue following up on my fitness I will continue to post here to let you all know how it's going.

As always, thanks for reading and happy training!

The Gym

2011-06-29T19:25:00.000-04:00

Hey all,
Back again for some more musing on all things sport.

A couple of random but connected scenario's have combined over the last couple of weeks to make this blog topic a necessity for me to get off my chest.

It started with a tweet from one of my clients, asking me what I thought of the gyms in our area, and if I had any recommendations for where to go. My first (and slightly tongue in cheek) response was his basement with some smart equipment choices and me as his guide. :) My follow up to that was a quick rundown of the usual player's in most towns-as I don't have anything good to say about any of them I'll leave them nameless. I'm pretty sure you know who I mean.

Today, I had the pleasure of being the "test dummy" for one of my clients as they attempted the practical exam for a national personal trainer certification. Again, not much nice to say, so names shall remain quiet, but I think you know who I mean.

I've been through this same cert myself, and found it to be very basic, highly generic and of minimal use to me with my clients. At the time it really struck me as nothing more than a cash grab, and as a recruitment venue for one of the national gym chains, who coincidentally happens to run most of the certs!

After today, my opinion hasn't changed much. The focus of this course is on muscle isolation, using machines and a few free weights, separating cardio from strength and treating everyone the same. I've never been a fan, and am much more interested in functional, real world type training that gets the body moving in varying ranges of motion across multiple joints. Crossfit style functional training is really where it's at as far as I'm concerned.

It seems that this particular national chain agrees. While I was there, being put through my cardio on the bike, chest press, bicep curl, tricep extension, squat and lat pull down, I'm watching the trainer's there working with clients, putting them through Crossfit style, functional workouts! Kettlebells being flung around, boxes being jumped on, double unders....I mentioned this to one of the trainer's who agreed. None of the trainers use the machines, or what they learned in the certification. They all utilize a Crossfit style, functional, varied intensity workout plan.

Interesting.

Which brings me back to home gym vs big box gym.

I've never understood why people get into a car, drive to a gym, go inside and get on a bike, a treadmill or a stair climber. I've never actually understood why these things even exist. With the exception of a really bad weather day, there is no excuse for not getting your cardio activity through outdoor, real world means.

The carbon foot print of big box gyms really bugs me too. Besides all the cars being driven to get to them, the electricity drain for all those cardio machines adds up, not to mention those buildings are way too big and open and in the summer time kept way too cold. The equipment itself is heavy and bulky to ship, and a waste of natural resources from it's manufacture to it's delivery. And don't even get me started on the cost. Initiation fees, mandatory assessments, monthly dues, the never ending sales pitch for a personal trainer...it adds up and it adds up quick.

One of the great, and often overlooked things about Crossfit is that it was originally designed to be simple enough to work as an at home garage gym. Equipment is minimal, as is space required. You need a 10x10 to 12x12 square with enough ceiling height to throw a bar over your head and not end up through the ceiling!
You can get started with as little as a couple of kettlebells at different weights, a medicine ball, a plyometric box and a skipping rope. Ideally, you complement that with an Olympic bar and plates, and a sturdy squat rack. That's it! For less than the annual cost of some gym memberships, you have your very own, super awesome functional strength and conditioning set up in your very own home. Add to that the odd visit to the track, or a local run of stairs and you can whip yourself into great shape.

Another awesome thing about Crossfit and other similar styles, all the info is out there for free. I say this with a certain amount of trepidation as it does kind of make my own personal training services moot, but it's all there at your fingertips. Crossfit.com posts a daily workout for you to follow at home. Every Crossfit affiliate also posts their own workouts on their websites daily. There's Crossfit Football for those who want to bulk up, and a Navy Seal workout posted every day for those who just a little bit nutty!

Not sure what Grace is? How to do a hang power clean? Head over to Youtube, type the movement into the search box and voila! A hundred different ego-centric individuals posting themselves online doing crazy things for all the world to see!

Back in the day, the majority of us had jobs that involved a fair amount of manual labour. We gained our fitness through our work, both at our jobs and at home. The mechanization of many processes, and the technological advancements of the industrial revolution have taken that functional "work" out of our lives, giving rise to the industry of physical fitness.

Get back some of the simplicity, keep a bunch of money in your pocket and reduce your carbon footprint just a bit. Before you join that shiny new big box down the road, take a step back and think simple. Just for a minute.

GTA, so pick up is always an option. And don't be afraid to build some of it yourself. A plyo box isn't that hard to put together.

As always, thanks for reading and happy training!

On Group Training and why I'm not a fan

2011-06-22T12:40:00.000-04:00

I just finished up a metabolic test with a client this morning and during the session came across a frequently recurring theme that goes a little something like this...."I ride with a bunch of friends every weekend and I seem to always be maxing out just to keep up with them. What do I do?"

Well, my simple answer is, STOP RIDING WITH THEM! :)

And here's why. With this particular client and most who come to me with this problem, the metabolic testing showed a low level of aerobic fitness and a high level of anaerobic fitness. Very poor fat metabolism, peaking out at a very low heart rate in relation to Anaerobic Threshold with a lot of time spent near or at virtual oxygen debt. This type of fitness is typical of the "too hard, too often" method of training and in the long run is not going to get you very far. In fact if continued, spending too much time at or near your AT too often in your training cycle will end up reducing your overall fitness level, and therefore your speed on the road. As with most people in this situation, he was very close to heading down the dangerous road of "I'm getting slower so I just need to train faster"...but fortunately he came to me just before he took himself too far.
In order to get faster and fitter in the long run, he needs to pull things back, take himself out of the group atmosphere for awhile and do what his body needs for optimal fitness and performance. And in this particular case that means a month or so of moderate to easy spinning at a low heart rate to build aerobic base fitness, improve fat metabolism and increase his Aerobic Endurance Threshold so that he can go faster for longer and eventually rejoin his group with a fitness level that will allow him to maintain pace at far less of a metabolic cost.

All this brings me to why I'm not a fan of group rides. On any given day, you take a group of 30 cyclists and every one of them is going to be at a different fitness level and a different stage in their training cycle with a different focus. Even if all 30 cyclists are training for exactly the same A race, unless they are all clones, fitness levels, heart rate zones and required intensities are going to vary widely.

So, you take these 30 cyclists and tell them all to go out on a 2hr group ride over rolling terrain, and tell them to stay together the whole time...what happens? Some of them are going to be going too fast, some of them are going to push too hard on the hills to keep up, some are going to be going too slow, and a few may just get it all right.

If we look at their varying fitness levels on a bell curve, perhaps it will help illustrate the point. Visualize a standard bell curve and break it into three equal parts. Taking our 30 cyclists and putting them on this curve, 10 will fall to the left of the peak (too easy), 10 will fall around the peak (just right) and 10 will fall to the right (too hard) which means that out of 30 riders, 20 of them are not going to get an optimal ride for their unique fitness needs on that day. Twenty cyclists are essentially wasting that two hours on the bike, and ten of them are going too hard and potentially doing more harm than good to their current level of fitness.

We live in the age of the "time crunch" and this holds even more true for the typical age group athlete. Between family, work, home and friends it can be tough enough to fit training time in to your week. Why would you take a chance on potentially wasting that time by training at a non-optimal intensity just so you can ride with some friends?

That's not to say that the group experience is completely without benefit. There's no discounting the positive effect that friendly competition and time with friends can have on the enjoyment of a training session. The point I'm hoping to make is that you need to make group training work for you, not against you.

How can you do this? Focus group sessions around interval style training in a smaller, repeatable space. Hill repeats, track work, short tempo intervals all work great for group sessions. Each athlete is able to work and recover at the needed intensity and do the exact amount of work they need for their place in the training cycle, all while enjoying the company of others doing the same. Misery does love company!

If you keep your base/endurance training solo you'll be able to ensure that each minute you spend out there is focused on improving your fitness and performance, which in the long run will only serve to further increase your enjoyment of all the time you spend on your training.

Milton Tri Course Preview

2011-06-03T11:02:00.000-04:00

Greetings and Happy Friday!

Ahh, sunshine, warmth...happy days! I think this is the first time in the last six years where you aren't going to have to worry about how you are going to warm up after getting out of the frigid Kelso water! And yes, it is still quite frigid, but at least the air is going to be warm.

So, the first tri of the season is upon us. Time for coaches take on the course and what you can expect on Sunday.

Swim: Cold! That about sums it up. It's an early start to the season and this spring has been colder and wetter than normal so yes, the water is cold. The swim itself is pretty simple. Pretty much a big square. One thing to watch is the currents if it's a windy day and the wind is coming out of the north-west. At the top of the square the current can be strong enough to push you off course and make you work a lot harder than you should have to stay on track. Pop your head up frequently and stay close to the buoys and you should be ok.

Bike: Lots to watch out for on the bike ride. First is the war zone of potholes exiting transition on your way out of the park. I'm hoping they have them filled in by race day, but as of my pre-ride Wednesday night, they were pretty bad. Second is the speed bump you have to go over to exit the park. Every year I see plenty of water bottles and other things strewn across the road here, ejected from the bump. Make sure everything on your bike is secure, and take the speed bump easy.
It's a pretty easy ride out of the park to Tremaine, a bit of a downhill (this will matter later) and a nice straight shot. Left turn on Tremaine heading north and 90% likelihood of heading into the wind. Wind is one thing to really watch for on this course. It's almost always coming out of the north-west so about half the race will be spent fighting the wind. Keep this in mind for pacing. Don't try to maintain a set speed into a strong wind. You'll kill yourself for the rest of the race. Pace yourself by heartrate and stay in your race zone, or better still, pace with power and stay in proper power band. Let speed be what it will be.
Another left onto 5 Sideroad. Still pretty simple, a bit of a climb but nothing difficult. The difficult comes after the right hand turn onto 6th line. The dreaded 6th line hill. It's actually not that bad...really. Just shift into your easiest gear and spin as much as you can, stay seated for as long as you can. The most important thing to know about this climb is that it's not over where you think it is. From the bottom, you think you can see the top, and yes that is the peak of the main climb, but you need to wrap your head around the fact that 6th line never stops gaining elevation. All the way up to 20 sideroad and your next turn, you are climbing. It's not hard climbing like the main hill, but combined with a head wind it can really suck your energy. As I mentioned before, pace yourself based on power or heart rate zones.Resist the temptation to stand and carry speed through the little climbs or you run the risk of frying your legs for the run. You should be shifting gears a lot on this stretch to keep heart rate and power in check. Don't focus on carrying a pre-determined speed. You'll have plenty of opportunity to make it up on the way back.
Stay patient on this stretch. It's a long haul up 6th to the turn. This is one of those stretches of road where you really need to just find your happy place, settle in and cruise.
Eventually you'll hit 20 side road and make the left, heading west now. Wind will still be a bit of a factor but you are almost to the point where the "free ride" begins. 20 is a little rolling, but nothing of note to worry about.
Another left onto 5th line and this is where the fun begins. Assuming the wind is north-west you'll have a tail wind now, on a slight downhill grade. It's big ring all the way from here and this is where you can really make up your time. 5th line goes by way faster than 6th did, and before you know it another left onto 15 sideroad. Another bit of rolling but fairly simple to deal with. A little S bend and a short climb to the right hand turn back onto 6th. More downhill/tailwind fun! One thing to note, there is one last little climb that you have to tackle before you get to the real fun of the descent back down the big hill.
Be careful on the descent. If the winds are up they can be swirling around here and push you around a bit. Stay within yourself and stay safe.
From here it's pretty simple. Just retrace your steps. Watch for the coned off section from Tremaine onto the park road. They corral you down into a narrow, one bike wide lane at the turn so traffic flow isn't interrupted. It means you can't apex the corner properly and will have to scrub a lot of speed to be safe.
Last thing to watch on the bike course if the road back into the park. Remember at the start how I mentioned it was a downhill out? Keep this in mind, cause it's roughly a 2% grade back up into the park and can be really mentally defeating if you aren't prepared for the extra workload you are going to feel.

Run: Starts with a short steep hill out of transition to a gravel/dirt path that takes you to Appleby Line. Appleby has a nice uphill grade to 5 Sideroad that you probably won't like very much. 5 Sideroad takes you into another park, Hilton Falls. You'll be on trail through here, with some uneven footing so watch your step. A fairly steep trail climb awaits you in the park, then some flat trail as you loop through and then back down another steep, uneven trail (again, watch your footing). From here you retrace your steps back to 5 Sideroad, Appleby Line and back into Kelso Park. The last 1km seems to take forever as you loop around the small hill and come into transition the same way you came in on the bike, but eventually the finish does arrive.

And there you go, your first tri of the season is done!

Hope this helps you visualize the course, and maybe prep for a few things you may not have been ready for otherwise.

Good luck to all who are racing. Have fun and be safe!

Hardwood Pre-Ride

2011-05-31T08:47:00.000-04:00

Good morning!
It's going to be a hot one today, so getting my work out of the way early so I can get out there and enjoy it. :)

I had the pleasure of giving the Canada Cup course at Hardwood Hills a test run this past Sunday with one of my peeps. One apology before I get started. I had hoped to take pics of some key areas to share with you, but it started raining about 5min into the ride and I didn't really feel like drenching my Iphone.

I've got one word for it...relentless. It starts with the typical long double track grind of a climb into the woods (no wood chips this year though!) and then breaks off into the trees for a really nicely flowing mix of single and double track. It really does feel like you are climbing for a good 10-15min though. You get the odd little descent but the course really does seem to climb for ever from the start.

Technically speaking, it's not all that difficult. I haven't done any real trail riding in a couple of years and I had no problem with most everything on the course. I can't speak for the expert course as I only road the sport course, but I had no real issues. Hardwood has always had a great flow in the singletrack and that still holds true for this race.

Two points of interest though. The Rock...if you've ridden the course you know what I'm talking about. You're bombing through the singletrack and come up to this large rock in the trail. You have two choices, ride the rock or go to the left of it. Ride the rock and trust the rock. As you approach it really looks like it's got about a 4ft drop off on the other side and it's not until you are right on top of it that you realize it actually has a really nice roll out down the back side. If you hit the rock just left of center it gives you the perfect line into the left hand turn at the bottom of the little hill. If you go to the left of the rock then you have to work around the rock which leaves you in a really bad position to make the turn at the bottom, which will force you to scrub a lot of speed. First point to remember, don't trust what you see, trust what you know when you roll up to that rock for the first time on race day.

Second point...I'm not sure where exactly this is, but there's a sharp right hand turn that drops you into a steep little down hill full of placed boulders, almost cobblestone like. You have two line choices heading into the turn. Low to the right, or high to the left. From the approach above it really looks like you want to stay low and to the right, until you get to the turn and realize that you've been funnelled right into the outside apex of the turn and have no easy way to get through. Looking back up the trail from the turn, you can see the line is to stay high and to the left which gives you a direct line to the inside of the corner and plenty of space to come around the turn and set yourself up for the rocky descent. If you get a chance to pre-ride this week, give both lines a try and you'll see what I mean.

Beyond that, I didn't really see anything technically demanding. Fitness and climbing legs are going to come in handy. As is a a smart approach.

This course is all about burning matches. When to save them, when to burn them. This holds true right fro the start. You need to know what kind of racer you are and where you "belong" in these races. If you are consistently coming in around the 10th place spot in your AG, then you really have no business trying to hang with the podium guys off the start. Especially at this course. That first climb is long, gruelling and leg sucking. If you get caught racing somebody else's race you will burn way too many matches off the start. Push your own tempo and stay within yourself off the start so that you have the endurance to last the whole race. These are long laps, with a lot of bone jarring. Expend too much energy too soon and you will fall off at towards the end. Better to pace it smart off the start and spend the race reeling in those who went too hard too soon.

Final note, it's looking like it's going to be warmer than we've been used to this spring so keep hydration top of mind. There aren't a lot of great places to grab a drink on this course (remember, relentless) so drink whenever you can to maintain performance.

Ok, now go have an awesome race!

cadence and power

2011-05-27T18:03:00.000-04:00

Me again! Another rainy, cloudy, dull day. I've got a Tim's at my side, laptop in it's place (that would be my lap) and another topic I wanted to put to the screen and that would be the relationship between cadence and power.

I've already talked about this once, so rather than rehash it all, I suggest you go here http://imfit-youniquecycles.blogspot.com/2009/09/importance-of-cadence.html and read the primer before carrying on with the addendum...

All done? Excellent.

Hopefully you walked away from that little read with the understanding that in this coaches view, fast cadence good, slow cadence bad!

I still believe that when it comes to long distance events and race day, but today I want to talk about when slow cadence is good.

I'll presume that we agree that a slow cadence requires more force to be applied to the pedals in order to create a given wattage. While the depletion of muscle glycogen that occurs during this high force application is bad for race day, it can be highly useful when done in small doses during training in order to increase the amount of force your legs are capable of creating.

