Saddles

I recently had the painful realization, and I mean this quite literally, that my saddle is not as comfortable as I would like it to be.  So I have started on the long, sometimes painful and possibly expensive search for the perfect saddle.  For those of you that have numbness and pain in the "saddle region" you know what I am talking about.

I currently ride the ISM Adamo Road saddle on my Cannondale Slice.  It is the perfect saddle for a time trial bike.  It allow you to get into an aggressive position fairly comfortably.  ISM has recently released new models, and I am thinking those look even more comfortable than the Adamo.  I may in the future decide to invest in one of these new saddles but for right now my Adamo Road is perfect for my Slice.  Here is a picture of the ISM Adamo Podium.  The reason why I have my eye on the Podium is because the nose is narrower and slopes a little.

Even though this is a great saddle for my Slice it doesn't work so well for my CAAD9.  It actually does the exact opposite.  It cause so much pain that I had to take a couple of days off the bike.  It didn't just hurt the "saddle region," but my legs and my butt.  So I moved on to the next saddle.  I will start this section with the saddle I started with.

This saddle is the Prologo Kappa Pas.  The Kappa Pas is comfortable for a stock saddle, this is what my CAAD9-5 came with.  It worked well for a month and then I decided to switch to the ISM Adamo Road saddle.  My theory was, if it worked for one bike it would work for my other bike.  Of course this was not the case.  My friend Stephen swears by his Prologo saddle, so this proves everybody is different.

Next, I tried the Fi'zi:k Arione Tri 2.  This saddle came stock on my Slice, so I had it laying around and I figured I would try it.  It was much more comfortable than the Prologo and ISM saddles.  One step closer.  What I liked about it was that it had the same padding and width throughout the nose.  This allows you to move around and still have the same comfort.  It was just not quite perfect.  At this point, I was thinking I wasn't going to find a perfect saddle and I was going to just have to settle for this one.

I decided to start looking around for another saddle.  I did some searches and found on a forum that someone said they had tried a Specialized saddle and it had worked for them.  The only problem was they couldn't remember the name of the it.  So, I went to Specialized website and I read about all their saddles.  I settled on the Romin saddle.  They claimed that 24 out of 25 riders found it to help with the numbness and discomfort in their "saddle region."  It was cheaper than most saddles on the market, so I decided I would try it.  Specialized says they have designed this saddle with the help of a Dr. Roger Minkow and tested it at the Boulder Center of Sports Medicine with Dr. Frank Sommer to help with this issue as well.  This all help me to decide to give this saddle a shot.

I first rode this saddle yesterday.  The Romin is by far the most comfortable saddle I have experienced but I wasn't completely convinced by just sitting on it.  I went for a quick 10 miles up the mountain and over some rolling hills.  It was still the most comfortable saddle I had ever ridden.  I am optimistic about this saddle.  Later today will be a much better test though, as I am planning on doing a 54 mile ride.  Check back later to see if I have decided, possibly not wanting to sit down for a while, whether I still believe if it is the most comfortable saddle ever.

Cavendish "Boy Racer"

Over this off-season my wife and I decided to cancel our cable, which meant canceling our TV service all together.  So, I decided to start reading more, comic books, magazines and Mark Cavendish's book Boy Racer: My Journey to Tour de France Record-Breaker.

Before I started reading this book, I was already a Mark Cavendish fan, hence my picking up the book in the first place.  I didn't know much of Mark Cavendish's past and start of racing.  I saw his first Tour de France, and I loved watching him sprint to the finish and still do.  This book made me feel a connection with him.

When Mark Cavendish first started seriously considering going pro, he was told he was too fat and would never be able to be in the pro peleton.  Well, I was told much of my childhood that I was too fat as well.  The difference between myself and Mark Cavendish is I decided to make that change without going pro first.

This is a great autobiography and a lot better than I expected it to be.  Mark Cavendish writes very well and seems to remember a lot about how he got where he is today.  This book made me respect him a lot more and enjoy his racing even more.  I recommend reading this book if you are a cycling fan; you will not be disappointed.

Off-season

Well, it has been a while since my last post.  What can I say, it is the off season.  All I have been doing is spending time on the trainer and core strengthening.  Just trying to keep a good base till Spring.  It really hasn’t gotten out of the 30’s here and most days it doesn’t get out of the teens.

I have found a good set of training videos that you can only find online, and they only play through the computer.  Plus, they are only $10.99 a piece!  They are called Sufferfest.  If the name doesn’t give it away they are a really good workout.  Most of them are an hour in length and include a warm-up and cool-down.  They also include some awesome race footage of professional races.  I found about these videos from Velonews.com.  Here is a link to their article over the videos http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/01/bikes-tech/review-the-sufferfest-indoor-training-videos_155954.

Hopefully, soon the weather will warm up to at least the 40’s and I can get in some outdoor training.  I also need the snow to melt off the road.  I will post again sometime soon.  If you want to watch some funny videos to keep you occupied till the snow thaws try Jeremy Powers “Behind THE Barriers” videos.  Till then keep training, race season will be here sooner than you think and you don’t want to get left behind.