Build your house with steep walls

That was the advice of a pro cyclist thats a world champion indoor and outdoor and TT
On Tuesday night of this week we had our RMTC meeting at Retul in Denver to discuse bike training and bike fit. Retul was nice enough to host a massive crowd of 70 packed into their fit/show room. And this was the advice he gave:

Shift before you need to
keep a 90-110 cadence at all times (even up hill)
And view your training as if you were building a house with steep walls. Meaning as little base prep as posible but including Anaerobic Zone training.

"Triathlon is A Viral Sport"~ Rob Urbach USAT

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Rob Urbach at the RMTC kickoff meeting and he had a few inspiring words to say.

On that note, I've read all about Bill Burke who was newly appointed by WTC as Managing Director for the 5150 series. He has an impressive rap sheet and id like to meet him one day as well.

I agree that triathlon is viral, its the fastest growing sport in recent years and im happy to be a part of it after jumping on the band wagon in 2007. Sometimes I kind of wish that I had jumped on it right out of college but I had that phase where I was trying to get my career jump started and I needed a break to let my body heal after competing at the D1 level for 4 years. We all jump into things at our own pace and progress and until I moved to CO I can say my progress was slow going, I trained for fitness, health and look all year long to maintain but I only trained for triathlon specifically about 4 months out of the year. This will have been my first winter where I took a more aggressive approach to training and beside a few down weeks, I trained through. And we are talking off season training here, low miles, injury prevention, technique and strength building focused. My first race is 3 weeks away (I may even throw in a race 2 weeks away), at that point for all intensive purposes spring will have sprung on my 2011 season. Although I cant say Im ready to shine as a competitive racer at this point, im more eager to successfully execute my carefully planned out race schedule.

Track workout:

Warm up
800m
A-step
C-step
High knees
Knee hugs
Lunges
Hurdler rolls
Fence leg swings
2x50 striders

Chad 4x(interval+400m)=11:24

prisoner squats
400
pushups with knee to elbow
400
speed skaters
400
Star lift (lateral lef lift)
400

Bike Fitting

As previously mentioned, when I signed up for the Rocky Mountain Tri Club we ended up having a deal with Retul for a bike fitting and I jumped on it! I just got done with a very informative and thorough fitting session of almost 2 hours with Mat over at Retul in Boulder. This is the same studio that fit Carfrae, Dibbins, Reed and Deboom before some of their major wins in 2010.


Since im in the market for, and have not yet acquired a TT/Tri bike I had my fitting on the adjustable fit bike made by Exit, but first we went through a history and goals interview. I consider myself a power runner, I bring my knees up, I open up my hips. I have strong hamstrings, quads and calfs which have a better then average flexibility and are incredibly balanced (this is key for a smooth peddle stroke, or a great runway run up in pole vault). Right off the bat we had a problem. My inexperience, lack of bike knowledge...I didn't even know some of the answers to what I was riding, and what brands I like. I guess gone are the days when you just get on your bike and ride. A TT bike is not a bike, its a masterpiece of carbon technology! It ended up that I had old style Look cleats and we had to change those out (mud still on my Pearl Tri Fly III's from my last race in Sept.) because they didn't even have those pedals. No biggy.

I mounted the Exit bike and we got to work. First starting out on seat positioning. This is where we almost immediately changed out the stock Felt seat (Felt SL Tri/TT Saddle). What can I say? I guess im just a little too tender in my undercarriage region. We changed that seat out for an Adamo saddle and it was like night and day (it will be an additional cost to my big purchase but a very important one). Comfortable, I could now attempt some very aggressive aero positioning. I couldn't believe how different this position was from the one I set myself up with on the road bike. After spinning some varying intensity for 20 mins with adjustments along the way I was surprised that my quads weren't burning, and my calfs weren't ready to go into lock down mode. The goal of a TT bike and optimal aero position is for better running off the bike. I didn't know the exact definition of this until this point. I now know why so many have passed me on the bike... my domination it seems is soon to come.


Retul Fitting
Mat took a few recordings of me spinning which then made a 2D computer model of yours truly and was complete with a readout of positions, and angle data. When we were sure we had the sweet spot I dismounted and various coordinates of seat, bar, and frame were surveyed to form the Zin.

The Zin coordinates were then uploaded to a frame finder software that Retul is in the process of completing (ya that's how cutting edge this place is, they give you access to their software before its even finished). It turned out that my best fit bike will be in the ball park of a Felt size 56 or Cervelo size 54 both bikes I've had on my list since they are for short legged, long torso-ed individuals like myself. I got a lot of questions answered. Sorry for not having any pictures but I wanted to keep Mat and myself focused on the task at hand..its pretty important to get it right.

Let the bike search begin...


Felt

Team Supported

As mentioned in my previous post Team I recently applied for a team with store sponsorship. There were 180 applicants fighting for only 40 slots of the 3 teams (elite, race/Tri, retail) and i'm one of the lucky ones since today I signed a contract with Runners Roost Running Store as a proud member of their team. The store was looking for good representatives of the running community and my dedication to the store and the run club probably helped out a bit. Now not only will I continue to attend their weekly club runs from the store with some of the top runners in Denver, but I'll also be sporting the white and red uniform at my up and coming 2011 races (many of which are supported by RR). Its going to be great having increased support at races and having so many people to train with. I look forward to my race packed season and finally putting some numbers up that I can brag about on my applications for next year. On that note, its sure to be a PR year since I don't have a time for 8k, half marathon, duathlon, 5M, and 10M. I can also almost guarantee a PR in the 5k, 10k, Sprint and Oly Tri distances. I look forward to meeting the team members at our first meeting date to be determined. Feel free to leave questions at the bottom if you have any.

Additionally, I joined the Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club team Rocky Mountain Tri Club (RMTC). Its made up of a lot of the same faces as the RR tri team. Im excited for their organized track workouts with a group. Along with that they had some kick ass club discounts on bike classes, swim sessions (all scheduled in Google Calendar..organization is key), and some gear discounts (who doesn't want those?). The clincher for me was a 100$ saving on a bike fitting, since I'm soon to be in the market for my first TT/Tri bike and this is step one of that process. Stay tuned for my post on how that goes 2/7/11.