Want a better bike fit? Do intervals.

Intervals just might be your key to a better bike fit.https://youtu.be/3vMy1Fvbi0IThe question that comes up often is how can I get a better bike fit? Yes we can change things about the bike to make it fit the rider however there comes a point where that stops being helpful. You can only change the bike so much before it starts having a negative impact on other areas.Something I've noticed over nearly two decades of feeding people to bikes is that different levels of athletes have different problems on the bike. If we were to try to categorize every cyclist we could roughly assigned certain problems that we see with cyclist in any given category. But delineating these categories probably isn't terribly useful because not everyone is going to fit neatly into a single category so having three of them or seven of them or even 20 of them it's probably still not going to cut it.But we can learn a little bit about cyclist Buy understanding their habits and their daily lives. If we were able to put them into an imaginary category, some of the questions we'd ask to do this would be:

• How old is the cyclist?
• How much riding do they do on a daily or weekly basis?
• Do they ride year round?
• What's their injury history like?
• What kind of power profile does this cyclist have?

It's this last question that I want to dig a little deeper into right now. Specifically how it relates to the weight of the rider. What I'm getting at is determining in a vague way what their strength-to-weight ratio is, which is usually expressed in watts per kilogram (W/kg).  Pro cyclists will measure and fret over every fraction of a watt and gram on their body to optimize this, since history has shown that you have to have a certain number to be a contender for the overall result in the grand tours.I don't care about the specifics in this case though.  My concern as it relates to fitting your bike better is on a much more rudimentary level because this is going to apply to those cyclists that are under-powered.  Since we're talking about strength-to-weight a large number of riders I'm speaking to will be those that struggle with climbing.  Climbing is hard, no matter who you are but if you recognize any of all of the following characteristics then this may apply to you:Among other cyclists that are generally your size, do you find yourself lagging or bringing up the rear?Do you have trouble standing while you climb because you either:

• slow down too much?
• it fatigues you much more quickly than sitting?, or
• you have trouble balancing/maintaining any sort of rhythm or coordination?

Do you just have a few pounds to lose? (No shame in this -- most of us do)I want to dispel the idea that this is meant just for overweight cyclists -- it's not.  In fact I see many cyclists of very average weight that are simply under-powered for their size.  Many very good runners struggle with this for the first months to years that they're cycling, because the application of power between running and cycling is so different.The answer for many of you is simple: IntervalsI know many cyclists either cringe or actively run the other direction at the mention of intervals, but it doesn't have to be like that.  Even spending 20 minutes twice a week doing some short bursts with a generous rest period between each can help.I like to do a "1 on, 3 off" sequence just to keep it simple.  So work hard for 1 minute followed by 3 minutes of recovery by pedaling very easy.  The keystone to this is to go really hard during the "on" portion and really easy (think soft-pedaling) during the off.  Making these two efforts very polarized will yield the best results.Doing these intervals on a shallow climb or into a headwind is a good way to start, but especially if improving your climbing is another goal of yours, increase the pitch of the climb in later weeks.**Disclaimer: you should always consult a physician before any major change in your training effort. Also, if you do these intervals on the road, stay aware of your surroundings and traffic, and ride safely.**So what will these intervals do?By slowly boosting your power output at the higher intensities, you'll also be changing how much power you're putting to the pedals at your normal cruising speed.  This will increase the amount of "unweighting" you get from pushing down on your pedals -- read above about Newton's Third Law if you forgot that part.This isn't the easiest limitation to correct in order to fit your bike better, but it's one that pays off in many areas - more efficient pedaling, better climbing, and probably lowering your body weight too.Next time I'm going to talk about symmetry -- on and off the bike -- another challenging fix but one that pays huge dividends on the bike and in our general health especially as we age.