One Last Effort

One week of heavy training to go then I can hang my kit up for a few weeks. I am really looking forward to not training which may sound odd but it means I can spend more time with the family and chill out a bit. By not training I do of course mean dropping down to three or four times a week as opposed to six to eight. I think the key to all this triathlon and cycling lark is getting the balance right. I know I could hit some pretty good times if I put the training in, certainly I think I could get close to 60 minutes for a sprint and 2:10 for an Olympic but I would have to train far too much for mine and my family’s liking. This is also the reason I cannot see myself doing an Iron Distance event. If I entered then I would not be content just “getting round” I would need to target a sub 12 hour and that would take too much training. Unless I come into a million or two of course and can afford to take a year out of work! If I that happened, here is the plan: I would get a coach. Swim every day and get my 1500m down to 25mins. I would join the athletics club and do a lot of track work which would drop my 10Km time down towards 39 minutes. More time on the bike and a structured Time Trial plan would get my 40Km time down to 60minutes quite easily: That makes 2:04 plus transitions would make it sub 2:10 which would be pretty high up in my age group. There you go, I have done it already and it was easy  As it is, I have three hours commuting every day and other priorities. So a rest will be welcome on September 21st.

I resolved to put one last effort in for the summer so as to not let myself down on my debut HIM distance race and had a massive training week last week. The only down side was a lack of real swim practice due to work commitments. I hope to resolve that tomorrow with a long Open Water session. I had two bike rides in the Surrey Hills as well which was great although the last one was done whilst suffering the ill-effects of a dodgy seafood meal on the Friday at a client lunch. Heart palpitations and an inability to hold down any food was slowing me down a little. In hindsight I shouldn’t have gone out but when I left home I felt OK. As it turned out, my HR was 40 bpm higher than normal and I was at the back of the climbing group a few times but I really loved the ride – 7 big hills over 80Km with a final timed ride up Box Hill to finish (5% for 2.4Km on poor tarmac). I made it in 9mins 57secs but I know I can do much better. I shall use that time as a benchmark going forward and measure my improvement with it. Rumour has it there may be a TriTalk Time Trial event up Box Hill which would be great fun although I am unsure whether I would prefer to marshal it than ride it, I do need to put something back.

It look like I need to definitely revise my goals for the New Forest Middle. Apparently it is a hilly ride and a hilly off-road run which will slow everyone down. I will try to hit 5:45 and see where I go from there. A few of the guys I ride with have done it and they were very complementary about the race but said the bike and run were hard. Maybe I should have chosen the Vitruvian instead as the bike is 5Km less and the run is easier. Too late now – I shall enjoy the NF middle as it is. I am still suffering from food poisoning so I shall have a day of and start my final big training week tomorrow.

Back on the gas!

I have been very tardy in updating my blog, I have been busy and travelling too much although that is not a good enough reason as I could write on the plane. We had a great holiday in Egypt; way too hot for me but very relaxing with the family. Eight whole days together and not one argument shows that it must have been relaxing. The snorkelling was good fun and the pool and local beer was refreshing. It was averaging around 39 degrees each day and much too hot for exercise. I set off on a 40 minutes easy run on the first day


and almost expired after 20 minutes and had to stop. All the locals were looking at me as if I was stark raving mad. The hotel gym was poorly equipped with CV gear, the gym bike did not work properly but there was a treadmill. I made sure I went for a swim in the “Olympic” size swimming pool each morning prior to a wet lunch and chill out. My lap times were terrible, as expected after a few weeks off swimming. Even after a couple of sessions I wasn’t even close to the times I have hit before even though I felt I was swimming well. So I paced out the pool: 75 good paces which makes it at least 65m long by my reckoning. No wonder my lap times were so poor! So in the end I had yet another week off cycling and running which makes it around 2-3 weeks of poorly planned training.

Only 3 weeks to go to The New Forest Middle Distance and I am in pretty poor shape. My interval sessions are not as long as they were and I push less power than I did 1 month ago; so I plan to make a concerted effort over the next 3 weeks (2 weeks if I rest on my last week). My plan to enter the New Forest Middle as a way of encouraging me to continue training through the summer has failed completely, I shall learn from next year and plan to have my last “A” event in July. That “A” event looks like being the Alpe D’Huez Long Distance Triathlon: 2.2Km swim, 115Km ride over 2 peaks then a finish up the 21 hairpins of the Alpe’Dhuez followed by a half marathon at altitude!



