training the new position...

is becoming a real learning experience. The closed position feels like it's taking my quads (and knees) just about completely out of action. When I press hard on the pedals it feels like all glutes. It seems, based on last week's training, that my glutes are slow-twitch which is the opposite of my quads. Because of this I was able to train six days last week for a total of 240 miles with little trauma. I'm so happy about this. I hope it continues.

This discovery answers a question that has perplexed me from my powerlifting days. As a powerlifter I was never able to develop as much power using a powerlifter-styled squat and had to resort to using the Olympic lifter style of a close stance with lots of knee bend and quadriceps. This is very hard on the body and is a position of poor leverage compared to the wide stance and hip-centric style that most powerlifters use. I was able to squat well regardless by relying on speed. Trying to rely on hip power made me slow and heavy weights feel dead. I should have realized this before as I knew my triceps are slow-twitch while my biceps are fast.

Anyway, putting power to the pedals in the closed position doesn't make my muscles burn the way the open position does; I can hammer away with little ill-effect and am ready to ride again the next day without my body feeling like it was full of toxins. Unfortunately, there's still that matter of worse aerodynamics.

On today's 50-mile ride I broke my record speed for the hill that ends my TT training course at mile 14-15. My old record was 18mph but today I did it at 20mph. Also, all of the hill speeds were higher for the moderate level I rode today. My average speed for the whole ride was 22.3mph. This was done on my "performance course" which gradually climbs to the base of the Sierras. Considering the slowness of the bike that's not too bad. I'll have to check my records to see what I did on other bikes. The bike is about 2mph slower on the flats than before but I have a feeling my body's red-line will go up substantially. I can't wait to see what happens in the real steep hills. I think that's when the new position will really start to shine.

I've tried closed positions in the past and always felt the pinch of circulation in the crease of my hips. I think the key to making this position work for me this time was that I left the hip position (seat base) open as it was originally and made up the new steepness with spinal curvature. In other words, the bottom seat section is unchanged, only the top section was raised.

I remember when I'd do long rides in the laidback position. It would be no problem cruising along at 25mph or so after 100 miles but whenever I came to a stop I could barely get the bike started again because my legs felt so weak. I think that's going to be a thing of the past and I'm feeling really optimistic about tackling the hills of the Davis Challenge next year.