Hi all, I’ve got shoulder surgery on 17th December 2019 after dislocating it 4 weeks ago. I’ve had to pull out of Ironman 70.3 in December and 140.6 in March. I’ll be off the bike for 3 months. Hugely frustrating as my fitness was going really well. I decided I needed a solution to keep some bike workouts going during my recovery.
I purchased a cheap second hand recumbent trainer and took to it with an angle grinder. I took and old specialized Roubaix that was cracked and my Tacx Neo and made the Recumbent Smart Bike. It works really well even though riding recumbent is taking a bit to get used to. I’m a 40 year old product design engineer who just does management now, but I still like to get my hands dirty… Maybe @Nate_Pearson, chad and @Jonathan could give me some recumbent training advise on the podcast.
This is crazy! I believe that we wouldn’t change any training advice for a recumbent position. So everything that applies to upright would apply to recumbent.
Thanks for the encouragement team! I’m having quite major surgery after a dislocation - lots of repair, an avulusion fracture etc. It will be open surgery, so I’ll have a big scar to manage as well. My shoulder will be immobilized for 6 weeks and then very limited movement for another 6 weeks. I’ve knocked 30W off my FTP. The recumbent position takes a bit to get used to, but after only two rides, it’s getting easier. I’ve found the position a lot easier than riding with one hand, which is what I had been doing since my dislocation 4 weeks ago.
Recumbents tend to work your glutes harder, so you might find that a bit odd to begin with, but you should be able to put out more power due to the position, would be interesting to compare an upright vs recumbent ramp test!
Hey @mrgoman. I applaud your ingenuity–that’s some can-do attitude in action right there. Very cool.
I’ll just echo what @TRMailloux said below in that you’ll just need to perform another ramp (or assessment of some form) to reestablish your recumbent FTP since it’s a distinctly differently movement pattern even though it bears many, many overlaps with upright riding.
Years back, I had a nationally competitive handcycle rider in my CompuTrainer classes, and everything worked seamlessly with regard to the workouts and how they scaled perfectly well to his FTP (getting the handcycle into a CT was the biggest, but totally surmountable, challenge).
Best of luck, @mrgoman! And keep everyone posted and updated when you find time, eh?
