"I'm riding a Giant OCR2 road bike w/ sora in case you're wondering."

1) Get a neutral seat post, something like a Botanger off ebay for about $20.

2) slide seat fully forward on this post to give an effective 76 degree seat angle

3) get Syntace C2 size small aero bars for about $50-60 on ebay.

4) for about $100. get either Hed Jet 60, Hed CX or Campagnolo Shamal front wheel off ebay

5) for $60. purchase CH Aero disc wheel covers.

6) clipless pedals if you don't have them already

For these few hundred dollar mods and nothing else you've just chopped off a minimum 10-15 minutes off your bike time.

i have speedplay x2 pedals and syntace c2 clip aerobars. had them for both races. those were the ONLY upgrades i made to the bike. otherwise it is a stock bike.

as for the seat post, wheels, aero disc covers... i've been really wary about getting them mainly because i don't understand bikes all that well. not sure what parts/wheels are interchangeable. what can go on what frame and so on.... i added the aerobars because i understood what they were. and, pedals are pedals. i figured i couldn't go wrong. (i like both the c2 and x2's - no complaints)

so, without sounding like too much of a dumbass - how can i learn more about the bike? and, about the upgrades you suggested?

intervals. look around slowtwitch, gordoworld, etc for explanations. basically, work a pace harder than race-pace for a few minutes, recover, then do it again.

disclaimer: i'm not a coach, not an expert, and sure as hell not fast... yet

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http://www.theninjadon.blogspot.com

"The bicycle riders drank much wine, and were burned and browned by the sun. They did not take the race seriously except among themselves." -- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

I know you guys will think this sounds like a broken record but the first thing to look at is bike position. It is amazing how much of an improvement you can appreciate from good bike fit and positioning. That is the first place to look and the area of largest possible improvement.

Once you have addressed bike fit and positioning completely then it is a matter of developing power- it already sounds like you have fitness.

You know the routine: Intervals on the bike, maybe think about a Computrainer, an excellent tool for building power.

Mostly though, I bet we are talking about bike fit here. Get a good fit and position on your current bike and I bet you will be faster right away. Good luck with that!! Let us know...

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I've found the best way to get faster is to ride with faster folks in training. Go out and ride hard once a week with some one who will drop you, and then try to hang on as long as you can. In addition to riding with faster people, just ride more. Some people will tell you the evils of over training and such, but I think with cycling the more miles you have in your legs from one year to the next, the stronger you'll be. This is just what I've found from my own experience.

Good luck.

Adam

thisbetc621 ,

Two things you need to do to get faster. First find a roadie group and do their rides twice a week. Second get Powercranks. I am going to post later today when I get a chance of my results from Spud. Needless to say it was a very very big improvement. I would have to say Powercranks were a big part of it.

You state your swim and run were improved. So did you run faster this year at Eagleman than you did last year. There is a good chance that this is due more to better bike fitness than better run fitness. Once you get to 1/2 + distance the run is more a test of how good you feel after biking, not necessarily a test of overall running ability. There are alot of damn good stand alone runners who cannot run well in 1/2+ races b/c they lack sufficient bike fitness. So you may be better off than you think. That said, you can always improve, that's the best and worst thing about this sport :)

I've found longer steady state rides have improved my biking alot for triathlon. I was riding with roadies all the time, but it wasn't simulating triathlon races, it simulated road races. I got stronger, but not necessarily better TT'ing. The nature of road rides are attack, recover, attack, recover, etc... The nature of tri ride, find a higher HR and sit there for a couple of hours without peaking over say 85% if possible. So now I do one group ride a week, b/c it's fun, and I like the socializing.

Tell us where you live and see if anybody know a good bike fitter in your area. Get fit and you will do great. Here is the catch...

Cervelougy gave you great ideas the problem is he forgot the formula for triathalon cycling

money+fashion+gadget=time

Intervals, group rides, better diet, etc really doesn't help as much as $5000 on a credit card and a pissed off partner.

Also post a picture of you on your bike and let us run you down for what a dork you look like. That will help.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Tom,

My first tri on Sunday confirmed quite clearly that my bike is the weakest link, at least right now (43 or 53 in AG on bike as opposed to 7th in the swim and 22nd on the run). I have a Trek 1000 and have no plans on upgrading any time soon. What would you suggest that I could do to improve position and reduce time, how much time improvement would you expect to result and how much would you charge me to help me with this?

don't forget the CH seatcover

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stltricoach's suggestion was the first thing that popped into my head, too...a better run (especially on longer races) is often due to an easier bike. Fit is also a big one. There's just no way to tell about what is your first goal to works towards without seeing you ride. I've seen people that ride slowly because they just don't know it's supposed to take a hard effort...they were so concerned with good aero positioning and maintaining form and being smooth, etc., that they just didn't practice riding hard enough. I've also see the opposite, they don't care at all about aerodynamics, or pacing, or form, and they just beat themselves to death in a sloppy manner that is not efficient. Bike fit is part of that.

If you aren't on the bike correctly (however that is defined for an individual), you aren't going to be as fast as you could be. That's where I think you should start. Intervals, more effort, all those things, should ideally follow the establishment of a good position.