At some point in any well structured training plan there comes a time when you need to grind it out for short periods or intervals at a maximal force application in order to stimulate the muscles to grow and sustain higher force outputs over longer periods of time. Hill repeats, flat road power sprints, slightly longer time trial type intervals all allow the body to adapt and get stronger. The net result is an increase in the amount of force you can apply to the pedals at a given cadence at no additional cost to heart rate or metabolic efficiency.
If you were putting out 200w at 90rpm, you'll remember that equalled 2.22Nm. If you can increase your sustainable force application by 15% to 2.55Nm that will equal an increase in power to 230w at the same cadence.

So, like the old adage that sometimes you need to walk before you run. Sometimes you need to pedal slow before you can pedal fast.

The mental game

2011-05-26T15:14:00.000-04:00

Good day faithful readers!
Another rainy, cloudy, dull day. Perfect for enjoying a latte and putting some thoughts to screen once again.
I had a most excellent adventure a couple of weekends ago that I wanted to share with you. I was up on the Ottawa River at Wilderness Tours (amazing place btw) for an intro to whitewater clinic and some other fun events.

I've never been in whitewater before. I love paddling both canoe and kayak but I've always been more of a flat/still water kind of guy. I'll readily admit to some apprehension as I've never been much of a fan of being in water based situations where control is taken away from me. Think mass start swims at triathlons. I've always held back at the start and let the horde of flailing arms and legs get a head start on me before putting my face in the water and heading off. The thought of getting tossed into a raging froth was a little overwhelming, but curiosity got the better of my apprehension. That and I've also been very cognizant of confronting and controlling the few fears I do have.
To whit, many of you know that I'm an avid rock climber, but what many of you may not know is that I'm very afraid of open heights. I absolutely hate ladders and open, exposed spaces but I won't allow that fear to control my life. One of the number one reasons why I climb is to constantly confront that fear and condition myself to being in high, potentially precarious places. But I digress (I do that a lot don't I?). More on the heights thing later. For now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
As with all potentially dangerous adventure sports, risk is always minimized through safety equipment, training and back up protocols. This is what I kept telling myself as I donned wetsuit and life vest, grabbed my paddle and jumped in the raft to push off. A little to my dismay my tardiness in getting my life vest on and cinched left me with the front of the raft, not exactly where I wanted to be but that's what I was given.
Things were pretty good to start off, we paddled flat water down the Ottawa for about 20min, getting instruction as we went and getting to know our raft mates as we headed towards the first set of rapids.
It's been a very wet spring and water on the river was very high and very big. As we approached the first rapid, I could slowly start to hear the roar of the whitewater building in my ears, and I would say there was a corresponding increase in my heart rate and adrenalin as that rapid got closer and louder.
And suddenly there it was! A little last minute instruction on commands and direction and in we went and then out we came. Just like that, all of about 10sec and we were through the first rapid. Not so bad, definitely thrilling, very definitely wet! This was fun.
We hit three more sets of rapids, each a little bigger and more complex than the last, each requiring more skill and attention. And then the big one, a class 5 with about a 12ft drop off a shelf into a very large back current wave. I still have no idea how it happened, but as we dropped in I got kicked out of the raft and into the heart of the rapid. Before I knew it I was under water and under the raft. I distinctly remember feeling the raft bouncing along the top of my head while I tried to figure out what happened and how to get myself out of it.
This is where the mental game comes into play. If you've ever been suddenly dunked into incredibly cold water, you'll know that the body's instant reaction is to gasp for air, almost hyperventilating because the cold quite literally takes your breath away. That's all well and good when your head is above water, not so great when you are getting tossed around under water in a raging rapid. It took all my will to keep my airway closed while my lungs tried desperately to get some air into them. At the same time I was flailing around trying to push through the currents and find my way to the surface, but it wasn't really working. More mental game...I realized that I had no way of knowing which end was up and which end was down, and all my swimming and flailing could actually be taking me further down or at the very least keeping me from finding the surface. Kick in the will power again to force my body to relax, stop swimming and kicking and just open up my body to let the life vest do it's job. Presto! The life vest did indeed do it's job when I smartened up and let it. I popped up on the far side of the rapid to find the raft waiting and a paddle reached out to haul me back in.
Piece of cake! Totally freaked me out, but all's well that ends well! What still amazes me is how quickly it all happened. I don't think I was under for more than about 5, maybe 10sec but the range of thoughts that went through my head made it feel like it was minutes. It's incredible to me how quickly the brain can function when it needs to, how quickly you can run through a range of emotions and thoughts, assess them all and make decisions and more importantly trust those decisions!
After that things were fairly easy for awhile, we surfed a rapid for a bit and carried on down the calmer parts of the river. I figured the hard part was over and I could just sit back and enjoy. Wrong!
Our last rapid of the day was not going to involve a raft. As the last part of the clinic, we had to swim a class 3 rapid on our own, trusting in our instruction and our equipment. Queue the elevated heart rate and adrenalin.
We ran it in the raft first to get a look at it. Two distinct parts, a steep 6-8ft drop into a big back current wave, through that and into a series of smaller rapids before shooting out into calmer water.
We had the choice to opt out of this part and believe me, standing on the bank above the rapid, looking at what I had to swim through after already experiencing an unscheduled swim...I was seriously considering opting out. But like I mentioned earlier about my climbing, I prefer to confront my fears and keep them under control. After much thought and some serious focus to put earlier events out of my mind, into the water I went.
And you know what? It was actually pretty fun! Way better than the impromptu swim I took earlier. I felt much more in control, and the drop actually didn't seem nearly as big in the water as it did from the raft. I got back on shore, totally pumped and very pleased I was able to talk myself through the fear and take the plunge so to speak.
The next day was a little more up my alley. A 100ft rappel off a re-purposed construction crane. Even though I'm not a big fan of heights, I really do enjoy rappelling down cliff faces. It's rare that I get the opportunity to do a completely free hanging rappel with nothing to brace my feet against. I was looking forward to the trip down, but not so much the trip up! Remember my dislike of ladders? Guess what the trip up to the top of the crane involved? Yup, a very, very long ladder. And no protection, as in no tie off's to stop a fall. Just the cage built around the ladder and the zig zag design that put you on a platform every 10ft or so. My heart was racing, palms were sweaty. I hated every step up that ladder. I just kept focussed on the space in front of me, not looking up or down, just feeling for the next rung to grasp and step on. I made little goals, not worrying about how far I was from the top, just going from one platform to the next, pausing for a little regroup at each one. After what seemed like an eternity, I was at the top, and the view was totally breathtaking. Definitely worth the trip up. And like I suspected, the trip down was awesome. Another example of putting fear and doubt aside, calming the mind and receiving a wonderful reward for having done so.
Ok, enough story telling! I'm sure you're wondering what the point of all this is, besides me getting to go on about an awesome weekend.
The point is, we have choices in everything we do. Our mind can be our greatest strength or our worst weakness. Time and time again I've been put through experiences that teach me that it is not my body or my physical condition that is holding me back, it is my mind and my belief in myself that determines my success or failure. The same is true for all of us, regardless of what it is we are doing.
But to keep things on topic, let's apply it to racing and training. Let's face it, this has been a seriously crappy spring for getting out on the road or the trails. Sometimes training is less about fun and more about duty to goals and aspirations. When it's still cold in May, or raining on the day of your hill training, it's not your body that's going to keep you inside, it's your state of mind. You can choose to let the elements, your bad day at work or other events in your life keep you away from your training, in effect allowing those things to control you. Or, you can choose to be in control of everything around you, stay focussed on what is important to you and get done the things that you need to. More often than not you will find the greatest rewards come at the end of the training days you didn't want to do.

Bike Fit 201: When Fit meets Function

2011-05-05T11:24:00.000-04:00

Today I’d like to discuss what can happen when fit and function collide.

One of the greatest benefits the Retul 3D Motion Capture System offers is the abilty to see in real time how key points on the body are moving in real time, both vertically and horizontally through the pedal stroke range of motion. Hip movement, knee tracking, and hip rotation/pelvic displacement are all there to be discovered, diagnosed and dealt with.

Take this latest example. I’d been seeing this particular client a few times a year for fit follow ups, all related to a complaint about saddle pain near the hamstring insertion on the left side. After some manual fits, and a few saddle changes, nothing had really changed.

I hooked him up to the Retul and instantly recognized some serious issues with his knee tracking. If you’ll note the far right image below, you’ll see that his left knee is tracking in a highly elliptical manner, indicating a functional issue in the left hip/glute area.

I called in Doc Tim for a consult and he confirmed. Left hip was locked up, and left hamstring was highly bound with a possible minor tear near the ischial tuberosity.

This, by the way, is exactly why I relocated to be working within a chiro/rehab clinic…immediate consult for functional abnormalities, and more importantly, immediate access to treatment and rehabilitation.

With this temporary functional issue in mind, I made adjustments to the fit to accommodate his current range of motion limitations to reduce the lateral and elliptical knee tracking as much as possible while those limitations were being addressed through treatment.

About eight weeks later Doc Tim checked in with me to say that the client in question is well on the way to full functionality and it was probably time to have another look at his fit. The Retul showed exactly what Doc had said. Without making any changes to his fit, knee tracking had improved from 26mm of lateral travel down to 21mm (middle image). After readjusting fit to match his full functionality and range of motion, knee travel was further reduced to 16mm (far left image) and more importantly the elliptical tracking was completely eliminated.

I’ve always believed that fit was a living, breathing entity. It’s evolutionary. That evolution is based on current functionality and range of motion. As those parameters change, so do the fit requirements. Having access to the right tools and diagnostics allows me to track that evolution and keep fit perfectly aligned with function as the body evolves. Having access to the right therapy and rehab allows me to keep the functionality of my clients in line when it starts to slip.

And that, in a nutshell is why my tagline is “We make you better”.

Another happy bike fit

2010-12-08T13:31:00.000-05:00

I had my first crack at fitting the new Trek Speed Concept last week, and was very impressed with the bike and the set up.
This client did things the right way from the start. She came to me at the end of the summer for a Pre-purchase Fit Consult to nail down which size she should be getting. This is a very smart $60 to spend when considering dropping $3000+ on a new ride. eBay is rife with bikes being sold due to a lack of proper homework before buying.
That can turn out to be a very expensive error.
Not so for this happy owner. The bike was the perfect size so the bulk of my time was spent tweaking her position to optimize aerodynamics and power while maintaining comfort. I didn't have to anything funny or weird to "make" this one fit.
From a fitters perspective I was very pleased with how the Speed Concept set up. I was able to lose most of the spacers to get her low, with plenty of room to move the saddle forward to maintain a proper hip angle.
My only complaint with this particular model (it was part of the 7 series) was the aero bar spec. I get the whole Trek/Bontrager marriage thing, but a bike of this caliber deserves a better bar combo.
One word of advice for prospective owners. Get the fit done before the bike is cabled. With all that internal routing, your mechanic will not be very happy if he has to do any of it twice!

Let's make a Merry Christmas

2010-12-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

Hey all,
I seem to start far too many of these this way, but wow! It's been far too long since I've written here.
Not going to dwell on that this time around though. I'll deal with my absence in a future (but not too future) installment.
Today I'd like to talk about the "Mostly Annual" Christmas Family Adoption that I do here through IMFIT.
I say mostly because I took a year off last year while I was busy getting my own, new life back in order.

I'm back at it this year and hoping I can get a few friends and clients help me help make a families Christmas a little more merry this year. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, I adopt a needy family in the Halton Region each Christmas, contribute a chunk of my own cash and reach out to friends and clients to donate $20 to go towards helping fulfill the list that Halton CAS has provided me.

This year's family is a single mom on disability with three kids, aged 12, 5 and 2. Every year that I do this, the simplicity of the list is what gets me the most.

Mom: Baking Sheets, Spa Voucher, Walmart Gift Cards
12 yr old boy: Mattress and box spring for twin bed, socks, zip up hoodies
5yr old boy: Disney Cars, socks, underwear
2yr old girl: bike, dress shoes, socks, warm pyjamas

In this day of techie this, glitzy that, LCD 3D, Ipod, Wii etc...we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us to buy all these big, bright toys to have the perfect Christmas. The media, corporations and marketing whiz-kids have done an excellent job of blurring the lines between what we want, and what we really need. I don't know about you, but when I see a list like the one above, it makes me to stock of what I need.

I've had to do a lot of that lately, now that I'm on my own and taking care of my dog, my discretionary income isn't what it has been in the past. Sure I'd love a new 42" LCD TV, but I don't need one. I've even decided that I don't need cable, and make due with the 3-4 channels I get for free. So why bother with the fancy TV? LOL

This want vs need issue is why I do this every Christmas. Personally, I don't need anything other than food on the table, a roof over my head and a healthy dog at my side. I have all those things, and have no problem providing them for myself. Those in my family circle, and friends circle are all in the same situation. They have everything they need, and don't want for anything discretionary. I would rather put my Christmas dollars towards people who need things, and are having a hard time providing for those needs on their own. And, I'm hoping enough of you out there will feel the same and join me in helping this family have a happy Christmas.

If you are interested in helping out you can either donate cash to my shopping fund, or choose an item on the list and drop it off to me. Either way, drop me a line and let me know if you're in.

Thanks for reading, and have a Happy Holiday!

All Carbon is NOT created equal

2010-02-28T20:43:00.006-05:00

We know this...

is not the same as this...

So why do we think these two

are the same?

I was working with a client on a bike fit the other day, and we got to chatting about frame materials and how they have evolved over the years. The discussion naturally made it’s way around to carbon, and the wide range of quality and price point levels within the carbon market. At this point, my client made a very clever and astute observation. He said that back in the day when steel was the thing, nobody would ever walk into a bike shop and question why a Bianchi or Colnago steel frame cost $1000 more than the steel bike they just saw at Canadian Tire. It was well understood that there were varying degrees of quality, strength and weight when it came to the steel used in bike frames. As things progressed into aluminum, the same distinction between “good” metal and “bad” metal continued. I think this was in large part due to a very good job within the industry of standardizing and monitoring the strength, weight and alloy characteristics of the metals used. It is also interesting to note that in large part, with higher end product you knew exactly where that frame material came from. It was Columbus, Reynolds, Easton, Deda etc…and when one of those names was stamped on the tubes set, you knew you were getting a quality frame, and with a little research you could easily determine the ride characteristics of that particular frame.

So, this begs the question…why isn’t it like this with carbon? Why don’t we know where the carbon comes from? Why is there no industry standard for quality, strength and weight? And most importantly, why are consumers not easily able to understand the differences between a complete bike that costs $2000 and a frame only that costs of $4000?

That last one is a question I get quite frequently as a Guru dealer, who’s frame do tend to rest in the mid to upper end of the price range. And really, considering they are all hand made with a custom lay up for each customer, that price is actually a bargain. But, people still want to know what they are riding on, and I can’t blame them. To Guru’s credit, they have done a good job of being open about what they use and how they use it.
All of the carbon that Guru uses comes from a company called Newport Carbon, http://www.newportad.com/ They are based in the US, and all manufacturing happens in house. They are one of the top suppliers to the US military and aerospace industries. Top notch quality all the way.
With carbon though, it’s not just where it comes from, but how it’s taken from blank sheet and turned into the finished product. Again, Guru has done an excellent job of explaining how and why they do what they do. http://www.gurubikes.com/enCA/tech-focus/matrix-one and a great video done for TV’s How it’s Made… http://www.gurubikes.com/enCA/main.php
Two things that I feel really need to be keyed in on are the carbon to resin ratio, and the bladder molding process. In really basic terms, carbon fiber is just that, a sheet of fibers woven or pressed together. In order to become something, whether it be a hockey stick or a bike, something is needed to bond those fibers into a particular shape. That “something’ is the resin. Resin adds weight to the finished product, and also reduces the stiffness and vibration dampening properties of the carbon. The more resin, the less optimal the carbon will behave. Guru utilizes an industry high 70% fiber/30% resin ratio in all of its frames to maximize the weight, stiffness and ride quality of each bicycle they produce.
The internally pressurized bladder molding process eliminates seams in the frame which results in reduced weight, increased strength and optimized use of the unidirectional fibers. And both of these things cost money. Resin is cheap, raw carbon is not. By using more carbon and less resin, each frame has a higher cost to it automatically. Bladder molding to create seamless components is also a more time consuming and therefore costly process, not to mention the cost of the bladders and molds themselves.

Personally, I think it is fairly safe to say that any manufacturer who isn’t being this open about what they use and how they use it, probably isn’t doing any of the above. And that is where the difference in price and ultimately in ride quality lays. That is why one complete bike can retail for $2000 and another frame only will retail for $4000 or more.

Eventually, I’d like to see a more standardized carbon industry, where it’s as easy to distinguish levels of carbon the way we’ve been able to distinguish levels of steel and aluminum for so many years.

