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Dumb rookie mistake
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 2009-02-25 7:50 AM |
Expert  1010  Greer, SC |  Subject: Dumb rookie mistakeAfter watching the IMWC in December I took notice of the professional's setup on the bike ~ most notably their shoulders over their elbows. I have a road bike that I was fitted with and had modified into a tri specific position (seatpost, aerobars,etc.). This still was not getting my shoulders over my elbows. Instead, I felt like I was completely stretched out. This did not feel comfortable or look correct. So, I decided to mess around with my saddle position by moving it forward. For the first two rides, it felt great. I was nice and compact and then I started to have some lower leg issues that I did not feel before. So, I moved the seat back (not sure how much) hoping it would go away. Now a couple weeks later, I am experiencing something I have never felt before- Achilles pain. It is in both heels adjacent to my ankle bone and below (not on the bottom). I was wondering if my saddle being too far back could contribute to this problem. My plan is to go back to my LBS and have them return my seat to the correct position and get a shorter stem installed. I have been on this bike since September and running upward of 11 miles with no pain at all until I made these dumb adjustments. |
| 2009-02-25 8:12 AM in reply to: #1980754 |
Elite 3088  Austin, TX Gold member | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake Your shoulders don't necessarily need to be over your elbows. In most cases they'll be slightly behind your elbows. In any case, the relative positions aren't as important as the goal: letting your skeleton provide support rather than your muscles. You shouldn't need to tense your back, shoulders, arms, etc, to be in your aero position. You should just be resting on your elbows. If you were stretched out, though, moving your seat isn't how you want to fix it. By moving it forward, you opened your hip angle and lowered your effective seat height by doing so. By moving it back too far, you did the reverse. So with the seat back too far, you're basically bending over farther at the waist than you were before and you're seat is higher than it was before, forcing you to flex your ankle more to reach the bottom of your pedal stroke. |
| 2009-02-25 8:25 AM in reply to: #1980808 |
Expert 1010 Greer, SC | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake dgunthert - 2009-02-25 9:12 AM Your shoulders don't necessarily need to be over your elbows. In most cases they'll be slightly behind your elbows. In any case, the relative positions aren't as important as the goal: letting your skeleton provide support rather than your muscles. You shouldn't need to tense your back, shoulders, arms, etc, to be in your aero position. You should just be resting on your elbows. If you were stretched out, though, moving your seat isn't how you want to fix it. By moving it forward, you opened your hip angle and lowered your effective seat height by doing so. By moving it back too far, you did the reverse. So with the seat back too far, you're basically bending over farther at the waist than you were before and you're seat is higher than it was before, forcing you to flex your ankle more to reach the bottom of your pedal stroke. I tried to move it back to the properly fit position. Unfortunately I think I went too far. Do you think this could put added pressure on my calves / Achilles? |
| 2009-02-25 8:37 AM in reply to: #1980754 |
Expert 758  Morgantown, WV | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake Yes! Without moving the actual seat post, you could have made your seat too high by moving stuff around, and hence the new pain. Careful with adjustments- mm at a time is the most you should do. Take it from someone who learned the hard way. |
| 2009-02-25 8:51 AM in reply to: #1980856 |
Elite 3022 Preferably on my bike somewhere | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake greenmtnman - 2009-02-25 9:37 AM Careful with adjustments- mm at a time is the most you should do. Take it from someone who learned the hard way. Ditto that. |
| 2009-02-25 8:58 AM in reply to: #1980831 |
Elite 4048 Gilbert, Az. | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake Jeepguy2358 - 2009-02-25 7:25 AM dgunthert - 2009-02-25 9:12 AM Your shoulders don't necessarily need to be over your elbows. In most cases they'll be slightly behind your elbows. In any case, the relative positions aren't as important as the goal: letting your skeleton provide support rather than your muscles. You shouldn't need to tense your back, shoulders, arms, etc, to be in your aero position. You should just be resting on your elbows. If you were stretched out, though, moving your seat isn't how you want to fix it. By moving it forward, you opened your hip angle and lowered your effective seat height by doing so. By moving it back too far, you did the reverse. So with the seat back too far, you're basically bending over farther at the waist than you were before and you're seat is higher than it was before, forcing you to flex your ankle more to reach the bottom of your pedal stroke. I tried to move it back to the properly fit position. Unfortunately I think I went too far. Do you think this could put added pressure on my calves / Achilles? Yep, definitely. It changes your hip angle, your effective leg/stroke length, and thus changes how your foot flexes during the pedal stroke. It's really hard to get a true TT position off of a road frame. Most tri frames have a seat tube angle of 76-78 degrees, while road frames usually run 73-75 degrees. There are a few (Cervelo Dual) that can serve double duty, but a road frame in a tri is usually a close approximation. John |
| 2009-02-25 9:31 AM in reply to: #1980754 |
Veteran 307 | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake I, too have gone down this path. Lots of tinkering with my road bike trying to make it more "Tri Like" resulted in me hurting my neck. I got rid of my fast forward seat post. That was causing the majority of the problems. I went back to square one. I agree with the above post, you cannot make a road bike into a tri bike. You can certainly make yourself more aero on your road bike by tinkering with aero bars, spacers, seat height, stem lengths, etc. However, first and foremost, be comfortable while riding. If you aren't comfortable, it doesn't matter how aero you are, you will be miserable and you won't be fast or worse, you won't ride. I recommend you start over and get your road bike back to a configuration you can ride comfortably. Then slowly introduce changes in small increments. Once you get the bike into that magically configuration that is comfortable first, then fast and aero second, write down all the settings and lock it up in your safe deposit box next to your will. |
| 2009-02-25 9:52 AM in reply to: #1980986 |
Master 1651 Breckenridge, CO | Subject: RE: Dumb rookie mistake Lukester1980 - 2009-02-25 8:31 AM Good advice. When you're trying to fix something that really isn't broken, always make sure you can easily revert back to what you had. |
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