Cycling in Alignment with Colby Pearce

Happy Freedman is a 40-year bike fitting veteran and expert. Prepare yourselves for another round of bike-fitting nerd-dom. Happy and I don’t agree on every aspect of bike fitting, so I hope you find the explanations of our respective thought processes helpful. We share our separate opinions on the merits and pitfalls of selling bike saddles, seat-posts, cleats, etc. as a bike fitter. Happy’s Site: HappyFreedman.com Medicine of Cycling Conference – https://www.medicineofcycling.com Science in Cycling – https://science-cycling.org/conference/ Podcast: What is Bike Fitting? Live from the Philly Bike Expo https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-6-what-is-bike-fitting-live-from-philly-bike-expo/id1477543731?i=1000456088411

Jerry Gerlich, a Steve Hogg Certified bike fitter based in Austin, Texas and I go way back and share a lot of common knowledge about bike fitting due to our mutual teacher and mentor, Steve Hogg. We dork out big time and get honest about fitting mistakes and learning how to reframe those experiences as learning tools. We relate Jerry’s musical talents as a drummer to some of the same rhythms and attention skills that bike fitting requires.  RESOURCES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-4-watch-listen-tools-bike-fitting-jerry-gerlich/id1477543731?i=1000452902450

After starting with a disclaimer, that he is not a doctor, Colby outlines a few guidelines for supplements. First, understand the concept of bio-individuality. Next, know that eating good, healthy food should always the first choice when you want to increase your body’s performance. Absolutely use discernment when reading labels and marketing materials related to supplements. Answer a few questions about why you’re taking supplements in the first place. Is it to optimize health? Or is it to take a shortcut? Maybe to bio-hack? Maybe to optimize performance? There are many variables that affect studies about supplements that can affect their findings. Colby’s note to coaches: you can make recommendations or suggestions, but the athlete is making the choice and takes responsibility for any supplements they choose to take. https://heartandsoil.co/ https://www.globaldro.com/Home https://www.usada.org/wp-content/uploads/supplement-guide.pdf https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/01/benefits-of-good-iron-levels.aspx https://www.usada.org/wp-content/uploads/supplement-guide.pdf ✎ EditS

Gluten is bad news for your body and today we’ve got an expert in the subject who will explain exactly what the long-term effects of consuming gluten are. Trevor Connor, who you know as the host of Fast Talk, is also the CEO of The Paleo Diet. We talk about keto and carnivore and veganism; we talk a lot about gluten and specifically the challenges that it brings. We get geeky and scientific in this episode but don’t worry, if you’re not a science person, you’re not going to get lost. Trevor does a great job of bringing it back to some relatable and understandable context. RESOURCES: Anit-Factory Farm Shopping Guide: http://www.trufkinathletics.com/books.html Trevor’s series on wheat: https://thepaleodiet.com/the-wheat-series-part-1-wheat-and-the-immune-system Paleo Diet page on nutrient density: https://thepaleodiet.com/eliminating-non-paleo-foods-improves-nutrient-density Metabolic Typing Diet: https://uprightmovement.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The_Metabolic_Type_Self_Test.pdf https://thepaleodiet.com/product/the-paleo-diet-for-athletes

The paradigm of climbing an endless mountain paints the picture of an athletic journey that at points will be fraught with endless comparisons to other athletes, and devastating setbacks with illness or injury. What if training and racing is more of an orbital journey? Your goal is one point of the orbit. At halfway, you can see your goal on the horizon.

Greg Choat is a cycling coach and bike fitter with decades of experience, whose bike fitting knowledge traces back to the expertise of Steve Hogg. Understanding the quintessential difficulty of a bike fitter’s challenge is most aptly painted in this proverb quoted by Greg in the show: “Man is to bicycle as fish is to elephant.” Helping a human body fit seamlessly onto a carbon or metal frame requires mechanical knowledge of the bike as well as biomechanical and physiological knowledge of the human body. Preventing and dealing with injury caused by either poor form or poor bike fit is one of the primary challenges that Greg and Colby face in their work— and which they unpack in this episode.  Website: www.sanussports.com Instagram: @sanussportsusa

Former guest on the podcast, triathlete and Feet Freex shoe creator, Jessi Stensland is here to unpack more of her evolution as an athlete. Starting as a D1 swimmer, making the Olympic trials, transitioning to triathlon, and finally competing in ultra Mountain Bike races are all a part Jessi’s athletic journey. Her continued athletic evolution has a different focus than simply “winning” a race. Creating a long-term health and high-performance lifestyle is now the primary focus for Jessi. The idea of being “kinterractive” as Jessi defines in this podcast, is one of nature, activity, love, and connection.

The essence of what training in alignment looks like began to crystallize in Colby Pearce’s mind after an email exchange with a listener of the podcast. “As you’ve identified in your show, amateurs look at pros for things like training, not realizing that all pros do is ride, sleep, and eat. For those of us who race, how much training is too much? Where is the drop off in terms of results? Personally, I’m not willing to train 20 hours a week even if I had the time. Anyway, I’d be curious to know where the curve starts to drop in terms of fitness and health. When does it move?” This episode is Colby’s musings on the matter, which he hopes will prove useful as you determine your own sport-life balance.

To perfect the time trial position for your given anatomy and physiology, it can take years of trial and error. Sometimes, becoming a contortionist is the most appropriate way to describe the skill you must master to find the fastest, most aero position. That raises issues: Riding in such a time trial position increases the functional load when compared to road riding. For instance, the wider the handlebars, the wider the base of support, and, conversely, the narrower the bars, the narrower the base of support. These different approaches yield different aerodynamics, but simultaneously address some of the load characteristic of such a contorted position. In this episode, Colby discusses the key components to creating an effective time trial position based on his decades of experience, tinkering, and experimentation. Resources Superficial Back Line Crank Length Crank Length Tony Martin sand paper story Rohan Dennis http://www.contortionhomepage.com/photolib.html Paul Chek 90/90

James Wilson is the owner and founder of MTB Strength Systems. He is a mountain bike, strength, and Jujitsu coach based in Grand Junction, CO. He is also the inventor of the Catalyst Pedal. He has pioneered many advanced perspectives on strength training for cyclists, producing content on this topic starting in 2005. Our conversation includes James’ thoughts on how power is most effectively made on the bike, how riders should stand more during training, and a model of tension during riding that is broken into four quadrants. Enjoy this discussion which is not only focused on mountain bikes; the concepts discussed apply to all aspects and disciplines of cycling. www.bikejames.com www.pedalinginnovations.com www.bikejames.com/strength/3-bjj-c…your-mtb-riding/ www.bikejames.com/strength/winning…-bjj-tournament/ The shoes James uses: www.somfootwear.com