An Amazing Week for Bio-Mechanics and Efficiency Gains

I know you've heard of the Princess and the Pea, but what about the Prince and Perineum? The perineum is the fleshy island of the human anatomy that feels like it is being attacked by a mafia of jackhammers after 6 hours on the bicycle saddle. In my version of the story, I'm the prince, oblivious the root cause of his suffering nether-region.

My Valentine this year bought me an amazing experience-- a bike fit appointment with the brilliant Brett Hungerford, owner of Element Cycles, utilizing the fast-growing Retul technology. Beyond male sexual health issues, a proper bike fit can deliver cheap and easy speed improvements, as well as ensure safe and long-lasting bio-mechanics.

I think I've been deliberately riding with my saddle way too high just to over-correct my awful experience at Ironman Louisville 2009, where I broke my seat post clamp 30 minutes before turning my bike into the corral. I rode the whole race with my saddle too low. It wrecked my knees. Lesson learned-- don't F--- with your S--- before a race.

Damn! I broke my seat post clamp minutes before having to turn the bike into the bike corral the day before IM Louisville 2009.

After my 2:30 hour session with Brett, I was absolutely flabbergasted at how different my bike felt. It felt like the proverbial glass slipper this prince(ess) has been waiting for. THE PERFECT FIT! It actually feels like my bike now. I can't wait to get some miles in this weekend.

Brett attaches the string of Retul LEDs to my main joints. I am riding my bike (for road riding rather than time-trial riding), which is being held up by a computrainer. Brett adjusts the resistance of the computrainer with a remote control.

Brett explains how the Retul camera will be able to trace the motion of every LED and can instantaneously measure my body's positioning dynamically--while I ride. This is better than measuring position statically with old-fashioned plumb bobs.

Brett discovers that my left leg's extra length resides in my thigh and I have inadvertently compensated for my body's asymmetry by having a strange left cleat position compared with the right. My left spindle rides closer to my left mid-foot, while my right spindle rides much closer to my right toes.

Brett blows my mind with his ludicrous geometry speed and fluency. The Retul software captures about 25 different metrics which Brett carefully explains to me.

In keeping with this week's theme of bio-mechanics of racing... 

I also had a fantastic running analysis session with the talented Eric Oliver. Eric has been working with me on healing my knee injury and re-designing my stride so I can safely endure the IM Madison training season and maybe win a few local triathlons, and qualify for Boston this year. Eric is a dynamite physical therapist who offers an occasional injury prevention clinic at Studio S. He was just named national coach of the year for Team Challenge (a training/fund-raising group for Crohn's & Colitis Foundation). He leads the Flying Pig Marathon training group out of Studio S and it's unanimous that he is "an amazing (and amazingly handsome) physical therapist and coach".

Eric (the handsome one) sets up his computer/camera to capture my stride at different treadmill speeds (7, 8, 9, 10 mph).

Eric uses a cool golf swing analyzer to measure angles of my body as I run. In super-slow-motion, it becomes obvious--he discovers that the source of my knee pain is a funny by-product of an overextending/lazy left foot. Multiply this hitch in my stride by 1000 strides per mile and you can see why my knee always hurts after 10 miles. The funny thing is, the hitch gets worse as my speed slows. So, it's a vicious cycle--the longer I run, the more the knee bothers me and slows me down and thus the worse I run and the more pain I feel and the slower I go.

Here, we're looking at Eric's monitor-- I've greatly reduced my crossover angle since December. But there are still plenty of issues to work on. My left foot over-strides so I will be focusing on shortening my forward plant and taking quicker steps to keep my cadence at about 90 revolutions/minute.

 Thanks Eric and Brett, for your time and talent! I feel faster already.