Cycling in Alignment with Colby Pearce

8 Anatomy of a Good Cycling Shoe

Which cycling shoes should I buy?

This may seem like a straightforward question. But the better thing to ask is: Which shoes are right for my feet? If you’ve been a professional cyclist with extensive experience as a bike fitter, like show host Colby Pearce, the answer to that more complex question becomes an hour-long podcast, filled with the nuances of human anatomy.

There are several questions about your physiology and biomechanics that need to be answered before you can select the ideal shoe for you, and for the purpose of your rides. Dial that Boa in—but not too tight.

There’s much to be learned in today’s episode of Cycling in Alignment.

Lake 403s – https://lakecycling.com/products/cx-403?variant=30307106029662

Device that expands toe-box – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B4SKS82?tag=duckduckgo-osx-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

Cycling Tips Podcast about Bont shoes: https://cyclingtips.com/2015/05/bont-vaypor-s-shoe-review/

Bont Helix – https://www.bontcycling.com/products/road/helix/index.html

Bontrager XXX – https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bike-clothing/cycling-shoes/road-bike-shoes/bontrager-xxx-road-cycling-shoe/p/25000/

Lintamen – https://www.lintaman.com/

Hanseeno – https://hanseeno.com/collections/performance/products/u100g-shoes

www.feetfreex.com/

Treadlabs orthotics – https://treadlabs.com/

Superfeet orthotics – https://www.superfeet.com/en-us

Icebug orthotics – https://icebug.com/insoles

G8 orthotics – https://www.g8performance.com/

7 Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of EF Education First Pro Cycling Team

Long-time friends, training partners, and competitors, Jonathan Vaughters and Colby Pearce have a deep racing history and relationship. With decades of experience in pro cycling, they have gained many insights about training, coaching, and the trajectory of the sport.

Colby and JV first discuss their early training techniques, taught to them by their first cycling coach, Adrie Van Diemen, a Dutch exercise physiologist now with UAE Team Emirates. Many of the techniques are now considered to be standard practice. The pair reminisce about how they were ahead of their time, in many ways, even though they didn’t realize it.

Vaughters, who has coached many pro cyclists over the years, then gives examples of experiments gone right—and wrong—and how certain training regimens should be applied to certain types of athletes. He also openly discusses the conflict of interest in coaching athletes while also serving as their team manager.

The discussion then turns to the finer details of cycling technique, including a detailed explanation of how crank length affects a rider’s ability to climb, sprint, and win. JV even describes the time he swapped cranks behind the back of his former team manager, Johan Bruyneel.

Next, the conversation turns to Rigoberto Urán, who finished second in the 2017 Tour de France. The Colombian’s diet at that year’s race included bananas and… bananas. Vaughters uses that example to illustrate how the natural and simple solution oftentimes bests all of the “advanced” nutrition expertise in the world—and how athletes often discover what works best for them and “solve their own equation.”

That, and much more, in today’s episode of “Cycling in Alignment.”

REFERENCES

• Book: “One-Way Ticket: Nine Lives on Two Wheels” https://www.amazon.com/One-Way-Ticket-Nine-Lives-Wheels/dp/0143134140
• Coach Adrie Van Diemen http://www.webtrainer.com/nl/

6 Expansion on Metrics and Formulas

The topic of formulas and their inherent value has been mentioned previously on Cycling in Alignment. This short bonus episode is meant to clarify that formulas are a useful starting point in cycling and training. Formulas can help you race a faster time trial, to gauge how many bottles per hour you need to consume during a long ride in the mountains, how many intervals to run at what pace for a given result, and how long a break should be taken in between.

However, formulas can have flaws or limitations. The critical piece is to make allowances for alterations and compensations. We, as coaches, are trying to help the athlete refine their instinct. Formulas are a tool in a tool chest, which athletes and coaches can use as a starting point. However, formulas don’t account for varying road surfaces, grades, weather, even the unpredictable nature of each individual’s biome.

There are so many opportunities for an athlete to be led astray by strictly adhering, religiously, to a formula. A formula is a proxy for experience. As always, the goal of this show is to help guide you towards the alignment of scientific athletic pursuit with the right relationship of mind and body.

