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Sunday 11 April 2010

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:27:58 +0100

Bloody hell it's been a long time, but I finally managed to get back on my training bike last weekend. 1 hour with no wind and then 2.5 hours back directly in a nasty headwind. There were a few take aways from this training ride:

(i) need to fix my back brake; very sticky, obviously neglected in my garage in the summer and needs severe re-lubrication.
(ii) I need to get used to my new gears : i changed from a triple to a compact and felt my legs on the small climbs I did
(ii) last one: I am so lucky to live where I do - my ride took me on the following route (I'll try to upload from my Garmin): Cessy, Chevry, Flies, Crozet, Sergy, St Jean, Challex, Dardagny, Russin, Verbois, Meyrin, Mategnin, Prevessin, Segny and back home: wonderful...I love this place!!

Back outside on the bike after a lot of painful (read boring) evenings and mornings on the turbo...c'est parti!!

Only 81 days to go!

Sunday 7 June : tour du lac leman

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:30:20 +0100

The day started quite bizarrely, Nico arriving at my house fully dressed in civvies under blue skies. by the time i had nipped into the house to fill a bidon, he had transformed into a quientessential french cyclist: patisserie bag bulging. there was as short debate about clothes to wear or not wear, both deciding better to be warm than cold; fitted nico's pedals onto "old faithful" and off we went down to bellevue.

Finally, on nico's first outing, we all managed to have a similar wardrobe: this was definitely a "could rain, could be sunny" sort of day. nice little warm up ride round down to geneva, pushed the heart rate up a little on the rampe de cologny and off we went into the wilderness of france - which we knew immediately from the road surface in douvaine. the four musketeers were feeling brave and strong and incredibly fresh...optimisitic looks at the speedo were showing cruising speeds of 40kms+. This was only to be dampened by the ever increasing realisation that there was "a wee bit" of a tailwind and like the law of gravity, "what goes up must come down", there is the law of cycling "if the wind's at your back on the way there, it'll be in your face on the way home". good time was made all the way through thonon, some excellent navigating by gavin, who is really proving himself to be better than a garmin or a tomtom combined at steering these training runs and, before we knew it, it was time for the first "natural break". proving he's lived in france too long, nico pulls out a nicely prepared ham, cheese and salad baguette (god knows where from?) to make the rest of feel like poor cousins with our bananas. a passing train of cyclists caught our eyes so we saddled up again, only for them to disappear into the distance with nico chasing them down (this was to be repeated often during the day...). By now, the grey/black clouds that we thought we were running away from had caught us up and starting spitting, not heavy mind, but enough to make you feel fresh.

on and on we rolled, ticking off the towns as they flashed by, before we knew it, we'd hit the border and, we hoped, some smooth as silk roads. however this was not to be due to roadworks in st gindolph - must be similar to the pave in the classics - after a km or two of elbow jarring we were welcomed onto the smooth swiss roads. after witnessing an international incident when a french farmer in his state subsidised mercedes had an altercation with a vaud driver as to who had the right of way on a one lane bridge, we were off and running on the home stretch. unfortunately this also meant that the tailwind became a headwind, though, it has to be said not immediately.

just before we passed through chillon, we spotted a bunch of eager looking cyclists and off nico went to close them down...little were we to know that they were "just below olympic standard" and, after trying to stay on their wheels for a few foolhardy kms , i think we were all quite glad (in a "wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy" way) when one of them had a blow out and they stopped to fix it. I swear i have never seen calves like those on the guy on the storck bike - the last time i saw muscles like that was on popeye when i was a kid.

by this time (climbing out of montreux) thoughts starting turning (at least my thoughts starting turning) to lunch, in a big way. i was now sick of clif bars (though the mint and white chocolate is the biz) and needed some proper food. I was very glad when we pulled into the migros in lausanne and feasted upon some fruit, taboule and every cyclist's dream food: chocolate. Just what I needed.

