Being “FIT” matters

It’s been over 2.5 years since I have been in the aero bar position (for anything longer than 30-40 mins that is). I have done some testing now and again but nothing major. In November we here at Slowtwitch jumped at the opportunity to help Certified Piedmontese put on their Great Plans Gravel Triathlon under their sister company GoodLife brands. We are huge fans of triathlon and gravel. It just makes sense for us to try to help. I know Dan has been wanting to put on a gravel triathlon for years now. So, we took our 24 plus years of event experience, and the many polls we’ve taken about gravel and triathlon, and we helped give them advice on the results and how it might impact distances of each discipline.

The event was supposed to be super small the first year so we could get our concept ironed out (remember we at Slowtwitch are also about slow, steady growth) and then make a big push for next year. The people behind the GoodLife brand are very passionate about the endurance space. Shane Peed has long supported events and athletes alike. He walks the talk when it comes to doing things he believes in. So when he talked about wanting to put on the race I knew he was going to do it with or without me so like a good friend I put my hat in the ring with him to help with anything I could.

Around April I knew we had a race director that was good with operations and Shane kept telling me he wasn’t going to do the race because he wanted to be on the ground to make sure things went smoothly. I figured that someone out of the team needs to do the race. You know, just to make sure the course was well marked and all. Over the last five years I have been on the up and down the roller coaster with my fitness. I have been either super busy with work and life that I have let things go or I have been dealing with injuries. About 15 months ago I really tried to get things going again. I was able to get into enough shape to do the Xterra Beaver Creek and shortly after that I started to deal with all sorts of issues. It took three to four months to figure out that my psoas was all sorts of jacked up. So, after lots of rehab and about 3-4 months of just being slightly depressed I was finally able to get back into a semi normal routine and so by then my goal was to call this my “getting back into shape year.” Around May I committed myself to 4 races: the Great Plans Gravel triathlon, the Rock N Roll ½ Marathon with my wife, Xterra Beaver Creek, and the Wasatch Gravel Race. Four totally different races. In hindsight, my choices are really sort of funny and random.

First up on the calendar was GPGT, which meant I needed to think “triathlon” which means I needed to think “aero.” It's been over 3 years since I have even owned a triathlon bike. I have three of them in the shop right now but none of them have been bought by me, and none for the sole purpose of riding them in a triathlon. I went to F.I.S.T camp back in April and I made sure I was fit on two different setups – one for gravel, one for tri. When getting fit on the triathlon bike I remember my fitter, David really trying to push me onto 165mm cranks. I resisted. “I don’t even own a 165mm crank bike. And I don’t really want to go from 170’s to 165’s all the time.” Shorter cranks are also usually not something that companies tend to send us for bike reviews. When we get demos, they are usually between 170mm and 175mm cranks. The idea of getting fit to 165 was something I wanted to avoid. He kept pushing and I kept telling him to pound sand. Dan eventually got involved, pointing out that I am 6’1 with long legs, and that I do not need to be on 165mm cranks if I don’t want to be.
We settled on 170.

Photo is where F.I.S.T is 🙂

Fast forward to about a month ago. I was looking at my calendar and thought, “Holy crap. I have 30 days until the race. I better get my butt in gear.” That meant dialing in equipment, which included aero bars. A brief aside on this for those looking at racing a gravel tri at some point soon. According to USAT, aero bars are not allowed. When asking the GPGT team about it, though, they said they didn’t really care. The lesson: always ask! Knowing I needed every advantage I could get I grabbed the one pair of clip-ons I had and started the process of training my lower back and neck to be in that position. It also was a good excuse to try out some other products I was reviewing at the time. For about 3 weeks I was on a different bike than the one I ended up racing. I was planning on riding the Ventum GS1, a gravel bike that I really like. I have ridden this bike for 5 months now, so I really had no need to switch. I installed some Zipp clip-on bars and I started off slow with ride times down in the bars. 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, 45…and so on.

But I just couldn’t seem to get super comfortable in the aero position. I also have a GRX groupset on the Ventum so I couldn’t get shifters on the aero bars. If you are going to ride the rolling hills of the Midwest, that sort of sucks. I didn’t know if it was the geometry of the bike, or I’d forgotten how to be in that position, but I was just feeling weird. I finally took the time to look at my fit sheet. Yep, I was too far back, and I wasn’t going to get further forward on this bike. So, I looked at my options and the Cervelo Aspero came off the shelf and slapped some aero bars on it.

