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.

You are passionate when...

...you have to set an alarm clock to remind you to stop.

...you have to be told to eat.

...vacations seem too long.

...you don't know the next time you get paid.

...bad days working are better than fishing on a sunny day.

...you think sleep is over-rated.

...you can't stop learning.

...you don't see "sick days" as a benefit.

...you realize life is too short to get everything done.

...you can't remember the last time you were bored.

...you realize this is the reason you were made.

...you think like an owner, not an employee.

Mountain bike fork recall

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09082.html

I forgot one!

After completing yesterday's entry, I realized that I forgot one of the most common situations that create eccentric muscle activity within the pedal stroke.

Eccentric quad activity on the upstroke. Typically, this occurs at higher cadences when riders are pedaling faster than their coordination will allow. It's my opinion that this is present yet unnoticed at slower cadences as well but it doesn't show up until the rider starts bouncing in the saddle.

Think about it. If a rider starts bouncing up and down at higher cadences, they are producing enough force to partially lift their body weight off saddle. That's a lot of force. No wonder the heart rate goes up when inefficient cyclists pedal at higher cadences(even if wattage remains constant). The source of this resistance is internal to the human machine.

Eccentrics....bad!

In the last post, I defined the types of muscular contractions and stated that the pedal stroke is comprised of concentric contractions.

Here are some areas where eccentric contractions show up. These are caused as a result of rider being out of position or because the rider has a poor motor plan and therefore "doesn't know how to pedal".

The first situation occurs as the foot crosses top dead center and moves toward the forward position. If the heel is dropped below horizontal at the forward position, it indicates that the heel has moved faster than the pedal. To do this, the gastrocnemius has lengthened while contracting and dampened force. It has absorbed force that should have been delivered to the pedal.

The second situation occurs as the pedal is moving from the forward position to dead bottom center. For the rider that tends to mash to produce power will continue to utilized the quadriceps for too long during the down stroke. As the pedal begins to move through the down stroke, the rectus femoris remains "on" while the knee is flexing and the hip is extending. This lengthens the rectus femoris across two joints and adversely affects the center of gravity and the stability of the pelvis.

The third situation occurs when the pedal is leaving dead bottom center. If the axis of rotation is behind the bottom bracket at the point, the ankle is forced to go into eccentric plantar flexion so that the knee can be positioned for flexion as the upstroke begins. This situation is driven by position in many cases. It can also be technique driven if the rider pedals through the bottom of the stroke with the rather flat. This can cause the knee to extend too far and which places the axis of rotation behind the bottom bracket at dead bottom center.

Each of these problems causes a breakdown in the pedal stroke. Each causes the rider to dampen force or prevents their ability to ride a straight line.

Situations like these indicate why bike fitting and technique training must go hand in hand. If someone fits you to your bike, yet, they don't have an ability to assess how you are operating in that position, they are only offering a portion of service. The two must go hand in hand.

Mechanical Musings

It's time to start some hard core thinking again. I'm collaborating with a another bike fitter/coach friend of mine. We are working to create a definition effective pedaling. These are the times that I wish I were Greek. As I understand it, the Greek language has the greatest ability articulate ideas. I guess you could say that it has the greatest granularity. However, at present, I'm stuck with English.

I don't think the definition has fully incubated but I can tell you one element is defined by the type of muscular contractions that are involved in bicycle pedaling. Before I do this, let me define the three different types of contractions.

Concentric: Lifting a cup of coffee. The act of lifting in this case requires that the biceps muscle shorten and bend the elbow. A muscle that contracts and shortens is performing a concentric contraction.

Isometric: Holding a cup of coffee. The act of holding the cup without lifting or lowering requires that the biceps hold the contraction but maintain one length. A muscle that contracts yet remains the same length is performing an isometric contraction.

Eccentric: Lowering the cup of coffee. The active of lowering the cup while controlling the descent requires that the biceps lengthen while it contracts to lower the cup slower than gravity would "pull" it. A muscle that contracts while lengthening is performing an eccentric contraction.
Eccentrics by their very nature dampen or absorb force much like a shock absorber.

The act of pedaling is concentric in nature. That means that muscles should be either "on" and shortening or "off". Concentric muscle contractions express force, they do not dampen.

Here's where it gets a bit confusing. Some might say that muscles are on while they are lengthening(eccentric) like the gastrocnemius or rectus femoris during the upstroke or the biceps femoris(long head) and semitendonosis on the upstroke. However, these are all two joint muscles and have the capacity to operate or effectively control motion at multiple joints. So, when examining the muscle, it's important to define the activity is that is occurring. For example, the gastronemius effectively flexes the knee on the upstroke but the anterior tibialis prevents it from plantar flexing the foot when the foot has just past dead bottom center of the stroke.

