One of the races I did this season, but didn't do a report for, was the Bedford Classic. This is because Bedford was a horrible experience and I'm living in denial of the whole horrific affair.... A brief summary would be: awesome swim, felt good on the bike.... to start with, but then progressively started losing power until I was (relatively) crawling along at 18-19mph. I tried to shrug it off and keep my chin up as I got ready to come into transition. Then things got really bad. Like REALLY bad. I got my feet out the shoes just fine and dismounted like I knew what I was doing (I don't.). I had started to jog into transition when I noticed how tight my glutes were....and hamstrings.....and everything was. Lower back wasn't in a fun place either. I passed my Dad and gave him a big thumbs down. I was in a bad place. By the time I'd stumbled to my racking spot, my glutes and hamstrings were so tight I couldn't even bend down far enough to get my shoes on.
So followed the most painful 3.3km waddle of my life. I forced myself round one lap of the three lap run, to see if I could at least finish, but it was not to be. Multiple attempts to stretch didn't help, giving only a very brief moment of relief before everything locked up again. End result? My first ever DNF.
I knew something had gone wrong - really, really wrong. I posted some video up of my position and it was suggested that instead of rotating around the bottom bracket, maintaining all the angles, I might be stretching to get down to my low bars. This was putting strain through my lower back and all the muscles on the back of my legs essentially (particularly glutes and hamstrings). A new saddle was suggested as a possible cure and I had the ISM Adamo Prologue series of saddles recommended to me as being particularly good at encouraging proper rotation.
A quick Google quickly found Try Bike Store, who would allow me to demo a saddle for up to two weeks for free. I wasn't sure which saddle I needed but ended up trying out the ISM Adamo Prologue. This was one of the newer saddle designs to come out of ISM and was a little longer, which was supposed to allow more forward and rearward body movement. I shuffle around quite a lot on the saddle, adapting my position to suit the terrain so thought this might be a good thing.
Before the saddle arrived, I invested some time in working out how the saddle should fit. From my Uni course I know the anatomy pretty well, so could get a good idea of what the saddle was trying to achieve. ISM have made some pretty good videos and other bits of media explaining the fit and by the time the saddle arrived I was pretty confident I knew what I was aiming for.
Setting up the saddle was easy. I followed ISM's advice and allowed for the higher profile of their saddle compared to the more standard saddle I was using before and dropped the seatpost a little. I set the bike up on the turbo and thought I had the saddle position sorted, but the only real way to tell was going to be riding out the road.
First ride out was a little disappointing. I had way too much weight on my arms and felt like I kept sliding forward off the saddle. Despite the position feeling OK on the turbo, it was pretty obvious I needed to adjust the saddle position as something wasn't right. I slid the seat further forward and also tilted it up ever so slightly. Revelation. The seat suddenly became incredibly comfortable. I was able to perch on my sit bones and could feel the difference in my back. No longer did my back muscles feel like they were having to work to maintain my position - all the weight bearing was being done by bone. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't far off. Even ISM admit that you need a period of adjustment to allow the tissue around your sit bones to adjust to taking your weight properly. When I got back from the ride I was a little sore but importantly I could feel the difference in my back muscles, glutes and hamstrings. A simple saddle change had made a world of difference.
I saw out the two week trial before ordering from Try Bike Store. It wasn't cheap, but if it means I never have to waddle 3.3km again, it's a price I'll happily pay.
So followed the most painful 3.3km waddle of my life. I forced myself round one lap of the three lap run, to see if I could at least finish, but it was not to be. Multiple attempts to stretch didn't help, giving only a very brief moment of relief before everything locked up again. End result? My first ever DNF.
I knew something had gone wrong - really, really wrong. I posted some video up of my position and it was suggested that instead of rotating around the bottom bracket, maintaining all the angles, I might be stretching to get down to my low bars. This was putting strain through my lower back and all the muscles on the back of my legs essentially (particularly glutes and hamstrings). A new saddle was suggested as a possible cure and I had the ISM Adamo Prologue series of saddles recommended to me as being particularly good at encouraging proper rotation.
A quick Google quickly found Try Bike Store, who would allow me to demo a saddle for up to two weeks for free. I wasn't sure which saddle I needed but ended up trying out the ISM Adamo Prologue. This was one of the newer saddle designs to come out of ISM and was a little longer, which was supposed to allow more forward and rearward body movement. I shuffle around quite a lot on the saddle, adapting my position to suit the terrain so thought this might be a good thing.
Before the saddle arrived, I invested some time in working out how the saddle should fit. From my Uni course I know the anatomy pretty well, so could get a good idea of what the saddle was trying to achieve. ISM have made some pretty good videos and other bits of media explaining the fit and by the time the saddle arrived I was pretty confident I knew what I was aiming for.
Setting up the saddle was easy. I followed ISM's advice and allowed for the higher profile of their saddle compared to the more standard saddle I was using before and dropped the seatpost a little. I set the bike up on the turbo and thought I had the saddle position sorted, but the only real way to tell was going to be riding out the road.
First ride out was a little disappointing. I had way too much weight on my arms and felt like I kept sliding forward off the saddle. Despite the position feeling OK on the turbo, it was pretty obvious I needed to adjust the saddle position as something wasn't right. I slid the seat further forward and also tilted it up ever so slightly. Revelation. The seat suddenly became incredibly comfortable. I was able to perch on my sit bones and could feel the difference in my back. No longer did my back muscles feel like they were having to work to maintain my position - all the weight bearing was being done by bone. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't far off. Even ISM admit that you need a period of adjustment to allow the tissue around your sit bones to adjust to taking your weight properly. When I got back from the ride I was a little sore but importantly I could feel the difference in my back muscles, glutes and hamstrings. A simple saddle change had made a world of difference.
I saw out the two week trial before ordering from Try Bike Store. It wasn't cheap, but if it means I never have to waddle 3.3km again, it's a price I'll happily pay.
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