The longest Tri I will have attempted and probably the hardest one around. I think now is the time to do this event as it looks like it will soon be the “Kona” of Europe with everyone trying to get to enter. I fancy mixing this event up with a family holiday to the Alps back where we used to live which would be great. Just need to convince my family :-) Then I may have a year off Tri completely, after retiring from rugby this year and cricket last year, it looks like being a chilled year after Summer 2010.

We have my niece and nephew staying for a few days at the moment, I have forgotten how tiring a 5 and 10 year old can be, they demand so much attention all the time. I am every so appreciative of Jane and the kids who are doing a great job of looking after them. I have no idea how anyone can train for an endurance event and have small children at the same time. Saying that, I have been grateful for the solitude of the open road after a few hours with the kids. I am really too old and too impatient for young kids nowadays.

I have been travelling far too much recently: Japan, Germany, Egypt, Portugal all in the last 4 weeks with a trip to Amsterdam planned the week before the New Forest Middle: Not ideal timing – would be great to chill in Amsterdam after the New Forest Middle... The travelling in itself is not too bad but if it is a day trip then there is no training possible due to early starts and late finishes and if it is an overnighter it is in the lap of the gods if there is a decent gym available which usually means I plan an endurance run on the street and hope they are clear enough to get decent session.

Training done since coming home from Egypt: Bike: 90Km Z2, Run: 40 Minute Z2, Run: 60 Minute Z2, Bike 3x8 Interval; Run: 3x8 interval; Weights; Bike: 60Km in the Surrey Hills.

Final preparation

So much to do, so little time. Why do these things creep up silently from behind and then BANG! – a few days to go and there is too much to organise. The checklist is getting longer by the hour and few of the items have been completed: repair the bike after crashing; final touches to training; service the car; get the spare flat tyre fixed; panic about the Mt Ventoux and do more hill training; find a hotel for the trip down; watch the Tour on TV and start panicking again; book the train; trial run of getting the bike in the bike box; get one more long ride in; trial run #2 for getting the bike in the box after unsuccessful first attempt; make a decision on nutrition....

Last minute equipment failure

I spent several hours repairing the bike after crashing: straightened two buckled wheels, mended the brakes and checked out the superficial damage to the pedals and rear derailleur. Thankfully the frame looks to be OK so that was re-assuring. With one week of training to go I panicked and started going mad, the upside is I have had a great week training and aside from a lack of long rides I am pretty happy with my prep. I did attempt a final long ride over the weekend but only managed 65Km after getting a flat and incompetently messing up the change by overinflating the spare with a CO2 cartridge. The noise as it exploded when I righted the bike was impressive, however that left me with no spare tubes and an inability to find the puncture. Thus a second long ride in a row ended up in a car being driven home. At least I now know what not to do with the CO2 cartridge – better to learn that now than on Monday. The other positive is that I was never really confident in the tyre being puncture resistant so I have made the decision to buy a new one and fit it before leaving, this gives me more confidence.

Training

Training has gone well this week with the plan being to do a lot of strength work and hill work to build up confidence for attacking the Mt Ventoux. I am pretty happy that I can sit on the saddle and get into a rhythm for the climb now after trying several reps on hills of a similar gradient. I am not sure how well prepared one can actually be for a 22Km 8% climb but I am close enough. I watched the professionals going up a similar gradient last week and they all looked to be struggling – I guess they would be travelling at double the speed I plan to so their pain is to be expected. I am confident of averaging over 11km on the Ventoux now (subject to being not too fatigued after the previous 150Km) and that will give me a 2 hour climb time which is a good target to have. I now have a chilled week planned which is just as well as my legs were very tired after last week. I took a quick snap from the top of one of the hills I climbed on Sunday: the view from Hannington in Hampshire.