Until that time, as a consumer you are just going to have to do your due diligence and a little research on your own to figure out what it is you are buying. Ask questions. I think that is probably the best and quickest way to bring about the change we need in the industry. If enough people ask the hard questions, eventually the answers will have to come out.

Weight Loss Your Way

2010-01-06T14:37:00.000-05:00

It’s that time of year again. The holidays have come and gone, complete with food, drink, fun and just a wee bit of over indulgence in all three. With that comes the requisite New Years resolutions to lose weight, get fitter, faster, stronger etc. I’m writing today to say beware the get thing quick promises that are floating around out there at this time of year.
Don’t kid yourself, the weight loss industry is big bucks, with an estimated total revenue for 2006 of close to $50 billion dollars. Yup, $50 billion, that’s a lot of zeroes, and unfortunately all those zeroes mean that while a lot of peoples wallets are lighter, their bodies, well maybe not so much.

And here’s the deal. In all honesty, the vast majority of that money really doesn’t need to be spent. I’m going to share a little secret with you, the ultimate secret to weight loss for the vast majority of people, and I’m going to share it with you for free.
The secret to losing weight in a healthy, effective and sustainable manner is…a proper ratio of the right calories in, and the right calories out.

That’s it, in a nutshell. Consume a little less than you expend through exercise and normal day to day activities and the calories will come off. With one little caveat, those calories you take in, and the ones you burn off need to be the right calories. For too long, it was believed in the world of diet and nutrition that a calorie was a calorie and all you needed to do was burn more than you consumed. Thankfully that is starting to change, slowly but sure. If you take the theory that a calorie is a calorie to its extreme, that would be saying that you could eat 1500 calories of chocolate bars and potato chips, and as long as you burn 2000 calories you’ll be ok. Now we all know that a diet of chocolate bars and potato chips isn’t going to do the body any good from a health standpoint…well, hopefully we all know that. And, more importantly, a diet so high in simple sugars and starches is not going to satisfy the body, it will never feel like enough calories, and it will cause the body to store the excess energy as fat. Yup, that’s right, too many carbohydrates, especially those high in simple sugars, means the potential for an excess of body fat.

Here’s the deal…Insulin is released by the pancreas after you eat carbohydrates. This causes a rise in blood sugar. Insulin assures your cells receive some blood sugar necessary for life, and increases glycogen storage.
However, it also drives your body to use more carbohydrate, and less fat, as fuel. And, insulin converts almost half of your dietary carbohydrate to fat for storage. If you want to use more fats for energy, the insulin response must be moderated.
Diets high in refined sugars release more insulin thereby allowing less stored fat to be burned. High insulin levels also suppress two important hormones: glucagon and growth hormone. Glucagon promotes the burning of fat and sugar. Growth hormone is used for muscle development and building new muscle mass.
Insulin also causes hunger. As blood sugar increases following a carbohydrate meal, insulin rises with the eventual result of lower blood sugar. This results in hunger, often only a couple of hours (or less) after the meal.
Cravings, usually for sweets, are frequently part of this cycle, leading you to resort to snacking, often on more carbohydrates. Not eating makes you feel ravenous shaky, moody and ready to "crash." If the problem is chronic, you never get rid of that extra stored fat, and your energy is adversely affected.
So you can see, it really is important to not only to eat the right amount of food, but also the right types of food if you want to lose weight, improve energy and burn off those excess fat stores.
Ok, now you know what to eat, and more importantly what NOT to eat. The next part of the equation is the knowing how much to eat. If you go online there are a variety of resources for calculating your caloric needs based on your age, weight, height and gender. This typically gives you your resting metabolic rate. From there, you factor in your daily activity level based on your work/home life and any exercise you do, and voila! You have your metabolic rate. The problem with this system is that it’s nothing more than an estimate. It doesn’t take into account the efficiency and strength of your body and its engine. Higher lean muscle mass burns more calories, as does a strong, efficient aerobic system. In my personal case, I require close to 500 calories more than my mathematical guesstimate would indicate. Which means that if I were to go by that estimate, and then subtract another 500 calories in order to lose weight, I may in fact put myself into too much of a caloric deficit and enter a starvation mode, which is not a healthy or happy place to be. On the flip side, if your estimate is higher than you actually needs, you may end up thinking you are doing the right thing, but still end up gaining weight because you are eating more than your body truly needs.
How then can you know what your body truly needs? Thankfully there is scientific metabolic testing available to the masses now that can tell you accurately and consistently how many calories your body needs on a daily basis, and how efficient your body is at burning fat for fuel. A Resting Metabolic Assessment consists of a breath gas exchange analysis, which basically measures the amount of oxygen you are consuming and the amount of carbon dioxide you are expelling while at rest, comparing the two and coming up with an accurate, scientifically valid measurement of your own, unique and current caloric needs and where your body is getting it’s fuel from. With that knowledge you can then make the changes to your eating habits, both from a quantity and quality standpoint to improve your energy levels, increase your fat metabolism and lose weight, confident that you are doing exactly what your body requires of you at that particular point in your life.
You can then couple that with an Active Metabolic Assessment to determine your proper training intensity to burn the most total calories and the most total fat calories while you are exercising, whether it be running, walking, cycling or any other mode of cardiovascular training. If you aren’t training at the right intensity, you run the risk of burning too few total calories, or too many of the wrong type of calories. Either way, exercising at the wrong intensity is quite simply a waste of time and effort, and I think we can all agree that life is too busy to be wasting the time you devote to exercise.
So, there you have it. Weight loss really is simple, in spite of what the massive weight loss industry would have you believe. Beware weight loss programs that require you to buy things like supplements and proprietary foods. All you need is to know your body, know its needs and work within them. Eat the right amount of the right types of food, exercise regularly at the right intensity to burn more than you are consuming, and you will see and feel the results.

Biomechanics of Bike Fit, Part 1

2010-01-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

There’s more to bike fit than simply putting a rider into a text book or generally accepted “consensus” position of joint angles on top of a frame. Even if rider comfort is taken into account, this set of joint angle parameters (hip, knee, elbow, shoulder) is only the most rudimentary of starts fitting bike to rider and rider to bike. Simply placing a rider in the correct angles atop a frame is not looking at the whole picture. Sure, it may feel comfortable, but is it optimal for power output, efficiency and handling?

In this article I want to focus on the power and efficiency side of things, and the biomechanics of pedaling that go hand in hand with them.

As upright, bipedal locomotive creatures, we have a great deal of power production capability in our lower limbs. The trick with cycling (which isn’t exactly evolutionarily ingrained in our brains) is applying that power correctly through the cycling range of motion and proper bike fit can have a huge impact on our ability to do so.

One of the biggest impediments I’ve been seeing to proper cycling biomechanics is impinged range of motion within the hip joint at top dead centre of the pedal stroke. This is the flexion point of the hip joints range, and having reduced hip flexion can cause a chain reaction of fit and biomechanical issues.

At the beginning of that chain is how the knee tracks through the pedal stroke. Since beginning to utilize the Retul 3D motion capture system for my fits over a year ago, I’ve enjoyed the ability to see how the knee travels laterally through the pedal stroke in real time and make adjustments to fit and position in order to improve and correct improper knee travel.

When the knee tracks too far inside or outside the central plane (parallel to the top tube) a whole host of issues can arise. From a biomechanical standpoint, it can cause IT band issues, or place too much lateral stress on the knee itself with the possibility of developing patella/femoral issues. It can also cause issues within the hip joint itself as the femur head will be moving in two planes (vertical through the pedal stroke, and horizontal as the knee moves side to side) which can cause strain to the ligaments and tendons within the joint. If any or all of those issues occurs, an overuse injury is likely to pop up and time off the bike will be necessary if corrective action isn’t taken.

From an efficiency standpoint, when the knee travels inside or outside of that central plane, it has an affect on the rider’s ability to recruit the proper muscles, especially the glutes. If your knee travels too far away from the top tube causing an external rotation within the hip joint, the glutes are almost completely taken out of activation through the pedal stroke. This means the quads and hamstrings have to pick up the slack and activate through a greater range of the pedal stroke than they should. This in turn means less power available to be applied, and it also means that the smaller muscles of the quads and hamstrings will fatigue sooner leading to a loss of endurance and performance.

As for fit, impinged hip flexion is going to mean a potential sacrifice in optimal hip angle. Keep in mind that hip flexion occurs at top dead centre, which is also the closed or acute angle of the hip, one of the major fit parameters that should be looked at during a bike fitting. Impinged hip flexion causing improper knee tracking is going to mean a more open than optimal hip angle at top dead centre in order to allow the hip joint to move through it’s full range without affecting knee travel. Now, on a road bike this isn’t always that big a deal, as a roadie position tends to be more upright and open anyway. But even still, it can have an effect on the cyclists ability to get into the drops comfortably, and can also have a negative effect on power production and efficiency. For time trials and triathlon however, the consequences of improper hip flexion and knee travel are compounded by aerodynamics. In the race against the clock, one needs to be as aerodynamic (low) as possible while creating the maximal amount of power available. Reduced hip flexion is going to cause one of two things to happen. The cyclist will have to be positioned with a more open hip angle at top dead centre to allow the hip and knee to travel correctly, thus compromising aerodynamics. Or, the cyclist will stay low, but risk sacrificing power in the short term, and risk an overuse injury cropping up somewhere along the hip/knee chain in the long term. Neither of those options are ideal, so the best solution for all cyclists is to improve hip flexion and increase range of motion through that joint.

Now having said all that, how does one go about fixing it? I’d love to say that a proper bike fit will fix all your problems and make you a perfect cyclist, but alas it is not that simple.

What a proper, thorough and holistic approach to bike fit will do though is uncover the biomechanical issues that may have gone unnoticed until an injury reared its ugly head. Changes to position will improve things in the near term, and sometimes that is all it takes. More often than not however, “homework” will be required on the cyclist’s part through a combination of stretching, strengthening, massage, chiro and other therapy (such as ART) to loosen up and improve hip flexion for the long term health of the joints involved, and to access all the power that is available within the involved muscle groups.

So when should one get a complete bike fit assessment done? I get this question a lot, especially at this time of year. It goes along the lines of “I’m just on the trainer now, so I can just wait till I’m outdoors again before I get my fit done, right?” My answer to that is a very emphatic NO, and here’s why. Let’s assume that the average cyclist pedals at an average cadence of 90rpm. That’s 90 pedal revolutions per minute, which equals 5400 pedal revolutions in an hour. Now, outdoors, nobody pedals for the entire time they are riding, there are stops, breaks and periods of coasting. If there is drafting involved, the amount of pedaling under pressure is reduced even more. On the trainer however, we tend not to stop, and will spend that entire hour pedaling under pressure non stop. Let’s assume that outdoor riding reduces actual pedaling time by 10% or six minutes. That’s 540 pedal revolutions that you aren’t making outside that you will be making indoors. On it’s own, that doesn’t sound like much, but when you extend that out to a ten hour training week, that’s extra 5400 pedal revolutions being made. That’s a full extra hour of riding under pressure, and it’s those 5400 extra revolutions that could be the difference between a healthy cyclist and an injured one.
So my answer is always the sooner the better, and if there are any questions or concerns regarding the fit, get them addressed before the training is ramped up. The other reason for getting in for a fit is pain. If there is already pain in either the hip or knee joint, or anywhere else on the body, the fit needs to be assessed to determine the reason why and take corrective action before it gets too far gone.

Let’s face it, cycling is a tough sport and it can hurt. But, that pain should be isolated to the muscles involved and it should be temporary. If the pain is in the joints, or lasts beyond the time in the saddle and into the next ride, something is wrong. A proper, complete and holistic bike fit can figure out what that something is and get the cyclist on the road to correction and healing.

Bake the cake

2009-12-01T13:10:00.002-05:00

No, I am not referring to Christmas baking, although 'tis the season!
I'm referring to another season that is now upon us, and that is the season for base building after a long, hard, fun summer of racing.
The cake reference comes from a quote I saw on a Slowtwitch forum post a while back..."speed work is the icing on the cake, and you don't even have a cake yet"

I loved it, and still do. It gets exactly to the heart of how one's fitness should progress through the season, the whole, walk before you run, crawl before you walk thing.
My purpose for writing today is to show you exactly what can happen when base is built properly, and the fitness and performance improvements that can come just from doing proper base work at the proper intensity.
I've been doing a fair bit of performance testing in the last few months, some of it to get people started on their base programs, and some as follow ups part way through the base building phase. It's this latter category that I'm going to focus on today.
I've had three very successful base builds this fall, one of which I'm happy to report involves my sponsored triathlete Lesley Rasmussen.
In two of the cases (who shall remain anonymous for privacy concerns) initial end of season/pre base building assessments showed a fitness profile that was primarily anaerobic. This is fairly typical after a hard season of racing, especially for mountain bikers. Fat metabolism was way down, VO2 values were also down, as was Anaerobic Threshold heart rate and power. This is what happens when you go too hard, too often. All that anaerobic stress on the body breaks down its capacity for transporting and utilizing oxygen, and without proper active and passive rest, the leg muscles will also start to weaken if stressed too hard too often.
Now, don't get me wrong, all this anaerobic stress is necessary for racing and is useful at key points in the training phase, but while it will make you faster short term, it has some fairly negative effects on fitness over the long haul. Essentially, you've eaten your cake over the course of the race season, and now it's time to bake a new one!
In Lesley's case, her fitness was relatively aerobic, and her VO2 and power numbers were good after coming off of Ironman Canada, but I knew things could still be better.
The first ingredient in my recipe for baking the cake is accurate and personalized heart rate training zones. This is where the performance testing comes into play. A full breath gas analysis/Vo2 assessment to determine fat vs. glycogen metabolism, Anaerobic Threshold and more importantly Aerobic Endurance Threshold is key (in my opinion) to understanding what your body needs in terms of intensity during the base phase. Common theory holds that you need to go easy to build aerobic fitness, but how exactly does one define "easy". And there is a real danger in going too easy and not placing enough of a stress on the body to stimulate power and VO2 improvements as well.
With testing and training zone data in the mix, all three athletes set out on a fairly simple (ok boring) plan of primarily Z2 with a bit of Z3 tempo riding for about 6-8 weeks before coming back for a follow up. There is a little, ok maybe alot, more to it than just riding in Z2 and Z3, but come now, I can't give away the whole recipe for free. One thing I will note though is that each of the three athletes in question had a different mix of ingredients, depending on what their individual test results showed.
Follow up assessments for all three have been performed within the last couple of weeks, and the trend of success with all three is what spurred me to write this. With virtually no Z4 or high intensity work of any kind in the initial phase, my two anonymous athletes both showed marked improvement in fat metabolism and aerobic fitness, as well as a significant increase in Anaerobic Threshold heart rate and power production at AT. I've always been a believer in raising AT from below, gently prodding it upwards through an increase in aerobic conditioning. Both of my athletes nailed this to a T.
In Lesley's case, as her aerobic fitness was relatively strong to begin with, she did get a bit of Z4 power work, but not a lot. Most of her rides were Z2, small ring (just ask her, I'm sure she'll happily complain about how boring it was!) with some Z3 aerobic power work. That focus and dedication to the plan resulted in an almost ten beat increase in AT, a 20w increase in Anaerobic Threshold Power, and a corresponding increase in training zones and sustainable aerobic power. Sorry, you don't get to see the real numbers, those are for my eyes only!
This brings me to another very important factor in building process. Constant check ups to make sure things are progressing as they should. In all three cases, AT got bumped higher, and aerobic base fitness also moved into a higher heart rate range, resulting in a change in training zones. In all three cases, if we had continued along with the original training zone data, they would have entered into a phase of maintenance or plateau, as they were no longer providing their bodies with enough training stimulus/stress to promote further growth/improvement.
They are all now training at a higher intensity as they continue to build base fitness and aerobic power.
I've never been a believer in garbage miles, or training just for the sake of training. Every minute of effort should be towards a specific goal, and understanding where your body is at and what it needs at key points during the season is an important part of reducing/eliminating those useless miles.
So, get out there and start baking those cakes, but make sure you've got a keen understanding of the ingredients and how best to mix them before you step into the kitchen.

Injury come back

2009-11-17T12:59:00.003-05:00

I've had a couple of really great "rebuild" successes with clients lately, and I wanted to share them with you, my loyal readers.
The first one involves an acute injury and the path we took to recovery.
Back in late August/early September one of my female cyclists started complaining about some knee pain. I immediately took notice, as our knee joints are not something to take lightly. And the sudden onset of an acute pain in any joint is something to take note of and address quickly. After some back and forth discussion, it was determined that the most likely cause of the pain was due to a combination of a couple of rides that were longer than planned, and more intense than planned, plus a slight adjustment made to the cleat on the side in question.

