Integrating Body and Bike
As a bike fitting professional of many years, I have seen the benefits of proper fitting in all types and levels of cyclists. No matter how well-trained the body might be, the contact points to the bicycle (saddle, pedals and bars) define the how well the body and bike function together. You don't need to be uncomfortable or in pain to benefit from a professional bike fit. You only need to have the desire to improve the body-bike integration.
The Tao of Steve: Cozza's Eneco Tour
Today was the hardest day of the Eneco Tour, topping off at 220 kilometers with over ten climbs from around one to four kilometers long. Tyler still donned the leader's jersey, so it was our job to take charge again today. All I've got to say is the first hour was absolutely insane!
After one hour in true pain of trying to not let anything larger than five riders go, three guys took off on the first climb...
Product Spotlight: Zipp Wheelsets
There are very few products that will actually make you go faster on your bike, but Zipp 404 clinchers are one of them. For the second half of the race season we tested a few pairs on a variety of parcours and found them to be quite possibly the best do-it-all race wheel we've ridden. At 1650g, they carry virtually no weight penalty but their chief advantage is their 58mm deep toroidal rim shape which can save literally minutes when compared to typical box-section rims.
Whole
Athlete Cycling Team News
The
Whole Athlete Cycling Team has wrapped up it's second season of competition
and what a success it was! With 39 wins, numerous placings, and countless
stories of junior cyclists taking their game to the next level, we couldn't
be happier. Highlights included John Bennett sweeping NorCal High School
MTB League Varsity division, Nick Newcomb claiming the Northern California/
Nevada District Road Championships on the road, a Lake Tahoe training
camp that prepared the team for a solid Nationals campaign in Colorado,
and the establishment of a girls' team. With tremendous help from our
generous sponsors, 2010 looks set for continued growth and success. For
more information, please visit http://www.wholeathlete.com/team.htm.
Power to the People!
At Whole Athlete, we've been training and racing with power meters for many years and find it without a doubt the most effective training tool available to cyclists. While we're big fans of SRMs, we also realize that they are a significant investment some may not be ready to make. The hub-based PowerTap has come a long way in recent years, particularly with the top-end wireless 2.4ANT+ models. Through November 15, we are happy to offer the following discounts.
Existing HR-based coaching clients: 15% off wireless PowerTap systems, plus one month of power-based coaching at no additional fee.
New coaching clients: 15% off wireless PowerTap systems and 10% off initial intake fees.
Contact
us today and take the first steps toward your most powerful winter
of training ever.
Mental Fitness: Choosing to Compete
You’ve been wondering what it would be like to race. Or, you’re thinking of getting back to racing after crashing, burnout, or too much disappointment. But you feel reluctant. How – and when – do you choose to compete? The mentally fit cyclist has the skills to sort through all the factors, change what is changeable, and make the decision.
Include Massage in Your Training Plan Today!
Massage therapist extraordinaire, Andrea Smith is offering some great deals on massage. For new clients, $60 for a 90-minute massage or only $40 for 60 minutes. If you refer three people who book massages, you receive a free 60-minute massage. Package specials available too...
Top-10 Whole Athlete Results
Whole Athletes have experienced success at virtually all levels this season - including four US National titles (across road, mountain and track) - and in all disciplines: multi-sport, mountain bike cross country, super-D, road, time trial, track and cyclocross. Coaches and athletes alike have shown that a holistic approach is the recipe for success, tearing up race courses around the state, across the US and Europe. Check out some of our recent results.
Holistic Performance Newsletter - Vol. 16, Fall 2009
By Dario Fredrick
As a bike fitting professional of many years, I have seen the benefits of proper fitting in all types and levels of cyclists. No matter how well-trained the body might be, the contact points to the bicycle (saddle, pedals and bars) define the how well the body and bike function together. You don't need to be uncomfortable or in pain to benefit from a professional bike fit. You only need to have the desire to improve the body-bike integration.
Each cyclist is unique, even though we all share similar aspects in cycling. The three-contact-points concept may seem simple, but when we look at the multitude of positioning variations and the sum of these as they affect biomechanics, bike fitting quickly becomes more complex. Of course, you could simply adjust your saddle height to the point that "feels" right, and as long as you can reach and hold the bars without major discomfort, that might seem good enough. But if you are looking to optimize the way the body integrates with the bike, your economy of energy expenditure, bike handling and stability, while minimizing risk of injury or accommodating current or past physical challenges, then a more precision, detailed approach to your bike fit is the answer.