Now that we've covered these areas, to my point. An effective pedal stroke should be be devoid of eccentric muscle contraction. In fact, the presence eccentric muscle contraction serves to do two things. It absorbs force and it causes the riders center of gravity to change. Both of these effects are bad. Absorbing force is pretty straight forward however, changes in the center of gravity cause the bike to change direction. Continual changes in direction require continual redirection of the bike and poor bike control.

In fact, absorbing force and challenges to the center of gravity are on a sliding scale. The greater degree that a rider absorbs force in the lower extremities, the less, the center of gravity will be impacted and vice verse.

This is getting longer than I thought. Next time, I'll finish on some common positioning and or technique mistakes that cause a rider to perform eccentric muscle contractions during the pedal stroke.

"Let me tell you all the ways I CAN'T serve you"

You probably can't see that my heads about to explode. The title of this blog summarizes some of the recent customer service experiences that I have had lately. As a customer, I still find it amazing that some businesses seem to think that the I(the customer) am the one who should be doing the serving. "I'm sorry sir, it is out of our control", "Yes sir, but our systems require that you do this or that or the other". Bla, bla, bla.

If you watch the news, you hear that our economy is in the crapper. In fact the media loves to tell us this bad news. It may be time for it to go to the crapper if businesses take the attitude that they are the ones being served. However, I know of two friends who had banner years in spite of the "bad economy" and their Christmas selling season broke records. They both do one thing. They serve the customer!!!!!!! with great service!!!!!!! because they know that the customer is the one paying!!!!!!! You won't hear the media talking about this because it doesn't make for good television.

Yes, this is a bit of a tirade and yes, I'm just a bit emotional. At this point, I'm not a danger to myself or others and that's a good thing.

It's my hope that every company with poor customer service and/or poor products go out of business during this economic downturn. When the economy slows down, it's a chance for the creme to rise to the top. Regardless of the economy, great customer service and quality are still worthy of consumption. It's times like these when I start to pick and choose where my dollars are being spent and I only want to spend them on goods and services that are going to give me the greatest value!

Recently, I've been studying the concept of Lean Production. It's all based on generating the highest value product or service for the least amount of cost and working to eliminate waste where ever possible. Now that I've read just a bit, I'm starting to see waste and limited value almost everywhere. It's a bit overwhelming. Every time I turn around, I'm involved in some sort of consumer situation where I'm wasting my time and getting little value. Yet, because there are few options, I am forced to "deal with it". I can tell you that the economy is going to put pressure on these situations and fewer people are going to deal with it and that means fewer dollars being spent.

Gulf Coast Cycle Fit is designed with one thing in mind: To provide the customer the highest quality service so that they receive the greatest possible value and satisfaction from their coaching or bike fitting experience. Sessions are conducted one on one with the goal of addressing specific issues so that customer walks away with solutions. If I ever identify a road block to serving a customer, it is removed even if it is at my expense. In the end, I sleep very well at night.

Unfortunately, now I have to return to the real world of serving the vendor and paying them too! Hopefully, I will get a peck on the cheek.

Time for the tweak

It's that time of year again. Time to get tweaked(bike fit that is.)

Things have slowed down a good bit. The holidays are in full swing. Some of you may have even been lucky enough to recieve bike related gifts. It's time to get things tuned.

If it's been over a year since your last bike fit, it's time to get re-checked for fit. Most riders have purchased something new for their bike within the last 12 months. New pedals, shoes, handlebars, shifters or saddles can all have an impact on fit. If you have changed any of these products, you need to get checked out before things start ramping up again.

Changes in body composition also have their impact on fit. If you have gained or lost more than 15 lbs. You need to have your fit checked as well. (Pardon my direct approach to this). Extra weight in the thighs and abdomen changes the way the cockpit is set up. If your thigh and abdomen are touching when you are in the drops, your handlebars need to come up, or you need to loose weight. Continuing to ride in this situation causes you to loose power because you are dampening force by moving your abdomen each time it the thigh comes over the top. Also, changes in weight impact how you sit on the saddle. The size and shape of your bottom drives where you sit. If you are sitting in a different place on the saddle, your power production has changed. This requires a new look at fit as well.

Other items mentioned at the top are important as well. If you purchased new shoes, the cleat position needs to be verified. New pedals present with the same issues. If you purchased a new bar or if you are using a different component group, handlebar placement and hood placement has to be reset based on the new design.

It's great to purchase new bike stuff, however, don't discount the fact that these items need to be set properly so that you get the most from your new gear and you avoid aggravation of new injuries.