After this food stop it really was just a case of head down, keep going....all those familiar towns from lausanne onwards..st prex..morges...rolle...aubonne....on and on into the headwind...thankfully working as a team to make sure energy was saved and spirits were maintained. I was eternally amazed at nico's picnic items that kept appearing - at one point when i was number 3 in the train and he was number 2, he nonchalantly opens a back of crisps and starts munching away: this at a time when i am blowing out my ears in the headwind to keep up with the train ...this man really loves his grub....

by now we are almost home, certainly once we're past mies and coppet it no longer feels like a lake ride and more like a little sunday jaunt. by now layers are being peeled off and water doused on my head to cool down, what a change from Evian!

After saying our goodbye to the two "tete de la course" riders (thanks guys) nico and i took a leisurely crack at the route de collex bossy - it has to be said this was not attacked in the same style as my usual commute home, but in a much more relaxed tempo.

All in all this was an excellent ride. we were so lucky with the weather as we could have been pissed on the whole way round. only rained for about 20 minutes (or so it seemed) and the headwind was (on reflection) good for us as this was the equivalent of riding a 5% incline for 100kms or thereabouts. Very good practice for the big day, only 6 weeks to go (42 days!!). Unfortunately, i've now got an enforced layoff until next Monday so i-ll need to play catch up when i get back.

GOOD NEWS:

I was on the etape website and had a look at the broom wagon times. here's a link http://www.letapedutour.com/2009/ETDT/presentation/fr/itineraire.htm

to boil this down, if we can get our arses over to bedoin before 1455 (let's say 1430 to have a margin for punctures etc) then we will be okay to be allowed to climb ventoux and have three hours to do it. that means, imagine we get across the start line by 0730 then we'll have 7 hours to cover 150 kms to the bottom of the climb (which I feel is manageable). I really feel much stronger than this time last year and made and i know all of you can make it. keep up the good work when i'm gone - good luck for your new arrival gavin and when i come back we should try the route forestiere behind nico's house - i know a reall nice run there that will take approx three hours and can involve either two or three climbs depending on how many smartie points we can earn with our wives between now and then.

Well, I did ask...

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:53:55 +0100

As I write this post, I notice the title of my previous post "when is spring coming?". Since then the temperature has risen by a few degrees, the sun is shining more each day and the plants are slowly coming to life. Even better, Paris - Nice is on the telly and this really means the cycling season is starting.

I am now officially sick and tired of the turbo trainer. Yeah, it's nice to watch TV while you ride, everything at hand, change music, towel, fan..all great...BUT. With the temperature now forecast for 16 degrees on the weekend, I can feel my Trek calling me and I WILL be outside on the bike sometime soon.

I've also seen a lot of other people out and about on their bikes recently: lone cyclists, small groups, families, kids - isn't it great how cycling can mean different things to different people. Even my long suffering, cycling widow has picked out a bike that she likes and we will be trundling through the forests of département de l'Ain this summer!

Back to business, I'm now (I hope) reaching the end of my base period, I've picked out a few events in May and June to get used to cycling in a big group and also pace myself up some big hills and I've also shed a few of those winter kilos that linger around. All in all, pretty positive so far, but not there yet - a few long rides on the flat before having fun on those hills starting in April.

When is spring coming?

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:04:07 +0100

The last couple of weeks have been pretty productive on the indoor training front, plenty of interval training, one leg training, threshold heart rate training, but, in my opinion, you just can't beat cycling outside. Yes, it's its great to be on the turbo trainer, close eye on your heart rate, easy to control the resistance, time your intervals to the second, get a fresh bottle of water or towel just when you need it, but I CANNOT wait to get outside and feel the fresh air in my face.

Admittedly, I am a fair weather cyclist. When it comes towards the summertime, then I will train the odd day here and there in the wind and rain, but purely because it could be windy or raining on the day of an event and you want to already know your mental edge will cope with that. The ideal weather for me is spring, at the start of the ride you might need a gilet, but after the warm up you can ditch that and just have short sleeves and shorts: top up that crazy "cyclists' tan" that we all get and see some beautiful scenery as we climb the mountains and hills around Geneva. I say Spring because come July and August, perhaps because I'm Scottish, but some days it can be TOO hot.