My initial plan of attack was simply rest, as we both believed it was simply an over use issue. I figured the ligaments around the joint got over stressed from the unplanned volume and intensity and were inflamed and causing the pain. So, we backed way off on the intensity and just did some short, easy spins for a week. The pain subsided a bit, but it was still there, and still acute. Time for plan of attack number 2.
I brought her in for a full Retul fit session to see what was going on with her knee tracking through the pedal stroke. I made a few minor adjustments to her position, saddle height, fore/aft, and readjusted her cleat position to improve her lateral knee movement through the pedal stroke. A neutral knee tends to be a happy knee, and when she first came in, her knee travel was anything but neutral! By the time we were done, things were much more stable in that regard.
However, I also noticed she had some tightness/range of motion issues that were definitely affecting her knee tracking. I do a full flexibility and range of motion assessment during my Retul sessions, and I discovered that she had limited hip flexion and very tight IT bands, both of which will put lateral stress on the knee joint through its range of motion on the bike. I sent her home with a modified position, some stretches to start doing on her own, and orders to start getting massage regularly to help loosen up the IT and her hip flexion.
As a good athlete should, she listened, and did everything I asked of her.
She kept me up to date on the progress in the massage sessions. Apparently the first couple of rounds were quite excruciating, as her IT's were very, very tight. Anybody who has ever had their IT stripped will know exactly what I'm talking about. I've heard it can be right up there with child birth and kidney stones!
She kept at it though, sucked it up and pushed through the pain and discomfort, knowing that better performance was on the horizon once things improved. With each update the pain of massage was easing, and the RMT was able to get deeper and deeper into the muscles. Her body was responding well and improving with each session, due in large part to the stretching she was doing in between massage sessions.
On top of the stretching and massage, I also made her take a full week off the bike, as I knew the stress point in her knee needed some time to heal. Reluctantly, she agreed and I kept her occupied with some core and upper body strength workouts courtesy of my Crossfit knowledge base.
Back on the bike after the week off, we spent the first week just spinning easy to re-adapt the ligaments and tendons. The reports were promising. Minimal pain, much lower grade and occurring later and later into the rides. After another week of moderate riding and a continuation of the massage and stretching, the pain was gone completely and we were able to get back to full throttle training. I did a slow ramp up of the intensity and volume so that there was no relapse, and she's now been riding pain free for almost three weeks and built her volume back up to over four hours for her long rides.

So, moral of the story? Never ignore acute pains. Sure, we are all athletes, and that means that we are always going to have aches and pains in our muscles and joints. The trick is to know your body and to understand the difference between the typical aches of training, and the acute pain that indicates something is seriously wrong. As a rule of thumb, if it's an acute, localized pain that comes on suddenly with no obvious explanation, it is likely an injury that you'll need to get diagnosed and dealt with. Every athlete should have a support network of professionals that can be turned to in times like this. Coaches, bike fitters, RMT's, physiotherapists etc. Not only do you need this kind of support, but you need to trust their judgement and execute their prescriptions to a T in order to get your recovery dealt with in a timely manner.
Never ignore an acute, sudden pain. Never try to "ride through" this kind of pain. Taking a bit of time off early on, maybe a week or so, is nothing compared to the months you made need to heal something that goes from acute to chronic because it didn't get dealt with in a timely manner.
Any injury can be dealt with and come back from if it is dealt with in a timely and serious manner. Listen to your body, and listen to the professionals. It really is that simple.

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

2009-10-26T22:01:00.003-04:00

Ahhhhh
is the sound I make after an awesome session in a hot yoga studio, sweating and stretching my cares away.
I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the latest addition to the health and fitness world in Milton. Moksha Yoga Studios. www.mokshayogamilton.com
You can check out the website for all the details on classes and location. The session was great, with a nice flow, and I'm feeling pretty good after it. The studio is super spacious, with a great locker room and the staff are very friendly and welcoming. If you are looking for a great stretch (and if you are a runner or cyclist you should be) then check them out.
Oh, and it's their grand opening week, so all classes are free until Friday.
Now you have no excuse!
Namaste.

Patience and Pacing

2009-10-26T21:01:00.002-04:00

Hey all,
Just got back from a great weekend, part of which involved me riding shotgun beside my newest sponsored athlete, Lesley Rasmussen as she tackled the Niagara Falls marathon on Sunday.
It was a pretty cool experience, seeing all those people pushing their minds and bodies to the limit, and being in the middle of it without expending any real energy myself!
I headed down to the Falls in the morning and parked at the finish line. The plan was for me to ride backwards along the course and hopefully hook up with Les around the halfway point, and then ride back the last half with her.

The ride out was pretty cool. I got to see a crazy fast half marathon winner with a ridiculous lead, and then rode through the whole pack of the half marathoners, some looking really good, some looking not quite so prepared. But regardless, I will say I saw a lot of smiles on faces, and why not? It was a beautiful day, rare for the Niagara race. It's usually cold, wet and windy. On this day, it was cool and sunny, but the wind was definitely there.
I got through the half marathon crowd and had some open road in front of me on the parkway again before seeing the leader of the marathon. Man he was moving, and yet again, a serious lead. As I was riding along, I was watching the mile markers tick away, starting to gauge when I was going to run into Les. I hit mile 12 and started to really keep my eyes peeled, and sure enough, right between mile's 12 and 13, there was the familiar blue and green of my kit. Right on schedule.
The plan was for her to go out at a comfortable but strong pace in mid to upper Z3. She set her watch to go off at the start of Z4, and her "orders" were to keep the heart rate monitor nice and quiet for the first half of the race. From her recent tempo runs, I knew that a Z3 pace would put her on track for a 3:20-ish marathon time. Les is just getting over one of those cold bugs that tend to hang around the family home, so I didn't want her pushing any harder than that.
We linked up and I got the lowdown on how the first half had gone. Turns out it went pretty well.
She mentioned getting passed by one girl in her age group on the Peace Bridge, but she knew she wouldn't be able to hang with her without going into Z4, so she settled in and ran her own pace, and her own race.
Ahh, those words make a coach so proud!
I filled her in on what was going on up ahead, and the fact that there really weren't that many people ahead of her, and not that many women. I think that perked up the spirits a bit, and she just kept ticking along on pace. The mile markers were getting knocked off one after the other, and I was actually really surprised at how quickly we were coming up to each aid station. I started counting them down for her, 7 more, 6 more, 5 more...her pace never faltered, and her breathing never changed. At around mile 23, I hung back for a "break" and noticed a couple of women starting to move up through the field. I relayed the info to Lesley, and asked her to pick it up just a bit to keep them at bay. She complied, a little reluctantly, but she did it. By mile 24 I could here the heart rate monitor starting to beep every now and then, telling me that Les was now hovering right on the border of Z3 and Z4, exactly where I wanted her at this stage. We hit the last feed station and made the turn for home. A quick check over my shoulder showed that the two women were still moving up, but most likely not a threat this close to the finish.
At about the 1km to go marker, I noticed a female just ahead, in a white top and black tights. I had noted her on my way out to meet Les, and at that point she was about 2-3min up on Lesley. Now with less than a km to go, she's right there in front of us. I pointed her out, and it turns out this is the one that passed Lesley on the bridge. Well, it was pretty clear what Lesley had to do. I knew she was close to her limit at this point, but I asked her for just a little bit more. I knew she was hurting, but that temporary physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional pain of knowing she had gotten beaten on the line. When I put it to her that way, she picked up the pace and passed the carrot dangling in front of her. I know her legs were screaming, and her lungs were screaming for air, but I urged her to keep that kick up, and to not let that other girl catch her back and nip her at the line.
Lesley surged on, and with about 500m to go I looked back and new that she had it. I pulled off the course to let her finish and met her around back. 3:25:57. An excellent time considering how she'd been feeling in the week leading up to the race, and the fact that I had been seriously considering pulling her from the race early in the week.
As it turns out, I'm really glad she did the race. I think she learned a really valuable lesson in pacing, and it's one that I want to pass on to all you reading.
Don't burn all the matches in your box too soon. If Les had tried to stay with that girl early on, she would have burned off to much energy and run the risk of blowing up inside the last 10km and finishing weak and slow. As it turns out, staying comfortable allowed her to pass quite a few people within that last 10km, people who had obviously spent too much too early in the race. Having that energy left for a finishing kick allowed Les to pass a very important person on the course. Turns out that girl in the white and black was indeed in Lesley's AG, and passing her put Les on the podium in 2nd place, and secured her a top 10 placing in the overall women's field. So in longer endurance events, it really does pay to pace intelligently and stay within your limits and keep some gas in the tank for the last few miles.
It also pays to stay aware of your surroundings and the people around you. You just never know when the person that left you behind at the start will suddenly show up in front of you, looking not so good because they didn't pace their race as well as you paced yours!

Getting Dirty part 2

2009-10-22T14:22:00.003-04:00

Greetings! I just finished building up another Venio CX this morning, all ready for customer pick up later today. That's three 'cross bikes this fall, and none of them are to racers. Seems my earlier blog about why cross bikes are so great is creating converts.

Here she is, in all her glory. Another Sram Rival build with Mavic

Aksium Race wheels. In it's final version the wheels are sporting road slicks, as this bike is going to be a commuter. This particular client is an Ironman triathlete who currently only owns a very nice, very fast, but no so great on city streets triathlon bike. She's added the VenioCX to her collection for two purposes. One, she's seen the light so to speak when it comes to putting in the longer base miles on something more comfortable. And, she's going to give green commuting a go this year and ride to work. With the ability to go knobby or slick, this bike should do her all fall and winter, and into the spring, except on the worst and snowiest of days. Laid back position, higher bottom bracket and stable wheelbase is going to make her daily commutes into work so much more enjoyable. And, environmentally friendly!

Getting Dirty!

2009-10-21T09:15:00.005-04:00

Ok, get your minds out of the gutter everybody. This is a G rated blog...

I'm talking about my new Guru Cyclocross bike that just arrived. It's sweet! And so much fun.

I brought in a Venio CX to have on the showroom floor, and to use for my fall and winter training. Go find my other blog on 'cross bikes for why I love these set ups for this time of year.

Anyway, here she is...think I need a better pic though. Ya, need a better pic. I'll work on that. For now, the specs are full aluminum frame with a True Temper Carbon fork, Ritchey parts and a full Sram Rival drivetrain with Avid Shorty brakes and Conti Speed King CX rubber on Mavic Aksium wheels. I built her up over the weekend, an easy build as these things go. No internal cable routing or other finicky stuff to deal with. Just getting the old canti cross over cables set up properly. A little fine tuning on Sunday afternoon and then the innaugural ride on Monday. Man, what a day for a CX ride. Warm, sunny, a bit windy but that's ok when you have the option of ducking into the trees, and I have that option in spades. I live right next door to Kelso Conservation area, and Hilton Falls is a short ride away. So, I saddled up and did the old Kelso cut through and headed over for a couple of loops through Hilton Falls. I

I haven't done a full set up on the bike yet, just took the basic measurements off my road bike, but it felt very comfortable, and very stable. My centre of mass is evenly distributed so far, and I think it will only get better once I tweak myself out with the Retul. The bike was rock solid underneath me, and very responsive, as aluminum normally is. The surprising thing was how smooth the ride was. Now granted, I have the CX tires on and running at about 80psi right now, but even the buzz that I'd expect to feel from the knobs on the pavement was minimal. This is an excellent aluminum frame. I'm not the only one to notice this either. A client who picked up a Venio CX from me a few weeks ago also commented on how smooth the ride was. He actually believes this aluminum bike to be smoother and more responsive than an older generation carbon road frame he's riding. I tend to agree. And stiff! Wow, minimal BB flex on the climbs, and a very stiff and stable front end, aided by the very beefy head tube and the very, very beefy gusset they have applied at the head tube/down tube junction.

Thanks to this little addition, the bike tracks very well on the soft terrain and through the tight twisty turns at Hilton Falls. Guru has put together a very nice little CX frame here, the geometry is comfortable on the road, and very precise when things get soft and vertical in the trails. The bottom bracket clearance is awesome. I continually found myself correcting pedal position going over rocks and roots, only to finally realize that I had better clearance than I'm used to, and that I can pretty much clear anything I need to with my pedal on the downstroke.

I'm looking forward to putting in more miles on this sweet machine as the fall progresses. It really is great to have the option of hitting a rail trail or sneaking into the trees to escape the bitter fall and winter winds. I've got a road ride planned with a client for this weekend, I think I'm going to pop my road wheels on and see how the bike behaves in a pure pavement setting.

I shall be sure to report back after that experiment.

Guru 2010

2009-10-08T14:04:00.005-04:00

Ok, so enough about all the cool stuff from Interbike that I don't sell. Time to get down to business.

Guru has launched two brand new frames for the 2010 season. A revamped, redesigned Crono 2.0 (love that name) and a completely new from the ground up road frame called the Photon.

I'm going to deal with the new Crono for starters.

Actually, in this case I do believe a picture is worth a whole lot of words, so here you go...drool away!

I don't know about you, but personally this frame is H O T. Especially considering that it can be made fully custom to your sizing and geometric requirements, not to mention that the carbon can be custom layed to fine tune the ride quality for stiffness, compliance and comfort based on each riders unique characteristics and needs. Some pretty major changes have gone into the new Crono 2.0, many of which came about from some serious design time in the wind tunnel. Completely horizontal top tube, dropped seat stays, 3:1 aspect ratio gusset on the head tube (yes people, this bike is UCI legal), and now with horizontal dropouts!

Super aero seat stays and a very nicely tucked away seatpost clamp bolt to keep things clean. New also for 2020 (wish I had a complete build pic) is the cable routing. Everything comes up over the stem and drops in just behind the head tube before going on it's merry way to it's end point.
I can not wait to get this bike out on the road and give it a run. My floor model should be arriving in the middle of January. Watch this space for updates.
Oh, and a very cool little piece of news from Guru. I've already sold one of these new gems, and I just found out from my rep that I'm the first Guru 2.0 customer order they've had world wide. Not bad for the little guy in Milton!
Next up will be the super sweet, super light, super sick Photon.

anatomy of a build part 1

2009-10-07T16:05:00.008-04:00

Hey all! I just got a new Guru in the door to be built up and sent out under another happy customer. I thought it would be kind of cool to start chronicling the builds as I do them. This was an interesting one. It's a Sidero, which is Guru's high end steel road frame. I'm building it for a gentleman who has ridden it all (steel, carbon aluminum) and loves nothing better than the supple but efficient ride that a good steel bike provides. We took a look at the different geometries he's been on in the past, and nailed down a fit that everyone (myself, Guru and the client) were confident with. Guru also did a special DNA tube selection to give him the most lateral stiffness and efficiency possible at the bottom bracket and head tube, while maintaining vertical compliance for comfort.

Here's a first look at the finished product. Once this bike is built up with the absolutely sick wheels he provided it is going to look sweet.

So, steel is great on many fronts, but one "issue" it does have is that it can corrode over time. Now, the exterior of the frame, with the paint and clear that Guru utilize is not going to be an issue. But steel frames can still go from the inside out if not properly treated pre build. I've chosen to go a fairly natural route and use double boiled linseed oil to coat the inside of the tubes to keep any water that gets in there from doing it's corrosive thing. There is an aerosol spray called Frame Saver that can be used, and that is definitely easier to use, but I'm not a big fan of aerosols.

Linseed oil is a bit of a pain to work with, as you are simply pouring into the frame set and "rolling" the frame around to get the tubes coated. That's not a big deal for the seat tube and head tube, but the other tubes are very difficult to access, and this is where the directional aerosol would come in handy.

But, being the super smart guy that I am (ya, whatever) I came up with a fairly simple process to deliver the oil where it needed to be. As you can see on the left, a 55 cent cork, a length of breast pump tubing (cheapest and narrowest I could find, don't laugh) and a dremel, and I've got a very effective, very cheap fluid deliver system that allows me to get the oil deeper into the hard to reach tubes than even a spray would.

I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with myself! This is the kind of attention to detail every bike receives when it goes through my hands on it's way from Guru to final delivery to the client.

So at this point, the interior of the frame is coated and curing, the customers old bike is stripped, with parts cleaned up and awaiting installation on the new bike. That will be tomorrows job, and tomorrow's blog!

New Nutrition Kid on the Block

2009-10-05T10:34:00.003-04:00

Hey,
I just want to take a moment to welcome Body Systems Nutrition to Milton. This is your one stop shop in town now for all things nutrition and supplement. They have an excellent array of protien powders, recovery blends and endurance products, as well as vitamins and supplements.
And a super cool feature of the store is the onsite frozen yogurt dispenser for making protien smoothies in house! I strongly recommend the peanut butter-chocolate! They are having a free shake promotion right now, so drop by my studio to get your free shake card!
I'm also pleased to announce that Body Systems has agreed to sponsor one of my Ironman athletes, Lesley Rasmussen for the 2010 season. She will be working closely with them to help fine tune the endurance product offerings they have in store.
You can find them on James Snow Pkwy and Main St, just south of the 401, in the Starbucks Plaza.