Nutrition

Following several trials I have made a decision on nutrition. I have a goal of taking on board over 100g of carbs per hour which I hope will be achieved through one Mule bar and one gel per hour with High5 4:1 energy drink mix and my emergency pack of Jelly Babies. The only issue left is working out how to carry 8 clif bars, 8 gels, a pack of jelly babies and 4 packets of High5. That equates to around 140g per hour so I can afford to miss a few if I have to. I am not sure they will fit in my pockets; I do have a “bento box” on the cross bar which will carry 4 bars so that should do the trick. The final nutritional questions is about “carbo loading”. The most recent published study on carbo loading comes from the University of Western Australia (those damned Aussie are so good at sport you cannot ignore anything they say!) which prescribes a plan which involves a very short intense ride the day before l’etape followed by a big intake of carbohydrate. I shall try that and see how it works.

Goals

I had originally set 8 hours as a goal for the etape but I am not sure that is achievable now. If I break down the event into 2: The first 150km with 1900m of climbing and the last 22Km with 1600m of climbing then I can work out my goals. After my previous rides, I think it should be relatively easy to average 24Kmh for the 1st 150Km (I can add 2kmh if I can get with a group and benefit from the occasional draft). 24Kmh = 6:15 ride time (add 30 mins for food stops = 6:45); That only leaves 1:15 for the Ventoux which is not possible (the TdF record is 55mins). I think 2 hours is reasonable at an average of 11Kmh. I can average 14Kmh in 1st gear spinning at 95/100 rpm so if I drop this to 11Kmh then it may be achievable. This gives me a new target time of 8:45 or sub 9hrs. If I get a draft then I can get the first 150Km done in 5:30/6:00 which is closer to my target.

Here is the profile again - to remind me!

Logistics

I received my final l’etape pack with hotel instructions and details about being picked up etc. It is all a bit too close for comfort now and I have to finalise the logistics. It turns out that I need a bike box so that is yet another investment I have had to make. I have also finally been forced into making a decision on driving down after dithering with flight plans. With John pulling out I was not sure about driving down on my own for 12 hours before the ride but I have no choice now as there is no space in the airport transfer bus. I will try and recruit a driving buddy between now and then and book my Eurotunnel crossing.

There are a number reviews of the l’etape stage online that make good reading. (CycleFit's L'etape Recce; Kingston Wheelers Recce) It turns out that you can see the Mt Ventoux from almost every point of the ride as the route takes the riders around the base before the climb. So for 6 hours it will be casually sitting there over the riders shoulder waiting for its time to say hello. Marvellous! 3 weeks of training to go and I have completely wasted this week, I was driving home on Monday and needed the day off, Tue and Wed were spent in Germany on business wth no free time – even though I took my running gear. So this week has become a recovery week and I have two heavy weeks then one final recovery week before driving down to Montelimar. I will try and get in at least two “century” rides in before then so I can practice nutrition and try and eke out a bit more endurance.

Saved by Jelly Babies!

The Dave Lloyd Challenge was certainly that, although with a few days rest the pain is fading. This was easily the hardest bike ride I have done due to both the length and steepness of the hills and the total ride distance. I remarked to a friend before the ride that I was hoping to get a bit of practice climbing “out of the saddle”, i.e. standing up on the pedals to get more force. I am quite poor at this and I fatigue quickly so have been adding it to my riding over the past weeks. Boy – did I get some “out of the saddle” practice; I must have spent over 60 minutes out of the saddle with tiring thighs. At one point my motivation was to not get off and walk like some of the people I was passing, that seemed to do the trick and I made it up every hill. I am not sure how long the ride was supposed to be but we added a good 15-20 minutes due to getting lost after a few signs went “missing”, I finally clocked up 177Km in 7:49Hrs of riding. This averages at 22.4Kmh (20.5km if I include the stops) which actually puts me in good shape for l’etape, or at least for getting to the final elimination point of l’etape before the broom wagon. The l’etape cut off speed is as high as 21Kmh but as the first 150Km only comprises 1900m of climbing then I should be OK as averaged 26Kmh in the Hampshire Hilly Hundred which is comparable. If I plan to save energy for that first 150Km and average 23-24Kmh then I should be in good physical shape for Ventoux.

The scenery on the Dave Lloyd was just magnificent: The steep slate hills and quarries with sheep wandering around aimlessly (and dangerously on some of the descents!) made for some great pictures.
Unfortunately on the drive home over some of the same hills we were in the cloud with almost zero visibility and I was unable to take any worthwhile snaps. The whole area reminded me of summer holidays in my youth when we spent every summer in this part of the world, the views and familiar smells were charming.

