WEEK 1 TRAINING SUMMARY

Top of the small and challenging mountain bike trail by the Nedereindse Plas: cold,
muddy and no place to hide when is out of shape.

Finally the first full week of real training. Finished today with a short and hard 1 hour 45 minutes mix of road and mountain bike. This week felt like a proper one with two sessions on the Tacx on Tuesday and Thursday and this one "longer ride" on a real bike outside. I didn't feel particular strong in any of the sessions with clearly low power output especially today in the climbs. I really felt out of shape and high heart rate and sucking air like a vacuum cleaner. But let's consider this is just the beginning and take this as motivation to get down to business for go. No more "kidding" about it.

The ride today is a short mountain bike trail 20 minutes from my home. That is great because with 40 minutes of travel time back and forth there, which leaves me with 1 hour or pure mountain bike training. The place is a single trail route of 6.5 kms that goes up and down a kind of man-made hill. It is the type of dikes / sound barriers the Dutch build alongside their highways. The good thing is when you are going up the inclination is up to 15% in a narrow single track. And this being the end of fall season, was really muddy and slippery. Adding more difficulty to just clear the climb to the top with the back wheel going everywhere under you. It was cold around 5 degrees celsius but at least it wasn't raining

After every climb and one is on the top, it doesn't get easier. The ride on the very narrow single track requires constant attention or else you will be on the ground in a heartbeat, with the front wheel locking in. And the downhills were really nasty with all the mud and dead leaves. No time to really rest before one is down and start climbing again. I think that is good to train technical skills and start getting confidence with the handling of the new bike, which I'm still getting used to the big 29 inches wheel.

I did 3 loops today and decided to call it a day. In a good day I could do 4 or 5 loops but that will be later in better conditions and when I'm back in shape. For now good enough for a winter training.

Top to bottom: heart rate, speed, profile, inclination.

BACK TO TRAINING AFTER COLD

Finally since Thursday I felt good enough to go back into training. Thursday and Friday I did a small and fast mobility training to get the muscles unlocked and supple again. Just 15 minutes of quick stretch and a serie of 2 x10 repeats squat-planks-side planks-plank-squat, followed by 20 mountain climbers, followed by 30 abs and finished with arms curls. The muscles felt really stiff and sore for 3 weeks of inactivity due to the flu but that was expected.

On Sunday I had planned the first actual proper training on the spinning bike. But also had to start conservative. I decide to do the training as a tempo riding / aerobic training keeping my heart rate stable around 150 bpm. Which is the middle of my zone 2 if you follow training based on heart rate zones. After warm-up I kept the resistance on the pedal to a point where I could do around 80 rpm and keep the heart at 150 and just kept on going for 50 minutes. For the last 2 minutes of each 10 minutes, I did standing up on the pedals with more resistance but lower rpm.

The training felt good and legs and body were supple. Not much burning sensation or muscle tearing apart like I had in trainings like these after a long stop of training. I think it came from the two "warm-up" days before. So, I will keep doing that :). And this is a sequence I learn from the bootcamp I started doing with Andrew in Diemen. If you are around Diemen, I recommend. Every Saturday and Sunday under the yellow bridge (Diemen Aalscholverpad) at 10:30 am.

This week, the plan is for 2 interval sessions of 3 minutes and 1 tempo training + fitness. Let's go.

On the bike I have a Garmin. But I found the Wahoo app much better than all others on the spinning bike. Even thinking about switching to them if I buy a new bike computer. Unfortunately for this training, my HR belt stopped working right at the end of the training in the cool down section. That HR at the top is not correct. Should be something around 120 bpm.

YEAR TRAINING PLAN UPDATED

The original plan for next year cycling challenge was to ride the Badlands ultra-cycling event, which is very similar in terms of distance and climbing meters to the Basajaun that I end-up signing up. The two main differences are the location and the dates. Badlands is around Granada and Basajaun is around Vitoria, in the Basque Country. And the reason for signing up for one instead of the other was just bad luck or timing. For some reason, Badlands is way more popular and it was sold-out in minutes, while Basajaun still had open places. 

