Visit to Austin

I recently went to visit Jerry Gerlich in Austin. A little background. Been cycling since the mid 70’s, 20 of those years racing both Road and Track. Always considered myself a fairly smooth rider with pretty good leg speed on the Track. I’ve never had any major overuse injury or fit issues.

Started training consistently over the last year eyeing a return to a little Masters Competition after a brief (15 year) hiatus. I’ve been adapting to some new equipment and could not get my right foot to feel comfortable. Constantly moving it around in my shoe, playing with pedal float, but never feeling like my foot knew where it was. I had studied Steve’s work in the past. His views on bike fitting seemed to really speak to the issue I was trying to address. After some experimentation I finally broke down and asked for help, setting up a visit with Jerry in Austin.

Most of Jerry’s focus was on my arches, some differences between feet, and cleat adjustments. This seemed to settle my foot down. The most notable immediate change, an age old tendency to toe out was reduced significantly. The resulting position clicked for me after just a couple rides. I took it easy for a couple more weeks; my Glutes/Hams were being recruited much more and needed time to catch up.

We were working on what I thought was an issue at the bottom; however the profound change has been over the top. I had been feeling a little stuck over the top, had even considered trying shorter cranks, that is now entirely gone! I’m now making significantly higher power at higher rpm. Also notable is less leg fatigue after rides, improving recovery.

I believe both of these outcomes are a result of the recruitment change, and better muscle coordination. Overall time very well spent, and an improvement much greater than I expected! The two biggest changes; improved recovery and power at rpm are huge boxes for any prospective racer old or young to check off. I’ve been faster but don’t remember turning a pedal better than I do right now. I went in without any performance goals, just to “fix a specific problem”, and came out a better/faster rider. That’s a very cool thing for an old dog to experience.