During the ride I was focussing on not going out too fast and not hitting the hills too hard early on, the goal being to have enough energy to keep going at the same pace throughout. I think this worked although I did go through a bad patch between 110Km and 140Km where I was very tired and unable to do my fair share of the work on the front. A few handfuls of jelly babies seemed to revive me sufficiently to push harder on the last two climbs before the finish. My heart rate monitor estimates that I used up 6000 calories in the ride which equates to 1.5Kg (or 3lb) of carbohydrate, or 40ish energy gels!
I am not sure where that weight comes from but I had two meals that night and have been eating like a horse since. One of the goals of the ride was to get nutrition right; It was definitely better than last time but still not there yet. I couldn’t get down the flapjacks and in the end the hastily bought jelly babies saved me. For my next ride I shall try Mule Fuel Hanza Nut bars which I tried on a ride to work and it seemed quite easy to digest. My HR Monitor also says my average heart rate was 134bpm which is quite low and my max was 158bpm which is very low (for a high). This does confirm that I took it a bit too easy on the ride and have some more to give on the Mt Ventoux!

The Dave LLoyd Mega Challenge

The Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge takes place on Sunday and I planned a 130Km hilly ride on Saturday as a final warm up for that. We gathered at 8am in Dorking and planned to hit all the major Surrey Hills with climbs going up to 21%. Riding with a bunch of mates who are better cyclists than me would help motivate me to get up the tougher ones, most of which are detailed on the rather good Jibbering web site (I can also recommend the home made sports drink and gel recipes). All went well until around 20Km in and I was chatting to Bob on a descent when we came across what appeared to be a scene from “Casualty” with a car stopped right in the middle of the road and a body slumped across the bonnet with his legs up the windscreen towards the sunroof. My first instinct was that this was some sort of photo-shoot but as is the way with these things I immediately realised it was for real and that the rider was one of our bunch, Phil who organises the rides. I quickly dismounted and rushed over to him where he was also being attended by Scott. He was still unconscious and it looked bad, my big concern at the time was him waking up and then falling off the bonnet. Sure enough he woke with a start and we supported him and eventually got him to stop moving whist we assessed the physical damage. He was remarkably sober and apparently, superficially at least only suffering minor injuries. His bike was a mess and he was more worried about how he was going to race in Ironman Switzerland in 4 weeks with nothing to ride on. We called an ambulance and the “comportement” (a French word without exact translation but roughly meaning behaviour) of the driver and the locals gave us a strong indication that the police needed to be called to ensure accurate statements and scene records. The paramedics took Phil off to Guilford hospital and he was subsequently released after a series of detailed scans. It looks like he will be OK and will still be fit enough to ride and swim this week in prep for his IM. A blessing really considering what had happened. The upshot of this is that we decided to cut short the ride and did a few of the hills on the way back to Dorking, a ride totalling 50Km. Strangely I was riding the hills well at the beginning of the ride but after the hour or so break my legs stopped working properly and riding was a real struggle.
We finished off up Box Hill which in the end was quite an easy climb; I put the machine in first gear and spinned my way up to the top expecting it to get steeper which it didn’t. I averaged 14Kmh up the hill and could have dropped a gear or two so that means I think I am OK for the early hills on l’etape which are of a similar gradient, if not a little less. I managed a 2 hour MTB ride on Sunday morning which compensated for not getting the full 130Km in on Saturday and I subsequently found out that Phil managed to get 100Km in on his old winter bike as well, so he really is strong.

Here is a profile of the Dave Lloyd Mega – those hills look quite steep but it is hard to say. I know the one at the end finishes at 25% so if I can do this ride in sub 8 hours then I think l’etape will be achievable as well.

Back on the Bike

After a brief focus on triathlon for the last two events, my bike is going to get hammered over the next few weeks prior to l’etape. I have a 130Km ride planned on Saturday with some buddies and then the Dave Lloyd Challenge next Sunday which entails 177Km with 3500metres of climbing (almost exactly the same as l’etape). The profile of the Dave Lloyd is different to l’etape but with the same amount of climbing it will be a good indicator of what to expect in France.

I have acquired and now swapped over a 12-27 Cassette onto my race bike. This will give me more room on the climbs and I shall try it out on the Surrey Hills on Saturday. If that doesn’t work out well then I am in trouble!