I have set myself the target of cycling outside at least twice before the end of March. I've put a rallying call out to a few of my cycling buddies, so watch out, as soon as the snow melts and snowboarding is no longer an option at the weekend, you could see us trying to get some flat kilometres in before attempting the climbs that will be required in April and May!

What about you - do you like the technical aspects of training on the turbo, or do you like the freestyle and unpredictability of being outdoors? do you like the home comforts of the TV on, snacks and drinks at hand or the pioneer feeling of stuffing your pockets and rationing your energy drink? Please let me know....

Two other points for today:

(i) I found a new website this week, well not a new website, but new to me. It has loads of tips for training, all year round, lots of tips for centuries and cyclosportives and is written in a really, user friendly, not too technical way. Here is a link : flammerouge.je

(ii) there is a poll this week in Cycling Weekly for the best British road racer ever - it is multichoice so even if can't think you'll find one you prefer. For me, there is no question on this one. I admit that Chris Boardman won a few stages and Mark Cavendish is maturing quickly into the worlds best stage race sprinter, but surely Mr Robert Millar deserves your vote: go on please support him in this vote!

How guilty should I feel??

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:12:56 +0100

Well after that burst of enthusiasm with the first post, I let myself down by waiting two weeks for this, my second post...

In the meantime, I had a few (pre-holiday) crazy days at work, a one week family holiday (brilliant, but did not take my bike and the bikes in the hotel gym were...mmm...basic) and then another few (post-holiday) crazy days at work, intermingled with a weekend on the ski slopes with my kids.

This therefore brings me to a question: how guilty should you feel when you either miss a couple of training sessions due to the sort of commitments above? During the winter, the best time I get to train is in the evening, after the kids are in bed, after my dinner. This, for me, is not optimium training time - that would be not long after I've woken up and, please forgive me, I'm not really an early riser because I know you might say "just get up and on the trainer between 0630 and 0730. I can do that in the spring and summer when it means cycling outdoors but I have some sort of mental block to spin when everyone in the house is still asleep.

Having said all that, when I do get through the first 20 minutes of an evening session, I've broken the back on it and can go for longer and ALWAYS feel great afterwards. So my point is too be strong and just get on with it. I also have my wife telling me "winter miles, summer smiles (which apparently I told her sometime!) - think of climbing those hil ls - do you think lance armstrong skipped training"

Second question of the day: I'm a cyclist, a footballer and runner, so my "average" week consists of cycling, running and playing footbally, usually in the ratio of 40:20:40. How do you mix and match your training for the upcoming cycling season to stay in balance with your other sports? On our holiday, I found that after running for one hour my bones were killing me (and I had new trainers so it wasn't that - I suspect that over Dec and Jan my body has simply got out of the habit of running, so I will be taking it easy on impact training the next week or so.

Please let me know (use comments field) if you have any advice for motivation for these last few weeks of winter and on cross training between different sports.

Finally got over serious procrastination...

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:42:46 +0100

Welcome to my blog!

I presume that by landing on this page, you may know what the étape du tour is.

If not, let me try to describe it to you in as few words as possible: it is a wonderful cycling event whereby more than 8,000 amateur cyclists of varying abilities take on a real stage of the tour de france a few days before the professional cyclists ride through. There are all the important trimmings of the real tour - directions, spectators, technical support, the dreaded broom wagon (a van that picks up riders who go too slowly) and refreshment stops. Out of 8,000+ people who start the event, usually roughly 6,000 odd finish the event - the rest fall by the wayside, either too exhausted, technical problems with their bike or swept up by the broom wagon (or feisty French course marshalls!). This year it will take place between Montélimar and Mont Ventoux: 170-ish kms with about three thousand metres of climbing thrown in for good measure.

I've finally, after months of procrastination, got this blog up and running - I found other blogs really useful to me last year when I was training for the étape - to compare where I was in relative terms of readiness but also to share the experiences of when amateur athletes attempt a seriously demanding training schedule.

I'm not an experienced cyclist, nor a nutritionist, nor a physio but over the last several years I have learned about how to prepare myself for running and cycling events and I hope that you will be able to take at least one nugget of knowledge away from my ramblings between now and the big day: 20 July 2009.