Bike Fit/Seat Height

Cycling and swimming are more complicated than running.  Lace up your shoes and head out.  We have been opining about form recently, but this is a recent obsession by a bunch of us who had been running for decades before we started worrying about heel strike/forefoot/midfoot strides and hip rotation.   Swimming has less gear, but small form breaks can have major consequences.  On the bike setup can make major differences, but every body is different.

Max has commented on Chris Froome's awkward position on the bike.  Lance Armstrong and Jan Ulrich had markedly different pedaling styles, though both were the best of their highly juiced era.

When I had my tri-bike fitted, I went to an extraordinarily talented fitter who prays at the altar of steep.  His goal is to set you up in the most "aggressively aerodynamic" position that you can hold comfortably.  I can't really argue with it.  At the group workouts I've attended, I've been among the faster riders.  At yesterday's workout alternating 3.35 mile laps hard and easy, I averaged 23 miles an hour for the hard laps. For folks who know Prospect Park, my fastest lap was 8:38.  My slowest 8:41.

But, and this is a big but, the setup has the seat at the high end of high.  This gives me a lot of power, but it also seems to be bothering my hip.  My road bike setup is considerably less agressively, with the seat lower and further back.  Instead of pulling up on the clips, I tend to pull back with my hamsgtrings.  This leads to a quicker cadence, less powerful stroke, but no kink in my hip.

The place where I really noticed the difference was on the spin bike.  Spin bikes never fit right.  The height adjustment is in 1/2 inch increments.  So, when I tried to set up the spin bike to match the tri bike fit, I lost my spin.  Last week I went back to my old setup, again, lower and further back.  All of a sudden everything feels better (including, knock wood, my heel a bit).

I'm wondering if I should drop the seat a hair on the tri-bike . . .

I love "train less" advice

A new missive from uber-Coach Greg McMillan saying what we all know.  The hardest thing for me to swallow when I started working with a coach (in 2009) was that even though I could run three or four miles at [X] pace, I really should be running those miles at more like [X+20"].  The difference is not manifested in one workout.  The difference is manifested in 6 workouts, when I've done the prescribed track workout weekly for an entire training cycle and am feeling healthy, rested, and fast.

I say I swallowed that advice.  In truth, I've gotten it right a few times and not other times. I'm in a bad cycle with cramming in workouts and working very hard one day only to take the next day off because I'm too beat, so the Greg McMillan e-mail reminder came along at about the right time.  Hopefully in time to arrest this slide and get several good weeks in before the Ironman taper begins in mid-September.

I did not follow this guy's career . . .

but I just came across this paean to Mark Covert on Slowtwitch today.  You think Cal Ripken or Pete Rose were bad?  You a Morten Anderson afficionado?  Or maybe even Stefaan Engels?

Slowtwitch reports that Mark Covert has run daily from 1968 until approximately one week ago.  His average daily mileage in that 45-year period?  9.  A good hard workout for me represents this guy's norm for a longer period than I've been alive.

I can only think of one reaction.

Calves Like Cantaloupes

Did anybody else take particular umbrage at Rep. Steve King's suggestion that anybody with muscular calves might be a drug runner?

Sore Feet or Sore Knees?

I recently switched back to a pair of neutral trainers (Saucony something, I've had them for quite a while but barely wore them) after this latest foot flare-up. I'm probably jinxing it, but my foot is feeling better after a couple of weeks in PT. (Ted--see if you can find a therapist who is trained in dry needling. Not a miracle, but for me has been great at releasing tight spots I just couldn't get to.)  I do feel like there is more cushioning between my foot and the ground in non-minimalist-style shoes, but I noticed after a couple of runs that my knees have been aching in a way I haven't felt in years. I can't be sure that the shoe switch is the reason, but since I'm probably running differently (less on my toes), it does make sense. I feel like it's possible the knees could settle down after a few more weeks in the old shoes, but I don't want to feel like an 80-y.o. shuffling along anymore if I don't have to. I'm conflicted! And I desperately want to enjoy running during an upcoming long weekend in Deep Creek, MD and then in Cape Cod the following week.

How long?

Becky, Philip, and Spencer have all had to deal with long layoffs due to injury.  I've had a couple medium layoffs due to tendonitis in 2010, and peculiar breathing issues in 2006.  The breathing doesn't count, because that came on mysteriously and vanished almost as mysteriously.  The rest of our injuries can be classified as mechanical overuse injuries.  Brought on by our favorite activity -- running.  My layoffs, so far have all been a matter of months -- a lost Fall or a lost Spring.  I dread the multiyear layoffs that Philip, Spencer and Becky have endured.

Right now, I am in the middle of what I will loosely call a case of "inflamed heel-itis."  It might be the achilles, it might be bursitis, and it might just be the back-side of plantar fascitis.  It keeps moving around, getting a bit better, and then getting worse again, as soon as I dare to test it.  Grumble, grumble.

I can run on it (as my NYC Tri post from last week will attest), but it's not pretty.  Walking is almost worse than running, as it seems to pull more on the achilles insertion point.  The one thing that seems to be helping is my two new pairs of compression socks.  I ran the race in them, and I've been wearing them as much as possible during the day.  At the end of a day with the socks, the hot spots are still present, but less acute, and much of the surrounding inflammation seems to have subsided.  Anybody else have experience with this?  Theories??  I'm looking for a quick miracle cure! Are they it??

Best summer movie

Summer movies are supposed to be mindless fun.  Little wonder that exceedingly turgid big budget fare like RIPD, Pacific Rim, the Lone Ranger, the unwatchable Man of Steel, and numerous others this year have been humongous flops.  The answer to your summer viewing blahs is:

Sharknado.

The Syfy channel produced the best way to waste two hours this summer for the "budget" of maybe one CGI sequence in the Hollywood flops.  A giant tornado over the Pacific sucks up thousands of sharks and then heads for downtown LA and Hollywood.  People scream, sharks bite their heads off, old people quiver in terror, and some people who are somehow related to each other fight back.  Climactic scene (spoiler alert) appears below the photo.



Dude who used to be on Beverly Hills 90210 jumps head first into a flying shark with a chain saw and cuts his way out and rescues his son's girlfriend who was inside the shark!  Words simply fail to describe how awesome this was.  Needless to say a sequel is already in the works.