As I sit here in the hotel, reflecting on the days adventures, I can’t help but recommend The Bradley Boulder enough (http://www.thebradleyboulder.com/). I am in no way affiliated with the hotel. The rooms were nice, breakfast in the morning, a refrigerator with water throughout the day, evening happy hour, etc. On to the day.
Alan met me at Gordo’s home and we started on the flexibility. Of all the measurements I think I heard normal on at least two measurements. I heard, HUH and ABNORMAL a couple of times. I will post the actual measurements from both Alan and Retul.
Besides being not so distantly related to a crowbar in flexibility, my left side is a bit off from top to bottom. Left wrist is abnormally flexible. I have had wrist pain for about 18 months. Several injections and a cast later, I arrive here. I have added the old school ski bends on the aerobars and will be rockin’ those going forward.
The left ankle doesn’t move so well and the left foot is about a size or so larger than the right. So I’m basically a mess. My left side is very different from my right. But......
Mat Steinmetz at Retul says, and I quote, “I don’t think flexibility matters.” Take a deep breath Alan. What he really meant was as long as you are reasonably normal. Who’s normal?
The Retul process is very good. Velcro stickers are attached at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist on the upper extremities. Also attached to the 5th metatarsal, ankle, knee, and trochanter. I think we took about seven or eight runs. Each side was looked at under easy, steady, and mod-hard. After our initial measurements, we changed the seat height (up a bunch) and back and took more. We shortened the stem (120 to 100), and inserted a shim under my left cleat. Alan then had Matt flip the stem. One of the coolest parts of the bike fit is being turned 180 degrees while pedalling on the bike. Not a normal thing but a much easier way to look at left and right than turning the setup. Just turn the rider--cool.
These are the post files from the left side of the fit. I’ll let Alan tell everyone what it means if he is so inclined. Also, this was my road bike. We have some good data and now will be able to translate this road bike data to the aerobike with Alan’s presto-chango software. I will post before and after pics of that bike when we make the changes.
As is the case when visiting the doctor or taking your car to the mechanic, I had no knee pain at all during this process. Not at the start or during the changes. Maybe we have hit the holy grail, maybe it was placebo. Rides in the future days will tell.
Of note, Matt said he didn’t recommend doing all rides on the aerobike. Specific work yes, but not all. Cervical issues, etc.
As luck would have it, there are no pictures to document this process. My physique is not yet ready for prime time. Big thanks to Mat and Alan. And yes, I will stretch. I hope to one day be as flexible as, well, just more flexible. I can start back on the bike and hopefully there will be no pain. Time to start mapping out a game plan for next year.
Meals....Dinner at Japango (http://www.boulderjapango.com) for sushi. It was good, not sure if there are better in the area. It was recommended by the hotel. Lunch at The Kitchen Cafe (http://www.thekitchencafe.com) was excellent. Dinner number two was Aji (http://www.ajirestaurant.com) and that was so-so. Too much info about my meals. Memories of my career as a competitive eater!!!!