A good fit is specific to the person, one that adjusts the bike and shoes to the cyclist, taking into account the cyclist's body history, goals, and feedback. After all, a proper fitting adjusts the bike to the rider, not the rider to the bike. Fitting "systems" that use fixed parameters such as formulas, video or lasers to determine one's fit lack the ability to take your uniqueness into account. A computer or formula doesn't know that your knee hurts or why, or that your hands go numb after 20 minutes, or that you broke your arm when you were a kid. Technology and formulas and are simply tools, and the effectiveness of a tool is only as useful as its application and the experience of the user. How the fitter uses his tools and experience is what matters most. A good bike fitter has a range of fitting options to employ and can explain clearly and in detail the whys behind fitting elements and philosophy.
If you are wondering whether you should consider a professional bike fitting, here are a few questions to ask yourself: Do you experience discomfort or pain in your body on the bike? Are your knees, hips, low back, neck, shoulders, feet and hands completely happy when riding? Do you feel entirely stable on the bike, especially when cornering or descending? Do you avoid the drops on your road bike handlebars and/or do you spend most of your time on the tops rather than the brake lever hoods? Do you find yourself moving around on the saddle a lot throughout a ride or as terrain changes? Do you ride climbs primarily standing out of the saddle? Do you change your saddle position often to try finding a comfortable spot? If you answered yes to any of these, your fit can likely be improved.
The benefits of a proper bike fitting cannot be underestimated. From seasoned professionals dealing with the rigors of 100+ racing days each year to commuters looking to arrive at the office without a sore neck, all cyclists can reap the rewards of optimizing the integration of body and bicycle.
About the author: Dario Fredrick is an exercise physiologist, professional bike fitter, yoga instructor, coach and cyclist. He is director of the Whole Athlete Performance Center in downtown San Anselmo. You can reach Dario via www.wholeathlete.com to schedule your own precision bike fitting.
The Tao of Steve: Cozza's Eneco Tour
Tyler's on Fire and We Keep Stoking It
Today was
the hardest day of the Eneco Tour, topping off at 220 kilometers with
over ten climbs from around one to four kilometers long. Tyler (Farrar)
still donned the leader's jersey, so it was our job to take charge again
today. All I've got to say is the first hour was absolutely insane!
After one hour in true pain of trying to not let anything larger than
five riders go, three guys took off on the first climb. The whole peloton
cheered in happiness as the three racers disappeared into the distance
for their long, painful voyage down a dead-end street. I say dead-end
because there was no possible way they were going to stay away from the
Garmin boys!
After we gave them about eight minutes, Whitey (Assistant Team Director,
Matt White) ordered over the radios for Tricky Ricky Ricardo and myself
to start riding tempo on the front. And tempo it was for nearly the next
100 kilometers. No problem. Haha! We have been doing this everyday here
now so we've become used to it.
Occasionally someone would say something to me and I wouldn't and couldn't
respond. I was hurting too much and totally focused on my mission at hand.
As we neared 170 kilometers, the break was back to 1:30. We all knew the
move and attacks were going to come around 160 k and 180 k because there
were two big climbs.
Ricardo and I were totally cross-eyed at this point when a group of 5
took off over the climb at 165 k. This was a threatening group and took
30 seconds in the blink of an eye. We were ordered by Whitey to go flat
out, full gas, and just kill ourselves during the next seven kilometers
into the big climb. We did and were both proud of our effort.
After we hit that climb and the break was coming back, we both blew up
and fell through the peloton like a bag of rocks. With 40 kilometers to
go, we found 4 other totally dead riders that we could work with to get
to the finish. Immediately everyone started calculating how much time
we could lose to still make the time cut - and that was around 35 minutes.
Then the we rode by a field of fat, healthy, happy nice-looking cows and
the conversation suddenly turned to how we would rather be those cows
right now. I think I started it... haha. We came up with quite a few reasons
why we would rather have been those cows - many of which I can't write
about.
With ten kilometers to go, we heard on the radio that Tyler had won yet
another stage and the hardest one at that. Ricardo and I started yelling
with joy and both decided we no longer wanted to be a cow. All our hard
work for the day paid off and we couldn't have been happier at that point
for Tyler and our team.
Three more great days to go. BRING IT :)
Steven Cozza is a professional racer for the Garmin-Slipstream Team. You can follow his adventures via his website http://stevencozza.com.
Product Spotlight: Zipp Wheelsets
There are very few products that will actually make you go faster on your bike, but Zipp 404 clinchers are one of them. For the second half of the race season we tested a few pairs on a variety of parcours and found them to be quite possibly the best do-it-all race wheel we've ridden. At 1650g, they carry virtually no weight penalty but their chief advantage is their 58mm deep toroidal rim shape which can save literally minutes when compared to typical box-section rims. The 404's feature a new-for-2009 hubset that spin on high-quality cartridge bearings with adjustable pre-load (while also doing away with the carbon dustcaps whose rattles plagued earlier versions of Zipp wheels.) Far from being fragile, the newest rim design stood up to some severe abuse on courses like the pot-hole and railroad-track strewn Giro di San Francisco without batting an eye.
