Pushing hard and getting nowhere!

I’m nearly half an hour into a indoor training session and on the second of five ‘anerobic endurance’ intervals. It’s been a busy week. Today I’ve been moving a staircase, my legs feel heavy and despite a short sleep when I got home, I’m cooked. The worst of it all is I’m pushing hard, but I can’t get my raise my heart rate sufficiently high enough to be in the right zone. The first interval was just the same, but the first interval is always harder. I don’t want to waste the session, what can I do? I try spinning a lower gear faster, still nothing happens. I feel like shit. Why am I doing this?

These AE intervals are hard on a good day, let alone today. For this session each interval lasts 3.5 minutes followed by 3.5 minutes easy pedaling in between. The target zone is 160-165 bpm, just above my lactate threshold. I start to lose focus, my mind wanders back to last season. I think about the first race, at Bantard, the first near miss. I think about what I would do better next time – ‘The final few hundred meters, getting nearer the front, being patient and biding my time, the adrenalin rush, winding up the big gear, building my speed before setting my own line to the arrivé…..’  Back on the home trainer I look down at my comp, my heart rate has rocketed, at last I’m in the zone. In the last minute of this interval I undergo a complete reversal in feelings, this is how it should feel. Boy it hurts, boy am I loving it?

Where will tomorrows Tour de France winners originate?

Cycling, the Tour de France – originally dominated by European riders, we then saw the US and Australia gain market share.  In addition we’ve also had Colombians making a nuisance in the mountains. When the Berlin wall crumbled a flood of hardened athletes escaped the shackles of the Eastern block training camps (some would say concentration camps) to embark on lucrative careers amongst the profesional peloton. Even the UK is starting to provided more than the token rider each year. At the current time it requires some thought to find a western country which doesnt have a representative!

So where will the next wave come from? Which country could provide the next Lance Armstrong, Marco Pantani or Eddy Merckx?  Well how about Kenya?

According to an article by Xan Rice in The Guardian someone is trying to do just that. After lots of investment in time and money Singleporian ‘Nicholas Leong’ has won financial backing from a French hedge fund to set up a full time training camp for 10 Kenyan hopefulls. To help select these riders Leong has put on a series of races in Kenya. The talented few who make the grade will be given a lucative salary (by Kenyan standards) of £200 per month. No wonder the races have drawn interest - one guy cycled a 100 miles to the start on a 15 kg bike another with a puncture and with no time to fix it merely said ‘his race was going to be tough’.

Leong is convinced Kenyan successes in long distance running can be replicated in cycling. There are cynics but there is more of than one link between cycling and Kenya.  The successful comeback of Lance Armstong after surviving cancer. Suffering signifiant muscle loss following chemotherepy, Armstrong could no longer push the big gears as he had done previously. Instead one of his advisors, the now infamous Dr Ferrari, had recognised, despite scientific reasearch to the contary, that the fast yet short stride length seen in the the Kenyans was breaking with the traditional longer slower stride. Ignoring the science the results spoke for themselves. He then adapted this principal to cycling by training riders to pedal a lighter gear and pedal at a higher rate, again Armstrongs results say it all.

So imagine this - Leong is right – the Kenyans get results, prize money comes in, the investors are happy, more investment follows, in a few years time a Kenyan winning a mountain stage, the Tour de France who knows.

Even if we dont see Kenyan winners, it will be positive to see one cycling traditional broken, that of a sport currently hugely dominated by white faces!  Bon Courage Leong, Bon Chance Kenya!

Tous les Anglais

 This weeks club run again included the ride to and from the start and for the second time via the climb at the ‘côté du chateau’ - 400 meters at an average gradient of 16%.  Although common in the hills in the Cotswolds which I used to frequent, these gradients are rare in France for some reason. Traditionally the road builders heretended to take, rather sensibly, the gentler gradients in the construction of roads going skyward. The climb takes me a little under 2 minutes without going all out. I wonder how slow you could climb it, assuming you didn’t fall over? That could be a good competition!