The Dauphine Libere bike race is taking place this year. I like this race as it was our local race when we lived in Grenoble and I will never forget seeing Miguel Indurain in Grenoble after the finish one year. He had huge thighs and tiny arms, I guess the ideal physiology for a cyclist. Not a shape I have aspirations to have, so I guess a life as a top level cyclist is not coming. The Dauphine Libere shall climb the Mt Ventoux tomorrow so I have Eurosport set to record and will watch the whole climb as done by the pros. I wonder if the gradient will show up on the TV, it rarely does when I watch Skiing.

Learning from the Hampshire Hilly Hundred.

I finally did some desk research (and asked some questions on the very good TriTalk forum) and I have some answers to my questions from the HHH. Why did my heart Rate descend and why was I unable to get it high towards the end of the ride? There are three possible reasons for this: 1) I am not fit enough, 2) I went out too fast, 3) I did not warm up. Well, 2) and 3) are definitely true so that is easy to fix – Yeah! Unfortunately 1) also appears to be true which is not so easy to fix. Back on the road for more LSD miles or I will not get to finish the Mt Ventoux.

Not Unhappy ;-|

The Hampshire Hilly Hundred is now completed with a silver award in my back pocket, a cyclist sun tan on arms and legs and a very sore “saddle” to show for it. This Sportive is a beautiful ride in the Hampshire countryside with only around 1 mile on what you would call a major road. The rest is on country lanes and minor roads showing off wonderfully what England can be like on a sunny day. I was pretty happy with the ride even if I was saving a little for the coming birthday weekend which will be celebrated with a Triathlon and a 10Km road race. We departed in a group of eight with me promising my wife I would look after her boss as he had not ridden more than 60 miles before. It became clear that he would have struggled to maintain our starting pace for the whole hundred so I dropped back to ride with him. We subsequently rode together up hill and down dale for just over 6 hours at an average speed of 26Kmh which is good considering I held the front for just under 6 hours. My original plan was to smack the hills as training for l’etape but clearly my definition of “smack” needs reviewing as I was often passed by faster climbers whilst struggling to turn the pedals in 1st gear, a gear I now know well.
I know it sounds naive but they really don’t call it the Hilly Hundred for nothing. I have the impression that every bend disguised another climb and the number of hills with false brows was getting tiresome towards the end. A total of 2400m climbing in 160Km is actually comparable to the first 160Km of l’etape which I think is 1900m followed by the 1600m climb up “the Giant of Provence”. There was one 15% climb which started at mile 68, that was the only real “grin and bear it” climb and it wasn’t too long but the thought of doing something close to that for 22km fills me with dread.

There is plenty of food for thought prior to l’etape, not least a need to do more hills and build up the leg strength. I shall also be reviewing my gear ratios this week, I spent far too long in 1st gear for my liking and am too proud to get a Triple which leaves me with the option of changing the rear cassette to give me some room. I will struggle to ride at this pace for 150Km and then climb Ventoux so I will need to review that as well. I noticed that I was comfortable riding at a heart rate of 145bpm for the first half of the ride but then the legs got tired and I struggled to raise my HR above 135bpm for the remainder, I actually averaged 137bpm (10bpm lower than when I did the Gorrick Enduro). I guess that is down to either a lack of fitness or poor nutrition on the ride. I shall do some desk based research and find out.

# 2138

2138 is my recently allocated l'etape rider number, I am now officially entered. I will have to get out and ride around the hills again to build up the legs. I have the Hampshire Hilly Hundred this weekend; 160Km with 2400m of climbing which will be a great test of where I am. Updates early next week with a smiley face or a sad face depending on my performance.

I went Open Water Swimming again yesterday evening, twilight lake swimming is so much nicer than waking up at 5:30am, crawling out of bed and into a chlorinated swimming pool. I even improved my best 800m time by a good 90seconds so am pretty hopeful of not disgracing myself in the water this season. Still a way to go to hit my sub 30 minute 1500m goal but I am getting there. Needless to say Tony is a good bit ahead and improving even more then me, I am really pleased for him - the git.
I had a lunch at Shoreditch House this week, a very trendy private members club filled to the brim of vaguely (to me vaguely) recognisable faces lunching and doing media deals. They have a rooftop bar/restaurant with a 17m long swimming pool, annoyingly I keep forgetting to take my swim gear when I go. I sat and wathed a few swimmers doing lengths and it made me realise that I am actually a pretty good swimmer now and am just comparing myself to Triathletes and not normal people. It gave me another reason to dip into that 2nd glass of wine as a reward.

