Quick Injury Report / Training / Anything cycling...

Injury report

I will start with my injury so I can get it out of the way quickly.

Last Tuesday, I had the highly anticipated appointment with the shoulder specialist. Without going into too many details, that's how it went:

- Any improvement? as he looked through the MRI report.

- Yes...

- Any pain? as he got up and touched my shoulder.

- Yes...

- Do this... and this... and that... Does it hurt?

- Yes, a bit...

- Looking at the MRI films, there is something else that needs to be addressed but at this stage, we're going to keep working with the physio and will organise for another cortisone injection in a few weeks... January that is.

- January?

- First couple of weeks of... and I will see you after that, first week of February.

- February... what about the Twilight Series?

No, I didn't ask that but he should know!!! I just walked out of there thinking that it will be another few weeks before I get on the bike again. Racing? Another couple of months.

I didn't post anything earlier because it took me a while to convince myself that the news were actually good. I won't be back on the road or racing for a while yet but I might not need an operation after all. That is a positive thing!

Next day, back on the table with Ben Herde at OSM for another treatment (more needles), a few adjustments and heaps of reassurance. I guess he needs to be a bit of a psychologist as well in his line of work. Ben has been pretty accurate with his findings also.

Training

After Tuesday's result, getting on the trainer for a session became a little hard. What is the point, I asked myself. So, I did a very easy session, just spinning as I read a book on Pantani.

Wednesday session, nice and easy.

Thursday comes and I am on my way to Adam's Lab for a coffee and a session on his Tacx equipped trainer. Ok, that was the plan. I just didn't know how hard it was going to be. After a chat, a coffee, an adjustment on the seat height (I didn't know my legs were so long...) and a brief warm up ride with Cadel, I was on my way up the hair-pins to Alp D'Huez.

We decided going a little easier was best because of my shoulder so Adam dialed the degree of difficulty to -25%. Cheating, I know but it was enough for me to do the whole workout with minimal damage to it.

15 km climb in 44'24"; AvHR at 159 and Max 170 bpm

Next day, it was time for another easy ride, 1h41min with an AvHR of just 83 bpm. It is all about recovery.




After watching the the crits at Nundah, the afternoon training could not be an easy one. Time for the high resistance (5/5) on the magnets and a big gear on the bike, 53-11, which really hurts when trying to push a 70+ cadence.

In the 5 x 3' efforts: 157.2 AvHR and 168 Max

Four hours and thirty eight minutes on the trainer this week, enough to keep a bit of the fitness and even build a bit of strenght. Off the bike this Sunday.

Anything cycling...

On my drive from the city on Tuesday, I spotted this guy riding his bike on the footpath. Something told me that I should turn around for a better look. And a photograph, which I took. At first I thought he was some kind of a drifter with an eski full of XXXX on a bike. A couple of days later, I had a closer look at the photo and found a couple of details that started me thinking this guy is into something big... What ever he's doing, he is a cyclist to me.

Best place to keep food if you're travelling around

That's where he's from...

The star and stripes might

have had a rough trip here

That's my account... Safe riding!