Another day on Interval

Today was another day on interval training. Did 2 sessions of 12 minutes at lactate threshold and a session of 20 minutes going to 185 bpm. Really hard. With 2 minutes rest between them. 8 weeks of that 3 times a week and I should be ready to face Drolenval in Belgium.

After that I’ve completed a series of squats with 20kg in each side and it went really well. It is actually a surprise to me that I’m able to do that just after the interval training. Actually it goes even better comparing when I was doing it just after the warm up. It also means I can keep the gym workout from the base phase and do interval training at the same time. The only down side of it is the constant hunger!

COLDER

Ride log: blue line is the altitude, green is speed and red is heart rate.

If I was complaining about the cold last friday, today got worse. Left home at 7:00 and it was 6 degrees negative. It was soo cold that I thought parts of me (that I'm not going to name) would fell on the ground... I did 85km with a first leg of 22 km and the rest on a second leg. Overall I was a good ride staying most of the time on 27 km/h and heart rate 150bpm. The sun was shining and riding again with 2 guys made it more pleasurable. Now is to hope that the temperature will keep up. Tomorrow recovery ride...

COLD

Ride to work today was COOOLD = 4 degrees Celsius NEGATIVE. My feet was very, very cold. And my hands were cold even using winter gloves… Made me push harder to get earlier = faster…

New Training Plan = POWER

After talking to some people and reading (thanks Joel Friel book and blog…) I’ve decided to change my training.

It was still too focused on endurance and long rides training as well as speed training. Because the learning from last year is that my weakness is keep power at long climbs, I changed to power training all the way down to end of May.

So, to start the new training I did yesterday one hour of spinning on lactate threshold by 50 min with 1 break of 2 min rest and finishing with 4 sprints (flat out power) for 30 seconds with 1.5 minutes rests. I will keep that up for 3 times a week and 3 hours ride on Sundays. That should give me better results to climb the Steven Rooks and Limburgse Mooiste hills. The real test before the etape…

 

Riding to work = it hurts

On the bike again going to work. Wake up 1 hour minutes too late and couldn’t take the longer route (40km). So, have to use the short one = 25km.

But at the end I’m glad I did. Mainly because it was very cold, 1.5ºC, and I even get a bit of hail on the way. Let me tell you that Ice falling from the sky in your face hurts, very much…

To get things worse I’ve forgot to put the shoes and shoe covers close to the heating after the Sunday ride and they were still wet. My feet were so cold that they were numb and painful at the same time! Anyway, I did it in 48 minutes and with average of 28km/h. If it wasn’t for a couple of traffic lights on the way it would be a solid fast ride.

And I still have to go back home at the end of the day…

First team Ride = my name is mud

In case you wonder, that is me in white and that
is the result of following the guy in green for too long...

Well, the first team ride is done. We’ve got earth (mud), wind, water, and fire - in the legs (pain)… I missed the team departure but fortunately other 2 guys also missed and we did our own team ride. Fast ride at pics of 42km/h and long stretches of 35/38 km/h. Heart rate around 170 going to 180 during a couple of the climbs (3 to 4 % at 20km/h). So, I’m not really in shape and it was hard to keep up with the 2 guys in the climbs but overall satisfied with the result of the first 80k ride of the year.

It was so muddy that I’m not sure how much of what I drank and ate was food or was mud…

Winter is gone = road training beggins

Apparently the snow and ice are gone for good. This mean road training is about to start. I was actually getting nervous with not being able to do any endurance training since my injury in the beginning of December.
Well, since then I have been focusing on spinning and gyn workouts. The pattern is basically spinning for 25min (7min warm-up, rest hard resistanceand heart rate zone 4 = power training). After that straight to squats (last week with 60kg), leg extension (85kg), lower back push(75kg) and knee extension (55kg). Im doing this 3 times a week and 1 hour spinning on Sundays (can someone do more than 1 hour on the trainer, looking at a book shelf?)
In fact tomorrow is the first team ride. 80 kms. I'm very curious to see how it's going to be with the new team. And also without enough endurance training to do 80km... Well, it's a wait and see game now... Cleaned the bike today from the acummulated 5 months of mud and the rest is ready to go. Weather forecast? Heavy rain and winds. The sweet life of a wannabe cyclist...

Snow

front of my home

If you are in Europe you know what I'm going to talk about: snow. Since wednesday, the snowing doesn't stop. The temperature is around -8 C and I has snowed around 30 cms. So, It means no training whatsoever. Impossible to run and the trainer is not yet setup. Anyway, the back is hurting still and the cold is not getting better...
But in 2 days I will be going to Brasil for the Christmas holidays and I will bring part of the gear. If I get bored I will go for a ride in a very old bike I have there. At least one ride to the Mirante dos Golfinhos I would like to do. But it will depend on the time as I'm going to stay only 2 weeks.

