Fred D Mentor Group - Part II (Page 20)

I still haven't mastered that art....  

Mont Tremblant will be my first experience with wetsuit strippers (I'm assuming they will have them.)

Hey James - The art and science of bike fitting is well outside my bailiwick, so I am interested to hear you expound on this? Aren't 3 & 4 simply functions of 1 & 2 or are there other factors at play? I agree that comfort trumps power (for me) on HIM and up - for the last two years my TT bike has been setup for IM even though I have been racing all distances - would be interesting to know if any of you actually tweak your setup back and forth between races?

Fred - will be good to see the video - the original setup certainly looks more "natural" for some reason - most likely for all of the reasons pointed out by others. And that is a good catch by James - is your front wheel up on a block in the original setup photo?

Good read. To me the most important part of the article is the distinction made between active recovery days and days off. My off days are for the most part driven by work travel, and my workout schedule is organized to take maximum advantage of that. For the reason that Marc alludes to I (perhaps even counterintuitively?) very rarely ever get a swim scheduled on an active recovery day. All of my swims are either A) hard, B) long, or C) both. Active recovery is usually a really easy spin or maybe a walk even. I will often have a key run, bike, or brick  the day before or after a swim, but I never have a key run and bike on back-to-back days.

The other thing mentioned in the article that I have found works very well for me is the 10 day schedule. The 7 day schedule is (for obvious reasons) driven by so many other factors that have nothing to do with maximizing physiological development.

This is what I have learned this year. I may be stating the obvious.

Knee angle is all about seat height. To me this is the first thing to fix. It impacts power, comfort and possible knee  problems
Hip Angle is mostly related to drop. Too closed and you lose power. To open and you are sitting up and losing aero
For me comfort is mostly about how stretched out I am
I lost power when I sat too far forward relative to BB and when my Hip Angle is too closed

One thing I would suggest people do is learn to use Aerolab in Golden Cheetah to measure their "aero" ness

Heh. I insist that I was robbed by Strava.
Every year of the TDG the climb from the base of Jack's Gap to the top of Brasstown is an Hors catégorie climb. Us mere mortals are not allowed to climb the last 1/4 mile to the top like the pros, so maybe that was the problem... I also learned another good Strava lesson: know your segments. When I got to the top of Jack's I took a left hand turn and rode about 50 meters up the Brasstown climb, where I then stopped, dropped 2 bottles (every little bit helps, right?) and sent a text message letting my wife know that I was not dead, and checked the weather. I then proceeded up Brasstown. Well, as you Strava aficionados are well aware, all that non-moving time got included in my segment. Ah, well.

Yeah - and I ran out of gears on the actual climb - I ride a compact with a 12-25 in the mountains which is usually plenty enough for me, but the final 2.5 miles up Brasstown is really something else again. When I hit "the wall" section where it kicks to 21%+ for about 400 meters (why is it always called "the wall?") My HR was well above 190 and I honestly meant to quit, but I think the only thing that would have been harder than turning my pedals over would have been to unclip without falling over. Next time I do the climb you better believe I will be riding a 28. Levi won the TDG on this climb using a 28, so there is no shame in that. Of course he rode a standard crank, so maybe there is...

Ryan - thanks for the heads-up - I have never ridden in that part of the state - the furthest over in that direction I have ridden is around Torch Lake, which looks to be the flattest part of the whole ride - the rest looks pretty lumpy. I will definitely put it on the list. Have you ever ridden it? I would do it for sure if I knew I had you to drag my around the course. Although from the looks of the ride photos I would first have to wrap my brain around wearing arm warmers and tights in June. By then it is already a billion degrees and about a trillion percent humidity here.

Angles may not be measured perfectly....but

And this is what ST says

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Bike_Fit/F.I.S.T._Tri_bike_fit_system/Seat_height_21.html

Dan says "I like 145 degrees of knee angle, but that's not the beginning and end of it. A proper range might be 140 to 150 degrees.". 

You 142

Dans says hip angle 95-102

You 97

Dan says "My target range for the shoulder angle is 80 to 85 degrees, measured from the greater trochanter to the clavicle"

You 79, but I can move the dot oh so slighltly and get to 80.

Well I forget who the BTers who went to the tunnel was but it helped him. When I tested it made no difference. One way to find out is find a straight, flat course, and test it at a given power. I suspect it will be negligeable and other factors (wind for example) will have more of an impact and cause margin of error.

Look at Jordan's profile shots, he's pretty flat.

also read http://www.byrn.org/gtips/cobb_fit.htm

"Cobb Lesson #6 — The bottom of the forearm should be parallel to the ground to avoid pushing any air down into the legs. Like the back, the faster the air moves across the body the better. Trying to "steer" the air is counterproductive."

yep, I can get 148 by freezing on a different frame. This is not exact, but you are certainly in the ballpark

Yep Fred I think you are good as it gets without hand on.  The important thing now is comfort and power.  You got the power. 

Resist.

Tom.

Demerly.

Oh, come on! You can't tease us like that.  Besides, I thought we were safe in here.

Ah, but his dark magic is very powerful. I am afraid he may have already disrupted Fred's taper... You have been warned: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=454065&posts=46&start=1

Fred et.al. - it has been neat following Fred's fit discussion along. It is an area that I really don't know much about - I have all of my dimensions from my fitter as well as the dimensions that I use to set my bikes up (they result in the same fit, I just measure from different points. I would be in a similar boat as you if I ever had to swap frames on the fly, so this discussion (and links) has given me a good starting point of concepts to consider.

this morning I copped a ride with my wife to her office and grabbed breakfast with her nearby. So about an hour or so walk home for me this morning. I would like to think I might get to the pool today - but that probably will not happen. I also really need to get my BT logs caught up. I haven't updated them since before LP!

Glad you got the fit sorted out Fred, it sure looks a lot more relaxed after the adjustments.

I did a 90 min run this morning which is the last run of any significance on my plan.  It wasn't hot out given it was at 6am but the humidity was at 98% - ugh.   I was drenched by the end of it.

Also supposed to do an hour swim today but that may not happen until tomorrow morning - which is supposed to be an off day.  There I go again with the not taking rest days....