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

I agree with Tom. I used to be quite powerful, and did well on the bike. I lost much of that power with a few years of less cycling and when cycling mostly some Spinning classes in the winter, and the result is that I now suck on the bike. I have trouble going the other way now.

Tom, do you have any "preferred" sessions to improve power (interval type, or whatever) ?

Faster - only one way....ride ride ride ride ride ride...hours at a time. Intervals will give some more speed, I however prefer "pickups" to me an interval is a HR3-4 suffer session of about 90 seconds. A "Pick Up" will be 10-15 minutes at a higher pace than your avg speed at a higher heart rate. Take about 3-4 min rest and do it again and again. Group rides will help as well as you have more people to make fun of you if you get dropped (hard to get dropped alone eh?)

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Tom, I have a bike fit question for you. Last summer I had a bike fit at a local shop when I got a new saddle and new pedals. Part of the reason for the new saddle was sciatic pain I was having, and part of the reason for the new pedals was foot pain I was experiencing - only in one foot.

So I had the bike fit, but didn't ride a whole lot last year, so only put in a few hundred miles, and no long rides, until earlier this spring. Now I'm having foot pain and sciatic pain again, usually beginning any where from mile 20 to mile 40 of a ride.

Someone suggested to me that I get another bike fit at a different local shop. However, assuming that my set up gets changed, how do I know which is the RIGHT fit? How do I know that any changes will be a benefit and not a move in the wrong direction without putting in several hundred more potentially painful miles? If the new fit does seem to be wrong, then I'm in a position of trying to re-correct the mistake. Is a proper bike fit a potential fix to my problem? I don't know whether to see a sports doctor or a bike shop or both at this point.

The only thing I'm sure of is that I shouldn't have the kind of pain I'm experiencing. After Eagleman, I was in such sciatic pain I had 3 Advil and 2 Tylenol, and still no relief for the entire rest of the day. Even just sitting in the car on the way home I was contorting trying to find a comfortable position and just couldn't find it. (Thank goodness I wasn't driving!) Yesterday I woke up fine, completely pain free.

Any sage advice? Thanks! :-)

look at your bike fit first. if good then you probably need to do some power and muscular endurance sets. if your always riding at 18-9 mph then your not going to race much faster. granted you can build huge amts of fitness doing steady state rides but sometimes you will need to increase the state of the steady.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I think that the advice Record10ti gave is spot on. It may sound simple but if you want to ride fast you have ride fast. (same applies to running and swimming) All the gadgetry is fun but at this point it may just be a distraction. Make sure your bike fits and ride fast.



I've been a big fan of the pick-up (10-15min) during longer rides and it’s given me some good results. I took the idea from a Dave Scott interview when he was talking about his strategy for doing long rides. Rather than going out and just riding he said he would do a race pace or faster pick-up on the top of each hour (on say a 6 hour ride). It also provides a mental break. For 1/2 IM training I've used a 3-hour ride consisting of 1hr spin, followed by an hour of pain (10min hard, 5min rest x 4) and an hour spin home. If you’re riding with a training partner let the slower rider have a 30sec-1min head start. It gives you the race simulation of trying to either not get caught or catch the other rider. You gota keep it fun ‘cause it should hurt!

mg

Not Tom, but I have had similar problems. They were due more to a very tight IT band and my pelvis being out of alignment. All on the same side. It was working it's way down to where I was having pain from the Si all the way to the pereneal tendon in my foot. Once one thing gets whacked the symptoms sometimes show in odd places.

I've worked with chiro's and Pt's and it's gotten alot better.

Thank you - you make a good point. I know I have a relatively significant leg length discrepancy, and the pain is all on my left side - the short side. I also got new shoes when I got the new pedals and I had a piece put on the bottom of the shoe to help compensate for the discrepancy, but perhaps not enough. I also saw a stretch in Runner's World that I tried for the first time last night that I'm hoping will be of some help. Apparently, there's some muscle (can't think of the name of it) that, as it's used and tightens, can press against the sciatic nerve. The stretch may help but, of course, I'd love a quick fix.

to everyone that replied... thanks.

i will be adding more miles and pickups into my workouts in the future. i'll probably be doing another half in either august or september and a full in november.... so, i really want to improve my bike.

to the person that suggested power cranks... im not too familiar with them. what exactly are they? what are the advantages? (other than the obvious - speed)

tom... i've never been properly fit. i went to my lbs and they said "stand over it" ok... this one fits you. i know i know... not right. but, for a young guy gettin into triathlon with <1000 to spend on a new bike it was the best i could do at the time. since then i've looked at the fist listing and no one near me. i live in a suburb of philly. i'll work on gettin photos of me on it... but, i'm warning you.... it won't be pretty.

and, to the person that asked how my run time improved and attributed it to my bike.... could be... but, i doubt it. i ran a LOT more over the winter and dropped my stand alone half marathon time from 1:36 to 1:30.

at diamondman last year i was 1:50 (it was 12.2 mi) and at eagleman this year 1:45 (for a full 13.1). so, that... to me... is significant.

that's all the time i have right now... i'll be back later to check in.

thanks again....