Officially, I have been taken off the road by the Physio. Not the sort of advice I wanted to hear as the Criterium Season gets closer with some great events in November and December. "Luckily", I have been given the OK to ride on the trainer. So, here is the bike I crashed set up under the house and permanently on the trainer to make things easier. As I can't fit the front wheel due to a badly bent fork, hanging the front of the bike with a rope seemed to be the best thing to do... And I wouldn't put the R3 on the trainer anyway.
The 370 First, I planned to just get on the bike/trainer and spin my legs for 1 1/2 hours a day, hoping to stay somehow in a state where I could just ramp up the training when allowed on the road again. Then, I asked myself why not get some real value out of this and try to improve my form slowly to a point where once on the road all I would need to do is sharpen up.
Basically, what I want to do is to increase the intensity and length of the efforts over a period of time and, as I am doing it in a more controlled environment, measure the changes. Hopefully, when I get back into racing again, whenever that will be, I won't need to drop a Grade to avoid being dropped by the bunch...
The training I am doing is partially based on an article by the Fit Chick, a coach that publishes some great training tips in my favourite cycling magazine, Bicycling (USA). I am doing high cadence, strength and lactate threshold sessions. The sessions start with a 30 min warm up before the 5 or 6 efforts that can last in between 30" and 3' each. They are high-cadence, all out efforts or seated 53-11 with a max resistance on the trainer. All of them made to hurt a bit!!!
The mag with great tips, gear reviews and storiesThe Bicycle
In the last edition of Bicycling (pictured above), they have a feature on the R3-SL. The R series have been used by Sastre and Basso since the introduction of the 2.5 model. Now, with the R3-SL and other new models, Cervelo is going to run its own Test Team in 2009 (with Sastre as team leader and Simon Gerrans as a helper in the mountain stages). Interesting times ahead!!
On the matter of bikes, I ask: Why don't we see many Cervelos in the bunches/races? We even have an amateur team racing Cervelos in Australia but that doesn't seem to make them more popular...
At the time I got mine, over 2 years ago, I did think it was a good reason for riding a Cervelo.
R3 - SL featured here...The shoulder
Unfortunately, I have no good news on that, yet. I have been taking it easy at work (too much, in fact) and have been going to the physio twice a week. Plus, I am doing some exercises at home with some fancy rubber band. The truth is... I am not experiencing a lot of improvement at the moment and even have been feeling a bit more pain and a stiffer neck. I guess it is going to be up to the specialist to come up with a better solution in a week.
The fancy rubber band
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2 comments:
I really like Cervelo. I just can't afford one given all the diapers and baby food that I have to buy.
I couldn't afford it either...
My thoughts on race frames when comparing prices at the time were:
Cervelo: x;
Pinarello: 1.5 x;
Trek: 1.5 x;
Specialised: 1.5 x;
Colnagno: 2 x;
Giant: x;
BMC: 1.5 x
So, I put an Ultegra group on it, instead of D-A, like most people around here. Not that I need anything better...
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