PR 's do come if you are focused like Georgia Gould, Nat Ross or Karl Etzel, owner of Rider424!

If you want PR's, each stroke counts!

There is nothing like pushing yourself to your very best, in any sport. With the correct information, and a certain amount of determination and motivation, you can succeed in breaking your "Personal Records".

As in every sport, learning curves exists. One can pick up tips and advice from many people; as well as simultaneously picking up their numerous mistakes, especially if the tip is not what you need.

We can lower and shorten the learning curve. Regardless of your experience, we can guide you to your best strokes.

Even if you don't run your saddle height at the correct height, when you stand, your cleats need to be in the perfect spot.

Tina Pic just won the US Open this past weekend as she out-sprinted the field. Tina uses our cleat, footbeds, and handlebar measurements. She has had many years on a saddle which is lower and farther back, but that doesn't matter when your standing.

Everything counts!

We all need to focus on each and every stroke! To focus on the sum of something will not lower your strokes! Each year the game gets faster, and it's always hard. There are some great tools such as powermeters, which allow you to review, and which do a good job showing the ending score card. However they don't break down the much needed focus on each pedal stroke, or as in golfing, the swing! You need to know what each muscle is doing within the pedal stroke! This is where the score is lowered!

Karl is a very science based man, who holds a few masters degrees, is a Wenzel coach, and uses what he calls the latest "electronic doodads" in order to monitor his progress. Karl learned and now knows a better pedal stoke (golf swing), and will "chip-away" at his score as well as his clients. The end score will be simply the sum of each stroke.

Karl came over Idaho to become a Wobble-naught dealer this past winter. He took time off from work and family in order to come here and go through our dealer school. Karl learned some new facts, using the Wobble-naught CAD, and we really changed his setup in a way to best allow his tall frame to make its best stroke. We then used the Myo-facts sEMG/Dartish to show him the hard facts. As with so many people we fit, we just let time and the ending score be the "tell all".

With all the written ideas available on websites concerning what is the best bike setup and the best best pedal stroke, one has to pull up their "chest-waders" and get into the river to find out more. I always say that you can't catch fish, even with all the books, or know how, unless you get into the river! What if you don't have waders or a river and you just go with whatever? Today, there are are so many electronic 'doodads', as Karl points out, that you can lose focus!

Ever since the "The Masters", a golfing event that was held this past weekend, I stayed abreast to watch the drama! They are all pros, they all have the very best, custom-made clubs, and they each took much time to address the ball. The Masters course was winning with cold temps. (a loss of feeling), dry conditions, etc...

With all the high-tech, so much money on the line, and the honor, why were there so many different scores?

I loved the ad from IBM: "Bobby Jones - When playing the Masters, the course is only 5 inches wide, the distance between your ears". In other words, all you have to know is how to swing all the clubs to perfection. The Masters does not reward error any where on the course!

When climbing, you have to focus on each pedal stoke just like the PGA pros have to find their best of golf swings for the Masters. With each shot (pedal stoke), precise calculations are made on the club (gear), and tempo of swing (rpm), which affect the next shot (stroke), leading to your score! Poor strokes will cost you on the links or on the bike. Gravity will not reward anything except your very best stroke!

Our roots come from mtb and that is the climbing game! Mtb rewards the one who cares enough to focus on each stroke. We had the first CAD mtb solution on-line in the world. Look at our results and note the World Champions in mtb. Twenty-four hours champs over and over.

For the most part, most people can ride on roads, the flats, suck wheel and perhaps hang on till the end. But climbing and gravity will show you your true "pedal stroke score".

We understand, that there are many other spokes in the wheel (coaches, training, equipment, etc...), behind lowering the score, but fit is a big one.

Even with the best training, the best swing in the world, if you can't get the golf club on the ball, that best will not provide a good result!

This is true for the much over-looked pedal stroke. You can't miss one stroke or your score will suffer! Maybe we should start counting each stroke just like golf to drive this home! May the best stroker's have the best score!


Posted by Karl Etzel:

Nice surprise:

Well this ride was a pleasant surprise:

After missing an entire month of training in February, I went back for 3.5 weeks of base building. This past weekend was the first time I released the hounds, the motivation was good and my patience with base training was exhausted. The above shows the data for a new PR on my local hill climb test, Hwy 9.

The road climbs about 2K feet out of Saratoga and I lopped 13 seconds off my previous best. Not bad, considering I did not feel great and I know I have a lot of room left to improve my pedal stroke. I was pretty surprised to get to the top as fast as I did. I’d give credit for the improvement to 2 primary things - more specificity in training (aided by all these electronic doodads that monitor my training more closely) and my Wobble-naught bike fit with Myo-facts sEMG/Dartfish pedal stroke modifications. I have a number of other things up my sleeve to bring the time down even more but I’ll save that for another day. I will say this improved my confidence for a potential solo run at the Cool 24. My duo partner bailed so looks like it will be a solo, unsupported kinda weekend.

Next time up Hwy 9 I’ll use the Forerunner to give you a picture that includes altitude and more details on the route.

What' in your game?