Tuesday, October 11th 2011

Swim:  90 minutes
Bike:  3 hours
Core:  60 minutes

Comments:
Yesterday, I drove to Abu Dhabi to have my new LOOK 596 Mondrian properly “fitted” by Retul certified Toby Jones who runs Bikefit Asia and has a fitting studio/workshop in Abu Dhabi.

I never had my Cervelo P3 fitted …maybe thats why I am such a poor cyclist.

Look is my sponsor … and I am very proud to ride a Look bike, especially their 596 Mondrian which is their premium tri frame.

By complete chance, I met Toby the day before at a bike shop in Dubai called “Probike.”  Probike is my favorite bike shop in Dubai because of their consistent great service.

Although Toby was flying to Singapore the next day in the late afternoon, he told me he would give me an appointment for first thing in the morning…he lives about 45 minutes away from me.
I needed my bike properly fitted ASAP, and didnt want to wait until the following week when Toby was back, so I happily agreed.

I arrived at 9:15am and we quickly went to work.

Toby has an extensive setup in his workshop with several turbo’s and a special stationary bike which is used to measure, and adjust and measure … re-adjust, etc.

I spent the first 2 hours on the measuring bike/turbo hooked to a computer … and Toby would stop me, change a few millimeters and I would try again.

Immediately, I was impressed by how extensive he was with fitting/measuring me.

Later in the morning, after we found the ideal fit … to make me laugh, he hooked up my cervelo (the bike I have been riding for the past 18 months) … and he left my settings as they have been for the past 18 months.

Instantly, I noticed the difference – I have been riding with my seat foolishly low and my position on the TT bars has been incorrect.   (we are filming the final fitting, and I will show the extreme difference when Toby is back from Singapore and we meet for the next fitting session and film)

5 hours after I had arrived, we finished my first fitting on my LOOK and I drove back to Dubai.

I highly recommend Toby Jones —  www.bikefitasia.com

To show the massive difference in the way I ride now … The film crew commented today that I was riding 10km/h faster in the same place as I had ridden last week when they had filmed, and the team all commented that I seemed to ride much faster on my new bike.  There was not much wind, so my new feel for the bike was smooth and I felt like I was giving much less effort than before, I was going very easy.

Anyways, today I had a good ride.  Core workout was ok, but too rushed?
I have a 6 hour ride and 2 hour run again tomorrow…

The bike feels much better, but I change my seat which I can’t decide was a mistake or not.  Also, my back is a little bit sore as well.  Mario told me that this is to be expected.  We shall see tomorrow.

I posted a training video on the main page of the blog … it was of a 7:13 minute ride last week and a 2 hour run, but the bike ride shown in the video was taken today…. and was not the full 7:13 … the team changed the original bike filmed last weekwith the Look bike.  You can see how sun burn I was on the run.

My 16 year old daughter told me “you have a  really funny style of running…”
I told her, “I have no style when I run…”

My training has been ok, but not as focused as it needs to be.