Fitting

When I started out on this "Ironman journey", I knew the biggest learning curve would be the bike. Turns out I was right. It's darn complicated. While swimming and running experience can be attained by relatively easy. In swimming you need some trunks and a pool. In running you need some decent shoes and a road. Cycling, however, requires much more equipment and knowledge on how to use that equipment.

After spending much money on a bike, apparel, helmet, computer, shoes and more stuff than I want to think of – I had one more important cycling to invest in: The fitting.

I have to admit that I really didn't think that fitting would be that necessary when I started. After all, you buy a fancy bike – you'd think it'd be a pretty good in the first place. But once you've ridden on a bike right "off the rack" for over 30 minutes, you begin to become uncomfortable. Your shoulders may start to ache, your butt might hurt or you may just struggle more than you should going up hills. All this can be the result of a bike that has not been "fit" to its owner.

My new tri bike was no different. While I did have someone at the bike store help me adjust the bike to my size – it was obvious during my first ride that I needed my bike to be better fitted to my body.

I used Marcus and Nancy from Train Smart to get my fitting. The cost was $180 and it was money well spent.

The process of fitting is a combination of measurements and feeling. Naturally, they attempt to get the body angled so that the most energy can be expensed at the least effort. But beyond that, it's about how it feels – Do the shoulders hurt? Is comfortable to peddle? How hard is it to peddle? Bike training means a bunch of time in the saddle and your told that comfort is the key.

I'd compare fitting to getting glasses. You get on the bike and peddle for a while and you're asked how it feels. Then you get off and they tweak the bike. You get on again and they ask you if the new adjustments feel better or worse. Then you get off again and the tweak again and so it goes…

It took over two hours to adjust the many components on my bike. They even put plastic on the bottom of one of my shoes to make up for a leg discrepancy I have in my legs (my right leg is longer than the left). When all was said and done, my new ride felt like a new ride. While my body does need to adjust to biking and thus I do get sore muscles, overall I was able to ride pretty comfortably for a couple hours a couple days after the fitting. The first few hours of what I suspect will be hundreds more on the bike.