Crystal Pruitt
Collegiate Athlete
Ever since I was first introduced to CompuTrainer by my coach, Jim McGehee, I have been a firm believer in the effectiveness of this incredible training tool! In 2007, I started off the year as a relatively inexperienced cyclist, but I wanted to give it a go at my first half Ironman race at EagleMan 70.3. I was hoping to qualify for the Ironman World Championship 70.3, to be held later in the year in Clearwater, FL in November. My coach let me prep for EagleMan on his CompuTrainer 1-2x per week. As a result, my cycling went through the roof in a matter of several months of hard work! My CompuTrainer workouts were very specific to what I was training for and very high quality too. By the time of EagleMan, my bike fitness was solid and I qualified for the big race in November! Fast forward 5 months, and I had a stellar performance at my key race of the year. I won my age group by nearly 5 minutes and I placed 3rd female amateur overall, at the age of 22! In fact, my bike split was just as fast as many of the professional women who had a podium finish! I know without a doubt that my cycling fitness was from all of my hard work spent on the CompuTrainer.
In January 2008, I was fortunate enough to get a sponsorship from CompuTrainer (I owe you big time, Chuck)! I decided to focus my winter training on preparing for my first marathon, but I still used the CompuTrainer 3-4 times per week. After my marathon, I shifted my training to prepare for the upcoming multisport race season. I had a good base on the bike already, but I was able to reclaim a lot of my previous fast twitch fitness in a relatively short period of time. I went on to post the fastest bike split at the Olympic-distance USAT Collegiate Nationals! The next day, I did a sprint triathlon at the same venue and my bike split was the 2nd fastest among all the men and women combined. The only person who had a faster bike split than me was the first place male, who happened to have a disc wheel.
The race season thus far had been very rewarding until I had a mishap at USAT Duathlon Nationals the following weekend. My rear wheel fishtailed on the rain-slick streets and I crashed hard! I suffered a broken hip and a devastated spirit. After 10 weeks on crutches, my physical therapist gave me permission to ride a bike, but only inside. Elated, I hooked up my bike to my CompuTrainer and I rode, fixating my attention to the Spin Scan numbers and trying to even out my power between my good leg and bad leg. I have ridden my CompuTrainer consistently throughout my recovery and my bike fitness is not far behind from where it was before the crash! Not only is CompuTrainer a fantastic training device, it is also extremely beneficial in recovering from an injury, surgery, or any other type of setback.
I love my CompuTrainer!