Interbike follow up

2009-10-05T09:54:00.009-04:00

Oy vay,

Where to start. So much cool stuff and not nearly enough time or space to talk about it.

I guess I'll start with what I though was the coolest, and it has nothing to do with anything I sell...although if I were a full service bike shop, I'm pretty sure I would be.

Behold, the Ellsworth Enlightenment. That is just the coolest name for a bike ever IMO...

A full carbon, hand laid (in Taiwan though) 29er mountain bike frame. The attention to detail on this bike is fantastic. Fully internal cable routing, even for the rear hydraulic brake. It's got a custom 1" to 11/2" steerer tube, that needed a custom Fox fork built up for it. Apparently when they built the frame, the had no idea what fork was going to be used, as one didn't exist yet!

The coolest thing about this frame though is the removeable rear dropouts, and split rear triangle that allows this bike to be run as a geared or singlespeed set up, and can even be used with a belt drive system. How cool is that?

All in, the frame is supposed to retail for around $2000 US...a steal if you ask me.

Another very cool item I saw, that I think I may pick up in the new year if possible is a new power meter that inserts directly into the pedal spindle. I didn't take pics of this one unfortunately due to a failing battery, but you can get all the info you need on it here...

http://www.metrigear.com/. Currently they are only available built into Speedplay pedals, but I was assured that other makes and models will be in the works. This system is super compact, and from what I can tell, very accurate and precise. It works off the ANT+ wireless protocols, so will work with your Garmin or Powertap head unit. Retail is supposed to be around $1000 US, pedals included, which makes it a very affordable power option, especially if you already own the head unit.

On the contact points side of things, I came across some very interesting chamois lube from a company called Reflect Sports. http://www.reflectsports.com/. They make a womens specific lube called, get this...Hoo Ha Ride Glide! Sweet marketing! I've had one of my athletes testing it out and she is raving about it, and has ordered herself a supply. As soon as they have satisfied Canadian labelling requirements I'll definitely be picking this line up and bringing it in to the studio.

Accessories. Kuat Racks is probably the most innovative car rack system I've seen in awhile. http://www.kuatinnovations.com/. They are all hitch mounted, super light and very easy to work with. My favorite is Kuat Sherpa, full aluminum construction, and has a very cool add on that turns your bike rack into a portable workstation. I was very impressed. As soon as my new truck arrives, I'll be ordering one of these. They have a distribution centre in Mississauga, so I'm able to take orders on these at any point.

Another pretty sweet bike I saw on Demo Day was the new Stork TT bike. A very interesting frame layout, especially considering that it is only buildable with Shimano Di2 to keep cable routing as clean and aero as possible. It even has an integrated battery mount.

One of my favorite features on this bike is the I-beam style seat clamp that allows for a very easy transition between effective seat angles, without ever having to worry about resetting saddle tilt. As a bike fitter, I really would like to see this become a standard issue on TT/Tri bikes.

The brake set up is pretty sweet too. They are built right into the rear stays/fork legs directly, functioning on an integrated leaf spring for maximum drag reduction. Very, very cool...

Ok, I think that is enough eye candy for one morning!

I'll be back later to talk about all thats' cool and new with Guru for 2010.

A folllow up to Rest...

2009-10-02T19:12:00.001-04:00

So speaking of bad news and scare tactics...I managed to find the slowtitch forum thread that gets into the real serious side of what can happen when one races or trains aggressively when sick.
I'll let the experts speak for themselves...http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2340724;search_string=viral%20heart%20infection;guest=73860137&t=search_engine#2340724

And again I say, rest when the body says to.

Rest

2009-10-01T18:31:00.002-04:00

I've been listening to and reading news reports lately with doomsday predictions about the fall swine flu season and it's gotten me thinking. And not just about how nothing sells advertising space like bad news and scare tactics!
It got me thinking about the upcoming flu season, and the likelihood of us athletes catching something, whether it be a common cold or something worse.
As athletes, our attention to our health through our training and nutrition more often than not leaves us with a very nice byproduct, a very healthy immune system. Study after study have shown that fit, healthy active people get sick less. But let's face it, even the strongest and healthiest of us catch something every now and then.
Problem is, our strong immune systems can actually cause us additional problems when we do finally get sick. First off, because we tend not to fall prey to colds and flu's that often, we generally don't have a well established protocol for how to deal with them when they do hit. Second, because our immune systems are strong, when we do get sick, something that would be powerful enough to floor the average person, it may only cause a minor inconvenience to those of us with stronger constitutions. Combined, these two things can lead us to make some poor decisions that may leave us layed up longer than we should have been.
Way too often I encounter athletes who insist on training through anything, at all costs. There is this mentality that they can't miss a day of training. Missing a day will set them back so far they won't be able to catch up. Now, when you read that, I'm sure you are laughing and nodding, you probably either know somebody who is like that, or may even relate to it yourself. And when you think about it, it really is a bit of a silly attitude. Taken out of the situation, and looking at those statements on their own, we all know that a day off isn't going to cause irreparable damage to a training cycle. But when the bug hits, and you are used to being able to train at a certain level any and every day, it's tough to pull back and take a day off, or at least take it easy.
But, that is exactly what needs to be done. When we get sick, especially those of us with strong constitutions, it's a sign that our immune system is compromised. That compromise usually comes as a result of fatigue or stress. That fatigue could be a result of many things, as could the stress, but the solution to rebuilding your immune system is to let it rest, and to remove the stress that is taxing it. Often in the athletic world, that stress is simply training. Often an illness will pop up when training is kicked up a notch too high, placing a higher than normal stress on the body, or right after a key race, when the body has been pushed to it's absolute limit both in the training leading up to it, and the race itself.
Again I say, the only way to let the immune system rebuild, and give it the strength it needs to fight the illness is to give it some rest.
I always urge my athletes to stay in contact with me regarding how they feel. I want to know immediately at the first sign of the sniffles, a sore or scratchy throat etc...if we can catch something when it's in the early stages, before it's really gotten hold, often all this is required is one or two days off, and one or two days of easy training to build the body back up to full speed.
The danger comes from ignoring those early warning signs that your system is compromised, and pushing through with your training. Ignoring your body, and training intensely through an illness can often lead to a lot more time off down the road when the illness completely takes hold and has you bed ridden. So my speech to my guys is always this...take a couple of days off now to avoid taking a couple of weeks off later. A couple of days can be made up no problem, a couple of weeks, that is a bigger issue. And, this becomes much more important the further into your build and the closer to your A race you are. There's nothing worse than blowing or missing your A race due to an illness that could have been dealt with earlier on if you had taken that day or two off instead of pushing through.
While I'm on the topic, the same holds true for injuries. Another quirk of athletes, especially elite ones, is that they (we) tend to have high tolerances for pain. Let's face it, training hurts. Something is always aching or burning during and after a good workout. We like that pain, it's what drives us, and keeps us coming back for more. I love working with athletes who enjoy intervals, hills and track work. In order to get faster and better, we have to accept and embrace a certain amount of pain.
But, we also have to understand the difference between the aches and burns of a good training session and the more acute pain of a tear, strain or beginnings of an overuse injury. These should never be pushed through. These types of pains usually pop up at joints, ankles, knees, shoulders and should never be ignored. Again, I urge my guys to call me the moment they feel anything funny in their joints or ligaments. A tweak, a pop, a sudden pain that wasn't there before, you need to address it immediately so that it doesn't become something lingering. Depending on the pain and location, you may need to check your bike fit, your running shoe wear pattern, running gait, maybe muscle imbalances, could be as simple as picking up the volume or intensity too much too fast. Whatever the problem, the immediate reaction should be to rest, then ice if there is inflammation, then diagnose with the proper professional before continuing with normal training. Otherwise what is currently acute, could become chronic and affect you every time you lace up your running shoes or throw your leg over the bike.
So, there you have it, my views on rest and when it's needed. Hopefully this will help you to get over your next illness or injury in a much more timely manner.
Happy training!

Spreading the Gospel

2009-09-29T20:43:00.002-04:00

Hey all,
Just got back from a little heart rate training talk at the Running Room in Port Credit. Awesome crowd, very eager to learn and very receptive to what I had to say. I haven't done one of these in quite some time. It was really good to get back to the basics of why I do what I do, and why understanding your unique metabolism during exercise is so important to your overall success. It was nice, informal talk/ Q&A. I really should video one of these and pop it onto Youtube. I could never get the information to flow as easily if I tried to write it out in "speech" form. Hmm,
definitely something to think about.
In other news, I'm sad to report that The Long Run out of Streetsville is going out of business, permanently it would seem. Info on the liquidation can be found at www.danburysales.com do a search for Long Run.
Have a good night all!

Sport Specific Testing

2009-09-28T20:02:00.000-04:00

Another frequently asked question I get comes from the Multisport crowd. They want to know if they should have an assessment done on the bike, or the run. My simple answer,(yes I love simple answers) is BOTH. In order to understand why, one must understand how muscles get their energy, why the heart beats, and the physiological difference between cycling and running.

First, in very simple terms, muscles get their energy through a complex chemical reaction stimulated and fed primarily by oxygen. Without oxygen, the muscles will not work very effectively, or for very long. So, following along with this, the heart beats in order to transport oxygen rich blood to the muscles, and oxygen depleted blood away from the muscles. Carrying this logic slightly further, the harder a muscle works, the more oxygen it needs, the faster the heart has to beat to meet that muscular demand.

With me so far? Good.

Now, if you hadn’t noticed, running and cycling are very different sports, and they place very different demands on the body. Running is primarily a cardiovascular exercise. The majority of the physiological stress is placed on the heart and lungs. It is not important, and often antithetical to have a large amount of lean muscle mass, or in other words, power. Don’t believe me, just look at the musculature on an elite marathoner. Not much to them is there?

Now, cycling is an entirely different story. Cycling is a very power specific sport. That’s not to say that a strong cardiovascular system isn’t important, it’s just that you must have strong legs to apply the power to the pedals to create the speed you desire. Without that power, you won’t go very fast, and climbing will not be a whole lot of fun. I’m sure some of you out there can relate!

Okay, still with me? Excellent. Now lets start putting it all together.

When running, the faster you try to go, the faster your leg muscles contract and relax, ie, the harder they work. Therefore, the faster you run, the faster your heart beats to feed the muscles the oxygen they require for the rapid contractions. With running, it all comes down to those rapid muscle contractions. Power and strength are not really a factor. Couple that with the fact that you have upper body movement as well and you end up with the potential for some pretty high heart rates.

When cycling however, it is a much different story. While muscle contraction (cadence) is a large part of it-we’ll get to that completely separate story another day-there is also a very large power component involved. The stronger your legs are, the more force they will apply to the pedals, and the more oxygen they will require to maintain that power application.

Stay with me, we’re almost there.

On the bike, if the legs are relatively weak in comparison to the cardiovascular system, they will not place as high a demand on the heart, and therefore will not push the heart rate as high as it is capable of going. In order to reach your peak cardiovascular limit on the bike, you must have legs strong enough to place a peak oxygen demand on the heart.

Got it? Very good.

If you can’t place the same peak demand on your heart during the bike as you can on the run, your peak heart rate will be lower, your Anaerobic Threshold will be lower, and your relative training zones will be lower. It’s been my experience that the average multi-sport athlete will have an AT that is anywhere from 10-15 beats lower on the bike, with as high as 20 beats difference in some cases. How would you like to spend most of your endurance training time on the bike effectively over your threshold because you were using your running zones? It won’t do much for your fitness, I can guarantee that.

By testing both the bike and the run individually, you can target your training more precisely in each sport, and monitor progress and improvements in a more detailed manner.

Demo Day Test Rides

2009-09-22T19:35:00.000-04:00

September 22, 2009
Demo Day Test Rides

Felt AR2: This was the first bike I managed to get my leg over during my time at the Demo Day on Tuesday, and wow, did it ever set the bar high. This is just about the top end of their road frames and it shows. The demo course was a nice mix of downhill, flats and climbing with a very solid wind that day so I really got to get a very good feel for how the bike would handle in the most important ways.
The Felt is very light, and built up the way it was with full Dura Ace, that’s no surprise.
The thing that jumped out at me the most was the stiffness of this bike. Acceleration on the flats felt completely effortless. I pushed the pedal and the bike just surged forward. I’d heard quite a bit about Felt being a fairly soft bike in the past, and the rep I talked to acknowledged some of their older frames weren’t as stiff as they should have been, and then ran through all the changes they have made to correct the issue. Well correct it they did. This bike was incredibly solid, from the head tube all the way to the dropouts. It cornered predictably, descended smoothly and acceleration was a dream. The aero frame really seems to have an effect as well, as I never felt like I was actually working against the head/cross winds I was dealing with. And much to my surprise, I never felt myself getting blown around by the crosswinds.
From my test, climbing is really where this bike excels. The ascent back up to the demo area was super hard, but it wasn’t exactly easy either, and of all the bikes I rode, the Felt “felt” the easiest to move up the hill, and I have no doubt a lot of that had to do with the excellent power transfer through the BB and chainstays. Also a great pleasure to experience was head tube stiffness when climbing out of the saddle. The bike was incredibly blanaced, and I felt stable and in control when up out of the saddle.

Of everything I’ve ridden in the past that wasn’t a Guru, this is the bike that best compares to the ride quality I’ve become used to from handmade custom carbon.

Hands down, if I were a regular full service bike shop, Felt would be on my list of dealers I would want to be stocking.

Giant Trinity Advanced: OK, I was super stoked to get to ride this one. It’s the newest design in the Giant TT line up, similar to the Shiv from Specialized and the P4 from Cervelo. Super aero, all kinds of neat little tricks like integrated stems and aero bars, massive structural fairings at key points. As cool as it is, and as fast as it may be in the wind tunnel, this bike has it’s problems though.
The ride itself was sweet. I rode a size small, as this bike only comes in three sizes. Prospective purchasers please take note. I’m 5’10”, normally ride a 55cm road frame, and anything bigger than a small in this bike would be way too big for me. I’ll get to that stuff in a minute though. Overall the ride was pretty sweet. Very stiff through the BB, and the aerodynamics certainly seemed to work. As with the Felt, I never felt like I was fighting the wind, and there was minimal knocking around in the crosswinds. Even though the aero bars were set up quite narrow, the handled and tracked very smoothly regardless of wind direction. So, there is no disputing the ride of this bike, it was great. The problems I see come from the fit limitations of the design, and as a bike fitter, these are very big limitations in my opinion.
First off, only three sizes, which at the best of times makes me cringe, but in this case it’s even worse as there is next to no cockpit length adjustment available with the integrated, proprietary stem and bar combo. All you get is saddle fore aft to set your seat angle, and that’s it. So, if this bike is not the right length for you as is, it is not the right bike for you period. The integrated stem/bar combo also poses issues from a arm rest stack standpoint. The newest design concept out of the wind tunnel is to have the stem sit flush in line with the top tube as this seems to provide the best aerodynamic drag over the top of the frame. All good in the tunnel, but this sets up the bars on the Trinity very, very low. To compensate, they have stacked the armrests up a good 2-3 inches above the base bar to get a proper drop from saddle to armrest. So, while centre of mass displacement over the bike works well when aero, that huge drop down to the bull horns really pitches you forward over the front wheel, and completely throws off that COM displacement. Whenever I went out to the brakes, I felt like I was going to end up over the bars, and forget about climbing out of the saddle. The bike is very, very unstable in any position other than aero. Apparently there is a stem option available that will raise the bars about an inch, but that’s it, and you still end up with a fairly long drop from are rests to bull horns.
So, what does all this mean? I’ll give it props, the Trinity is an awesome TT bike, and to their credit that is all Giant is marketing it as. A triathlon bike this is not. This bike is meant to go super fast, in a relatively straight line, with minimal climbing. That pretty much sums up the typical TT course, but not so much the typical triathlon course.
The fit and COM issues that this bike has built into will make this a very poor choice for the typical age group triathlete who is unable to stay aero for the duration of the ride. And I know that many triathletes who end up buying this anyway are going to end up on the wrong size, which is just going to compound the problems.
As referenced in my tri-sheep blog from awhile ago, really ask yourself some hard questions before you buy your next triathlon bike, and make sure that you are getting the best fit and ride quality that you can. While this is a great aero bike, it is not the best choice for most for triathlon purposes.

To Tri or not to Tri...bike that is!

2009-09-20T20:12:00.000-04:00

To Tri or not to Tri…Bike That Is…

A question I’ve come across ever since I started selling bikes many years ago at the local LBS. It seems like a simple question on the surface, but the answer is a rather long and convoluted one.

First off, let’s examine the differences between triathlon specific bikes and road bikes…Let’s leave hybrids and mountain bikes out of this equation, which are perfectly suitable for use in a triathlon, but rarely would anyone be attempting to make a choice between a Tri bike and a Mountain Bike!

