Hayden gives the look and then takes Dad to the pain cave

Hayden has decided that he wants to start riding a road bike. I think he likes it.

I miss Gulf Coast Cycle Fit

The family and I have been in Colorado Springs for seven months now. It totally feels like we are living "on vacation". In addition to working, we've been skiing, hiking, climbing, road cycling, mountain biking. It's what I've always dreamed about.

I'm in a bit of a cross roads. Gulf Coast Cycle Fit has ended in Mobile and I've always felt like there would be a time that I would start it back up in our new location. That's easier said than done. It's not like I can walk into any of the local bike shops and say "Hi, I'm David and I owned Gulf Coast Cycle Fit". Even if I was able to schedule an appointment with a client, our new house doesn't have any lab space for fitting or video work. So, I wait. I wait for God to open the door for the next step.

Gulf Coast Cycle Fit was always a ministry for me. It was a way for me to help folks accomplish goals in their lives. It also gave me a way to get to know clients and talk about things that are more important than cycling(If that's possible). I have to say that I miss it. As times goes by, I feel the knowledge seeping away. It's not a feeling that I enjoy.

So, what's going to happen next? I have to say that I don't know. I do know that I have enjoyed the opportunity to get in more riding time. I enjoy the feel of the road and trails under my wheels. One day, I'll get back to helping others enjoy the sport like I do.

So, here are the things that I pray about with regard to bike fitting and technique training.
Lord Jesus, you know how bike fitting and training blessed me and how much I enjoyed blessing others. Is it your purpose for me to leave it in the past or will it return? If it is going to return, who is the population and where will it exist. Is it going to be a career or a hobby? If it's something that I need to leave in the past, let me know so that I can move on to other area of service in your Kingdom.

With or without bike fitting and technique training, cycling is still the best sport on the planet.

Dynamic vs. Static Bike Fit

It's been a long time since I've written. It's like I have cob webs in the brain and in the typing fingers. So much has happened over the last 8 months. We moved to Colorado Springs and consequently, I had to close Gulf Coast Cycle Fit in Mobile. At this point, I'm unsure where the path leads here in the Springs. I don't know if a new era will begin or if cycle fit is over. At this point, I have a feeling that it is just dormant. If it re-emerges, we will somehow have to fit it into our lives differently. As much as I enjoyed it, it took up too much of our family time.

Here are my latest thoughts on bike fit. They are spurred on by a conversation I had last week with a 40 year old, very successful amateur triathlete. I say "successful" based on the number of placings he mentioned. (I had just finished tweaking a fit on a longstanding client at a local bike shop while I was back in Mobile.) At present, this guy is an injured athlete and it appears that his injuries are related to a recent change in bike fit. He's been fit twice on a high tech system that is relatively new on the market.

Here are the stats: 5'8", probably 140lbs, 32" inseam.
He has 20 years of riding experience on 170mm cranks and within the last 2 years, he changed to 175's based on the recommendations of the new fit system. In fact, the second fit was done because he was having pain and they confirmed that he was in the correct position albeit pain producing.

DOES ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS??????? IS ANYTHING SCREAMING OUT TO YOU??

Now, dynamic vs static. Like two religions within a belief system...
Dynamic bike fit has come along with the advancement of technology, while static fit has been around a while. I like what the triathlete said, "I didn't want to go to someone who just used plumb bobs". My response, "But you were fit using new technology and now you are injured". It took him a while to wrap his hands around that one.

One the other hand, static bike fit has some serious limitations. I completely agree that a static system cannot account for the events that occur in a dynamic process. However, static has the means to set boundary based on tangible, reliable measurements where dynamic fails. This is successful because static can create a fit without the influence of counter productive movement patterns. It's GIGO(Garbage in, garbage out).

Now, before you think I'm all about static fit and we should go back to the stone age, stop and listen. I look at it this way, a musical score is just ink on paper(static). It's nothing special in the absence of musicians. Music is the dynamic reflection of the musical score. While something might look good on paper, it might sound horrible once played out loud. Conversely, musicians who play their instrument without a collaborative score are just noise makers. The two must work hand in glove. Such is my thought on bike fit.

This discussion is not about one vs the other. It's about a process of gaining knowledge. Just because we have progressed to calculus, that doesn't mean that we can throw away addition and subtraction. We have to be able to use both systems to solve problems.

