Monday is moving day! I’ll be headed down to the OTC in Colorado Springs to tri (pun intended) something new. After a break from the pool, I relied on Coach Andrew and his team, the Front Range Barracuda Swim Club, to get me back to swim fitness. The Cudas train in the beautiful 50m pool at Veteran’s Memorial Aquatic Center (VMAC). My former school district began construction on VMAC after I graduated high school and I’m glad to say I didn’t get cheated out of the experience of swimming in a great facility that is close to my home.
While I am feeling pretty good about my swimming fitness, I admit that I am a little nervous to start bike training. My outdoor biking experience does not extend beyond riding a bike around my cul-de-sac in grade school. However, we got the ball rolling (spinning?) on my cycling with a bike fit at Retül in Boulder this past week. The fit was an experience in itself, but before we could get started we encountered some slight difficulties with my pedals/cleats. I couldn’t get my shoes to clip into the pedals. Even though the cleats appeared to be installed correctly at a quick glance, I had accidentally installed a plate backwards. After a short investigation, two of Retül’s awesome fitters, Garrett and Ivan, were able to figure out what I did wrong! The improper installation caused a skinny metal bar to prevent my cleats from clipping into my pedals. Fortunately, everyone was very patient with me and we managed to get the situation sorted out so we could complete my fit. Retül gathers fitting information by putting riders in a harness with LED markers placed on several different points on each side of the body, including the ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders (see picture below!). A sensor bar picks up the LED markers and generates an image of the rider on a screen. The sensors then generate various degrees and measurements for both the bike and the rider’s body position to ensure that the bike is adjusted to the correct position for each individual rider. The goal of a fit is to find the position that best promotes rider comfort and health. It was a really cool experience and I was amazed at the incredible technology surrounding the process.
Now that I have the bike fitted, I should be able to hit the ground running – or at least as much as a novice cyclist can. I just hope that when the time comes for my first real cycle, I won’t be as apprehensive as Phoebe when she first tries to ride a bike: