New Purchases and a Bike Fit

This past weekend the Better Half and I buzzed up to the Twin Cities for a little shopping excursion. I was going to check out the Gear West Triathlon and Bike Store and she was headed to REI. We each came home with new toys.

Britney ended up with a pair of hiking boots (Lowa Renegade):

I got myself a new transition backpack (Rocket Science Sport’s Elite Bag):

I came home and stuffed EVERYTHING in it that I would need for a race and guess what…it all fit! I was super excited. It’s name is Sherpita since one of the reasons I got it was to replace Britney when she’s not with me at races. The duffle bag I have now works, but doesn’t fit everything and its hard to bike with it if necessary. I’ll be sure to let you know how it fairs during my upcoming race in 3 weeks!

Bike Fitting:

So I had my professional bike fitting tonight, courtesy of Jason and Bike Tech in Cedar Falls. They are trained using BikeFit and Specialized BG techniques and the session took about an hour and a half.

Overall, he didn’t have to move a whole lot around. The seat was at the correct height and angle, which didn’t surprise me. My main concern was my lower back tightening up so he messed with the areobars quite a bit. Jason also spent quite a bit of time working with my pedals for power transfer efficiency, which was interesting.

I did a lot of pedaling and stopping as they took angle measurements and getting in and out of my shoes as he messed with wedges for my cleats and cleat positioning. He also had me do sprints to see how my knees respond to pedaling hard as opposed to cruising along.

The whole process was very interesting and although he didn’t have to make any drastic changes, I’m glad I went. The nice thing about living around here is that I get to ride for a while and take it back in if more tweaking needs to be done. I’m planning on riding in a Cedar Valley Cyclists 10 mile Time Trial tomorrow so that will be a good test of how the fit feels.

The bottom line: the guys a Bike Tech are awesome, so if you’re ever in the Cedar Valley, be sure to check them out!!

Well tomorrow my sister moves home for the summer, ending our 2 years of living in the city, being at the same university run. I know she’ll miss me mucho next year when she comes back and I’m not here. Needless to say it will be much quieter in the summer without her!

(P.S. she finally started her blog…if you’re interested in crafting, stop by and say hello to her, she’s quite entertaining!)

I’ll be back tomorrow night after the Time Trial!