Peak State Fit Experience
Episode 7 Bike Fit, Fitness, and Strategies for IRONMAN Training With Guest Pat Casey
Welcome to the Peak State Fit experience podcast recorded from Peak State Fit Performance Center, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. You are listening to our seventh episode!
The first season of our podcast will follow the modules in the Nail Your First IRONMAN course, which is now available for $189. The course has 35 video lessons covering the Four Pillars of IRONMAN, Swim, Bike, Run, and Nutrition, plus tips from my 34 years of racing and 20 years of coaching experience.
Peak State Fit has placed importance on education since our inception. Our business mission is to share knowledge and empower others through education. Last week we talked about swimming as a technique-driven sport with Tower 26 Founder Gerry Rodrigues. Head back over to catch up on any past episodes on Spotify or Youtube. Be sure to hit “subscribe” and give the show a five-star rating. We appreciate you!
Bike Fit, Fitness, and Strategies for IRONMAN Training
The course, Nail Your First IRONMAN, sets the stage with a full module on preparing for training. Refer to episodes 1-5 to hear from a range of topics, including selecting your first IRONMAN to how to select a bike. We are moving on to the second of the four pillars of the IRONMAN Triathlon, the bike. It's 80% of the Triathlon is the bike. So you want to be fit for it. We discussed that swimming is a good way to add aerobic conditioning without putting stress on your body, but we want to emphasize the importance of training on the bike. Depending on your race time of year, you may have limited access to train outside. We're going to talk about that. But you want to make sure you get fit for being on that bike for a long time during that IRONMAN 112 miles. Let’s hear from our guest,
Pat Casey Pat Casey is a USA Triathlon Level 2 Coach, CSCS, Team USA Age Group Coach, and Retul Premium Certified bike fit expert. His background as an elite road cyclist developed into a consulting and coaching career, which allowed him to combine his love of cycling and triathlon with his devotion to helping people improve their quality of life and realize their athletic potential through endurance sports.
Pat grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he spent the months he wasn’t playing ice hockey riding his mountain bike. He was introduced to cross-country racing and joined the St. Louis-based cycling team, Dogfish Racing when he was 15. At this time, Pat also got a job as an aspiring bike mechanic, and to this day, he still wears his “mechanic hat” after 13 years in bike shops all over the Midwest, Southeast, and Mountain West.
During his undergraduate studies at Truman State University, Pat focused on health science, global health, and biology. He pursued work in the summer months that allowed him to further his experience and understanding of the human body. For three summers, Pat worked alongside Andy Coggan (co-author of Racing and Training with a Power Meter) at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Immersed in cycling as his means to escape and unplug, Pat found his love for cycling, physiology, and science in one place.
Upon graduation, Pat pursued an internship in Alabama and continued riding his road bike for transportation and recreation. During the summer of 2012, Pat rode his bike from San Francisco, CA, to Boston, MA, in support of Partners in Health. This Global Health organization inspired mainly his move to Alabama after graduation. Getting back to racing in Alabama, Pat found himself on the podium and moved up in Category quickly with help from his coach at the time, Heather.
Instead of continuing on his path toward graduate school, Pat wanted to see where his dream of professional bike racing would take him. In 2014, Pat and Heather loaded up and moved their lives to Park City, Utah and Pat joined the Canyon Bicycles-Shimano Domestic Elite Cycling Team. He spent the following spring and summer months (2015 and 2016) traveling the US on the domestic PRT (Professional Road Tour) Circuit, followed by a year with the New Orleans-based team, Palmer Cycling. The latter would help get him to a myriad of PRT events in the role of Rider and Director for the small squad. In this role, Pat found himself more valuable as a team leader and coach than as a rider.
In 2018, racing became an outlet for competition, but Pat’s passion for coaching and devotion to his athletes has outdistanced his desire to spend as much time on the road. He currently races as a Cat 1 at the National level with his team, Empyr Cycling.
In November 2017, Pat was accepted to receive his USAT Level 2 Certification at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Pat was hired as Head Coach with USAT for Team USA and was selected to coach the Duathlon and Cross Triathlon Age Group teams competing at the World Championship Festival in Fyn, Denmark. He has served as Head Coach for all multisport teams at the World Championship Festival in Pontevedra, Spain, in 2019, Avilés, Spain in 2021, and Abu Dhabi in November 2022.
Cycling is 80% of the volume during an IRONMAN triathlon. You better learn to love cycling and your bike! What are some suggestions for someone just starting this training journey for their first IRONMAN regarding developing the aerobic capacity needed for cycling?
Should we expect to be comfortable with training for 3 hours or longer? Specifically neck and saddle comfort.
Many triathletes do most of their bike training on an indoor trainer. Share some tips to help set them up for success in translating indoor cycling to outdoor racing. Let’s cover physical adaptations of muscles and handling skills.
As an IRONMAN rules official, I am on the back of a motorcycle observing many races yearly. Most age group athletes do not effectively stay in the aerodynamic position intended on a TRI bike. What’s the solution here, Pat? How can we educate future athletes on the importance of developing adaptations and muscular endurance to maintain the intended position of these bikes?
https://www.peakstatefit.com/pat-casey
https://peak-state-fit-experience.mykajabi.com/nail-your-first-ironman-triathlon
https://www.empyrcycling.com/
