What’s up all,
There is only three and a half months til IM CDA, which will be my first. My question is how long do you actually ride in the aero position vs. sitting up during the race. I’ve done three hour rides on the trainer (ya, its still winter here in Montana), and after a certain point sitting up for about 10-20 minutes is very refreshing. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.
I’m not kidding when I say that the goal should be to stay aero the entire time. That’s my angle. Tough hills may require sitting up a little bit. But tight backs and cramping necks can be trained, too. Not to mention a good fitting on the bike may relieve alot of that stress.
You want to spend as much time in the position as possible. If it’s too uncomfortable to stay down there all day, you might want to add a spacer or two under the stem. A little difference in height can make a world of difference. It’s called the aero position for a reason, coming up incrementally isn’t going to screw up your position, but sitting up on the brakes for 30 minutes or more of the ride certainly will.
Good luck!!
My question is how long do you actually ride in the aero position vs. sitting up during the race.
To optimize your performance you will want to ride in the aero-position as much as you can. The closer to 100% the better. Now, from time to time you will need to come out of the aero position, that is a given, for corners for some climbs and so on, and this also helps stretch and utilize other muscle groups. But, hopefully you will be doing better than the many, many triathletes who spend perhaps the entire last half of the bike sitting bolt up-right on their very expensive super-aero bikes. I am not meaning to be smart, just making an on-the-side-of-the-road observation and that many people are not well positioned on their bikes for an IM.
111 miles
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You may need to raise your bars a bit to be a higher which will result in a slight loss of aerodynamics, but a little bit of comfort gain. The goal is to stay aero 100% of the time, everytime you sit up, you work harder and slow down. I don’t know what your goal for this IM is, but I say save time everywhere you can, or you will sit around after the event thinking of how you could have saved time as you decide to enter another IM race to prove it.
Also, I noticed that it is easier for me to stay aero on the road versus sitting on the computrainer.
I did a 12 hour ultra cycling event yesterday. Both myself and the guy who got 2nd place were both on TT bikes. I didn’t come out of my aerobars for the first 113 miles except when I stopped to reload on water bottles.
If you can spend 3 hours on a trainer aero, then I suspect that you can manage to last 105 out of 112 aero. You’re on the right track…but if you are in Montana, you could have more fun XC skiing or snow shoeing than being attached to pedals in the “great indoors…” (although I will concur that this may not optimize your IM…but it might increase your longevity in the sport…)
Dev
There are enough hills at CDA that you will get plenty of aero break. Stay aero until you are in your smallest gear (at least that’s what I did, but I was riding 11/23) and then sit up and power over the hills. Everything else should be aero. Especially the long road going in and out of town. You need to stay down to save energy and go fast!
Jodi
It’s actually more than 4 months away. If you are actually doing IMCDA in 3 1/2 months from now, you might have other issues than just aero position.
Maybe upright for the first 50m and the last 50m. I sit up only for periods during steep climbs as I like to scoot back a little and switch it up a little. No more than a couple of minutes though. I think if you have a good fit and you match your road bike pretty well you can get away with racing in the aero position and training on a regular road bike. Works for me, I’ve never had problems with the aero position and I only ride it for races.
Yeah, in a perfect world, being aero the entire ride would be great, but mortals like us have to sit up now and then to give the neck/back a break. I did one race last year where we had 25mph tailwinds on a section of the course. I quickly figured out that riding completely upright increased my speed by 5mph easily! I was blowing by guys with full aero gear down in their aerobars and I was sitting straight up on the bullhorns just flying along like a sail!
in training and racing… i cant ride more than 10-15 minutes aero before having to stand up a few stroke or sit for a few secondes and get back aero… so… i do move when i have a chance…
for a race like CDA… not much of a problem… there is many hills and corner to get you in different position so you can move a lot on the bike and dont have to stay aero for too long…
112miles less a back stretch on some hills when the pace slows.
90 to 99% of the time. Yes I know that’s not specific … Figure on 99% of the time in aero miles 0 - 25, then lots of breaks miles 25-45 … 99% aero again miles 45-80; lots of breaks miles 80-100, then aero to the finish. I had a decent ride at CDA last year: 5:50 (which included 2 pit stops) … I was never aero for more than 10 miles without a 60+ sec, break (why stay aero when your are 9 mph up a hill?) During the hilly part, its pretty much: Aero 10 min; 1-2-min break, repeat.
Seems pretty straight forward to me.
Aero on the flats and downhills (for as long as possible, do some strength/flexibility training to improve this area), bullhorns or standing up the hills.
You can only do the best you can do, and what the course allows.
semantics, semantics… pardon me, I meant approximately four months
Thanks for all of the input everyone. I think I’m on the right track, I have to just wait out the weather until I can get outside and ride. There isn’t alot to look at while riding in my dungeon. suprisingly enough, my new P2C (I love my wife) feels pretty darn good, no back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain etc. Hopefully spring comes earlier and the roads are cleaned expediently.
you will find riding on the road a lot different than on the trainer. it’s harder to stay aero as long outside. once the wind, hills, riding a straight line and balance come into play you’ll find that trainer was much easier. so i would not use that as a benchmark, just a rough guide
as for staying aero in IM. i find that you are well advised to come out of the aero position at each bottle hand off. not just for the hand off but because it is a dangerous place. people make sudden turns, they slow down too much, some stop, people drop things - all kinds of things. i usually come out of the aero position a little before the hand off and stay out until i’m past the danger zone. total of about a minute. sometimes at the end i’ll stand for 10-15s to stretch out and get some speed. so that gives you a minute every half hour or so, that can help you last into the final hour staying aero when a lot of people are giving it up.
good luck
In reply to:
Yeah, in a perfect world, being aero the entire ride would be great, but mortals like us have to sit up now and then to give the neck/back a break. I did one race last year where we had 25mph tailwinds on a section of the course. I quickly figured out that riding completely upright increased my speed by 5mph easily! I was blowing by guys with full aero gear down in their aerobars and I was sitting straight up on the bullhorns just flying along like a sail!
I’m not a physicist, but I think that if you were going over 25 mph (which I suspect you were with a 25 mph tailwind) remaining in the aero position would still be an advantage. The wind can’t push you if you are going faster than it.
I tried it and I was going faster with less effort sitting straight up.