In the end, I'm dealing with a broken heart. There's a successful athlete out there, now injured. Instead of helping this athlete, the new technology validated itself and the athlete walks away with continued pain. Please tell me that we have not forgotten who we are trying to help. Isn't the athlete the one we are trying to serve? Who is going to solve his problem? Please tell me that this athlete didn't write a check for this. Someone need to write him a check!

Gulf Coast Cycle Fit is officially closed!

The sign on the door reads: "Gone hiking, gone skiing, gone to Colorado Springs!". My last scheduled clients are this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the house. I've learned so much from each of you. I hope I've made your cycling life better.

We will be back in Mobile two times per year for Eastern Shore Kids Market, www.easternshorekidsmarket.com.

Why in the world?

Why in the world would you forsake things that are not changeable so that you can maintain something that can be changed?

As I was mentioning in the previous post. Old Fit tends to drive New Fit for those that are unaware. Maybe this occurs because it's convenient. Personally, I think this occurs because of a lack of knowledge.

If such a great percentage of people are positioned poorly on their bike, why do people perpetuate errors?

Bike fit has to meet the needs of things that cannot change. Muscle physiology and joint biomechanics will not change. Now, I'm not talking about changes in muscle fiber type. I'm talking about how muscles generate force and the patterns that this force is generated in. Expressly, the length/tension curve.

Unfortunately, most bike fitters tend to fit their clients to meet the needs of their existing motor patterns. This is a neurophysiologic phenomenon. It resides in the brain. The brain on the other hand has one tremendous capacity that joints and muscles lack. It has the ability to learn and change drastically.

So, doesn't it seem appropriate to fit clients to their bikes in the manner that correlates to the rather static principles of muscle physiology and joint biomechanics so that their benefits are expressed to the greatest capacity and the risk of injury is limited as much as possible.

So what if the client doesn't "feel right" initially. The brain has the capacity to be plastic. It will change under the right circumstances and take advantage of the new environment!

Old Fit/New Fit (Cont.)

Here's the question when it comes to Old Fit determining New Fit.

Of these things which one has the opportunity for modification?

1. Length tension ratio aspect of muscle physiology
2. Joint biomechanics
3. Motor patterns (Hint: This one!)

Old Fit/New Fit

I know... It's been a while.

This one has been churning for a while. I don't remember if I've written on this before or not, but, here it goes.

I had the opportunity to call a rather popular online bike shop a couple weeks ago. I called them because I rec'd a cold call from a local cyclist. He wanted me to fit him on a bike that he had purchased online. Immediately, red flags began to fly up everywhere. The prospective client was returning to the sport after being away due to injury. He had also gained approx 20lbs. over this period of time. He had purchased a bike that has a seat mast that required a custom cut. I was disturbed by the whole discussion for many reasons.

First, what in the hell is a online bike shop doing selling this type of frame to someone they don't even know. Someone who's body has changed significantly over the past six months and will likely change significantly over the next six months. Based on the math and the degree of adjustability, it would be quite possible that the bike could not be adjusted to meet the riders needs within six months if he was able to regain his prior fitness. Don't get me wrong. The bike is cool. The situation is/was a disaster.

To date, I haven't had the chance to work with the client in person. After thinking it through, I called him back and tried to explain why this purchase was wrong. The frame he purchased would be great for someone who has had a stable riding position for at least a year. He's not that guy. He was going to contact the online retailer and try to make an exchange. I don't know how it went(good or bad). If he was forced to purchase the frame, I'm sure someone would take his money and do the fit. I just couldn't do it.

While in the process of gathering information about the frame and fitting/cutting information, I contacted the retailer. I asked how they decided a rider should be positioned on the new bike. To my amazement, the guy responded by saying, "We just position riders like they were on their old bike". When I heard this, my head almost exploded!!!! What if the old position was wrong?

I can tell you that I have only had one(maybe two) clients that were positioned properly according to my protocol. For the rest, they are all over the place. Saddle height has been as much as 5 cm too low or 2 cm too high. Saddle Fore/Aft has been as much as 6cm too far forward or 5 cm too far back. This is a huge degree of potential error. The chances that a rider is positioned properly is very low. Riders are out of position in all directions and I didn't even mention foot position or handlebar/hood position.

I want to write more on this but it's getting late. Next time, I'll explain the why old position should not dictate new position.

Spending money helps focus fitness

I don't know about you... but spending a little bit or sometimes a lot of money on bike stuff helps me regain fitness. In the past I used to say that everyone should get a new bike every year. There's something about a new ride that helps you get the juices flowing again. Well, after the kids started coming along, I had to start finding other reasons to get motivated. Then, I bought a Seven Axiom road bike. Now I don't have a reason to purchase a new bike. It rides just as nicely as it the day it arrived four years ago.