Admission time: at this point in my life I am 100% afraid of injury. I have lost three years of my triathlon life because of it. All of a sudden I blinked, and I’m 43 years old, married, with 2 kids and 2 businesses. I just find myself thinking differently now than I did when I was at the “peak” of my triathlon racing days. I think about my family and my team way more than I think about myself and with that, I got totally lost when it comes to being healthy and fit. So, knowing that needed to change, injuries are not something I want to deal with anymore. The idea of going into a race with a bike that doesn’t really fit right was just simply not an option for me and to be frank it shouldn’t be an option for anyone reading this.
I do want to take the time to talk about my bike choice though because gravel triathlon is awesome, and I think if you are a triathlete, you have to sign up for one. Not should, not maybe, have to. Now you may or may not be able to use aero bars for your race but I’m going to assume that even if you can’t, you will at some point, want to put aero bars on your gravel bike. With that in mind, the Cervelo Aspero is a hybrid bike. It’s got a mixed bag geometry that you can feel as soon as you are on the pedals. When I say its “mixed” what I mean is it's not a Salsa backpacking gravel bike and it's not a Trek Madone, race style fit. It’s somewhere between. It’s super light, stiff, and can give you 47mm clearance on a 650B but only has clearance for most gravel tires in 700c of 40mm. It’s that perfect “right in the middle” frame which is why they designed it

One week before the race I was going to do a longer training day to get a reality check on my current fitness level. I took myself up to Park City, UT at 7,000 feet and rode the historical rail trail from Park City to Echo Reservoir. It was about as close to the race course that I could find where I knew I could put my head down and ride. I had 6 goals in mind for the training day:

1. Get this bike totally sorted.
2. Stay in the aero position for most of the time.
3. Keep my heart rate around 150 BPM.
4. See what my average power was at that heart rate average.
5. Take in more carbs and sodium than I used too.
6. Run two miles off the bike at what I thought would be my race pace.

In the end I rode 50 miles, climbing 1,700 feet and averaging 207 watts, with an average heart rate of 147 BPM. Then I ran off the bike at 7:25/mile pace with an average heart rate of 159 bpm. I felt good and very controlled. It was a good test. I wasn’t and am not in “race” shape, and I don’t pretend to be. But I do want to get into race shape, and this is how you do it – slow and steady builds. The next day I felt fine except I could tell that I hadn’t been in the drops for a couple of years and that I had just spent 2.5 hours in them the day before. I also started to realize that the 175mm cranks that came on the bike were not a great idea for aero bars. But I also thought that my body might come around as I didn’t really have a big week ahead of me outside of the event.

I packed my bike and flew to Lincoln, NE on Wednesday. I landed around 5pm, unpacked my bike, and met up with a couple of the local guys for what I thought was going to be an easy spin.

Nope.

It was a total 90 minute “lunch ride” (Editor Note: also known as “Wednesday Night World Championship”) where everyone was measuring sticks. I got done and instantly thought of David at F.I.S.T camp. “You need to be on 165mm cranks.” So luckily for me I was around a group that basically has a bike shop in the maintenance shed and a great mechanic. They happened to have a 165 mm SRAM/Quarq crank laying around. The next day Lepa (the mechanic) had me all dialed up and away I went. I now had a chance to put on my aero bars and even installed some SRAM Blips on the bar ends so I could shift in the drops. Later that night we went on another group ride, and I was in total shock at how much better I felt. It was like a night and day difference.

The photo on the left was with 175mm Cranks and the one on the right was 165mm

The race day came, and I had a great time. I would end up riding way faster than I thought I was going to. I averaged 249 Watts with an average heart rate of 150 bpm (Zone 2 basically). I ran a little slower than I thought I would but a lot of that came down to the fact that I just had the wrong shoes on. For some reason I thought the run was going to be like 2-3 miles of gravel road and the rest was on pavement. It was 100% gravel and single track that was super technical. So, my HOKA Rocket x 2 was just plain stupid and the swim was fine. It was the 2nd swim I had done all year. (I know I’m a moron.) I have since swam every single day since the race though. Basically, in the end I was in zone 2/3 most of the day which was exactly what I wanted to do.

What was even more fun for me than anything was being back doing a race. Having my wife with me on the trip was so cool. She cheered me on during the race and while I was gone on the bike she went out and did her long run for her half marathon training. We sat down together after I finished and just cheered on all the other people crossing the finish line asking them what they thought about the race, and listening to them talk about how much they enjoyed the race made me very happy.

Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy this sport. I remember thinking while I was on the bike how much I had missed racing. How much that feeling makes me happy. Pushing my body to get great things from it and doing it around people that share the same passion. It was so fun to say hi to other athletes and cheer them on. Big shout out to the whole crew at Certified Piedmontese who put the race on. Eric Moser did a great job as the local race director, and a big thank you to all the volunteers and the timing company that made the event go smoothly. And most importantly, thanks to all 60 athletes who took on the challenge and had a blast doing it.

Whatever your goals are in this sport. Always try to remember to enjoy the moments and be grateful for them. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the races

Before I leave I do what to show off the BIKE and in the end what it all looked like

SRAM "BLIPS" are pretty awesome

Wove Saddle

The Cockpit

I needed to make sure I raised my saddle 5mm when I switched from 175mm on the fly

Great little bento box that held all gels I had

40 mm tires even though they measured 42mm really is about as big as you want to do unless you want to end up like 30% of the riders at unbound this year

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