8 1 2010 recovery road ride

I have had to revisit my road bicycle since it has become absolutely torture to do any rides over one hour on a spin bike. You do have to maintain your aerobic base with rides of 2 hours or more, this can be monotonous on a spin bike. I did not ride my road bicycle since October 2009. I therefore had to dust off the cobwebs and spiders from the Specialized Tarmac - last Monday I did a 2 hour recovery ride and today I did a 3 hour recovery ride, easy pace in the smallest gear, on the relatively flat LIE service road. At the same time using whatever downhills came along to do some high speed cadence work in order to convert power to speed.

Speaking of Specialized bikes - I don't get anything for free nor do I get a discount for any cycling products. So whatever I endorse has to be good value for money. I am just an ordinary recreational Cat 4 bike rider / track racer so it might be presumptuous of me to say I endorse products. But I have found all Specialized products which I have used so far to be the best value for money. Their road bikes of which I have the Tarmac and Roubaix, their shoes, their helmets, their pumps, their sunglasses are all great products backed by good warranties which can only be provided by big reputable outfits like Specialized. Of course there might be better products which are more expensive, but when you have to spend scarce dollars on cycling products, you tend to look for value and return on investment..

For Track racing - a custom Tiemeyer track bike can't be beat in terms of value for money. Mavic Ellipse clincher track wheels are also great value for money. Wouldn't it be nice to own a set of top of the line Mavic IOs and disk, but where does one get $6,000 dollars to plop down on wheels?

Garmin - the Garmin Edge 305 GPS has helped to improve my track cycling, although it can become erratic at times over 30 mph due to the fast accelerations on the track. There is nothing like downloading the data from the Garmin - analyzing it and then using that information to modify your training.

Saris Cyclops 300pt Spin Bike - a great torture device, a bit expensive but worth every penny. The power meter feature alone is very useful.