Cinco años no es nada
1 FebBueno, en mi caso ya son más de seis años, pero aún así estoy de acuerdo con la mujer que escribe a continuación.
Tirando del Carro – Cinco Años
Strongest Sprint session
14 MayHere is a flashback to mid September, 2014 when I recorded my strongest sprint session. My power output was 66 W average over 20 minutes. Two of my four sprints were at about 80 W average power, and the work output was 290 met minutes.
By comparison, one of my worst sprint sessions recently was in mid February 2016, when my power output was only 22 W average over 20 minutes. My first sprint was at 55 W average power, but it fell to less than half of that subsequently. The work output was only 100 Met minutes.
Moral of the story? Don’t get discouraged when you have a slump. Though I haven’t yet surpassed my original record, I have recovered significantly from this past winter’s slump, and now average about 45 W in a 20 minute sprint session.
Anger
25 FebThis article was written by someone with cerebral palsy (which is a form of spinal cord injury suffered during birth), but it can be appreciated by and apply to anyone with any type of disability or spinal cord injury.
New benchmark!
15 Jan
Just before the end of 2015, on December 28 in fact, I reached a new benchmark and the goal I was aiming to achieve by the end of the year: 10,000 km ridden on my FES bike in 3 1/2 years (4200 km in 2015 alone). that’s a lot of distance covered by a pair of paralyzed legs! If you are able-bodied, how far did you cycle last year?
Here is a copy of the summary page of the online log of all of my rides, as recorded by the bike manufacturer. In addition to the total distance ridden so far (6329 miles as of January 15, 2016 = 10,185 km), you can also see the distance I covered in each session (in red, and by others with my same physical condition in blue), and the average power output during each session. I appear to be working much harder than others in my situation. I have no explanation for this other than that I love cycling!
I also manually log all of my rides on Strava, and you can see my profile and stats there.
Good versus not so good
15 JanMy workout warm-ups are important, and not just for the role they play in getting the muscles moving. I do pretty much the same routine all the time, only occasionally making slight changes to my workout. By sticking to one standard, I can look at my performance during the warm-up and use it to tell me whether I should go easy or hard during the rest of the workout. If I am weak during the warm-up, perhaps it will be a good day to just take it easy. On the other hand, if my muscles are performing better during the warm-up, this might suggest that I have the energy to try harder workout.
Below, are the results from two of my workouts. You can see how the resistance (and also the RPM) increase over a number of steps during my 20 minute warm-up session. During my good warm-up, in the first graph, you can see that the average power on the hardest step of the warm-up was 26 W. In the not so good warm-up, in the second graph, the average power on the top step is only 19 W.
Heartbreaking injury
18 MayThis is the story of a young Brazilian Olympic athlete who suffered a devastating injury upon transitioning to a new sport.
Never give up
8 AprHere’s the story of a woman in the Netherlands, Funda Müjde, whose father immigrated there 50 years ago. On a trip back to Turkey for a vacation, her taxi was struck by a 19-year-old car driver, and she became a paraplegic. It took a while, but eventually she got her mojo back. Her motto? Never give up!
One of the things that helped her regain her physical strength as well as her mental strength and attitude was the act of getting back on the bike – very special bike called a Berkel Bike, which moves by arm power, and optionally by leg power as well. Even if you can’t move your legs, the bike will move them for you. In addition, you can add functional electric stimulation, FES, and then generate power with your legs even if you are completely paralyzed. Funda got the idea to ride from the Netherlands back to Turkey to celebrate the first immigration from that country. Here is a story about her plan to make that journey:
And lastly, here is a short video about her triumphant arrival in Istanbul after completing the 4000 km ride. It’s in Turkish, but the images are compelling.
I am not inspirational
1 AprI am not inspirational: the point of view from the spouse of someone with a spinal cord injury.
http://blog.planat.com/from-the-side-of-a-spouse-my-husband-is-not-inspirational/
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