More XC - this is becoming a habit

Training has been average (or “ordinary” as they say in Australia) over the last two weeks. I picked up a sinus problem the last time I went Open Water Swimming which put me off training. I have also been a little “chesty” which has brought on other problems which arise when I up the intensity. So I spread my last week of training over ten days and will have a week off this week. I was talking to a buddy today who had the chance to spend 20 minutes with Jo Friel (a very well respected Triathlon coach) over the weekend and he suggested that triathletes of a “certain age” would benefit from a complete week off every 4 weeks. That theory actually matches my training plan although I would normally plan some easy sessions during my rest and recovery week. So I feel much better about my break now.

To add some further variation to my training, I entered the Gorrick Enduro on Sunday. This is a endurance based cross country mountain bike race which takes place over a number of ten mile laps. I had very good intentions last month to enter the 4 lap race which I expected to take between 4 and 5 hours but as I was not on top form I opted for my usual 20 miles. It was a pretty fast course with some wide fireroads and good climbs with the last 4 miles dominated by sweeping single-track with deep berms enabling the rider to maintain speed through the turns. It was less technical than the previous races and suited fitness over handling skills. I came in 14th place out of 69 in a time of 1hour 53mins which I was pretty happy with, it was in line with my annual progression from 32nd in 2007 to 25th last year. I could have kept up the same intensity for another lap I think which was good to know. I was pretty pleased with myself until I noticed I was 28 minutes behind the winner – probably a young whippersnapper but all the same 28 minutes is a huge gap. I re-checked the results and noticed I was 5th out of non-sponsored riders which is a pretty good result. The 7 lap supermen and women were generally completing their laps quicker than me which was a little humbling.

More Haste Less Speed

There are a number of mountain bike races organised throughout the year by a bike club called Gorrick. The club is based in Swinley Forest in the Crown Estate and they do a great job in maintaining the trails there, the routes are in great condition and are generally unaffected by bad weather. The club also runs the Gorrick Hundred Enduro Challenge which I try to enter in May every year. This weekend was round 4 of the Saddle Skedaddle Spring Series cross country races and Ben, my 14 year old son fancied having a go, so we both planned a day of racing. Unfortunately with the clocks going forward we ended up rushing out of the house and in my haste I left my bike shoes at home, I also neglected to check the race worthiness of my bike having not been on it for a few weeks. Without my shoes and only in trainers I decided to enter the same race category as my son: the Fun category comprising just 2 laps instead one of the 3 lap more serious categories. The course was in great condition, a slightly damp surface on a firm base and the route was surprisingly hilly with a combination of longer gradual climbs and short steep hills. The downhill was quite technical with winding single-track to follow; not the ideal terrain for riding without being clipped in to the pedals. I bounced around the bike on the descents and having discovered soon after race start that my bike wouldn’t drop into the smaller gear set I couldn’t get any control on the damp root laden climbs; so I opted out of trying to get a fast time and waited for Ben then we cycled the route together. All in all a nice race in which to participate and Ben is now keen to enter round 5 in three weeks time. I am always impressed with the size and quality of the racing field at these events, having come from Mountain Biking in the Alps I have always had the impression that I am a proficient Mountain Biker but I generally fair pretty poorly at these events coming in the bottom 30%. I shall see how I get on during the Enduro in May as I have a few years of results to compare should be able to see if my l’etape training has helped my MTB bike fitness and endurance.

Hills and the “Build” phase

Now is when the sense of progression really starts. Training so far has been focussed on endurance and general fitness as opposed to speed or strength. It is now time to start the “Build” phase of the season’s training plan. The Build phase is all about building strength and speed off a good aerobic base, with a goal to be able to ride/run faster for longer. This is done by reducing the number of Long Slow Distance (LSD) sessions and replacing them with short high intensity drills. There is also a need to maintain the aerobic base otherwise general fitness declines. My aerobic base is better than this time last year after a good few months of training and considering my key events are later in the season compared to last year then this is good news.