Also worth noting is the new Zipp 101 wheelset. We haven't got hold of a set yet as they're not even in full production, but they look very promising as another multi-purpose wheel. With an all-aluminum rim, full-toroidal 30mm deep profile, and a weight below 1450g, these might be the ticket for races with summit finishes, lighter riders who find the 58mm 404's too much of a handful in winds over 25mph, or simply those on a tighter budget.
Zipp 404
clincher MSRP $2200
Zipp 101 clincher MSRP $1300
Remember, Whole Athlete coaching clients receive a 15% discount and fitting/testing clients receive a 5% discount when ordering product at time of service. Contact us to place your order today.
Mental
Fitness: Choosing to Compete
(originally published in PezCycling News)
By Marvin Zauderer
Last month in this Sport Psychology column, in How Bad Do You Need to Be?, we looked at a very powerful source of energy – your “dark” side – that’s available to you on the bike, and explored how you can use it. This month, we delve into a very common challenge for athletes: beginning – or re-entering – competition.
As it always is at this time of year, the U.S. Open tennis tournament is underway in New York City. Like many longtime tennis fans, I’m reminded each year during the Open – in the inimitable words of tennis aficionado Bud Collins – of “the brash basher from Belleville (Illinois)”: Jimmy Connors. Winner on three different surfaces, maestro – at age 39 – of an unforgettable semifinal run in 1991, darling of the New York fans, Connors owned the Open in his day. In Joel Drucker’s terrific book, “Jimmy Connors Saved My Life,” respected analyst Mary Carillo says of Connors, “He changed the way the game was played by the pros, perceived by the fans, and produced by the television networks…He made tennis matter.” Love him or hate him, Connors absolutely radiated competitiveness.
What is competitiveness? And what about your competitiveness? What affects it? Is there something getting in its way? If you’re thinking about getting into racing, or getting back to racing, but you feel hesitant, unsure, or ambivalent, exploring these questions can help you get unstuck.
According to Robert Weinberg and Daniel Gould, in their book, “Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology,” research on competition goes back to 1898 and the work of Norman Triplett. (Triplett chose cycling as his test case, and showed for the first time that competition enhances performance.) However, it wasn’t until Rainer Martens’ work in 1975 that a conceptual framework guided research in this area. To Martens, competition is a linked, four-stage process:
1. The “objective competitive situation.” Central to Martens’ definition is the social component of the experience. There’s not only a standard for comparison, such as your most recent performance or your competitor’s best performance, but also at least one other person who is in a position to evaluate the performance. So even if you’re out alone trying to beat your best time on your benchmark climb, and you tell someone you’re doing it, that’s an objective competitive situation.
2. The “subjective competitive situation.” This is how you perceive, evaluate, and accept the situation. For example, you’ve probably heard the old saying, “when there’s two riders, it’s a race.” Is that always true for you when you’re out for a ride with a friend? Never true? Sometimes? When you’re considering racing, part of the subjective experience for you is the feelings you have about it. You might feel dread, excitement, or a host of other emotions which can affect your appraisal of the situation. Your competitiveness will play a significant role here, as will other factors (your fitness, the course, the weather, and so on.)
3. Your response. After you assess the situation, you’re either going to approach it or avoid it. If you approach it, there will not only be a behavioral component to your response (eg. deciding which race is a good starting point for you), but also likely physiological (eg. elevated heart rate) and psychological (eg. anxiety, motivation, self-confidence) components as well.
4. Consequences. If you then race, what’s that experience like? Exciting, fun, stressful, tiring? And afterwards, how do you view the experience? For example, if you got dropped by the main pack, do you see the race as a failure? Or, because you outsprinted all the riders in your group for 44th place, do you see it as a success? And what about the social aspect of the experience? For example, how are you affected by what other people (eg. teammates, competitors, friends, family, coach) say about your race? The thoughts, sensations and emotions you have during – and about – your race define the consequences...
For the complete article, please visit http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7483.
Massage therapist extraordinaire, Andrea Smith is offering some great deals on massage. For new clients, $60 for a 90-minute massage or only $40 for 60 minutes. If you refer three people who book massages, you receive a free 60-minute massage.
Package Specials: FIVE 60 min - $295 (SAVE $30), FIVE 90 min - $425 (SAVE $50), TEN 60 min - $575 (SAVE $75), TEN 90 min - $850 (SAVE $100). You can use these packages for yourself, share them or even purchase gift certificates.