A good turnout today, some people out for their first club run of the year, including Graham who had just returned from a vacance in the UK. With Steve arriving just before departure that meant that the club had the full contingent Anglais.

We set off in a completely different direction to what I was expecting. This could be good or bad news, I was planning a 80km ride by the time I arrived home, well ‘we’ll just have to wait and see’ I thought to myself. We were soon decending then climbing the many of the valleys around Rochechouart. Heading toward Pressignac, St Gervais then Vayres the group soon became fragmented. We were soon down to six, then three went ahead. At St Laurent we regrouped before things heated up. I put in a hard interval as we left St Cyr pushing hard at around 50km/h and soon found there was only Steve behind me after a couple of ks we waited for the others. With the group back together again and a long descent to increase the pace we were chewing up the kilometers! This was made easier and more fun when a small chain gang was formed.

Suddenly there were shouts ‘a gauche, a gauche’ the brakes were on an we turned left on to narrow queiter roads. From here on riders started to peel away and return to Rochechouart. I managed a few more ks before feeling the same and with Graham I headed back to Rochechouart and then home.

The last few ks were hard and my average speed was dropping off. By the time I got to ‘chez moi’ there were 102kms on the comp and at an averege of 25kmh I didnt feel to bad.

Other stats:  total ride time 4hrs 6mins average heart rate 137bpm; total assent 1533m or 373m/hr at an average gradient of 3% pas mal de tout!

Todays club run

After last weeks great turn out after the New Year festivities there were very few members out today.  As it was relatively warm day I was a little surprised, but maybe people were concerned about road conditions after the snow earlier in the week? – They needn’t have worried.

Well this was to be a bit of a hybrid ride, I had missed an ‘interval session’ in the week but planned a ‘base ride’ for today, so I combined the two. Probably not the recommended thing but I got a good workout and a took a bit of hammering too.

After a climb up the 16% hill running at the side of the Chateau (they should really make this a hill climb) I had 15km on the clock at Rochechouart where the club gathered. Setting off just after 1.30 we headed out toward St Laurant sur Gorre, before taking a right to St Auvent. This week we missed the hairpin route and only had the climb upto St Cyr. I got to the front and set about my first interval.  Down on the saddle in light gears I was able to knock out a fast cadence. I thought there might be an attack, the gradient is forgiving and constant and a pleasure to ride, but the attack didnt happen.  At the top I sat up and other riders began to pass, Eric patted me on the back and said well done, from some one of his ability it was a nice compliment.

We headed down through Cognac La Foret and crossed the river at Saint Victorian before heading back toward Rochechouart. Another tough ‘interval’ up the hill out of St Junien, this time I’m feeling the pain!  The group becomes fragmented and after some time riding with the leaders I’m hurting and struggle to keep up the pace, I’m dropped. I’m suffering and although its only 10k to Rochechouart, I’m thinking about how I’m going to get through the 15 after that!

I get home absolutely worn out, far from a base ride, but 86km done and a few intervals, I ain’t going to be doing much tonight!

1242 meters climbed in 3hrs 33 min or 350m/hour.

Snow stops normal play

The snow has arrived and life in this corner of France has stopped or so it seams. The school buses are not running, the dustmen haven’t been and supplies are running low in the local shop, its not only the UK who can’t cope with changing weather!

Well after a day spent either making the best of the snow snow or trying to make a few quid on stocks and shares. I needed to fit some time in for some training. The daylight was gone, roads were covered in ice and an exterior temperature of -7°c excluding wind chill. So it was time to get out on the bike, but this time on the home trainer in the relative shelter of the patio beneath the veranda.

No its not Jan Ulrich carrying a few kilos extra payload at the end of the off season. Its me. With the exception of the bike helmet I’ve got more gear on than normal for a cold winters run, but as today was a short and easy session of light spinning I wasnt goin to generate much heat! Yesterday It was a hard session of intervals, again on the trainer, I could at least wear a few less layers.