climbing in the high mountains

climbing in the high mountains

Monday, 17 May 2010

A spanner in the works?

Well the planned week off after the marathon, was then taken out of my hands by a very nasty cold, which because I was determined to train in the second week? turned into something nasty on my chest, which as I write is still being treated with medication!
But I have tried to do the best I can, and still got in a good 84 mile ride to watch the pro`s race at the Lincoln grand prix, which was awesome seeing how hard those guys worked and the shear effort and determination , was inspiring.
My weekly climbing training session on the turbo was still done, as was my running club speedwork day, and a few recovery rides thrown in where i could.

Derbyshire was postponed until this weekend, and I had a cracking ride there Saturday, doing 6500ft of climbing, over 56 miles, including the winnats pass 28% max gradient(not nice at all), and finishing off on the classic, cat and fiddle climb, which was a fantastic experience, and which I felt more comfortable on, albeit slowly, but riding it well within my abilities and this was right at the end of the ride, so pleased with that.

Sunday was a nice ride out with the local club riders and we covered 43 miles which was a nice way to unwind the legs from the hilly ride on Saturday.

So what have I learnt from Saturday session? a quadruple chain set would suit me just fine, a new rear end with more padding would be advisable, get rid of my fear of heights and speed and have all my cycling routes re-tarmaced with a smoother surface,
no it really did show up just what a massive challenge the etape really is, can I do it? I don`t know yet, but I will continue to train as hard as I can, and hopefully with some bigger sportives, coming up in the near future, then I can learn more and improve my chances of getting up to the top of the tourmalet in July.

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