Trying your best is way competition is really about, but as Lee Gardner, president and head coach of Trismarter explains trying is just part of going the distance in a triathlon. Lee tells us why having the right bike is important, but also that making sure the bike fits is very important as well.
KineticShift: How important are bicycle fittings, especially for triathletes?
Lee Gardner: Positioning a rider’s body on a bike to ensure both comfort and that the rider is not going to injure his or her self is extremely important. As a bicycling advocate, I feel the more people who love to ride a bike, the better, and more people will ride if they feel good while riding. On a more complex level, what I do as a bike fitter is to help cyclists find the best position for them on either a new bike or a bike they are already riding. If I’m working with a competitive athlete to achieve the most powerful and efficient bike position, a position on the bike that is going to help them perform at a higher level, I would consider this equally as important as having a lightweight, aerodynamic bike with the best components and aerodynamically molded wheels. Being in a physical position capable of squeezing out every last drop of power that the bike and rider combined can produce is arguably more important than having the best equipment. This holds true for both pure cyclists and triathletes alike.
KS: How has technology improved to help ensure riders are fit properly?
LG: I think with the emergence of high-tech bikes, an understanding of how our bodies can best use the advances that technology offers has also grown. It used to be that we just eye-balled fitting an athlete on a bike. If a rider looked good and could touch the pedals, he was on his way. I’m sure there were a few guys who even did that well, but it left a lot to chance. Using plum bobs and goniometers advanced bike fitting based on proper angles of various parts of the human anatomy. Understanding the angles of the body on a bike was an advance in comfort and injury prevention, but not so much a technological advance. We owe a lot to Dan Empfield at Slowtwitch for documenting protocol about triathlon bike fitting. On the tech side of things, I think it was Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine that first began capturing motion dynamically, and that led to more readily available tools for capturing and reporting an athlete’s position on a bike. I use Retül’s 3-D capturing system quite a bit now. It’s fast and dynamic, meaning the rider is actually riding while the measurements are taken. It makes finding the best position a lot quicker. There is still a lot of work for the fitter to do, but these tools speed the process greatly. Having a great fit-bike is also a very useful piece of technology. Being able to literally A/B test things like seat height while the rider remains seated is great for quickly finding the optimal setup of a bike.
KS: Beyond a good fit, how can triathletes better train on the bike, and what equipment is available to help?
LG: Training smart is really the answer. It sounds like a cliche, but it so true. Having an understanding of how the bike portion of the race fits into the overall scheme of a triathlon is really important. For example, knowing that a triathlete needs to ride hard, but also come off of the bike being able to run really well is a huge factor in bike training for a triathlete. This sets some limits on how a triathlete will bike in a race, and factoring these limits into the athlete’s training is essential. These days, triathletes are running really fast. The most competitive are running a sub 30 minute 10k off the bike. That’s just over 2 minutes slower than what pure 10k runners are doing on a track! That’s fast, and in order to perform like that, triathletes need to train accordingly. The best tool a triathlete can get to help dial in this sort of training is a power meter. Being able to measure effort daily with a power meter will fast track development more than any other piece of equipment on the market. They aren’t cheap, but then neither are the high end bikes that a lot of athletes buy. In my opinion, at least for cyclists who are serious about getting better, a power meter is much more important than a fancy bike.
KS: Finally, is a triathlon bike necessary or would some casual triathletes be better served with a good road bike?
LG: I would say the latter is true. A good road bike will better serve about 75 percent of all triathletes out there. I coach elites who still primarily train and race on road bikes, and these guys are fast! I find triathlon or time trial bikes are best for long course athletes who can benefit by several minutes over a 90 or 180k course from the aerodynamics that triathlon bikes provide or short course athletes who are performing at higher levels (either winning their age group or overall) will also benefit. Everyone else can still have fun and finish respectfully on a road bike. Of course TT bikes are cooler looking.
Thanks to Lee for talking with us.