One of those weeks
This was one of those weeks, with illness, broken hardware, and missed sessions, but was rescued by an excellent bike fit with Phil Burt that should reap long term benefits.
This Weeks Training
The thing about committing to executing your training plan week in, week out is that just like Froomey’s playlist, it often has surprises, and they are not always positive. This week was like that for me.
After a good swim on Monday during the day, I jumped on my Wahoo Kickr Smart Bike to do an easy 90mins on Rouvy in the evening and found that none of the electronics in the bars were working, meaning I couldn’t change gear.
After a chat with Wahoo support, they asked me to send photo’s and the serial number and came fairly quickly to the conclusion it was a faulty handlebar unit and shipped a new one which I now have, and which works perfectly. I got the impression this was not an uncommon experience, however, they responded very well, and I am sort of excited by how easy it is to change the bars. They could potentially release a mountain bike or TT setup, for example, which would be cool (you can, of course, fit TT extension bars as it stands, but you would not have any switches on them).
Tuesday, I took a drive to Phil Burt Innovation for a bike fit on my Speedmax - more of that below.
Weds I was planning on doing a TT with my local cycling club, but that was cancelled at the last minute because of temporary traffic lights being placed in the middle of the course. Personally, I felt that might have given me an advantage if I had timed it right, but hey ho.
Instead, I went out and found a reasonably 20km circuit, mostly flat, apart from a longer than I expected hill halfway around, and did my own TT (click/tap the image below to open up the Training Peaks log), which worked out reasonably well.
I always feel afterwards that I could have gone harder, but it is plenty hard enough when I’m doing it. My average HR during the 20km but was 165, which is about threshold, so this is probably about right for me (max HR is about 180, I’m aged 56). It will be interesting to see how power improves (average was 209 normalised on the 20k) as I progress with the training plan and make the adjustments to fit I need.
Thursday morning, I went with Steph to get our second AstraZeneca jab. This impacted us both later in the day, and so although I made the swim I had planned, I bailed on the run and had an early night. Ditto the planned swim the next day. It was interesting to see my Training Today score gradually decline after I had the jab, but on Saturday morning, even though it was low, I decided to still crack on with the planned Gravel 100km ride.
That meant an early start to drive to the event through the rain and wind (ominous!). I managed one lap (of three), which was fun, though it was a bit more mud and grass than gravel compared to my expectations. However, it was clear at the end of that lap energy levels were low, and I had a nasty headache, so I bailed. Once I was back home, I slept for three hours in front of the Giro stage 14 on GCN+.
That means Sunday was also a washout as I decided to give my body a proper chance to recover from the jab. This morning Training Today is showing that it has worked.
Bike Fit
As most cyclists know, a good bike fit is important, especially for endurance events, to help optimise performance and minimise injury. I have had my share of good and bad ones in the past. Sometimes they feel like an excuse to sell you some new gear; at other times, an exercise in technology and measurements which don’t take into account your goals as a rider. Since I am struggling to feel comfortable on my Canyon Speedmax, which is my first proper TT bike, and I plan to use it for a half IronMan this year and a full one in 2022, I decided to seek out the best fitter I could. Ade, my coach, recommended Phil Burt.
If you are not aware of Phil, he is a very experienced physio and bike fitter, having spent 12 years as the Head of Physiotherapy at British Cycling, as well as 5 years as Consultant Physiotherapist at Team Sky, and has worked with the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas and Chris Boardman, over three Olympic Games and seven Tour de Frances. Wow. Frankly, it’s amazing that he is available to the general public and the likes of me to get a humble bike fit.
His book is also definitely with a read:
On arrival, Phil was very welcoming and friendly, and I suspect he spotted the key area for my improvement quickly once he saw me on the bike in my Tri gear. An important thing for Phil is understanding your objectives as an athlete - is it power, aero or comfort? Clearly, a TDF time trialist is looking for power and aero and forget the comfort; that’s just something they have to live with, but for me, comfort comes to the top of the chart because on a full IronMan being able to sustain 7+ hours in the TT position brings better performance benefits than not even if it is less aero or powerful.
Phil has a full RETÜL set up in his lab, which he used to measure my dynamic position on my Canyon SpeedMax. It turns out that the tweaks I had been doing overtime were not actually bad, and everything was reasonable for my goals apart from one key area - my crank arms lengths were too long.
I already have 165mm cranks on the bike, so this was a surprise. Phil recommended that I go to 155mm, which is quite short and increase seat height by 10mm without changing the saddle set back. Essentially this is because I have short legs and a long back which is closing my hips up and making my quads do all the work. Phil also commented on my externally rotated feet and recommended Speedplay pedals to help with the float for these - which I had happily fitted the week before - great! Phil’s summary of my stance seemed to be I am a short-arse duck-footed type of triathlete, which is fine, and although he didn’t use exactly this language (though it was close), I’d say he is a no BS sort of guy.
He also showed me some stretches I can do with a foam roller to my thoracic spine to help with cervical extension when riding. I have a foam roller but have been wondering about the benefits of the vibrating ones such as the Theragun Wave Roller - Phil said they do the same work, but make it less painful, which sounds good to me, so I expect I’ll order one of those.
The RETÜL data from my fit is here if you are interested. One nice thing about RETUL is I can plug those figures straight into the Wahoo app for my Kickr Smart bike and get the same geometry (or very close) for indoor training.
The pressure map of my saddle when in TT position is shown below. Clearly, I am right on the edge of it, which is fine, and it’s good there a no red areas, however, the recommendation was I may be more comfortable with a split nose ISM saddle (which I already have from my old bike), so I may try that once I am happy with the cranks. One thing at a time is probably best to understand what is working and what is not.
The search for 155mm cranks arms.
My Canyon Speedmax has an SRAM eTap Force drivetrain, which unfortunately does not offer crank arms shorter than my current 165mm ones. After consultation with many suppliers and friends, and colleagues, I eventually discovered that Rotor does 155mm crank arms in their Inspider range compatible with SRAM Force. I needed a new bottom bracket converter, and since my SRAM crank has a power meter built-in, ideally, the replacement would too, which is exactly what the Rotor crank has.
So now the new question was should I try Rotor’s Q Rings which are oval rather than circular. Rotor offers both oval and circular at the same price and also have a 30-day guarantee if you buy the oval ones and don’t get on them, so you can swap them for the round ones if you want.
Many pros use oval rings with claimed performance and endurance benefits, and of course, I am a sucker for trying new ideas, especially if they can potentially make me go faster or further for the same effort, so that’s what I ordered. Take a look at the video below for the theory of oval chainrings.
I ended up ordering on Friday, and with excellent service from Rotor UK, they arrived on Saturday. Here’s what I got:
Rotor INSPIDER 2X ALDHU 30mm Crankset c/w Q(Oval) SRAM AXS Ring Set with 155mm cranks and Aero crown and P4130mm BB86 Ceramic Converter Bearings (which seem to not now be available on the site - maybe I got the last one?)
Fitting this little lot is not something I am confident about (or have the kit to do, I suspect), so I have booked in at my local bike shop to do it this week, and I will sell the leftover SRAM gear online somewhere.
Of course, I’ll let you know if the fit and these new rings and cranks prove their worth to me in future newsletters, so stay tuned. I hope that this allows me to stay in the TT position comfortably for long periods of time and that this, in turn, will lead to performance improvements.
As always, if you have any comments, please let me know.
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Cheers!
Ian