No, I didn't purchase a new bike. However, I did upgrade to the latest version of the iBike power meter. If you've read some of my early posts about the iBike, you will remember that there were good days and bad days. If you had the luxury of riding on silky smooth tarmac, things weren't too bad. But, if you had to ride on the roads in lower Alabama, you were out of luck. In the end, I knew when I could trust the numbers and when I couldn't. I had a training route that was fairly smooth and, provided that I was riding alone, I could do a good job of managing my power.

Enter the Generation III(my old model was a 1st gen that replaced a very early defective model). Over the past year, I had lost contact with the folks at Velocomp. Periodically, I would get the marketing emails that talked about new upgrades. Most of those went to the circular file. However, one day I decided to click the link from the email to the website. I started reading some of the new reviews. I went to the forum and began to read some other positive comments about the new product. As a late Christmas present to myself, I decided to upgrade. A week or so later, it arrived. The new sleek chassis looks cool and set up was pretty simple.

There is a calibration methodology that is a bit laborious but I recommend you follow it to the T if you want to get decent numbers. As soon as the calibration was complete, I headed out to one of the "bumpy" roads out in the county. This particular road would cause my old unit to show triple or quadruple wattage numbers compared to smooth roads. If you have worked with some of the power analysis software programs like Cyclingpeaks(or WKO+ or Trainingpeaks or what ever they are calling it today. By the way, what's up with all the name changes?) you know it causes a huge hassle and basically obliterates any trending data.

I digress... I headed out the the bumpy road and watched the power readings like a hawk. Here's the good news. THE NUMBERS WERE GOOD! What a wonderful experience. I was able to ride the entire bumpy road and match power to heart rate all the way. Good news for those individuals who don't want to spend $1500 on a power meter. The iBike is less than half that. If you want to go real cheap, you can get the iSport. It has the same guts but it's not down-loadable. At $199, it's not much more expensive than some of the nicer bike computers.

I haven't had the chance to ride in a group or ultrahigh speeds to see how it works in these situations. I'm hoping for good news here as well. I'll let you know how it goes.

The final straw...

Who knows where this one is going...

In the last month, I changed jobs. Gone are the days of middle management. Gone are the days of spinning my wheels trying to satisfy the needs of the staff(poorly) and trying to answer to the call of administration(poorly). I can't say that I miss it. There are many things I do miss but those things have little to do with my past job description. I had the opportunity to enjoy some wonderful relationships with co-workers. The hospital has a lot of great people. I will miss them, but I don't see that I'm going to miss the job.

So, what's new. I'm back to direct patient care. Back to making a difference for little old men and little old women. It's a new environment for me. Now days, I drive from house to house to treat people in their homes. Not something that I would have aspired for early in my career. In the younger days, I was driven by the art and science of manual therapy. Manual therapists think of themselves as the creme de la creme...and for the most part, they are. I've studied under some of the most brilliant practitioners in the world. There was a time when I wanted to run in those circles. I wanted to be that therapist that others would call on. Now days, I just want peace. The peace of driving alone. The peace of arriving at a patient's house and being greeted by the dog in the yard. The peace of sharing a cup of coffee with patients who have seen the world change over the course 95-100 years. There's much to be learned if we take the time to listen. I'm looking forward to this new era.

So, what was the final straw? For the last several years, I've been looking for a change in career. Try as I might, I never found an opportunity that seemed to work. I have pages of prayers where I asked God to either give me peace or let me go. I never felt like I had liberty to go. So, I stayed and prayed. One day, I happened upon the cycling manufacturer's website. There it was: "Director of Bike Fitting" in the career section. I was in a bit of a crunch for time. I did a quick revamp of the resume' and answered a few questions based on my bike fitting experience. I never thought I would hear from them. I never thought I would have the qualifications to be considered with so many talented people in this emerging area of cycling science. This is one of those times when I was glad I was wrong. The company called me and we began talking about the position they had in mind. Let's just say that it was going to be a dream job. I made arrangements to fly up to meet with the staff and owner in mid December. It was an amazing trip. I met some of the most passionate(and blessed) people in the cycling industry.

At the end of the trip, I was basically offered the job. As I left the offices, I don't think my feet touched the ground until I got back home. We had plans to discuss compensation and all the other stuff that goes along with changing jobs. Unfortunately, the economy had other plans. Meetings to discuss the details were postponed from late December, to January, to February. When the call didn't come in February, I chose not to bring it up again.

