Monday, February 5, 2018

Weekly Advice


  • It's highly likely that I say this a lot, but as an endurance athlete patience is absolutely critical.
    • If your "A" race isn't until the fall and right now you're worried about an upcoming event that is - likely - a single sport event, your concern is misplaced. Focus on the big things, not all the little things.
      • But focus on the little things too. They're just back burner things. Like keeping the beans warm. They're not mission critical, but they're a nice accent and good source of protein.
    • Success isn't overnight
      • Sometimes for every one step forward I take in the pool, I feel as though there are a corresponding 1.5 steps backward. This can even vary day to day. It can even vary within a single workout!
      • But, if you are patient (and your stroke doesn't suck or get worse), the speed will come
  • Also, as a human patience is critical.
    • If I need to bullet this out for you, there are other issues at play.

Those are some of the things that just need to be reiterated week after week. For the real "advice" column this week, we're going to talk about triathlon cycling and fitting.

  • If you get fitted to your tri bike, you should approach it with these things in mind:
    • What do I want?
      • From this fit. From triathlon in general. From your fitter. Do you want to take advantage of every piece of aero fruit your fitter says he or she can pick? (well, your fitter is likely exaggerating as they're probably not fitting you in a wind tunnel so they - like many others - are just guessing) Do you have a hip impingement but still want to get low? Do you just wanna make it through the bike and have your under parts remain in one piece?
    • What am I doing?
      • What's my schedule this year? What are my short and long term goals? 
    • What have I done?
      • Race wise, injury wise, fitness wise, etc etc etc
    • Is my fitter full of crap?
      • Tough to say, ask around. 
    • Am I full of crap?
      • Tough to say, ask around.
    • What's an efficient use of my time and money?
      • You wanna be efficient on the bike, AND with your money. If your fit costs hundreds of dollars and your fitter tells you that you NEED to spend another many hundreds of dollars (or more) on the piece of equipment that will TRULY get you as fast as possible, you should probably leave. Now, with that being said, if that purchase will allow you to hit the goals I mentioned above, then by all means, spend that cheddah. But spending all that money for a "maybe" is a tough sell. You can be aero, and you can almost always be MORE aero, but that "MORE" will cost you quite a bit, usually. Whether it be money, sustainability, discomfort, etc. it will take its toll somehow.
For your review: here's some blogs I've written previously about fitting (there have been a lot over the years).






And a video!

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