So, let’s look at road bikes. Road bikes are primarily used for riding and racing on the road. They can be distinguished primarily by the curved drop-style handlebar configuration, and the fairly traditional double triangle frame design. Meaning, the main frame is made up of a triangle consisting of the top tube, down tube and seat tube. The second triangle, holding the rear wheel in place, is then comprised of the seat tube, seat and chain stays, and connected to the main frame (or triangle) via the seat tube, providing a stable place for the rear wheel and drive train to attach. This seems rather simple and basic to some, but it is very important to make these frame design distinctions now, before we move onto the Triathlon bikes. To continue, shifting and braking are done via a combined shift/brake lever that sits on the handlebar, just before it curves, drops and sweeps back. The design of the handlebar drop is such that you have access to this combined lever from the “hoods” or the “drops,” giving you multiple hand positions from which to shift and brake.

Road bikes also have their own unique geometry - they are designed to be ridden in a relaxed, but aggressive body position. They generally have a seat tube angle of between 72 and 74 degrees, with a fairly long wheel base which provides stability and ease of steering. This “relaxed” geometry also determines where a rider’s Centre of Mass (COM) is displaced over the frame, and between the rear and front wheels. With a slack seat tube angle, the rider’s COM tends to be displaced relatively over the bottom bracket, with a significant amount of the rider’s overall weight placed over the rear wheel, helping to make the bike stable and consistent in its handling. The longer wheel base and rider displacement also make road bikes very efficient climbers, and extremely stable descenders. Having the COM displaced in this manner also means that the rider tends to be sitting more on the sit bones, with a slightly forward pelvic rotation to enable the rider to reach the bars while the back remains relatively flat. Coupled with a wide array of hand positions on the drop bar, and this design and geometry tends to create a rider position that is comfortable and sustainable for long periods of time. It also accommodates a wide range of bio-mechanical and physiological variations in the rider. Those with a lack of flexibility, back problems, and neck problems can choose to ride on the flat portion of the handlebar, providing a fairly upright and relaxed body position. Likewise, riders who are more flexible, with minimal “issues” can ride on the hoods or in the drops, creating a more aggressive and aerodynamic “race” position. Muscle recruitment is also a factor, as a properly set up road bike tends to spread the power production fairly evenly between the glutes, hamstrings and quads - a little tidbit of information that will come in handy momentarily.
In short, road bikes are designed to be ridden or raced in a variety of positions over a variety of distances and terrain with comfort and efficiency.

Now, let’s talk Triathlon bikes. While Tri bikes are also used on the road, the similarities pretty much end there. Triathlon bikes are not designed to just be ridden; they are designed to be raced. Aerodynamics is of paramount importance on Tri bikes, and therefore frame design and geometry can be radically different from their road cousins.
Tri bikes can most readily be distinguished by the bull-horn/aero bar cockpit set up. The shifters are positioned at the end of the aero bar extensions, and the brake levers are positioned separately, on the ends of the bull horns. Frame design places a higher importance on aerodynamics, so you will see varying shapes of the different tubes, all designed to maximize their wind-cheating properties. A quick study of Triathlon-specific bikes will also reveal a departure from standard “road” frame design. While a double triangle frame is strong and stable, it is not the most aerodynamic, so bike companies are constantly devising new ways to place a rider atop two wheels with an eye to presenting as low a frontal drag area as possible. To that end, the geometry of a Triathlon bike is significantly steeper, or angled more forward, than that of a road bike. Tri bikes tend to have seat tube angles of 76-78 degrees, with some aggressive manufacturers producing bikes closer to 79-81 degrees of seat angle. This geometry does many things. First, it allows the rider to achieve a much lower upper body position while still maintaining an effective and efficient hip angle. On a slack-angled road bike, in order to get lower in the front, the rider has to fold himself/herself into a tighter-than-optimal hip angle. This tight, or acute hip angle creates an overstretched lower back and a compressed diaphragm. Neither of these situations is ideal. The overstretched lower back is uncomfortable and unsustainable, and the compressed diaphragm will compromise oxygen supply and power production over time.

With a Tri bike, by creating a steeper seat tube angle, the rider is now simply rotated forward around the bottom bracket, creating a lower frontal position without compromising hip angle, lower back positioning and diaphragm utilization. You get all the benefits of a more aerodynamic position without sacrificing anything…or so it would seem.

Let’s get back to the geometry. As stated above, the slack seat tube angle allows the road bike to be an efficient climber, and a stable descender. In comparison, the steep seat tube angle of Tri bikes create the potential for inefficient climbing, and very twitchy descending. It all comes back to that pesky little COM. By creating a steeper seat angle, the rider’s COM gets rotated forward over the bottom bracket, which takes weight off of the rear wheel and puts it onto the front wheel. If your typical COM displacement on a road bike is 70% rear wheel and 30% front wheel, a steep angle Tri bike would have a COM displacement closer to 50-50. This type of COM displacement can create a very twitchy, inefficient ride. Now, smart bike manufacturers have picked up on this, and try to rectify the situation by shortening the chain stays to tuck the rear wheel back underneath the rider, and hopefully opening up the head tube angle to kick the front wheel away from the rider’s COM, thus maintaining a relatively long wheel base (although still shorter than a road bike) and getting closer to a 60/40 type of COM displacement. That head angle is very important, and something you really need to pay attention to if you are buying a Tri bike. If the manufacturer shortens the chain stays to bring the rear wheel in, but does not move the front wheel out, you will end up with a very short wheel base, a very poor COM, and a very poor handling bicycle, especially on descents. There are a many Tri bikes on the market that fall into this category. Not to mention, this is exactly what happens when you attempt to turn a road bike into a Tri bike by slamming the saddle forward, creating an effectively steep seat tube angle - something I never recommend. It’s like trying to turn an F1 car into an off-road rally car: it can be done, but it won’t function very well, or for very long.

Next let’s examine rider position atop a Tri bike. Contrary to popular belief, there is only one effective, efficient position on a Tri bike, and that is on the aero bars, in an aggressive, forward-pitched position, meaning the bull horns simply exist as a means to attach the aero bars, and a place to put the brake levers. They are not meant for a long-term hand position, which causes the rider to sit up too high, creating an open hip angle that creates an inefficient pedal stroke, and not to mention the destruction of any aerodynamic benefit. It is important to note that this forward, aero position puts your saddle pressure more forward, off the sit bones and onto the soft tissue areas of the groin. For this reason, Tri bikes really need to be ridden under pressure, with your leg muscles supporting much of your body weight. They are not the ideal bike to comfortably go for a three hour cruise. Standing is also a big no-no on these bikes. In order to comfortably reach the aero bars, and get into that low, tucked position, the top tube of a Tri bike tends to be shorter than the equivalently sized road bike. This puts your knees much closer to the bars, and when standing it is quite likely your knees will hit the arm rests of the aero bars. Also, with your COM so far forward, if you stand on a Tri bike, you take even more weight off the rear wheel, which makes the bike even more unstable.

Finally, to complete the comparison, we need to look at muscle recruitment. Triathletes have a much different set of parameters to deal with when racing than road cyclists do. Triathletes need to be worried about over-taxing their legs on the bike, so that they are still fresh enough to complete the run portion of the race. Tri-specific geometry helps with this. By rotating the body forward and down over the bottom bracket-steep seat tube, angle-power production tends to get shifted away from the glutes and hamstrings (primary running muscles) and moved to a more quad dominant pedal stroke. This is only true however, as long as the rider stays in that low, forward position on the aerobars, which brings me back to my statement above that a Tri bike can only be ridden effectively in one position. If you sit up or stand, you put pressure back onto the hamstrings and glutes, and gamble with having a negative impact on your run split.

So, now that the comparison is complete, which bike do you buy? It all depends on what you want your bike to do for you. If you are looking for a fast, efficient race machine suitable for individual timed races against the clock (triathlon or time trial) then a Triathlon specific bike is probably for you. However, you need to enter into your investment with the understanding that it is a race-specific bike. In light of everything, Triathlon bikes need to be ridden fast, under pressure in an aggressive position. For this reason, I tend to refer to Tri bikes as race bikes, as this is where they truly excel. On the flip side, if you want a bike to go cruising on, something you can race effectively but is also good on long, easy training rides, then you should consider a road bike. With its relaxed geometry and more upright rider position and multiple hand positions, a road bike is a much more versatile bike to own. You also need to consider the type of rider/racer you are. Just because you are a Triathlete, does not necessarily mean you need a Tri bike. If you are simply participating in Triathlons, more for fitness and enjoyment than results, then I would strongly recommend a road bike; especially if this is your first bike. A typical Triathlon season consists of 85% training, and 25% racing, so if you are buying your first bike, buy the bike that is best suited to the majority of your riding, which would be a road bike. You can train comfortably, and participate effectively with one. If all you own is a Tri bike, you may race well, but I can guarantee that your training will be uncomfortable and potentially ineffective. Or, even worse, you end up creating a rider position on the Tri bike that it is not designed for, which will have a negative impact on the handling and efficiency of the bike.

To Tri or not to Tri: in a nutshell, if this is your first bike, buy a road bike. If you are upgrading, but only participating in Triathlon for fun and fitness, you should probably still buy a road bike, but a Tri bike could be a consideration if you plan on keeping your existing road bike. If you are a competitive Triathlete looking to get the most out of your bike leg, and already own a road bike for training, definitely buy a Tri bike.

Recognizing there are still many situations that fall somewhere between, the true answer to this question is always going to be a personal one. Hopefully armed with enough information and food for thought about your particular situation, the right choice still rests with you.

The Importance of Cadence

2009-09-09T20:03:00.000-04:00

Well, it’s been awhile, but here I am back at the keyboard. It’s been a busy two weeks of working on the studio and getting it into tip top shape. It’s coming along, but there seems to always be more to do. It’s kind of like training really. The framing is your foundation, flooring and drywall is your aerobic conditioning, painting and tiling is your tempo build phase, and the trim that ties it all together and really finishes the job, that’s your final peak before race day. Nice, I like that analogy. And then you start all over somewhere else in the house! Sometimes I think I was better off in the little rental apartment!

So, I believe in my earlier blogging, I alluded to an article on the importance of cadence. Let’s see if I can elucidate.

In order to understand the importance of cadence to your cycling efficiency, you must understand the concept of power, how it is created and how it affects your muscular and cardiovascular systems.

Speed is not the end all be all to cycling performance. Speed is affected greatly by the environment that you are riding in. Head winds, tailwinds, uphills, downhills, humidity and temperature levels all act upon your forward progress and affect your overall speed for a given effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had cyclist recount a ride where on the way out they were flying, feeling great, going 2-3km/hr faster than normal for a given heart rate, only to turn around for the ride home to get smacked in the face with a brutally stiff head wind. Sound familiar? Then you know you can’t judge effort level or improvement by speed alone.

That is where power comes in. Power never lies. Power is not affected by outward environmental factors. Power is the direct measurement of your ability to apply force through your legs to the pedals to make the bike move forward. Power is measure in watts, and is calculated using a very simple formula…Force x Speed = Power(watts). Force being the force applied by your legs to the pedals and drivetrain, and speed being the speed at which your legs are turning the pedals while that force is being applied.
Now that we understand how power is measured, and that our cadence is a factor in measuring that power, we can start to see the importance of cadence to our efficiency. Anybody made a nice big leap in logic yet? No? Okay, stay with me here.
Power is force times speed. As with any equation, you can arrive at the answer through an almost infinite number of variables in the equation. Meaning, you can create 200 watts in an infinite number of variations of force and cadence. This is very important, so I’ll say it again. You can create 200 watts, or any wattage you may choose, in an infinite number of variations of force and cadence.
Lets look at a couple. Say you’re spinning at 90rpms, to create 200w, you must be applying a force of 2.22 to the pedals. If you were spinning at 110rpms, that force DROPS to 1.81. If you are pedaling at 80rpm, the force required to create 200w INCREASES to 2.5, and if you are mashing away at 70rpm you need to be creating a force of 2.85 in order to arrive at the magical number of 200w.
So, can you start to see what is happening as cadence fluctuates? The slower your cadence, the more force you must apply to the pedals to create a given wattage. Which means, the slower your cadence, the greater the stress that is being placed on your muscular system. The faster your cadence, the greater the stress on your cardiovascular system. Now, we all know what efficiency means. It means getting from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of effort, and in a race situation, it means getting from point A to point B with enough gas left in the tank to sprint for the finish. If you create your power through a low cadence, high force application, you are placing a greater than necessary burden on your muscular system, you are burning more muscle glycogen than you can replace, and you are diminishing the likelihood of having a finishing kick in those legs as you approach the finish line. If on the other hand, you create that power through a high cadence, low force application, you are taking stress away from your muscular system and placing it on your cardiovascular system. Assuming that you can maintain a relatively aerobic effort level, it is possible to keep enough gas in the tank to tear the legs off your opponents at the penultimate moment of the race. Don’t believe me, just watch Lance vs Ulrich on any climb in the tour. Lance spins fast, Ulrich is a masher. Jan has never been able to stay with Lance on any climb in any tour once Lance takes it up that extra notch, and I believe one of the biggest reasons for having that notch is due to the fact that he saves his muscular system by spinning a high cadence so that he has that force left in reserve for when he needs it.

Now, for a final argument let’s look at multi-sport athletes. You have a special set of requirements to your cycling efficiency. You have to be able to get off the bike and run. It is of ultimate importance for you to truly optimize your efficiency on the bike so that you will have a strong run to finish your race. You can well imagine how fresh your legs are going to feel if you are grinding away at 75rpm’s, fatiguing your quads and hamstrings, depleting your muscle glycogen levels in the process. Now, what if you spin a nice fast cadence, say around 110rpm? You keep the stress off your leg muscle, your quads and hamstrings don’t fatigue, and you preserve your muscle glycogen levels so that you can get off the bike and feel strong, light and ready to run. If you want to improve the run portion of your race, one of the best things you can do is learn how to pedal at a higher cadence, and improve your efficiency on the bike. As a multi-sport athlete, you need to realize that run training alone will not improve your run in a race situation. Everything you do on race day leading up the T2 is going to have a profound affect on your run. It’s in your best interest as an athlete to make sure that the affect is a positive one all around.

Don't be a Tri-Sheep

2009-09-04T19:48:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those rides that just sticks with you for a reason totally unrelated to the task at hand? I have. A couple of years ago I was down in California for a self-directed training camp and I came upon the strangest thing. We were riding through some rolling hills, in and out of little farmland valleys, when at the top of one of the hills all traffic had come to a halt.
What was the cause you might ask? Cows! A farmer was moving his cattle from one field to another, across the road, and all traffic was stopped while these cattle crossed the road in a very orderly, single file manner. Guess I now know the answer to why the cow crossed the road!
Ah, but I digress. While we were stopped waiting for the cattle to cross the road, I looked down into the valley below and saw something even cooler. Two Australian Shepherds were keeping an eye on a flock of sheep. There was no human around, just these two dogs keeping this herd of sheep in line. Now, have you ever seen how a flock of sheep moves in a field when the dogs are around? It’s really quite interesting. They stay bunched very tightly together, moving together as one unit, almost as though one brain were controlling all their movements. It’s very surreal watching this mass of white fluff floating around the field.
Anyway, I found my thoughts drifting back to those sheep recently when I was thinking about the current make up of a typical transition zone. In my humble little opinion, there are too few manufacturers with far too great a representation in the typical race field these days. Which has led me to coin the cute little term, “tri-sheep”!
In my opinion, there is a prevalent mentality among the triathlon community that goes something like, “I am/want to be a triathlete, therefore I must ride X bike with Y wheels and Z wetsuit.” It is a self-perpetuating cycle as well. The more people who live and purchase by this philosophy, the more of a foothold particular brands gain in transition zones, which gives them more visibility and a greater perception among the masses that this is the best bike/wheelset/wetsuit to use. These tri-sheep also allow themselves to be herded around by the industry version of the Australian Shepherd, corporate marketing departments. You can almost see them traveling en-masse, drifting from one “must-have” gadget to the next.
Are these tri-sheep really making the best use of their resources though? Just because you see Dick and Jane riding a particular brand of bike or wearing a particular wetsuit, that doesn’t automatically mean you should be too. Each one of us is unique. We all have individual fit and ride parameters based on our level of fitness, our range of motion, our overall athleticism and our goals and reasons for taking part in triathlon. All of those factors should go into choosing your bike, and any other equipment you need to purchase.
As an example, if you are a relative newcomer to the sport, or maybe a little overweight with a corresponding limit to flexibility and range of motion through your hamstrings, hip flexors and lower back, there are some very aggressively built triathlon bikes out there that you should probably stay away from as your body is not currently built to ride in the position that is optimal for the handling and comfort of that bike. In fact, I would argue that if you fit the above description, you should probably stay away from a tri-bike altogether, and look at a nice road bike instead. And yet, I see bikes in transition at every race that have had all kinds of modifications made to the geometry to try and create a rideable position where one really doesn’t exist.
I am a firm believer that fit is the number one most important criteria in choosing a bike, especially a tri-bike. Fit affects everything… comfort, power output, aerodynamics, efficiency, handling and stability. An improperly fit or sized bike will sacrifice or compromise on one or more of these performance parameters. Why anyone would drop over $3000 on a compromise is beyond me. Especially when one considers the sheer diversity of choice that currently exists within the triathlon market. If, as a consumer, you perform due diligence and truly research your options, you can almost always find a stock bike that is going to get the job done. And for those times when you can’t, custom is always an option, and at far less a premium than most people think.
How can you know if you are compromising or sacrificing fit? If your handle bars or arm rests are higher than your saddle, your set up is probably wrong. If your stem is shorter than 90mm, your bike is probably too big for you. If you have more than 3cm of spacers under your stem, a stem with a positive rise of more than about eight degrees, or worse, a combination of the two, you are definitely on the wrong bike. And those are just the basics.
Now, I know what you are thinking, this is just a long drawn out argument for going custom. Not so. I spend quite a bit of my time doing pre-purchase fit consults for clients to help them determine which of the stock bikes on the market is going to provide them with the best fit for the money they want to spend. I’d say about 80% of the time, I’m able to find a stock bike that either makes no compromises, or if it does, they end up being negligible. For the other 20%, they have a decision to make. Live with the compromises that a stock bike offers, or go custom. Regardless of which way they go, at least they are entering into the purchase with full knowledge, and full disclosure.
So, what am I really getting at? Don’t be a tri-sheep and simply follow the herd. Ask yourself exactly what it is you want from your equipment, determine the size and geometry of bike you truly should be on. Make sure your equipment matches your physical requirements, your skill level, and your goals. You’ll get more out of your equipment, more out of yourself, and more out of your participation in this sport.