When I was discussing the Director of Bike Fitting role with the owner. I was very up front about it. If I got the job, that would be great. If I didn't get the job, I still had the opportunity to work closely as coach and bike fitter. It is truly a win-win. I still believe it to be a win-win. I now have relationships with some of the most influential people in the bike industry. You won't find any better.

So, that's the straw. I was ready to leave the hospital. I had a fleeting opportunity to leave health care and go into the cycling industry full time and at present, it has slipped away. As you can imagine, my attachment to the hospital was gone. By early January, I was showing up to work in body only. My dedication to the organization was gone. I had to get out. Luckily, the door opened for me to take the new role back in patient care.

Where's the silver lining? Maybe I had been holding on to that middle management job too long. I needed something to come along and break my grip and force a change. I'm a firm believer that everyone needs to work in their area of passion. I have a passion to make positive changes in people's lives. The middle management role didn't fulfill this need. Regardless of the industry(health care or cycling), if I have the opportunity to make a difference, I get the intangible rewards!

Tomorrow is another day! I'll get to walk, and talk with people who are twice my age. I'll get to make their day go better. It will be a great day!

So what has he been doing?

It seems that I've been running around like the proverbial "chicken with the head cut off". I've actually seen a chicken with it's head cut off. It's rather disturbing.

Let's see.
It all started on January 8th when we found out that our other business, Eastern Shore Kids Market, may be written out of existence by a new federal law. You can read about the CPSIA law on our Kids Market blog. In a rush to hold one final sale, we quickly got our ducks in a row and launched a sale that was held during the last week of January. While in the process of preparing for the sale, the CPSC issued a guidance statement for consignment sales. We were off the hook for required third party lead content certification. But, the ball was rolling and we had to press forward with the sale. As it turns out, we learned a lot. It wasn't our best sale, but new challenges require new thinking. It's times like this that cause you to get out of your box and consider new solutions. I would say that we came up with three new process ideas that we will implement in the future.

Then, I decided to leave my current "real job" and go back to patient care in the home health arena. I can give more details about this later.

Lastly, we just returned from our second annual ski trip to Snowshoe, West Virginia. It was an awesome trip. But trips like this are epic in nature. They take more than a week to prepare and at least a week to recover once you return. We did snow mobiling, tubing and skiing. Things of note: There were more major accidents on the slopes than last year. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon. By Sunday night, the resort looked like an ambulance parade. Maybe it was a full moon?

What to do now? I have two more weeks before starting the new job. It's a bit surreal. I've been here 15 years. Moving on to something new is bittersweet.

Most importantly, I need to get back on the bike for some serious training.

No time for writing

Things have been crazy lately. It's time for re-prioritization. Need more riding and less static.

Myopia

Myopia is a land very close to us in the cycling world. Myopians are around us. Their views are promoted in research, in magazines and on the web. Most of the time, I think Myopians are purely innocent individuals that are trying to help their fellow cyclists. Other times, I think they really believe that there is one aspect of cycling that reigns supreme over all other aspects. This can't be true.

The single faceted approach to cycling has served to create confusion for the general cycling community. "Well 'so in so' did 'this' or 'that' and now they are riding 15 mph faster than they were a year ago"! The single faceted approach promoted by Myopians it typically all about marketing.

I had the opportunity to have a short exchange with a Myopian recently. I rec'd and email with a statement about cycling. Based on the email, I knew where this was going. So, I replied with an apparently "ignorant" or "base" question. However, it was meant to be bait. The question was asked to flush out the single faceted approach that was being promoted.

Aristotelian logic promotes that we have different types of answers to arguments, "either/or" or "both/and". In "either/or" questions, there is right and wrong. For example, if we ask, "are you pregnant?". The answer cannot be "yes" and "no". It's one or the other, it's yes or no. On the other hand, we have other types of arguments that can be answer with multiple answers that are correct. "Does a plane fly because of it's speed or the shape of the wings?". The answer here is "both". Without either one, the plane does not fly. However, don't let "both/and" argument deceive you. The answers cannot include "right" and "wrong" answers within one "both/and" argument. All answers have to be either "right" or "wrong".