The Build phase for me will be focussed on building strength and “muscular endurance” on the bike; the strength will hopefully enable me to get up a 10% hill whereas muscular endurance will enable me to keep going up that hill for 22Km. The end result being a “finishers certificate” on July 20th!

One way of gaining strength is to repeatedly climb short big hills, muscular endurance is attained by climbing longer less steep hills. This can also be replicated on a gym bike, turbo trainer or treadmill. Even though the sessions are shorter than before, they do hurt a lot more and require a good recovery period. The mental aspect of training is very different at this phase, whereas it is no longer about boredom but more about continuing the exercise when the legs and lungs are burning. My first two weeks have been good and according to my training logs I am around 10% stronger on the bike than this time last year – I wonder what that translates to in real terms?

Training Done: Bike: 6x2’ Intervals; 8x2’ Intervals; 2hrs40 Z3; Run: 6x80” hills; 35’ Z3/4; 30’ Z3; Swim: 2xsDrills

A Heavy Weekend

I had my longest ride to date this weekend. Actually it was a heavy weekend all round: Some friends announced their engagement which entailed a party at “The Old House” which was great, the food was scrumptious and the night was long. That was followed by a 16Km easy run in the morning and a game of rugby in the afternoon. We had a group of 8 friends for dinner Saturday night which ended up being late as well and then I did my 90Km ride on Sunday. The weather was great for the first weekend this year so I set out in with high hopes. It turned out to be very windy and it appeared to be head on the whole way round; I know this isn’t the case but it always feels that way doesn’t it! It was so blustery I almost lost the front of the bike a few times. After 75Km it started raining and hailing and I was soaked through to the skin, even my nice new waterproof socks couldn’t cope with the heavy weather. I tucked my head down and kept going even though I was close to calling it a day, I was adamant I was going to break 80Km or 50miles.

I took out my new Planet X for the first time and I now know what it is like to ride a compact up some of the hills I will face on L’Etape; I ascended the 5% gradient of “Farleigh Hill” but I still need to see whether I can get up a 10% hill on the compact.

“Farleigh Hill” was a "breeze" but I struggled to get a good speed up it and also failed to raise my heart rate above 140 bpm which is not normal for me; I regularly climb at about 160 bpm so I decided to turn around and do it again straight away, alas with the same result. At the end of the ride my average heart rate was 129 bpm which is also low, it usually stays between 135 and 140bpm on a Zone 2 ride, my average speed was also a good 3Km/h slower than my normal Zone 2 ride pace. I had a quick dig around the inter-web and I may be fatigued or over-trained. On Saturday I had noticed that my heart rate took hours to drop to its normal resting level after rugby so I think I am just tired after 2 heavy training weeks after my ski break. I shall plan a very quiet taper week prior to the Half Marathon on Sunday.

Training Done: Run:3x4' intervals; Run: 90' Z2; Rugby (got spanked); Bike: 3.5 hours Z1/Z2; Bikram Yoga!

L'Etape Hill Profile

Here are the average gradients for L’Etape. A little daunting but I now know I can climb a 5% hill quite easily (if not fast) so I am relatively happy with where I am at the moment in terms of climbing ability.



Here is a profile taken from MapMyRide, the whole route is also available here.



I still need to improve overall speed significantly if I am to hit my sub 6 hour goal. I am aiming for 28Km/h on L’Etape and managed 25Km/h over half the distance with only 500m of climbing: Not good enough!

Revised Event Plan

I have revised my event plan and reposted it below. I have removed the Vitruvian as I have decided to go for the New Forest Middle distance; the timing is better and it is nearer.

I have also entered the Hampshire Hilly Hundred which is a 100mile sportive ride which will be great training for l’etape. I know a couple of others who are riding it as well so it should be fun, I will use it to see how my hill legs are and also to practice taking nutrition on the ride with me.

March 15th is looming large, I have foregone a significant amount of my running to focus on swimming over the last few months and I have now left it too late to get in any real run training prior to the Fleet Half Marathon. I imagine that my aerobic and endurance fitness levels are good but I have no idea what running shape I am in compared to this time last year. I shall start out on a 90 minute pace and see how I feel after a few miles, I can always up or down it mid race.

Compact vs. Triple?