Rider Posture as it Relates to Bike Fit

2009-09-01T20:13:00.000-04:00

Okay, yet again, it’s been a very long while since I’ve written here. My excuse this time…just down right too busy! It’s been non-stop ever since being at the bike show back in early March. Good for me, bad for all those out there who hang on my every word…Ya, right!

Anyway, to cut to the chase, recent events have led me to a couple of topics that I really feel need to be put down on paper. I discuss both of these topics at length during my bike fitting sessions, so I figure it’s time I share my “wisdom” with the masses. I was going to put separate these into two separate entries, but after some careful thought, I realized that they really are two parts of the same whole, so I’ve decided to treat them as such here.

The first half of this whole deals with how the cyclist’s body should be positioned on the bike that they are riding. I deal with rider posture during most of my bike fits, as most cyclists I come across end up having fairly poor posture on their bikes. Before I get to the heart of the matter, let me just make it clear that I’m primarily talking about road bikes and triathlon bikes. Mountain bikes do still fit this posture to a degree, but hybrids, cruisers and the like are definitely not the kind of bikes that would be affected by the posture issues that I’d like to discuss.

When I talk to my clients about posture, I’m mostly concerned with how they are dealing with the reach from the saddle to the handlebars, otherwise known as cockpit length or reach. The vast majority of cyclists that I encounter get this reach wrong. They tend to round out their lower backs, creating a posterior tilt to their pelvic bone in the process. This rounded back sets off a chain reaction of other posture issues that all combine to make for a very inefficient and usually uncomfortable riding position. During my bike fit sessions, I like to utilize a straight edge, running up the spine starting from the sacrum/tailbone area. With a rounded back and posteriorly tilted pelvic bone, this straight edge will end up losing contact with the spine about two to three inches above the starting point. What I’m looking for is a posture that allows the straight edge to be in contact with the spine all the way up to just below the shoulder blades. Creating that posterior tilt to the pelvic bone and rounding out the lower back artificially shortens the upper torso, creating an artificially long cockpit length. To compensate, the rider will then hunch up their shoulders and stretch their arms way out in order to reach the handlebars. On top of that, this rounded posture compresses the diaphragm, making breathing far less efficient, and it closes and locks off the hip flexors, making it very difficult to activate them through the top portion of the pedal stroke. This in turn results in a less than optimal pedal stroke. Hunching up the shoulders and reaching out with the arms causes unnecessary stress in the upper body, and quite often leads to complaints of neck and shoulder pain. Finally, the rounded back ends up with local issues of its own, as the rounding tends to overstretch the muscles, usually resulting in complaints of localized lower back pain.
Okay, so in a nutshell, there you have a fairly good representation of poor posture, and the resulting negative effects. Now, how do you go about correcting it? As with poor posture, a good cycling posture begins with the lower back/pelvic tilt. Remember how I commented above about the pelvic bone a posterior tilt? Well, the trick to solving your posture issues lies in giving the pelvic bone an open, anterior tilt. Opening up the pelvic bone will automatically flatten out your back and relax the lower back muscles. It also opens up your diaphragm for easier, more efficient breathing, and gives you back full use of your entire torso length. This provides an effectively shorter cockpit length without having to change anything on the bike, which in turn allows for a more relaxed upper torso, including arms and shoulders. It also opens up the hip flexors, making it easier to engage them through the top portion of the pedal stroke, making for a far more effective and efficient pedaling style. Incidentally, this anterior tilt of the pelvic bone should actually be carried through your entire life, sitting in the car, at your desk, running, walking etc…but I’ll leave that discussion to the chiropractors of the world!
So, sounds simple right? Just open up that pelvic bone and all your problems melt away. Unfortunately, nothing in life is that simple. There are a couple of issues that crop up with this “correct” posture. First, it requires a strong core, as you are now a little more forward with your upper body, which means your upper torso weight is not being driven down the spine into the saddle for support. You need to be supporting a bit more of that upper torso weight with your core, so it takes a little getting used to. The other issue actually segues nicely into the second half of this topic, and is one of the most common reasons why people don’t ride with good posture on the bike. Rotating the pelvic bone open puts less pressure directly down into the saddle via the sit bones, but instead puts some of that pressure more forward onto the soft tissue areas. People tend to find this uncomfortable, especially if the saddle they are currently riding does not accommodate for this type of pressure displacement.
Neither of these issues is insurmountable however. Weak core? That’s easy, do some sit ups and crunches and strengthen it. You should be doing them already anyway! Getting saddle pressure where you don’t want it? Don’t adopt poor posture to accommodate a bad saddle…get a new saddle.

Ahh, but what saddle should I buy? In a nutshell, one that eliminates the soft tissue pressure and allows you to maintain a forward tilt to your pelvic bone, and thus maintain good cycling posture.
Now, as to the specific saddle you should buy, for every saddle model on the market, there are at least 100 opinions on which one is right. However, in my professional opinion, three manufacturers truly stand out from the field when it comes to relieving that soft tissue pressure. Selle Italia, Selle SMP, and Specialized with their Body Geometry series. In fact, Specialized really pioneered the whole concept, and really helped to bring it mainstream. In essence, you should be looking for a saddle that has some kind of cut-away down the centre line of the saddle, in the correct fore-aft position for your riding style and body shape. Women tend require a cut-away that is a little more towards the front than men do. As well, all Triathletes, due to their more forward position on the bike will also require a cut-away that is more front of centre. In fact, Triathletes are the ones who generally have the hardest time finding a saddle that will allow them to ride with correct posture. Most triathlon specific saddles have completely missed the mark as far as I’m concerned. They tend to beef up the nose of the saddle, exactly where the pressure is going to be, and just put more padding their. In my tender opinion, get that stuff out of there! I don’t care how much padding you have, if you are on it for long enough, pressure will end up building. Much better to just simply get rid of the pressure all together at that point. Specialized has finally solved this problem with the introduction of their new Tri-specific saddle for 2008. Selle SMP is another company who has deftly solved the problem of soft tissue pressure for Triathletes, without even having to make a tri-specific saddle. Now, full disclosure here. I am a Selle SMP dealer, primarily because I ride them and I love them, and so has everybody whose butt I’ve put one under in the last few months. I’m not going to turn this into an SMP love fest though. I’m not writing this to sell product, only inform. I’ll save the sales pitch for a product review I’ll be writing shortly for another section of this site.

The last thing I want to touch on regarding saddles is saddle width. I believe there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding how wide a saddle should be, and I’d like to clarify a few points…but keep in mind that these “clarifications” are solely my own point of view, based on years of experience and tinkering. Many saddle manufacturers base saddle width on the width of the rider’s rear end. To be blunt, the wider your butt, the wider your saddle. Specialized is a big proponent of this concept, going so far as to create a thermal imaging pad to determine a customer’s butt size. You simply sit on this pad; it registers heat levels based on contact, and creates a butt profile and size. Sounds like fun eh? Now, as much as I love the Body Geometry saddles and the science behind them, I take exception to this method of marketing saddles. I believe there are a couple of flaws with this system. First, your butt is going to register a different size and shape depending on your posture when seated, and how your body weight is being displaced through your rear and onto whatever it is you are sitting on. If you don’t believe me, simply put your hand lightly on a table, fingers splayed and trace it. Now, keeping your hand in the same position, try weighting it from different angles. Pushing forward, to the side, and straight down, and see how those outlines compare to the unweighted outline. A bit different, yes? The same thing holds true for your butt on a bike seat. The more upright you are and the more straight down your weight are bearing, the wider your butt will be. The most extreme example of this would be a cruiser bike. As you rotate forward and become more aggressive, your weight gets displaced differently, causing a different butt profile to emerge. Another thing to keep in mind with your position is how it affects your pedal stroke. The more upright you are, the more you are pedaling in a straight up and down, piston-like motion. As you pitch forward into a more aggressive road/tri position, the pedal stroke becomes more oval, with a greater degree of rear sweep with the thigh. If you are in a fairly forward position with a wide saddle, your thighs will come in contact with the saddle as they sweep back through the pedal stroke. This contact will often result in less than ideal bio-mechanics.
So, I propose that saddle width be chosen not on butt width, but on riding position. The more aggressive and forward your position, the narrower your saddle should be. As you become more upright, your saddle width should increase accordingly.
Finally, now that you’ve got your new saddle, don’t just throw it on and go riding. Saddle comfort is not just about shape, size and pressure points. It’s also about the saddles position underneath you. Having your butt positioned properly on the saddle, and having the saddle positioned properly under you is a very important part of the equation. At the very least, measure your saddle height, cockpit length and saddle nose plumb line to bottom bracket positions of your old saddle, and then mimic those positions as closely as possible with the new saddle. At best, purchase the saddle from a shop that has a qualified bike fitter on staff, and have them help you position the saddle on your bike and underneath you. Your butt, and soft tissue, and ultimately your whole body, and your performance will thank you.

Let's get Dirty, a beginners guide to cyclocross

2009-09-01T19:49:00.000-04:00

Well, fall is here, it’s hard to believe that summer has passed us by yet again. Especially considering the decidedly un-summer like weather we got dealt this year. Regardless, the seasons are changing and with that comes a change in the bikes we ride.

The triathlon season is winding down, the mountain bike season is all but over, and the road season is practically put to bed. Despite the seeming lack of racing available to us, we still have a good two to three months of excellent riding available to us. So, what are we to do?

Cyclocross baby! Time to get out and get dirty! For those of you not familiar with cyclocross racing, it’s a unique European hybrid of road and mountain bike courses with a bit of deliberate running thrown in for good measure. Courses are usually a mix of smooth surfaces, dirt single track, plenty of climbing, tight, technical corners and one or two points where you must dismount your bike and run with it for a short time. Races normally last an hour, and are very, very intense.

Why should you race ‘cross? There are plenty of good reasons to give it a try this year. One, you’ve spent all summer training and racing, and more than likely are at a very top level of form and fitness. Cyclocross season allows you to continue to take advantage of that fitness level while keeping the competitive juices flowing. I know a lot of people who tend to suffer a bit of a mental/emotional let down once their “A” race has come and gone. This tends to happen because the major challenge of the year has past, and there are no knew challenges on the near horizon. Cyclocross season gives you that intermediate challenge to keep you happy and fit while you figure out what your major challenge of the next season is going to be. It can also fine tune your speed and explosive power, due to the highly intensive, anaerobic nature of the courses. For mountain bikers, it’s a great way to extend the dirt season, and for roadies and triathletes, it is a chance to do something completely different both mentally and physically. And especially for triathletes, it is a chance to significantly improve bike handling skills, stability and balance. Plus, with the built in running component, you triathletes out there already have a bit of a “leg up” so to speak!

Ok, so we’ve covered off the why part, now for the how. Due to the course style, cyclocross has spawned its own special style of bike. At first glance it looks a lot like a road bike, drop bars, STI shifters etc…but there are some very subtle differences. First are the brakes. ‘Cross bikes use a cantilever style break to allow for better mud clearance than what a road style caliper brake would provide. This also allows for a wider, more profiled tread style that will hook up well in wet and muddy conditions. The fork clearance, and chain/seat stay clearance is also wider than on a road bike to accommodate these wider tires, and provide better mud clearance. The geometry tends to be a little more laid back as well, with a slacker seat tube angle, and slightly longer wheelbase than your typical road bike, along with a taller bottom bracket clearance, for mud and obstacle clearance, and better pedal clearance through tight corners.

Do you NEED a ‘cross bike to take part in ‘cross races? No. As a beginner, you can absolutely take part and enjoy a ‘cross race on a mountain bike. You’ll be slower than the guys on dedicated bikes, but it will serve the purpose and allow you to discover whether or not ‘cross racing is for you. I don’t doubt that after a couple of outings on your mountain bike, you’ll be online sourcing out a brand new, shiny cyclocross bike to add to your stable!

Funny how that segues perfectly into my next point about what’s available out there. I’d be a very bad sales type guy/business owner if I didn’t put in a big plug for the new cyclocross selections from Guru Bicycles. They currently have a beautiful aluminum frame version, and a very sleek, never-going-to-kill-it titanium frame as well. You can check them both out at www.gurubikes.com

Now, one last thing on ‘cross bikes. You do not need to be racing ‘cross to ride a ‘cross bike. In fact, I’m a firm believer that cyclocross bikes are the best all around training bike on the market, no matter what your chosen discipline. Roadies have long appreciated the go anywhere, do anything versatility of a ‘cross bike, and many pull them out in the fall and ride them all through the winter, due to that wider tire, better mud clearance, more relaxed geometry I spoke of earlier. A cyclocross bike allows you to hit some more varied terrain as well. Personally, there is nothing more enjoyable than a fall rail trail ride through the country, enjoying the colours, the sights and smells, all without the hassles and distractions of road traffic.

For roadies, a ‘cross bike gives you a ride that you can take out, get dirty and beat up a bit more than you’d want to do with your race rig. For mountain bikers, it’s a more comfortable way to get out and do those longer steady state aerobic intensity rides. For triathletes, if all you own is your tri bike, I believe a ‘cross bike is a better choice than a road bike as your second “training” bike. You can take it out and beat it up a bit, get it dirty and explore some different terrain, and it’s a way more comfortable method of getting your longer aerobic intensity rides in.

I’ve often considered ‘cross bikes to be the SUV’s of the bike world. It’s a go anywhere, do anything design that would fit well into any two wheeled athletes stable as the all around bike you can take anywhere at any time of year. For mountain bikers and triathletes who are looking at getting a road bike for training, I’ve always strongly suggested going with a ‘cross bike instead for more versatility, comfort and practicality. Unless you are actually planning on taking part in road races, there really is no need for a road specific bike. A ‘cross bike will take you more places, and quite often at a fraction of the price.

Milton Triathlon Race Report

2009-06-05T19:50:00.000-04:00

Race report time! First race of the season is now under my belt. The Subaru Triathlon Series got underway this past weekend in Milton with a Sprint Triathlon and Duathlon.
Here’s coaches report.

Well, let’s get started with the weather. Yet again, not ideal. In some ways better than last year, in other ways, worse. I will say the water was significantly warmer than it was last year, but the wind was horrendous and made the air temperature very chilly. It was actually warmer in the water than out. I was feeling fairly confident getting into the water this year, much more so than last year. Got a great tip from my sponsored pro Tyler Lord to start wide and let the current carry me to the first bouy. Great tip, and it worked awesome. Only problem was that I just couldn’t get into a rhythm. My breathing was labored, and my shoulders were really fighting the wetsuit. In hindsight, I should have warmed up more, and I will be sure to do so in Muskoka in a couple of weeks. I was feeling better by the time I hit the first bouy, and then the flippers fell off so to speak. I took the turn wide, and got off course a bit, and then my course mistake was compounded by the fact that I was swimming cross current and it was carrying me further and further away from where I needed to be. For a minute there, I seriously thought I was being swept out to sea! I managed to finally get my composure back and finish the swim, but it was seriously slow and threw off my overall time. Definitely learned a few things that I will be applying to my future races.