Mirante dos Golfinhos. My turning point on a 60 km ride. Drink a coconut and refill
the bottles with coconut water before going back. 37 C degrees for sure. The photo is mine.

Videos and climbs

I just watched on you tube a piece of the reconnaissance of the Col du Soulor. It looks very tough. It is long. Very long indeed. This is going to break a lot of people. I can see people getting all excited on the beginning, thinking it is a easy cookie. A lot of heroes passing flying by the left side and then they will hit the middle section. 14 kms on the climbing and things gets real. It jumps to 9% incline and doesn't go below 7.5% until the top. It is when we will see a lot of people walking.

My goal is to do it in one go. No walking and no stopping. And one thing that gives me the good feeling is that it looks like climbing Ventoux from Sault side. Around 8% most of the time but if you take it easy and keep your own pace, it can be done.

Take a look at the link below. This guys has a lot of other videos and tutorials. Very nice ones.

http://www.youtube.com/user/cyclefilm

He has previous of the other climbs as well. So, if you have a weak heart, don't watch. I'm not kidding. You will get too nervous and might even consider giving up. last year (my second one in cycling) I didn't manage to climb a piece of 18% at the beginning of the season but climbed just fine at the end of it... It is all about training.

Etape Reconnaissance by brits

The british cycling maganize Cycling Weekly (a very nice one) has a early recognition of the 2010 route of the Etape. I really like to read those reviews because those guys give you tips and especial warnings for things you don't even suspect when looking at the profile of the race. Things like there is a little thing that is not even a little bump in the profile and it is actually a climb of 8% and it is just after a long descend. So, legs will be a bit stiff and cold...

Below you can see the article. This is from an issue from october, so I hope I won't get in trouble :)

If you like the article I recommend buying the magazine. They always have good articles about training, equipment and of course bikes... I'm actually amazed that they have so much to talk about cycling to launch a maganize weekly!
Next: watch the DVD reconigtion...

Injury

The good news is that the injury in my back is just muscular. Nothing very serious or hernia like. The bad news is that it will take aprox 6 weeks to heal. And no exercise during that period...
To top that, a strong cold got me this week. I only hope this is the kind of downturn before the upward spiral to July...

My back is still very painfull. So much that i'm going to the doctor tomorrow (I hate doctors). The whole weekend was about laying down and enjoying the pain. Anyway, because of that I'n not doing any training this week and I'm starting to feel that I'm gaining weight. So, it all sucks.

But to pass the day with a post I decided to talk about the climbs. Actually the first one: Cold du Marie-Blanque. The one I'm actually scared. And you know why? Because if you fuckup in this one. In the first 40 kms of the race, what is going to be the rest? A nightmare for knowing that the car is getting close and you can't go fast...

So, the first lesson since I started on cycling was: never trust the average inclination. They say it is 7.5%. But that is because of the easy beginning and middle. Look at the red parts. Between km 1 and 2 you have 10.5% and the 3 kms between 6 and 9 km it stays between 10.5 and 11%. This is really a killer. 3 kms above 10% it is hard.

The good news and bad news is that I'm comparing a bit with the Cote de la Redoute in Belgium. This is a hard climb also in the middle of the 160kms race. The good on it is that I completed and I was completed wasted on the top but could recover after end complete the reace in a good time. The bad is that after it I had to climb Drolenval (another very tough one = 18%) and couldn't complete. I had to walk and lost a lot of time... 20 minutes to be exact. And if you ever did an etape, you know that is a lot of time to lost...

You can see those climbs in www.climbbybike.com A fantastic website

Last year started earlier

My training last year started in September with already rides as long as 70 kms. I can say that due to a lot of things going on on my life and a bit of lack of motivation this year training is starting later. This picture was taken during the first ride last year, around 30 km from home. After this ride I've actually done a 130 km ride in November. That I'm not repeating this year! It was too cold and miserable for a ride this long.

But I'm looking forward the rides with the team again. I miss riding with other people...

LOG: THURSDAY DEC 3RD.

Training:
30 min spinning
15 warm up
6 x stand for 1min sprint
Rest 3 min.
10 min cooldown
Zone: 2 during rest, 4 during sprints

Comments: very painfull in the lower back when seated but not so much when standing. This injury is actually worring me a lot but I think the spinnnig help to relax the muscles. Taking Ibrupofen and Voltaren gel.

Monday Running Tuesday Injury

Monday November 30^th: run 30 minutes around the house. Pace 7:20 min/km. Running is really not for me but it is better then do nothing. Leg pain.

Tuesday December 1^st: spinning for 30 minutes. Zone 5 (178bpm) picks for 2 minutes. Then went to do squats and pull a muscle in my lower back. It really hurts…