Thanks for the Topic SAC

Triathlon Forum
1

As mentioned in another thread by rappstar/SAC… this has be buggin me for some time now (reading the posts by positioning “experts” - ::your seat is too high!:: ::go lower:: ::shorter stem:: ← all of which would just bunch up the rider and round out his back)…

Well, in my opinion, if you are racing triathlons, then you should do 90% of your training on the bike you will be racing. I don’t really understand why you would train on a road bike and then race the P3C. It totally violates SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demands). Train how you race, race how you train. You will see HUGE improvements with zero change in training time and intensity if you trained mostly on the bike you raced, and that should be your P3C.

So I really have two pieces of advice. Buy an SRM and put in on your P3C. Then train and race on that bike. Save the Trek for recovery rides and the OCCASSIONAL group or charity ride.

This is something that I never understood - as I work with both types of athletes, if your tri bike is that uncomfortable that you need a road bike, than there is something wrong (either you don’t ride it enought to have adapted to it, or the position is so bad that you will not be able to perform on it).

either way, to quote Sr. Coggan “specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity, specificity”

for (most of you here) triathletes, you should be training on your tri bike (or at least another training bike with the exact same position).

for (the rest) road cyclists, you should tt on a slack angle bike.

Whenever we talk position (here or the other haunts) it is so out of line to hear reccomendations of high angles for guys that train 95% of the time in a traditional position and vice versa…

perhaps slowman will disagree with me, but there is no one solution for riders, forward is better for triathletes, but road riders are better served maintaining a saddle position almost (if not exactly) like their road racing position and working on lower back flexability.

To quote (paraphrase acutally - thanks kirk for this) the great ed burke (cycling testing legend) regarding positioning:

“the bike is a highly adjustable tool, and the rider is a highly adaptable engine.”

and thusly one should plan on adapting to the position that one will race in.

do this by training in that position as much as possible…

g

2

Well said. After a two-month flirtation with my road bike with clip-ons, I got back on the tribike yesterday to get back to training in ernest. Aaaaaah. Now I feel right again. Down low, stretched out and able to just ride for hours. Like a baby in a cradle.

It’s specificity, baby!

3

thanks, pretty sure I will catch a lot of flack about this, but tis what I believe to be true…

so I find it hard to imagine having tt/tri bikes set up so differently than a road bike…

Even if you wanted to have a “traditional” road bike as a triathlete, I would still set up the bb/saddle/handlebar relationship exactly the same…

4

It’s funny how people in general and coaches in particular complain that they don’t learn much about training in the certification courses. However, in every coach certification course, you learn the basic training principles.

Just to name two of my favorites: Individualization and Specificity. People look at those words anf think that just by looking up what they mean, they understand the concept.

So we have people thinking that Individualization means that for each his own. Every athlete is different, so we need to understand each athlete differently. Even though this is true, it is true to an extent. And believe me, it is a very limited extent. So when somebody comes to me and tells me that they rode the course of an OD the day before the race and that it works for them, I just say “WRONG!”. They’re clearly not understanding what Individualization is.

The same can be said about specificity. Some people look up the word and think, “Well, it’s all about training like you race”. That is true, but again to a certain, again very limited, extent.

I could rant much in the same way about the 3rd principle I hold as very true: Consistency. But I’m guessing you know what I have to say about it.

5

Even if you wanted to have a “traditional” road bike as a triathlete, I would still set up the bb/saddle/handlebar relationship exactly the same…

I did exactly that, down to about a half cm of accuracy. I merely rotated myself back around the bottom bracket. Still, even with the same joint angles all around, the roadie never felt as comfortable as the tri bike – simply because I have about 5000 miles on that tri bike position over the past 2 years, and about 150 on the road bike.

If the riding time equation were the other way around, the tribike would feel weird and uncomfortable.

pics here:

http://www.masterstriathlete.com/positions.html

6

The same can be said about specificity. Some people look up the word and think, “Well, it’s all about training like you race”. That is true, but again to a certain, again very limited, extent.

I am not sure where you are going with this - on one hand I do agree, but you sound like you disagree with the point I was making…

But there is much evedience that training in the POSTITION that the muscles will be used will make you better at it… and that an athlete can adapt to produce optimal power in said positon given time…

not necessarily training like you race, ie going and riding the course at race pace, but training like you race (meaning training in the position you race) is vitally important…

g

7

So we have people thinking that Individualization means that for each his own. Every athlete is different, so we need to understand each athlete differently. Even though this is true, it is true to an extent. And believe me, it is a very limited extent.

Somebody on the wattage list put it this way:

The body responds like a Swiss watch; you just have to know how to wind it.

We’re all made of the same stuff. To a very high (extremely high) degree, we all respond to training stimulus in the same, predictable way.

Especially to Consistency. :wink:

8

So when somebody comes to me and tells me that they rode the course of an OD the day before the race and that it works for them, I just say “WRONG!”. They’re clearly not understanding what Individualization is.

What?

9

I used to have seizures when people told me the dumbest things are then said “It works for me…”…

I am better now in case you’re worried… :smiley:

10

I was criptic on purpose :wink:

I agree with some of what you said, but you’re still think too much about what the word “specific” means, and not enough on the concept of specificity.

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I have cycling kit mock-ups for you to see. As Paris would say, they’re hot.

jason
cyclesmithslc.com