Transition was slow as usual. I’m not out for any top ten placing, so I prefer to take my time and get things done right. As I get faster overall, I’ll start caring about my transition times.

The bike was good. Fitness felt great, and the 6th line hill didn’t really feel like a hill this time around. The training has certainly been working. I put down almost exactly the same time as last year, with a much stronger wind, so I’m very happy to know that I’m a fair bit stronger than I was last year. I’m looking forward to a less windy day when that power will translate into speed. Bike fit was a bit of an issue, due to swapping out my bars for a trade with Tyler and I haven’t had a chance to redial my fit since the switch. I will definitely get that taken care of before Muskoka.

T2 was fairly uneventful. Need to get some speed laces onto my shoes.

The run was great. Training has been working really well here. I was a little over three minutes faster than last year, and felt solid all the way. As usual with Milton, had a hard time feeling my feet for the first couple of km’s due to the cold, but they came around, and the legs were feeling good all the way.

Overall, I’m fairly happy with my performance. A better swim would have been nice, but it’s the first race of the season, so I’m not going to complain too much yet. I’ll see what I can do to correct that in time for Muskoka in a couple of weeks.

Getting Retul'd

2008-12-09T19:51:00.000-05:00

I just had a very cool personal experience with my Retul 3D Motion Capture bike fit system that I thought I should share with you. It’s an excellent example of just what a precision fit can do not only for your comfort, but your power and efficiency.
I just received my new Guru Crono demo model for the 2009 season. This is the bike I’ll be racing on next year, and I wanted to get the fit dialed in so I could start training on it indoors over the winter. Plus, I just sold my other demo bike, so I’m kind of in need of something to train on!

I warmed up for about 5min on the CompuTrainer at about 190w, low Z3 before getting Jen to wire me up and start the fit process. Before I go any further, if you aren’t familiar with what the Retul system can do for bike fit, I suggest you head on over to the website and check it out before continuing. They’ll do a much better job of explaining it than I will, and if you go here, you’ll be able to see it in action with Christian VandeVelde at the recent Garmin training camp.

Ok, so my first snapshot was done on a guestimated saddle height and fore/aft position based on my road bike dimensions. My saddle was low and my reach from saddle to aero bars was too long. My pedaling efficiency was in the low 70s and I was putting out about 200watts. I also noticed that my knee tracking was way out of whack. I had over 40mm of lateral movement, and my knee was tracking in an oval and diagonal plane. Not good.

I started raising my saddle and taking snapshots to see how things improved. As I started bring my saddle up, my knee tracking slowly started to improve, and my wattage was getting better as well. As I got my knee angle more suitable I was pushing more in the range of 230-240w in Z3 and my knee lateral movement had reduced to around 35m, and the oval plane was slowly being straightened out.

Once I got my saddle height close, I started focusing on my fore/aft position. With the stock 110mm stem, my armpit angle was around 87 degrees, and I’m looking for something between 70 and 80 degrees. I shortened the stem to a 90 and took another snapshot, with confirmed the selection with a 77 degree armpit angle. This means that my upper body weight is directly over the arm rests, and that I am supporting my weight on my skeletal frame. If my armpit angle were over 80 degrees, I’d be relying too much on my muscles to support my weight, and this would lead to increased fatigue and decreased comfort.

Finally, I started looking for that “sweet spot” on the saddle where I felt my weight was distributed in the best manner over the bottom bracket, and where my access to power creation was optimized. I found it right up on the nose, so I moved the saddle forward to get my position on the saddle a little more centered while maintaining my body position relative to the bottom bracket. This is where things really started to get interesting. In that more forward position, I found my power production increasing. I was now pushing closer to 250w.

Now, one thing you need to understand with bike fit is that every change tends to necessitate another change somewhere else. Moving my saddle forward changed the effective height of it, as evidenced by my knee angle at bottom dead centre being reduced from where it was when I initially set my saddle height. So, now that I had my fore-aft nailed down pretty well, I started playing with saddle height again, and things got even more interesting.

As I started raising my saddle height my knee lateral continued to improve, and more interestingly, so did my power. I kept raising the saddle in small increments until I saw a reduction in my pedaling efficiency, which indicates that I’ve gone too high and am no longer able to pedal effectively through the full range of the pedal stroke. By the time I was done, I was putting out close to 270w while maintaining my pedaling efficiency in the low 70’s.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, through the process, I was able to improve my biomechanics, learn that I need to improve my hip flexion to remedy my knee lateral movement, and gain over 50 watts from when I started.

The interesting thing to note about these wattage numbers is how they compare to my power outputs on my road bike. I tested myself about six weeks ago, and I peaked out at 260w, and more recently, I was doing threshold intervals at 240w, yet in this new position on my Crono, I was pushing close to 270w, nowhere near my threshold. Not bad for about an hour of my time. I’ll admit that I’ve gotten stronger since I started training again (that is the point of training isn’t it), but to see such a dramatic improvement in power of the course of an hour fine-tuning my position was a very rewarding experience. I’ve done it for clients dozens of times, but it was nice to be on the receiving end for a change, and really experience how those little changes affect how I feel and ride.

Once I’ve spent some real time on the trainer in the new position, I’ll update you on how the position feels over the long term, how sustainable the position is, and what kind of power numbers I can sustain over longer periods.

Toronto Marathon 5km Race Report

2008-10-19T19:53:00.000-04:00

That was fun! Yet more proof that I really do love the short, fast, intense stuff! There were a few organizational hitches that will make me think twice about doing this particular race again, but overall a great day!

Organizational hitch number one was race kit pick up policy. I really do find it silly that they didn’t have morning of kit pick up available for the 5km. I was very perturbed at the thought of having to drive downtown twice in one weekend for a simple little 5km race. I really would like them to rethink that one. Fortunately, one of my athletes works downtown, about 5min from the pick up site, and she offered to pick up my kit for me…sweet! Thanks again for saving me that time.

Race day morning was cold! Minus 1 at 6am here in Acton, and I had to scrape frost off my car window’s for the first time this year! Brrrr….the drive in was very quick and peaceful. I’ve decided that the only time to be on the highways around the GTA is about 7am on a Sunday morning! I got a great parking spot across from the Starbucks on Bloor for my quick access to my post-race Pumpkin Spice Latte, and headed down to Queens’ Park to hook up with my running partner. It was a beautiful morning, clear blue sky, very little wind, a perfect day for a race.

I didn’t bother with a warm up for this one…it seriously was so cold this morning that I would have completely cooled down after my warm up, and probably felt worse, so we just hung out in the corral waiting for the gun to go. Organizational hitch number 2…no organization of the start. My gun time was 27:15, my chip time was 25:20. That’s how long it took me to get from where I was standing to the actual start line. Not to mention, the first 800m to km of the race was through a very narrow chute, and it was incredibly difficult to navigate through. Add to that, the fact that they didn’t separate the runners from the walkers and you pretty much had chaos reigning for the first few minutes. I’m sure that congestion added at least 30sec to my time, but what are you going to do? Once I got caught up in the traffic (hey Toronto and traffic, go figure) I pretty much gave up any hope of having a PB, which is too bad, because I was feeling really good.

Once things opened up, I set a very comfortable but solid pace on the downhill section of University. I was passing plenty of people, and never getting passed and feeling good. And the best, I wasn’t thinking at all. I was just watching the road, planning my route through the masses, and concentrating on my breathing rhythm and footfalls. No thoughts whatsoever. At the turnaround the legs were feeling strong but I definitely felt that little grade eating into my thighs as we started back up University. I just put my head down, shortened up my stride a bit and maintained the pace I had set on the way down. My heart rate and breathing definitely elevated, and the legs were burning, but I knew I only had about 12min to suffer through it so I just put it out of my mind and kept my legs turning over. I ignored the water station, but did take time out to do a little dance…they were playing really good music! I made it back to the Park and started picking up the pace a bit as we came around the park to the finish, and then really lengthened my stride out for the last 100m or so as the grade took a downturn heading into the finish.

I’m happy to say I finished strong, but I think I probably could have pushed things a bit more early on. Overall though, I’m quite happy. That’s the first 5km I’ve run in a few years, and I’m pretty close to my PB of 23:39…with very little run specific training over the last couple of months. The CrossFit has been great for this kind of thing. It’s really taught me how to suck it up and tough it out at high intensity’s for short periods of time, which is exactly what you need for racing 5kms. My goals now are to set a new PB for the distance by the end of the year…perhaps at the Santa Shuffle, and to get my 5km time down to around 20min by next spring. Time to hit the track I think.

So, final details…chip time of 25:20, 17/89 AG and 174/769 overall. This the current benchmark…now it’s time to go out and set new one.

Farewell Dukes...

2008-02-22T19:58:00.000-05:00

The bicycle world in Toronto got a bit smaller yesterday with the loss of Duke’s bike shop in a massive fire on Queen St W. For those of you who don’t know, Dukes has been a strong presence in the bicycle industry in Toronto since the early 1900’s, and still going strong in the third generation of family ownership …or at least they were until the unfortunate events yesterday.
Most of yesterday I spent reflecting, as emails from friends and clients kept coming in, expressing shock and sadness, and what has really hit home for me is the ripple effect that this is going to cause in the Toronto and Southern Ontario cycling community.
Not only did we lose a great retailer (if you’re in the Toronto cycling community odds are you’ve bought something from them in the past few years), we’ve also lost a great supporter of cycling at the grass roots level.
There’s the retail side of things. This could not have happened at a worse time for a bike shop. We’re heading into spring, which is pretty much Christmas for a bike shop. From my time at a local bike shop, I know that Duke’s would have probably been bursting at the seams with all the new stock arriving for the coming spring season. Bikes, clothing, parts and accessories, all booked months ago would have been packed into the shop waiting to be built, priced and displayed. Now, all of it is nothing more than ash and twisted, melted metal. The truly frustrating part for Duke’s no doubt much of it is completely irreplaceable at this time of year. For those of you who don’t know the inner workings of the industry, everyone from manufacturers to suppliers and distributors, all the way down to retailers are very averse to sitting on an excess of stock. This is especially true on the bicycle side of things. For a bike shop, if equipment and merchandise wasn’t pre-ordered last fall, they probably aren’t going to get it. Similarly, bike companies make very little extra stock over and above what was booked, as they don’t want be in the position to have to sell off old stock at year end. Couple that with a scarcity of raw materials, and the rising cost of those materials in China, and parts are hard to come by for re-orders after booking. Anybody who has tried to get a Shimano part ordered in June over the last couple of years will know what I mean.
This single factor alone will have a lot to do with whether or not Duke’s can rebuild, and how quickly that rebuilding will happen. Even if they could locate another location within a couple of weeks, stocking the new location at this time of year is going to be a monumental effort.
The ripple effect I mentioned above is also going to affect the suppliers. Most of the product that burned in the fire was probably not paid for yet. Dukes would most likely have had excellent terms with their suppliers, so everything ordered back in the fall, and had delivered over the last couple of months, would not have to be paid for until probably March or April. So now all those suppliers are out of product, and potentially out a good chunk of money. Granted, insurance may cover most of it, but the process of sorting that all out is going to be another monumental task.
Continuing the ripple effect, one also has to consider the customer bikes and product that were in the store being repaired or waiting to be picked up. These people are now out of pocket as well, and while insurance will cover it, it will take time, eat into their training and racing schedule, and in many cases, insurance will probably not cover the true replacement cost of the bike. Insurance companies seem to have a hard time wrapping their actuarial brains around the fact that bikes cost more than the $300 models at Canadian Tire!
Now, let’s talk about the non-retail side of things, and something I touched on earlier. Duke’s has always been a great supporter of the community, and in the last few years they have really stepped-up that support. Duke’s moved in and filled a gap in race sponsorship that was left open by another Toronto-area shop, and have been doing a great job with it ever since. Their sponsorship and support of the 8hr races, and the Ocup series, help to bring more people into the sport. Duke’s understands that the best way to get a bigger piece of the pie, is to simply create a bigger pie. The best way to make a bigger pie is to be bringing new people into the community. You can’t bring new people into the community if there isn’t anywhere for them to go, and this is where the sponsorship comes in. By sponsoring races and events, Dukes is providing a level of excitement and interest guaranteed to bring new people into the community.

Now a cloud hangs over the viability of the races that Duke’s was sponsoring. Race organization takes money, and if Duke’s is unable to provide that support, it will remain to be seen if other’s are able to step in at such a late juncture and fill the void that will be left. I would hate to see the race season in Ontario suffer due to this.
Duke’s was also a major sponsor of the Lap Dogs cycling club, one of the biggest and most successful clubs in Ontario. This year marked a major increase in the level of sponsorship, and was shaping up to be a great year for both Duke’s and the Lap Dogs. Much of that future is now in doubt. Continuing with the ripple effect theme, the Lap Dogs club lost much of their infrastructure in that fire as well. Team and club clothing, tents, supplies and equipment were all stored at the shop.
You see, the truly sad thing is that it’s not just a bike shop that is in need of re-birth. There is an entire community and culture that now needs to regroup and rebuild as well.

The loss of Duke’s goes well beyond the simple loss of a bike shop. The repercussions of this will be felt for weeks and months to come.

As an ammendement, it's just come to my attention from reliable sources that Dukes plans to rebuild, and that much of their stock ended up weathering the storm in an off-site warehouse. They also plan on being at the Toronto Bike Show in full force. I congratulate them for their strength and conviction, and invite you all to drop by the booth and give them a show of support. In fact, even though I'm technically in competition with them for sales, I'm going to go so far as to say that if you are planning on buying a bike at the Bike Show, and have a choice between two or three comparable bikes, and one of those bikes is from Dukes, buy the one that Dukes is selling and do your part to give back to a shop that has given so much to the community in the past.

AT vs LT, a primer

2007-01-03T19:59:00.000-05:00

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is…
Do you use a blood test for Lactate Threshold?
Simple answer…NO.
First, I don’t believe that an invasive blood-letting while my test subject is at full throttle on the treadmill is the best way to convince that subject to come back for a re-test!
The real reason though, is that I don’t believe a simple blood lactate level test is enough data to truly measure a person’s physiological response to a training stimulus.
A full breath gas analysis that breaks down the subject’s metabolic response to energy production demands is a far more in depth manner of determining thresholds and training zones. I believe that it is not just the threshold and subsequent training zones that are important. It goes far deeper than that. If you don’t know what your metabolism is doing at specific heart rates, you don’t know your body and you won’t know how to train it or feed it.

Case study:
An individual determines that his/her Lactate Threshold (LT) is 174bpm. From here, you take percentages of that number to determine training zones. Recovery would be less than 75% or less than 131bpm. Aerobic Endurance would be 75%-85%, or 130-148bpm.
Aerobic Conditioning (Power) would be 85-95% or 148-166bpm. Threshold or Tempo training would be 95-105%, or 166-182bpm. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is good stuff, and way better than some 220 minus your age max heart rate junk, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Based on these numbers, most coaches would put this subjects LSD work in the 130-148 range, but what if they knew that at those heart rates fat was being metabolized at a rate of 4.5 fat calories per minute, yet in the next zone up, fat was being metabolized at a rate of 5.1 fat calories per minute. This subject is more efficient, and has a great endurance capability in the 85-95% range, and would actually end up UNDER training to their potential if they did not have that metabolic data available to them.

Aerobic Threshold is a far more important number to know, especially if the subject is an endurance athlete. Your Aerobic Threshold (AeT) is where your aerobic conditioning and endurance are at the peak of efficiency. This zone cannot be found through a blood Lactate test, only predicted. With a full breath gas analysis, this zone can be accurately pinpointed, targeted and improved. Common wisdom holds that your AeT is somewhere around 85% of your AT/LT. This is only an approximation though, and it won’t get you to a peak level of fitness. I have seen AeT’s upwards of 95% of AT/LT with proper focus and training, and without knowing your metabolic response to a training stimulus, you will never have the opportunity to truly build your AeT up to where it could be.
The higher your AeT is in relation to your AT/LT, the longer you will be able to maintain sub-threshold efforts, thus making you faster and more efficient, which is the holy grail of endurance athletes - greater speed with less effort (metabolic cost).
A simple blood lactate test will only get you part of the way.

So, the next question I get is, why does everybody do blood tests?
Very simple answer…COST.
A blood lactate analyzer costs about $90-100, so it is accessible to anybody who wants to get into testing. A full breath gas analysis unit is a tad more expensive than that. One thing I’ve come to realize in my many years in the service industry, what is the most cost effective for a company is usually not the most beneficial for it’s customers. I’ve chose to make the investment with the thinking that my clients are investing in my ability to improve their health/performance. I should come to the table with the most effective tools possible. And, I’d say the results over the last year speak for themselves.