5 Nikki Costello on ELDOA and the Importance of Fascia

Nikki Costello is a lifestyle coach with the CHEK Institute and operator of MyWholeBody. She has worked with Dr. Mark Barnes at SOMA Physical Therapy on the rehabilitation of whole-body health. Nikki specializes in resilience, recovery and longevity. She is also an experienced ELDOA teacher—in English, it stands for Longitudinal Osteo-Articular Decoaptation Stretching—a practice that she and Colby discuss at length during the episode. Much of this practice is focused on the body’s fascial system and repairing or instituting its integrity.

REFERENCES

• Merrill Performance Web: https://www.mperformance.com/ 
• NC Website: http://mywholebody.net/about-us/nikki-costello/
• Anatomy Trains: https://www.anatomytrains.com/
• Weston A. Price: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/why-we-need-carbs/
• Black Onyx (cocoa) https://www.savoryspiceshop.com/black-onyx-cocoa-powder

4 Charlie Merrill: The Psycho-Social Considerations of Pain

Charlie Merrill, a physical therapist, and Tabi shoe enthusiast, takes a deep dive on pain in this week’s episode of Cycling in Alignment.

Injury can have a devastating impact on many athletes. The conversation covers how and why so many individuals have dealt with some aspect of pain in their time of athletic pursuit. Colby and Charlie also cover the degree to which pain can set us back in terms of physical fitness and emotional well-being.

All that and much more, this week on Cycling in Alignment.

REFERENCES

• Merrill Performance Web: https://www.mperformance.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MPerformanceBoulder
• Instagram: @charliemerrill https://www.instagram.com/charliemerrill/
• Kit Laughlin: https://stretchtherapy.net/
• Peter O’Sullivan: http://www.pain-ed.com/team/
• Stu McGill: https://www.backfitpro.com/about-us/
• Guy Winch Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/guy_winch_why_we_all_need_to_practice_emotional_first_aid
• Keith Bontrager and the Myth of KOPS [Knee Over Pedal Spindle]: https://sheldonbrown.com/kops.html
• Steve Bauer “chopper” Paris-Roubaix bike circa 93: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/product-news/top-five-worst-cycling-inventions-196732
• Charlie’s video on Jika-Tabi Shoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLkMni4Qv1Q&t=2s 
• Also see: https://www.lin.health

3 Allen Lim: Cultivating the Environment of Coaching

Dr. Allen Lim, the founder of Skratch Labs, is today’s esteemed podcast philosopher. With his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Lim continues to pioneer new practices in sports physiology and applied training. He is one of the few who will sometimes say that the science is B.S., and that metrics, and the interpretation thereof, constitute only a portion of the overall support system a good coach provides to his or her athletes.

On a personal level, Lim coached Colby through the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, bringing a more scientific approach to the sport of track cycling.

In the second half of the show, food becomes the subject of conversation. Food is often viewed as fuel—and only fuel—by endurance athletes. Lim, author of three books about food and cooking, including The Feed Zone Cookbook: Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes, preaches about eating and the importance of having a good relationship with food.

In Lim’s view, food provides energy not just to power your legs for five-hour rides. Food has chi; and athletes have intuition regarding what and how much food to eat to keep their bodies in balance. The sport-induced eating habits of many athletes can be isolating; Lim, however, understands how food can serve as social fuel, which goes well beyond its role as chemical fuel.

All this and much more in episode 3 of Cycling in Alignment.

Loneliness is a fundamental breach between who one is and who one pretends to be.
– Moustakas

REFERENCES

• Dr. Allen Lim https://www.doctorallenlim.com
• Skratch Labs https://www.skratchlabs.com/
• Chek Institute https://chekinstitute.com/product/holistic-health-and-performance-for-women-e-learning/ 
• Dr. Stacy Sims https://www.drstacysims.com/

2 Nathan Haas: Connection with Nature

When strict stay-at-home orders first struck Spain in spring 2020, Nathan Haas, who rides for the Cofidis WorldTour team, was at his adopted home in Girona. Colby Pearce, who has known Nathan for many years, shared a deep conversation about their longing for nature, made ever more vivid and poignant due to the Australian’s confinement in the medieval Spanish city.

Things there are getting better. Many riders, including Nathan, are now able to get out on the roads, at least to a limited degree. This episode is not just about a pandemic—it is about far more than that. Ultimately, the conversation is a useful tool to teach us something about ourselves, from two friends who love nature and who are passionate about bikes.

REFERENCES

Knowledge Doubling: https://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/3950 

1 Trailer for Cycling in Alignment

Colby Pearce introduces Cycling in Alignment, a new podcast to help people reach their potential through alignment of both cycling and holistic health.