Bike Fit

Today I had my first bike fit done at PlayTri. When I first got my bike, I did all the adjustments myself.  I was quite happy and I’ve been riding on the bike for the last 3 months without any issue when used as a road bike, but I recently installed some clip-on aero bars had some discomfort when riding it for the first time. I wanted to have a proper tri fit.

The bike fit was the Retul system.  I didn’t expect to have to do so much riding, but in the end I was happy with the result.  My seat got raised a bit and I did replace the saddle with a tri specific saddle.  It was much more comfortable when I was in the aero position.

I have my long ride tomorrow of 30 miles and that will be a good test.  We’ll see how long I can stay in the aero position. I’ve only ridden two others times this past week with the aero bars.  I think I spent perhaps 40-50% of the time in the aero position on the first 15-mile ride, but only 20% of the time on the second 15-mile ride due to the discomfort.

I have also done the 30-mile ride for last 3 weekends so I have a good baseline for my power and speed to compare against.

Learning to Swim

If I got into a pool and was told to swim to the other side, I can do it, and I can even swim back, but was I swimming?  I guess it depends on how you define swimming.  If it is simply to propel oneself, then yes, I was swimming!  But, the way I swim is not typical.  It would be a combination of freestyle with my face out of the water the entire time and a lot of splashing, a little breast stroke when I got tired, and flipping over on my back and making what my wife calls snow angles in order to move.

None of my strokes were normal.

When I was doing my Divemaster Scuba certification, one of the requirements was to swim 400m.  You got various points depending on how long you took with 5 points for under 9 mins and 1 point for at least finishing.  I only got the 1 point having taken around 18 mins to swim the 400m.   At the time I was doing 10-mile long runs, but I was exhausted after that 400m swim.

I know this will not work for any kind of long distance triathlon.  So in order to accomplish my goal, I had to take some swimming lessons to learn to swim properly so I can be more efficient in the water.  I found a 2-week beginner class that started this past Monday and after just a couple days, I can now swim freestyle with side breathing.

Now, I’m not breaking any speed records and I’m tired after just 50m, but at least I have the technique down and now I just need to work on building up my endurance.