I am still desperate to get my new road bike out, I have had it since the beginning of December and we have had rain and snow ever since so I have only ridden it once. It is a full carbon bike from Planet-X who appear to be highly rated, I bought the bike direct from the manufacturer through a special sale they had; the sale price compared to competitive bikes was too good an opportunity to miss.

The gears are set up differently to my old bike; it is a “compact” as opposed to a “triple”. A compact has two chain-rings at the front as opposed to three on my triple which means that the range from top gear to bottom gear is not as great. The result is that the top speed is slower and the smaller gear for going uphill is not as small as my triple. This will take some getting used to and I need to know if I can actually get up Mt Ventoux on a compact, I will train on it for a while and see. I think there is an option to change the rear gears (or cassette) to make it easier to get uphill; I shall probably explore that route depending upon how my training goes.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I went out with a friend on my Mountain Bike for a few hours on Sunday in the snow flurries, it was great. I have not been on it for ages and I missed it, we went over to an old quarry with some man-made tracks, no mud and a hard dry base to ride on. Some of the hills were pretty sharp and I was happy to get up them easily without using my “Granny” chain-ring; I guess all that training is paying off. There is another XC race this weekend which I may enter for a bit of fun.


We had loads of snow on Monday; over 7” in the garden, all the trains and schools were cancelled so I had to work from home. The kids played at snowball fights all day in the village and we walked over to the pub for a drink by the fireside for lunch. After a tentative start the dog loved running around in it and came home with “snowballs” built up around her legs and feet. I had a rest day as I was sore from playing rugby again, I need to start playing less as it is affecting my training.


Training Done: - Rugby; Bike: Mountain Bike 2hrs; Bike: Z2 75’; Run: 60’Z2; Run 4x5’ Intervals; Swim: Drills.

My first "Double Salto" of the year

I joined the local cycling club group ride this Sunday, a rugby team mate rides with them and he has been encouraging me to go along for a while. The club have an A group ride and a B group ride; I was confident I could hold my own on the B ride with a goal to moving on up to the A ride as I improve. I have done a number of group rides recently around the Surrey Hills and was pretty sure I could handle the ride rules and etiquette OK. The benefits I hope to gain from this ride are: A longer ride, they are at 60miles right now as opposed to my lowly 60Km (35miles) and improved group riding skills prior to L’Etape.

It did not exactly go to plan but I was happy to have go out all the same, I hope I will be welcomed back and was not too much of a hindrance. The club was very friendly and after checking out how often I rode etc. they were happy for me to join them. Unfortunately no-one from the B group turned up – I assume due to the overnight smattering of snow which meant I was with the A group, before we left we agreed that I would be OK to get dropped at any point if I was off the pace.

We started out well and after a few Km we hit the first hill, to say it was a hill would be a bit of an overstatement, a piddly 4% climb for around 1Km, I rapidly fell off the back as the peloton disappeared into the distance, it took me over 5Km to catch up again and they had slowed to wait for me. My heart rate was up at 160bpm as I worked hard and when I finally grabbed the tail it was a relief to have the relative rest within the slipstream. The group was riding a lot closer and a lot faster than I was used to and it took a while to get confident enough to stay the 20 odd cm behind the wheel in front at speeds over 20mph whilst chatting to the person next to me. A peloton is quite graceful in the way the front riders alternate fluidly in a natural flowing movement. I had agreed with the ride leader that I would not take the front at any point; this was the cause of my first undoing . As the guy behind me pushed through the middle of the column to take his place at the head I was forced to the left and onto the verge: slush, rocks and grass awaited and all of a sudden I was bouncing around on and off the saddle and struggling to keep the bike under control. I opted to hit the verge and only damage myself and not my newly found teammates and ended up flying over the handlebars, doing what David Coleman would probably call a Double Salto and landed on my feet legs spinning in a successful attempt to stay upright. The group waited for me to mend my resulting puncture and check out the bike which took a couple of minutes. Suitably humbled I set off again and picked up the pace. On the next hill I was adamant I was not going to get dropped and had at least two riders behind me when my chain slipped and became jammed, I was done for; I was not going to get this fixed quickly. Again, I watched the peloton disappear into the distance and that was the last time I saw them. Chastened but still confident enough to think I can hold my own in the B group next time out, I only hope they welcome me back!

Training done: Bike: 65Km LSD; Run: LSD 16Km.
Next week: Recovery Week