the tour de france...

The week that was training - bit of a mixed bag, which is going with the general trend. A few good sessions in there, but also missed a couple of days. 3 squad swims, which went OK, and swimming is close to back to what it was before the 3 weeks off (so fitness back after 2 weeks I guess). One session involved a big set of 25's (48 in all) which usually numbs my brain to the point of being quite painful - but I actually enjoyed it for a change- even the breaststroke pull and the butterfly! Running was again the big loser of the week. Got a few shorter easy runs in, but unfortunately I have to catch up on a few chores, including giving a talk for 4 hours, and lost 2 days training. Feet have been getting quite sore, and the legs feeling a bit hammered after running, so the running shoes are now officially past there useful point. I use two pair, and alternate them - one pair is definitely gone, and will only be used in an emergency I think, the other pair is not great, but not quite so bad (legs not quite so sore after). The better shoes are actually older than the stuffed ones. I have ordered a new pair, so hopefully the next run will be breaking them in. Unfortunately the shoes I currently wear have been superseded by the "new" model. This is always a bit of a worry, and little changes in design usually lead to disaster when in use. So the next pair will probably be a bit of a stop-gap while I organize/check what model to go with next.
Cycling was sort of steady as-she-goes. a couple of spin classes, and taking the school kids out on Thursday morning. The Sunday long ride was always looking like an in door trainer session with a "weather bomb" coming through. Having really missed my long run for the week, and Saturday ended up being a "working all day" day, combined with the end of the tour de France, I decided to have a bit of a solid ride on Sunday, and do 3 climbs up Alp d'Huez on the virtual trainer. I wanted to do each rep faster, and not really do the last one all out (so I could actually still get out of bed the next day). The graph of the session is below. A warm-up circuit and then 3 steady efforts. I worked out being a very good session in the end. I ended up with my best 2 hour power output - although that probably does not mean that much - as it is just a session that full that criteria more than anything. I have not really done a 2 hour hard out effort with the power meter to this point. I was happy to be able to hold over 300 watts at around 150 HR, and around 325 for just under 160HR on the last effort - which still felt quite controlled. More on that in a bit.


The tour de France is over - with CSC the very dominant team and Carlos Sastre the winner. Sastre executed a great race plan - sit and wait until the hardest mountain stage, and attack on the final climb, and hold off threats a couple of days later in the final time trial. It took courage to wait and put all the eggs in that one basket, but he did have a great team to support him, with initial pressure deflected by Frank Shleck while he was leading the tour. He also knew he was stronger in the last week of the tour, and that was the best time for him to attack. I think it was one of the best tours to watch, certainly not a forgone conclusion from the start, and many riders having the opportunity to take the title. My favourite, Valverde, lost time on one mountain stage, and in the last time trial - but the damage was already done so his motivation was probably gone. He did have a crash early on, which may have affected him at the crucial moments - but that is life in the tour! Tid-bits from the tour - Team CSC won 621210 euro's in prize money (top) and Lampre (bottom of list) won 9840 euros - probably not that much for 3 weeks hard work to split amongst the team!
The two main power meter manufacturers were good enough to put some of the power data from a few riders on their web sites. I find the information quite fascinating, and one of the reasons I think power meters are such a useful tool is that you can quantify what you need to be able to do to be good! Of course there are a few factors that you need to look through - such as tactics, but still good information. To do well in the tour, you need to be able to time trial well, and climb well in the mountains, and preferably not get caught in the wrong half of any splits in the bunch on the flatter stages. For the time trial, straight power output is the vital number. This, paired with your aerodynamic drag number is how fast you are going to go on the flat. So a bit of wind tunnel testing to optimize your time trial position, so your drag is minimized, while still being able to output a good power number is important in the build-up. Then you have to "produce the watts" on the day, given that you have ridden long and hard for several days before. The other important number is power-to-weight. This dictates how well you will climb. The good climbers are putting out 5.5-6.0 watts/kg on the longer climbs when the pace is on, maybe 5 at "tempo effort", and the sprinters in the "autobus", who are just trying to make the cut-off times are generally doing around 4 w/kg on the bigger climbs. So what the heck does that all mean - well, based on my Sunday ride on the trainer - I can survive with the sprinters on the bigger climbs (my last effort was 4.34 w/kg)! That is of course taking out the two weeks of riding that the tour rides have endured, and the 150km of riding they need to do to get to the base of the last climb! For an all out 30minute effort I can probably sustain just under 5 w/kg - so to be in the front bunch on the big climbs I either need to lose over 10kg (and maintain my power output), or improve my power output by over 20 percent... Ouch! Dreams are of course, in general, free...