Another big difference are the dates. Badlands was at the end of September while Basajaun is at the end of July. Which shorten the time to get in shape and training by almost two months. Which will put a little more strain in the training ramp-up. And while I still can't go training due to the strong cold and throat infection I have for a week now, it It was a good moment to review the initial year training plan and adjust for the new dates, the type of training I will do and the number of hours I will be investing on a weekly basis. That also to make me feel better that I'm not out in the rain training or suffering in my Tacx/Spinning bike.

Every year I have an event to participate I like to create a plan with detail of what training I will do every week and which type of training every day of the week. I also plan the intensity and type of training per phases with a ramp-up towards being at top fitness just around the event dates.  I have been doing this for years now out of the The Cyclist Training Bible book from Joel Friel, which was a tip from a good cycling buddy 12 years ago. It is a great book to learn how to train effectively and focus effort, time and ways of training for best outcome. It had helped me a lot in the first years of cycling and I still use it every year to prep and review my plan.

Now the training is more or less completed and I need just to start getting the hours in. I've planned 2 "spinning" bike sessions per week, 2 fitness sessions and one long ride in the weekend. Leaving two days of  rest and recovery. That should be good enough. Later in the year I will select which events I will be participating and complete with more of them as they get confirmed or cancelled due to Covid. I have already included some of the traditional race bikes races that are around my region and will need to look for some new events for gravel / off road riding. The good news is that apparently gravel riding is really hype right now and I should have plenty of opportunities. Another thing I will be planning is a multi-day training ride (maybe two or three days) to get use to it and test myself and my bike setup prior to the race day. Maybe in the south of Holland and Belgium where the steep hills are.

Now I just need to get rid of this cold and start training! 

NEW CHALLENGE: TRANSIBERICA ULTRACYCLING CHALLENGE

Yesterday I signed myself to a new cycling challenge: the Transiberica Basajaun. An unassisted ultra-cycling multiple day event that will take me thru 760 kms of forest, desert and mountain and make me climb 15 thousand vertical meters. That is if I manage to finish it. Running a strong cold, coughing my lungs out and feeling like shit, felt like a great moment to find a new grueling challenge and re-discover motivation to start training when I'm feeling better again.

After 12 years participating in the L'Etape du Tour de France without missing an year, I had decided in 2020 that I was ready to a new challenge. Tired of the same training and 1 day event that usually involved a lot of stress, waking up early and not even riding that much in the week that I was in France. All because we were saving our legs for racing day. So, I didn't sign-up for the race and was ready to hook up with a group of colleagues to do a 12 days race bike cross thru the Pyrenees from France to Spain. 

Sadly, between sickness in the family of one of the organizers and the pandemic, the event got cancelled. Most of the guys were coming from USA and that was not possible anymore. The Etape itself got cancelled and all other events. With no race / cycling event to participate, my training start to slack more and more. And if it wasn't for the annual visit to the Alps with a group of friends to force me to go out training, my condition would have deteriorated to a very bad state. I am the type of cyclist that needs to have a goal. But if that is there, I will train at all costs in any condition.

Well, now I have a goal. A real huge challenge to cycle all those 760 kilometers without any assistance other what you can carry on your bike and what you can find or buy on the way. You are not supposed to arrange anything upfront, like hotels or other places to stay. You are not going to be helped by the organization and they will track you whereabouts all the time to make sure you follow the route and rules. You need to be able to carry your food and liquids, navigation equipment, lights and clothing and sleep in the open in some points. 

I have never done anything like this. Hell, I only once did camping in my whole life. And that was it the backyard of some people. The wildest thing that day was that those people had two basset puppies that wouldn't stop playing! This is whole new level. Of fitness, mental and physical and of planning and preparation. This whole thing will will require a lot learning. 

And that is why I decided to come back and write in this blog after 6 years of absence. I want to document the next 7 months of training and preparations leading out to July 30th and the event itself. All the good moments, frustrations, doubts and hopefully accomplishment of this adventure. And the good news is that I'm not alone. I'm doing this with broader in law, which apart from company and support during the event, will mean I have someone to compare notes during the next training months.

And that gave me a reason to buy a new bike :) some say that was the actual reason why I signed up...