Andrea Smith, CMT is a graduate of the Institute of Conscious Bodywork. She is trained in Swedish, Deep Tissue, Sports, Myofacial, Acupressure, Reflexology and Pregnancy massage techniques, perfecting these skills in her private practice. Andrea intuitively uses this eclectic mix of modalities to promote corrective and healing changes within the body. She is well-versed in working with endurnace athletes. For appointments contact Andrea at (415) 259-7803 or andreamassage@gmail.com.
Recent Top-10 Whole Athlete Results
Meredith
Miller
US National Road Championships: 1st
Emil Gercke
Spearfish Cyclocross: 3rd
Star Crossed CX: 7th
Rad Racing
Grand Prix CX: 8th
Shelley Olds
US National Track Championships Scratch Race: 1st
Giro d'Itala Donne, Stage 8: 2nd
Tour of Tuscany - Sprint Competition: 1st
Tour of Tuscany, Stage 5: 3rd
Greg Anderson
(all M35+)
Leesville Gap Road Race: 1st
Davis 4th of July Criterium: 1st
San Ardo Road Race: 1st
John Bennett
Ft. Ord Road Race: 1st (cat 3)
Patterson Pass Road Race: 1st (cat 3)
Challenge Road Race: 5th (cat 2)
Downieville XC: 4th (pro)
Will Curtis
US Cup Finals - San Dimas: 1st (cat 1 17/18)
Howell Mountain Challenge XC: 1st (cat 1 17/18)
National MTB Championships XC: 8th (cat 1 17/18)
Harvey Bear XC: 1st (cat 1 17/18)
Vacaville Grand Prix: 7th (jr 17/18)
Giro di San Francisco: 7th (jr 17/18)
Maureen Kunz
Howell Mountain Challenge XC: 1st (pro)
Alec Kassin
Downieville XC: 1st (jr sport)
Benecia Criterium: 1st (cat 5)
National MTB Championships XC: 5th (cat 2 15-18)
Vacaville Grand Prix: 8th (jr 17/18)
Fremont Peak Hillclimb: 4th (cat 4)
Nick Newcomb
NorCal/Nevada District Road Championships: 1st (jr 17-18)
Dunnigan Road Race: 1st (jr 17-18)
Winters Road Race: 3rd (jr 17-18)
Downieville XC: 2nd (jr expert)
Benecia Criterium: 3rd (cat 4)
Suisun Criterium: 6th (cat 4)
Fremont Peak Hillclimb: 6th (cat 4)
Michael Hutchinson
National Masters Track Championships Team Pursuit: 1st (M40+)
National Masters Track Championships Points Race: 3rd (M40+)
Ralph Pilley
National MTB Championships XC: 2nd (cat 1 50+)
Riley Predum
Downieville XC: 4th (jr expert)
NorCal/Nevada District Road Championships: 2nd (jr 17/18)
Napa Skyline XC: 2nd (cat 1 17/18)
Dario Fredrick
National MTB Championships XC: 1st (cat 1 40+)
Howell Mountain Challenge XC: 1st (cat 1)
Harvey Bear XC: 1st (pro/expert)
Downieville XC: 3rd (expert 30+)
University Road Race: 2nd (M35+)
Mt. Tam Triple Crown: 1st (open)
Tony Smith
Fremont Peak Hillclimb: 1st (jr 17-18)
Downieville XC: 1st (jr expert)
Winters Road Race: 2nd (jr 17-18)
National MTB Championships XC: 6th (cat 1 15-16)
Giro di San Francisco: 6th (jr 17/18)
Max Houtzager
Downieville All-mountain: 1st (sport)
USA Cycling Ranking Super D: 6th
National MTB Championships Super D: 6th (jr open)
Fontana Super D: 3rd (jr open)
Northstar Super D #1: 4th (pro)
Northstar Super D #2: 7th (pro)
Canadian Open Enduro: 4th (jr 16-18)
Will Patterson
US Cup Finals - San Dimas: 3rd (cat 1 17/18)
Downieville All-mountain: 4th (jr expert)
Joe Yoham
Harvey Bear XC: 2nd (jr expert)
Howell Mountain Challenge XC: 4th (cat 1 17/18)
Fremont Peak Hillclimb: 4th (jr 17-18)
Victoria
Yoham
Harvey Bear XC: 1st (jr expert)
Howell Mountain Challenge XC: 3rd (cat 1 women)
Bobby Zidek
Napa Skyline XC: 1st (cat 2)
Downieville XC: 2nd (jr sport)
Davis Bentley
Howell Mountain Challenge XC: 2nd (cat 1 17/18)
McKinzie
Stanley
Whiskeytown Classic XC: 2nd (beginner)
Travis Duro
Fremont Peak Hillclimb: 1st (masters cat 4)
Mark Volkmann
Esparto TT: 1st (cat 3)