Here the question I asked about his philosophy. "Does [your product or philosophy] have priority over everything else [in cycling]?" He wrote back, "Absolutely". This is the essence of the single faceted approach. He is approaching the cycling activity as something that only requires one answer and everything else is wrong. In this case, he is approaching the situation as an argument with a "either/or" solution when we need a "both/and" solution. This is ludicrous thinking at best. In my last entry, I tried to talk about the complexity of cycling. Single faceted solutions are a product of the box we have placed ourselves in. We have not studied human physiology, biomechanics and physics!

I'm in a bit of a conundrum at this point. Part of me wants to engage and share knowledge, the other part is wise enough to know that all hills are not worth dying on.

There are a couple things that come to mind. "if is sounds to good to be true, it probably is" and "complex biomechanical models require multifaceted solutions". If a Myopian approaches you with a solution to all your problems, be cautious.

To Continue....Objective Findings

Defining research models for cycling is a difficult squirrel to catch. There are so many things going on within the cycling activity and so many variables that most research models fall short. Don't get me wrong, this is not the fault of the researcher. In the scientific approach, you have to constrain the or limit certain variables so that the finite piece of information you are evaluating can be captured with the least amount of extraneous interference. Well, in doing so, you create something that is not real. The more you constrain the activity, the less the activity resembles cycling.

My mentor in the sport defines the problem as this: "We have bodies in motion, in motion". ???

The human body is in motion, moving legs, arms and head. The bike is moving: wheels are turning, crank, chain and fork/handlebar. And...the entire complex is moving down the road. Combine all of this and it's an incredible amount of data to control. Add the fact that the rider is responding to other people on bikes(in a peleton) or cars(in traffic). There's no way to get your hands around the situation in one simple research project.

On the positive side, there is a tremendous amount of research about the human body that defines how we move, where we are strong, how we learn etc. There is also a great deal of information in the area of mechanics(physics). It seems to me that the cycling community expects research about cycling to somehow include a bike in the project. However, should we just discard years of research about how the human body operates? Does the body somehow do something magically different once we are on the bike? I think not. The body is bound by physiologic principles that have been defined. You can read about them in any high school or collegiate Exercise Physiology text.

Here's where a few people are using common sense. There are a few that are not blown around by every new breeze in the cycling research. We don't search for pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. We do things the "old fashion way(with new technology to help)". We apply the principles of human physiology to the sport of cycling. We consider all aspects of the sport and all possible experiences that the cyclist may encounter. We communicate this in a straight forward manner and we get results.

I'm sorry for the long winded nature of this entry. I'm on a roll.

Back to objective findings. Here's how it works. The pedal stroke can be defined based on muscle physiology. I can evaluate this in a matter of seconds to let you know where you are loosing power. After showing this to you in a video format, I can walk you through the negative impact of poor technique and show you the benefits of good technique. You will be able to feel the difference.

Lasting change is up to you. You have to take the information gathered during the session and incorporate it into you daily training plan. If you do, you will notice the difference.

More recalls - Mavic r-sys

http://www.velonews.com/article/86435/mavic-announces-r-sys-recall

Giant Frame/Fork recall

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/tech/2009/news/01-15

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml09/09096.html

Bike fit based on what...

It seems that bike fitting is the latest greatest thing in the bike industry. I see this trend from a slightly different perspective than most. As bike fitting is on the rise, I think the standard should be elevated.

Here's where I have my beef. Bike fit based on what? Here's the way the conversation goes with a cyclist. "I was fit on my bike. The guy who did it said I looked good." What? The bike fit is based on what someone thinks looks good?. There's an interesting phenomenon in neuroscience. In a nutshell, if the practitioner is able to get the client to do what they "think" is best(regardless of whether is right or not), it makes the practitioner feel good! There is actually a release of endorphins. Does this seem like a principle that best serves the client?

Here's my question. If the fit process is based on the subjective opinion of the fitter vs. laws of physics, principles of physiology and rules of biomechanics? I would say that we have a problem. Don't get me wrong, many fitters use tools that make the process look objective. However, they are willing to go against what the tools tell them if the client has complaints. That would be the subject of another post(you can't chase fit if the problem is based in lack of function).

I think I've said this before... Bike fit is a doorway to function. It is not the end all be all. Bike fit allows for effective force delivery and bike control. In addition, bike fit without technique training is akin to purchasing a set of keys(without the car to go with it). Keys are useless unless you can use them to access the car's power.

So, next time you consider a bike fit, ask some questions.
How do you determine if someone is in the right position?
What is this based on?
Is there any scientific evidence that one position is better than another?
Now that your bike is fit, what do you do next? If the fitter says, "go ride", you should request your money back. They don't understand what they are doing.